So, my early morning plan for today was – yes – more yard
work; more weeding, more weed digging, perhaps a little mowing. However when I went out those plans had to be
shelved. Ugh, rain – rained last night
and now outside was drizzly and drippy and wet and overcast and chilly and
breezy and humid. Ick. OK, no yard work.
A good day for storytelling . . . . . . .
The Ghost at Fielkinge
Swedish folktale
During
the first half of the eighteenth century, several large estates in Schonen were
the property of the family of Barnekow, or rather, of its most distinguished
representative at that time, Margaret Barnekow, daughter of the famous captain
and governor-general Count Rutger of Aschenberg, and the wife of Colonel Kjell
Kristofer Barnekow. A widow at twenty-nine, she herself took over the
management of her large properties, and gave therein evidence of invincible
courage, an inexhaustible capacity for work, and a tireless solicitude for all
her many dependents and servitors.
While
traveling about her estates, Madame Margaret one evening came to the tavern in
Fjelkinge, and was quartered for the night in a room that had the name of being
haunted. Some years before a traveler had lain in the same room and presumably
had been murdered: at any rate the man himself and all his belongings had
disappeared without leaving a trace, and the mystery had never been explained.
Since that time the room had been haunted, and those who knew about it
preferred to travel a post-station further in the dark, rather than pass the
night in the room in question. But Margaret Barnekow did not do so. She had
already shown greater courage in greater contingencies, and chose this particular room to sleep in without any fear.
She
let the lamp burn and fell asleep, after she had said her evening prayer. On
the stroke of twelve she awoke, just as some planks were raised in the floor;
and up rose a bleeding phantom whose head, split wide open, hung down on his
shoulder.
"Noble
lady," whispered the specter, "prepare a grave in consecrated earth
for a murdered man, and deliver his murderer to the judgment which is his
due!"
God-fearing
and unafraid, Madame Margaret beckoned the phantom nearer, and he told her he
had already addressed the same prayer to various other people; but that none
had had the courage to grant it. Then Madame Margaret drew a gold ring from her
finger, laid it on the gaping wound, and tied up the head of the murdered man
with her kerchief. With a glance of unspeakable gratitude he told her the
murderer's name, and disappeared beneath the floor without a sound.
The
following morning Madame Margaret sent for the sheriff of the district to come
to the tavern with some of his people, informed him of what had happened to her
during the night, and ordered those present to tear up the floor. And there
they found, buried in the earth, the remains of a body and, in a wound in its
head, the Countess's ring, and tied about its head, her kerchief. One of the
bystanders grew pale at the sight, and fell senseless to the ground. When he
came to his senses, he confessed that he had murdered the traveler and robbed
him of his belongings. He was condemned to death for his crime, and the body of
the murdered man was buried in the village church-yard.
The
ring, of peculiar shape, and its setting bearing a large gray stone, is still
preserved in the Barnekow family, and magic virtues in cases of sickness, fire
and other misfortunes are ascribed to it. And when one of the Barnekows dies,
it is said that a red spot, like a drop of blood, appears on the stone.
Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sisters
Heroines in Folktales from Around the World
collected by Kathleen Ragan
“Dismayed by the predominance of male protagonists and
heroes in her daughters’ books, Kathleen Ragan set out to collect the stories
of our forgotten heroines: courageous
mothers, clever young girls, and warrior women who save villages from monsters,
rule wisely over kingdoms, outwit judges, kings, and tigers.”
16 Feb 2019
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