Why So Many Icelanders Still Believe in Invisible Elves

I wasn’t sure where to put this but all things considered it takes faith to believe such things and the lore around this is intertwined with their theology.

At the edge of the ancient Gálgahraun lava field, about a 10-minute drive outside Iceland’s capital city of Reykjavík, a small group of local environmentalists has made camp among the gnarled volcanic rock, wild moss, and browning grass to protest a new road development that will slice the bucolic landscape into four sections and place a traffic circle in its core. The project, led by the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration and the nearby municipality of Garðabær, will provide a more direct route to and from the tip of the Álftanes peninsula, where the rustic, red-tiled compound of the country’s president and an eponymous hamlet of 2,600 people stand.

The Hraunavinir, or “Friends of the Lava,” believe that any benefits from a project that snakes through Gálgahraun are cancelled out by its cultural and environmental costs. According to protester Ragnhildur Jónsdóttir, the thoroughfares would destroy some of the “amazingly beautiful lava formations” and spoil a habitat where birds flock and small plants flourish. One of Iceland’s most famous painters, Jóhannes Sveinsson Kjarval, once worked on his canvases there, perhaps magnetized by the charm of the terrain’s craggy natural relics.

Not all of the arguments against the development are so straightforward. At least a few believe it will displace certain supernatural forces that dwell within the hallowed volcanic rubble, and fear the potentially dark consequences that come with such a disturbance. Jónsdóttir, a greying and spectacled seer who also operates an “elf garden” in nearby Hafnarfjörður, believes the field is highly populated by elves, huldufolk (hidden people), and dwarves, many of whom, she says, have recently fled the area while the matter is settled.

One of the many oddly shaped rocks at the lava field houses “a very important elf church,” which lies directly in the path of one of the roads, according to Jónsdóttir. Both she and another seer visited the field separately and came to the same conclusion about the spot. “I mean, there are thousands or millions of rocks in this lava field,” she said, “but we both went to the same rock or cliff and talked about an elf church.” She knows about the elf church because she can see it, she says, and also sense its energy, a sensation many Icelanders are familiar with.

Read more at The Atlantic

Well people believe stranger things with less evidence but until today I had no idea they believed this. Lord of the rings was cool movie/movies and all however I never gave any thought to whether or not any of the creatures in it could be real. Obviously some people have.

Grimpachi
One of the many oddly shaped rocks at the lava field houses “a very important elf church,” which lies directly in the path of one of the roads, according to Jónsdóttir. Both she and another seer visited the field separately and came to the same conclusion about the spot. “I mean, there are thousands or millions of rocks in this lava field,” she said, “but we both went to the same rock or cliff and talked about an elf church.” She knows about the elf church because she can see it, she says, and also sense its energy, a sensation many Icelanders are familiar with.

Wow... what ironic timing.
I just watched this last night:




Now, granted... some of the people in that documentary seem like total nutjobs, but... there has to be something to it, doesn't there?

This, I find compelling:

Well, many main stream religions believe in angels and devils, I really do not see the difference in beliefs.

It is always easy to knock someone else's beliefs without examining the similar beliefs that you stand by. 'Nah mate, Elves and fairies, no way. Now, I'll just say my prayers to invisible beings and go to sleep.

P

Invisible elves are the best sort. You cannot disprove their existence.

How can you disprove something you cannot see or touch?

You can only say "It has no effect on the world." and ignore it.

or.. say "Holy smokes the invisible elves are stealing my crops! I must sacrifice a goat!" and then eat goat testicles for dinner..

reply to post by Grimpachi


I would have never belived in little people like that until I saw this..Sirius Documentary of 6 Inch Human

A 6" human...

Scientists are still baffled at that one, so if a 6" adult human existed in Chile, then why not in Iceland?

pheonix358
Well, many main stream religions believe in angels and devils, I really do not see the difference in beliefs.

It is always easy to knock someone else's beliefs without examining the similar beliefs that you stand by. 'Nah mate, Elves and fairies, no way. Now, I'll just say my prayers to invisible beings and go to sleep.

P

They are only invisible to the naked eye...

Did you know that?

reply to post by Grimpachi


So what they are saying is that the invisible elves are Christian?

They go to church, apparently.

There are many cultures that believe in sacred land spirits, and sometime progress and land development dislodges these beings from their Homelands, causing imbalances not only to the spirits of the land, but also to those who are extrasensitive to their presence.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and admit to having my own sensitivites where Nature Spirits are concerned. Even though I am here in America, it can be challanging when confronted with angry spirits when they have been displaced. Some healers and senstives can be overwhlemed with trying to help the being find peace and a new home in the modern world.

A large part of the world is already under construction and sustained development, and at some point we need to weigh the environmental impact of such projects - I'd like to think that in Iceland - with such a rich cultural mythology and heritage, such considerations are already a given.

GENERAL EYES

There are many cultures that believe in sacred land spirits, and sometime progress and land development dislodges these beings from their Homelands, causing imbalances not only to the spirits of the land, but also to those who are extrasensitive to their presence.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and admit to having my own sensitivites where Nature Spirits are concerned. Even though I am here in America, it can be challanging when confronted with angry spirits when they have been displaced. Some healers and senstives can be overwhlemed with trying to help the being find peace and a new home in the modern world.

A large part of the world is already under construction and sustained development, and at some point we need to weigh the environmental impact of such projects - I'd like to think that in Iceland - with such a rich cultural mythology and heritage, such considerations are already a given.

Native Americans have legends of little people also.

It is so hard to grasp when we live in a world of "seeing is believing" and then when one does see something, no one else believes it. I think that has reduced our mental capabilities, instead of expanding them. When a mind is closed, it can become so closed that even now, the virtual reality of the internet has supplanted real life for some people.

People are losing their ability of face-to-face communication, so it only makes sense that if they can't perceive reality any longer, then how will they grasp the unseen?

There are people who communicate only via text messages, lives are lived on facebook, and yes, much life is spent on ATS as well. But this closure has come by technology, so imagine the technology of the future, which many people are claiming that we will have telepathic communication, which is funny as telepathic communication is a very old idea.

This is taking us full circle, but those who rely on electronic communication who say "Seeing is believing", have an air of arrogance, because what we are going into, the ancients already knew.

I have seen the proposal on another thread about the melding of religion an science as the way of the future, but that's called magick, and in their mind didn't reconcile that it already exists. So it's coming full circle, what the ancients knew, we are knowing now, but it is just packaged with plain paper and given a new name. Same old same old....there is nothing new under the sun.

The difference is, people today are waiting for scientists to verify what has already existed. It's as though their minds are conditioned to accept something only if a scientist tells them it is ok to believe something. And science is taking them right back to the beginning, what the ancients knew, we are just learning.

reply to post by WarminIndy


WOW I have never seen that befor you should start a thread on that. 6 inch human..... It's still hard to believe.