Icelandic mythology sagas and tales. Interesting about Iceland: myths and facts

Strange, but Iceland is not so popular with tourists. And in vain, because there are so many amazing things to see! And it would also be very interesting to get acquainted with the habits, traditions and customs of local residents, because some of them are very unusual. Yes, and often the Russians have a wrong idea about the locals, as a result of which there are many "myths" associated with Iceland. A lot of things there are completely different from what they used to think. This article will consider some features of the life of local residents in order to put all the points above the "and".
Contrary to popular belief, a very small number of people live in Iceland. Approximately 300-320 thousand. Agree, it's really not enough. An interesting fact is that almost everyone there is familiar to each other. Do you know about the famous "rule of six handshakes"? So in Iceland, the rule of three or even two handshakes most likely applies.

Another very unusual fact is that there are no surnames in Iceland. Instead, local residents have analogues of patronymics. The ending “dottir” (if daughter) or “son” (if son) is added to the name of the father of the child. Thus, the so-called patronymic is obtained.
Many people think that it is very cold in Iceland in winter, but this is not at all the case, because the air temperature here rarely drops below -6 degrees.
Some habits of Icelanders cannot but surprise. For example, spitting on the streets is not a manifestation of bad upbringing, so everyone there is spitting without exception, including girls.
Icelanders are very tolerant and polite with visitors. If you didn't like local residents they will never show you. But on the contrary, they will always demonstrate a good disposition towards you by constantly touching you, as if by chance.
Also, the tolerance of Icelanders is manifested in their attitude towards people of non-traditional sexual orientation. Not so long ago same-sex marriages were allowed. Gay pride parades are held annually. Yes, and the percentage of bisexuals is quite high.
It will seem surprising and strange to many tourists, but everyone here drinks water from the tap. Even in restaurants you will be served ordinary tap water. In fact, there is nothing unusual here, because the water comes from the local famous thermal springs, and therefore the water is absolutely drinkable.
As you know, Icelanders eat mainly fish, so in any restaurant you will find a choice of huge amount fish dishes. However, Icelanders have a strange habit of using various sauces, mayonnaise and ketchup over the top. They pour sauces on the dish so heavily that you may not even feel the taste of the dish itself, so warn the waiter in advance about your taste preferences.

