Haunted Iceland... íslesnkar draugasögur

Sometimes I take small side jobs of translating Icelandic or English into Japanese. Most of the times I am not really willing to receive such a job because it is hard work to follow sentences that somebody else has written.  But I do admit that it enriches my life, not only my pocket! but my view to various things that I am not familiar with.

For example I translated about Icelandic tourist spots this spring for an DVD publishing. More to say, I did narration in Japanese, too!! As result, I know now many things about tourist spots in Iceland, where I have never been to!! he he.

But there is also translating job that really pleases me once in a while. One of that kind of jobs was to translate the Icelandic ghost stories into Japanese. This task is from the G-T group in Stokkseyri and they opened "the haunted house" (Draugasetur) there few years ago.

I remember that there was discussion on the media when this "House" was opened, but I didn’t pay so much attention on it at that time.

Anyway the stories that were given to me are 24 in total, and they are all short, because this is guiding narration (leiðsögur) for visitors at the "House". ( I did the narration, too, again! You can hear me if you tune the Japanese language)

This was almost the first time that I read Icelandic ghost stories, and I found them interesting and fascinating. Some of them are about traditional ghosts, some are funny (especially the story about Danish ghost who was called upon from his grave by mistake. He did not give in the controlling words of grave-intruder simply because he didn’t understand Icelandic! ) and some are pathetic and beautiful.

I am so curious how these stories were born. It is common for all folklore and every folktale has its "origin of birth" behind itself. I imagine what people must have seen in the nature, what they were scared, what they missed and what they wanted to believe.... I think the ghost stories are not tales about ghosts, but more about the people who believed them.

Some colleague clergies of mine or pious people seem to think that it is "anti-Christ" to talk about such ghosts, but I don’t agree with them. The ghost stories let me think better about people and their life, about things which people wanted to convey to next generations, or about "imperfectness" of the life on the earth (at least for human eyes). I see something very human and very beautiful in the Icelandic ghost stories (but not in the recent Holiwood horrors).

Now it seems that the tourist company has opened “Haunted Reykjavík tour” every day at 8 o’clock starting at Aðalstræti during summer time. I am curious and want to participate in the tour once. But honestly .... I am scared to go alone! Does somebody want to join me?? Please!! 


Before I get some complains: For me it is important to write in English sometimes, simply because I have many friends who haven’t learned Icelandic yet and I want to share my blogg with them, too.