The suitor with the green beard

Ghost story from Sweden.

Once upon a time there was a rich merchant who had a very beautiful daughter. This girl had decided never to marry, no matter how rich or handsome the suitor was. When her father asked her if really not a single man would suit her, she finally replied: "If you find a suitor with a green beard, I will marry him!"

It seemed so clear that the girl would never get married and this worried the merchant deeply. But then one dark winter night there was a sudden knock on the door and when the girl went to open it she turned pale. Outside there stood a man with a green beard!

Her father, on the other hand, was very relieved and invited the man. Before the girl knew it, the father and the stranger had arranged the wedding, and even the day of the marriage was decided in haste. The very next day the unfortunate girl was married to her green-bearded suitor, and when the ceremony was over a sumptuous carriage, apparently from the suitor's home, came and picked them both up.

Now the girl was on her way to her new home, wherever that might be. But every time they passed a church, her husband stopped the carriage and disappeared into the cemetery. "He must be a very pious person who visits every church on the way," thought the girl. But in the end it got annoying and she got tired of sitting alone in the carriage and freezing. When they again stopped at a church, she sneaked after her husband and peered through the keyhole in the church gate to see what he was up to. To her horror, she saw the man standing and chewing on a fresh corpse he had just dug up in the cemetery. She let out a cry of terror, causing the green-bearded cannibal to quickly turn and stare at the gate. Then the girl rushed blindly into the winter night, as far away from the church and her horrified husband as she could get. When she was found the next morning, she was frozen and confused. It took her several weeks in bed to recover again. She never heard from her green-bearded husband again, but she feared all her life that he would return one day, and she never forgot the horrible sight in the church.