Day 34-elf houses and trolls

   February 7-Elves, trolls and other supernatural beings played significant roles in the Norse mythology of the Vikings that settled Iceland.  These huldufólk (hidden people) even continued to lurk in the countryside after the conversion of the Icelanders to Christianity.  In fact, elves became the offspring of those children of Eve that she had hidden from God.  Today, only a small percentage of Icelanders are willing to completely dismiss the existence of the huldufólk, although an equally small percentage of Icelanders unequivocally believe in their existence. 

   In any event, "proof" of the existence of the huldufólk abound throughout Iceland.  A few kilometers north of Borganes there is an elf hill complete with houses and doors to allow entry of the elves into the hill.  Because of the extensive snow cover, we had not noticed this elf hill until this past week when much of the snow around Borgarnes melted.  So, on our shopping trip to town today, Sally took these pictures of the hill.  We understand that there are many more examples of these elf hills all over Iceland.

   Trolls are creatures of the night,

because they will turn to stone if the Sun shines on them.  Since they are not particularly smart, however, many of them have been

caught by surprise by the rising Sun and were thus frozen in place.  Consequently, there are many rock formations around Iceland that are obviously stoned trolls.  During her week in Reykir,

Alex took a picture of of this troll and her children.  They turned into stone just as they were climbing onto the shore after

crossing the fjord.  What bad luck.  We just hope we don't run into any trolls (in the flesh)

while exploring Iceland!