The Tilberi Milk Thief

Dalir, West Iceland

The Tilberi is a creature constructed by witches from a rib bone and wool, animated by a communion wafer and the witch's own blood. It is sent to steal milk from neighbours' cows, growing fatter with each theft.

The Tilberi is an entirely Icelandic supernatural creature — it has no precise equivalent in any other tradition. It is constructed rather than encountered, made by a practitioner (traditionally a woman) from specific materials for a specific purpose. The construction: a rib bone, wrapped in grey wool, is taken to church on three consecutive Whit Sundays. On the third Sunday, the constructor secretly removes a communion wafer from her mouth and spits it onto the bone bundle. She then draws blood from her inner thigh and feeds the bundle until it first moves — a process that takes several weeks. The completed Tilberi is a small creature that attaches itself to its maker's thigh — feeding from the blood there — when not in use. When sent out, it goes to the neighbours' farms and draws milk from the ewes and cows directly by mouth, returning to its maker with the milk stored in its body. The maker milks it by stroking it from head to tail. The Tilberi grows with each theft, becoming harder to sustain. If the maker wishes to be rid of it, she must tell it to go to the churchyard and collect as much soil as it gathers milk — a task it cannot complete, and in the attempt it bursts. The West Iceland tradition, centred on the Dalir district, has the densest documentation of Tilberi making. Several women were tried and executed for Tilberi possession in the 17th century, with the creature itself sometimes presented as physical evidence.