Tradition: Icelandic Mythology
Alternative Names: The Deacon of Myrká, The Deacon of Dark River
Category: Ghost
The Myth
The Deacon of Dark River is the ghostly figure at the center of an Icelandic legend set around Myrká farm in Eyjafjörður. In life, the deacon was a man who lived at Myrká and loved a woman named Guðrún, who lived across the Hörgá River at Bægisá farm. Before Christmas, he visited her on his horse, Faxi, and promised to return on Christmas Eve to bring her home to celebrate the holiday together. On his journey back, however, a violent storm swept over the area. He fell into the icy river, suffered a terrible head injury, and drowned. His body was discovered the following day and buried, but Guðrún never received the news of his death.
On Christmas Eve, the deacon appeared at Bægisá as promised, riding Faxi to collect Guðrún. His face was concealed beneath a hat and scarf, and she mounted the horse with him, wearing a coat that she had only partly put on. As they crossed the dark landscape, the deacon spoke in strange, rhythmic phrases, repeating the final word of each line. When they reached the Hörgá River, the horse stumbled, causing his hat to slip forward. In the moonlight, Guðrún saw the dreadful white wound at the back of his head and realized that something was terribly wrong. The deacon uttered the ominous words, “The moon fades, death rides,” revealing the truth of his unnatural journey.
When they arrived at Myrká, the deacon told Guðrún to wait while he led Faxi over a fence. Nearby, she noticed an open grave in the churchyard. The dead man suddenly tried to drag her into it, but because she wore only one sleeve of her coat, he seized the empty sleeve instead. Guðrún grabbed the church bell’s rope and rang it desperately until people came to investigate. Her coat tore in two, leaving half in the ghost’s grasp as he disappeared into his grave. Now certain that her beloved was dead, Guðrún endured a night of haunting and disturbance as his restless spirit continued to trouble the farm. Eventually, an exorcist was summoned and succeeded in laying the deacon’s ghost to rest.
Sources
“Dj ákninn á Myrká.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Accessed October 15, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dj%C3%A1kninn_%C3%A1_Myrk%C3%A1