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The Ghost of Snaifell

Icelandic legend

In ancient times there lived in Snaifell a pastor named Jone, and nicknamed Steadfast. He was the son of Thorleif. Pastor Jone was a wise man, and in those days this was a great boon for many. He was married twice, his first wife was named Sesselya, she bore the pastor three children, one of them lived with his father, and his name was also Jone. The pastor had no children by his second wife.
It so happened that Jone, the pastor's son, fell in love with their maid. The pastor's shepherd also fell in love with her. As often happens in such cases, Jone and the shepherd were at enmity with each other. One day, at the beginning of winter, the shepherd went to the mountains to drive home the sheep, but at that time icy conditions began, and he returned home without a flock. The pastor decided that the shepherd was simply scared, and began to send his son Jon for the sheep. Jón didn't want to go to the mountains.
“There, apparently, there really is no way to get through,” he said to his father.
But the pastor did not want to listen to anything, and Jone had to obey. He did not return from this campaign, he died somewhere in the mountains, and it is not even known whether his corpse was found or not. It is unlikely that his ashes rested in peace in the cemetery, because this dead man began to visit both the maid and the shepherd. Soon the ghost became famous for its viciousness, most often it lived on the slopes of Snaifell and pestered travelers by throwing stones at them. In the pastor's estate, it broke windows, killed sheep, and sometimes sat with women spinning wool in the common room, and in the evening they always put food on it, like all household members.
One day a pastor's worker heard someone skinning dried fish. He looked up and saw a ghost.
“Get a knife, buddy,” the worker said.
“Dead people don’t need knives,” the ghost replied.
The one who shared food with him, it never touched and did not throw stones at him.
One winter in those parts it happened that in all the houses at once the supply of tobacco came to an end. How to help this trouble, pastor Jone came up with. He learned that tobacco was brought to the North, to Akureyri, and sent a ghost for him, while he generously provided him with food for the journey. They say that in the North one person saw a ghost sitting on a stone and wanting to eat, tobacco lay on the ground at his feet. He take it and say:
– kind person Whoever you are, give me some tobacco!
The ghost looked at him with malice, scooped up tobacco in an armful and disappeared, but tobacco crumbs remained on the stone where it sat.
After this incident, pastor Jone decided to send the ghost to the East in Skorrastadir, to pastor Einar. It is said that Pastor Einar was a school friend of Pastor Jón and it was only with him that Pastor Jón shared his worries and confided his troubles to him. The ghost appeared in Skorrastadir and appeared before Pastor Einar when he was already in bed.
- Do you want to spend the night here? the pastor asked when he saw the guest.
“Yes,” replied the ghost. The visitor seemed suspicious to the pastor. Unexpectedly, he rushed at the pastor, but he managed to grab a board from the bed and hit the guest so hard that he injured his arm. At this point, the ghost had to open up to the pastor and give him the letter.
The pastor told him to get out, but the guest asked to be given some assignment. Then the pastor pretended to approve such a desire, and ordered him to return home, meet Pastor Jone at the cemetery gate at the end of the service, and give him a letter from him. The ghost did not want to return home, but had to obey. It met Pastor Jone at the gates of the cemetery and handed him a letter, and spells from ghosts were written in that letter. Pastor Jone immediately began to conjure the ghost so that it would leave both people and cattle alone and disappear into underworld. There was such power in the spell that the ghost immediately disappeared under the ground and, they say, since then has not harmed anyone.
And they also say that one old woman, it seems to be Gudni from Arnarfjord, envied the wisdom of pastor Einar and decided to compete with him. The sorcerer Leif advised the old woman not to joke with the pastor, but she neglected good advice. And so, they say, one evening in Skorrastadir there was a knock at the door. Pastor Einar told his daughter to see who had come. She went to the door, but there was no one there. Then they knocked a second time and a third, the pastor's daughter came out at every knock, but she did not see anyone. The fourth time she went to the threshold and found a man around the corner of the house, he said that he needed to see the pastor. She invited him into the house, but the pastor warned her not to go ahead of the guest, and so she let him through first. The room was bright, pastor Einar sat at the table and wrote.
- On what matter did you complain? he asked the guest.
- Strangle the pastor from Skorrastadir! - the guest could hardly utter, because he began to lose strength at the mere glance of Pastor Einar.
The pastor put the guest to bed in the attic, and drove out of him evil spirit. And the next day, old Gudni died in Arnarfjord, because the pastor sent to her the same spirit that she had sent to him the day before.

Grim and water spirit

Icelandic legend

Grim was the same man who gave his name to Grimsay, an island north of Iceland. One day he went fishing with his servants and his little son Thorir. The boy became cold and was stuffed up to his shoulders in a sealskin bag. Suddenly, a water spirit caught on the hook. His face is human, but his body is a seal.
“Either you tell us the future,” said Grim, “or you will never see your home again.
“First of all, take me off the hook,” the water spirit asked, and when the people fulfilled his request, he dived into the water and surfaced away from the boat.
“For you and your servants, my prediction has no meaning! he shouted. - Your time expires, Grim, and before spring we will see you again. But the boy in the sealskin sack has a different future. Let him leave Grimsey and settle where your mare Skalm lies under the pack.
In the winter, Grim and his servants again went to fishing, this time without the boy. Suddenly the sea was agitated, although there was no wind, and they all drowned to one, as the water spirit had predicted.
Thorir's mother set out with him south. All summer the mare Skalm walked under the pack, never laying down. But when they came abreast of two red dunes north of Borgarfjord, the mare suddenly lay down, and the Grim family settled on the lands by the Cold River, between the hill and the sea.
Many years later. Thorir grew old and blind. But one summer evening he went out to the threshold of his house and suddenly received his sight. And having regained his sight, he saw a freak of enormous growth, which was sailing in a boat along the Cold River. Swimming to the hill, the stranger disappeared into the crevice. And on the same night, fire broke out from under the ground, and lava flooded the surroundings and covers them to this day. Thorir died that night from the eruption of the volcano that bears his name. It is said that Grim comes out of the sea and visits his son, and that if the weather is calm, if you put your ear to the ground, you can hear their voices and the snoring of the mare Skalm, who drinks water from a stone log behind their back.

