Icelandic Folk Tales

by Hjörleifur Helgi Stefánsson

Iceland is a land where stories are as important as history.

When Vikings settled the island they brought their tales with them.

Every rock, hot spring and waterfall seems to have its own tale: cruel man-eating trolls rub shoulders with beautiful elves whose homes are hidden from mortal view, whilst vengeful ghosts envy the living, seeking to drag lost loves into their graves. Many of the stories in this collection are classic Icelandic tales, while others are completely new to English translation.

Hjörleifur is typically Icelandic and grew up hearing stories from his grandparents.

He is dedicated to breathing fresh life into the stories he loves.

He lives in his native Borgarnes, and also spends a lot of time in Scotland, where he is becoming renowned in the Scottish storytelling circuit.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Mythology, Fiction, Folklore, Fairy Tales, Folk Tales

192 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2020

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so pleased to come across this book and even more delighted now that I have found time to read these stories.

These folk tales reveal something of the people and their beliefs. How difficult and dangerous it has always been for small farming communities in harsh terrain and challenging conditions. I am drawn to Iceland through my love of crime fiction and the many writers that bring the country to life but never stray far themselves in their own storytelling, drawing on the mystery and ghostly heritage every Icelanders shares.

You can imagine the stories being passed down through an oral tradition, giving structure to fairy tales, imaging trolls, meddling elfs and bloodthirsty giants. Providing meaning to topological features and those dark and dangerous places.

Life is hard in these parts and it is wonderfully included in these stories where good luck and the hidden peoples’ favour could make all the difference. But splendid as these tales are, some are told with caution and foreboding. All however have elements of hard work, humour and reflect the generous heart and spirit of a distinct people.

They were a joy to read and I would encourage anyone to dip into this accounts to find encouragement and wonder.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long being a bit Iceland obsessed, I stumbled across Hjörleifur Helgi Stefánsson’s Icelandic Folk Tales in a second hand book store at the beach. An eclectic collection of saga-esque folk tales, some ancient, some modern, some a part of Stefánsson’s own family and community history, filled with everything I’ve come to expect from Icelandic folklore - trolls, ghosts, the huldufólk, elves, demons, Vikings, rocks that house the hidden people and caves galore.

Stefánsson took me on a storytelling tour around the whole of Iceland, from his home in Borgarfjörður, to Látrabjarg, the western most tip of the West Fjords, eastwards to Borgarfjörður Eystri, south to the black sand beaches of Mýrdalur, and across to the southwest Reykjanes peninsula. Every tales has its own flavour, and unique characters and the generational nature of storytelling is evident through the way these tales have been created and passed down from family member to family member.

I savoured these little glimpses into Icelandic life and folklore and allowed myself to read one a day, enjoying where I was taken and being immersed in the land that i love and long to visit again.

Beautiful read.

[lauraღ · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. This was fine. Not quite the folklore I was expecting; it seemed more like a collection of anecdotes that the author collected from his family over the years, with a few sprinklings of historical myths and folk tales. Nothing wrong with that in and of itself; it's great that it had such a personal slant and I did love getting to see Iceland through stories like this. But they just weren't told very interestingly? Or well? At least three times, the phrase 'to make a long story short' was used, and like, that's exactly what I don't want. So many of these stories felt flat, or ended abruptly, or felt a little pointless. Things did get interesting when the author slipped in historical titbits and real life figures or talked about actual places in Iceland and stories surrounding them, but there wasn't nearly enough of that to satisfy me. And what I did get was, again, flat. The writing was just okay; not really striking, and I guess it was going for a casual, whimsical tone? Didn't really get there.

So this wasn't bad at all, but sadly sort of a miss.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The tone of this is 100% "telling stories over an ale in the pub"; not particularly compelling, but fun, and easy to digest. Iceland has some brilliantly weird, dark folklore, and the author tells his tales wonderfully, mixing in the history of his own family. Lovely read.

[Anna]

Interesting collection of folk tales, written in a 'tell by the fireside' style.

[Anne (ReadEatGameRepeat) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really fun collection of short stories - please don't skip the introduction by the author, it really sets the scene for the stories. I had visited Iceland a few years ago and while there I had heard some of the stories in this book while there (or versions of them anyway because the nature of folk tales is that each version is a little bit different). I really adored the writing style, it just reads very authentically Icelandic (I don't know if that's the best word for what I mean - but what I want to say that the authors way of writing and telling stories feels very similar with just the way people in Iceland tell stories and interact).

