I‘m from Iceland, and Icelanders are known for a lot of things, one of those things is our folklore. I've written a little bit about our mythical creatures.
The first creature I‘m going to talk about is Huldufólk (Hidden people)
The hidden people are quite important to our culture, at least in the olden days. They would appear often in significant or prophetic dreams, they‘re described wearing 19th century Icelandic clothing or green.
The hidden people are like humans, tall and handsome while Elves are little stranger looking with big ears and skinny legs. It’s also said that the Hidden People are better looking and more charming than humans.
Our holidays used to evolve around these people, they don‘t do it as much anymore which I think is a pity since it‘s a really cool folklore. In total there are 4 holidays that are related to the ‘Hidden people’
New Year‘s eve, twelfth night of Christmas (January 6th), Midsummer night and Christmas night.
On the twelfth night in every town there‘s a Bonfire known as Álfabrennur or Elf Bonfire (in English). There‘s also stories of Elves and Hidden people invading farmhouses and holding wild parties.
It‘s also customary to clean the house before Christmas and to leave food for the hidden people.
Recent surveys have shown that not many Icelanders believe in the elves or hidden people, but there‘s plenty of interesting stories out there about sightings and such. About 54% of people openly do not believe in Hidden People or elves, while the rest either say they do or don’t deny that they believe.
It‘s also believed that there are certain spots called ‘Álagablettur’ or ‘Enchanted spots’ which is where they live. Only 2-5% of Icelanders claim to have experienced these spots.
Most of the recent stories about the Hidden People and Elves happened when people are trying to construct something, a mall or a road.
When they were making a tunnel underneath Hvalfjörð (Around 1997) Construction equipment was continuously breaking down as they approached a boulder that was meant to be moved, this is a tell-tale sign of the Hidden People. They’d then take the broken equipment to be fixed but there was never anything wrong with it in the first place, it got so bad that in the end they called a woman who supposedly could talk to the hidden people, she told the construction guys that the spirits were vacating and needed more time, so they gave them more time, after a while she came back and told them that they had moved. Construction carried on without incident.
A lot of the stories are quite similar. The area around my college is known for Hidden people, a road behind my school is quite normal then BAM rock, they tried moving it but as usual things would break. They tried selling it the property that the rock was on, so someone would build a house there but no one wanted to buy it. They’ve often had to change the layout of buildings so they wouldn’t make the hidden people angry, because that can end in things like huge costs overrun on construction sites to accidents to even death. They’re usually quite nice though. Just don’t anger them.
The hidden people also quite enjoy human company from time to time. Sometimes they appear in times of need, one trade union leader claims that when he was younger he fell down a cliff face and was saved by a hidden person, a maiden and he says that he will never forget her haunting beauty. Other times the male hidden person has asked a human woman to assist in their wives during a difficult birth. Occasionally you’d hear of the hidden people becoming intimate with humans, it’s said to be very delightful.
Zombies.
Another Icelandic belief is Zombies. It’s not as common as the Hidden Folk and elves but you hear stories from time to time, they used to believe that the zombies would come and drag you away. That’s all I know about it, and it’s hard to find information about it, some people interpret them as ghost stories. I might post it in the 2nd edition of this culture corner about Icelandic ghost stories.
Trolls
We like trolls, we believe they live in the mountains and they get petrified in the sun (Much like the trolls in ‘The Hobbit’ )
One of my favorite stories is of exactly a troll and I’ve taken the liberty to translate it for you guys because I love you guys so much, it’s rough translation, it’s very poetic and hard to translate into English.
It’s called ‘The Night Troll’
There’s a place that whoever would take care of the farm over Christmas night while everyone else was at the Christmas festives would be found either dead or just gone mad, so naturally no-one wanted to stay behind to take care of the place. They thought there was some kind of evil at work.
Once a girl offered to stay behind, everyone was relieved and left her behind.
During the night someone appears at the window and tells her that she has beautiful hands, and she says that she’s never worked with her hands.
He then compliments her eyes.
She tells him that she’s never seen any evil.
He compliments her feet
and she says that she’s never stepped in dirt.
He then tells her that the day is in the east.
She tells him to stay still and turn into stone and to stop causing harm to people.
He disappears from the window and in the morning when the people got home there was a giant stone in the farm, that wasn’t there the previous day, she told them about the visitor that came during the night and discovered that it had been a night troll at the window. She never actually looked at him while he was there.
I hope you enjoyed this little post. I’m thinking about doing another one later about the Icelandic ghost stories since they’re quite different to the ones everywhere else in the world. (If you guys are interested that is)
If you want to hear more stories about Elves and Trolls feel free to ask me.
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