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Axlar Björn: Iceland’s Only Serial Killer
Only serial killer we know of that is…
Iceland.
You may know it as a Viking settlement. Or as a normal country. Or the only country to resist your plague in Plague Inc. besides Greenland.
Iceland is a foggy country with peaceful, beautiful landscapes and a renowned low crime rate. So low, that they only have one serial killer in their history.
The Man, the Myth, the Legends
This one is tricky to research because on one hand, you have someone who was real, and on the other, you have someone who apparently gave his mother pregnancy cravings for blood when he was in the womb.
There are a lot of Icelandic folktale spins on this case, so it’s hard to know what’s real and what’s embellished. You do find that a lot in cases pre-Enlightenment. Especially with serial killers.
And it makes sense! In a lot of ways, we do that today. When someone commits such horrendous acts, we naturally want to know why. Today, we have criminal psychology. Then? They had Satan, demons, and witchcraft.
As someone who has respect for folktales, I’m going to present this case as it is explained. I’ll point out what parts are facts we KNOW happened, but I don’t feel I’m doing this case justice if I scoff at the Icelandic cultural legends as complete ridiculousness.