[Anika · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories were fun and it's nice to learn about other cultures, but the book would've benefitted from another proofreading + editing round.

[Chris Aylott · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a small island, Iceland seems to be full of stories. Clever farmgirls, canny fishermen, trolls, ghosts and selkies are all over the place in these folktales, which have no trouble mixing spooky and funny in the same paragraph.

Hjörleifur has smooth, wry style, occasionally making fun of himself or his modern audience, as when a particularly filthy troll's cave is compared to a teenager's bedroom. Thanks to his sure touch, this charming collection of tales rings familiar but play out in unique ways.

[Abhishek Joshi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Waking up and reading one tale at a time while sipping coffee and listen to the coos of mourning doves was the vibe.

The trolls, elves, ghosts, and giants from these folk tales are just as magical as the land, reminding me of the mystifying feeling I felt in Iceland. It was a reminder that culture lives on in simple stories just as much as the complex myths we have created.

[Marilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

No dry, academic collection of folktales, but a personal and personalized conversation. The author, a true Icelander, effectively welcomes readers into his home where tales are told by the fire or around the table. The author’s parents, grandparents, and neighbors star in many tales; trolls and ghosts in others. The language is personal and enchanting. Some Icelandic terms are untranslated, left for readers to gain meaning from context. Some phrases are almost familiar, but with a slight shift (“not the sharpest knife in the pile”). Other phrases seem unique to the Icelandic culture or to the author himself. (An unusual person "tied knots different than his fellow men.") It’s easy to gather that English is not the author’s first language, and there are a few grammar errors, but the resulting unique expressions make the tales all the more authentic. Very enjoyable

[Anouk Janssen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leuk om te lezen tijdens een roadtrip door IJsland. Je leert iets over de gebruiken en de gedachten van de IJslanders over de ruige landschappen.

Ik had iets meer folklore verwacht van de schrijver en hoopte op iets meer linken met de landschappen. IJslanders houden van het vertellen van magische verhalen over o.a. trollen en elfen. Dan moet ik nu nog maar een boek met folklore lezen.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of folk tales from Iceland. As with any collection, some are great and some are not so great. I think that most of these would have been improved on by hearing them told and not reading them, which is the way folk tales have been passed down for ages.
I appreciated the art included.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very lovely read.
The stories were very simple so it was easy to get too. The writing was sometimes a bit off in my opinion which made some passages hard to understand.
Just a good book if you want to read some folklore.

[Celeste Jamar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too bad the storytelling felt extremely bland because the stories were actually quite interesting 😬

[Ivanka · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Funny stories, but a lot of long weird sentences

[Patricia Madden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much happier than Grim's Fairytales

I was glad to see most of the stories were happy stories. I will definitely seek out more Icelandic stories.

[Nicole D · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book before my trip to Iceland and found it an interesting and informative read. I enjoyed learning some Icelandic folklore

[William Hartman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful

I'm not sure it is possible to find more original or well told folk tales of Iceland. This is an excellent and entertaining collection I will read again and again. You should do yourself a favor and get this book if you enjoy a well told tale.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review for Icelandic Folk Tales

I absolutely loved it! It’s amazing to recognise stories I have heard in a different way. This is a must read book! I look forward to more by this author.

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Not great, but an interesting look at life in Iceland.

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful! What a fun read and full of the little wisdoms of life. Well told!

[Nathan Dehoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection contains a number of brief stories, many of them associated with specific locations in Iceland. He inserts himself into the tales, identifying various characters as ancestors of his. There are several accounts of ghosts, which the author associates with long, dark winters and all the people who die in the wilderness. Also appearing are mountain trolls, whom the writer explains have a reputation for being stupid, but are really quite clever in their own way. Some of them eat people, and they're scared of church bells and sometimes vulnerable to sunlight. We're also told that, on New Year's Eve, cows can talk and elves hold dances, and anyone who joins them is driven crazy. Gray cows in Iceland are explained as being gifts from a merman to a friendly fisherman. One story is about an angry, foul-mouthed man who reforms after he finds a demon who lives on his curses. Some are quite similar to tales from other cultures. There's a selkie tale, but a much more positive one than the traditional kidnapping model, with the seal maiden willingly marrying a young man and telling him to hide her coat, and his eventually realizing he has to let her go. Her name is Indiana, which doesn't look that Icelandic to me. Another is a variation on Rumplestiltskin, with an old woman who makes someone guess her name, then sings it out for no particular reason. A tale of a boy who doesn't know fear also makes the character kind of a jerk. He vanquishes a ghost and some ghouls, and finally feels fear when he's healed from beheading, but with his head on backwards. "The Scythe" also involves bodily reassembly, this time with a dog being split in half and then put back together by a magical midwife. Its legs end up pointing in different directions, but it turns out to be to the canine's advantage.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nice collection of stories that feel really personal and gives an inside look into Icelandic myths, folklore, and lifestyles. I’ve only ever been to Iceland in passing so my knowledge is very minimal. It was nice to get a look into that culture and hear stories I’ve never heard before.

