Reading in Reykjavík

Swearing is said to feed the Devil, and swearing during Christian holidays must be extra nourishing for him. Here is a moral tale of just that: I t is said that a long time ago, in a valley in the north of Iceland which is no longer inhabited, there were once seven farms. It happened that one Christmas Eve the farmer who owned the farm nearest the mouth of the valley was guarding his sheep while they grazed. In the twilight he noticed seven half-grown boys walking on the bank of the river and heading towards the valley. All were dressed in black, with caps on their heads and carrying folded-up bags. They were moving very fast and running with a strange and grotesque gait.  The farmer felt very uneasy upon seeing this sight and stared after the lads until they disappeared around a hillock. He wondered who they could be, and finally came to the conclusion that they must be imps, come to collect all the swearing people did over the Christmas holidays, to feed their master and them...

One has to hope the minister in this story learned something from his experience: Once upon a time there was a minister or priest who was wont to moralise to his congregation. He preached sternly and told off his listeners for their sins with great gusto. Among his parishioners was an old woman who rarely if ever came to church and the minister would scold her mercilessly for this, telling her that she would not be allowed into the kingdom of heaven if she continued to neglect her church-going duties. The old woman ignored this completely. After some time had passed from the last scolding the old woman fell ill and sent for the minister, saying that she needed his services because she was being plagued by the sins of the human race. The minister hurried to her bed-side and was about to begin scolding her, for he could see that she was deeply worried and he thought it would be a chance to bring her back into the fold. But the old woman asked him to first listen to her and hear about ...

There once was a farmer who lived with his wife on a very poor farm in the north-east of Iceland. They owned a bitch that gave birth to a rust-brown puppy. This puppy the farmer raised and used as a sheep-dog, calling him Rusty. He gave the dog an ewe-lamb as payment for his faithful service. The ewe-lamb grew up to have lambs of her own, and so on, and the dog was very lucky in that none of his sheep ever went missing and all the ewes always had twins, most of them ewes. Over time Rusty came to own all the sheep on the farm and finally the farm as well. People started calling him Rich Rusty, and the farm was now prosperous and doing very well. Rusty was much loved by his owners, so much so that when people were served food or given favours and people thanked the couple, they would reply and say not to thank them but Rich Rusty. Once when the bishop of northern Iceland was on a tour of inspection of his diocese he arrived at the farm. He and his men were welcomed with a grand feast ...

Borgarvirki (literally "the fort on the rocky hill") is situated in Vatnsnes in northern Iceland, about 40 km off the Ring Road. It is an old fort built on the top of a steep, rocky hill, from where there is a good view in all directions. The hill is the remnant of a volcano, and the fort is inside the crater. It has natural rocky walls on two sides, with walls built of rock extending across two gaps in the crater wall, to the south and east.According to legend, there was a freshwater spring inside the fort in the days when it was in use. It was misty when I took this, but visit it on a clear day and you can see for miles. According to legend, back in the Saga age there was a chieftain named Víga-Barði (Bardi the killer), who had made a lot of enemies. He and his men were besieged inside the nearly impregnable fort for a long while and their food supplies started running low.  One day Barði asked how much food was left and was told that the only food left was one sausag...

Cruentation was accepted as proof in murder cases in several European countries well into the 18th century. It was an accepted belief that the wounds of murdered people would start to bleed in the presence of the murderer, and here is an Icelandic variation on the theme: Once upon a time a grave was being dug in the graveyard of an Icelandic country church. As will often happen in old graveyards when graves are being dug, some bones from an old burial came up with the soil, and among them was a skull. This particular skull had a knitting needle stuck right through it.  The minister took the skull into his keeping and the next time he said a mass the took it to church with him and when the congregation had all entered the church, he put it on a shelf above the church door. After the service, he and his helpers exited the church ahead of the congregation and observed the people as they left the church.  Nothing unusual happened, but when they checked to see if anyone was sti...

Geirfuglasker (Great Auk rock) is a small island off the coast of Reykjanes in southern Iceland, that was one of the last refuges of the great auks before they were hunted to extinction.  Hvalvatn is a lake in western Iceland, situated in the highlands above Glymur, the country’s tallest waterfall. Power poets (kraftaskáld) were people who could do magic with their versification, and were thought very highly of. Once upon a time some men sailed out to Geirfuglasker, presumably to hunt great auks. Due to high breaking waves they had to leave one man, whose name was Gísli, behind in the island when they left for home, and it was believed that he must have been swept off the island and drowned. A year later another expedition went out to the island and found Gísli there alive and in good health. They brought him back to the mainland, but although he was asked about his stay in the island, he would not talk about it much. However, someone was able to get out of him that he had been ...

