0:10

Two eleven year old girls trek

0:12

up hill through rugged Arctic

0:15

tundra. It's late

0:17

summer nineteen thirty two in

0:19

Iceland. The girls,

0:21

Nana and Carolina, have hiked

0:24

for hours from their homes in ascar

0:26

Strunt in ayre Furture,

0:28

close to the northern Icelandic coast,

0:31

on the hunt for wild bilberries.

0:35

Together they continue up the valley,

0:37

climbing high above the river, and

0:40

it's there that Carolina sees

0:42

them. Two bedsheets

0:45

spread out over the grass and moss,

0:48

both away down, with rocks, one

0:50

in each corner and a fifth

0:53

in the middle to stop the wind

0:55

blowing them away. The

0:57

weather is sunny and breezy, a

0:59

perfect day for drying laundry, Only

1:02

there's no house or hut anywhere

1:05

nearby where someone with laundry

1:07

might live. Wondering

1:09

if she's seeing things, Carolina

1:12

asks Nana if she can see

1:14

them too. Oh, yes, she

1:16

replies, I see them all the time,

1:19

really, says Carolina. Yes

1:23

they belong to the elves that live nearby,

1:25

replies Nana, and with

1:28

that she skips on ahead.

1:31

I'm sure if Nana is playing some kind

1:33

of trick on her or not. Carolina

1:36

decides to leave it at that and trudges

1:38

on after her. The

1:40

girls hike higher into the valley

1:43

until finally they find what they're looking

1:45

for, endless bushes of dark,

1:48

ripe bilberries. A

1:50

couple of hours later, with their baskets

1:52

full, they make their way back down

1:55

the way they came. But

1:57

when they get back to where the bed sheets

1:59

were, the sheets are gone.

2:02

See, said Nana. The

2:04

elves must have taken them back home.

2:08

Carolina lived until the age of

2:10

ninety one. Though this was

2:12

the only time she claimed to have ever

2:14

witnessed evidence of elves, she

2:17

never forgot that day, and she

2:19

stood by her account of it right

2:22

up until the day she died.

2:25

You're listening to Unexplained, and

2:27

I'm Richard McLean Smith.

2:38

Iceland's position just south of

2:40

the Arctic Circle, with its long

2:42

nights of unbroken winter darkness,

2:45

is dominated by the primal forces

2:47

of ice and snow. Wondrous

2:50

displays of the northern lights regularly

2:52

flicker over landscapes dotted

2:55

with volcanoes and twisted rock thickly

2:57

covered in moss.

2:59

It's an environment that exerts a strong

3:02

pull on the psyche, and Icelandic

3:04

folklore is rich with stories

3:06

of the supernatural of ghosts

3:09

and trolls, and most of

3:11

all elves known

3:14

in Iceland as the Huldefolk or

3:16

hidden folk. Icelandic

3:19

elves have a nature all their own.

3:22

They bear no resemblance to Santa Claus's

3:24

diminutive little helpers from Christmas

3:27

stories or the tall ethereal

3:29

and point eared immortals that feature

3:32

in J. R. R. Tolkien's tales.

3:35

Icelandic elves are mostly

3:38

described as being from around

3:40

one foot high to the size

3:42

of a typical seven year old child.

