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Tag Archives: supernatural

Snæfellsness, Iceland in miniature. Posted by on Nov 30, 2012

If you look over Faxaflói (= Horse mane bay) on a clear day you can see the white peak of Snæfellsjökull (= Snow mountain glacier) on Snæfellsnes (= Snow mountain cape) over a hundred kilometres away. It’s the tallest mountain of the peninsula, rising over 1400 m from the sea, and considered the most beautiful glacier…

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The heartbroken girl who became a legend. Posted by on Oct 23, 2012

As far as obsessive love that goes on to death and beyond, the Djákninn á myrká isn’t actually even close to being the worst of his kind. The crown of Iceland’s most horrifying ghost goes instead to a young lady called Solveig, who used to live in a place called Míklabæ, giving the name to…

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Don’t let them see you. Posted by on Oct 18, 2012

By now you may have noticed that the October posts follow a certain… theme. Let’s now continue with more scary creatures fit for the season – Icelandic cat-fox monsters skuggabaldur (= shadowbaldur: the origin of the name seems to be a mystery) and skoffín. Of these the skoffín had a fox as its father and…

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Tilberi. Posted by on Oct 15, 2012

A notable thing about witchcraft in Iceland is that it used to be more common for men to practice it than women. Yet there is one Icelandic magical creature that could only be created by a woman – the tilberi. To make one she would have to dig up a dead body in secret and…

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Here, there, trolls everywhere! Posted by on Oct 12, 2012

Tröllið er þar / tröllið er þarna; tröllið er hér / tröllið er hérna: which sentences do you think should make you react faster? What about the difference between tröllið kemur héðan as opposed to tröllið kemur hingað? Of the first two examples both translate as “the troll is there” and the latter two as “the troll…

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The moon is shining, the dead man’s riding. Posted by on Oct 7, 2012

Djákninn á Myrká (= The deacon of the Darkriver) is one of the most famous ghost stories of Iceland. Versions of it are known throughout Europe where the story’s often told with almost an identical plot. The main figure’s occupation and the way his love interest manages to save herself in the end vary – often…

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The mystery of shieldmaidens. Posted by on Oct 3, 2012

“…no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Éowyn I am, Éomund’s daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him.” ~Éowyn, battle of Pelennor fields, J.R.R. Tolkien It’s perhaps hard to say…

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