Swedish Fairy Belief : Traffic Accidents, Folklore, and the Cold Light of Reason

An article in a Swedish newspaper revealed that the high number of traffic accidents at a certain location had two different explanations. One was furnished by the Swedish Transport Administration, which maintained that the incidents were due to natural circumstances and blind spots on the road. The other was local narratives which claimed that the accidents were the work of angered supernatural beings. This triggered a debate on the internet with claims for and against belief in supernatural beings. The present chapter examines this modern debate and contextualizes contemporary Swedish fairy belief with older narratives of fairy roads and similar phenomena in pre-industrial Sweden. It is argued that notions of the supernatural reflect the age and culture to which they belong. Discussions on two different internet forums express fairy belief and fairy disbelief, respectively. The debate can be interpreted as a conflict of enchantment versus disenchantment of the world. The believers find sympathies towards fairy spirituality online and form collective identities, where a concern for nature and the ecological system seems to be crucial, while the disbelievers are concerned with what they believe to be a rational and scientific explanation