Iceland's hidden elves delay road projects

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Associated Press

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) -- In this land of fire and ice, where the fog-shrouded lava fields offer a spooky landscape in which anything might lurk, stories abound of the "hidden folk" - thousands of elves, making their homes in Iceland's wilderness.

So perhaps it was only a matter of time before 21st-century elves got political representation.

Elf advocates have joined forces with environmentalists to urge the Icelandic Road and Coastal Commission and local authorities to abandon a highway project building a direct route from to the tip of the Alftanes peninsula, where the president has a home, to the Reykjavik suburb of Gardabaer. They fear disturbing elf habitat and claim the area is particularly important because it contains an elf church.

The project has been halted until the Supreme Court of Iceland rules on a case brought by a group known as Friends of Lava, who cite both the environmental and the cultural impact - including the impact on elves - of the road project. The group has regularly brought hundreds of people out to block the bulldozers.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_ICELAND_ELVES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-12-22-03-37-15

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[truthisfreedom]

1. This effort may have legs.

Every time I see the lack of an unnecessary apostrophe I'm heartened.

[cinnabonbon]

2. That is so cute n/t

[Berlum]

3. "One bulldozer to unite them all." - Ye Elven Folk

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

4. Here is some more on the Elves and the road project

Why So Many Icelanders Still Believe in Invisible Elves

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.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/10/why-so-many-icelanders-still-believe-in-invisible-elves/280783/

Originally posted by Icymist in Ancient Wisdom and Pagan Spirituality group; http://www.democraticunderground.com/12191175

[DBoon]

7. better to believe in invisible elves

than in the invisible hand of the market

[freshwest]

11. +1

[Marrah_G]

5. Awesome :)

[valerief]

6. Oy vey. Between America and the damn angels and Iceland and their elves,

what other kind of nonsense is out there? One can speculate most of the world is batshit crazy.

[PasadenaTrudy]

8. Sure seems that way.. n/t

[Exultant Democracy]

9. Only 10% of Icelanders belive in elves, but another 70% say they can't rule them out all together.

I think as with most things in Iceland this is more about the LOLz then anything.

[Quantess]

14. They make their entertainment wherever they can find it

is my guess, anyway.

[MisterP]

10. heh--reminds me of "Where the Green Ants Dream" and other such works of "faction"

(also, Giordano Bruno was a wizard)

[freshwest]

12. Have a friend in Norway who will put out rice pudding on the barn doorstep for the trolls on

Christmas Eve. She doesn't believe in trolls, but what the hell, it's just a reason to cook.

Elves and fairies don't have the same repuation of trolls and are not spoken of as much.

Another friend in Sweden tells me there are trolls kept in the royal gardens, AKA the world heritage site called the Royal Domain of Drottningholm, to keep away intruders.



Of course that picture was taken in the daytime, and they only let them out at night, she said.



An uncle once told me trolls live under the bridges and ate children who didn't obey their parents. He ran away from home but they didn't get him.

Local traditions yielded:

The Fremont Troll



The Fremont troll took up residence under the north end of the Aurora bridge on Halloween 1990, and hasn't left since. He was sculpted by four Seattle area artists -- Steve Badanes, Will Martin, Donna Walter and Ross Whitehead -- for the Fremont Arts Council. The head-and-shoulders sculpture is 18 feet tall.

The shaggy haired troll glares southward with his shiny metal eye -- a hubcap? In his left hand, he crushes an old style Volkswagen Beetle, which originally contained a time capsule of Elvis memorabilia; it was removed after the car was vandalized and the California license plate was stolen (The crushed car and out-of-state plate were meant as protests against "outsider" development). There are plenty of places to pose, and interaction with the troll is encouraged.

The community pays tribute to the troll every October 31st with a mobile "Trollaween" party, starting under the bridge and wandering to other funky art sites and events in Fremont. Of which there are plenty: Fremont is also home to the Largest Lenin statue in the US.

The troll achieved more notoriety in 1998 when the a man shot a bus driver and ran the bus off the Aurora bridge, crashing on top of an apartment building. The building is adjacent to the troll, and was reported to get as much attention -- for a while you could still see evidence of the impact.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2236

Got pictures of friends and kids setting on his hands, too. I hope he stays there a long time.

As far as the action in Iceland, any excuse will do. I doubt they really believe in elves. Although some of the old religions have been on the upswing, maybe.

Every inch of the planet doesn't need to be part of a transportation grid. Leave a little wilderness...

[ConcernedCanuk]

13. "I got married in a church with a god just as invisible as the elves, . . . "

.
.
.

From the link in the OP:

Andri Snaer Magnason, a well-known environmentalist, said his major concern was that the road would cut the lava field in two, among other things, destroying nesting sites.

"Some feel that the elf thing is a bit annoying," said Magnason, adding that personally he was not sure they existed. However, he added, "I got married in a church with a god just as invisible as the elves, so what might seem irrational is actually quite common" with Icelanders.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

hmmmmm . . .



CC

[maxsolomon]

15. A look at Google Maps is pretty enlightening

Last edited Mon Dec 23, 2013, 07:16 PM - Edit history (1)

the divided highway 40 goes SW along the harbor, and then Alftanevegur Rd. goes straight out the peninsula to Alftanes for about 6km. There's a neighborhood north of 40 that abuts the lava field, with a nice juicy roundabout right at the NW corner.

You can also note the Alftanes Golf Course, and many parcels cleared for development on the Peninsula.

The lava field cut-off would go along the waterfront, i assume - it only looks like it would save a kilometer of distance, tops.

They really really don't need to build this road. If the elves are what it takes to stop it, well, it's only crazy if it doesn't work.