Gene Fornby, Örnsköldsvik

The Sacrificial Grove and Burial Mounds of Gene Fornby

A reconstructed Iron Age longhouse beside ancient burial mounds and a dark pine grove at twilight — Gene fornby, långhuset — Carl L. Thunberg / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The reconstructed Iron Age farm rests on ground that held genuine ancient settlements and burial mounds from the Migration Period. Across the centuries, stories lingered among local people that the land belonged to the högfolket — the mound people — and the ancestors of the old clans. Plowing too close to the grave mounds or felling trees in the nearby groves was believed to bring supernatural misfortune, crop failure, and cattle death upon whoever desecrated the place. The longhouse has been rebuilt. The mounds have not been moved. The grove still stands.