Nusfjord and the draug of Elvstøa

Nordland · Norway · Haunted site

The fisherman grabbed a stone to beat his mittens dry. At the third blow the stone screamed – and the draug rose from the shoreline.

Nusfjord is one of Lofoten's oldest preserved fishing villages, a handful of red rorbuer squeezed between steep mountainsides and a narrow harbour mouth. The Flakstad historical society has preserved the legend of the draug of Elvstøa: a man from Vefsn who rowed out to fish from here had got blood on his knitted mittens, rinsed them in the sea and found a stone to beat them dry on. After a few blows came a scream, and what he had taken for a stone rose up – it was the draug, the revenant of a drowned fisherman, which pulled out to sea and was never seen in Nusfjord again. All along the Nordland coast the draug was death's own omen: a figure in half a boat with tattered sails whose cry meant storm and shipwreck. Nobody who saw him slept well afterwards.

FAQ

Where is Nusfjord and the draug of Elvstøa located?

Nusfjord and the draug of Elvstøa is in Nordland, Norway.