Kulning, the Herding Call
Scandinavian herders called their cattle home with eerie, high songs that echo for kilometres across the hills.
What was reported
Kulning is an old Scandinavian herding call, sung mainly by the women and girls who took cattle, sheep and goats up to the summer pastures in the hills of Sweden and Norway. The calls are very high, piercing and mostly wordless, and carry across valleys and forests.
The animals know the call and come to it. Kulning was also believed to keep wolves and bears away.
Explanations offered
The high pitch and the bright, forward way it's sung help the sound carry far without straining the voice. The tradition faded as summer farming declined, but folk singers keep it alive, and recordings often sound otherworldly to people hearing it for the first time.
- When
- Sung for centuries
- Where
- Dalarna, Sweden
- Witnesses
- Herders in the Scandinavian summer pastures
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.