Wednesday, January 1

The Magic Of The Elves Who Stopped A Motorway Being Built

Elf or Huldufolk houses, Iceland
Huldufolk Houses Strandakirkja, Iceland - Image Christian Bickel
I published a post about elves, The Elves Who Keep Us Safe And Protect Girls Who Ride Donkeys, and at the time thought more elf news would probably follow. It did. Here's a particular story I liked - because it's true!

This time the elves who are causing a problem, though indirectly, are living in Iceland. They have actually managed to halt work on a motorway being built by some British developers.

Traditional Huldufolk
Traditional Huldufolk
The elves causing the hold up are known as Huldufolk - or 'hidden folk' in English - and they have the Supreme Court of Iceland on their side - at least at the present time.

An elf advocate group, the Friends of Lava, say the route of the proposed Icelandic motorway will disturb an elf habitat where there just happens to be an elf church - yes, really!

Nobody wants to harm any elves so the Court are deliberating on the matter. Of course one of the problems is that most people can't actually see elves or Huldufolk.

There's a reason why we can't see the elves in question - it's because of Eve - that's Adam's missus.

The story goes that Eve hid her dirty, unwashed children from God, and lied about their existence. When God found out he was a bit miffed and declared: "What man hides from God, God will hide from man." So that's why we can't see these descendants of Eve. They are like fallen angels condemned to live between heaven and hell.

The Icelandic people take their Huldufolk seriously and leave out food for them on Christmas Day. On New Years Day it is believed that the elves sometimes move to new locations so Icelanders leave candles to help them see their way to their new homes.

Glamorous Huldufolk
More glamorous Huldufolk
by Adrienn-Nagy
You have to be careful if you should happen to sit at a crossroads on Midsummer Night because if you do the Huldufolk will try to seduce you with food and gifts. If you should succumb there are serious consequences.

It appears that several construction projects have already been altered to prevent damaging rocks where the Huldufolk are believed to live. I read on the Extreme Iceland website examples of this:

"In the capital area of Reykjavík this can be seen in Álfhóll, where the road narrows in order to spare the rocks. Also, in 1982, 150 Icelanders went to the NATO base in Keflavik to look for elves who they thought might be endangered by the American Phantom jets and AWACS reconnaissance planes."

But in the meantime the motorway, that's bad for your elf, is still waiting completion.

More Elves Fairies & Goblins:
The Elves Who Keep Us Safe And Protect Girls Who Ride Donkeys
The Magical Web Of Wyrd
The Creation Of Real Live Fairies And Goblins

Happy New Year Everyone

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6 comments:

  1. Suzie14:24

    Happy 2014, Mike. The elves are also at the bottom of my garden or are they fairies? Or is it the red wine I've been drinking? If they look like that glamorous elf I reckon even my partner would start to believe. Have a happy day.

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    1. Happy New Year to you too - never stop believing!

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  2. Great story! I had no idea that elves lived in Iceland... are there any Florida elves?

    Happy new year!

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    1. Florida elves? Have you looked at the bottom of your garden (sorry, yard)? Happy New Year!

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  3. HAHA I hope our local council don't see this, they're fast running out of reasons not to build a new road to ease our traffic problems. Happy New Year to all

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    1. Happy New Year Chris. Elves would make a change from them saying they have insufficient money to update roads.

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