Tradition: Swedish Mythology
Alternative Names: The Undecaying Corpse
Category: Ghost
The Myth
Torre Jeppe was a restless spirit whose body sat night after night in the nave of a church. His corpse had dried out but could not decay, leaving him trapped between death and eternal rest. One night, three tailors were working at a nearby farmstead, laughing and joking with a girl who was known for her courage. They challenged her to enter the church, fetch Torre Jeppe, and bring him back to the farm. In exchange, they promised her a dress made of homespun wool. The girl accepted their offer and went to the church, where she lifted the dried-up corpse onto her back and carried him home.
When she arrived, she sat Torre Jeppe on a bench beside the tailors. The men immediately moved away in fear, but the corpse shuffled after them, staring at them with his large eyes until they were nearly driven out of their minds. Desperate to escape the apparition, the tailors begged the girl in God’s name to take him away again. They promised her another dress if she would return him to the church. She agreed, lifted Torre Jeppe onto her back once more, and carried him away.
However, when she tried to put him back in his original place, Torre Jeppe refused to release her. He wrapped his arms tightly around her neck and would not let go, no matter how many times she ordered him to. At last, he explained that he would free her only if she promised to visit a nearby brook that very night and call out three times: “Anna Perstochter, do you forgive Torre Jeppe?” The girl agreed, and he immediately released her.
Although the brook lay more than a mile away, the girl went there and called out the words three times. After the third call, a woman’s voice rose from the water and answered, “If God has forgiven him, then I, too, forgive him!” The girl returned to the church and told Torre Jeppe what the woman had said. Overjoyed, he thanked her and promised that she would receive her reward if she returned before sunrise.
At dawn, the girl came back and discovered a bushel of silver coins where Torre Jeppe had once sat. She also received the two dresses promised by the tailors. Torre Jeppe, however, had vanished and was never seen again. Having obtained forgiveness from the woman he had wronged, the restless dead man was finally released from his earthly torment and allowed to find eternal peace.
Sources
Stroebe, Clara, ed. The Swedish Fairy Book. Translated by Frederick H. Martens, illustrated by George W. Hood. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1921. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37193