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Oh, trust me, guys, you really don’t want to go there.
Algot Larsson disappeared in July of 1949 while hiking through the Norwegian Scandes, to be discovered seven months later, exhausted and highly disoriented. Only a few days after his re-appearence he was found by his family to have taken a habit of scratching his own skin and scribbling frantically in a strange language. These tendencies eventually led to him being incarcerated into the Psychiatric Ward of Vadstena in January, 1951.
While Larsson proved unresponsive to both therapy and medication, he would often speak in great length and detail of pearly towers draped in mist, delicate creatures whirling in crazed dances and a beautiful queen atop a throne of silver. He was eager to the point of obsession to go back to Norway, and would get aggressive when denied to do so. His psychiatrist, adhering to freudian teachings, naturally attributed these delusions to a childhood trauma and a latent oedipus complex.
Larsson inexplicably managed to escape from the ward in 1957, never to be seen again.
Larsson, during one of his saner moments.
Through rocky dales and brumous veils
A thousand-spired fort
Where one can chance the maddening dance
Of the Elf-Queen and her court– Epistle of Fredman No: 83 by Carl Michael Bellman
Stories of Älvhem, the ancient city of the elves, hidden from the eyes of men by mountains and mists, have been spread through Scandinavia since at least the 7th century AD. No evidence of the existence of such a city has been found, but Swedish mountaineer Algot Larsson claimed to have come upon it while climbing the Scandes of Norwegian Oppland. The picture above is based on his descriptions.
