A worker from the Western Rookeries, whose name was Jón Johannesson, went on a journey to Wide Bay. He was lightly dressed, but while he was in the bay he was caught in bad weather. He asked the bondman Thorgrim Sigurdsson, who lived there at the time, to lend him a leather jacket.
He replied that he could not lend him the jacket, but said:
“There is old man Marus’s coat here; it doesn’t matter where it will be, but it’s better than nothing,” and suggested that he put it on. This Marus died recently.
The man took his coat, put it on and returned to his home in the Rookeries, and the coat was soaked through. He hung his coat in the hallway and went to bed.
When he fell asleep, he dreamed that Marus came and asked where his coat was. He replied that it was hanging there on a nail.
“I didn’t do this to it while it was mine,” said Marus. “You should have covered yourself with it.”
The next day the weather was dry. Jon dried his coat and covered himself with it in the evening. At night he dreamed of Marus, who said:
“Now I like what you did with my coat; I did that too.
In the hut where Jon of the Rookeries slept, before he came there, ghosts appeared, so that no one could sleep there when it got dark. Jon did not believe this and stayed in this hut alone until the fall.
One night he dreamed that a tall man entered the hut and looked around. He thought he was a little angry; he stood in the hut, looked at the bed where Jon was sleeping, frowned and, seeing that Jon was not showing it, walked away.
The next night Jon dreamed of the same man, and now he was more violent. He walked into the hut to the beam, stretched up towards it, put his hands on the beam and made menacing faces at Jon in order to frighten him. Jon looked at him, but decided that he should not be afraid of him.
When a little time had passed, the ghost turned to Jon and said:
-You weren't afraid of me. Everyone who was here was afraid of me, except you.
Having said this, he climbed down from the beam and left the hut. Jon remained in this hut, and he never dreamed of this man again.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru