sstories

Lin, Sweden

Close to where I live there is an old castle with a ghost. It’s said that one of the ladies in the household got the Plague so they locked her in the room and covered her door with a new wall with a little hatch for food. When I was there I got like major chills. It’s called Torpa Stenhus, or Torpa Stonehouse.
I agree that the connection people have with nature and the supernatural is pretty strong in Sweden. There are also a lot of fairy myths. There are the Näcken, Bäcka Hästen, the Tooth Fairy, the Mara and other small fairies. They have their own names but can be classified as Älvfolket (fairy folk). There are also a lot of trolls.
Me and my childhood friend believe in fairies. A lot of people here won’t say they don’t exist. My friend says “I’ve got to respect them, but I can’t say I believe in them… fully.”

Anonymous, Bulagria

I’ve got one ghost story. Basically, on one of my trips to (the) forest I found this cat (?) skull which I decided to take home. I’ve washed it twice, it’s all clean, it’s all good. The thing was one day I woke up with teeny-tiny scratches on my stomach – very small, maybe like 3 lines each 3 mm long. I didn’t think much of it, even though it was weird since it was way too small to be done by me in my sleep, and I do have 2 cats but they’re declawed so it couldn’t be them. Anyway, some time later, absolutely the same 3 scratches appeared again, but this time on my finger. And I start thinking, what could this be, right? And since I believe in ghosts, I decided it might be the cat’s skull, whom I’ve named Larry, by the way. I decided maybe he misses the forest? I mean, if he was a wild cat… So, I moved him from the shelf on which he was to a sunny spot on my window – and the scratching didn’t happen again and hasn’t happened in years.

Anonymous

It’s not really a fairy tale, but when I was a kid we used to have this chair and I used to have reoccurring dreams about floating above that chair and hearing giggles. The dreams went away after two years when the chair broke.
Also on the way to school there’s this castle that has a door near the water, that no one notices until you get it pointed out to you. So we used to joke that it was a magic door, but who knows.

Steffi, Germany

This is a story about my home town: About 50 years ago it was not at all comfortable at the Friedländer Tor in Neubrandenburg at midnight. The night watchmen themselves did not dare to approach and so the people around the gate were deprived of their watchful signals, the so-called hoot and creak, at this hour. Before and after midnight, anyone could pass through the gate, walk around safely in the vicinity and then the night watchmen came there too. At midnight a white figure soon appeared, which threatened to hold out its arms to anyone who dared to approach; soon a black monster, according to some in the form of a huge boar, which drove its essence between the outer and inner Friedlander gate. Often at midnight the people living nearby heard fearful moans from the gate, a peculiar rustling and buzzing, and whatever else the inexplicable sounds were.
It had been going on for years and no one dared to track down the midnight hustle and bustle and put an end to it. The then city hunter G. boasted that he wanted to force his way through the two gates at the specified hour, he was not afraid of any ghost or devil and wanted to take on everyone. And so in one night he undertook the dangerous walk from the outer gate; but the next morning he was found dead in the middle of the road, he had not reached the inner gate. From that time on, however, you never heard of a midnight haunt there again.

Unfortunately I don’t know any family members who know more about it, but I do have another story about a dragon:
Once a wagon drove down the street and met a young dragon near the fire mill. Since he was sleeping across the road, the driver took it for a stick and drove over it. It was only when the drowned lindworm uttered his last scream that the coachman realized his mistake and drove away as quickly as possible. The old Lindwurm had also heard the scream and found his cub dead. He furiously attacked the nearest wagon, a straw wagon that was on its way to Neubrandenburg. The servant noticed this and urged his horses to gallop. Fortunately for him, he soon lost the tensioning nail, and the rear end and the straw stopped while the front end moved on all the faster. The servant was able to escape while the dragon looked in vain in the straw for the murderer of his child. When he found no one in it, he continued chasing after the servant. To go faster, he bit his own tail and rolled himself onto a wheel to roll behind. At the last moment the servant was able to reach the Brandenburg Gate, which was quickly closed. The lindworm stayed outside and no one dared leave the city. At that time a prince named Georg was in town, and he decided to attack the dragon. He could chop off the tail of the lindworm, and since its strength rested in it, the animal died.

