Elf Detection 101-How to find the hidden folk of Iceland

Slate ^ | 11 Mar 2009 | Juliet Lapidos

[BGHater]

An article on Iceland's de facto bankruptcy in the April issue of Vanity Fair notes that a "large number of Icelanders" believe in elves or "hidden people." This widespread folklore occasionally disrupts business in the sparsely populated North Atlantic country. Before the aluminum company Alcoa could erect a smelting factory, "it had to defer to a government expert to scour the enclosed plant site and certify that no elves were on or under it." How do you find an elf?

With psychic powers. According to a poll conducted in 2007, 54 percent of Icelanders don't deny the existence of elves and 8 percent believe in them outright, although only 3 percent claim to have encountered one personally. The ability to see the huldufólk, or hidden folk, can't be learned; you're just born with it. To find elves, seers don't really need to do anything—they'll just sense an elfin presence. The Vanity Fair article says that elf detection can take six months, but it's usually a quick process that can last under an hour. And although the magazine claims that a "government expert" had to certify the nonexistence of elves, the Icelandic Embassy insists that these consults are performed by freelancers, not government contractors.

The huldufólk are thought to live in another dimension, invisible to most. They build their homes inside rocks and on craggy hillsides, and they seem to favor lava formations. The port town of Hafnarfjördur, near Reykjavík, is thought to have a particularly large settlement of elves—as well as other mystical beings like dwarves (who also fit under the broad category of huldufólk).

[Squidpup]

[Candor7]

It seems that you are correct, except the movement sideways was not particularly in keeping with any physiology I know of, perhaps a trick of the camera.

Thats what I found quite interesting, the movement.
Seemed quite odd.

[Fred Nerks]

Maybe someone crippled?

[Swede Girl]

Yes, it could be true that the Irish influenced the belief in elves, but the settlers of Iceland surely brought with them the Scandinavian tradition of ‘believing’ in elves or trolls that live in the deep forests, the barn or under the house, etc.

The Tompten, or elf is a part of the culture. Think of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The cartoonist for these elf-like dwarfs was Swedish-born Gustaf Adolf Tenggren who fashioned the dwarfs from his Scandinavian influences.

Many of the Icelandic traditions, of course, are based on those in the homeland of Scandinavia.

[ZULU]

“To find elves, seers don’t really need to do anything—they’ll just sense an elfin presence.”

I can do that with Democrats. I don’t even have to see them to sense their presence. I just look at my tax bill.

[Vor Lady]

Ping for later.

[Question_Assumptions]

Well, it would explain Björk.

[tet68]

Hahaha, that’s good, I like it.

[dragonblustar]

If you would like to be On or Off the Crypto Ping List, please let me know.

Thanks, Dragonblustar

[JoeProBono]

Elf_houses

[Sloth]

In Scotland you will find people who meet elves and talk to them every day.And they say they look like ordinary people, like you or I.In Japan it is the same with kami.

So what's to say they aren't ordinary people?

[Zionist Conspirator]

The Good People are not to be trifled with.

Do they count as cryptids? Are they not a mysterious phenomenon all their own?

[Candor7]

Apparently soome ARE ordinary people.

Morihei Ueshuba was one of them.

[SunkenCiv]

Looked like the Elder (verse) Edda, and that last paragraph clinched it. The next paragraph (if memory serves, but it’s definitely not far along after it) continues to name dwarves, and those are the names Tolkien used in “The Hobbit” and also lifted a few for the passages of Balin’s diary, the one the Company found in Moria.

Thanks Fred!

[SunkenCiv]

My memory didn’t let me down. :’) Durin, Dvalin, Bivor, Bavor, Bombur, Nori, [non-dwarf] Gandalf, Thorin, Thror, Thrain, Fili, Kili, Fundin (father of Balin and Dwalin in Tolkien), Nali Hefti (Nali from Balin’s diary), Frar (Balin’s diary), Loni (Balin’s diary), Gloi[n], Dori, Ori, and I probably missed some. :’)

The 13 dwarves in “The Hobbit” are Balin and Dwalin, Fili and Kili, Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur, Dori, Nori, Ori, O’in and Glo’in, and Thorin (Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thror, son of Thrain). Durin was the father of all the dwarves (the ones detailed in the Hobbit and the trilogy anyway) and founder of Khazad-dum / Moria. And that’s my geekin’ for the night. ;’)

[Fred Nerks]

Now death is the portion of doomed men,
Red with blood the buildings of gods,
The sun turns black in the summer after,
Winds whine. Well, would know more?

Earth sinks in the sea, the sun turns black,
Cast down from Heaven are the hot stars,
Fumes reek, into flames burst,
The sky itself is scorched with fire.

[SunkenCiv]

:’)

[Leifur]

Actually the idea of Huldufólk here is in many ways akin to the high elves of Tolkien´s (except the pointed ears of the movies), that is something angelic, but dangerous in its temptation of deadly beauty. One famous poems says something like that when the tempted man answers the beautiful elven temptress invitation:

“eigi vil ég með álfum búa,
heldur vil ég á krist minn trúa”

in english something like:

“I don´t won´t to live with elfs,
rather I wan´t to believe/trust in my Christ”