Around the World with Kav P.

[Note: I found the featured image for my own article from this blog, which has a lot more information about this subject matter. Please check it out!]

When I first looked at travel information in the lead-up to my trip to Iceland last December, the advice that stood out most to me bubbled down to “don’t mention the elves!”. Apparently people in Iceland are supposed to believe in elves (better known as huldufólk, or “hidden people”) to some degree and if you refer to it mockingly, the locals will get offended about it.

So I did what a rational person would do when confronted with such information: I asked my Icelandic friend about it. She reassured me that this was untrue. That there are Icelandic beliefs and customs surrounding elves, but these are not things that people take seriously. And of course, this made sense to me. We still talk about Roman gods, about kitsune spirits, about superstitions, in a realm between reality and myth. The old traditions linger, even where genuine belief does not.

Then I went to Iceland and the trolling began.

My friend was a gracious host, welcoming me into her home and introducing me to her (huge!) close-knit family. I met her father at a pub. He was impeccably dressed, in a dapper vest and matching hat, and his English (like that of pretty much every adult I encountered in Iceland) was superb. He was the one who brought it up, very soon after we sat down.

“So, you are aware that in Iceland we have elves?”

I didn’t know how to react to this question. On the one hand, his own daughter had scathingly dismissed the idea that people still believe in elves, so he was probably just joking. On the other hand, on the off-chance that he wasn’t joking and the travel advice I’d read was correct, it would be incredibly rude for me to make a joke about something he believed was real. So I told him what I read and hoped he would clarify his actual position on elves.

He didn’t. Instead, throughout the time I was in Iceland, he told me stories. Stories about workers being hired during construction work to negotiate with elves to minimise mischief. Stories about elves living in the rocks around Iceland. Stories about álfhól (tiny elf houses) built in the gardens of locals to house the elves, hopefully thus keeping them under control. Was he being sincere? Was he telling me mythological tales in the way I might tell stories of the Hindu gods? Was he daring me to interject and tell him it was nonsense? To call him on his trolling?

I had no idea. So I just listened and learned, and grew more confused.

During my time in Reykjavik I chatted with many different people, never wanting to bring up the elves in a way that might imply that I had strong feelings for or against their existence. But whenever elves came up in conversation, people were so sombre about it. And I just simply couldn’t get a read on it.

Let me give you some context here: I was born and raised in Australia – a country infamous for the tales the locals tell of the “drop bear”; a larger, carnivorous cousin of the koala that got its namesake from its hunting method of dropping from trees onto unsuspecting prey. I myself am guilty of telling such stories to unsuspecting tourists and foreign friends. This was something else, though; something bigger. This was something nearing an entire nation either being fully in on the joke, or not joking at all – perhaps a mixture of the two. Whatever was going on here, I never felt like I was so much as approaching an answer.

It became apparent during my research into Icelandic elves that I was obviously not going to find enlightenment – particularly if Icelanders are trolling us – if I stick with English language sources, many of which cite a mysterious “DV survey” from 1998 which suggested that over 50% of Icelanders believe in elves. I was unable to track down the survey itself to analyse. The closest I can find to a balanced English answer to the Icelandic elvish question is on the Icelandic Web of Science, which mentions that the DV newspaper survey was flawed in that there was only an option for “yes” or “no”, when obviously any question about cultural fossils is bound to be more complex than that.

So here’s my problem. I still don’t know if we’re being trolled about elves. The population of Iceland is small enough and tourism has until recently been minimal, so while this means it is possible for the country to have evolved with a rich and living mythology shared only by its inhabitants, it is also very possible that the whole nation has come together to troll those of us who come into the newly marketable nation. I have one definite “no” from a source I trust. If I am to believe her, then everything I saw and heard was probably trolling and not genuine belief. But what great trolling! Iceland, I salute thee.