Råbäck at Kinnekulle

Götene, Västergötland · Sweden · Manor

Råbäck at Kinnekulle — Götene, Västergötland · Sweden · Manor

In August 1901, M.R. James wrote home from Råbäck on Kinnekulle. Three years later, he published the ghost story Count Magnus.

On 10 August 1901, the English writer and Cambridge professor M.R. James wrote a letter to his parents from Råbäck, on Kinnekulle in western Sweden. The information comes from annotations cited by researcher Rosemary Pardoe. It is second-hand, but the date and location are recorded.

Three years later, James published Count Magnus in his collection Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. The name Råbäck appears again, this time in a story involving a long-dead count, a mausoleum and three padlocks that open one by one.

The Manor That Isn't Called Råbäck

Råbäck is a real country estate on the western side of Kinnekulle, in the former parish of Medelplana, now part of Götene Municipality. The estate has a harbour and a stoneworks, and the surrounding area includes a nature reserve. Large estates on Kinnekulle are documented as far back as the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

In Count Magnus, James places his fictional manor in Västergötland, but makes an unusual qualification. The house is to be called Råbäck, he explains, although that is not its actual name. He describes a red-brick building constructed shortly after 1600 and illustrated in Dahlberg's Suecia antiqua in 1694.

James was therefore not necessarily describing the real Råbäck estate. He borrowed a place name from his Swedish travels and attached it to a fictional property.

An English Visitor in Sweden

The story takes place in the summer of 1863. Mr Wraxall, an English travel writer preparing a book about travels in Sweden, is directed by a scholar in Stockholm to a family archive at the manor.

There he becomes interested in Count Magnus De la Gardie, a man said to have crushed a peasant rebellion through executions and severe punishments. A portrait depicts the count as almost phenomenally ugly. There is also an account of his mysterious Black Pilgrimage, from which he supposedly brought something back.

Near the church stands a mausoleum built by the count for himself and his family. Wraxall murmurs a question about whether Count Magnus is awake, and during his subsequent visits the three padlocks on the sarcophagus come undone, one after another. Later, travelling home by canal boat through Trollhättan, he repeatedly counts the passengers. There are always two more than there should be.

The Real Count at Varnhem

The name points towards Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie, who lived from 1622 to 1686 and is buried in Varnhem Abbey Church. James visited Varnhem in 1901. Magnus Gabriel had the church renovated between 1654 and 1674, preparing it as his future burial place.

But the historical count was very different from James's character. Magnus Gabriel served as Lord High Chancellor of Sweden, was a favourite of Queen Christina and supported art and scholarship. He was considered handsome, and he bought the famous Silver Bible, the Codex Argenteus, and donated it to Uppsala University.

Rosemary Pardoe has suggested another possible influence: Magnus Gabriel's father, Jacob De la Gardie. Jacob built Jacobsdal, later known as Ulriksdal, which appears in Suecia antiqua, while an engraved portrait of him resembles James's description. Pardoe presents this as a hypothesis rather than an established fact.

From Kinnekulle to the Ghost Stories

James also visited Uppsala in August 1901, where he saw Daniel Salthenius's contract with the Devil. He later mentioned it at the end of his story Number 13.

Råbäck's connection to Count Magnus rests on unusually specific details: a dated letter reported through published annotations, a real Swedish place name and a story published in 1904. There is, however, no record that the actual manor contains a haunted mausoleum, or that James experienced anything supernatural during his visit.

Other sources about this place

FAQ

Where is Råbäck at Kinnekulle located?

Råbäck at Kinnekulle is in Götene, Västergötland, Sweden.

More haunted places in Västergötland

Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.

Image: Nasko · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons