In search of elves

It's only weeks before Christmas and here I am, in Iceland. I'm not here to see the geysers or even the aurora borealis. I am here for something way more magical. I'm here for the elves.

Icelanders have an elf belief that goes back thousands of years into Norse mythology. A survey carried out in 2006 and 2007 by the University of Iceland showed that 60 per cent of the population still believes in elves or hidden folk (huldufólk in Icelandic) or at the very least keeps an open mind. For Icelanders, elves are invisible nature spirits and kindly people who protect humans in mysterious ways.

And as I look around this barren field of black lava rocks, the freezing wind from the North Atlantic scratching at my face, there is no doubt in my mind that this is a magical place. Hot water bubbling up from the earth makes it sound as if the whole field is a teakettle ready to boil; white clouds of steam sporadically gush up around me. Besides being careful where I walk, I keep my eyes wide open, and my fingers crossed so that I might just get to see an elf.

Childhood beliefs revisited
There was a time when I didn't have to look quite so hard. Once upon a time, I was sure I could see elves and fairies luxuriating on the lily pads in the frog pond and playing up the side of the mountain by the weathered grey barn on my grandmother's farm.

But I got older and I stopped believing. It's hard to say when, or why. Sad to say that lately the only elves in my life have been Snap, Crackle and Pop, and Santa's helpers at the mall.

Elf 101 at Iceland's Elf School
But in Iceland you don't go to the mall to see or learn about elves. You go to the Elf School or, as they say in Icelandic, Álfaskólinn, located in the capital city of Reykjavik.

A black and white sign on the front door of a squat concrete building directs me up two flights. A knock at the door and I am met by Magnús Skarphéoinsson. He has a beard and glasses, and he looks more like a bear than an elf. (Although he is padding around the Elf School in his bare feet. That's kind of elfish.)

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Magnús is a historian who's been collecting research about elves and hidden folk for 27 years, and teaching people about the different types of Icelandic elves since 1992. "There are at least two nations living here in Iceland," he explains. "The Icelandic people that I belong to and then there's this hidden people's nation."

I expect him to smile, but he's dead serious.

"So far I have met more than 700 Icelanders who have seen elves and hidden people." He points to boxes filled with cassette tapes of interviews about elf encounters.

The anatomy of an elf
"Elves have human forms, but they are smaller," he says, "from 10 centimetres up to about one metre. We have descriptions of at least 13 different types of elves. The hidden people, however, are human-size. You can't see anything different between them and us except that they are invisible most times."

That could be why I'm having trouble seeing them. They're invisible. He says the huldufólk speak Icelandic, wear clothes, have boats, horses, cars and even computers, and they live in the country, where their homes look like old-fashioned farms.

The elf spirits and hidden folk protect nature, Magnús tells me, and not only have they been friends to humans, but they have also actually saved their lives.

He has heard countless stories of travellers getting lost in the woods and the next thing finding themselves in the home of an elf, being fed, having their clothes dried, being given a bed, and in the morning being put back on the right track. Some of these encounters have turned into friendships between the hidden folk and humans that have gone on for generations.

Don't mess with the elves
And not all these stories are from a hundred years ago. Even the Icelandic highway department usually tries to find out from local people before roads are planned if elves or hidden people are living there. "We should respect them and be aware of their presence," says Magnús, "and try not to destroy nature where they have their houses. If you decide to mess with elves, expect things to get misplaced or go missing. There is the story about the woman who swears an elf woman living beside her house keeps borrowing her scissors, then returning them weeks after in a place she had already looked. On construction sites where an elf community is disturbed, there are stories of huge machines breaking down and even being overturned. They may be small, but their wrath can be great."

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Be good for goodness sake
Even now, at Christmastime, the 13 special elf brothers called the Yule or Christmas Lads are not so jolly, and have the reputation of being tricksters. They steal food and tease, bang at your door and make off with your candlesticks. In the mid-20th century, the Yule Lads began to leave small presents for good children and rocks for naughty ones. (I think Santa might be a cousin to those lads.)

Although I never got to see an elf or a Yule Lad, I certainly saw signs that people believe in them. Outside Reykjavik, I spotted several small brightly painted doors on the sides of black lava rocks. And in Hafnarfjördur, which is supposed to have the largest settlement of elves in Iceland, I found a tiny dollhouse sitting out in a field. For a brief moment, I wondered if elves were in the little house looking out at me.

I love the idea that these small spirits protect nature by playing tricks on construction sites. Goodness knows we humans could use the help to look after our planet better.

See it to believe it, or believe it to see it?
I think I am at that in-between stage now. That stage between the time when my wide-eyed imagination was just perfect for seeing fairies and elves, and the time where I need to see to believe.

I want to believe with all my heart that elves are real. I want to believe that there is this other dimension protecting the land we seem so lackadaisical about. But most of all I want to believe in the magic of these hidden people. And for that I may have to look with my heart and not just depend on my eyes.

Have you ever had an elf encounter? Click on the microphone icon and tell us about your experiences with elves, fairies, pixies or other mythological creatures.

Where do you find the true spirit of Christmas?

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