David Mills
“It’s not every day in Iceland that we divert roads for elves. It’s just in this case we were warned that elves were living in some of the rocks in the path of the road — well, we have to respect that belief.” So says an official of Iceland’s highway department, explaining why work on a road was halted.
The Huldufolk, which half the people of Iceland reportedly think exist or might exist, are our size, invisible to most people, and generally benign except when we annoy them.
The Icelanders have some reason for this belief. A professor of folklore tells the reporter: “You can’t live in this landscape and not believe in a force greater than you.”
She looks at me imploringly. “Please don’t portray Icelanders as uneducated peasants who believe in fairies, but look around you and you’ll understand why the power of folklore here is so strong,” she says.
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