In The Forest Dark Movie project everything begins on Summer Solstice. The astronomical event with the longest day on Earth is celebrated with huge bonfires for a long time in the Northern countries on June, 21. People believed that otherworldly forces were strong on such nights. The honorable H.P. Lovecraft suspected that The Great Old Ones were invoked during these special nights.
There are huge gatherings on mountain tops but also many rumors about secret rituals deep in the woods.
Here comes the latest field trip in the search of the Unknown with the Forest Dark’s first video coverage: North-East Germany is a thinly populated area with many archeological sites. Like in the Bavarian Excursion the field trip led to a place with a lot of old legends around. There are reports of a ghost named Schrukfoot who resides in a grave mound called “Pierdbarg” close to the Prillwitz Castle in Mecklenburg Vorpommern. The archeological site is in a lush, impenetrable forest. Schrukfoot is like many of his otherworldly companions responsible for accidents and once he forced a woman to work for him, but she could escape. The legends describe him wearing ivory colored clothes and his arms are stiff. There is also a legend about a mysterious treasure, which appears in certain nights in the form of “burning money” (Geldfeuer). Furthermore, there is a lake close to the forest. A legend tells that there is a lost city at the bottom of the lake. Certain people could still hear the bells some days. The city’s inhabitants were punished for profanity.
These legends are variations of stories we find all over Europe. It is furthermore remarkable that the tumuli, dolmen and stone circles in North-East Germany (Mecklenburg Vorpommern) are similar to Western European archeological sites.