Swedish Folktales: Uppland

Mr. Melchior of Veckholm

In Veckholm, east of Svingarnsviken, there lived a priest in the 1500’s named Melchior or Melker, who was widely renowned as a pious and god-fearing man. He never let a day pass without reading his Bible, and in the evening when everyone else had gone to bed, he went up to the church to say his evening prayers by the altar.

His wife, who minded only her earthly business and didn’t approve of the late outings to church, decided to put an end to them, and so one evening said to her servant: “My dear Lasse, if you would take and put a white sheet over yourself and stand by the road, and scare my old man when he comes home from church, I’ll give you a full tankard of beer.”

The man had nothing whatsoever against that! With the lady’s help he wrapped himself in a sheet and stood in the dark along the footpath between the church and the parsonage.

After a while the priest came walking down from church. When he noticed the ghost, he recited a prayer and prayed that the eerie figure would sink down into the abyss.

The servant sunk down into the soil up to his knees, but ignored it, continuing to act like a ghost. Then the priest said another prayer, and this time the servant sunk into the earth up to his waist.

Then he cried in terror, “it’s just me, dear sir! It’s only me!”

“Oh, but it’s too late now!” said the priest with sorrow in his voice, and in that moment the man sunk, still living, all the way down into the earth.

In memory of this sorry event a wooden cross was set up along the footpath, and it is always replaced with a new one when the old one begins to rot.