elves
Most read
Latest
-
Silent Night, Unholy Night
Four folktales for an unnerving Advent If you didn’t already know, Icelandic Christmas folklore is about as dark as Iceland at Christmastime. Surely you already know the season’s cast of characters. These range from the fairly light-hearted Yule Lads, who bring both…
-
Elves Approve Road Construction Project In South Iceland
According to the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration (Vegagerðin), elves living in Efri-Laugardælaeyja have approved the construction of a bridge through the island. During preparation of bridge construction in the area, Vegagerðin received a tip about a ghost living on the island.…
-
Not Seeing Is Believing
Exploring the past, present and future of Icelanders’ belief in the huldafólk Hidden people, also known as elves or Huldufólk, are a part of Icelandic folklore and culture. They are believed to be supernatural beings who live in the natural environment, hidden…
-
RVK Newscast 195: Ancient Artefacts And Weather Warnings
Welcome back to RVK Newscast! In this episode Josie Anne checks out The National Museum of Iceland to see a very special pair of mittens that have just been dated from the time of settlement. Yellow weather warnings for high winds have…
-
One Third Of Icelanders Reportedly Believe In Elves
A recent survey by Prósent found 31% of Icelanders believe in elves, while 57% said they do not. [su_pullquote]The new Reykjavík Grapevine print issue is out! Subscribe to it in our shop or join our High Five Club to get it in…
-
Supernatural Iceland: Elves
Welcome to Supernatural Iceland! In this episode we take a peak into the world of the infamous Icelandic elves, or ‘hidden folk’. Elvish tales are a huge part of Icelandic folklore, and continue to have a big impact on Icelandic society even…
-
Ask An…Elf Expert: Do Elves Disrupt Construction Work?
Over the years, stories about Iceland have appeared in international media that have captured everyone’s imagination, particularly about construction work being sabotaged—by elves! Which has got this Brit wondering: Do Icelanders really believe in elves? And do elves often cause trouble, or…
-
Well, You Asked: Huldufólk Hit Me Up
Do the Huldufólk watch TV? Do they use smartphones? Drive SUVs? Shop at Ikea and Costco? How about Elves and Trolls? –asking for a friend Dear friend, I know you’re asking for yourself, and that’s okay. Own your question. It’s good. The…
-
VIDEO: Rest Of The World Still Fascinated By Icelandic Belief In Supernatural
While Icelandic belief in elves and other “huldufólk” is waning, the interest of other countries in these superstitions is growing. A new episode of BBC Ideas takes a special focus on Icelandic belief in elves. Interviews are taken with the usual suspects…
-
War Of The Supernatural: The Elven Evacuation
In June of 2006, the small southern town of Vogar—just a stone’s throw from Keflavík—made the noble decision to help out their old folks with a new set of elderly-exclusive flats. The town selected the location, readied the diggers, and gave the…
-
Japanese Journalist Investigates Icelandic Belief In Elves
You’ve very likely heard before that Icelanders believe in elves. Or maybe you’ve heard that this a myth and a stereotype. Those mixed messages are confusing, and it’s precisely that confusion that inspired journalist Shusuke Ogawa to investigate further, Vísir reports. Shusuke…
-
New Poll – Two Thirds Of Icelanders Believe In Elves
According to a recent Grapevine poll, a whopping 67% of Icelanders believe in the existence elves. Whether the mysterious beings that supposedly inhabit the rocks and hills of Iceland are real or not has often been hotly debated, with much disagreement over…
-
Ghost Story: The Midwife Of The Elves
As many of our readers know, Iceland has Celtic roots. In addition to bringing over a lot of the myths and legends of the Norse people, Icelanders also borrowed Celtic folktales, amongst other things. The story of the Midwife of the Elves…
-
Gervais and Colbert Argue The Existence Of Elves In Iceland
“They believe in elves in Iceland,” claimed Stephen Colbert on the latest episode of The Late Show. It is one of the more tiresome of the many clichéd claptraps that exist about Iceland, with “do you get paid to marry an Icelander?”…
-
The Legends Of The Outlaws: Afraid Of The Men Of The Mountains
For decades, Icelandic farmers feared the men of the mountains. One of the best known of all Icelandic folk songs is “Á Sprengisandi,” by Grímur Thomsen. Therein, a rider dashes across the rocky desert of the title, pursued by increasingly outlandish creatures…
-
Fifty Shades Of Reykjavík: Getting Intimate With Iceland’s Most Chaotic Act
“I was walking in downtown Reykjavík when suddenly everything changed into this endless desert,” rapper Elli Grill of hip-hop collective Shades of Reykjavík recounts. “Out of the desert sand came a crystal. I drew it—the crystal—but instead it was a potato head…
-
Don’t Ask Nanna: About Icelandic Elves
Dear Nanna, Do Icelanders really believe in elves? Best, If-It-Elves-It-Sells Dear If-It-Elves-It-Sells, Hold on a second, I just need to call about 325.000 Icelandic people to double check. I can’t remember if we really believe in elves or if we just pretend…
-
Weird Icelandic Spirits Revealed
If you’re interested in “Icelandic stuff” (which let’s face it, you probably are if you’re on this website – thanks for that, by the way, we love you) you may have caught a glimpse of Arngrimur Sigurðsson’s Duldýrasafnið project on social media…
-
In A Class By ItsELF
Reykjavík’s Elfschool is an institution of learning unlike anything you’ve experienced before. Nestled on the second floor of a nondescript building in the commercial neighbourhood Skeifan, this one-of-a-kind school purports to teach “everything that is known about elves and hidden people,” according…
-
Hiding in Plain Sight
In early 2014, we at Reykjavík Grapevine were forwarded a hand-drawn image entitled “Huldufolk [sic] of Iceland Remote Viewed.” The simple line drawing surrounded by redacted text was rather unlike any images of huldufólk that we had ever seen, a not at…
-
It Was My Way, And The Highway
On the Álftanes peninsula, a good ten kilometres from downtown Reykjavík, lies a unique lava field called Gálgahraun. The towns of Hafnarfjörður, Álftanes and Garðabær were all built around the 8,000-year-old lava, which is on the Nature Conservation Register and was immortalised…
-
Old Masters, New Dude
He’s young—only 36—but creates his work using the same methods that artists employed hundreds of years ago. His techniques are like those of the Old Masters (even though it’s impossible to say for certain exactly what methods they employed). He paints in…
