If you’re traveling to Iceland, please respect nature – land and sea. Don’t have a part in destroying what makes Iceland so special and unique—one of the few happy places left on earth.
And the following knowledge, adapted from Return of a Green Philosophy: The Wisdom of Óðinn, the Power of Þórr, and Freyja’s Power of Nature, will assist you in becoming one with the land and sea:
Landvættir and Huldufólk
Landvættir are the land spirits linked with the land itself. Being in friendship/partnership and honoring the landvættir could bring prosperity to a family in farming, hunting, and fishing. Additionally, they provided protection to the children and animals. These elemental spirits primarily dwelled in mounds/mountains, waterfalls, groves, and areas of unusual landscape.
According to Hilda Roderick Ellis’s The Road to Hel, there is recorded a: “statement at the beginning of the heathen laws that men must not sail to land with grinning and gaping figureheads on their ships, but must remove them while some distance from Iceland, so that the land spirits may not be frightened by them. The idea of the land spirits as protective beings, whose friendship is a valuable one, is brought out again by the little incident in Landnámabók, of the lucky man called Björn who was assisted by the land spirits so that his herds increased and he prospered greatly:
…Men with the gift of second-sight watched all the land-spirits following Hafr-Björn to the Þing, and Þorsteinn and Þórðr (his brothers) hunting and fishing.”
Iceland’s National Coat of Arms portrays four landvættir who are protectors of the four quarters of Iceland. The four land guardians are: the dragon (Dreki) in the northeast, the eagle or griffin (Gammur) in the northwest, the bull (Griðungur) in the southwest, and the giant (Bergrisi) in the southeast. These guardians are ever watchful and alert for invaders. There is another word connected with the concept of the landvættir. The word is landdisir (“dísir of the land”). According to Rudolf Simek, the “landdísir were perhaps identical with the dísir, female protective goddesses, or else are related in some way to the landvættir, Icelandic protective spirits. The fact that the landdísir were thought to live in rocks, where they were also venerated (hence the term landdisasteinar), could mean that this devotion was a form of ancestor cult and that the dead were venerated here.” In short, the land spirits—the elementals who are everywhere and are an embodiment of nature itself—must be respected.
Another aspect of the unseen ones are the hidden folk (hidden ones)—the huldufólk. These unseen ones could be referred to as the Alfar—elves or faeries. It is interesting to note that the elves could have been the male counterparts to the dísir.
As I well know, they often have contact with us humans. It is best not to offend them. When traveling to new places, it is best to acknowledge the spirits, the unseen ones, of the land, not only the huldufólk but the landvættir as well. The ceremony does not need to be extensive but from our hearts. It is important to ask permission to be in this new land, to do our spiritual work, and for health and protection while journeying through their land. Since these symbolize a gift from the unseen ones, we need to give back—a gift demands a gift. This gifting could take the form of alcohol left for them or poured on the earth, or incense/sacred herbs burned as a gift of sweet essence. Even leaving a few flowers on the ground would be a right action. Finally, a small sacrifice as a gift—pull some hair and leave it on the earth. End with thankfulness and a blessing for the well-being of all the unseen ones. In over thirty years of journeying to distant lands, my wife and I can attest to the effectiveness of this practice.