Klövasten (Cloven Stone)

A split boulder sits in flat farmland just south of the village of Glemmingebro, in Sweden's southernmost region. About 46 by 30 feet (14 by 9 meters) and roughly 10 feet (3 meters) high, it is cleft in two, likely widened over time as water froze in natural fractures and forced the rock apart. Geologists classify it as a glacial erratic, carried here during the last Ice Age.

Local tradition has a different account of both the journey and the split. In it, a giantess on the Baltic island of Bornholm, driven mad by the bells of Glemminge Church across the water, used her garter as a sling to hurl the boulder at it. At sunrise her strength failed and the throw fell short, the stone landing in a nearby field. The church still stands; local lore says the force of the throw split the rock in two.

This same tradition holds that the cleft is more than a remnant of the failed attack. Those who pass through it risk having their senses scrambled. A woman is said to have stopped recognizing her own child, and a man became so disoriented that he climbed into bed with his neighbor’s wife. There is, however, a cure: retrace your steps through the cleft the same way you came.