REYKJAVIK: The Icelandic Roads Department has been instructed by local mystics to build a road with a deliberate kink so as to avoid bulldozing a large rock where elves lived. 280,000 population has the Despite Iceland’s propensity to embrace modernity, 70 per cent of Icelanders still believe in the old ways - ways that include the existence of a huldufolk or a “hidden world” of elves, dwarfs and spirits with magic powers.
When asked around, it became clear that Iceland has a long and proud heritage of being close to nature. Indeed, its hard-living inhabitants have told folk tales of “little people” since the time of the sagas, mediaeval stories of Nordic life dating from the 12th century.
For a glimpse into the marriage of old and new, some tourists hooked up with one of the more enterprising locals who was turning ancient folklore into a nice little earner. Magnus Skarphedinsson is a historian and the headmaster of the Reykjavik Elf School. Magnus has devoted 19 years of his life to documenting eyewitness reports of contact with the hidden world. He has also helped 2,000 students - mainly Germans and Scandinavians - successfully complete their diploma in Elf Studies, a course comprising a half day in the classroom followed by an afternoon’s elf-hunting around town, for which they each pay 3,900 krona ($40).
Magnus explains to the class that there are, in fact, two nations living in Iceland: the human world and the hidden world. The latter, he assures, gesturing to a large ceramic elf in a jaunty red hat and breeches on the shelf, live in a different dimension to humans and have their own unique culture. Only psychics or the odd lucky student actually get to spot one.
His main rival in the Elf Studies is Erla Stefansdottir, a local mystic. Erla claims the ability to communicate with the hidden world and espouses the need to respect its culture. Tourists join Erla for a guided elf tour of Hafnarfjordur, a fishing village, reputedly, the elf capital of Iceland.
Indeed, according to Erla, the local population of 20,000 people share their home with more than 20 types of dwarfs and four of gnomes. Erla is concerned that if humans continue to violate the hidden world by trampling carelessly over the rocky lava field that is their home, the elves will take revenge. —Dawn/The Guardian News Service.