#unseteling

The Nordic countries are cold and unforgiving, and no one knows that as well as the ghost called the myling. A myling is the ghost of a child that was left out to die in the winter. The parents were unwed, or perhaps there was simply not enough money for another mouth. These infants died, but because they were unbaptized and not given a decent burial, they were barred from heaven. Mylings are chained to the places where they died, but if someone passes by, they may leap on the person’s back, demanding to be taken to the graveyard. As the person they are riding moves forward, the myling gets heavier and heavier. If you cannot take the myling all the way to the graveyard, it kills you in a fit of pique.