
Deacon of Myrká
The Deacon of Myrká is Iceland's best-known tale of the returning dead. A drowned clergyman rides out of his grave on Christmas Eve to collect the woman he had promised to bring to the feast, and tries to drag her into the grave with him. It is a local form of the international 'dead bridegroom' story, but the deacon is a solid corpse with a smashed skull. The tale remains a fixture of Icelandic art and literature.1
- ringing the church bell
- an exorcist, who finally laid him
E hlahile neng ka lekgetlo la pele?
First printed in Konrad Maurer's Isländische Volkssagen der Gegenwart (1860), then in Jón Árnason's collection (1862)
Seo mehlodi e se buang
His fiancée Guðrún had not heard that he was dead1
As they ride, his hat tips forward and she sees the bare skull through the wound1
He calls her 'Garún' because the Icelandic dead cannot pronounce Guð, 'God'1
At the open grave he seizes only the empty sleeve of her coat1
She saves herself by hauling on the bell rope until people come1
Na o ka e phonyoha ka ho matha?
Sehlopha sa lebelo ho ya ka kamoo mehlodi e e hlalosang kateng (e a matha), eseng tekanyo.
Mehlodi
Ntlha e nngwe le e nngwe leqepheng lena e tswa mehloding ena, e ngotswe ka mantswe a rona. O bone phoso? Re bolelle ho [email protected].