To hear this horror story, you have to walk through a forest in Sweden
This article was originally published on Outside
I’m not a horror fan. When I’m sitting around a campfire and someone asks, “Do you want to hear a ghost story?” I answer with a hearty, “No!” However, I’m a fan of audio – I work as a podcast producer – and I’m in the mood for a good gimmick. So when I found out about a horror story that can only be heard in the forests of Sweden, I was immediately smitten.I immediately jumped on a plane to Stockholm and went to the forest to scare myself.
The mystical fiction, called Ovenis written by John Ajvide Lindqvist, Sweden’s answer to Stephen King. He has written over 20 books, incl Let the Right One Ina vampire novel and his best-known work in the U.S. You can’t choose Oven up in a bookstore or even a library, though. Instead, it’s an audio story you stream on your phone that’s been geo-locked within Sweden’s borders, forcing fans to literally follow him into the darkness of his country’s forests. For the Halloween weekend, however, it has been unlocked and available on Spotify for everyone who wants to taste.
After arriving in Stockholm, I headed to the forests of Västmanland, a region about two hours’ drive from Stockholm. While you can technically listen to Oven anywhere in Sweden you could also watch The brilliant one on your phone in the yogurt aisle at the grocery store, but you wouldn’t? So I chose to follow recommended listening routines and found a good forest to walk through. Thanks to Sweden’s outdoor laws, you can hike in any forest in the country. I chose a close one Fallangetorp farm, a bed and breakfast in Västmanland. I was alone when I entered the quiet forest, armed with headphones and a link to Lindqvist’s story. I have been in the forest many times, but it has never felt so lonely.
Creeping out into the woods was exactly what Lindqvist hoped his story would facilitate. The project began when Visit Sweden, the country’s tourist board, asked Lindqvist to write a story that would help visitors leave the city centers and venture into the forest. They created a web page to access the geo-restricted historyas well as recommendations for national parks to visit throughout the country to listen to it.
Tourists in Sweden tend to throng Stockholm’s cafes or head to Malmö to explore its eclectic restaurants, but the country is covered in trees, and its forests are very much part of Sweden’s national ethos.
“You haven’t really visited Sweden if you haven’t seen our forests,” says Lindqvist. “They are part of the Swedish identity.” Tree-filled stretches such as Västmanland lie just outside Stockholm, and the lake-filled district of Värmland and Lapland spread to the northernmost parts of the continent waiting for outdoor enthusiasts to explore.
It is not only the forest that the Swedes love – the paranormal is also built into their lives. Fairy tale creatures such as trolls, elves, huldra and Nacken are as much forest creatures as moose and bears. – The supernatural has always played an active role in Swedish culture, says Lindqvist. “It’s more than just a background to the crime stories and Nordic noir films that have made the country famous.”
When Lindqvist was a child, he had a healthy fear of the forest and those who live in it. “The creatures that scared me as a child were large grasshoppers, especially ones that have a kind of neck. They can slowly tilt their heads and look at you. What are they thinking?” he asks. The forest was an ominous place for him, the perfect environment not for kidnapping or physical harm, but something worse – “ceasing to exist.”
– The supernatural has always played an active role in Swedish culture, says Lindqvist.
As I walked through the forest, I began to see why Lindqvist thought the forest was such a troubled place. The forest in Sweden is not like the wet pine forests I know in the Pacific Northwest or the crisp deciduous forests of the Northeast. The forest in Västmanland is lined with moss. Every step you take, your foot sinks a few centimeters as if the ground is preparing to envelop you. Even worse, every step disappears, the moss springs up again to leave no trace of the path you took. As I wander through the woods, I notice the lingonberry and blueberry bushes and take a rough inventory of foraging options, you know, in case my trip takes longer than expected.
Before it gets too dark—I’m certainly not brave enough to listen to a ghost story in the dark in unknown woods)—I find a misplaced boulder to use as a back rest and settle down on the soft, mossy ground. Then I put on the headphones and stand up.
No spoilers, of course, but the experience is terrifying and wonderful and worth the trip. Oven follows an unnamed visitor to Sweden (a tourist just like you!) who enters an unidentified forest and comes out haunted by his experiences.
“Nature seems alive and entices you to come after it,” Lindqvist told Visit Sweden after being commissioned with the story. It’s a story that travels with you, or to paraphrase the title of a horror film I haven’t seen, follows it. You leave the forest, but the story stays in the back of your mind, even as you follow a path out of the trees, return to the warmth of a fire, and travel home on the plane. The story wants you to come back to the forest. If you dare.
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