Sanne, Netherlands

My grandmother says she can see ghosts, and she has told us some spooky stories about that. She told most of our family. She liked whipping out the ghost stories when me and my sister were much younger.
My grandmother used to work as a nurse at a hospital. At the ER sometimes they would see a strange man, dressed like a doctor. No one knew him though. He’d disappear behind those privacy curtains, a breeze wind would blow it, the man would be gone. When they checked on the patient, they’d be dead. Granny is religious and thinks he was the angel of death.

Anonymous, Bulagria

Also also, if it'd help I have two more curious stories:

So I am from Bulgaria and we have these forest spirits here called самодиви (I don't know, Google translates it as "divas", but the direct broken translation is samodiva/s). And, so, a friend of mine once walked with two more people over to a village and they see a bunch of women, all dressed in white, all holding hands - walking up a hill, singing and disappearing into a forest part of the hill. As they get to the village, they aimed old man sitting on the porch of his house and - forgive me, I don't remember, but maybe my friend and the other two looked puzzled - the man saw their faces and said to them "You saw them too?" So yeah, four witnesses.

A girl from my highschool mentioned how some couple were walking home from a train station and it was night outside, right, but they are walking guided by the light of streetlights. And suddenly, they see a human head sitting by or on a fence (I dont remember) and they get scared obviously. And then they start walking faster home. And then the head starts rolling after them. They run. The head rolls faster and touches the man's foot, then disappears. And then my friend tell me the man was sick for like a month. I don't know much about that last story, haven't heard of any spirits like that..

The samodiva (Bulgarian: самодива; plural: samodivi, Bulgarian: самодиви), samovila (Bulgarian: самовила; plural: samovili, Bulgarian: самовили) or vila (Bulgarian: вила; plural: vili, Bulgarian: вили), are woodland fairies or nymphs found in South and West Slavic folklore. In Romania, they are known as Iele. (Source: Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samodiva_(folklore)

Probably a version of St. George and the Dragon, especially since the prince is called Georg.

Näcken: The neck, nicor, nokk, nix,[1] nixie,[1] nixy,[1] or nokken (German: Nixe; Dutch: nikker, nekker; Danish: nøkke; Norwegian Bokmål: nøkk; Nynorsk: nykk; Swedish: näck; Faroese: nykur; Finnish: näkki; Estonian: näkk; Old English: nicor) are shapeshifting water spirits in Germanic mythology and folklore who usually appeared in the form of other creatures.

Bäcka Hästen: A Southern Scandinavian version of the Neck which comes in the shape of a horse.

A Mare (Old English: mære, Old Dutch: mare, Proto-Slavic *mara; mara in Old High German, Old Norse, and Swedish) is a malicious entity in Germanic and Slavic folklore that rides on people's chests while they sleep, bringing on bad dreams (or "nightmares").

Sources: Wikipedia

Sarah – the Netherlands

During my childhood I used to spend a lot of time in the Dutch province of Zeeland, primarily in Goes. Both my paternal and maternal ancestors come from this province. My grandparents would tell me stories about the sea, my grandfather having been a sailor. All of them had lived through the flood of 1953.
When I was about five years old my mother told me the story of the Flying Dutchman (de Vliegende Hollander), who is allegedly from the town of Terneuzen. She and my father had just recently been to a concert of Wagner’s the Flying Dutchman, and they were playing the CD constantly. The bombastic opening might be a reason why this story made such an impression on me.
As I remember it, the Flying Dutchman was a sea captain. On Easter (or perhaps it was Pentecost) he wanted to set sail. A terrible storm had been announced, but even though it was Easter, the weather prospect was bad and his wife begged him not to, he still set sail.
The ship he was on never appeared at its destination. It had gone under in the storm and God had cursed the captain for his hubris. Now, his ship and his crew are cursed to roam the seven seas forever. On stormy nights ghost ship the Flying Dutchman appears to sailors, the prow of the ship as black as coal, its sails red as blood. It sails straight for the other ship, ready to clash in to it. Yet when the sailors close their eyes in fear at the moment of impact, nothing happens, and when they open their eyes again, the Flying Dutchman is gone.
I was extremely impressed by this story, and remember lying in my grandmother’s bed scared, afraid the Flying Dutchman would come through the wall.

Paul, the Netherlands

Mew
Back when I was a young, avid player of Pokémon Yellow, a rumor spread among my friends and classmates of a Pokémon that there was a hidden mythical Pokémon to be found underneath a truck by the docks – Mew was its name. These stories made the younger me incredibly curious, and I went out to look for the Mew under the truck, but there was nothing to be found.. But there were still kids who did have Mew, so how did they get it? Did they find the secret of Mew? Or did they perhaps simply cheat? This has always been a mystery to the younger me, though now I have found my own ways to acquire the coveted Mew..

