The Gloson is not just any normal common or garden ghost pig. The Gloson is special creature, known through many different stories, primarily from southern Sweden. Throughout Swedish folklore, it has gone by many names, such as as Gloson, Gluffsoen, Glosoen, Glopsugganand Luffesoen, to name but a few. The Gloson is generally cited as being a large white wild boar with glowing red eyes and a jagged spine, shaped like the teeth of a saw blade. The Gloson is a weaponised pig that will only bring misery and misfortune.
In Kuusela’s work, he recounts that the Gloson ‘is said to be a pig in the form of a horrible sow with a back in the shape of a razor-sharp saw. Sometimes she appears accompanied by several piglets. A common motif in the legends is that Gloson runs at the year walker at full speed, and seeks to come between the year walker’s legs and cleave the walker in two with her razor sharp back.’
The ‘Year Walker’ appears to be a Swedish equivalent (of sorts) of the Australian ‘walkabout’, where knowledge or enlightenment is obtained after a long solo journey.
‘The purpose of Gloson was to hinder the year walker from accomplishing his or her goal. It was one of many supernatural interferences that was to be expected before the year walker could prove his or her worth and become sensitive to the supernatural and be able to get a glimpse of the coming year.’