ICELANDIC AUTHORITIES have halted construction on a major road project to avoid affecting ‘hidden elves’ living in the country’s wilderness.
The road – a direct route from the Alftanes peninsula, where the president has a home, to the Reykjavik suburb of Gardabaer – has been stopped until the country’s Supreme Court rules on a challenge brought by elf advocates and environmentalists.
The Friends of Lava group fear disturbing elf habitat and claim the area is particularly important because it contains an elf church.
And it’s not the first time issues around Huldufolk, Icelandic for “hidden folk,” have affected planning decisions.
They occur so often that the road and coastal administration has come up with a stock media response for elf inquiries, which states that “issues have been settled by delaying the construction project at a certain point while the elves living there have supposedly moved on.”
Elves are no joke to many in Iceland, population 320,000. A survey conducted by the University of Iceland in 2007 found that 62 percent of the 1,000 respondents thought it was at least possible that elves exist.
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.
Terry Gunnell, a folklore professor at the University of Iceland, said he was not surprised by the wide acceptance of the possibility of elves. He said similar beliefs are found in western Ireland, but they thrive in Iceland because people remain in close contact with the land.
