Legends of Denmark / Sagnenes Danmark

The source:
Legends of Denmark (Sagnenes Danmark)  is the result of many year's persistent investigations and studies, gathered and written by author, Gorm Benzon, whose work presents and summarizes substantially knowledge which never before was accessible to the general reader. 



A small extract: 

Rugaard Manor
The witch-hunter Mogens Arenfelt's wellknown and numerous witch processes are not just legends, they are  well documented history. He sent lots of innocent women to be burned at the stake -  and he often accused women who asserted their innocence. He had a certain test for an accused witch. She  had to be tested in a small pond on the road outside his manor Rugård. Her hands and feet were tied and she was thrown out into the pond. If she floated upon the water, she was a witch and was burned on the stake. If she sank she was innocent and she drowned.

Arenfeldt had a chamber on the third floor of the south-western tower, named Hamburg. When his creditors came to see him he would hide in this room, and the servant told the unwelcome guests that his lord and master was in Hamburg.

One of the later owners of Rugård manor told how his mother-in- law often saw someone sit in a chair in the living room. During a party she saw a grey lady walking  through the room. Other guests did not see her but they involuntarily went aside to let her pass.


Sebber Kloster 
 In old days they tried to build a church at Sct. Nicolai Bjerg near Sebber, but what was built in the day time was torn down at night. The trolls in the hill did not like the sound of church bells. Two rich ladies lived at the kloster and they had the church moved to where it still stands.

A notorious attorney took over Sebber Kloster in 1781 (he died in 1791). He was extremely despised. The farmers hated him and his peers of
the landowners disdained him. After his death he was haunting the kloster, and he was a very noisy ghost. Several priests tried to summon him without success. A priest named Bloch in the nearest village was not able to completely get the better of him, but managed to tie him to the peephole in the kloster church. Finally a priest succeeded after a long race - where he was above land and the ghost below land - to have him put down in the stable on Sebber manor, just behind the horse he rode while he was alive. Now people had finally found peace, but when the stable boy came out in the morning he could see how the horse was lathered as if it was highly ridden during the night.

A young girl served at Sebber kloster for several yeas. After her death she was haunting for some reason. In warm summer evenings she hovered above the building and disappeared on the church yard.


Kalø Slot
Below the ruin is a great treasure hidden - reportedly as much as the taxes in Denmark for seven years! It is not easy to find it and raise it, for it is well hidden and well protected somewhere in the ruin of Kalø. Probably under the big tower is a copper gate leading to a secret cave and a secret passage. The passage leads to Hestehave forest on main land and in the cave lies a dragon and guards a copper kettle filled with money.

Many have tried to dig for the treasure but only a few have reached the gate. The first who entered the cave was a German, but the dragon attacked him and tore him into a thousand pieces. The next entering the cave were two peasants from the local district, the dragon could not hurt them for some reason, and the peasants spoke harsh words to the beast and made it so scared that it crept over into a corner of the cave, while the two men picked up the kettle and began to walk away. The poor dragon, who was the guard of the treasure, was now in a terrible pinch, which gave it a stomach ache -   and in its embarasment it let a poisonous wind go. This was a rescue both for the dragon and for the treasure, for the two men rushed off coughing and sputtering up into the fresh air, and they never showed their face on Kalø again .

The only possible way in fetching the treasure was said to be  in the summertime. The dragon was like all other dragons fire-breathing - and it was over heated in summer and had to fly to Norway to cool down. It was easy to see when it left for Norway  - there was a trace of fire in the air from Kalø  in the direction of Norway.

A manager who lived a Kalø drowned. He might have committed suicide. He had no rest in the grave, for he had done wrong against his landlord and the Kalø-farmers. He sometimes rode in the castle yard on a white headless stallion, but he was often also running around in the rooms as a big black dog, impossible to catch. Finally people succeeded to summon him down into a meadow, and a pole was driven through him.



Lynderupgaard.
 Lynderupgaard is one of the finest timbered manors in Jutland, and it is rich in legends. Upon the castle yard the clear spring water runs down from the oldest fountain in the North into a cord of hollow oak logs , coming from a spring in the hills behind the house. It is  said to be the best water in Denmark. The well might have a past as a holy spring. Once in the night when it is a full moon a black ghost dog comes running into the yard and drinks the clear water.

Sseveral people have told that they saw a funeral procession coming out from Lynderupgård. It came out from the wall in the west wing and went across the open moat and disappeared on the other shore. When one year they digged on that spot at the castle castle bank they found traces of an entrance from the house and across a bridge across the moat.

It was told that when landlord Friis in 1777 took over Lynderupgård there were two skeletons upon the attic. He let them bring down to be buried, but there was never again any rest on that attic.

In the old days was in the park a carved wooden sculpture under which a nun was buried. Maybe it is she who each night sits upon the "Virgin bench" with a baby on her lap.

People at Lynderupgård have met a priest when they at night went in the great halls and rooms. No one knows who he is, but he might have been there ever since Lynderupgård's stone house was a part of a bishop's manor.

When big changes have to happen in the family at Lynderupgård, mostly sad changes, a big black and white cat, named Whitehead, comes jumping across the floor in big clumpsy hops and disappear under some furniture, but when you look for it there is no cat.




Skaføgaard.
One of the owners of Skaføgaard had sold himself to the devil, and he even knew when his time has come. When he was dying the devil arrived in the form of a black dog and sat by the head end of the bed. Now the man regretted that he had signed such a contract, and he called for seven priests to come and save him, but no one was able to drive the devil out -  not until the eigth priest arrived the devil had to give up. Unfortunately the priest made a fatal error already in the initial maneuvers.He used a wrong word about God, and the devil - who is a terrible stickler, worrying about the smallest trifles -  attacked the priest and turned his head, so it was awry for the rest of his life and his voice took lasting damage. In spite of these handicaps he was able to talk so resourceful that he drove away the devil. He drilled a small hole in the window where the devil had to disappear through. So the priest had now saved the landlord's soul.

But when the priest togtether with his coach was on his way home he started to talk about what had happened, still before they were out from precincts of Skaføgård. Each clerk could have told him that this was the work of a crazy man to talk like that - and it did not last long before the devil attacked him again. The priest succeeded in jumping down from the waggon and pull off one of the rear wheels. Now he had peace, for the devil had to walk instead of the wheel. When they came to the vicarage the coach drove the waggon out upon the dunghill, and the devil had to stand in manure up to his knees until he was free  at sunrise and could run home to his great-gandmother.

About the landlord is said that he did not get peace after his death. He has still been haunting at Skaføgaard. 


Source: Gorm Benzon, Sagnenes Danmark, bd. 2. Himmerland, Ommersyssel, Djursland og dele af Midtjylland. Aarsleff og Friis 1984.



photo GB:  Rugaard, Sebber kloster, Kalø slot og Skaføgaard:

photo wikipedia: Lynderupgaard .