Maria Faxell

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Maria Faxell (1678–1738) was a Swedish wife of a parish vicar. A local legend says she helped stop a Norwegian attack during the Great Northern War. She was the daughter of Benedictus Svenonis Caméen and Christina Carlberg, and the sister of Erland Caméen. In 1695 she married Sveno Erlandi Faxell, the vicar of Köla parish in Värmland near the Norwegian border.

In the 1710s, during Sweden’s war with Denmark–Norway, a Norwegian troop crossed into Sweden and reached Gryttve farm near Köla church. With the vicar away, Maria gathered the parish’s servants, both men and women, and placed them around the area. She told them to shout, fire their weapons, and ring the bells to make it sound like a real Swedish army was nearby. The Norwegians reportedly fled, according to the legend.