Well, I had in mind the sense of the uncanny, the eerie, dreadful, etc. Allowances may need to be made, when one reads a folktale in stark print, for the story's having earlier been told aloud, perhaps in a dwelling less brilliantly-illuminated than our homes tend to be, at night, without distracting noises from appliances, etc. (When my children were little, I might brush up on a story, then go up to one of their rooms, have a candle as sole illumination, and tell the story with some improvisation, trying to conjure the sense of deep woods or whatever. I certainly didn't try to creep them out traumatically.)
Here's another folktale:
There once was a woman from Stausland in the county of Vest-Agder, who was to attend the sermon on Christmas morning. In the middle of the night she woke up, and saw a light coming from inside the church. Not a single churchgoer was in sight.
Believing that she had overslept, she rushed out of bed, threw on her best coat, and hurried down to the church.
Once inside, the church was full of people as she had anticipated, but she wondered why she did not know any of those who were there. When the priest had stepped up to the pulpit, she cast a glance at the old woman who was sitting beside her. Rather bewildered, she saw that it was a neighbor of hers, who had passed away some time ago. “Get on your coat,†said the old hag, “and get out before the priest has finished his sermon. For this is the Mass of the dead, and they will kill you if they catch you here!â€
The woman did as her neighbor had said -- before she had stood up from her seat, they were after her. Just as she rushed out the door, they tore off her coat, and she ran home like crazy.
In the morning when people came to the church to attend the morning Mass, only bits of the coat were left behind on the church steps.
Abigel Stokkeland, (b. 1844), as told to Peter Lunde in 1919
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legendsofthenorth.blogspot.com]
Norsk Folkeminnesamling: ml4015. De dødes messe. Id: SIN228. År: 1919. Sted: Søgne, Vest-Agder. Informant: Abigel Stokkeland, f. 1844. Samler: Peter Lunde
Here's a link to one that reminds me rather a lot of Blackwood's "Wendigo":
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52books.blogspot.com]
One more:
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www.pitt.edu]
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 24 Jan 21 | 07:14PM by Dale Nelson.