In ancient times, on Mount Blaufjall there lived a Skessa named Krauka. Traces of her cave are visible to this day, but this cave is located so high that people never go up there. Krauka caused a lot of harm to the people of Myvatnsveit, she attacked livestock, stole sheep and even killed people.
They said about her that she was not indifferent to men and was very burdened by her lonely life. It happened that Krauka kidnapped men from the village and kept them with her, but none of them liked her, and they tried to run away from her and would rather die than respond to her advances.
One day Krauka kidnapped a shepherd from the Baldursheim farm, his name was Jon. She dragged Krauk Youn to her cave and let him treat him with all sorts of food, but he just turned his nose up. She tried this way and that to please him, but it was all in vain. Finally, the shepherd said that he would not mind eating a twelve-year-old shark1. She enchanted Krauk, found out that such a shark existed only in Siglunes, and decided to get this delicacy for the shepherd at all costs. She left him alone in the cave, and she set off on her own journey. She walked a little, and suddenly she wanted to check if the shepherd had run away. Krauka returned home and found the shepherd where she had left her. She hit the road again. She walked and walked and began to doubt again: what if the shepherd ran away. She returned to the cave and saw the shepherd sitting where he was sitting. For the third time, Krauka set off on her journey and no longer doubted anything. Nothing is said about her trip, except that she got some shark meat and ran home the same way.
And the shepherd waited for Krauka to move away, jumped up and ran away. She saw Krauk that there was no trace of him, and set off in pursuit. A shepherd is running, and behind him the stones are rattling - Krauka is about to catch up with him.
- Wait, Jon! - she shouts. - Here's some shark meat for you! It lay in the ground for twelve years and another winter!
The shepherd does not respond, he runs as fast as he can. He ran to the farm, and his owner was working in the forge at that time. Joun ran into the forge and hid behind the owner, and Krauka was already there. The owner grabbed a hot iron from the forge and ordered Krauke to get away and never touch his people again. There was nothing to do, Krauke had to go home. But we don’t know anything about whether she attacked the owner of Baldursheim after that.
Another time, Krauka kidnapped a shepherd from the Grainavatn farm. She dragged him to her cave and let him treat him with all sorts of food. She treats him, but he is picky, doesn’t eat, and that’s all. Finally, the shepherd says that he wouldn’t mind trying some fresh goat meat. Krauka knew that there were goats only in Axarfjord, and, although it was not close, she decided to get goat meat for the shepherd. However, this time, to prevent the shepherd from escaping, she blocked the entrance to the cave with a large stone.
Krauka is running, in a hurry, she ran to the Glacier River and in one fell swoop, from rock to rock, jumped over the river. Since then people call this place Skessa's Leap. She found a farmstead in Akhsarfjord where there were goats, caught two goats there, tied them with their horns, threw them over her shoulder, and went home the same way. Krauk jumped over the river and decided to rest. She untied the goats and let them graze in the gorge - now this gorge is called Kozlin. Having rested, Krauka took her goats and moved on.
And they say about the shepherd that as soon as Krauka left, he decided to get out of the cave, but did not find even the tiniest loophole. But what caught his eye was the giantess’s large and sharp knife. The shepherd grabbed this knife and started using it to pierce the stone that blocked the entrance to the cave. He dug a hole and climbed out, and then ran home as fast as he could. So I got to the farm safe and sound.
Every year at Christmas Krauka held a big feast. She was somehow annoyed that she didn’t have human meat for a snack, and so in the evening on Christmas Eve she went to the village. However, all the upper hamlets of Myvatnsveit turned out to be empty, their inhabitants went to church in Skutustadir, because in those places it was the custom to serve services on the night of Christmas Eve. Krauka was angry that she had passed in vain, and also went to Skutustadir. A lot of people gathered in the church. Krauka came closer and saw a man sitting right at the door. She extended her hand and wanted to pull him out of the church, but he resisted and began to call for help. The men who were in the church rushed to his rescue and all en masse fell on Krauka. However, she held the man tightly and would never have let him go if a piece of the church wall had not fallen out. They say that after this she flew through the air, shouting that the hole in the church wall would remain forever. And her words turned out to be prophetic: the southern wall of the Skutustadir church still stands with a hole to this day.
Krauka became so angry with the people of Myvatnsveit that she vowed to take terrible revenge on them. There was a large lake in the Myvatnsveit pastures. Krauka came there, broke the trees, mixed them with stones and turf, and she got a big heavy plow. She dragged this plow across the whole of Myvatnsveit and plowed a deep, long furrow.
- From now on there will be a river here! - Krauka said and let the water go there. “And as long as people live in Myvatnsveit, my river will annually flood their meadows and arable land. It will litter these lands so much with snags and stones that people will have to abandon them.
This river still flows along the channel plowed by the giantess. People call it the Kraukie River. The river's character is treacherous and evil. Every year it washes away the banks and fills the grasslands with sand and clay. Many lands there have already been abandoned, they lie cluttered with stones, brushwood and snags - everything from which Krauka once made her plow. The thickets around Lake Myvatn have thinned out, there is now barely enough forest to build dams on the Krauki River, and old knowledgeable people say that the curse of the Krauki will weigh on the inhabitants of Myvatnsveit for a long time.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru