Iceland Believed to Be Home to Thousands of Elves

It is believed by many who reside in Iceland that thousands of elves make their homes in the tundra’s vast wilderness. So it stands to reason that elves who are believed to exist in this day and time would get political representation if it was found they needed it. (Before reading any further, please realize that this story is not any sort of Christmas joke).

A group of elf advocates have combined forces with environmentalists to put pressure on the Icelandic Road and Coastal Commission along with local authorities to stop building a highway project that is making a nonstop route from to the edge of the Alftanes peninsula, where Iceland’s president has a home, to Gardabaer, which is a suburb of Reykjavik. The elf activists live in fear of upsetting the natural elf locale and believe the region is extremely important because it has a church there for elves.

The project was brought to a stop until the Iceland Supreme Court of Iceland could rule on the case. It was brought in by an assembly of people calling themselves the Friends of Lava. They refer to both cultural and environmental impacts on the elves because of the road project. The crowd has often brought over hundreds of people out to help block the paths of the bulldozers.

This is not the first time that problems have arisen because of the Iceland elves. Such problems seem to come up so many times that the coastal and road administration decided to begin responding with a generic mass media response for every elf investigation. It partially states that numerous issues have been solved by construction delay at a specific point in which the elves that were residing in the region have supposedly moved to new areas.

Scandinavian legends are full of elves, trolls and many other mythical characters. The majority of people who live in Denmark, Sweden and Norway really have not taken elves seriously since the late 19th century, but elves are not something to be laughed at in Iceland.

There was a survey conducted by the University of Iceland back in 2007 that discovered about 62 percent of the 1,000 respondents believed it was very possible that elves could actually exist.

Ragnhildur Jonsdottir, who is a self-announced “seer,” states that she is able to communicate with elves through the use of telepathy.

She stated that there would be terrible damage to both the elf world and the human world if the road project was allowed to go through to completion.

The majority of the Friends of Lava are driven by environmental worries; yet they also admit the elf issue is part of a larger concern for the culture and history of the landscape.

One of the environmentalists stated that many feel the elf idea is extremely annoying. He did add that he personally was not sure they were real. However, he also said that he got married inside a Christian church that has a god which was just as invisible as the elves, so what may appear crazy is really very normal with Icelanders.

A professor of folklore at the University of Iceland, stated he was not at all stunned by the widespread belief in the existence of elves.

Everyone around here believes the land is alive, and anybody can say that the stories of the elves and the need to work cautiously with them are just a reflection of respecting the land.

There are parallel beliefs in western Ireland, but they flourish in Iceland because the population continues to stay in very close contact with the land.

During Christmas, Icelanders have 13 Santa Claus’ who visit instead of just one. They are known as “Yule Lads” who visit the 13 prior days before Christmas. Each one has a specific task to perform, either giving out rewards or punishments.

If an Icelander is asked if he or she actually believes in elves, the individual may say he or she does not believe, but there have always been stories told about them from a family member or close friend. Of course not everyone will believe in the tales, but the elves and their stories are still there and being shared.

Iceland is a land where a person can have his or her house destroyed by earthquakes. The wind might knock an individual off his or her feet, where a sulphur smell lets someone know there is an unseen fire not too far below the ground, where the northern lights cause the sky to become the largest TV screen in the whole world, and where glaciers seem to talk. This is a country where everyone is keenly aware the land around them is alive.

So Iceland is believed to be the home to thousands of elves.

By Kimberly Ruble

Sources:

NBC News

Salon

The Conservative Treehouse