Icelandic Fairy and Folktales (revised 2017)

These folktales and legends from Iceland range from the 14th to the 17th century. They originate from a number of sources, but primarily from the diligent work of Árni Magnússon in the 17th and Jón Árnason of the 19th centuries, both Icelandic scholars, librarians, collectors and compilers of itinerant manuscripts.

These unique and fascinating stories shine a light on Iceland's late medieval rural legends and beliefs in such things as ghosts, trolls, witches, the lindworm -- Iceland's version of the Loch Ness monster -- and the hidden people, or Huldrefolk, that are still given deference and respect even today.

Where practicable, this second revision now includes a number of e-links to Google street or satellite views of the locales as they are today. Please note that most locales are, as they were then, private residences and are not open to the public. Most have been rebuilt elsewhere on the same location and are not the places they once were.