Iceland unearths rock to appease angry elves

[Aravinda]

I have read quite a few stories about how the Icelandic people have a lot of reverence for the little people. i am glad they care. Do the other Scandinavian countries feel the same?

Reykjavik (AFP) - Iceland has been forced to bow to pressure from elves and uncover a supposedly enchanted elfin rock after highway workers accidentally buried it -- infuriating the mythical creatures, reports said Tuesday.

The angry elves were suspected of causing a series of mishaps after the rock was covered over when workers cleared away the debris from a landslide, the Morgunbladid daily reported.

Iceland is no stranger to bending to the will of its elfin population.

Construction sites have previously been moved so as not to disturb the creatures and fishermen have refused to go to sea because of their warnings: in Iceland, elves are part of every day life.

Sveinn Zophoniasson, who works for the Bass road construction company, told the paper that his woes began in August 2015 in Siglufjordur, close to the site of the so-called "elfin lady stone" that was covered with earth following efforts to cleat a mudslide from a highway.

After the landslide was cleared, the road was subsequently flooded and a colleague of Zophoniasson who came to clear the route was injured. Then industrial machinery began to fail and a journalist who came to cover the growing chaos fell into a mud pool and had to be pulled to safety.

"Nobody even thought of the rock," even though the area is regarded as a sacred place in local folklore, said Zophoniasson.

The decision was made that the Iceland Road Administration would unearth the rock -- an artefact according to a 2012 law to protect Iceland's elfin heritage -- and it was subsequently cleaned with a pressure washer last week.

Elves are described by the hundreds of people who claim to have seen them as simple, normally peaceful creatures that look like humans -- but smaller.

In 1971 elves reportedly disrupted construction of a national highway from Reykjavik to the northeast. The project suffered repeated unusual technical difficulties because, it was claimed, elves did not want the large boulder that served as their home to be moved to make way for the new road.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/iceland-unea ... 26271.html

[Ilkka]

In Finland I have no knowledge of such laws. I think there are no Elves in this land, maybe more to the north Nokk and Gnomes have been around these parts I think. Unless of course Elves are Gnomes then there have been those. There are identical translations for gnomes and elves so I dont really know which is which or witch

The name Hiisi traslated to Goblin in mythology means "sacred forest/grove" and the name was later given to the spirit beings what were worshipped in those sacred forests. It might have also been "Hel", we have a saying similar to "go to hell" that is "painu hiiteen" the word "hiiteen" is inflected form from "hiisi", so there is the original meaning of the word that still exists. After Christianity came "Hiisi" has been a bad spirit and a bad place. So it means both.

There are Nokk or Näkki a water spirit, much like mermaids. Gnomes have been protectors of houses and land till the early 1900s in here. Thats when electricity began coming in every place I think. There might be some "wookie"(from Star Wars) like "LMs"(not so little) bigfoots roaming in forests in Lapland I have no actual proof of their existence, but certainly there might be some. I have read this one story about some young people encountering one of them in this abandoned building way up north, above the Arctic circle.

Short version of the story from my memory:
They apparently saw a big hairy creature that was on top of the abandoned military building, that climbed down and left the other way. The people later found their campsite thrashed and some electrical equipment broken. Then they went on more exploring into the woods and stumbled upon a circle made of big tree trunks and moose carcass inside of it. Some other things happened where they were scared and left in a hurry etc.

The "nest" a circle made of tree trunks might not be far fetched even and the trees apparently had their roots still, no sawing marks of any kind, just brute force.

[Aravinda]

That is interesting Ilkka, so the people there dont believe so much anymore? the comments were overall good about the article, alot of people believe in the faerie and have respect for them. Its interesting to me to see what people are thinking.

I wonder if small units such as individual solar electricity is easier on the faerie where you are storing the energy in batteries and charging and dispersing the energy.

My grandfather came from Denmark when he was young to America, he was a farmer and had a depth of spirituality and was aware of spirits and ghosts and such. I wish i would have had more time to spend with him, we lived pretty far away and didnt visit as much as i would have liked. He was very smart, strong and a very hard worker, self taught and made beautiful furniture in his spare time for us. He would always make jokes about dying and talk about going to Valhalla and the Vikings. When his eyesight started going he said he would not stay in this world and live like that, and he left just like he said he would. My grandmother did the same, she said she would not ever be a burden or go to a nursing home, like her mother did. She was the epitome of love. You knew you were loved just by the way she would light up and smile at you and give you a big hug when we would come and visit. She peacefully left this world one day after breakfast. I had a dream the morning it happened. Sometimes we visit in the dreamtime. They were amazing people.

