Story of Svänamassan

You are now standing at Svänamassen's cave. According to oral tradition, Svänamassan lived here. Throughout the north there are stories about the lonely and strong man who lives in a cave in the forest and steals for his survival. When someone withdrew from society in this way to "walk in the woods", a common reason was to avoid going to war. 

 

Perhaps Svänamassan was such a man, or was he an escaped Russian prisoner of war? 

 

He stole oxen and cows that grazed in Svänan. At night, he sneaked up to the farms and stole flour, root vegetables and potatoes. 

 

In a funeral yard one night he would have gotten hold of the corpse instead of the slaughtered animal intended for the funeral feast. 

 

Many times the farmers went out to capture Svänamassan under the sheriff's leadership.  But he always managed to elude his pursuers. On one occasion someone found his way to the cave while he was cooking the meat of a stolen animal. It was the smell of smoke that gave him away. The farmers gathered to arrest him but he disappeared to an island in the Stråken. There he was eventually discovered and escaped paddling on a tree trunk. When he came ashore he got hold of a black stallion and on it he rode out into a sacred marsh.  Would the horse and Masse have perished in the swing?

 

 The island is called Tjuvön, but what happened to Svänamassan?