The tilberi (carrier) or snakkur (spindle) is a creature of Icelandic
folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
, created by witches to steal milk. Only women can create and own them.
The two terms are regional variants: both are used in eastern Iceland, 'tilberi' in the north and 'snakkur' in the south and west. There are no written mentions of the creatures before the 17th century, although one 17th-century writer mentions a witch being punished for having one in 1500.
To create a tilberi, the woman steals a
rib from a recently buried body early on
Whitsunday
Whitsun (also Whitsunday or Whit Sunday) is the name used in Britain, and other countries among Anglicans and Methodists, for the Christian High Holy Day of Pentecost. It is the seventh Sunday after Easter, which commemorates the descent of the H ...
, twists around it grey wool which she must steal for the purpose and keeps it between her breasts. (It is sometimes specified that the wool must be plucked from between the shoulders of a widow's sheep soon after its wool has been plucked.) The next three Sundays at
communion she spits the sanctified wine on the bundle, which will come more alive each time.
[Simpson, pp. 170–71.][.] She then lets it suckle on the inside of her
thigh
In human anatomy, the thigh is the area between the hip ( pelvis) and the knee. Anatomically, it is part of the lower limb.
The single bone in the thigh is called the femur. This bone is very thick and strong (due to the high proportion of ...
, which creates a tell-tale
wart
Warts are typically small, rough, hard growths that are similar in color to the rest of the skin. They typically do not result in other symptoms, except when on the bottom of the feet, where they may be painful. While they usually occur on the ...
like growth.
[Simpson, p. 171.]
The woman can now send the tilberi to suck milk from others' cows and
ewes. It will return to the window of her dairy and call out "Full belly, Mummy!" or "Churn lid off, Mummy!" and vomit the stolen milk into her
butter churn.
[ To suck the milk from the animal's ]udder
An udder is an organ formed of two or four mammary glands on the females of dairy animals and ruminants such as cattle, goats, and sheep. An udder is equivalent to the breast in primates and elephantine pachyderms. The udder is a single mass han ...
, it jumps on her back and lengthens itself to reach down; in some versions it is said to be able to reach down on both sides to suck from two teats at once. Inflammatory hardening of the udder was traditionally ascribed to the tilberi, and as late as the 19th century, animals were protected by making the sign of the cross under the udder and over the rump and laying a Psalter on the spine.[Simpson]
p. 172
Butter churned from milk stolen by a tilberi will clump together as if curdled, or even melt away into foam, if the sign of the cross is made over it or the ''smjörhnútur'' (butterknot) magical sign drawn in it.[
The tilberi also occasionally steals wool which has been put out to dry after shearing and washing; it rolls it around itself to form a giant moving ball.][Simpson]
p. 173
If the woman has a child and the tilberi manages to reach her own milk-filled breast, she is at risk of being sucked to death.[ The traditional method of ridding oneself of a tilberi is to send it up the mountain to the common pasturage with orders to collect all the lambs' droppings; either all those in three pastures, or making three piles. The tilberi will then either work itself to death][ or die because as an evil creature it cannot tolerate the number three.][ Only the human bone will be left lying in the pasture.
A tilberi is very fast, but when chased it was believed to run home to its mother and hide under her skirts; her petticoat could then be tied or sewn closed under it and mother and creature either burnt or drowned together.][
]
See also
* Icelandic magical staves
Icelandic magical staves () are sigils that were credited with supposed magical effect preserved in various Icelandic grimoires, such as the Galdrabók, dating from the 17th century and later.
Table of magical staves
See also
* Galdr
A (pl ...
* Troll cat, another witch-created milk thief, also known in Sweden and Finland as ''bjära'', which also means 'carrier'
References
Sources
* {{URL, 1=http://www.galdrasyning.is/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=351%3Asmjoerhnutur-tilberi&catid=18&Itemid=60&lang=en, 2=Butterknot - tilberi, Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft
Icelandic folklore
Scandinavian legendary creatures
Milk in culture