[Ilkka]

That is interesting Ilkka, so the people there dont believe so much anymore?

Not so much. Maybe some Sami people up north might be into that more, but many of them are mormons or something like that. In the age before christians came and killed almost all the shamen and others who would not turn to their beliefs there was pagan religions and must've been peace and rapport between human and LMs. The one story about LMs comes from my grandma she said that when her father was very young he saw a gnome in their house, and that his mom said to him that "it was a guardian of the house". The gnome smoked a pipe, I would imagine it was a small pipe. My own grandma who is religious christian said that she was dreaded by that story as if it was a horror story, I never kept it as one even when I was very little when hearing it the first time. I think the time when that gnome story happened, was in early 1900s or late 1890s. Estimating the ages of them. My grandma is born in 1930 ish so that gives the about age of great grandpa. Cant remember him I was a baby when he died, in the 1980s.

When his eyesight started going he said he would not stay in this world and live like that, and he left just like he said he would. My grandmother did the same, she said she would not ever be a burden or go to a nursing home, like her mother did.

I dont plan on that sort of burden either. I'd rather go "too early" than just wither away. My grandpa had Dementia that was later on Alzheimers so he suffered from that for about several years when he just slept away in nursing home or hospital, cant remember. Never did visit him when he went so bad. I do remember when he was living in his own house and was losing his memory collected dandelions from his lawn and stored them into drawers and cupboards, often losing his keys locking him outside of his house, didn't remember when to eat losing weight and such. Maybe I didn't want to see a man go so bad before the end. I heard the stories from my dad about his dad who is in question here. My other grandpa from mothers side is still alive and doing carpentering and some housebuilding I think. Never was close to him either, more closer bonds to my grandmas than grandpas, for some reason. Same goes for my dad and mom, lately. Have seen mom more than dad and of course she calls me almost everyday. Sometimes she gets to me when calling multiple times a day and talking all sorts of stuff that does not interest me at all. I think its like small talk but with relatives, does not interest me so why bother. Some kind of maternal thing I guess.

So most of the finnish (dont know about other countries) Sami are mormons these days because of christianity has so much influence on them, which is bad in my opinion. Traditions have been lost or renamed by the christian authorities. I think many of finnish people would be scared of such other species that are intelligent, especially religious ones. They would all say that "its the devil" etc. when seeing LMs or SMs for that matter. However there still are few shamen around that live in the eastern parts of this country and maybe a few Sami witches up north. Sami people have their own language and several dialects of it depending on what part of the north they are living in. Norway, Finland and Russia has their individual dialects in Sami language. I dont know how to speak it, sounds very weird like something between Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and something else.

[Ilkka]

Correction to above about Sami people being mormons, the most of them are actually Laestadians not mormons.

[Aravinda]

Correction to above about Sami people being mormons, the most of them are actually Laestadians not mormons.

i have never heard of laestadians. It sounds like your mother is just seeking to somehow have contact with you in the best way she knows.
We have lost so much important know how just in the last 50 to 100 years. It sounds like the Sami people have a lot to teach others.
Christianity has done a lot of damage to a lot of cultures and indigenous peoples and traditions(as have many religions). Ironically, I notice in America, it is the Christians and their adamant focus on the family and traditional ways that is the last bastion holding back the police state. They have an important purpose after all.

[Ilkka]

i have never heard of laestadians. It sounds like your mother is just seeking to somehow have contact with you in the best way she knows. We have lost so much important know how just in the last 50 to 100 years. It sounds like the Sami people have a lot to teach others.

I found this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laestadianism on laestadianism. It seems to have people in North America as well, but mainly on this continent is probably known best. The laestadians have strict rules. I watched this one document about Sami woman who was lesbian and had troubles in their culture up north, main reason for her to have moved to south away from their "oppression" towards her sexuality. The most amazing was to know that her own parents sort of shunned her away and was "dead" to them or something like that. That thing tells me much about religion and its unethical rules and means to uphold their "laws". In the document they spoke finnish and sami, with finnish subtitles which was good, because I dont speak sami.