Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.12.2007, Page 10

10 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • 15 December 2007
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Around Christmas and the New Year in Iceland you can expect to see álfar
(elves) and huldufólk (the “hid-
den people”). The reason for this
is that it’s the season that they
party the most; you can also see
them around Easter time and
Sumardagurinn fyrsti, the fi rst
day of summer.
Around Christmas they have
their gatherings and feasts, they
play music with their instru-
ments and they go dancing both
in human houses and in their
own dwelling places.
They also move to new
houses around New Year’s, and
then they also celebrate and par-
ty; people say that the álfar and
huldufólk mostly change houses
on New Year’s Eve.
An ancient custom is linked
to this moving time of the
huldufólk and álfar. The wife
or the woman of the house put
a lit candle in every corner and
in every house on the farm. Ev-
ery door should be open and ev-
erything was suppose to be very
clean. Then the woman of the
house was suppose to walk all
over the house and say:
Komi þeir sem koma vilja.
Fari þeir sem fara vilja.
Veri þeir sem vera vilja.
Mér og mínum að meinalausu.
Let those who want to, arrive.
Let those who want to, leave.
Let those who want to, stay.
Without harm to me or mine.
Jólanóttin
Christmas Eve
This story happened on one
farm in Iceland a long, long time
ago. The people on the farm all
went to church on Christmas
Eve, and they left one woman
at the farm, to take care of the
house and their belongings.
When the people came back
from church, the woman had
gone insane and they couldn’t
explain why. The same thing
happened to another woman
who was taking care of the farm
on Christmas Eve. As the time
passed, nobody wanted to watch
over the farm around Christmas
time.
Then one girl was hired to
work at the farm, and she agreed
to stay behind when the people
left for church on Christmas Eve.
When the people were gone, she
lit candles that she put all over
the farm. Then she went to her
bed where she started to read a
book — it is mentioned that the
girl was very intelligent and she
was also Christian.
After a short while many
people enter the farmhouse,
men, women and children. They
start to dance and they invite her
to join them in the dance, but she
doesn’t say a word to them and
she keeps on reading her book.
Then they start to offer her
all kinds of things to make her
join them in the dance. She still
doesn’t reply to them and sits
still as before.
That is how it went on for
the whole night, they kept on
dancing and also inviting her to
join them in the dance.
In the early morning they
left the farm, and the people of
the farm arrived home. They all
expected the girl to have gone
insane like the previous guard-
ians of the farm. When they saw
that she was the same as when
they left for church, they started
to ask her what had happened.
Then she shared with them
what had happened during the
night, and she also shared with
them that if she had joined the
huldufólk and álfar in the dance
she would had become like the
other girls that had been left at
home before her.
The next Christmas she
was asked to stay behind and
the same things happened, the
huldufólk and álfar arrived.
References:
Íslenskar þjóðsögur og
ævintýri. Jón Árnason 1961
I, 100 – 101,114.
Björk Bjarnadóttir is an Ice-
landic environmental ethnologist
living in Hollow Water, MB. She
is also a storyteller and gives
talks in schools and community
centres.
ÞJÓÐFRÆÐI
ICELANDIC FOLKLORE
Björk Bjarnadóttir
Hollow Water, MB
Visits from huldufólk og álfar
Successful tour for
Icelandic musicologist
Joan Eyolfson Cadham
The value of his north-
western North American tour,
sponsored by the Leif Eiriks-
son Icelandic Club of Calgary
and the INL International Visits
Program, was beyond expens-
es, says Icelandic musicologist
Dr. Bjarki Sveinbjörnsson.
The two-week tour, initi-
ated for the LEIC’s lecture se-
ries, was extended through the
IVP to cover Blaine, Edmon-
ton, Vatnabyggð, Winnipeg
and Minneapolis and designed
to allow time in each area for
interviews and research into
early Icelandic musical culture
in North America.
The research opportunities
were the true value of the tour
arranged by the INL, Bjarki
said. “It was the opportunity,
the contacts. If I had come
here in private and knocked on
doors, telling people who I was
and asking to interview them,
how much information would
I have? It is necessary to de-
velop trust and respect. We are
touching personal history. The
clubs have the collective infor-
mation about the musicians.
There are already e-mails cir-
culating, setting up a network
of research.”
Rather than coming to town
as the expert, Bjarki came ask-
ing for information for the new
Icelandic music museum. Peo-
ple responded by becoming in-
volved.
A musical historian, Bjarki
had discovered a serious prob-
lem. Museums kept materials
on music but the museum cu-
rators didn’t read music. The
music museum in Iceland will
eventually have a complete ac-
cessible database. The website
is www.musik.is/america.
Early Icelandic North
American musicians, poets,
and artists, Bjarki said, “are
the people whose shoulders we
stand on. We will thank them
in any way we can. We will
honour their memory. Do we
want to know where they came
from? This project could put
a little shade on that. We have
a personal interest in people
and their lives. Why not music
teachers, music performers?
History is what we are.
“People have to decide,”
added Bjarki. “Sometimes
they keep the information in
the basement until the kids sell
everything off and the family
history is thrown out. Or, it can
be kept in a museum where it
is worth something to some-
one. Sometimes, people can’t
imagine what materials they
have, how they can be valuable
for historians.”