Gunna - Southern Peninsula, Iceland
N 63° 49.114 W 022° 41.069
27V E 417081 N 7077891
Gunna (Guðrún), an angry poltergeist
Waymark Code: WM12JK9
Location: Iceland
Date Posted: 06/05/2020
Views: 3
The folklore of Guðrún (Gunna) is written in Þjóðsögur Jóns Árnasonar
"Vilhjálmur Jónsson (lögréttumaður) lived at Kirkjuból. He had a falling out with a woman called Guðrún Önundardóttir (1646-1706) (Gunna), because of a pot he was supposed to have taken from her, probably as a part of a payment for a debt. The woman was so upset that she started threatening Vilhjálmur.
Gunna died and, when she was buried, Vilhjálmur was present, but he was on his way through the so-called Skagi, outside of Útskálar. He went homewards that night but was found dead the day after at Skagi—his body was blue and broken.
His body was brought to the chapel at Kirkjuból and Gísli the minister at Útskálar was asked to stay awake and guard the body that night, as everybody thought that Gunna had killed him and that she was back from the dead. The minister said that he had a difficult time protecting the body from the broad (Gunna) so she wouldn't pull it from him.
The ghost grew stronger and stronger and the widow of Vilhjálmur died suddenly; Gunna was blamed for her death.
Some of the people travelling through Skagi lost their way and others lost their minds. All this was the doing of Gunna, and people started seeing the ghost with their bare eyes. Gunna did so much damage that neither men nor animals could pass through.
When things had turned this bad and nobody was able to fight the ghost, two men were sent to ask minister Eiríkur (Magnússon) in Vogsósar for help. But as it was known that the minister wasn't usually obliging in such matters, the men brought some brennivín liquor with them, as it was commonly known that the minister liked his booze.
The men went on their way to meet minister Eiríkur and did everything they had been ordered to do. He greeted them warmly, but, as they were preparing to return back, he gave them a ball of wool and told them to have Gunna grab hold of the loose end. He said that the ball would then roll to the place where Gunna would be allowed to be in peace.
The men now returned back home and followed the minister's orders. As soon as Gunna had grabbed the loose end of the ball of wool it started rolling and she followed. The last that was seen of the ball of wool and Gunna was that they plunged into the mud pool in Reykjanes in South-Iceland, which after this incident was called Gunnuhver hot spring.
Since then nobody has been hurt by the ghost of Gunna.
Gunnuhver is a highly active geothermal area of mud pools and steam vents on the southwest part of the Reykjanes Peninsula. Named after an angry female ghost, Gudrun (Gunnu), whose spirit was trapped in the hot springs by a priest 400 years ago. The steamy area has an eerie atmosphere and an incredible sulfur vapor.
Source: "guidetoiceland"
Type: Local Legend or Lore
Referenced in (list books, websites and other media):
The folklore of Guðrún (Gunna) is written in Þjóðsögur Jóns Árnasonar - the Folklore of Jón Árnason
Additional Coordinates: N 63° 49.104 W 022° 41.225
Website Reference: [Web Link]
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