Reykjavík Grapevine - 15.08.2014, Síða 14

14
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 12 — 2014
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Although many academic studies and
informal surveys alike have concluded
that a not insignificant portion of the
Icelandic population “will not deny
the existence of elves,” as Terry Gun-
nell, a leading folklorist at the Univer-
sity of Iceland has put it, the question
of whether or not Icelanders really,
truly believe in Hidden People is sort
of beside the point. In the same way
that so many people in the world have
grown up with Biblical stories, say, or
with stories about Santa Claus or the
Tooth Fairy, so have Icelanders grown
up with tales about the Hidden People.
These stories are part of a shared
history, a shared cultural memory and
vocabulary that are, therefore, fun-
damentally important—regardless of
whether anyone believes them or not.
What follows, then, is a crash course
in Iceland’s Hidden People mythol-
ogy—common tropes and themes, the
relationship represented between hu-
mans and elves, and a sampling of the
tales themselves.
The Origin Of The
Hidden People
T here are two stories that offer explanations on how the Hid-den People came into being.
The first story finds Adam and Eve
at home in their beautiful garden. One
day, God comes to visit and asks to meet
all the couple’s children. However, Eve
had only finished bathing a few of her
children, and was embarrassed to show
her Creator the dirty ones. So she intro-
duced the clean children and hid the oth-
ers.
“Are there any children I haven’t
met yet?” God asked. Eve said no. Of
course, being omniscient, God knew
that he was being tricked and declared,
“Those who you hide from me shall also
be hidden from men.”
And so, the hidden children became
invisible, taking to the hills and moors
and rocks. It is from these children that
the Hidden People are descended, while
humankind is descended from the chil-
dren whom Eve showed to God. Hidden
People can only be seen by human eyes if
they want to be.
In the second story, a traveller gets
lost and stumbles onto a farm that he
doesn’t recognize. He knocks on the
door and is greeted by an old woman
who invites him in. He is given food and
drink and introduced to the woman’s
two beautiful daughters. Shown to a
bed later, he asks if one of the girls will
keep him company for the evening and
is told yes. But when they lie down to-
gether, the man is unable to touch his
companion, even though she is right in
front of him. Rather, his hand passes
right through her when he tries to em-
brace her. He asks her why this is.
“I am a spirit without a body,” the
girl replies. “Long ago, the devil and
his army revolted in heaven. He and his
supporters were driven out of heaven
and into the darkness. But those of us
who neither fought with him nor op-
posed him were driven to earth and
forced to live in the rocks and hills. We
are called the Hidden People.”
Hidden People can only live with
those of their kind, the girl explained.
“We can do both good and evil, and ex-
cel at whichever we choose. We have no
physical bodies, but take human form
when we want to be seen. I am one of
these spirits,” she finished, “so you’ll
never be able to embrace me.”
Resigned, the man went to sleep and
lived to tell the story.
(Adapted by Larissa Kyzer, with
reference to retellings by Jacque-
line Simpson and J.M. Bedell)
Our mirror images—
just prettier and more
successful
In his introduction to J.M. Bedell’s
folktale collection 'Hildur, Queen of
the Elves,' Terry Gunnell notes that
much like their counterparts in Nor-
wegian mythology, Iceland’s Hidden
People “represent a mixture of the
early álfar (elves) and nátturuvæt-
tir (nature spirits) mentioned in the
Icelandic sagas and ancient Eddic po-
ems.” Nevertheless, Iceland’s Hidden
People are unique in that by the time
their stories began to be recorded in
the eighteenth and nineteenth centu-
ries, they had basically become “mir-
ror-images of those humans who told
stories about them—except that they
were usually beautiful, powerful, al-
luring, and free from care, while the
Icelanders were often starving and
struggling for existence.”
Indeed, in their stories, Hidden
People are fishermen and farmers,
with their own superior, but indis-
tinguishable breeds of livestock, and
a far more attuned instinct for when
and where the best catches can be
had at sea. They get married and have
children (often after difficult labours
which can only be alleviated with the
assistance of humans), sell their goods
in marketplaces, move house (usually
on New Year’s night), and host grand
celebrations (often in co-opted hu-
man dwellings). They have their own
bureaucrats and religious officials,
and although their homes are often
found in rocks and hillsides, they are
generally described as being tidy and
warm, with many of the trappings of a
normal—if more comfortable—human
home.
While humans and Hidden People
started as relative contemporaries—
wearing the same clothing and having
the same occupations and lifestyles—it
is interesting to note, per Terry Gun-
nell again, that “in the common view
today, they live in turf houses, ride
horses, and wear nineteenth-century
national dress.” Terry attributes this
to the fact that the first and forma-
tive legends were all printed around
that time, “underlining in black and
white what the Huldufólk were sup-
posed to look like [...] Had the legends
never been published, perhaps the
Huldufólk would have attained cell
phones, cars, and internet connections
by now,” rather than becoming repre-
sentations of Iceland’s not-so-distant
rural past.

The Milk Reward
In a village in Eyjafjörður there once lived a rich couple. One day, they built a pantry, constructing
one of the walls around a large, half-
buried stone.
Shortly after the start of winter, the
wife went out to fetch the day’s rations.
She noticed that there was a wooden
When foreign media outlets report on Iceland and need
to add a little local colour, they will invariably throw in a
quick, ironical side note about the country’s pervasive be-
lief in elves, or Hidden People. The tone is generally one of
indulgence with just a dash of condescension, the written
equivalent of patting a small child on the head when she
introduces her invisible friend Mister Bob Big Jeans.
Iceland | Culture
Hidden People:
They’re Just Like Us
(Kind Of )Words by Larissa Kyzer
Illustrations by Hugleikur Dagsson
Continues Over
BONUS! Spread around the next couple of pages, you'll find four classic folk tales
about Hidden People, describing their origins and ways (they are denoted by blue
text). We translated a bunch, so if you're into it, go read the rest on our website.