The Deacon of Dark River - Djákninn á Myrká - a Ghost Story from North Iceland

The graveyard at Myrká

In this travel blog, I am going to tell you about a well-known piece of Icelandic folklore: the Deacon of Dark River (Djákninn á Myrká). It is a ghost story, and I have always found it particularly scary.

This ghost story took place in the Hörgárdalur valley in North Iceland. Hörgárdalur is a valley leading to Eyjafjörður fjord, Iceland's longest fjord.

So I found it fitting to add it to my series of travel blogs on the beautiful Eyjafjörður fjord.

Top photo: the graveyard at Myrká

By the grave of the deacon at Myrká in 2013

I found this ghost story in Þjóðsögur Jóns Árnasonar - the Compilation of Folklore of Jón Árnason and translated it into English:

"In former times there was a deacon at Myrká in Eyjafjörður, but his name is not recorded. He was courting a woman named Guðrún. According to some accounts, she lived at Bægisá, on the other side of the Hörgá River, where she was the priest's housemaid.

The deacon owned a horse with a gray mane and regularly rode it. He called the horse Faxi.

The graveyard at Myrká

Shortly before Christmas, it happened that the deacon went to Bægisá farm to invite Guðrún to a Christmas celebration at Myrká. He promised to come for her at an agreed time and accompany her to the festivities on Christmas Eve.

In the days before the deacon went to invite Guðrún, there had been heavy snow, and the rivers had frozen over. But on the very day he rode to Bægisá, a sudden thaw set in.

As the day progressed, the river became impassable because of the ice floes and the rushing water, while the deacon was visiting at Bægisá.

The bridge over the Öxnadalsá river - Bægisá farm is further up, closer to the mountains

When he left, he failed to notice how conditions had changed during the day and assumed the river would still be frozen as before.

He crossed the Yxnadalur River (Öxnadalsá) by a bridge, but when he reached the Hörgá, the ice had broken up, and the river was running freely.

He therefore rode along the river until he came opposite Saurbær, the next farm beyond Myrká. A bridge crossed the river there.

The deacon rode onto the bridge, but when he had reached its middle, it gave way beneath him, and he fell into the river.

Crossing the Myrká river on a bridge - in a car in the summertime

The next morning, when the farmer at Þúfnavellir farm got out of bed, he saw a horse with riding gear below the home meadow. He thought he recognized it as Faxi, the deacon’s horse from Myrká.

This alarmed him, because he had seen the deacon riding past the previous day but had not noticed him return. He quickly suspected what had happened.

He went down beyond the meadow and saw that it was indeed Faxi, completely wet and in a sorry state. He then went down to the river, to a place called Þúfnavallaness.

Here you can see the outlines of the old church at Myrká

There he found the deacon’s body, washed ashore at the outer end of the headland. The farmer immediately went to Myrká and reported the news.

The deacon had been badly injured at the back of the head by an ice floe when he was found.

His body was taken home to Myrká and buried during the week before Christmas.

From the time the deacon left Bægisá until Christmas Eve, no news of these events had passed between Myrká and Bægisá farms, because of the thaw and the swollen rivers.

Hörgárdalur valley close to Myrká farm in the summertime

But on Christmas Eve, the weather calmed, and the river had subsided during the night. Guðrún therefore looked forward to going to the Christmas celebration at Myrká.

As the day went on, she began to get dressed. When she was well on her way, she heard a knock at the door. Another woman who was with her went to answer it, but saw no one outside.

It was neither fully light nor dark, for the moon was moving in and out of the clouds.

By the church at Bægisá

When the woman came back in and said that she had seen no one, Guðrún said: “The game is meant for me, and I shall certainly go outside.”

She was then almost completely dressed, except that she still had to put on her cloak. She took up the cloak and put one arm into its sleeve, but threw the other sleeve over her shoulder and held on to it.

When she came outside, she saw Faxi standing by the door, with a man beside him whom she assumed was the deacon. It is not recorded that they exchanged any words
The Deacon of Dark River and Guðrún

He lifted Guðrún onto the horse’s back and then mounted in front of her.

They rode for some time without speaking. They came to the Hörgá river, where the banks were steep and high.

When the horse plunged over the bank, the deacon’s hat lifted at the back, and Guðrún saw his bare skull!

At that moment the clouds moved away from the moon, and he said:

Guðrún and the Deacon of Dark River as depicted at Hrafnagil

“The moon glides,
death rides;
can’t you see the white spot
on the back of my head,
Garún, Garún?” -

In Icelandic it goes like this:

"Máninn lýður,
dauðinn ríður;
sérðu ekki hvítan blett
í hnakka mínum,
Garún, Garún?"

