According to Scandinavian lore, the ghost of a dead infant was called an utburd, which meant *child carried outside*. The utburd was vengeance incarnate, and also a symbol of an old tradition: letting newly-born children die of exposure when it wasn’t practical to feed them. The illustrative tale associated with this ghost (real quick) is: a fisherman and his wife must live a sickly child outside to die because of all the mouths they already have to feed. Later, it enters through their keyhole, then crawls up on the woman while she sleeps and tears out her eyes.

Other traits of the utburd; generally invisible, but can take the shapes of animals such as owls, or black dogs. It can also grow to the size of a cow or turn into a curl of wispy smoke. It could make sounds like boulders dropping. It also continued to take victims long after it exacted its revenge on the parents that killed it. Its main method of attack was to chase down lonely travelers, and then press an invisible weight down on the victim’s chest, crushing him/her

Sakes… Teach me to read Norse Eddas at 2 in the morning. I’m going to have nightmares now for sure.