Skip to main content

Marfeldt Photography

Ghost story · 1896

The girl knitting a dead man's stocking by the Valgejõgi

Surnu sukka kuduv neiu Valgejõe ääres

On the Sinipalu meadow by the Valgejõgi river, near Lehtse, two little herd girls once saw a maiden in white pacing back and forth, knitting a black stocking and singing that she knitted a dead man's stocking, a cover for a corpse's leg. She beckoned them, but the song frightened them away. Then she climbed onto a big stone in the river, splashed water over her head and sang three times: 'The hour has come, the man has not!' and leapt into the water. Soon afterwards a man drowned there, the tale recorded at Tapa in 1896 ends.

Open it on the map See the spot on the old maps and as it is today

Eesti keeles

Valgejõe ääres Lehtse lähedal Sinipalu heinamaal nägid kord kaks väikest karjatüdrukut valges riides neidu edasi-tagasi kõndimas. Ta kudus musta sukka ja laulis, et koob surnu sukka ja koolja jalakatet. Neiu viipas tüdrukuid enda juurde, kuid laul hirmutas nad eemale. Siis läks ta jões suure kivi otsa, viskas endale vett üle pea, laulis kolm korda „Tund on tulnud, mees pole jõudnud!“ ja hüppas vette. Varsti pärast seda uppus sinna üks mees, lõpeb 1896. aastal Tapal kirja pandud lugu.

Map of the area around The girl knitting a dead man's stocking by the Valgejõgi
59.24000° N, 25.86000° E · Map: Maa- ja Ruumiamet

Source: Estonian Folklore Archives E 23544/23545 (15) (O. Hintzenberg < J. Blumfeldt, Ambla parish, 1896), Rehepapp database; also M. J. Eisen, 'Näki raamat' no. 19 ↗

More stories nearby

Stay or walk nearby

Translate »