Icelandic Folktales

Deep are the Iceland Channels

Once upon a time there was a trollwife,
who intended to wade to Iceland from Norway.
She had learned that on the way there were
deep channels en route, and it is related
that she said to another trollwife:
"Deep are the Iceland channels,
yet they are fordable."
But she added that a narrow channel
was in the middle of the ocean, which was so deep
that her head would get wet.
Then she set out, and as she came to the
channel she feared the most; she tried to catch
hold of a ship sailing by, to
use as a support over the channel.
But she missed the ship and her feet slipped,
so she fell into the channel and drowned.
Her body was washed ashore at
Rauðisandur (Red Beach), and was so big,
that a man on horseback could not reach with his whip
up to the back of her bent knee, as she
lay dead and stiff on the beach.

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Stamp designed by Þröstur Magnússon

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