Icelandic Elf Stone Restored

In Iceland, elves are taken seriously. When construction workers clearing a landslide inadvertantly covered up a sacred "elf stone" last year, local believe that the elves became angry and caused a series of misfortunes in the area. In order to placate the elves, the stone was unearthed and given a thorough cleaning, just for good measure.

After the landslide was cleared, and the elven stone covered up, the road flooded, once again doing damage, and when the construction company returned to the site, one of their men was injured during the clean-up. After that, pieces of the industrial repair equipment began to malfunction, and a writer who came to report on the scene fell into a mud pool. All of these mishaps were soon blamed on angry elves that wanted their lady stone returned to its natural splendor.

While some Icelanders believe in the actual physical existence of elves, even those who don’t seem to recognize the importance of the mythology to the country’s culture still take elf problems somewhat seriously. Thus, the Iceland Road Administration agreed to uncover the rock, which they did, even giving it a good power washing to make it sing. Hopefully, the elves are happy with the cleaning.

Since the stone was only recently restored, it remains to be seen if the elves are now happy and good fortune will return to the region. I don't personally know if I believe in the existence of physical flesh and blood elves, but land spirits have long been part of Scandinavian culture and tradition. It seems to me that such entities would be perfectly capable of causing all kinds of mischief.