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Icelandic folklore is rife with tales of elves and hidden people that inhabited hills and rocks in the landscape. But what do those elf stories really tell us about the Iceland of old and the people who lived there? In this book, author Alda Sigmundsdóttir presents twenty translated elf stories from Icelandic folklore, along with fascinating notes on the context from which they sprung. The international media has had a particular infatuation with the Icelanders’ elf belief, generally using it to propagate some kind of “kooky Icelanders” myth. Yet Iceland’s elf folklore, at its core, reflects the plight of a nation living in abject poverty on the edge of the inhabitable world, and its people’s heroic efforts to survive, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. That is what the stories of the elves, or hidden people, are really about. In a country that was, at times, virtually uninhabitable, where poverty was endemic and death and grief a part of daily life, the Icelanders nurtured a belief in a world that existed parallel to their own. This was the world of the hidden people, which more often than not was a projection of the most fervent dreams and desires of the human population. The hidden people lived inside hillocks, cliffs, or boulders, very close to the abodes of the humans. Their homes were furnished with fine, sumptuous objects. Their clothes were luxurious, their adornments beautiful. Their livestock was better and fatter, their sheep yielded more wool than regular sheep, their crops were more bounteous. They even had supernatural powers: they could make themselves visible or invisible at will, and they could see the future. To the Icelanders, stories of elves and hidden people are an integral part of the cultural and psychological fabric of their nation. They are a part of their identity, a reflection of the struggles, hopes, resilience, and endurance of their people. What you will read about in The Little Book of the Hidden People: • The fascination in the international media: why are they so obsessed with elves? • The meaning of elf: what do hidden people stories tell us about the psyche of the Icelanders of old? • The elves' badassery—they could make or break your fortune so you’d better be nice! • The ljúflingar ... hidden men who became the lovers of mortal women • Glamorous and regal: why were the elves so damn good-looking? • The grim realities: what do scholars believe about all those children abducted by elves? ... and so much more!
Selkies, fairies, gnomes, hill folk, river sprites--do you believe in them? Perhaps among the flowers, beside a mountain, or near deep waters you’ve caught a glimpse, once or twice, of what you thought might be the silvery shadow of a dwarf, or a hint of a fairy’s wing, or the tail of the water horse. Or was it just the odd light of dusk or dawn playing tricks? As Lise Lunge-Larsen’s magical, timeless stories reveal and Beth Krommes’s enchanting scratchboard illustrations capture, the hidden folk are there, all right: you just have to know where--and how--to look.
In exploring how Icelanders interact with nature—and their idea that elves live among us—Nancy Marie Brown shows us how altering our perceptions of the environment can be a crucial first step toward saving it. Icelanders believe in elves. Why does that make you laugh?, asks Nancy Marie Brown in this wonderfully quirky exploration of our interaction with nature. Looking for answers in history, science, religion, and art—from ancient times to today—Brown finds that each discipline defines what is real and unreal, natural and supernatural, demonstrated and theoretical, alive and inert. Each has its own way of perceiving and valuing the world around us. And each discipline can be defined, in the Icelandic perception, by its own sort of elf. Illuminated by her own encounters with Iceland’s Otherworld—in ancient lava fields, on a holy mountain, beside a glacier or an erupting volcano, crossing the cold desert at the island’s heart on horseback—Looking for the Hidden Folk offers an intimate conversation about how we look at and find value in nature. It reveals how the words we use and the stories we tell shape the world we see. It argues that our beliefs about the Earth will preserve—or destroy it. Scientists name our time the Anthropocene: the Human Age. Climate change will lead to the mass extinction of numerous animal species unless we humans change our course. Iceland suggests a different way of thinking about the Earth, one that offers hope. Icelanders believe in elves— and you should, too.
Introducing a brand new paperback edition of the novel based on the animated series, Hilda, now on Netflix! Meet Hilda: explorer, adventurer, avid sketchbook-keeper and friend to almost every creature in the valley! Join our beloved heroine as she encounters her very first troll, negotiates peace with some very persnickety elves, and reunites two lovelorn ancient giants. Fantastic creatures and daring adventures are all just part of another average day for Hilda, but what will she do if she is forced to move to Trolberg city, far away from her beloved valley home? Dive into the adventure with this illustrated chapter book, based on the first two episodes of the show.
A translated selection devoted to supernatural beings, ghosts, and magic practices.
"an excellent and engaging read, moving to an absorbing conclusion" --Historical Novel Society "The perfect book to curl up with on a chilly fall day, The Hidden People will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up." --Booklist In 1851, within the grand glass arches of London's Crystal Palace, Albie Mirralls meets his cousin Lizzie for the first--and, as it turns out, last--time. Coming from a backward rural village, Albie expects Lizzie will be a simple country girl, but instead he is struck by her inner beauty and by her lovely singing voice. When next he hears of her, many years later, it is to hear news of her death at the hands of her husband, the village shoemaker. Rumors surround his young cousin's murder--apparently, her husband thought she had been replaced by one of the "fair folk" and so burned her alive--and then disappeared. Albie becomes obsessed with bringing his young cousin's murderer to justice. When he arrives, he finds a community in the grip of superstition, nearly every member believes Lizzie's husband acted with the best of intentions and in the service of the village. And the more he learns, the less sure he is that there aren't mysterious powers at work.
Iceland is a country where stories are as important as history. When Vikings settled the island, they brought their tales with them. Every rock, hot spring and waterfall seems to have its own story. Cruel man-eating trolls rub shoulders with beautiful elves, whose homes are hidden from mortal view. Vengeful ghosts envy the living, seeking to drag lost loves into their graves – or they may simply demand a pinch of your snuff. Some of the stories in this collection are classic Icelandic tales, while others are completely new to English translation. Hjörleifur has always been deeply interested in the rich lore of his island. His grandparents provided a second home in his upbringing and taught him much about the past through their own way of life. Hjörleifur is dedicated to breathing fresh life into the stories he loves.
A collection of macabre and magical folklore from the "godfather" of the Norwegian troll Across the stillness of the sprawling mountain heath, the shadow of the mighty forest falls, its wildness calling to the child in all of us. Here the Hidden Folk assemble: the stalwart little nisse, farmyard spirit and irrepressible prankster; the seductive hulder, with her crown of flowers and cow's tail; the fiddling fossegrim, summoning the music of wind and water; and most fearsome and enchanting of all, the one-eyed troll, head high above the treetops. A veritable bestiary of Nordic folk creatures was conjured by artist Theodor Kittelsen, whose late nineteenth-century paintings and illustrations gave these macabre and magical figures their enduring forms. In this book, first published as Troldskab in 1892, Kittelsen spins tales of wonder around creatures rumored to haunt the fields, forests, and waterfalls of Norway. Striding, gamboling, and slithering across these pages are witches and gnomes and sea monsters, fiery dragons waking from their stiff-winged slumber, mermaids rising from the deep, and sly shapeshifting nøkk. But first and foremost are the trolls, hapless, horrible, or just plain silly, working their spells and making their mischief to the terror and delight of the presumably human reader. Tailoring his whimsical artistic style to each tale, Kittelsen's stories, in Tiina Nunnally's nimble translation, reveal a Nordic world of wonder, myth, and magic as real as the imagination allows.