The graveyard at Myrká and the outlines of the old church

She was terrified and remained silent. But others say that Guðrún lifted the back of his hat herself and saw the white skull. Then she was supposed to have said:

“I see what there is to see.” In Icelandic: „Sé ég það sem er.“

Nothing more is said about their conversation or their journey until they reached Myrká. They dismounted in front of the lych-gate, and the deacon then said to Guðrún:

“Wait here, Garún, Garún,
while I lead Faxi, Faxi,
up beyond the churchyard, churchyard.”

In Icelandic it goes like this:

“Bíddu hérna, Garún, Garún,
meðan ég flyt hann Faxa, Faxa,
upp fyrir garða, garða.”

By the big cross in the summer of 2026

Having said this, he led the horse away, but Guðrún happened to look into the churchyard. There she saw an open grave and became very frightened. Nevertheless, she took hold of the church bell rope.

At that moment someone seized her from behind. It proved fortunate that she had not had time to put both arms into her cloak, for the grip was so strong that the cloak tore at the shoulder seam of the sleeve she was wearing.

The last thing she saw of the deacon was him plunging headfirst into the open grave, still holding the torn piece of her cloak. The earth then slid down from both sides and covered him.

The Deacon of Dark River as depicted at the Ghost Centre in Stokkseyri

As for Guðrún, she rang the bell continuously until the people at Myrká came outside and rescued her.

She had become so frightened by everything that had happened that she dared neither go anywhere nor stop ringing the bell.

She was convinced that she had encountered the deacon returned from the dead, even though she had had no news of his death.

She soon confirmed this when she spoke with the people of Myrká. They told her the entire story of the deacon’s death, and she told them about her journey.

The bell in the lych gate at Myrká

That same night, after everyone had gone to bed and the light had been extinguished, the deacon came and tormented Guðrún. It was so severe that the people had to get up, and no one slept peacefully that night.

For half a month afterward, she could never be alone, and someone had to stay awake with her every night. Some say that the priest had to sit on the edge of her bed and read from the Psalter.

A sorcerer was then brought from Skagafjörður. When he arrived, he had a large stone dug up above the meadow and rolled home to the gable end of the farmhouse.

The graveyard at Myrká - the grave of the deacon

That evening, when darkness fell, the deacon came and tried to enter the house. But the sorcerer forced him southward beyond the gable end and buried him there with powerful incantations. He then rolled the stone over him, and the deacon is said to remain there to this day.

After that, all haunting at Myrká ceased, and Guðrún began to recover. A little later she went home to Bægisá. People say that she was never the same again."

(Translated into English from Þjóðsögur Jóns Árnasonar - the Compilation of Folklore by Jón Árnason)

The grave of the deacon in 2026

You can see the rock above the grave of the deacon outside the graveyard.

The ghost of the deacon called Guðrún Garún after his death. Ghosts cannot utter the words for God, and the first part of the name "Guðrún" - "Guð" means God in Icelandic.

There are many ghost stories in Iceland, as one can imagine, seeing that the winters here are dark and long. But to me, the Deacon of Dark River has always been the scariest one.

The old altarpiece from Myrkárkirkja church is now in Bægiskirkja

I first read Djákninn á Myrká when I was 11 years old, and it still scares me ;)

And I always found it strange that a sorcerer was able to lure the ghost into its grave; by whose power did he do that? Why was he more powerful than the priest?

Isn't Jesus Christ the most powerful of them all in this regard, and the priest could have helped the ghost of the deacon in the name of Jesus Christ?

The farm sign for Myrká

If you want to visit Myrká, you take road 814 in the Hörgárdalur valley.

Hörgárdalur is the next valley after Öxnardalur, through which Ring Road 1 runs, leading to Akureyri.

Ytri-Bægisá

Bægisárkirkja church

You can also visit Ytri-Bægisá, where the deacon came to pick up Guðrún. These places are not far apart.

You will find a cute little country church at Ytri-Bægisá. It is a timber church without a steeple, consecrated in 1858.

The most noteworthy minister at Bægisá was Rev. Jón Þorláksson (1744-1819), who resided there for 30 years. He was one of the great Icelandic poets.

Bægisárkirkja church

A vicarage existed here until 1941, and in 1911 the parish at Myrká was joined with the parish at Bægisá, when the church at Myrká was demolished.

It is here that Guðrún, the girlfriend of the Deacon of Dark River, resided.

And here, the ghost of the Deacon of Dark River came to pick up his girlfriend to pull her into his grave.The wings of the old altarpiece in Bægisárkirkja church

You can stay at Guesthouse Bægisá and visit the locations in this famous ghost story.

The church is in the Hörgárdalur valley, on your right as you drive toward Akureyri along Ring Road 1. It is 23 km west of Akureyri town.

This is part IV in my series of travel blogs on Eyjafjörður fjord - if you want to join me on a tour of Eyjafjörður, then I have written a 9-part series on this long fjord:

Eyjafjörður fjord up North - part I - Hrísey Island, the Pearl of Eyjafjörður

Eyjafjörður fjord up North - part II - Dalvík & the Great Fish Day...and...

The altarpiece in Bægisárkirkja