Skessa Krauka

Icelandic legend

In ancient times, on Mount Blaufjall, there lived a skessa named Krauka. Traces of her cave are still visible, but this cave is located so high that people never climb there. Krauka caused a lot of harm to the inhabitants of Myvatnsveit, she attacked livestock, stole sheep and even killed people.
They said about her that she is not indifferent to men and is very burdened by her lonely life. It happened that Krauka abducted men from the village and kept them at her place, but none of them liked her, and they strove to escape from her and were more likely to die than answer her harassment.
One day, Krauka kidnapped a shepherd from the Baldursheim farm, his name was Jón. She dragged Krauk Jone to her cave and let's regale him with all kinds of food, and he only turns up his nose. She tried so hard to please him, but it was all in vain. Finally, the shepherd said that he would not mind eating a twelve-year-old shark. She charmed Krauk, found out that such a shark is only in Siglunes, and decided to get this delicacy for the shepherd at all costs. She left him alone in the cave, and set off on her own. She walked a little, and suddenly she wanted to check if the shepherd had run away. Krauka returned home and found the shepherd where she had left. She was on her way again. She walked and walked and again began to doubt: what if the shepherd ran away. She returned to the cave, she sees: the shepherd is sitting where he used to sit. For the third time, Krauka set out on her journey, and no longer doubted anything. Nothing is said about her campaign, except that she got hold of shark meat and ran home the same way.
And the shepherd waited for Krauka to go away, jumped up and rushed to his heels. She saw Crouk that he was gone, and set off in pursuit. The shepherd is running, and the stones rumble behind him - he is about to catch up with him.
“Wait, Jon! she screams. "Here's shark meat for you!" It lay in the ground for twelve years and another winter!
The shepherd does not respond, he runs with all his might. He ran to the farm, and his owner at that time worked in the forge. Jone ran into the forge and hid behind the owner, and Krauka was already right there. The owner snatched the red-hot iron from the forge and ordered Krauke to get away and never again touch his people. Nothing to do, Krauke had to get out. But whether she attacked the owner of Baldursheim after that, we do not know anything.

Scott of River Farm

Icelandic legend

One bond was called Jone; he lived at the River Farm, he had a daughter Gudbjorg. As he lay on his deathbed, he gave his daughter a sheep's bone that had corks in it, and told her not to take those corks out or she would be in trouble.
Then the old man died, and his daughter Gudbjorg married a man named Eirik, and they went to live at River Farm after Jón.
In those days, on the Letovye of the Flint River, there lived a bond whose name was Sigurd. His land was barren, and he wanted to enclose the land of the River Farm for himself. The couple from River Farm wanted to drive Sigurd away, but they could not.
Then it occurred to Gudbjorg that now was the time to open the bone. So she pulled out the plugs, thick smoke flew out. He pulled himself together and turned into a woman, if you can call it a woman.
Gudbjorg told her to go at once and drive Sigurd from the Flint River Letovya. The ghost immediately went and treated Sigurd so badly that he had to move to sleep on another farm, because, according to him, there is no peace to sleep at home because of the demons tormenting him.
The next spring, Sigurd left his district because of this misfortune. As soon as Scotta had completed her task, she returned to Gudbjorg's house and asked where she should go now. But Gudbjorg was confused, and then Scott began to torment her, and in the end she went crazy. Madness was common in her family, and one of her close relatives opened her wrists.

Scott from Mosquito Lake

Icelandic legend

At Mosquito Lake, on Eagle Lake, there lived two bonds, who were sorcerers. There were bad rumors about these bonds.
One winter it happened that a poor girl died in a snowstorm on the heath, west of Stone Ford, and one of the above-mentioned bondsmen found out what had happened, went west into the heath at night and revived this girl before she got cold. Then in the morning he returned home with her, told her to go into the hut in front of him, and told her to kill her roommate.
Then she went inside, and he later followed her, but as soon as she entered there, the bond suddenly sat up in bed and ordered her to attack the one who was following her, and she did so. She grabbed him and threw him across the room like a ball, while the other sat in bed and laughed. However, he told her not to kill him, and so then she wandered around and pursued this kind for a long time. For example, when Illugi Helgason wrote poems about Ambales, she interfered with him for hours, so that he could not compose at that time.
For a long time she pursued a certain Arnthor, who lived in the Valley of Smokes, and when he died, she appeared on the wall of the pen next to the woman who milked the cows, and said:
'Where to go now, now that Arnthor is dead?'
Then the woman said:
“Go to hell and persecute that kind!”
Later, she wandered and pursued various people. After a short time, curiosity overcame fear, so I decided to peep from under the covers. The moon was bright again, and now I saw the girl much better than before. She was undoubtedly closer to the bed than before. I watched her for a while. But suddenly she began to scowl at me, and it was so terrible that it will forever remain in my memory.
In the end, I managed to wake up my grandmother and tell her that I couldn’t sleep because a girl was standing by the bench in front of the bed. Grandmother said that I must have dreamed this nonsense, because as I can see now, there is nothing there. And it was true, now there was no one to be seen. I described this girl's clothes and herself to my grandmother as clearly as I could, because I was offended that she did not believe me.
She said that we should repeat our prayers and then I might be able to sleep. We did it. Then I moved in bed for my grandmother and soon fell asleep.
When I woke up in the morning, it was already late. The first thing I saw, as soon as I opened my eyes, was a stranger sitting on a bench directly across from me.
Later, when I was walking nearby, by chance I overheard a conversation between my mother and grandmother. Grandmother told me about what happened to me at night. Then I heard my mother say:
- Well, what can you do! It seems like she just wanted to frolic in front of him.
I found out that it must have been Scott, moreover, later I heard that she was stalking a visitor and his family.

