News from Iceland 3-18-15… “Elves make com­pro­mise with Road Ad­min­is­tra­tion”

Iceland

Got this from James Gilliland ECETI subscription. It was too fun to pass up.

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Elves make com­pro­mise with Road Ad­min­is­tra­tion
Anna Mar­grét Björns­son, [email protected]

The rock is possibly Ófeigskirkja, a rock mentioned in Icelandic folklore and a supposed church

A large and un­usual rock will be moved to­day to make way for a new road in the mu­nic­i­pal­ity of Álf­tanes, close to Reyk­javík. An an­nounce­ment from the Ice­landic Road Ad­min­is­tra­tion states that the rock will be placed by the side of the road close to sim­i­lar rock for­ma­tions.

“A pact be­tween elves and men,” ex­plains clair­voy­ant Ragn­hildur Jóns­dót­tir who wrote to the Mayor of Garðabær on be­half of the elves in 2012.

A con­tro­ver­sial road pro­ject

Mov­ing the rock has been some­what con­tro­ver­sial and the new place­ment of the rock is no co­in­ci­dence.  In 2013 the story of this rock, be­lieved to be the leg­endary Ófeigskirkja- an elf church- made in­ter­na­tional news.

Gal­adriel, the Lady of Lórien as she ap­pears in Pe­ter Jack­son’s film ver­sion of Tolkien’s Lord of the RIngs. Tolkien was very in­spired by Ice­landic lit­er­a­ture. Photo/ Wikipedia

Gal­adriel, the Lady of Lórien as she ap­pears in Pe­ter Jack­son’s film ver­sion of Tolkien’s Lord of the RIngs. Tolkien was very in­spired by Ice­landic lit­er­a­ture. Photo/ Wikipedia

“Elf ad­vo­cates have joined forces with en­vi­ron­men­tal­ists to urge the Ice­landic Road and Coastal Com­mis­sion and lo­cal au­thor­i­ties to aban­don a high­way pro­ject build­ing a di­rect route from the Alf­tanes penin­sula, where the pres­i­dent has a home, to the Reyk­javik sub­urb of Gard­abær. They fear dis­turb­ing elf habi­tat and claim the area is par­tic­u­larly im­por­tant be­cause it con­tains an elf church,” wrote the As­so­ci­ated Press at the time.

The pro­ject  was  halted un­til the Supreme Court of Ice­land ruled on a case brought by a group known as Friends of Lava, who cite both the en­vi­ron­men­tal and the cul­tural im­pact — in­clud­ing the im­pact on elves — of the road pro­ject.

High Chief­tain of the Ásatrú so­ci­ety, Hilmar Örn Hilmars­son con­ducted a sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion rit­ual at the rock in 2009. Morgun­blaðið/​Golli

High Chief­tain of the Ásatrú so­ci­ety, Hilmar Örn Hilmars­son con­ducted a sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion rit­ual at the rock in 2009. Morgun­blaðið/​Golli

Elf is­sues have af­fected plan­ning de­ci­sions in Ice­land be­fore, and the road and coastal ad­min­is­tra­tion has come up with a stock me­dia re­sponse for elf in­quiries, which states in part that “is­sues have been set­tled by de­lay­ing the con­struc­tion pro­ject so that the elves can, at a cer­tain point, move on.”

The High Chief­tain steps in

The fight for the pro­tec­tion of the Gál­gahraun lava and this rock be­gan in 2007 and Friends of the Lava wanted the area to be reg­is­tered as pro­tected. They protested in a num­ber of ways and in April 2009, high chief­tain of the Ásatrú so­ci­ety, Hilmar Örn Hilmars­son con­ducted a rit­ual of sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion at the rock. “Tales and leg­ends have spo­ken of this un­usual rock, formed in the shape of a church, which stood in the mid­dle of a well-trav­elled path for cen­turies and served to guide peo­ple on their way,” ex­plains Hilmars­son.

The event gained con­sid­er­able  at­ten­tion in Ice­land and even for­mer pres­i­dent of Ice­land, Vigdís Finnbo­gadót­tir, sent sup­port greet­ings on the day of the cer­e­mony. “It’s ironic, I sup­pose, that a rock which is sup­pos­edly a church for the elves was sanc­ti­fied by a hea­then,” says Hilmars­son who de­clines be­ing any sort of ex­pert on Ice­landic elves. “But be­lief in elves was cer­tainly un­usu­ally strong in Ice­land for cen­turies, com­pared with other coun­tries. The el­ven world cer­tainly ex­isted in the norse myths and some peo­ple sug­gest that when Chris­tian­ity be­came the of­fi­cial re­li­gion of Ice­land, the pa­gan gods were some­how trans­ferred into the rocks and hills. ” He adds that the elves in Ice­land are par­tic­u­larly “nice” com­pared to for ex­am­ple, the elves of Ire­land or of Ger­many who are mis­chie­vous and of­ten rather evil. “The Ice­landic elves  live in har­mony with hu­mans, have churches and hold mass.”

Con­tacted by the elves

The Friends of the Lava have not suc­ceeded in thwart­ing plans of con­struct­ing a road through this path but the al­leged Ófeigskirkja rock was spared and is be­ing moved to its new lo­ca­tion to­day.

“In 2012 the elves sum­moned me into the lava and showed me an el­ven church sur­rounded by beau­ti­ful, bright en­ergy, and next to that church was Ófeigskirkja, a chapel,” ex­plains seer Ragn­hildur Jóns­dót­tir who runs the Elf Gar­den in Haf­nar­fjörður. “The elves told me that Ófeigskirkja had been used as a bea­con guid­ing peo­ple through the lava, and the rock was right there, in the path­way of the new road to be con­structed. I wrote to the Mayor of Garðabær on be­half of the elves. Ófeigskirkja will now be moved to a place near other el­ven abodes in har­mony with the wishes of the elves,”ex­plains Jóns­dót­tir, and in­deed an an­nounce­ment from the Ice­landic Road Ad­min­is­tra­tion to­day sup­ports this claim.

A fu­ture home for the rock

“The rock will be moved next to other beau­ti­ful and sim­lar rock for­ma­tions thus cre­at­ing a uni­fied whole,” it states in the press an­nounce­ment. “Hope­fully these rocks will be­come a pop­u­lar stop for hik­ers in the area. Many be­lieve that the rock is the abode of elves, a chapel, or a church, and that the rocks to which this “chapel” will be moved are also the home of elves. It is pos­si­ble that the rock is Ófeigskirkja al­though peo­ple do not agree on the mat­ter. The rock is in two parts, one weigh­ing 50 tonnes and the other weigh­ing 20 tonnes and will be hoisted up and trans­ported to­day at eleven a.m in these two parts.”

Jóns­dót­tir, who seems rushed in the tele­phone con­ver­sa­tion ex­plains cheer­fully that she has to hurry so as not to miss the event. ” I’m go­ing to see the rock moved and make sure that every­thing is all­right. The elves have been prepar­ing for this for a long time, mov­ing their en­ergy to the new lo­ca­tion. Hope­fully all will go well.”