9th century Icelandic folklore
I've participated in this community for a bit, but now I find myself looking to post here. There are lots of genuine "little details" that I'll post for my novel, but they're not so important right now. Following this post about Nordic vampires it got me thinking about my own novel and my current quest for some supernatural inspiration. I've spent today Googling and haven't found what I'm looking for.
Some context first: In short, I'm writing an Icelandic Saga. It has elements of fantasy in it but I'm trying to keep it as grounded as I can in actual saga and folklore (although I take the odd liberty here and there). I've read a lot of sagas and am fairly knowledgeable of Norse mythology, but folkloristic beings don't necessarily make much more than a passing reference (if any) in Norse myth so it's not proved a great help to me. Although the story begins in Norway, the bulk of the novel is set in Iceland during the Age of Settlement (more specifically latter half of 9th century, about 10 or so years after King Harald Finehair finally united Norway).
I have introduced some unspoken dramatic rules into my version of reality: the pertinent one here is that when those touched with magic are near, supernatural events and beings seem to have a natural pull towards manifesting in their vicinity. The beginning of the novel (in Norway) is full of curses, the sorceress-bride of a troll and her offspring, transformation spells, armies of 'zombies' and such fantastical stuff, but with the move to Iceland there's been very little of that (adopting more the style of the later, less mythic sagas). However, a character from this fantastical remnant of the 'Mythic Age' has come to the shores of Iceland where my main (and mundane) lead character finds himself embroiled in a blood feud - however, I want to slowly reintroduce a bit more magic and wonder into the story along a very important subplot. One of the ways I was thinking of doing this was by bringing in some more contact with the supernatural - albeit possibly not quite as fantastical. (The saga style of writing I've adopted makes this very natural to do as an 'episode' in their lives.)
What I'm looking for is not fully formed ideas but inspiration in the form of pointers for interesting folkloric 'creatures' I can possibly call upon. Ideally I'd like something from Iceland specifically, but considering this is the Age of Settlement and most (if not all) of the characters originated from Norway I'm sure it's fine to bring some of those across with them. I want to avoid trolls (since they make a more prominent appearance in the next generation of the overall saga) and they need to be pre-Christian - so no 17th century Jólasveinar. (Iceland wasn't formally Christianised until 1000 CE.)
As I said, I've not been too successful looking for suitable Icelandic folk-creatures as such, so am ultimately looking for some pointers for interesting creatures that I can build an episode around if anyone knows of any I can start researching.
Thanks in advance!
(Am happy to answer questions for more information if required.)
Some context first: In short, I'm writing an Icelandic Saga. It has elements of fantasy in it but I'm trying to keep it as grounded as I can in actual saga and folklore (although I take the odd liberty here and there). I've read a lot of sagas and am fairly knowledgeable of Norse mythology, but folkloristic beings don't necessarily make much more than a passing reference (if any) in Norse myth so it's not proved a great help to me. Although the story begins in Norway, the bulk of the novel is set in Iceland during the Age of Settlement (more specifically latter half of 9th century, about 10 or so years after King Harald Finehair finally united Norway).
I have introduced some unspoken dramatic rules into my version of reality: the pertinent one here is that when those touched with magic are near, supernatural events and beings seem to have a natural pull towards manifesting in their vicinity. The beginning of the novel (in Norway) is full of curses, the sorceress-bride of a troll and her offspring, transformation spells, armies of 'zombies' and such fantastical stuff, but with the move to Iceland there's been very little of that (adopting more the style of the later, less mythic sagas). However, a character from this fantastical remnant of the 'Mythic Age' has come to the shores of Iceland where my main (and mundane) lead character finds himself embroiled in a blood feud - however, I want to slowly reintroduce a bit more magic and wonder into the story along a very important subplot. One of the ways I was thinking of doing this was by bringing in some more contact with the supernatural - albeit possibly not quite as fantastical. (The saga style of writing I've adopted makes this very natural to do as an 'episode' in their lives.)
What I'm looking for is not fully formed ideas but inspiration in the form of pointers for interesting folkloric 'creatures' I can possibly call upon. Ideally I'd like something from Iceland specifically, but considering this is the Age of Settlement and most (if not all) of the characters originated from Norway I'm sure it's fine to bring some of those across with them. I want to avoid trolls (since they make a more prominent appearance in the next generation of the overall saga) and they need to be pre-Christian - so no 17th century Jólasveinar. (Iceland wasn't formally Christianised until 1000 CE.)
As I said, I've not been too successful looking for suitable Icelandic folk-creatures as such, so am ultimately looking for some pointers for interesting creatures that I can build an episode around if anyone knows of any I can start researching.
Thanks in advance!
(Am happy to answer questions for more information if required.)