Everything was also very visual, even though I didn’t know a lot of what I was reading about, I could still picture a lot. And I liked that I found a story within the pages that was similar to a tale I had previously read in a book about Scotland’s myths and legends. It felt very full circle to hear another retelling of that story.

My one critique would be that this could probably use another round of edits. Even though I liked that it felt like word of mouth, sitting around a campfire, type of storytelling, there were a lot of repeating statements and that often took me out of the story.

That being said, I did enjoy this book and I’m happy to have been given a glimpse into Icelandic culture.

TW: mention of death, abandonment, drowning, mention of slavery, kidnapping, loss of child, seeing impaired, and dog abuse.

[Neeraja Sankaran · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took my own sweet time reading this very charming collection of folk-lore that was completely new to me, because collections like these are best consumed in small bites and savored or fit into the day whenever the mood or opportunities strike. I really liked the way it incorporated the local landscape of Iceland (very unfamiliar to me but more evocative for all that) into the tales and I absolutely loved the conversational narrative style. Made me feel like was listening to stories--and I think that this would be a great book to listen to on Audible. (No translator is listed, so I'm guessing the author, though Icelandic did the translating/interpreting himself). A 4.5 star book for sure.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book #: 27
Title: Icelandic Folk Tales
Author: Hjörleifur Helgi Stefánsson
Format: Kindle Edition, 163 pages, recent purchase
Pub Date: Published November 30th 2020
Started: 5/28/22 Ended: 7/8/22
Awards: none
Categories: Possible puppet plays (Dag);
Rating: **** four out of five stars

As someone who runs a medieval puppet theater, I'm always on the lookout for books of folk tales. So, when this one appeared as a $.99 purchase on Amazon, I grabbed it. Some of the tales would be difficult to do as puppet shows, but the author uses translations of local idioms which is useful if I want to write my own. There's also a gender flipped Rumplestilskin in the mix!

[Pieter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of Icelandic folk tales interspersed with a few bits of folklore and stories about the author's family. As most folk stories they tend to be short, include short side tracks and observations on life, which I personally really like since it tells us a bit about how people lived in Iceland and what they thought to be important. The stories are well told and at least compared to some other folk tale books I have I can at least keep track of goings on. Of course, the quality of the individual stories differ, and I would have liked more on folklore as opposed a list of short examples on ghosts, trolls, and fey. So all in all, a good read.

[Ozsaur · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually feel bad not rating this higher because it's obviously a labor of love from the author. Many of the stories are about his family or were told by a family member.

The stories were interesting, and I learned a lot about Iceland, and the supernatural world there. Many of the descriptions of the country were lovely, and made me want to visit there.

The stories were all that thrilling or scary. Trolls, ghosts, the fey, were all in this book. I just wish it had been more compelling.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

i love folktales. i love that they feel like treasured hand-me-downs from generation to generation to generation. it feels like you’re diving into history.
i also love finding the connections in stories between cultures. there’s a story here like that of rumpelstiltskin, a story about a changeling reminiscent of those in irish fairytales (if you do something really weird the changeling will break character and your real child will be returned to you), and a story about a man taking a selkie as a wife that is incredibly similar to another irish tale

[Stanley Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started reading this book as part of my preparation for an upcoming trip to Iceland. As other reviewers have stated, it seems to fall into the “tall tale” genre of folk stories, like those of the American Folk Hero Paul Bunyan.

What I took away from these stories was the centrality of farming and fishing for traditional Icelandic culture as well as stories about the world of Faerie that parallel other Norse-like myths.

[Rosemarie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a fun book. It was easy to hear the voice of the author telling these wonderful Icelandic tales, as it felt like I was sitting on a floor listening to the stories being told. All the elements of a well-spun story are incorporated throughout the book, combined with a little tongue in cheek humour. Get this book, read it aloud to someone and let the immersion into this witty brilliance be shared.