Overview
About Hidden People
An imagined neighbouring society
Huldufólk, commonly translated as hidden people, overlap with the elves of Icelandic folklore. In collected legends their world resembles human society: they have homes, elaborate clothing, celebrations and even clergy. Stories of Christmas and New Year gatherings describe music, dancing and brightly lit dwellings inside hills. These are features of a narrative tradition, rather than evidence that supernatural inhabitants exist or that all Icelanders share a particular belief.
How the stories survive
Many surviving accounts were written down in the nineteenth century, including material collected by Jón Árnason. Their recording date matters: a recently collected story cannot automatically establish what medieval people believed. Folklorists study how such narratives express hopes, fears and tensions in everyday society. Árnastofnun's Sagnagrunnur connects published legends with subjects and locations, allowing readers to compare versions and trace the places attached to individual stories.
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