Tell me a story; The Skogsra

The following tale is of the kind I like the most. It is not from a book and neither is it a story one has heard once from a friend of a friend. No, it is a story Brett Williamson heard from his own grandmother and she heard it from her father, who ensured her it was all true. After all he had a scar as proof.....

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Story Title: The Skogsra
Submitted by: Brett Williamson
Country: Corona, CA

The Skogsra, or more easily pronounced Sjora, is a Swedish water spirit that lives in the woods and is known to either help men with good hunting or lead them astray. It is always seen in a forest and always by a body of water most usually looking like a beautiful woman brushing her hair and sometimes having a tail.

There was something I was told by my mother's grandmother about a story that she was told by her father.

From the time he was little he went hunting with his father, the boy became an excelent marksman, and by the time he was 16 he had the skills of a veteran-pro twice his age. One day he went out to hunt by himself with his dog Kysa and as the dog went for something to drink, it was a beautiful young woman he saw. All he could do was stare for the longest time until he was noticed so he went over and introduced himself to the young woman, she never gave him her name.

So the days went on and the boy, who was slowly becoming a man, fell in love with this woman. Until one day, as he went into the woods, he saw her with someone else. The man became furious and confronted the woman, then she became furious and suddenly disappeared. On his way home it became extremely dark and he lost his way and his dog, Kysa. Two days past and still he found no way out of the woods, then something caught his eye; 't was the woman he had fought with and thought he loved.

He goes to talk with her and apologizes about his behavior but then he sees a tail out of nowhere. Well actually out of the back of her dress. So he askes her and she, once again, becomes very angry and attackes him. He yells at her and runs off. Three more days went by and still he could not find his way home out of the woods. Finaly home at last, he runs inside and tells his father about what has happened and his father explained him about what he had met. He understood.

Years later he fell in love with a Romanian girl and lived a long and happy life in America. But he could never forget the face of the woman he almost gave his heart to. And of course there was a scar he could not forget.