Bureau of Lost Culture1 Sep 2025

Ghost, Trolls and the Hidden Folk

Iceland is one of the last remaining Western countries where a substantial proportion of the population believes in the presence of other beings - The Hidden Folk.

For centuries, and until fairly recently, ghosts, revenants, trolls and elves were regarded as an integral part of everyday life. Their stories were shared during the long nights of winter gatherings, and they felt just as real to Icelanders as the people sitting beside them.

Ethnologist Dagrún Ósk Jónsdóttir came to the Bureau to talk about the role of these mythical and supernatural beings in Icelandic society and landscape. Her book 'Ghosts, Trolls and the Hidden People: Icelandic Folktales’ opens the door to the astonishing and eerie world of folk legends in the various settings of farm, wilderness, darkness, church, ocean and shore.

We hear about her own family's ghost, how to recognise a magical being, how to scare off a troll and how construction projects in Iceland can still be delayed or rerouted in order to take account of the Hidden Folk.

--- If you can contribute to this crazy endeavour, join our Patreon HERE Thank you to everyone who’s signed up to support the show —that means a lot. We have chosen not to carry ads here; it simply wouldn’t sit right with the spirit of the Bureau. But that does mean we can benefit from your support, in whatever form that takes, not just financial. Stephen

#folklore, #iceland, #icelandicfolklore, #trolls, #elves, #ghosts, #supernatural, #supernaturalbeings, #sorcery #ghoststories, #counterculture

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(167)

The Road to Rebellion - Part 1

Roc Sanford is a British writer, artist and climate activist whose life has been a countercultural journey from an alternative childhood through academia to a remarkable experiment in off-grid living ...

3 Juli 50min

Free Radicals - Tripping in the 18th Century.

In the company of historian of drugs, MIKE JAY, we journey back to the first psychedelic age - not the 1960s, but the 1790s, when Britain was at the forefront, at the frontier, of gonzo psychedelic sc...

10 Juni 55min

The Shadow of the Counterculture

Ever thought the so-called ‘golden decade’ of the 1960s was only about peace and love? Think again. Beneath the surface, it was riddled with violence, paranoia, and chaos, even in its most iconic mome...

24 Maj 1h

The Revolutionsts: How The Counterculture Turned to Terror

The Weather Underground, The Baader-Meinhof Group, The Red Brigade, Carlos the Jackal, The Japanese Red Army. The counterculture has always had a shadow side. There have been bad actors, casualties, t...

6 Maj 53min

21st Century Mutoid Man: Joe Rush - Part 2

This is the second part of our conversation with Joe Rush, the initiator, mentor, and driving force behind The Mutoid Waste Company, that extraordinary countercultural endeavour to turn the waste of o...

18 Apr 1h 2min

Sex - Men - War

Beyond the official story, the myth, of the Second World War — its maps and medals, courage and sacrifice — there is another hidden narrative. Written in rare memoirs, or in letters and diaries never ...

2 Apr 56min

20th Century Mutoid Man: Joe Rush - Part 1

If you had been at the Glastonbury Festival in 1987, you may have seen a familiar silhouette emerging in the dawn light - upright monoliths arranged in a circle. Was it Stonehenge - magically transf...

17 Mars 1h 2min

The Library of Lost Maps

In the heart of London’s Bloomsbury, behind a scruffy turquoise door, the world lies folded into drawers. Here are maps that survived wars, regimes, and revolutions — not because they were valued, but...

3 Mars 59min