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Kanin Fjord Entry 3: Legend of the Sulten Skygge
whiteshark365 posted a City Journal entry in Kanin Fjord
Aerial of the South Port. The South Port has three piers, one for fishing vessels on the left, the center pier for small ferries, and the dock on the right for smaller personal boats. The two warehouses directly to the north are repair facilities for ships and used for the storage of construction equipment and materials. Interesting fact about the town, due to the difficulty in ordering repair parts for ships, most replacement parts are custom fabricated here. The Legend Kanin Fjord is an ancient village that traces its origins back to the early 900s when the town was Viking outpost. Two-thirds of the residents today are descendants of Norseman, and most still believe in Norse Mythology. Belief in mythological Norse figures has led to several notable legends which influence how the townsfolk act, their traditions, and manor in which they conduct business. No legend however is more profound and shrouded in tragedy then the Sulten Skygge legend (directly translated, means “Hungry Shadow”; however, it’s actual meaning is closer to that of “Devouring Shadow”). The Sulten Skygge legend is the belief that the vengeful spirit of a dishonored Viking warrior was sent by the giantess Rán to punish the village for taking fish from her sea. The legend goes that during the spirit’s endless patrol of Norway’s shores, it came upon Rán. Rán made a deal with the Viking spirit, promising the spirit a path into Valhalla in exchange for providing her with souls to fill her undersea realm of the dead. The Sulten Skygge now walks the shores of the fjord searching for unsuspecting victims to drag beneath the waves and into Rán’s watery underworld. Souls can only enter Rán’s realm of the dead if they drown; therefore, the Sulten Skygge must always drown its victims. To protect the village from the spirit, the town constructed a runestone on the shoreline in the location of what is now the South Port. The Runestone contained incantations and spells that were meant to not just protect the village, but also imprison the Sulten Skygge within the stone. Still, throughout Kanin Fjord’s thousand plus years of history, nearly all drownings in the fjord were blamed either on the Sulten Skygge or on Rán herself. The original belief held that anyone traveling alone along the shore would be taken by this spirit, regardless of location along the fjord. The contemporary iteration; however, is more specific in location, wrapped in tragedy, and has a link to Nazi Germany. In the current version of the legend, the Sulten Skygge only stalks the South Port. A person can only be taken if they walk the shores of the South Port alone at night, and only when they turn their back to the water. During the 1940s, Kanin Fjord like the rest of Norway, was under German occupation. The Germans used the town as a refueling depot for vehicles traveling into Northern Scandinavia. The Germans either looted or destroyed most of the town’s ancient artifacts. The Runestone was one such artifact that was destroyed. There is some debate on what exactly happened to the Runestone, but it is generally assumed by the village that the Germans crushed the runestone into gravel and used the gravel in the construction of the south port. By the time Norway was liberated and the village was now under the jurisdiction of the new coalition government of Norway, Kanin Fjord had been brought into the modern world. For a brief time, the ancient myths and legends disappeared from sight and mind as matters of reconstruction and survival were given greater priority. This reprieve from the ancient world was short-lived, and in 1954, a murder and several accidents revived ancient superstitions, giving birth to the modern belief in the Sulten Skygge. The Modern Legend 1954 was a particularly tragic year for Kanin Fjord. During this year, the South Port was the scene of a brutal murder. In a fit of jealous rage, a man named Delling Lovas murdered Calder Sandvik after suspecting the man had an affair with his wife. The two men got into a fight at the dock that eventually ended with Delling dragging Calder into the water and forcibly drowning the man. Within the next four months, two additional villagers drowned in the South Port from freak accidents. In each instance, the drownings occurred at night and while the person was alone. There was a single witness to Mr. Sandvik’s murder, a villager named Asbjørn Kjellberg. Mr. Kjellberg was a disreputable inhabitant of Kanin Fjord who earned the distinction of being known as the town drunk. He had a habit of telling tall tales of spirits and monsters in his boozed state. When questioned as a witness by the town constable, Asbjørn spoke of a silhouetted figure dressed in Viking armor that held Mr. Sandvik beneath the water until his death. What exactly Asbjørn saw isn’t precisely known; however, the leading theory is that a fishing boat was traveling up the fjord at the time of the murder and had a spotlight directed at the port. The murderer was positioned directly between Asbjørn and the ship. Asbjørn being quite drunk at the time, was partially blinded by the light and mentally couldn’t separate the man from the light, seeing only an outline of a dark figure. The alcohol filled in the other details such as the Viking Armor. Asbjørn, however, genuinely believed that he saw the Sulten Skygge taking a victim. Despite his inebriated state at the time of the murder, Asbjørn was a witness at Mr. Lovas’ trial. At the trial, Asbjørn spoke of the malevolent spirit with such passion and detail that he managed to convince a substantial number of residents that the Sulten Skygge had returned. Several months after the trail, a fisherman drowned at the South Port in a freak accident. A month later, a second fisherman drowned in near the same area from another bizarre accident. The murder combined with the drownings of two fisherman at the docks instilled fear within the village. After the trail, Asbjørn became a polarizing figure in Kanin Fjord. Half of the town thought the man was a delusional drunk, while the other half saw him as a shaman capable of seeing the dead. To this day, most villagers will not venture into the South Port at night, and most fishing boat captains refuse to make port after sunset. Currently, the town believes the Sulten Skygge is trapped in the South Port by the pieces of the Runestone used to construct the port. This fear extends deep enough that residents are fearful of performing any type of maintenance work on the port out of fear it would free the spirit to terrorize the entre coastline. Fear of being drowned by a spirit is a major problem for the town. The South Port is a storage depot for vital construction supplies, fuel, and equipment. Additionally, the town’s only two fuel pumps are located in the South Port. In 1988, the mayor had electric lighting installed in the port. This helped some villagers overcome their fear, still, people only travel in groups when visiting the port in the dark, or in an utmost emergency. One of the more unusual traditions surrounding this legend is the offering of tribute to Rán. Just before the onset of winter, some townsfolk will throw their largest fish into the fjord in hopes that Rán will accept the sacrifice in exchange for sparing them from the Sulten Skygge’s wrath. Close up of the material and equipment storage yard. The two fuel pumps on the lower left of the picture are the only fuel pumps in the entire village. One pump is for regular gasoline and the other for diesel. Fuel storage tanks and warehouse parking. The only church and steeple in the town. Only about a fifth of the town believes in Christianity, and even less attend church. This Church was built by missionaries in the 1830s; however, their attempt to convert the town was generally considered to be a failure. T The ferry dock at night. Ferries are frequently used by the inhabitants to travel to Stokkvågen and is the preferred method of travel out of town. A ferry trip to Stokkvågen takes about 2.5 hours, compared to the 4 to 5 hours of travel time by road. Another night shot of the port.- 3 Comments
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