Here is a moral tale that applies to all work, not just farming: A young and inexperienced farmer was out in the hayfield, cutting the grass with his scythe. The weather was hot and the farmer liked to take it easy, and was in fact very lazy by nature. Suddenly a man came walking up to him and said to him: “Rest awhile, resting is good.” He then left. No-one knows what the man looked like or how the farmer liked the look of him, but he took the advice he had been given and took it easy for the rest of the summer, with the result that when autumn came around he only had one haystack with which to feed his sheep and cows over the winter. Then and only then he realised that he had not acted very sensibly during the summer and blamed everything on the stranger. One day the stranger came back and grinningly said to him: “Lazy man, little crop,” and then disappeared. This was really no consolation to the lazy farmer, who had become convinced that he had taken advice from none other tha...

The Disappearing Passenger is a famous story belonging to the type of folkloric tales that are called urban legends . It has been localised in many countries, and Iceland is no exception. The area where this version is supposed to have taken place was a very lonely and rather desolate place before they put down electrical lighting along the road, and was thought to be haunted long before the motor-car was invented, so it was perfectly natural that sooner or later a ghost story would pop up in connection with cars. This isn't a translation, but the story as it was told to me.  It was during the Second World War and a lorry driver was driving from Keflavík home to Reykjavík after dark. There was a blackout, so no lights could be seen anywhere except the car lights, and those only lit the road for a couple of meters right in front of the car, because of black-out precautions. The road in those days was all gravel and the going was slow. On a lonely stretch of the road the driv...

Strandarkirkja is located on the south coast of Iceland and is one of Iceland‘s oldest churches. The current building dates back to 1888, but there has been a church in this location since at least the 13th century. The following tale is told of the origins of the church: A young man, the son of a farmer, was sailing from Norway with a load of wood for building houses. As his ship neared the southern coast of Iceland, a great storm broke out with thick fog and darkness and the crew were convinced that the ship was going to founder upon the shore and break apart. There are few natural harbours in this particular area of the southern coast and there was no way of finding any shelter from the storm.  The crew knelt in prayer and pledged to build a church if they were able to land safely, in the location of landing. As soon as the words of the pledge were uttered, a bright light blazed up on the shore. They followed the light and suddenly the storm died down and all was still. As ...

I feel a migraine coming on and as I have no ready-translated folk-tale to post, I am cancelling the folktale for this week.

Time for a bit of folklore for a change. Dead Man’s Pants or Finnish Breeches were believed to be a useful item for a person who wanted to always have money. To make them, you had to make a deal with someone you knew, allowing you to flay off their skin when they are dead. When the person in question had died, you had to go by night to the cemetery and dig up the body. Then the whole of the skin between ankles and waist had to be carefully flayed off in one piece and put on like a pair of pants over bare skin. The skin had to come from a man because the money would be drawn into the scrotum.  In order for the pants to work their magic, the owner has to steal a coin during mass on one of of three big Christian holidays (Christmas, Easter or Whitsun), in the time between the reading of the epistle and the gospel, and put it in the scrotum of the pants. The coin will draw in more coins and the scrotum will never be empty when one needs money, but the original coin must not be remove...

The Icelandic word “hver” can refer to different kinds of geothermal phenomena, such as a hot spring ( hver ), a fumarole ( gufuhver ) or a mud pool ( leirhver ). The fumarole in question is located in Reykjanes, in an area with several other attractions like the old Reykjanes lighthouse and one of several places in Iceland where the continental divide between Europe and North-America is clearly visible.  There was a judge or lawyer named Vilhjálmur who lived near the current location of the town of Sandgerði in the last half of the 17th and into the 18th century. He had a standing feud with an old woman named Guðrún, nick-named Gunna, over a cooking pot he had taken from her, probably as payment for a debt. The old woman was so angered by this action that she made threats and promised she would get revenge. Guðrún died and Vilhjálmur attended the funeral and headed home that same night, but on the following day he was found dead in Reykjanes. His body was all broken up and cove...

Here is an interesting thing – of the three young people in this story, only the girl is nameless, and guess who the hero of the story is? Tsk-tsk. Once upon a time there was a well-to-do farmer who had three daughters and lived a little way off from the castle of the king of his country. The eldest of these girls was twenty and the others were younger, but all three were of marriageable age.  One day the girls were walking outside their father’s farm-house they saw the king riding past with two of his men. One was a scribe and the other a shoemaker. The eldest sister spoke: “All I wish for is to marry the shoemaker.” The middle sister then spoke, saying: “I would have the scribe.” Then the youngest sister said: “And I wish I could have the king himself.” The king had heard them talking but had only heard a little of what was said. He became curious and said to his men:  “Let us go to these women and hear what they have been discussing. I thought I heard one of them say “th...

The theme of pouring a bottle of scotch (or vodka or brandy or gin or sake or whatever) over a drinking man’s grave is well known, but some ghosts don’t crave alcohol but something softer: Once upon a time a passing traveller stopped by a farm where there lived a prosperous farmer and his wife, a hospitable and generous woman. The visitor exchanged pleasantries with her and she offered him some refreshment, but he refused and said he was in too much of a hurry to accept. Nevertheless she went and got some milk in a jug and offered it to him, but he said he didn’t want any, but would have some on his return journey. He then took leave of her and continued on his way.  The traveller's destination is not known, only that he needed to cross a treacherous river on the way there but was drowned in the attempt. His body was recovered and buried in the graveyard of the church next to the aforesaid farm.  The night after the funeral he came to the farmer’s wife in a dream and asked...

