"elves in Icelandic folklore - Huldufolk - álfar (elves) " by torch mills

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Huldufólk (Icelandic hidden people from huldu-

“pertaining to secrecy” and fólk “people”, “folk”)

are elves in Icelandic folklore.

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Building projects in Iceland are sometimes altered

 to prevent damaging the rocks where they are believed to live.

According to these Icelandic folk beliefs, one should never

throw stones because of the possibility of hitting the huldufólk

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In 2011, elves/huldufólk were believed by some to be responsible

 for an incident in Bolungarvík where rocks rained down

 on residential streets.

 Icelandic gardens often feature tiny wooden álfhól (elf houses)

 for elves/hidden people to live in.

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Hidden people often appear in the significant or prophetic

 dreams of Icelanders. They are usually described as wearing

19th-century Icelandic clothing, and are often described as

 wearing green.

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They are also a part of folklore in the Faroe Islands.

 In Faroese folk tales, Huldufólk are said to be "large in build,

 their clothes are all grey, and their hair black.

 Their dwellings are in mounds, and they are also called Elves."

 They also dislike crosses, churches and electricity.

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Origins - Gunnell writes:

The Norse settlers had the álfar, the Irish slaves had the hill fairies

or the Good People. Over time, they became two different beings,

 but really they are two different sets of folklore

that mean the same thing."

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According to one folk tale, the origins of the hidden people

can be traced to Adam and Eve. Eve hid her dirty, unwashed

 children from God, and lied about their existence.

God then declared: "What man hides from God, God will hide

 from man."

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  Other folktales claim that huldufólk originate

 from Lilith, or are fallen angels condemned to live between

 heaven and hell.

Precursors to elves/hidden people can be found in the writings

 of Snorri Sturluson and in skaldic verse.

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 Elves were also mentioned in eddaic poems,  and appear

 to be connected to fertility.

Official opposition to dancing may have begun in Iceland

 as early as the 12th-century, and the association of dancing

with elves can be seen as early as the 15th-century.

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One folktale shows the elves siding with the common people

 and taking revenge on a sheriff who banned dance parties.

 Guðmundsdóttir concludes that these legends

 "show that Icelanders missed dancing".

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In the 13th and 14th centuries, books from mainland Europe

 reached Iceland, and may have influenced folktales about elves.

Sveinsson writes: "Round about 1600 sources for hidden folk

 become so voluminous that we can readily define the beliefs

 and legends about them, and after that there is one source

 after another about them right down into the twentieth century."

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 According to Árni Björnsson, belief in hidden people grew

 during the 17th and 18th centuries when Iceland

was facing tough times.

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Holidays - There are four Icelandic holidays considered

 to have a special connection with hidden people:

New Year’s Eve, Twelfth Night (January 6), Midsummer Night

 and Christmas night.

 Elf bonfires (álfabrennur) are a common

 part of the holiday festivities on Twelfth Night (January 6).

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 There are many Icelandic folktales about elves and hidden

people invading Icelandic farmhouses during Christmas

and holding wild parties.

 It is customary in Iceland to clean the house before Christmas,

and to leave food for the huldufólk on Christmas.

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 On New Year's Eve, it is believed that the elves move

 to new locations, and Icelanders leave candles to help them

 find their way.

 On Midsummer Night, folklore states that if you sit at a crossroads,

 elves will attempt to seduce you with food and gifts;

 there are grave consequences for being seduced by their offers,

but great rewards for resisting.

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Icelandic folklore - Haukur Ingi Jónasson,

a theologian and psychoanalyst, writes:

"The imaginary elves and hidden people are another fascinating

projection of the Icelandic psyche upon nature.

These creatures live in the underworld right under the beneath

 of the ground in rocks and hills.

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Icelandic folklore contains two accounts of the origin of elves.

One claims that they are the unwashed children of Eve

that she wanted to hide from God, thus, symbolically

 representing aspects of the human personality

 that the self regards as unwanted.

As an omniscient God knows everything, however, he decided

that whatever humans try to hide from him, he would hide

 from them.

