Nattramn/Nattravn

The Nattramn is a mythical creature from Swedish, and Danish beliefs, related to Germanic Nachktrapp. Its name means “Night Raven” since it takes raven form. They’re believed to be a manifestation of the souls of abandoned children. They’re associated with those who die and sink into marshes. Sometimes they are believed to be murdered children whose bodies have been hidden. They resemble black birds or bird skeletons with a hole in their wings. It’s believed anyone who looks through the hole in their wings will die. They’re also sometimes thought to foretell evil. Hearing the Nattramn flying causes illness or blindness and causes death within a year, and they may purposefully scare people to death. To avoid meeting this fate after seeing a Nattramn, one must go to the ground and not rise until they hear a rooster crow. When someone is staked in the marsh and the pole sticks out of the ground, that person has become a Nattramn with a hole in the right wing. This happens because the person is buried in a marsh or unconsecrated ground, but is staked in place causing it to haunt the location. In the county of Skåne, it is thought a creature called the Kyrkogrim appears as an animal and drives the ungodly out of church cemeteries; these evicted corpses are the Nattramn. They cannot get closer to the ground than an ox carrying a yoke, and some believe the Nattramn constantly flies from West to East until they reach the tomb of Christ. This is a difficult journey because the Nattramn can only fly the length of one chicken feather in a single night. 

Citations:

Mogk, Eugen. Mythologie. Germany, Trübner, 1891.

Pentikäinen, Juha. The Nordic Dead-child Tradition: Nordic Dead-child Beings : a Study in Comparative Religion. Finland, Suomalainen tiedeakatemia, 1968.