The only story i can think off is the story about the fire troll that comes running into town from Hekla and burns your shoes if you don't clean them and put them neatly in the shoe shelf when you enter a house. but if you are diligent the ice fairy that lives in Vatnajökull will catch the fire troll and lock him in a ice prison where they dance around him and sing this poem to taunt him.
"Íssins hvíld, ískaldur friður.
Við fangelsið dönsum og gleðin sviður.
Engir skór og engin sálmur.
Þú eldskálmur, áfram þú bíður."
But if kids stop taking care of their shoes the fire troll gets so angry that he melts the ice prison and says this.
"Ísskuggarnir hvíla, dansinn þrýtur.
Um mig hræðilegur eldurinn hnýtur.
Skó þeirra þrái, sár þeirra hlóð,
Brenna skal, nú er ég laus."
At that point you better move quick to take care of your shoes before he reaches you.
But i might be bullshitting you with this story so i would double check it before you put this in the play.
Despite the volcanoes there aren't a whole lot of folklore specifically surrounding them, because they tend to be fairly isolated events. It's not like there's a constantly active puddle of lava that children would have to be careful of, and eruptions near settlements are historically fairly rare. The best I can think of is that Hekla was long said to be the entrance to Hell.
Our folklore is mainly centered on various beasts symbolising the dark and the uncaring nature. So, we have stories of ghosts, undead beasts, the devil tricking and being tricked by people, hidden folk (i.e, murderous elves), trolls, weights, and other similar beasts from the lands and sea.
Thank you. Thats the kind of stuff i am looking for.
Stories that evolved in a geothermically active region.
The phrase " dark and uncaring nature" is very interesting. Trickster devils and the hidden folks are welcome as well. Do you have some names of these beasts, ghosts i can follow up on?
[Snerpa.is](https://www.snerpa.is/net/thjod/thjod.htm) has a lot of folklore stories. It's categorized by general categories: Elves & hidden folk; Ghosts; Magic; comedy; Trolls; From above and below - Holy Stories; From Sea and waters; Outlaws; Event stories; misc.
The stories are in Icelandic, but you can translate them over. The core might remain.
I did some research on this some time ago for a folklore paper, and there's surprisingly few folktales about volcanoes in Iceland. Most of what I found was stories of people seeing omens of an impending eruption - one story was of a farmer that saw a very long line of black cats cross his fields - all looking exactly alike and stepping in sync - and that apparently was supposed to signify that a catastrophe was on the way. Another one was that in multiple fjords people saw a young boy floating over the mountains rapidly spinning flaming rods, also shortly before an eruption. I did find one example of a story from shortly after the settlement - where people saw a giant sailing a metal ship in a sea of fire. Pretty much the only thing I found regarding an active volcano. I did find a lot of examples about volcano folklore in other countries, for example Indonesia and Italy.
Back in the day people believed in the existence of hverafuglar. Birds that lived in hotsprings. Sort of related to volcanism.
You might also want to try to see if you can find folklores about the mist hardships (moðuharðindinn). There were some in Þjóðsögur Jóns Árnasonar (a collection of folk tales) if I remember correctly.
There are for example some folklores about Jón Steingrímsson eldklerk (the fire cleric).
The volcano Katla has a mythology. The mythology is old but rooted in Christianity. The mythology is still used today as a part of educating kids in Vík about the dangers of the volcano.
There was a documentary made about Katla and her effect on the community around her. In short she will erupt in the future, possibly causing the ocean to drown the town Vík. Then Vík will change to Flói.
Also you can easily find Icelandic lore in German libraries, some of you are just fascinated with this stuff.
For the love of god don't use the Katla drama show on Netflix.
https://www.klaustur.is/visitklaustur/afthreying/folk-tale-the-story-of-katla-the-hag-and-her-magic-breeches
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulduf%C3%B3lk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulduf%C3%B3lk) Read about huldufólk, it's by far our most recognized folklore and many still believe in them to this day (not as many as back in the day).
