The landvættir in Norse belief were guardians of the land. Among the Anglo Saxons they were called landwights. In Iceland they were the hulduófolk (the hidden people). Among the Irish and Scots they were the pixies, brownies and fairies, who like the landvættir inhabited barrows, mounds and stone circles. They were universally venerated among the Norse and the dragon prows on Viking ships were designed to frighten the landvættir on foreign shores where ever they might approach. The prows were removed when approaching their home shore however, so as not frighten their own vættir. Many a housewife would place a bowl of milk or porridge out for these land spirits as an offering, both for protection and as a thank you. Many still continue this tradition, both those who identify as heathen or neo-pagan or those older folk in the old country who still identify with their ancestral beliefs.
There is a story told in the Icelandic Saga of King Olaf Tryggvason of a warlock who was sent from Denmark to spy out the defenses of the coast of Iceland. The warlock took the shape of a whale and encountered many landvættir:
King Harald told a warlock to hie to Iceland in some altered
shape, and to try what he could learn there to tell him: and he
set out in the shape of a whale. And when he came near to the
land he went to the west side of Iceland, north around the land,
where he saw all the mountains and hills full of guardian-
spirits, some great, some small. When he came to Vapnafjord he
went in towards the land, intending to go on shore; but a huge
dragon rushed down the dale against him with a train of serpents,
paddocks, and toads, that blew poison towards him. Then he
turned to go westward around the land as far as Eyjafjord, and he
went into the fjord. Then a bird flew against him, which was so
great that its wings stretched over the mountains on either side
of the fjord, and many birds, great and small, with it. Then he
swam farther west, and then south into Breidafjord. When he came
into the fjord a large grey bull ran against him, wading into the
sea, and bellowing fearfully, and he was followed by a crowd of
land-spirits. From thence he went round by Reykjanes, and wanted
to land at Vikarsskeid, but there came down a hill-giant against
him with an iron staff in his hands. He was a head higher than
the mountains, and many other giants followed him.
The warlock soon discovered that Iceland was well fortified with landvættir! According to a poll taken in the recently, as many as fifty percent of Icelanders still believe in the possibility of the landvættir! Iceland, is one of the few nations that still holds to a fairly homogeneous way of thinking and relating to their ancestral land. Much of this has been lost in her sister Scandinavian countries and in countries such as England, Germany, the Netherlands, et al, areas where the old beliefs of the land spirits once held sway.
In Iceland the huldufólk are sometimes attributed as alfar (elves) and are said to dwell in mounds. The concept of them is so strong, that in 2004 the international aluminum producer Alcoa had to have a government official certify that the area in which they desired to build a smelting plant was free of archaeological mounds and artifacts, particularly those pertaining to the huldufólk . In addition, roads have had to be rerouted so as not to offend these landvættir.
In The Plague Casket, Ulf and Sophia have a conversation about the Norse-descended Ulf who is an Úlfhéðinn. and mistaken by a band of Bedouins for a djinn. Ulf compares the desert djinn to the land spirits of his own ancestral homelands.
Finally he said, “Among my people I am called Úlfhéðinn. Yet I am nothing ghostly like a djinn. I am flesh and blood like you.” He glanced sideways at her. “You who even questioned your own icons, are you superstitious like the Bedouin and the Sabians?”
“Even the churchmen in Constantinople might question if you are possessed of evil spirits.”
He laughed. “So I am possessed by an evil spirit now? Among my people, the being the Hagarenes call ‘al-jinn’ would be called the Huldufólk – the hidden people.”
“Why are they hidden?”
“They are landvættir. They are part of the land, the rocks, the trees. They are only hidden from those who do not know what they are seeing.”
Many cultures have traditions of various spirits. As I have already discussed, these spirits have evolved with the time. The hulduófolk still maintain their presence among their people, shunning Christian crosses and modern conventions such as electricity. In an age where our planet is under constant assault from pollution, trash and a general sense of wastefulness, perhaps we would all do better to honor the traditions of the hulduófolk.