Stories of people who have made a deal with and then beaten the devil exist all over Christendom and even in literature. Here is a typical one: O nce upon a time there were a mother and daughter who lived together. They were rich and the daughter was considered a great catch and had many suitors, but she accepted no-one and it was the opinion of many that she intended to stay celebrate and serve God, being a very devout  woman. The devil didn’t like this at all and took on the form of a young man and proposed to the girl, intending to seduce her over to his side little by little. He insinuated himself into her good graces and charmed her so thoroughly that she accepted his suit and they were betrothed and eventually married. But when the time came for him to enter the marriage bed the girl was so pure and innocent that he couldn’t go near her. He excused himself by saying that he couldn’t sleep and needed a bath in order to go to sleep. A bath was prepared for him and in he went...

S ome say that cross-roads are where you can see four churches, all in a different direction. The oldest cross-roads belief is that you should stay out by a cross-roads on Christmas Night, because that is when the new year begins, and even though the new year is now celebrated a week after Christmas, people still speak of having lived for a certain amount of winters when they have lived that number of Christmases. When you sit at a cross-roads elves will come from every direction and flock around you and ask you to come with them, but you must not answer. Then they will offer you all kinds of treasures, gold and silver, cloth, food and drink, but you must not take any of it. Then elf-women will come to you in the guise of your mother or sister and ask you to come with them and all sorts of other tricks. You must not respond, whatever happens. But when dawn breaks you should stand up and say “Thank God, the day brightens all the sky.” Then the elves will disappear, leaving behind all th...

Next Sunday is Whitsunday, so here is a story that mentions that holiday. This story sounds very much like it might have first been told about some goddess and then transferred to the Virgin Mary. Once upon a time the Virgin Mary called all the birds in the world to her. When they came she ordered them to walk through fire. Knowing she was the Queen of Heaven and very powerful, they dared not disobey and all of them jumped into the fire and waded through it, with the exception of the ptarmigan. But when they got to the other side of the fire all the feathers on their legs had been burned off and only the bare skin remained, and so it has been to this day.  As for the ptarmigan, whose feet remained feathered because she didn’t wade the fire, her disobedience made Mary so angry that she laid a hex on the bird, saying that she should henceforth be the most harmless and defenceless of birds and likewise so persecuted that she would always live in fear, except on the Whitsun. Further...

For most of Iceland’s human occupation people lived in farming communities near the coast and the interior of the country was an uninhabited non-man’s land, only visited by humans when travelling from one place to another and during the annual sheep and horse round-ups. No wonder then that belief in elves, trolls and outlaws was ripe. Trolls were believed to kidnap both men and women for breeding purposes. They were heathens and could not tolerate the sound of church bells, so they lived in the very remotest parts of the country. Apart from travelling and round-ups, another thing that brought people up into the wilderness of the highlands was Iceland moss , which is actually a lichen. The Icelandic name for it means mountain grass , and I will be using that name in the story. It was a valuable commodity that was gathered to be used as food and to make medicines and to make a dye for wool. It only grows above a certain height above the sea-level, and groups of people would head into the...

People who do not conform to what is considered good and normal by society have a much better time of it today that they did back in the old days. Reproductive freedom is now considered to be a human right, but back then people who didn’t wish to have children were considered abnormal, even evil. Consider this story: Once upon a time, log ago, there were a middle-aged couple, rich and respectable, who had one daughter. She was an attractive, lively girl and had many suitors, but turned them all down. Finally the parish minister, a young man with good prospects, came to ask for her hand. The parents were all for the match, but the girl absolutely refused to giver her consent. Her parents asked her how she could turn down such as wonderful prospect but she answered that she was so mortally afraid of the terrible pain of childbirth that she couldn’t possibly consent to marry anyone, however good the prospects were. “There is a way out of that, my daughter,” said the woman. Then went he...

Icelanders share a belief in selkies with their cousins in the Faeroe Islands, Scotland and Ireland. This is the most commonly told selkie story: From Vík í Mýrdal Once upon a time the was a man in the Mýrdalur area who was walking along the sea-shore at the foot of some high cliffs very early in the morning, before most people were awake. He came to a cave and heard the sounds of revelry and dancing from inside. Outside he saw a large pile of seal-skins. He took one of the seal-skins with him as he went on his way, took it home with him and locked it in a trunk. Later in the day he returned to the cave and found there a pretty young woman. She was nude and crying. This was the seal to whom the skin belonged. He gave her some clothes, dried her tears and took her home with him. She was shy and aloof with everyone but him, and would often sit and look at the sea.  A while later the man proposed to her and was accepted. They had a happy marriage and had several children togeth...