This is adapted from a traditional Icelandic story: one of
many from that nation concerning ghosts.
Once their was a priest, who was in the habit of burning any
bones unearthed in the churchyard. This was not an uncommon
occurance, as, due to the harsh conditions of the country,
many people died during the winter. This meant that
gravediggers were kept busy; and they often found old corpses
whilst making a place for the new ones.
Once, when a number of bones were found, the priest’s cook
took them home, intending to burn them. It was a damp day,
and the bones had become wet, and would not burn. So the cook
laid them by the hearth to dry them, and went about her
business.
It was not too long before she heard a small voice, crying
out, “My jawbones, my jawbones!” At first she dismissed them
as fancy, or the sound of the glaciers crashing and grinding.
But the pitiful cry came again: “My jawbones, my jawbones!”
She looked around the kitchen, where the bones lay macarbely
by the fire. Wondering if the cry came from there, whe began
to sort through them, to see if there were any jawbones. She
found nothing.
She almost had the evening meal prepared before the cry came
again. It sounded to her like the cry of a young chld -
fearful and piteous. It wrung her heart, for she had once had
a child, who had died in agony after contracting tetanus.
The voice tore at her mind, and she went outside to see if
there was anything amiss. It was cold, but she could see no
one in trouble.
As she came inside, the cries came again, and her eyes fell
once more on the bones. She looked at them carefully; they
were small and fine. She began to touch them, one by one,
sorting through them tenderly. And when she held them all she
saw the jawbones, lying by the edge of the fire. They had
been a little scorched already. She realised, as she watched
the fire flickering at the jawbones, that the spirit of this
child was not ready to burn.
So she took the bones, wrapped in linen, and buried them by
her own house, where they would never be hurt again.