3:45

One nineteenth century Icelandic

3:48

source states the only visible

3:50

difference between humans and human

3:53

sized hidden folk is in the vertical

3:55

groove between the base of the nose

3:58

and the top of the upper lip, known

4:00

as the filtrum. In

4:02

elves, that groove is said

4:04

to be convex rather than concave

4:07

as it is in humans. The

4:10

elves are said to live in certain rocks

4:12

and cliffs, which many local

4:14

people consider to be enchanted

4:17

places, and often paint doors

4:19

there or set up tiny houses

4:21

in their gardens for elves to live

4:23

in. Icelandic lore

4:26

maintains that the hidden folk inhabit

4:28

a parallel universe, remaining

4:31

invisible to humans most of the

4:33

time, rarely allowing themselves

4:36

to be seen. When they do

4:38

become visible, they are said to look

4:40

and behave very much like humans,

4:43

keeping live stock, cutting hay,

4:45

rowing boats, going fishing,

4:48

and picking berries, even

4:50

going to church on Sundays. It's

4:53

said that the best times to see an elf

4:56

are on New Year's Eve, a night

4:58

when bonfires are lit a across the country,

5:01

and when the elves are rumored to move their

5:03

residence from one rock or hillside

5:06

to another. The other time

5:08

it's Midsummer's night, when, according

5:10

to local law, if you sit at

5:12

a crossroads where all four

5:15

roads lead to separate churches,

5:17

an elf will try to seduce you with

5:20

gifts. Accept those gifts

5:22

and you will go mad. Resist

5:25

the temptation, and your wishes

5:27

will come true. The

5:29

hidden folk are said to be harmless

5:32

if you leave them alone, but

5:35

woe betide anyone who disturbs

5:38

or destroys an Elvish home. If

5:41

an Elvish dwelling is disrupted, the

5:43

elves will get angry and may

5:45

cause great harm to those who

5:48

disturb them, or so the

5:50

legend goes. In

5:52

the summer of nineteen seventy one, a

5:55

workman operating a bulldozer

5:57

to move a pile of rocks on the outskirts

6:00

of Reykvik, Iceland's capital,

6:03

accidentally broke some pipelines, destroying

6:05

the excavator in the process. The

6:08

workmen had only one explanation

6:11

for the mishap. Clearly,

6:13

the rocks were home to a community

6:16

of elves who'd become angered

6:18

by the disturbance. It

6:20

was they, not his incompetence,

6:23

that had caused the accident. Elsewhere

6:26

in the northern part of the country, around

6:29

the same time, the Icelandic

6:31

Road Administration was considering

6:33

smoothing out another piece of road where

6:35

it crossed an uneven boulder field

6:38

known locally as the Trolls Pass,

6:41

But when local residents, including

6:43

some self described elf seers,

6:46

told them that supernatural beings

6:48

resided in rocks beneath the pass,

6:51

the agency were convinced not

6:53

to blow it up. It is

6:55

said that this placated the elves,

6:58

and that no road accidents have occurred

7:00

at or near the pass ever

7:03

since. The road remains

7:05

uneven to this day.

7:17

In the autumn of nineteen eighty six,

7:20

the story of Iceland's fiendish

7:22

and feisty elves began to

7:24

spread more widely when their

7:26

apparent existence was inadvertently

7:29

brought to the attention of the international

7:32

media. That year, a

7:34

summit took place between the United

7:37

States and the Soviet Union. Then

7:40

U S President Ronald Reagan and

7:42

General Secretary of the Communist Party

7:44

of Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev

7:47

had met in Geneva, Switzerland, the

7:49

previous year. After

7:51

months of delay, it was finally

7:53

agreed that the two men should meet

7:56

again in politically neutral

7:58

Reykovic, Symbolic, located

8:01

more or less half way between

8:03

the two world powers. The

8:05

main topic of debate was the issue

8:08

of nuclear disarmament, and as

8:10

the Many summit proceeded, the two

8:12

leaders agreed on more than

8:14

they disagreed, with relations

8:17

relatively amicable. Foreign

8:19

journalists who had converged on Iceland's

8:22

capital from all over the world became

8:24

restless for a major news story.

8:27

Before long, they were alerted

8:29

to the fact that many Icelanders

8:32

were said to believe in elves. The

8:35

journalists pounced on Arnie Bejernsen,

8:38

director of the Ethnological Department

8:40

of the National Museum of Iceland. Beyonsen,

8:44

who didn't believe in elves himself,

8:46

was overwhelmed with the reporter's questions,

8:50

keen not to offend any of his fellow

8:52

Icelanders. Bejonsen offered

8:54

a nuanced response to the reporters

8:57

that ultimately fell on deaf ears,

9:00

and so the supposed existence

9:03

of Icelandic elves became

9:05

an international story for

9:08

Icelanders. The fact that many of

9:10

them believed in elves, or rather

9:13

were unwilling to dismiss the possibility

9:15

that they exist, was old news.

