Many hundreds of years ago, at a time when Sweden was invaded by
enemies, the people of Stenbrohult gathered their money and jewelry
together and concealed them in a large copper kettle, which they sunk
to the bottom of Lake Möckeln.
There it lies to-day and will lie for all time, though many have
touched it with poles when driving fish into their nets. Meantime, at
each touch, it has moved further away until it now lies near the outlet
of the lake, where it is so deep that it can not be reached.
When the other residents of the place hid their treasures in the lake
there was a rich farmer who buried his silver at Kalfhagsberg in two
cans. Shortly after he died so suddenly that no opportunity was given
to dig them up. Immediately following his death, two lights were seen
every evening over the place where the treasures lay hidden, a sure
sign that an evil spirit or dragon had appropriated the treasure.
A poor cottager heard of it, and knowing that man may acquire
undisputed possession of the treasures of the earth, if dug upon a
Thursday evening and carried away without looking back or uttering a
word to any one, he already regarded himself as good as the owner of
the wealth. Betaking himself to the place, he succeeded in getting the
cans out of the mountain, but on the way home he met one after another
of his neighbors who asked where he had been. The old man knew well
that the evil spirits had a hand in this, and that what appeared to be
his neighbors was nothing less than the spirits transformed, and he
was, therefore, stubbornly quiet. But finally he met the priest, who
stood by the wayside and greeted him as he was passing with a “good
evening, neighbor.” Hereupon the old man dared keep quiet no longer,
but took his hat off and saluted, “good evening, father,” in return, at
the same instant he tripped against a root and dropped the cans. When
he stopped to pick them up there lay in their stead only a pair of
little old birch-bark boxes, and the old man was compelled to go home,
his mission fruitless.