The tilberi (carrier) or snakkur (spindle) is a creature of Icelandic

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

, created by witches to steal milk. Only women can create and own them. The two terms are regional variants: both are used in eastern Iceland, 'tilberi' in the north and 'snakkur' in the south and west. There are no written mentions of the creatures before the 17th century, although one 17th-century writer mentions a witch being punished for having one in 1500. To create a tilberi, the woman steals a

rib In vertebrate anatomy, ribs () are the long curved bones which form the rib cage, part of the axial skeleton. In most tetrapods, ribs surround the thoracic cavity, enabling the lungs to expand and thus facilitate breathing by expanding the ...

from a recently buried body early on

Whitsunday Whitsun (also Whitsunday or Whit Sunday) is the name used in Britain, and other countries among Anglicans and Methodists, for the Christian holy day of Pentecost. It falls on the seventh Sunday after Easter and commemorates the descent of the Ho ...

, twists around it grey wool which she must steal for the purpose and keeps it between her breasts. (It is sometimes specified that the wool must be plucked from between the shoulders of a widow's sheep soon after its wool has been plucked.) The next three Sundays at communion she spits the sanctified wine on the bundle, which will come more alive each time.Simpson, pp. 170–71.. She then lets it suckle on the inside of her

thigh In anatomy, the thigh is the area between the hip (pelvis) and the knee. Anatomically, it is part of the lower limb. The single bone in the thigh is called the femur. This bone is very thick and strong (due to the high proportion of bone tissu ...

, which creates a tell-tale

wart Warts are non-cancerous viral growths usually occurring on the hands and feet but which can also affect other locations, such as the genitals or face. One or many warts may appear. They are distinguished from cancerous tumors as they are caus ...

like growth.Simpson, p. 171. The woman can now send the tilberi to suck milk from others' cows and ewes. It will return to the window of her dairy and call out "Full belly, Mummy!" or "Churn lid off, Mummy!" and vomit the stolen milk into her

butter churn A butter churn is a device used to convert cream into butter, a process known as churning. This is done through a mechanical process, frequently via a pole inserted through the lid of the churn, or via a crank used to turn a rotating device in ...

. To suck the milk from the animal's

udder An udder is an organ formed of two or four mammary glands on the females of dairy animals and ruminants such as cattle, goats, and sheep. An udder is equivalent to the breast in primates, elephantine pachyderms and other mammals. The udder is ...

, it jumps on her back and lengthens itself to reach down; in some versions it is said to be able to reach down on both sides to suck from two teats at once. Inflammatory hardening of the udder was traditionally ascribed to the tilberi, and as late as the 19th century, animals were protected by making the sign of the cross under the udder and over the rump and laying a

Psalter A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters were ...

on the spine.Simpson
p. 172
Butter churned from milk stolen by a tilberi will clump together as if curdled, or even melt away into foam, if the sign of the cross is made over it or the ''smjörhnútur'' (butterknot) magical sign drawn in it. The tilberi also occasionally steals wool which has been put out to dry after shearing and washing; it rolls it around itself to form a giant moving ball.Simpson
p. 173
If the woman has a child and the tilberi manages to reach her own milk-filled breast, she is at risk of being sucked to death. The traditional method of ridding oneself of a tilberi is to send it up the mountain to the common pasturage with orders to collect all the lambs' droppings; either all those in three pastures, or making three piles. The tilberi will then either work itself to death or die because as an evil creature it cannot tolerate the number three. Only the human bone will be left lying in the pasture. A tilberi is very fast, but when chased it was believed to run home to its mother and hide under her skirts; her petticoat could then be tied or sewn closed under it and mother and creature either burnt or drowned together.

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* {{URL, 1=http://www.galdrasyning.is/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=351%3Asmjoerhnutur-tilberi&catid=18&Itemid=60&lang=en, 2=Butterknot - tilberi, Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft Icelandic folklore Scandinavian legendary creatures Milk in culture

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