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Folklore & Legends

Folklore & Legends

Discover the myths, legends and folk beliefs that shaped Sweden

Ancient Viking burial mounds from 400–600 AD

An ancient religious and political centre of Sweden with royal burial mounds from the Migration Period.

Location: Gamla Uppsala

Sweden's Stonehenge — 59 stones in a ship shape

A megalithic stone ship monument from the Iron Age, often called Sweden's Stonehenge, overlooking the Baltic Sea.

Location: Ales Stenar

Home of the Storsjöodjuret — Sweden's own Loch Ness Monster, sightings since 1635

Jämtland's great lake, home to the legendary Great Lake Monster.

Location: Storsjön

Selma Lagerlöf named her goose Akka in The Wonderful Adventures of Nils after this very mountain.

Known as the Queen of Lapland, a sacred mountain of the Sami people rising to 2,015m.

Location: Akka

Ellen Key built her home Strand at the foot of Omberg — the house is now a museum and one of Östergötland's most visited cultural sites.

Mythical mountain beside Lake Vättern, said to be home of elves in Swedish legend.

Location: Omberg

Wild garlic blooms on Kinnekulle in May — the mountain is sometimes called Sweden's most biodiverse square kilometre.

The flowering mountain — a unique table mountain with extraordinary biodiversity in Västergötland.

Location: Kinnekulle

Medieval ruins said to be haunted — Gotland has more medieval churches than any region in Sweden

Gotland's medieval walled city on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The city of roses and ruins.

Location: Visby

The mythical mountain where Swedish witches gather at Easter

According to Swedish Easter tradition, witches fly to Blåkulla to meet the devil. Children still dress as Easter witches today.

Location: Blåkulla

In some areas the changeling would be exposed by cooking soup in an eggshell — a sight so strange that the supernatural creature would lose composure and give itself away

In Swedish folklore, changelings (bortbytingar) were human children believed to have been swapped by supernatural beings — gnomes, trolls or fairies — for their own offspring. The belief arose as an explanation for congenital disabilities, autism or developmental conditions that could not be explained medically. Parents sometimes performed brutal tests to force the changeling to reveal itself. The belief was particularly widespread in the Nordic countries from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.

Location: Bortbytingar
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