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Integral part Scandinavian mythology is Icelandic mythology, while the first is itself a branch of the mythology of the Germanic peoples. In the Icelandic sagas, this country is presented as the core of the Scandinavian world. But in subsequent centuries, its mythology was noticeably influenced by Christianity. The main source of knowledge about Icelandic mythology is the prose and poetic Edda.

First comes "Elder Edda", which contains poems dedicated to the gods and heroes of time immemorial. Heroic and mythological songs are presented here. In 1643, the "Royal Code" was found - the only list of these songs. Eddic poetry is characterized by anonymity- no one knows the authors, she has quite simple form, and the content may concern not only the gods and legendary heroes but also the rules of worldly wisdom. Eddic songs are full of events and actions. Each song tells about one episode from the life of a hero or god, it is composed extremely succinctly. Conventionally, the "Elder Edda" is divided into 2 parts: songs about the gods relate to the mythological side of the past, and the second part is dedicated to the heroes. Best known in Elder Edda» song "Divination of the Volva", which describes the former world from the moment of its creation to the tragic death of the gods, which led to the revival of the new world.

"Younger Edda" can be called a reference guide, which contains descriptions of the gods and their activities, there are also some stories about the life of heroes and gods.

According to historians, the sagas that make up the Poetic Edda acquired their present form between 900-1050. Around 1220, the Icelandic skald Snorri Sturluson compiled the Prose Edda. In fact, this ancient mythology was rediscovered, which was enthusiastically received by all the Germanic peoples. The Eddas have become an invaluable asset for all mankind.

The gods in Scandinavian mythology are divided into two categories: the younger one is represented by the "vans" responsible for fertility, and the older one is the "aces" associated with military affairs. There is a point of view that the Ases were the gods of the warlike Vikings, and the Vanirs were more revered by their settled relatives. Ases lived in Asgard - the heavenly country of the gods, the supreme among which was Odin. In addition to Odin, there were a dozen more gods in the pantheon: Thor, Tyr, Balder, Bragi, Heimdall, Vidar, Hod, Vali, Loki, Freyr, Njord, Ull. The Vanirs were at enmity with the Aesir for some time.

There were also female goddesses in the pantheon:

• the wife of Odin Frigga, who is in charge of destinies;
• goddess of love Freya;
• keeper of rejuvenating golden apples Idun;
• the wife of the Thunderer Thor, the golden-haired Sif (possibly associated with fertility);
• there were other goddesses.

Odin and his retinue in the heavenly palace of Valhalla were served by Valkyrie maidens who decided the fate of warriors during battles and chose heroes worthy of Valhalla. In this palace of Odin, located in Asgard, there was a colossal banquet hall.

In addition to the ancient gods, the Icelanders believed, and many still believe in the existence of elves, trolls and gnomes., and these mythical characters somewhat different from those that "live" in other parts of Scandinavia. So, the Norwegians have small trolls, and the Icelanders have giants living in the mountains. Dwarves, as they should, live among the rocks and underground. In Iceland, the latter are called "huldufoulk", that is, " underground inhabitants» , whose world is like a mirror image of ours, but otherwise they are similar to us. Icelanders deeply believe in everything supernatural, so numerous Icelandic fairy tales are full of miracles, and in general they perfectly reflect the depth of ancient Icelandic culture.

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