Gjenganger - Protection and Prevention

Protection and Prevention

People had numerous ways of both defending themselves against the gjenganger, and stopping people from becoming one in the first place. A few of them are mentioned here:

• Crucifixes and Christian incantations to ward off the gjenganger.
• Painting symbols, especially the cross, with tar above your door was said to ward off all kinds of supernatural powers.
• When a person was buried, the coffin was carried over the church wall instead of through the gate (to stop him from coming back)
• For the same reason, the coffin was carried three times around the church before being buried.
• The shovels used to dig the grave were left behind, often on the grave itself in the shape of a cross.
• If the coffin was carried to church on a sleigh or other wooden transport, the transport should be left behind to rot, or be used by poor people as firewood.
• Perhaps the oldest example we have of an attempt to stop someone from coming back as a gjenganger, is a runic inscription from the 6th century. It was written on the inside of the grave, facing the dead and reads:

New Norwegian:

For Birginga riste broren runer

Kjære syster mi, skån meg!

English:

For Birginga, the brother carved runes

My dear sister, spare me!

A tradition that deserves special mention is that of the "varp". A varp is a pile of stones or twigs which often marks a place where someone has died. It was believed that when you passed this place, you should throw another stone/twig on the varp, to commemorate what had happened there. Doing so would sometimes bring luck on your further travels, while not doing so would result in bad luck and dangerous accidents. Many of these varps have now disappeared, especially the ones made out of twigs. But in a few places the varp is marked with a sign or something similar, and the tradition is kept alive to this day, though in a much looser, and often joking, manner.