Myling

Once again I have a fascinating story for you guys ;)

Hooray more norse mythology!

This story is about mylingar. 

Back in the old days, just as in most other countries as well...it wasn't accepted to have a child if you weren't married. It wasn't uncommon that they would kill the children that were born outside a marriage. Such a child is called a myling. The mothers would kill the baby and hide it. Sometimes even hide under the floor in their cabins just to hide an unwanted birth.

Mylingar are said to be the spirits of those dead babies. Taking the vengeance on their mothers that killed them.

According to the tales of the past, it is told about how the mother was revealed when the myling sings a song about his cruel fate. Mylingar was believed to be buried at places were a young unmarried woman could have hidden a dead child (go figure..) like mires, outhouses, cairns and forest jaws.

From such places, you could often hear child screams and cries in the night.

Sometimes the child could even scream for help. Yelling "help, give me a name!!" You could then save the child by saying "her, you can have mine. My name is ----" You could also help the child by finding it and bury it on holy ground.

The word myling, comes from the old swedish word myrding, from the ancient swedish myrða, (which means murder) In short, mylings simply means murdered.


There's a tale about a myling in Bergslagen here in sweden. An old man was walking home from the pub, late one night. When he was spoken to by a little boy saying "Grandfather, grandfather may I suckle?" "Morfar, morfar, får jag pappa?"  That word, pappa. Is an ancient dialekt in sweden, it means to breast feed basically. (though pappa means father here nowadays just so you know) The old man refused to answer, but as the child kept asking this question he finally answered: "If you have someone to suckle from, then suckle, but thou shall not suckle from me" The little boy then disappeared. When the old man finally came home to his cabin he then found his daughter dead in the pull-out couch with blood flowing from her breasts. The old mans answer to that child gave the boy the possibility to have revenge on his mother, with the tales words: When the boy got permission to suckle, he then knew where to go"  "När pojken hade fått lov te papp' så visste han vart han skulle gå".

well, that's about all about Mylingar.