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This article addresses the changing meaning of the word álfr (plural álfar) in Norse-Icelandic from the Middle Ages to the present day and notes that, contrary to the myth of a continuity in the Icelandic belief in elves propagated by popular journalism, this belief is framed within different paradigms of thought in different times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1897 Andrew Lang referred to Glamr, one of Iceland's most celebrated mediaeval ghosts, as a “vampire” in his The Book of Dreams and Ghosts. This article examines the arguments for such a categorisation, which are mainly the similar function of vampires and the Icelandic ghosts. It goes on to examine the case of Glamr; in particular, how his condition as a supernatural Other has been transmitted from a previous unspecified demon and the implications this has for the character of the well-known saga hero Grettir who eventually becomes Glamr's “slayer.” It argues that as Glamr had also been hired as a “vampire slayer” of sorts, Grettir and Glamr are in a sense doubles; and that the Glamr episode of Grettis saga highlights both his resilience in the face of evil but also the danger that goes with monster fighting and the lonely condition of the monster fighter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The entire corpus of Icelandic Family Sagas contains no express reference to volcanic fires. This article explores the reasons behind this puzzling absence in a genre whose realism is rightly celebrated. I propose to read a unique, oblique reference in Grettis saga as possible evidence of a submerged vernacular theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]