Lögberg-Heimskringla - 06.09.1996, Blaðsíða 4

Lögberg-Heimskringla - 06.09.1996, Blaðsíða 4
4 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 6, september 1996 i&Síífíiiíiiiiíifii: mm iligliillliasfrfl ÍÍK^S^^BÉiÍi$ÍÍlll:ÍiISiílÍ* kM- .. ■ : : llliiiiilÉIP ÍiIiIBSIÉÍP'^ " ' • ,-r .:•• :•••• ... <* . V • .<*• • . í / 1 .. . • ý \ ' ' \ .......................................................................................... iiliil pJSÍÍB!!! !K®SS mmmmmmm mmmmmsM iiglili 11118 ' 'x-i'viii:;:;:; ;ý ííííííí The belief in huldufolk fits in well with our increasing awareness of the importance of the natural worid. Hunting outthe Huldufolk Continued from page 1. He led her at a fast pace, along the heath to a house quite high up the slope. The midwife thought she knew the district very well and thought it veiy odd that she had never known of a home here before. They entered the house and the midwife helped the woman there through a difficult childbirth. After the child was delivered successfully and all was in order with the woman, the man accompanied the midwife home again. Once again she followed him at the same fast pace. On the way, she stumbled over a stone and lost her shoe. The man proceeded so fast that she left the shoe and rushed to keep up with him. When they reached her home, she retumed to her bed and slept. In the moming when she awoke, it seemed all like a dream to her. How- ever, she quickly realized that one of her shoes as missing and that it could not have been only a dream. She fol- lowed the path up the heath where she remembered having gone the night be- fore and came upon her shoe where she had lost it. There was her shoe, but she never did find any houses fur- ther up the heath. The face of the land- scape showed no evidence that there had ever been a dwelling there. This story is one example of the very many stories that are told about the huldufolk. For some of you who are skeptical of all this and think they only belong in ancient folk- lore, we can move on to the more re- cent past. After my summer on the farm, I re- lated this story to a friend of mine who is a schoolteacher in Kopavogur, a suburb of Reykjavík. She lived in a modem apartment in a modem city, certainly not a typical setting for someone who had had there own hul- dufolk sighting. After I told her my story, she said that if I had told her this story two years ago, she would simply have dis- missed it. “I know more know,” she stated. That summer, when she and her family were on holidays, they had gone camping in the West Fjords. It was the last day of their hol- idays. They had spent the moming packing up and all was ready in good time. She continued: “My husband had decided to take our daughter for a walk before the long ride back. I stayed back to clean up the campsite and relax in the summer sunshine. The door of our Jeep was open and when all the clean-up was done, I sat down on a seat and that’s when I saw them. They were right in firont of my eyes, the huldufolk. There were children running around. Some were picking berries with their parents and another was pulling the down from a thistle- head. They were going about their business much as we had while we camped there. They existed right there with us and the window to their paral- lel universe was suddenly open. I watched them for a while and then tume to see if my husband and my daughter were retuming from their stroll. When I looked back, I couldn’t see them anymore.” The original stories all agree that the huldufolk all live in the earth. There reside in knolls and cliffs. They appear to be neither entirely good nor entirely bad by nature, but show their better or worse side according to the situation in which they find them- selves. When humans help the huldu- folk or have good dealings with them, they are well repaid. Sometimes there are stories of rich gifts. However, most often the helper has noted there- after for having a life of prosperity or the comfort of knowing that the hul- dufolk are watching over him. Their homes, their families, their farm ani- mals are in their safe keeping. Equal- ly, there are stories of dreadful misfor- tuned befalling those who have had bad dealings with the huldufolk. Here’s is another instance to show that the huldufolk are as much a sub- ject of modem times and from earlier history. The following story is taken from a recent newspaper clipping. During a recent road construction pro- ject in Iceland, the earth-moving equipment kept breaking down. The head contractor called in a medium to see if the huldufolk were responsible. “Mediums are people who can negoti- ate with hudulfolk and we can make us use of that,” said Birgir Guðmunds- son, an engineer with the Icelandic Road Authorities. It transpired the huldufolk were in- deed responsible for the breakdowns. They wanted a large stone that they had once lived in to be removed with dignity, not dynamited away as had been planned. The problem was solved. Iceland and its people have long been concemed about the goodwill of the spirits that the co-habit the island with them. The prosperity of the coun- try depends upon them. While I was in Iceland I attended university in a program called Ice- landic for Foreign Students. One of my professors dealt with the subject of folklore one day. He told us of a few old and modem huldufolk encounters, much like the ones I have just de- scribed. He told us a similar road con- struction story where the crew had disturbed the habitat of huldufolk and subsequently run into all kinds of dif- ficulties. The result was that they eventually had to give up and reroute the road. A Danish classmate with a most disbelieving look on her face said: “Well, you can’t yourself believe in such ridiculousness?” That kind of question really puts and Icelander on the spot. He hedged a little by re- sponding: “I am not going to say that it couldn’t be so.” I felt compelled to speak up. I looked over that this unfortunate, unimaginative Dane and challenged her with the fact that I believed, so what was her problem with that? This professor, an enthusiastic teacher at the best of times, leapt into the air and clapped his hands. He pointed at me and said: “Now there’s a good Icelander!” My best friend, a classmate from England whose mother was Icelandic, agreed: “I believe it,” she said. This put our poor Danish classmate over the edge. She stared at us and sput- tered: “I really can’t believe this! This is too much!” The stories all tell of the huldufolk resembling humans in dress and ap- pearance. There is an Icelandic saying “Að vera vel buinn” meaning that one is well decked-out in nice clothes. Continued on page 5.

x

Lögberg-Heimskringla

Beinir tenglar

Ef þú vilt tengja á þennan titil, vinsamlegast notaðu þessa tengla:

Tengja á þennan titil: Lögberg-Heimskringla
https://timarit.is/publication/160

Tengja á þetta tölublað:

Tengja á þessa síðu:

Tengja á þessa grein:

Vinsamlegast ekki tengja beint á myndir eða PDF skjöl á Tímarit.is þar sem slíkar slóðir geta breyst án fyrirvara. Notið slóðirnar hér fyrir ofan til að tengja á vefinn.