9:18

The phenomenon had been examined by an

9:20

Icelandic academic back in the nineteen

9:23

seventies. Just a couple of years

9:25

after that bulldozer operator claimed

9:28

elves had ruined his dig ellan

9:30

der. Haraldson was working as a research

9:33

associate at the American Society

9:35

for Psychical Research when in

9:37

nineteen seventy three he became

9:40

a faculty member at the University

9:42

of Iceland. Ostensibly

9:44

a professor of psychology on the

9:46

Faculty of Social Science, Haroldson

9:49

published in various psychology and

9:51

psychiatry journals, but the

9:54

learned professor had another interest

9:56

less acceptable to mainstream academia,

10:00

and that was in paras psychology.

10:03

Haroldson wrote a number of books,

10:05

including one titled in English

10:08

that Departed Among the Living, in

10:10

which he described surveys and follow

10:13

up investigations that he conducted

10:15

into alleged apparitions and

10:17

related phenomena in Iceland.

10:20

In nineteen seventy four, he carried

10:22

out a survey of Icelandic religious

10:25

and folk beliefs. The results

10:27

were striking. Fifteen

10:30

percent of respondents said

10:32

they thought it very likely that elves

10:34

existed, another seven

10:36

percent were certain of this, and

10:39

five percent claimed to have even seen

10:41

one. Overall, roughly

10:44

a third of Haroldson's survey

10:46

respondents entertained the possibility

10:49

that hidden folk exist. Subsequent

10:59

surveys have consistently confirmed

11:01

Professor Haroldson's findings.

11:04

When a church historian questioned

11:06

people with a professed interest in mysticism,

11:09

seventy percent believed that elves

11:12

existed, while only forty three

11:14

percent thought that space aliens

11:16

had visited Earth. In

11:18

nineteen ninety eight, while polling

11:21

its readers on aspects of politics

11:23

and government, an Icelandic newspaper

11:26

slipped a sneaky extra yes

11:28

or no question into their survey. The

11:31

question inevitably was do

11:33

you believe in elves? Of

11:35

the ninety percent of people who completed

11:38

the survey, fifty four percent

11:40

of them replied yes. In

11:42

two thousand and seven, researchers

11:45

at the University of Iceland's Department

11:48

of Folkloristics decided

11:50

to Readminister Professor Horoldson's

11:52

nineteen seventy four survey. The

11:55

new survey results were, if anything,

11:57

even more emphatic than what Harold

12:00

and found in his original study. While

12:02

only two percent of respondents claimed

12:05

to have seen a UFO, five

12:07

percent again said they'd seen an

12:09

elf, but fifty percent said

12:12

they were open to the possibility that

12:14

elves exist. If

12:16

you arrive in Iceland today, there

12:18

are numerous locations to visit where

12:21

elves are said to reside.

12:23

One of the most well known is the Elfstone

12:26

in gryotfofv Rekvik's

12:28

oldest neighborhood, and like

12:30

many such stones in Iceland, it

12:32

has many strange stories attached

12:35

to it. One such story

12:37

is that when the city was expanding,

12:40

it said that builders wanted to move

12:42

the large rock to make way for

12:44

a house. They tried numerous

12:46

methods to do it. The rock

12:49

still bears the marks from their various

12:51

removal attempts, but nothing

12:53

the builders tried would shift it. In

12:56

the end. A woman said to

12:59

be able to see and speak with elves

13:01

was called in after supposedly

13:04

making contact with them, she confirmed

13:06

that the rock was in fact home

13:09

to some elves, but they would

13:11

be willing to let it be moved if

13:13

they were given a week to prepare and

13:15

if the rock was relocated closer

13:18

to the city center. The

13:20

conditions were agreed, and a

13:22

week later the giant stone

13:24

was apparently moved without any further

13:27

trouble. Then, in twenty

13:29

thirteen, another crop of Elviy

13:31

stones, located ten minutes

13:34

outside Reykievic, became the

13:36

center of national intrigue.

13:39

The lava field known as Galcaroun

13:41

is where two liquid lava waves

13:44

once clashed. As they

13:46

cooled, they froze into dark,

13:48

contorted shapes, which, if

13:50

you squinch your eyes just right, looked

13:53

like a scattering of weird and grotesque

13:55

creatures just waiting to emerge

13:58

from a deep and ancient slumber.