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The other account of the origin of elves holds that these

 creatures were created at the time when God created

 a woman for the first man, Adam.

As the woman turned out to be exceedingly difficult to manage

(for both Adam and God), God changed his plan by creating

 a man for her, equal to her untamable nature, and named him Alfur.

She was named Alvör, and all elves and trolls are descended from them.

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Many things indicate that the hidden people originate

 in our unconscious: They resemble us in many ways,

though they are more spirit-like and invisible, and to see the elves,

must you, either be given permission by them, or have a special ability.

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They can have supra-human capacities; and they can be both

 better and worse than humans.

To provoke their anger means trouble but to help them in times

 of crisis means blessings as a result they are powerful,

respected and feared.

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The hidden people have various human attributes,

and even though they live longer than we do,

they are born and they die just as we do.

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 They eat and drink, play instruments, have lights in their houses,

 go fishing, move residences, and keep animals,

though they are more productive than those of humans.

Traditional belief holds that there are both good elves

 and bad elves, light elves and dark.

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 Light elves live closer to the gods and are Christians,

say Some Christians,  They worship in churches

 that can be identified in formation  of rocks

 or in domelike caves.

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The dark elves live in the ground.

The hidden people live not only in hills and stones,

but in the ocean and lakes as well, and even in the air.

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The elves do not live in burnt lava for it is the dwelling

 of evil spirits and death.

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It is possible to learn magic (how to influence the unconscious

 of others with psychological powers) from the hidden people.

They can be very seductive, though if you don’t do

what they want they turn against you — and if you do accept

what they offer (or identify with the psychic contents that

 they represent) you run the risk of becoming insane."

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Ólina Thorvarðardóttir writes:

"Oral tales concerning Icelandic elves and trolls no doubt

served as warning fables. They prevented many children

from wandering away from human habitations,

taught Iceland's topographical history, and instilled fear

 and respect for the harsh powers of nature."

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Michael Strmiska writes:

"The Huldufólk are... not so much supernatural as ultranatural,

 representing not an overcoming of nature in the hope

of a better deal beyond but a deep reverence for the land

and the mysterious powers able to cause fertility or famine."

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 Pálsdóttir claims that in a landscape filled with earthquakes,

avalanches, and volcanoes,

"it is no wonder that the native people have assigned some

 secret life to the landscape. There had to be some unseen powers

 behind such unpredictability, such cruelty."

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 Alan Boucher writes: "Thus the Icelander's ambivalent attitude

 towards nature, the enemy and the provider, is clearly expressed

in these stories, which preserve a good deal of popular

-- and in some cases probably pre-christian -- belief."

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Robert Anderson writes that syncretism "is active in Iceland

where Christianity, spiritism, and Icelandic elf lore have

syncretized in at least a couple instances."

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Terry Gunnell notes that huldufólk legends recorded in the 18th

 and 19th centuries showed them to be

"near mirror-images of those humans who told stories about them

--except they were beautiful, powerful, alluring, and free from care,

 while the Icelanders were often starving and struggling for existence.

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 The huldufólk seem in many ways to represent the Icelander's dreams

 of a more perfect and happy existence." 

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 Anthropologist Jón Haukur Ingimundarson claimed that huldufólk

tales told by 19th century Icelandic women were a reflection

of how only 47% of women were married, and  "sisters often

found themselves relegated to very different functions

and levels of status in society...

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the vast majority of Icelandic girls were shunted into supporting

roles in the household."

 He goes on to say that these stories justified the differences

 in role and status between sisters, and

"inculcated in young girls the... stoic adage never to despair,

which was a psychological preparedness many would need

 as they found themselves reduced in status and denied

 the proper outlet for their sexuality in marriage, thereby

 sometimes having to rely on infanticide to take care

 of the unsolicited and insupportable effects

of their occasional amours, an element...

related in huldufólk stories."

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Anna Pietrzkiewicz contends that the huldufólk symbolize

idealized Icelandic identity and society, the key elements

 of which are seeing the "past as a source of pride

 and nature,  as unique and pure."