Everybody who prevents people from going to Church is a good boy/girl.. No offense.. 😅😅

From what I understand, this is like a Christianized version of "Näcken". An old norse folktale about a water essence of sort. This essence tried to lure people into the water to drown them, and he could come in many shapes.

@@Raddningspatrullen Yes, that's very often the case - especially in the Nordic countries...older 'Norse' legends and traditions are kept alive, but put in 'a new Christian' costume. Our traditions didn't entirely die out because of Christianity - but often either incorporated into Christianity, or as in this case - clad in a new costume. So to speak...

The name of the village Hårga comes from the old norse word "Hargr" often meaning a stone altar not uncommonly inside a sacred grove. However it can also mean erected stones, which still exists in the Hårga village. According to legend there were a sacrificial site on top of that mountain. I am doubtful but I can for sure belive that pre-christian sacrificial rites took place at the "hargr", the stones, down in Hårga. Perhaps maybe this legend is from the time when christianity had newly taken over but some people still did some pre-christan rites. However it is very speculative and not so likely imho. More likely is that it is a stern reminder to the youth to get up and to church on sunday morning. The event takes place on a saturday night (or the night after the bathing day) which were traditionally a night of dacing and drinking as sunday were a day off. The youth met at special spots like at crossroads, bridges, fields, barns etc etc and other place with easy access and out of sight. Here people drank, danced, fought and rumbled around in the bushes. The fiddlers often played at different spots in different areas and were like that eras rock artists not rarely indicating a deal with the nix and/or the devil. It was even a thing to add luminesen moss on the fiddle. After a hard night out in sinful, but fun, ways it could be tempting to skip church the day after. Ofc some pious folks had morale panic about it...

The song is originally from Bollnäs (as far as we know). Bollnäs is the municipality where the Hårga village is located and Hårgaberget(Hårga mountain) is a real place and a small mountain in the Hårga village. It's the same location where the american horror movie "Midsummer" is supposed to be taken place in. Although the movie is filmed in Hungary so you wont know what Hårga or Bollnäs looks like by watching that movie. The movie is not very accurate either if you are interested in swedish traditions but its not like its supposed to be accurate. It's a good watch tho if you want to see a spooky twist on the concept of Midsummer. Although i would argue that we have lots of old tales that are WAY more unsettling and dark that would make for great basis for horror movies. Like this song for example!

Yeah, definitely