14:01

In twenty thirteen, a new road

14:03

project was instigated by the Icelandic

14:06

Road and Coastal Administration along

14:09

with the nearby municipality of

14:11

Caravabiche, to provide a more

14:13

direct route between the capitol

14:16

and the tip of the alf Tenesh Peninsula,

14:18

where just over two and a half thousand people

14:21

live. In picturesque hamlets of

14:23

red roofed homes. The

14:25

plan was to raise a path right

14:28

through the lava flow to make way

14:30

for a new two lane road, a

14:32

plan that some believed would have

14:34

dire consequences.

14:43

When the new road was announced in twenty

14:45

thirteen, a group of Icelanders

14:47

known as the Friends of the Lava aghast

14:50

at the planned construction started

14:52

a protest, camping out in makeshift

14:55

tents and shelters among the gnarled

14:57

black volcanic rocks. They

15:00

claimed that building the planned road would

15:02

not only destroy some beautiful lava

15:04

formations, but also a habitat

15:07

for birds and small plants. One

15:09

protester, however, was concerned

15:12

about more than the tangible visible

15:14

environment. Ragnhilda

15:16

Jonsdotte, a bespectacled,

15:19

middle aged woman with a kindly face,

15:22

long graying hair, and typically

15:25

dressed in several layers of sensible

15:27

woolen scarves and sweaters,

15:29

is a self described elf seer. She

15:32

was convinced that the lava field was

15:35

densely populated not only

15:37

by hidden folk, but also by

15:39

dwarves, another folkloric

15:41

creature said to live in the region.

15:45

Unmoved by these arguments, as

15:47

standoff ensued between the protesters

15:50

and the Icelandic Road Administration and

15:52

their bulldozer crews. Yon's

15:55

Dotter and the other protesters were eventually

15:57

arrested forcibly, removed

15:59

from the site and for a short time

16:02

jailed. But unwilling

16:04

to give in, Yon's Dotter wrote

16:06

a letter speaking on behalf

16:08

of the elves to the mayor of the local

16:11

town and all its council members,

16:14

as well as to Iceland's president and

16:16

several ministers in the Icelandic

16:18

Parliament. Soon

16:21

the international media got wind

16:23

of the story. Potentially

16:25

facing an international publicity

16:27

disaster, the Icelandic Supreme

16:30

Court decided to halt the road

16:32

construction, citing not

16:34

just environmental and cultural reasons,

16:37

but also the impact on elves.

16:41

Eager to find some kind of resolution,

16:44

the local town officials and two

16:46

representatives of the road administration

16:49

asked Yon's Dotter for her guidance

16:51

on how they might get around the issue

16:53

of the elves. Yon's

16:56

Dootter took them on an ELF walk

16:58

around the proposed construction site.

17:01

There she pointed out the key landmarks,

17:04

including one large rock which

17:06

she claimed was in fact an ELF

17:08

church, and another smaller rock

17:11

which she described as a kind of chapel.

17:14

In the end, the road was

17:17

built, but in accordance with

17:19

what Yon'sdotter said were

17:21

the wishes of the elves. The

17:23

highway was narrowed where it passes

17:26

the Elf church to avoid impinging

17:28

on it, and a large crane

17:30

was used to move the seventy five

17:33

ton Elf chapel out

17:35

of the path of the highway. Yon's

17:38

Dotter was reported as saying that

17:40

the elves were satisfied with the compromises

17:43

and would no longer block the road's

17:46

construction. Despite

17:48

assuming the role as the key mediator

17:51

between the elves and the authorities,

17:53

Yonsdotter still struggled with the

17:55

development. As the workers

17:58

began plowing through the lava, she

18:01

was seen screaming and crying as

18:03

one after another rock was

18:05

bulldozed out of the way, looking

18:08

for all the world, as if it were

18:10

her own home that was being demolished.

18:23

Early in the morning of the twenty eighth

18:26

of August twenty fifteen, sven

18:28

and zokon Nierson, owner of

18:30

a construction and roadwork company

18:33

on the north coast of Iceland, was

18:35

enjoying a cup of coffee when

18:37

he received a call from the police. They

18:40

told him that his services were required

18:42

urgently. One of the local

18:45

roads running along a narrow

18:47

fjord, had become blocked at

18:49

a place called kavannera stunt.

