Experience Spellbound, Sweden’s new ghostly travel experience
It is almost dusk in the middle of a forest in Sweden when I see her: a beautiful woman with long flowing hair dancing between the trees just far enough away to almost seem like a mirage. Except I don’t actually see her. The deep-voiced narrator in my headphones tells me she’s there as part of a short horror audio story I’m listening to titled Oven. “A milky white hand glistens and is struck by the moonlight before returning to the shadows,” the voice warns. “She is the most beautiful thing you have ever seen.”
Looking through the thick haze of the afternoon fog, the forest’s carpet of moss and yellowing leaves still vibrating from the recent rain, it feels possible that she really could be there, lurking in some corner without my knowledge. And even though I know, or assume, that I’m alone in this square meter of trees and bushes, I still find myself whipping my head around and around in circles, wondering if what I heard is really there, or it’s just my nerves.
Her name is hold, the girl in the story whose role I don’t want to spoil for you, and she is one of the most familiar mystical creatures in Sweden’s folklore tradition. Depending on where you are in the country, she has other names, such as skogsrå or tallmaja, which translates to “tall Maria”. In Swedish folklore, she occupies a role similar to that of the Sirens but to the all-consuming depths of the forest: Young, beautiful and deadly, she has a supernatural eye for young men, whom she gleefully ensnares in an eternal curse after they tell her their names.
That is the basis for Oventhe audio narrative that makes up a strange new travel initiative called Enchanted by Sweden, which was started by the country’s tourist board Visit Sweden. Written by John Ajvide Lindqvist, who has been named after the Swedish Stephen King and is the brain behind the 2004 Let the Right One In, the 30-minute audio narration can only be experienced in the country itself; it’s geo-restricted to the country’s coordinates (although the restriction will be briefly unlocked on Halloween weekend), and is meant to be experienced in the depths of the forest. For Sweden, that means you can listen to the story in 70% of the country, if whatever lurks there doesn’t find you first.
– Sweden has a unique nature that has given rise to a long mythological tradition, says Nils Persson, marketing manager at Visit Sweden, about the incentive behind the Spellbound initiative. “Some of these characters were evil and could be scary, while others were considered more friendly. In recent years, the desire to discover something out of the ordinary has increased and our goal is to inspire the world to experience something completely different with this initiative.”
Like all oral traditions, Sweden’s folklore is deeply rooted in the country’s cultural history. It can be discovered in the holiday traditions, artistic traditions and above all in its geographical landscape. In southern Småland, the country’s natural stronghold with over 5,000 lakes and 400 nature reserves, dense strands of birch and spruce forests sprouting from carpets of verdant moss plants appear to be a home for supernatural creatures. It is in this region, on a small piece of land about an hour’s drive from the nearest major city, Jönköping, and in the middle of the country’s southern tip, that I get my first (hypothetical) glimpse of hold.
In Småland, stories are a serious matter. Not just children’s play, they are intertwined in the understanding of the region’s lush and peaceful landscape. Tales of goblins and dragons pour forth from humps of emerald green bog and piles of rocks (said to be where a dragon’s treasure is kept), and a pair of crystalline lakes are the remains of three sisters killed by their ignorant brothers long, long ago. (There used to be three lakes but two have merged; as the story goes, when only one lake remains, the world will end.) Even more exceptional natural phenomena, such as Skurugata, a cosmic gorge that ran through a forest near the town of Eksjö, has a story attached to it: a thief named Tjuva-Jösse once hid there with his gold.
Tine Winther, manager and professional storyteller at The Land Of Legends fairy tale museum in Ljungby, Sweden in Småland, says these “stories are a reflection of history” and often provide insight into how people lived way back when, when forests were scary voids to avoid . and when an abused child could only be explained by an outside force like a goblin replacing his baby with a changeling. They were often scary because they were also lessons.
– In the past it was believed that different creatures lived in the forest, says Persson. “With this story, we let the people of today experience what it could be like.”
And the experience is truly a spine-tingling half hour for a novice like me. While you can’t expect major horror-level scares in the audio narration, there’s a surprising amount of fear a confident loud voice in your ear and ominous music can conjure up your senses.
As Oven reaching its climax, the narrator almost begins to scream as an instrument creaks louder, a combination that will in any case activate your flight or fight response. Perhaps the weakest part of the story is that it is told in second person, which pulls you out of its immersion because there is no way to match what the narrator is saying. But Lindqvist’s writing, vivid, dramatic and excessively descriptive, takes up that slack; When he writes about the pack of ghostly dogs chasing after you, their paws shaking the ground beneath you, you can almost feel it.
When it comes to horror stories, Scandinavian folklore – figures such as goblins, werewolves, changelings and versions of hold — has always been a staple of the genre. In film, recent pictures such as 2017 The ritualwhich takes place in a Swedish forest, and Ari Aster’s critical hit in 2019 Midsummer has ventured more directly into Swedish folklore, although both come from American directors. With Oven, and Spellbound by Sweden, written by an already decorated Swedish writer and produced by an all-Swedish team, there is a sense of recycling in the story – and a willingness to lean into the horror and frightening aspects of the tradition.
– I think it’s quite brave to scare people, says Cathrine Rydström, PR and marketing manager at travel agency Destination Smäland, about Oven and Spellbound. “There are some people who disagree with that. I think it’s the most special campaign they’ve done. It’s about nature and it adds more dimension around it.”
As I walk back out of the forest after the end of the story, I find myself noticing more pieces of the mysterious world hidden just one layer beyond. A piece of tree lichen draped from a tree branch is a strand of hair from one hold; a stump, a place where she can sit. If she really is here, just remember to never tell her your name.