The Plague

legend · Sweden · Scandinavian

In Swedish folk tradition, the devastating plagues were personified as a boy with a rake and a girl with a broom, wandering from village to village. Where the boy raked, some were spared; where the girl swept, death left an empty house. On Soller Island, the plague spirits strewed gold along the roads, but the treasure was so infected that anyone who touched it died before the next sunset.

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