Tragic kids are tragic
Today I am writing to talk to you about the Mylings, these are creatures from Sweden and are tragic.
These creatures are the souls of unbaptized children, they are unable to move on once they have died and enter a kind of purgatory on earth. Their desire is to be buried in a graveyard and so hunt people to do this for them.
However, like all things this is more complicated than expected.
Mylings will jump on the backs of travellers, and while they are supposed to be children, they are exceptionally large and very heavy and when the traveller tries to take them to a graveyard, they get larger and heavier with every step. The myth says that travellers will be known to sink into the ground under the weight of the Myling they are carrying.
If the traveller refuses the task or becomes unable to move, then the Myling will become enraged and kill the traveller and then start the process again.
My thoughts
This myth covers a few basic fears, the dangers that arise when people travel and the fate of unbaptised children. It could be this story was created to explain why people go missing when travelling, and eventually became amalgamated with the concept of unbaptised children’s souls.
Before I go further, please know that I am not against people having religion, if you have faith then more power to you. I am however, against people using their faith to bully or control others.
So now that I’ve clarified that …
The cynic in me always sees stories about unbaptised children becoming monsters as a means of religious control, the church wanted to control the populace and how better to indoctrinate people than to do so at a young age, and how better to get young people into the church, well tell scary stories to their parents about the terrible fate that awaits their children if they don’t get them involved in the church.
So, the way I see this myth is that it probably originated to explain disappearances or unexplained deaths of travellers and then the creature responsible changed to become the Myling.
Letters from a Horror Writer 