There is a myth that anyone who has taken a stone from than the Blue Virgin can suffer from grief and accidents.
And several times every year, Oskarshamn municipality receives stones in envelopes, often with a small cover letter that the letter writer wants the stone returned to the Blue Virgin, because it brought misfortune.
- I think that it may be the bad conscience that gnaws because they have done something illegal and picked stone from the island.
Many people think that they got unlucky by doing so, she says.
Of the stones that were recently returned, there were those that were marked with years, and which after 63 years of absence returned to the Blue Virgin.
Bone fractures and divorces
Kerstin Arvidsson, who is a guide at the national park, talks about how the myth that the stones bring misfortune has taken root in people's consciousness.
- We get to read stories about broken bones, illness and divorce and many clearly link those events to the mystique in the stones, she says.
- The myths about the Blue Virgin really grip the people, it is not only the 15th century people who thought like this, it still exists with us, she says.
Hundreds of stones left
And believe in myths, or not. About a hundred stones that belong to Blå Jungfrun have now been returned to the island, and will later, with the help of the guides, be placed in their proper places in the national park.