I don't know about you but I loooooove mythology, folklore and urban legends. Those things are my jam!
When I graduated elementary school I received an award for being best in English and I got a huuuuuge tome on the world's mythology. It was almost bigger than me (but that's not saying much because I'm small....). Anyways, the point is, I've always loved the mythos of the world.
I noticed, though, that the book didn't contain much Icelandic mythology - only Norse mythology. That's kind of a bummer because Iceland has sooooo many folklore, mythological beasts and urban legends.
So there's going to be one segment of my blog where I talk about Iceland's mythology, starting with this blog post.
So, what do you know about the Icelandic mythological beings?
*crickets*
Not much, huh?
Well, have no fear because I'm going to talk about them here!
Since I like cats, I'm going to start with a being called Skoffín.
Handsome lad, isn't it?
Skoffín is said to be the offspring between a male fox and a female cat but there are other sources that it comes from a rooster egg. When it hatches from its egg, it burrows a hole into the ground and resurfaces in three years. Its size is believed to be similar to a medium sized dog or a fox.
It might seem harmless but its gaze is quite deadly, similar to that of a basilisk gaze. If you look into its eyes, you might die. It is said that many cattle and sheep died because of it and was quite a menace to the farmers.
Normal bullets don't seem to work on it, unless you do the cross sign in front of the barrel of the gun and carry silver bullets.
There are a few stories of it that were gathered by Jón Árnason, the latest dating Spring 1956. They are hard to see, probably because they are related to foxes and the Icelandic foxes here are super shy towards humans.
I haven't seen it myself but I probably wouldn't want to risk it. I'd rather just pet my cats.
--------------------------
Question of the day: What Icelandic mythological being, folklore or urban legend would you be interested in next?
I love folklore as well. This was interesting, looking forward to learning more about Icelandic stories. I was curious if any of my myth compilation books have any, and nope, just Nordic as well.