Spirited Away by the Female Forest Spirit in Swedish Folk Belief

Abstract

This article explores the Swedish belief in the skogsrå, an anthropomorphic female forest spirit, as the cause for people being spirited away or getting lost in forests. In the folk narratives, she is a dangerous seductress who possesses untamed sexuality and is threatening to men who work in or close to forests. The forest was a dangerous otherworld, fundamentally different from the world of humans. The forest spirit represents wild nature, as a counter-image to cultural order. Furthermore, the article compares the belief in a female forest spirit as the active agent in Swedish folklore to the concept of metsänpeitto ‘forest cover’ in Finnish folklore, where the forest itself is the active agent. Legends reinforce the danger of getting lost in a forest, especially in dense forests like those found in Sweden and Finland.