Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.08.2007, Qupperneq 27

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“Seals are crazy about pregnant women,” the
deep, solemn, man’s voice on the CD player
whispers in my ear. I am nearing the end of the
Ghost Centre tour in Stokkseyri, staring at a
stuffed seal in a dark room. My audio guide is
ominously recounting the second-to-last of 24
Icelandic folklore stories he has been taunting
me with in the last hour.
In the enormous black abyss of the former
fish packing plant, the disc’s orated stories, the
most sinister, gruesome and bizarre of Icelandic
ghost myth are brought to life with aesthetically
indulgent and often seriously creepy backdrops.
Which brings us back to the seal.
Reaching as far back as the sagas, the stories
follow rural Icelanders and their bizarre encoun-
ters and interpretations of the supernatural. A
few stories hover around dead men taking, or
attempting to take, their lovers with them to
the grave. One tells of a woman witnessing a
crew of sailors running naked through a field,
forecasting their untimely passing that fishing
season.
The larger and more in-depth displays
are seasoned with shorter, smaller and more
whimsical anecdotes, such as a display of a
two-headed sheep, a bull ghost and a newborn
baby ghost, carried out without being baptised
and doomed to walk again. One figure displays
the look of the “traditional” Icelandic ghost,
peppered with the strange trivia that the female
version “will often suck a finger.”
The centre makes excellent use of both the
visual and auditory factors of fright. Yet much
like a real haunting, the action of the centre
takes place mostly in your head.
Except, of course, when those little kids
dressed as ghosts jump out from the shadows.
I definitely screamed a few times.
The Ghost Centre
Hafnargata 9, 835 Stokkseyri,
www.draugasetrid.is.
Open daily from 13–18 during summer.
The Ghost
Centre
Text by Valgerður Þóroddsdóttir
Photo by Gulli
Safnarabúðin on Frakkarstígur
is the obvious choice for me. I
started collecting old vinyls as
a kid, and at Safnarabúðin, I
could always find some rare
copies of great music. Thanks
to that shop, I now own a huge
collection of the best disco al-
bums ever released.
DJ and musician Páll Óskar is the king of the
Icelandic disco. He will be DJ-ing at NASA on
the night of Gay-Pride, August 11.