Icelandic Folktales and Legends (Revealing History

by Jacqueline Simpson, Magnus Magnusson (Foreword)

This book of 85 stories from medieval Iceland illustrates a variety of supernatural beliefs concerning elves, gigantic trolls, water monsters, ghosts, wizards and black magic rites, buried treasure and religious tales. The stories are intimately linked to the landscape and reflect the hopes, fears, hardships and preoccupations of everyday life. The translation of each tale is accompanied by an explanatory introduction and notes.

Genres: Folklore, Mythology, History, Folk Tales, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Dr. Jacqueline Simpson (born 1930) is a United Kingdom researcher and author on folklore and legend.
She studied English Literature and Medieval Icelandic at Bedford College, University of London. Dr. Simpson has been, at various times, Editor, Secretary, and President of the Folklore Society. She was awarded the Society's Coote Lake Research Medal in 2008. In 2010 she was appointed Visiting Professor of Folklore at the Sussex Centre of Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy at the University of Chichester, West Sussex. She has a particular interest in local legends (as opposed to international fairytales), and has published collections of this genre from Iceland, Scandinavia in general, and England (the latter in collaboration with the late Jennifer Westwood). She has also written on the folklore of various English regions, and was co-author with Steve Roud of the Penguin Dictionary of English Folklore. She lives in West Sussex, England.
She has been a point of reference for Terry Pratchett since he met her at a book signing in 1997. Pratchett, who was then researching his novel Carpe Jugulum, was asking everyone in the queue how many magpie rhymes they knew; and whilst most people gave one answer – the theme from the TV series Magpie – Simpson stated that she knew "about nineteen". This encounter eventually led to collaboration.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Iceland has a rather unique take on several types of folktales. For one thing, there is a certain physicality to their ghosts, which figure in many of the old sagas, particularly Grettir's Saga and The Eyrbyggja Saga. Secondly, there is a lingering belief in elves and trolls, connected with strange basaltic rock formations that dot the island.

Jacqueline Simpson's Icelandic Folktales and Legends makes for some interesting light reading. Some 30-40% of the text consists of scholarly notes on the provenance of some of the tales. These in themselves are occasionally interesting, especially when some of the tales are current in widely scattered countries, but at other times they detract.

If you are an Iceland freak such as myself, you can't have enough of this stuff.

[Larissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book I picked up while researching an article I was writing about Iceland's huldufólk, or Hidden People. Dr. Simpson's introduction was another invaluable resource for me, with great details about mythological beings and their reception by the people who would have been telling/hearing these tales, as well as further information on the collection of the tales in the first place.

I very much enjoy Dr. Simpson's translations—they retain an oral quality, for one. Additionally, each story is followed by fantastic notes and context, often placing a tale or a strain of tales into a larger thematic family.

A really great reference, and fun reading, too.

[Matthew Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an outstanding collection of stories. I don't read much non-fiction anymore, but this book kept my interests piqued throughout. It not only contains 85 stories referring to various supernatural beliefs, but it also includes an explanatory introduction and notes that link each story intimately to the landscape. The most valuable part of this book is the explanation and notes that are given after each story that tells how the stories still reflect the hopes, fears, hardships and preoccupation of the people who inhabit Iceland today. Even though these stories are depictions of gigantic trolls, wizards and black magic, religious tales, elves or 'the hidden folk', buried treasure, and various water monsters, it allows us to see how they relate to events today and how the people of Iceland's believe they still have an effect, particularly on the environment. This is an invaluable source for research, but more than that, I found it to be an extremely intriguing read, and I had a lot of fun with it.

[Khaliela Wright · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn't Medieval folktales at all. All the stories were from the 1700 & 1800's. There wasn't a single pre-Christian folktale or legend mentioned.

[Nour · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*

[Lizz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting collection of stories, with helpful footnotes for more info.

See my other ten word book reviews at my blog: https://tenwordbookreviews.wordpress....

[Fran Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author has a strange and jarring habit of changing tenses half way through a story, sometimes halfway through a sentence, but apart from that these stories are fascinating and simply told.

[Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an anthology of Icelandic fables and folk lore. It is organized into sections about elves, trolls, water dwellers, ghosts, magic, treasure, and God & the devil. Some of the sections I enjoyed more than others while I conceded that others I struggled to finish. A lot of the tales were more mythical anecdotes than stories, or at least it seemed to me-they were brief bits of trivia that seemed a bit unanchored with not much of a beginning, or middle, or end. Others were more well constructed with proper characters and the usual sections of stories that we expect. I really enjoyed the elf section, as there’s something rather quaint about a hidden secret society living along side our own, and there ability to change the fates of humans was interesting. Trolls were usually fun too, and I loved hearing about water horse monsters. The ghost stories were either hit or miss for me. The verses from the specters with the repeating word use for supernatural effect and warping of holy words was interesting and easy enough to do in ones own writing for a similar affect. The body parts and bones in the ghosts and the open graves all carved a unique somewhat macabre and gory mythos on spirits that I hadn’t seen elsewhere from our modern telling, for the most part. That said, the upturned graves, bones everywhere, etc. got a little nauseating after a while, though perhaps that’s the point? Ditto for the black magic section. The construction of some of these spells and summoned creatures made me rather sick to my stomach. Overall, it was an enjoyable read, and I really enjoyed the little scholary side bars that would connect these mythos to others and note some of the similarities and differences. That said, for me the book began to drag after a while, with all due respect to the stories, tellers, and collectors.

[aja · Rating 4 out of 5]

picked this up for more research into draugar et al, & honestly it was a delight from start to finish. obvs not all of it was directly related to draugar but there's a lot of material i'm prbly gonna reference back to. prbly my favorite section was the detailed instruction of how to perform icelandic necromancy.

[McKenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only read the elves and trolls section and the story of the sealskin in the miscellaneous section as that was my interest. 🧜🏽‍♀️🧚🏽‍♀️
Very charming stories, had already seen most from other collections that I personally preferred but given this collections direct source and thoughtful foreword I enjoyed it‼️

[Zendurak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sehr gut ausgewählte, sich nicht doppelnde Sagen. Die Anmerkungen sind sorgsam, informativ und sehr in die Tiefe gehend, bieten viele Ansätze für weitere Recherche.
Störend ist nur das Layout, die isländischen Buchstaben ð und Þ sind nicht richtig gedruckt, sondern nur quadratische Kästen und auch bei den Absätzen ist teilweise etwas schiefgegangen.

[Cathy Brennan · Rating 2 out of 5]

couldn't get through it. too ambitious for me!

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

We had fun reading these as a family. Great intro to Icelandic Elves and Trolls!

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains raw folk material as recited to the folklorists 200 years ago. As such much of the material does not read like a classic story. Instead it tells of an elvish or a ghostly incident. At the end of the tale the author quotes the source and tells of similar tales found around Europe. Anyone interested in Tolkien or sword and sorcery or medieval fantasy should read this book. These tales are the part of the well spring for all those genre of literature and storytelling.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

not my favorite on the topic

[A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good collection of folktales, but varied and wide-ranging, with some helpful notes at the end of each.