The Icelandic Huldufólk and Northern Lights Tourism

Record summary

Icelandic huldufólk or hidden-people traditions have been repeatedly linked in tourism and popular media with lava fields, winter darkness and the northern lights. Contemporary folklorists generally treat belief, performance, local identity and commercial storytelling as overlapping but not identical domains. This lead matters for comparing luminous landscape motifs with modern heritage production. Researchers should identify particular interviews, municipalities, tour operators or folklore studies, because claims that most Icelanders literally believe in elves are often unsupported generalizations.