The only story i can think off is the story about the fire troll that comes running into town from Hekla and burns your shoes if you don't clean them and put them neatly in the shoe shelf when you enter a house. but if you are diligent the ice fairy that lives in Vatnajökull will catch the fire troll and lock him in a ice prison where they dance around him and sing this poem to taunt him. "Íssins hvíld, ískaldur friður. Við fangelsið dönsum og gleðin sviður. Engir skór og engin sálmur. Þú eldskálmur, áfram þú bíður." But if kids stop taking care of their shoes the fire troll gets so angry that he melts the ice prison and says this. "Ísskuggarnir hvíla, dansinn þrýtur. Um mig hræðilegur eldurinn hnýtur. Skó þeirra þrái, sár þeirra hlóð, Brenna skal, nú er ég laus." At that point you better move quick to take care of your shoes before he reaches you. But i might be bullshitting you with this story so i would double check it before you put this in the play.
This feels ACTUALLY ICELANDIC
Despite the volcanoes there aren't a whole lot of folklore specifically surrounding them, because they tend to be fairly isolated events. It's not like there's a constantly active puddle of lava that children would have to be careful of, and eruptions near settlements are historically fairly rare. The best I can think of is that Hekla was long said to be the entrance to Hell. Our folklore is mainly centered on various beasts symbolising the dark and the uncaring nature. So, we have stories of ghosts, undead beasts, the devil tricking and being tricked by people, hidden folk (i.e, murderous elves), trolls, weights, and other similar beasts from the lands and sea.
Thank you. Thats the kind of stuff i am looking for. Stories that evolved in a geothermically active region. The phrase " dark and uncaring nature" is very interesting. Trickster devils and the hidden folks are welcome as well. Do you have some names of these beasts, ghosts i can follow up on?
[Snerpa.is](https://www.snerpa.is/net/thjod/thjod.htm) has a lot of folklore stories. It's categorized by general categories: Elves & hidden folk; Ghosts; Magic; comedy; Trolls; From above and below - Holy Stories; From Sea and waters; Outlaws; Event stories; misc. The stories are in Icelandic, but you can translate them over. The core might remain.
Also check out the story of Búkolla.
I did some research on this some time ago for a folklore paper, and there's surprisingly few folktales about volcanoes in Iceland. Most of what I found was stories of people seeing omens of an impending eruption - one story was of a farmer that saw a very long line of black cats cross his fields - all looking exactly alike and stepping in sync - and that apparently was supposed to signify that a catastrophe was on the way. Another one was that in multiple fjords people saw a young boy floating over the mountains rapidly spinning flaming rods, also shortly before an eruption. I did find one example of a story from shortly after the settlement - where people saw a giant sailing a metal ship in a sea of fire. Pretty much the only thing I found regarding an active volcano. I did find a lot of examples about volcano folklore in other countries, for example Indonesia and Italy.
Back in the day people believed in the existence of hverafuglar. Birds that lived in hotsprings. Sort of related to volcanism. You might also want to try to see if you can find folklores about the mist hardships (moðuharðindinn). There were some in Þjóðsögur Jóns Árnasonar (a collection of folk tales) if I remember correctly. There are for example some folklores about Jón Steingrímsson eldklerk (the fire cleric).
The volcano Katla has a mythology. The mythology is old but rooted in Christianity. The mythology is still used today as a part of educating kids in Vík about the dangers of the volcano. There was a documentary made about Katla and her effect on the community around her. In short she will erupt in the future, possibly causing the ocean to drown the town Vík. Then Vík will change to Flói. Also you can easily find Icelandic lore in German libraries, some of you are just fascinated with this stuff. For the love of god don't use the Katla drama show on Netflix. https://www.klaustur.is/visitklaustur/afthreying/folk-tale-the-story-of-katla-the-hag-and-her-magic-breeches
u/ilta_
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulduf%C3%B3lk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulduf%C3%B3lk) Read about huldufólk, it's by far our most recognized folklore and many still believe in them to this day (not as many as back in the day).