Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.05.2007, Blaðsíða 10

10 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • 15 May 2007
Dear readers — as I smell the summer and I watch how the vegetation be-
comes green again in Iceland,
and I listen to the familiar and
friendly spring singing of mi-
gratory birds, I start to think
about how it must have been for
the Icelandic settlers to experi-
ence a North American spring
for the fi rst time. I suppose that
everything must have looked
new to them, as well as excit-
ing.
To stay in touch with their
heritage, and also to teach their
children to be careful when
they were playing outside by
themselves, some of the settlers
might have told their children
about the dangerous Icelandic
magical creature, nykur, that
lives in rivers, lakes and even
out at sea.
The nykur, nennir or vatna-
hestur is often grey or brown
and looks like a horse in all
ways except one; its hoofs are
backwards, and that is the dis-
tinguishing characteristic of
the nykur. But they say that the
nykur could change his shape in
many ways.
They also say that in the
wintertime, when you hear the
ice cracking on lakes and rivers,
that it is the nykur neighing. It
gives birth to its foals just like
normal horses do — but one
thing is different though; it
gives birth in water. It has also
happened that a nykur and a
horse have had a foal together.
The nykur lurks around
lakes and rivers where there are
diffi cult places to cross. And
in the old times, most people
in Iceland travelled on foot,
so it was a welcome relief if
a friendly horse were waiting
for you by a diffi cult crossing
place.
Some people didn’t watch
out to check whether it were a
nykur, and they climbed onto its
back. Then they were courting
danger! The nykur would jump
immediately into the river or
lake, where it would try to drown
whomever was riding it. Some
people say about the nykur that
the moment you step onto its
back you are stuck on it.
The nykur can’t stand to
hear somebody say its name;
it becomes startled and jumps
right away into the lake.
The folk belief in the exis-
tence of nykur was widespread
all over Iceland. It was believed
that one lived in this or that
river or lake, though they cer-
tainly didn’t live in rivers with
a strong current. A few place
names in Iceland are linked
to the nykur, for example
Nykurtjörn (“Nykur Pond”),
which is located in the north of
Iceland.
Nennir
The folktale “Nennir” is
about a girl who was looking
for a group of sheep. She had
been walking for very long time
and was getting tired.
Then she sees a grey horse
and she becomes hopeful that
now she can ride back home.
She puts a few of her clothes on
the horse’s back, but suddenly
she decides not to use the horse,
and she says, in Icelandic:
,,Ég held ég nenni ekki á
bak.”
As she speaks these words,
the nykur is very startled and
jumps into nearby lake and dis-
appears. The girl realizes at that
point the nature of the horse,
that it was a nykur, because it
cannot bear to hear its name,
and another name for nykur is
nennir.
Nykur is just one of many
creatures in Icelandic folklore
that is connected to water. Other
creatures are linked to earth, air
or fi re. In the First Nations cul-
ture these elements are consid-
ered sacred, because we cannot
live without them. We would
do well to think about that.
References:
Íslenskar þjóðsögur og
ævintýri I, Jón Árnason
1961, page: 129, 130, 131.
Picture:
Nykur. Hesturinn hvarf í
vatnið. Sagnakver Skúla
Gíslasonar.
Artist: Halldór Pétursson
Sigurður Norðdal gaf út.
Helgafell. Reykjavík, 91 ,
1947.
Björk Bjarnadóttir is an en-
vironmental ethnologist. This
summer she is working at the
the Museum of Icelandic Sor-
cery and Witchcraft in Strandir,
Iceland.
Björk Bjarnadóttir
Strandir, Iceland
Th e water horse, nykur
ILLUSTRATION: HALLDÓR PÉTURSSON
Hesturinn hvarf í vatnið. The horse disappeared into the lake.
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