FFC 330

The Treatise on Elves by Ólafur of Purkey

Cosmology and Folk Belief in Nineteenth-Century Iceland

Ed. Matthias Egeler and Jón Jónsson

The Kalevala Society Foundation
Folklore Fellows’ Communications 330
Helsinki 2026
323 pages
ISBN 978-952-9534-14-2
Available at the Tiedekirja bookstore for 36 €

In the years around 1830, the lcelandic farmer, fisherman, and scribe Òlafur Sveinsson (1761-1845) set out to prove the existence of the ‘hidden people’ (huldufólk) or ‘elves’ (álfar), which he experienced as an everyday part of his life as a man working the land and the sea. ln order to achieve his aim, he collected memorates, traditional tales, poems, and literary references, focusing on his extended family, neighbours, and acquaintances especially in the fjord of Breiðafjöður in Western lceland. ln doing so, he compiled an ethnography of local traditions about elves, which stands out through its remarkable richness of detail and an attention to context that makes it a testimony not only to Ólafur’s personal beliefs, but also to attitudes towards the ‘hidden people’ in his wider local community. The resulting Treatise on Elves is perhaps the single most detailed account of living folk belief as seen from the inside perspective of a tradition bearer and believer to survive from the whole of pre-industrial Europe.

This book presents the first edition and translation of Ólafur Sveinsson’s treatise on elves that makes its text accessible in the way how it was laid out by Ólafur himself. The text is accompanied by an analysis of its social, literary, and economic context that shows the rich contributions which Ólafur’s unique testimony can make to our understanding of the workings of pre-industrial folk belief in a sparsely settled North Atlantic landscape.

Welcome to the On-Line Book Launch Symposium

Living with Elves and Fairies – A Conference in Honour of Ólafur Sveinsson (1761–1845), Icelandic farmer, copyist, and author of a Treatise on Elves

Convenors: Matthias Egeler (Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main) and Jón Jónsson (Research Centre of the University of Iceland in Strandir – The Folklore Institute)

When?

16 March 2026, 10:00–17:00 (CET)

Where?

Zoom

To receive the Zoom link and the full Program Schedule, please contact the conference team by writing to LivingwithFairiesConference@gmx.net by 13 March 2026!

Speakers (in Alphabetical Order)

• Dagrún Ósk Jónsdóttir: “‘The evening passed by with glamorous entertainment  until the women prepared their beds’: Priests who visit Hidden Women in  Icelandic Folk Legends”
• Matthias Egeler & Jón Jónsson: “The Representativity of a Unique Text: Elven  Places of Christian Worship in Ólafur Sveinsson’s Treatise on Elves and beyond”
• Frog: “Otherworlding, Ontology, and Mythic Ethnography”
• Terry Gunnell: “A Recent National Survey of Folk Belief and Experiences of the  Supernatural in Iceland”
• Jeremy Harte: “Elves, Devils, and Eccentrics: Landscape Churches in Britain and  Scandinavia”
• Gottskálk Jensson: “Nights on Setberg (Noctes Setbergenses)”
• Tommy Kuusela: “Of Toads and Men: Encountering Supernatural Toads and  Frogs in Swedish folklore”
• Stephen Miller: “‘I went to see a man last night at Glenchass to get some fairy  tales’: Edward Faragher (1831–1908) and Manx Fairy Beliefs”
• Diane Purkiss: “Fairies: Helpers, or Stalkers?”
• Francis Young: “Laumės as Mirrors of Women’s Work, Enforcers of Taboos and  Deity-substitutes in Baltic folklore”
• Simon Young: “Swans and Coffins: Fairy Continuity from Medieval to Modern  Ireland”

Read On-Line