The dwarfs aren’t there. Yet.

But three kilometres from the Arctic Circle in Iceland where the Arctic Henge ascends above the village of Raufarhöfn, there will be dwarfs.

The Santa Claus behind this gift to tourism in his village was Erlingur Thoroddsen, the former manager of the Nordurljos Hotel where Magellan and I stayed.

Dream big must have been Erlingur’s motto—it’s said that when completed, the Arctic Henge could give Stonehenge a run for its money—we think Iceland’s largest open-air piece of art is already amazing.

Similar to Stonehenge, the Arctic Henge is like a sundial; its four gates capturing rays and casting shadows in precise locations.

But Erlingur’s Arctic Henge goes much further.

Initially his idea was to create a sundial using the lighthouse as a beacon. The artist Haukur Halldórsson explains what happened when Erlingur invited him for a visit. Haukur, a folklore artist whose fame began in the 1980s pulled out some paper and a pen and began drawing a bigger idea based on mythology from the Eddaic poem Völuspá (Prophecy of the Seeress), composed around the year 1000.

In Old Norse mythology, the cosmos has nine worlds. One of them is the world of 72 dwarfs. As the brochure we picked up at the hotel reads:

No one has been able to explain the dwarfs in the Völuspá  apart from Austri (East), Vestri (West), Nordi (North) and Sudri (South), who carry the sky, and Sindri (Witri) and his brother Brokkr who made Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor. By connecting the names of other dwarfs to the season, as for example Bjatur (Bright), Blidur (Sweet) and Svasudur (Gentle) to the summer, it is possible to fit the names of the dwarfs to a yearly circle which becomes a kind of dwarfs almanac, where each dwarf controls a five-day period. All the dwarfs have been given a role and they all have their own personalities. This means that the dwarfs can be connected to birthdays and people can connect to their personal dwarf.”

“All visitors can identify with a dwarf, according to their date of birth,“ Elingur said in an interview in 2017. Like signs from the zodiac. My dwarf is Veigur: “The defiant, strength.” Magellan’s dwarf is Dynfari: “The noisy traveller.” Check out yours here.

Haukur made sketches and models for the design and two years after its conception in 1996, construction of the Arctic Henge began.

Erlingur’s plan was to sell a souvenir for every dwarf, souvenirs made by the people in Raufarhöfn, many of them unemployed because of the demise of the herring industry. “Nothing made in China, only Icelandic handicrafts,” he said.

The four gates, inspired by the cardinal dwarfs, face their namesake directions. They will be encircled by a stone wall consisting of 68 stones, each inscribed with a dwarf’s name from the Völuspá to form a chronological calendar.

The central column will be tipped with a prism glass that refracts the sun’s light. There will be a place for visitors to sit at the Throne of the Sun to admire the celestial bodies. A space for spiritual renewal, The Hall of Rays. And the Altar of Fire and Water for rituals, ceremonies and weddings.

When will the Arctic Henge be completed? 

“It took 1,500 years to finish Stonehenge,” Erlingur said. “It doesn’t matter when—the important thing is that it gets finished.”

Erlingur was committed to seeing Arctic Henge through to the end, but he died in 2015. Haukur is now 86 years old. The monument, financed with public money, needs about ISK182 million, equal to about CAD$1.8 million, for completion. Of course, private donations are welcomed and needed.

Maybe, tonight, Christmas Eve, some dwarfs will come forth and help realize Erlingur’s Santa-sized dream.

Happy dreams to you, from us and our dwarfs, Veigur and Dynfari.

Navigation

The Arctic Henge official website.

The Arctic Henge Iceland, video by Haukur Halldórsson, 2021.

Frozenotterblog. “Edda Names.” June 25, 2015. Here’s another source of the symbolism of dwarf names.

Haukur Halldórsson Facebook.

Kingsley, Jennifer. “Arctic Iceland, as seen through the Mystic Henge.” Meet the North. July 29, 2017.

Moberg, Leonard. “The Languages of Alvissmal.” Saga-Book Vol. 18 (1979-1973), pp. 299-323. JSTOR. This is where I found Magellan’s birthdate dwarf.

Richardson, Nick. Völuspá: The Seeress’s Prophecy.” The Junket. January 6, 2014. A full English translation.

“The Prophecy of the Seeress: Lee M. Hollanders 1928 Translation of the Old Norse Poem Völuspá.”

Wikipedia’s List of Dwarfs in Norse Mythology. Here’s where you can find the dwarf for your birthdate.

Yggdrasil Nordic Art and Mythology: At around the 30-minute mark, Haukur talks about the Arctic Henge.