The Old Man of the Mountain — Fjallkonurinn

Eyjafjallajökull, South Iceland

Before the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption, elderly farmers in the area reported that the mountain had been restless for three years — making sounds at night, showing unusual steam patterns — and that the old spirit of the mountain had been seen on the lower slopes.

Eyjafjallajökull — the glacier capping the Eyjafjalla volcano — erupted in April 2010, disrupting European air travel for six days and drawing international attention to a volcano that had been in the Icelandic consciousness since the settlement period. The 2010 eruption was preceded by three years of increased seismic activity and was preceded within the oral tradition of the farming community around the mountain by something older: the appearance of the Fjallkonurinn — the Mountain Man — on the lower slopes. The Fjallkonurinn is the specific guardian spirit of Eyjafjallajökull in the local tradition — distinct from the general Landvættr of Iceland, this is a spirit attached to a specific mountain and associated with its volcanic personality. He is described as very tall, thin, wearing clothing that appears to be made from a material that shifts colour — black to grey to the blue-white of ice — and seen at dawn. Farmers in the Þórsmörk area bordering the mountain reported his presence in 2007, 2008, and early 2009. The reports were not made publicly until after the 2010 eruption, when the local newspaper collected accounts from the farming community. The tradition does not say the Fjallkonurinn causes eruptions — he does not control the mountain. He is seen when the mountain is preparing. The distinction is important in the tradition: he is a witness, not an agent.