Missingno
Another Pokémon-related rumor spread among my friends and classmates as well. There was this ‘Pokémon’ called Missingno, that could destroy your game and delete all of your Pokémon. An older kid who lived nearby told me about it, and about what it could do to your Pokémon, and the thought of that kept me awake at night.. Another kid from my sports team told me that it looks like a weird scratch in your game, and that it would make your own Pokémon look weird too. He told me there were different kinds of Missingno, some were good and gave you items, while others could destroy your game. I never dared to investigate..

Matti, the Netherlands

The only myth I could think of is the story of Sinterklaas, which I guess you already know.
In case you don't: The story is told to young children and the idea is that the old man lives in Spain and every year around November he comes to Holland to give presents to the children for his own birthday. Then they get a lot of presents on the 5th of December and he leaves again afterwards. I think the beauty of this story is that so many kids in the Netherlands actually believe it and that there is a whole plot by the 'adults' to keep the story alive.

Francesco, Taiwan

The legend of Chinese Zodic
A long time ago, the god called all the animals together and said, “I will choose 12 animals out of you to take turns to head a year of the cycle, which will be called the Chinese Zodiac.The god and the animals decided to hold a river crossing contest on January 1 in Chinese lunar calendar: the first 12 animals that crossed the river and reached the temple would receive their years according to their finish. “I’ll be the first.” “I must win.” All the animals started to argue against each other.
Hearing this, the cat was a little upset. He said to his good friend rat, “I can’t swim. What can I do?” “Don’t worry! The ox is a good swimmer. We can ask him to carry us on his back,” said the rat.
On the contest day, all the animals set out very early in hope of arriving at the temple before others.
All of them strived to swim forward. Ox swam the fastest. Suddenly, the rat on his back got a bad idea. He pushed the cat off into the river. The poor cat swallowed a lot of water.
The ox reached the river bank in a while and was set to win the contest. But the cunning rat jumped off his back and rushed to the temple first. “I win! I am the first!” he said proudly.
The rest of animals arrived one after another in a few minutes.
“According to our agreement, the first 12 animals can take turns to be king of a year, and your names will be the name of a year. Let’s start from this year.” “Rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster,dog and the last one pig,” the god announced the order. The 12 selected animals were all delighted.
At that moment, the drenched cat rushed in and asked anxiously, “Which place did I get?” The god answered, “You are too late. It’s over.”
Furious, the cat pounced on the rat. Knowing that it was his fault, the rat had to escape. From then on, all the cats will chase the rats and the rats have no choice but to run.

Moon festival
The Mid-Autumn festival is the harvest family. In China's agriculture society, farmers in the abundant harvest season have always been an issue and celebrate. This family became a festival also and "changed" this beautiful myth
about.
According to legend, ancient times, heaven appeared ten SUNS, baking to the
earth, and the sea dry, the common people's smoldering eyes cannot live. This matter stirred a call after Yi hero, he climbed the Kunlun peak power, hiking, beginning god arch, breathing the next nine extra SUNS, save the people to come to this. Before long, after Yi has married a beautiful wife, that fragrance. One day, after Yi to seek ways, Kunlun visits of erreth-akbe from after the heavenly queen, then to the heavenly queen obtained a pack of undead medicine, according to persuade under the drug, can instantly into heaven, however, after Yi won't immortal, leaving his wife to will not die medicine to Charng-er stash.
And, behold, it was MenKe caravans have saw yi yi montmorillonite, peng out after it was such bullying Charng-er surrender not die medicine, Charng-er know not Peng have opponent, juncture horns, remove the undead medicine one mouthful swallowed it. Charng-er swallowed the medicine, the body immediately after flying off the ground, flew to the sky, because Charng-er cared about her husband, then a hope of the moon from the earth recently became a fairy.
After Yi after come back, the maids sobbing everything. The grief-stricken vision, after the night sky called the names of his beloved wife, then, she was surprised to find that today at night, the moon special circle, especially bright bright, but a dime on the scene resembles fragrance. After Yi busy orders placed XiangAn, put on Charng-er favorite eat fresh fruit, and honey in the remote offering chang-e . People smell know Chang e become immortal and show interest in succession months after Xiang An, then on to a good Chang nine pray lucky and peace. From then on, the Mid-Autumn festival in folk customs of worship months out.