18:52

The area had been experiencing unusually

18:55

heavy rainfall, which triggered a large

18:57

MUDs light onto a road into

18:59

siglaf Fjurdiga, a small fishing

19:01

town of about thirteen hundred inhabitants.

19:05

When Svenna and some of his workers

19:07

arrived at the site, they couldn't

19:10

believe their eyes. The

19:12

road was covered by around twelve

19:14

thousand cubic meters of muddy

19:17

slurry that had washed down from

19:19

the hillside above. The

19:21

crew immediately began clearing

19:23

debris off the road with heavy

19:25

equipment, dumping it on the slope

19:28

below, including on

19:30

top of an unusually large rock

19:33

part way down the slope.

19:35

The rock, unknown to the workers,

19:38

was known locally as alf Conistone

19:41

or the elf Lady's Stone, and

19:44

was reputed to be inhabited by

19:46

elves. No sooner

19:48

had it been covered by debris, events

19:51

took a turn for the worse. First,

19:54

one worker fell and hurt himself

19:57

badly, leaving him unable to

19:59

work for se several days. Even

20:02

when the rest of the team wanted to resume

20:04

excavations, the weather became

20:06

so bad they had to suspend

20:09

operations indefinitely. Then

20:12

a nearby river flooded over not

20:14

just that road, but another road

20:17

in town. Arriving

20:19

with its bulldozer at the site of

20:21

the second mud slight, Svenna

20:23

had just climbed into the vehicle when

20:25

he saw another mud slight coming

20:27

straight toward him as

20:30

it roared down the hillside. Savenna

20:32

jumped out just in time as

20:35

the mud slide crashed into the flooding

20:37

river, sending an explosion of

20:39

muddy water and rocks in all

20:41

directions. The

20:43

next day, the rain had abated,

20:46

so Svenna and his crew resume

20:48

clearing the road close to the Lady

20:51

Elfstone. That afternoon,

20:54

their main bulldozer broke down, causing

20:56

them to stop work yet again. Only

21:00

then did it occur to someone that it might

21:02

not have been a good idea to shovel

21:04

the debris onto the supposedly

21:07

enchanted rock. Meanwhile,

21:10

a reporter from a national TV

21:12

network arrived to cover the unfolding

21:15

story. When he attempted

21:17

to climb up the Elf Lady's Stone

21:19

to shoot some footage, he slipped

21:22

and sank into a pit of mud up

21:24

to his waist and had to be rescued.

21:28

It was then the local council decided

21:30

to remove all the debris covering

21:33

the stone, and then power hosed

21:35

it clean. Over

21:37

the next ten days, the road

21:39

was cleared and repaired without

21:41

further incident. The

21:50

belief that misfortune falls

21:52

on those who try to build in Elf

21:54

territory is now so widespread

21:57

that today the Icelandic Road

22:00

and Coastal Administration as a

22:02

five page standard reply for

22:04

press inquiries about the issue.

22:07

The administration refuses to say

22:10

whether its own employees believe

22:12

in the hidden folk. However, it

22:14

does say that it values the heritage

22:16

of the ancestors and that of

22:19

oral traditions. Say that a

22:21

certain location is cursed, or

22:24

that supernatural beings inhabit

22:26

a certain rock, then quote

22:29

this must be considered a cultural

22:31

treasure. Some Icelanders

22:34

see elves as a reminder of simpler

22:36

times before cities, industry,

22:39

and other developments began leaving

22:42

a permanent imprint on the island.

22:45

Alaric Hall, a lecturer

22:47

at the University of Leeds whose researched

22:50

medieval beliefs, has argued

22:52

that Iceland's elves were actually

22:54

invented by the earliest Viking

22:57

settlers. According to Hall,

23:00

when they arrived there in the eight hundred and

23:02

seventies, they didn't encounter any

23:04

indigenous people, so to

23:06

feel like true conquerors, they

23:08

made them up in the form of elves.

