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,We saw today how two different persons, from different ages and with different occupations, relate to trolls, elves and hidden people, each one in a different way, but both highlighting their importance for Icelanders. I can see here that globalisation and tradition meet. Is this the balance we are looking for?

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I was quite amazed by the building where we had the felting workshop and the great renovation work that was obviously done to it. The 'ladies of the wool' were nicely explaining their craft and I felted for the first time in my life. It was great fun.
The tour in the afternoon was a blast due to a guide that told his stories in a most lively way even in the most dead surrounding of a graveyard. Though, it was not that dead. There were trees growing from almost each grave. Quite a poetic picture!

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Julia

First of all, I had never done felting before so I explicitly have learned that handcraft. ‚Learning by doing‘ and implicitly I realized ‚There is no right or wrong -no ‚normal’- just do whatever you like and comes to your mind.‘

The guided walk was very entertaining as our original and comical guide told the stories not only with words, but with his eyes, facial expressions, hands, legs and sounds. Although I had heard before that in Iceland the stories are simply given by nature and there is no big need of mimics and gestures.

At every corner lurks a story - as we were directly able to experience. People simply can not escape in Iceland. And that is why they don’t dare to deny the existence of elves and trolls.

Nevertheless, most of his stories were merciless and bizarre....as the lava that freezes everything in the dark of Iceland. But that is what it makes special and unique and that way attractive.

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Mónica
We had an interesting workshop this morning. Teacher being just a guide and letting us choose and show how creativeness is a part of every single individual. Set It free and It will yield unique achievements. The same can be said out of the stories we heard from our guide in the afternoon. Icelanders' used their creativeness to evolve all those wonderful stories aimed to protect their children from real dangers.

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“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” Pablo Picasso

Whether that is art, what we made, it was a coming out of the otherwise busy world of work for us teachers. And it worked because no appointments and work tormented. So everyone created with increasing enthusiasm his individual interpretation of a mystical being. And no country, no gender, no generation showed similar. Like nature, which is characterized by diversity.
Art is created when it is above all controversial. The guide was a life artist. He introduced us to the subject of ghosts, zombies, elves, water monsters and trolls through Reykjavik.

Who would trust such a tour at home?

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A fascination today has been with the guided tour of the city, that on the parliament building four frescoes are depicted, which sometimes seem very strange to us. An eagle symbolizes the strength and grandeur and pride of a state. But the dragon refers to the mythology and the the deep anchoring in society, the government and through out the country. Living with history and in history is active and sociable in Iceland.

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Iceland is such a vast country with some dangers: glacier, lake, forest, coldness. So the children have to be protected! That's why the icelandic people made up so many horrible stories and tales. I agree with that. But how come that even for Christmas they have scary stories, e.g. Gryla who is the mother of 13 Santas. She steals naughty kids and makes a soup out of them. Doesn't sound like cosy Christmas for me like in Germany. Troll stories are very important for the icelandic people!