Building in Iceland? Better clear it with the Elves first

[helen99]

You know, they have the RIGHT idea. We could take a big lesson here.

Published: July 13, 2005

HAFNARFJORDUR, Iceland - Do elves exist? Like many Icelanders, Hildur Hakonardottir considers the question to be more complicated than it
appears. 'This is a very, very, very delicate question,' Ms. Hakonardottir, a
retired museum director, said. 'If you ask people if they believe in
elves, they will say yes and no. If they say yes, maybe they don't, and
if they say no, maybe they do.'

Comments

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

.... "Iceland's Celtic Traditions"??

*so gonna have to look icelandic stuff up now...*

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I was also somewhat puzzled by the line.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

You read farther down than I did... That looks like confusion on the part of the journalist to me. I did a google search on it and nothing came up... As far as I know, elves are not celtic tradition anyway.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies, "This is one of the most sought after and enigmatic texts about Celtic fairies. Written by a Scottish clergyman, Robert Kirk, in 1691, and not committed to print until the early 19th century, The Secret Commonwealth is an unusually sympathetic account of the denizens of fairyland, and a complex of still mysterious extrasensory phenomena including poltergeists, clairvoyance and doppelgangers (here called 'co-walkers')."

[helen99.livejournal.com]

I've always thought of the celtic fae as quite different from the elves of the northern myths, though. Maybe there are more connections than I thought.

[ahril.livejournal.com]

Indeed there are. By bloodline, I am both Alfar and Twlwyth Teg. The Twlwyth Teg are always described as "the Welsh Elves".

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

"Most Icelanders are descendants of Norwegian settlers and Celts from Ireland, and the population is remarkably homogeneous."

"In medieval and modern times the Celtic tradition and languages survived in Brittany (Western France), Cornwall, Galicia (North Western Spain), Galatia (Central Turkey), Wales, the Scottish Highlands, Isle of Man and Ireland, and to a lesser extent in the Norse/Celtic culture of Iceland."

I never knew that before myself. Interesting.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Eenteresting..

[helen99.livejournal.com]

That would explain why the CD I was listening to by "The Girls of Angeli" (from Lappland) sounded just like some Celtic music.

[silvaerina-tael.livejournal.com]

There was a lot of cultural intermixing even before the medieval period - take a look at the artwork produced by both the Celts and the Norse.