Elves in Distress

Icelandic Huldufólk Legends in Light of Nineteenth-Century Internal Migration

Abstract

The Icelandic huldufólk (hidden folk) transitioned from dangerous, unpredictable beings to the pastoral ideal of conservative Icelandicness over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Contemporary huldufólk legends often feature humans protecting huldufólk from construction projects or other dangers threatening local landscapes, or conversely emphasize the revenge sought by huldufólk if landscapes are destroyed. I examine two subgenres of Icelandic huldufólk legends: ljósmóðir hjá álfum (midwife to the fairies), a migratory legend type, and nauðleitan huldufólks (hidden folk seeking aid) as classified in the Icelandic folklore database Sagnagrunnur, to find forerunners to the aforementioned contemporary legends. Positive interactions within these legends reflect nineteenth-century socioeconomic changes: population growth, internal migration, and the displacement of the rural poor. I contrast these two legend types with a larger corpus of hefndir huldufólks (hidden folk’s revenge) legends, highlighting how internal Icelandic displacement and close or home settings characterize the positive interaction legends, but not the ones about negative interactions. This difference is gendered, with female storytellers’ repertoires proportionally likelier to contain positive interaction legends. In contrast, hefndir huldufólks legends negotiate danger within a wilderness landscape disconnected from internal migration, and potential fears surrounding the loss of children in harsh environments rather than economic hardship.