Lögberg-Heimskringla - 06.09.1996, Síða 5

Lögberg-Heimskringla * Föstudagur 6, september 1996 * 5
Hunting outtHe Huldufolk
Even initial non-believers claim huldufolk sightings in remote areas.
Continued from page 4.
This saying is often used when some-
one who has seen the huldufolk is de-
scribing them. They are well-dressed;
many stories describe the rich colors
of the clothing and the rich adom:
ments and jewellery they wear. It must
be said that the Gimli huldufolk chil-
dren’s stories do them an injustice in
that respect. These caricatures resem-
ble more the well-known Christmas
elves (Jólasveinar) or dwarves (Dver-
gar), also both well-known in Ice-
landic folklore.
Here’s a description translated from
the book Þjodsogur óg Munnmæli
(Folktales and Oral Nairatives), writ-
ten in 1899 by Eirik Ólafsson from
Bmnum, on the section dealing with
the huldufolk:
q f | ^hey have a large church at
Skogarhnjup and another
A church in the valley as there
are many folk who go back and forth.
They have sheep, cattle and horses as
well as boats. The menfolk row out
ofiten and físh as we do. They trans-
port the fish on horses and use other
such conveniences. They have lamp-
light and candles.”
This straightforward description
emphasizes the point that the huldu-
folk go about their business much like
oidinary folk do and resemble them in
every way.
1 need to bring this narrative home.
I started on a hudulfolk hunt here
among the people of the New Iceland
settlement areas and came up with
very little. Very few Icelandic Canadi-
ans seem to have encounters with the
huldufolk. There could not have been
very many emigrants among the hid-
den folk of Iceland. The fact that they
are known for living in knolls and
cliífs will have made our prairie land-
scape unsuitable for them. I am con-
vinced however, that there are a few
huldufolk who life here. The people I
spoke with regarding my research all a
familiarity with the huldufolk much
the same as the one I grew up with.
If something goes missing, it is said
that the huldufolk must have borrowed
it. Disappearances could be explained
away by the fact that huldufolk need-
ed some household objects ffom time
to time, borrowed them and then re-
tumed them when they were done. I’m
sure that we have all had that experi-
ence happen to us.
I spoke about huldufolk with a
woman in Arborg. She told me a story
about a flying needle case that she had
which had once been owned by the
wife of the bishop of Skalholt. It had
been passed from mother to daughter
in the family. She had taken the nee-
dle case, wrapped it carefully and
placed it in her china cabinet. She was
going to take it to Winnipeg to give it
to her cousin Kristjana, the wife of
Finnbogi Guðmundsson, who was
then the professsor of Icelandic at the
University of Manitoba. When she
went to get the needle case it wasn’t
there.
The following summer, the lady
was looking through her stone collec-
tion for a particularly pretty one she
remembered having placed there. She
could not find it and thought she
might have put it somewhere special,
such as in her china cabinet. She did
not find the stone, but the needle case
was there, just as she had left if more
than a year before. She knew then that
it had been borrowed and retumed in
good order. Similar experiences were
common with other people I inter-
viewed.
Many Icelandic people have the
knack of being able to rhyme their
thoughts about everyday happenings.
These little verses are handed down
through the generations but no one
knows where they orginated. One of
the many my amma knew goes as fol-
lows:
Thegar eg gekk ut og inn
og ekkert hef ad gera,
hugsa ge um hringinn minn,
hvar hann muni vera.
Ef hann finna ekki ma
adur en kemur vorid
huldufolkid hefur tha
hann I kletta borid.
When in and out I stroll about
with nothing much to do
I wonder then, about my ring,
whete it has gotten to.
If it cannot be found
before spring’s on its way,
huldufolk to their chff, then,
have carried it away.
Another woman remembered that
as a child she heard and older
gentleman tell of the friendship
he had with huldufolk. The gentleman
was unmarried but insisted he had the
company of a huldukona, a lady ftiend
from the other world. The huldukona
often invited him to join them in their
festivities. He gave a thorough de-
scription of the lady and her people, of
their fine clothes and of the festivities
in which he had been invited to take
part.
I made a trip to the farm where he
had lived, to try to get a feeling or a
sense of the huldufolk who might live
there. His house had been situated on
a small hill and there were many dips
and rises among the willow bmsh that
was scattered on the land sloping
down to the Jake. The landscape fos-
tered the feeling that huldufolk might
feel at home there.
One woman told me a story which
had been related to her by her mother
about something that happened when
she was a young girl living in Geysir.
She had gone to visit her father at
work and on her way home, she sud-
denly came upon a place where the
road branched into threeí different
paths. All three paths wére pebbled
with fine gravel. This was particularly
noteworthy because roads in Geysir
were not gravelled at all at that time.
Of the three roads, the young girl
could see where one path led to a
house and the other two paths to out-
buildings. The house was dark. The
walls of the house were clad in some-
thing like tarpaper. The door was
closed, but the latch was very interest-
ing. It seemed to be made of silver and
covered with some raised designs and
engravings. The young girl wanted to
go into the house, but she felt scared
and so she turned to walk away. When
she looked back a moment later,
everything was gone. There was noth-
ing there anymore. She always felt
that she would find the mysterious
house there again, but no matter how
many times she retumed to the spot,
she never did see it.
A young I know who lived near this
place in Geysir told me she was not
surprised by this story. She said often
took walks in the pasture near this
site, but she had a particular favorite
place, a large stone. Sometimes she
sat on it. Once, she saw two children
strolling along the nearby path. The
youngsters were dressed in light-
coloured clothing. She knew all her
neighbors but she could not identify
the two children. She looked down for
a moment and when she looked up
again the path was empty and she
never saw them again.
These Canadian stories seem to in-
dicate that the huldufolk who moved
to Canada were forced to adapt to
their surroundings. They were not all
earth-dwellers as in Iceland. They live
in knolls and hills where they can, but
in houses where the landscape does
not provide for appropriate earthen
dwellings.
Throughout all the history of our
encounters with huldufolk, they seem
always to be dignified folk. They
seem to be very much like humans. It
is important to dispel the concept that
huldufolk are roguish or impish in any
way.
It is an important part of the Ice-
landic character to keep in touch with
huldufolk and such other-world issues.
The people of Iceland have a bond
with nature and the forces that guide
the world. There are various natural
and supematural beings such as the
four guardian spirits of Iceland — the
dragon, the falcon, the bull and the
giant — that have protected the coun-
try throughout the centuries and con-
tinue to do so in the minds and hearts
of the people.
The concept of keeping in touch
with the huldufolk fits well witli mod-
em concems about preserving the en-
vironment and renewing our bond
with nature. Our continued relation-
ship with huldufolk should be carried
on with dignity and respect in tlie en-
vironment that sustains us all. They
deserve no less.
Svava Simundsson presented this
paper at the 77th Icelandic National
League convention in Winnipeg.