Its time for another story of scandinavian folklore, with some spooky elements. And for this one, we are going to the Saimaa lake region in southeastern Finland. Here lies St. Olafs Castle or Olavinlinna as it is commonly known. It was built in 1475 by Erik Axelson Tott. The swedish co-regent at the time. The castle is quite a sight It was a very important strategic location as it is in close proximity to the Russian border. At the time, Finland was part of the Swedish empire (which was part of the Kalmar Union with Norway and Denmark). The first story is the one of the Finnish Maiden. The lord of the castles daughter had fallen in love with a russian soldier and one night opened the gate to let him in, but her trust was betrayed and several Russian soldiers tried to take over the castle. The finns fought off the russian soldiers and the lover was killed in action. For her error, the maiden was sentenced to death for treason and buried alive in the wall of the courtyard. Shortly afterwards a rowan tree grew on the burial spot and the white flowers which bloomed on the tree were said to be symbolic of the girl’s innocence. The rowan tree no longer exists so it is debatable whether the story is actually true. But it is part of the lokal folklore regardless. While Olaninlinna was still garrisoned for a while after the Russian takeover in 1809, the lack of military action and its outdated defences after the rising use of firearms meant the castle fell out of use and was eventually abandoned. Growing Finnish nationalism in the early 20th century resulted in Olavinlinna being restored as a heritage site and tourist attraction. It was also found to have natural acoustics, so opera singer Aino Ackté organised the first opera festival at the castle in 1912, which is still held every summer. Olavinlinna has a number of creepy stories associated with black rams. One ram was due to be eaten at a St. Olaf’s day feast but never made it to the table. Instead it fell off the castle wall and drowned in the stream below. A far more disturbing yet strangely heroic story says that a black ram climbed the castle wall during an attack and started beating its hooves and swinging its horns. The enemy thought that it was the devil and ran away in fear. For those familiar with the adventures of Tintin, the Olavinlinna was used for inspiration to the Kropow castle in "King Ottokars secptre" album of that series.