23:12

Professor Hawker Ingi Yonisen

23:15

of Raykovic University rites

23:17

that elves are a ritualistic

23:19

attempt to place significance

23:21

on Iceland's many mountains, hills

23:24

and rivers as a way of imbuing

23:26

the landscape with extra worth

23:29

in a place so at the mercy of erupting

23:32

volcanoes, shifting glaciers

23:35

and shaking ground. Magnus

23:38

Scapyardincent has been running the

23:40

Elf School in Raykovic for over thirty

23:43

years, Operating out

23:45

of a living room packed with books

23:47

and elf figurines. Students

23:50

are taught about elves as well

23:52

as gnomes, dwarfs, fairies,

23:55

trolls and nature spirits,

23:57

including where they live, what they look

24:00

like, their ideas about humans,

24:03

and the other dimensions that elves

24:05

are said to live in. Magnus

24:08

claims to have met more than nine hundred

24:10

Icelanders, as well as five hundred

24:12

foreigners from forty countries. Who

24:15

have seen elves. Of

24:17

those, three hundred and eighty say

24:19

that they have talked with elves, while

24:21

sixty odd claimed to have had a lifetime

24:24

friendship with an elf. Around

24:27

fifteen of these told Magnus

24:29

that they'd even been invited into

24:31

elf houses in another dimension.

24:35

He asked them what the elves said

24:37

to them. Invariably, they

24:39

replied that the Hidden folk

24:41

were concerned about the environment, pollution

24:45

and global warming. They

24:47

told the people, you have to stop

24:49

destroying the atmosphere. You

24:51

will kill yourself and you will

24:53

kill us and all of the other

24:56

dimensions too.

25:04

When writer Mary Anne Eloise

25:07

made a visit to Iceland in twenty

25:09

twenty two, she was skeptical

25:11

about tales of the Hidden Folk. After

25:14

a few hectic days traveling around

25:16

the country, she decided to wind

25:19

down by visiting a quiet park

25:21

in Half near Fjordida on the southwest

25:24

coast. Although it

25:26

was said to be home to some elves, she

25:28

found the location a quiet and

25:30

low key tourist trap. It

25:33

did have a scattering of tiny, human

25:35

built elf houses and a gift

25:37

shop selling vials of what were

25:39

labeled as elf dust, but

25:41

the only other visitors she saw were

25:44

a few Icelandic families. As

25:47

Eloise explored the broken surfaces

25:50

of the lava flow. There, she

25:52

peered down a crack in the dark

25:55

twisted volcanic rocks. There

25:58

she saw a thick, hard, and layer

26:01

of clear slime which appeared

26:03

to be colored like a rainbow. It

26:06

made her think of elves

26:09

placing a flower at the spot. She

26:11

inwardly thanked the elves for the

26:13

peace and quiet she was experiencing,

26:16

and then left. As

26:19

it turned out, someone had

26:21

surreptitiously taken a photo

26:23

of Eloise at the exact moment

26:26

she settled by that break in the rock.

26:29

In the image, despite the fact

26:31

it hadn't been raining. As Eloise

26:34

is seen crouched down staring

26:36

into the gap, she is encased

26:39

entirely within a rainbow. Relating

26:43

the incident to an Icelandic professor.

26:46

Later on, Eloise was

26:48

told that she'd just had an encounter

26:50

with the elves and that what

26:53

she'd seen was elf slime.

26:56

The professor left her with a stern

26:58

warning, do not follow

27:01

the elves, no matter what

27:03

they offer. This

27:09

episode was written by Diane Hope

27:12

and produced by Richard mc lean Smith.

27:15

Unexplained is an Avy Club Productions

27:17

podcast created by Richard

27:19

mc lean smith. All other elements

27:22

of the podcast, including the music, were

27:24

also produced by me Richard mc lean

27:26

smith. Unexplained.

27:28

The book and audiobook, with stories

27:31

never before featured on the show, is

27:33

now available to buy world wide.

27:35

You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes

27:37

and Noble, Waterstones, and other bookstores.

27:41

Please subscribe to and rate the show

27:43

wherever you get your podcasts, and feel

27:45

free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas

27:48

regarding the stories you've heard on the show.

27:51

Perhaps you have an explanation of your own

27:53

you'd like to share. You can find

27:55

out more at Unexplained podcast dot

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com and reach us online through twigs

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at Unexplained Pod and Facebook

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at Facebook dot com, Forward Slash

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