Hooks Herrgård

Vaggeryd, Småland · Sverige · Manor

Hook Manor — the White Lady and the judge's curse

Hook Manor lies in Svenarum parish in Vaggeryd municipality in Småland, where the Hokså river leaves Lake Hoka just south of Jönköping. Today it is a hotel, spa and golf resort. But the house carries a legend that the staff themselves keep alive.

The manor's resident ghost is known as Captain Elin, or the White Lady.

According to the legend she was convicted of witchcraft and burned at the stake. The death certificate was signed by the judge Stedt, who at the time owned Hook Manor. Elin then pronounced a curse on him, and he was later paralysed. Since then the White Lady is said to watch over the guests, and today she is described more as the house's protector than as something to fear.

A legend, not a court record

Here it is worth being careful. Sweden in practice stopped executing people for witchcraft after the great panic, which ran between 1668 and 1676. A witch burning connected to the Stedt family, who bought Hook in 1717, is therefore difficult to confirm in the court records. The manor itself also states explicitly that she was convicted of witchcraft according to legend.

Read the story for what it is: a living oral tradition attached to a house, not a legal case.

The house and its families

The village of Hook was bequeathed in 1408 to Nydala Abbey and taken in 1527 by Gustav Vasa into his private holdings. During the 1600s the estate passed through several hands, among them the merchant Peder Gudmundsson, who kept sheep here for his cloth manufacture in Jönköping.

In 1717 Hook was bought by the judge Nils Stedt, the man in the legend. In 1728 he established an ironworks at Humbleforsen south of the manor, which took the name Lindefors. His son Claes Henrik Stedt expanded the business with a manufactory in 1765 and had the present main building raised between 1778 and 1786, a single-storey rendered timber house. Material for the construction was taken in part from Nydala Abbey, which the family then owned.

A house raised partly from the stone of a medieval abbey, with a cursed judge in its list of owners and a white-clad woman said to watch over the guests. The house has received visitors since 1923, and has been run by the Edberg family since the 1960s.

FAQ

Hvor ligger Hooks Herrgård?

Hooks Herrgård ligger i Vaggeryd, Småland, Sverige.

Opplysningene bygger på lokal folketro og vitneskildringer.

Image: Lsj · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons