more norse mythology

Sooooo today I figured I'd write about Näcken and Bäckahästen.

Näcken is a male water spirit. Or entity if you may call it that.
He lives in dark waters, like small rivers, creeks and ponds.
He is said to play the most beautiful music on his violin. He would be seen sitting on a rock in the middle of the streams playing it... luring people down into the depths of his waterfalls drowning them.

Some say he could be willing to teach his arts of the violing to streetmusicians in exchange for three drops of blood. They would then play for an entire night and by the morning the streetmusician would be amazing at playing the violin. Now he was a very sly sprite... Extremelly wicked. He would try and lure the musicians down in the depths. But if they managed to not get lured away by him, they would become excellent violinist. But there was also risks with making a contract with Näcken. The musicians could end up playing the music and never being able to stop it, till the go insane. And the same goes for the people listening to it. They would dance till they all went insane. Unless someone involved in that act realised what was happening and cut of the cords on the violin with a certain knife.

Now people say that he's also a shapeshifter. So there's many different describings about his looks. The most common one is that he's seen naked in the waters, with long golden brown hair. A very youthful and good looking man. Others say they saw him with only one eye in the middle of the forehead. And some say his eyes are shaped like two crescent moons. Many also claim that his legs are those of a horse, with hooves on them. On one of the sites I was checking it actually said that Näcken is rarely seen naked. BUT as a child I always heard that he would be sitting in the river naked. I never heard about him wearing clothes O___O

Ah, needless to say, he was a very attractive and seductive man. And he definitely enjoyed enticing young women. So women back in the days were very careful with crossing a stream or a bridge over a river. 

And here's the wonderful part, one of Näckens most important characters is  The horse. It's light grey in it's colour.

 (pictures from google yeah...)

Now some say that that horse would be Bäckahästen. And that Bäckahästen and Näcken are two completely different beings. While others claim that they are one and the same.

But you can get your own opinion about that. They're characteristics are quite different from each others if you ask me.

Bäckahästen (literally means The creek horse) is said to be a vicious and malicious water spirit. And he lured little children to jump up on his back and then he runs down into the depths of his creek and drowns them. And Bäckahästen back could hold any number of children. As many as he'd like. Cause his back would only get longer and longer for each child that sat on it.

When I search about Bäckahästen on google nothing about his song will come up. But as a child, I often heard stories about Bäckahästen singing. Making the children get captivated by his song. Hypnotized actually. I was scared a fuck of Bäckahästen as a kid btw. Honestly. While I really wanted to catch a glimpse of Näcken, I'd never wanna run across Bäckahästen.

It is also said that on the botton of the creek/pond where Bäckahästen lives it would be filled with skeletons and skulls  O___O
ah, but you could break his spell by saying a christian word. Or even throwing an object made of steel between the horse and the creek. Then he would'nt be able to walk that way.

So yeah, that's about it with the Näcken and Bäckahästen :D