The Troll Wife of Kerlingarfjöll

Kerlingarfjöll, Highlands, Iceland

Kerlingarfjöll — the mountains of the old woman — are named for a troll woman who was turned to stone by sunrise while trying to drive her cattle through the pass. Her petrified form is still visible on the ridge above the valley.

Kerlingarfjöll — Old Woman's Mountains — sits in the central Icelandic Highlands, a cluster of rhyolite peaks remarkable for their vivid colour: golds, reds, and blues where geothermal activity has stained the rock. They are named for the stone troll preserved in the tradition. The troll woman — unnamed, or given various names across different accounts — was attempting to drive a herd of cattle through the mountain pass before sunrise. Trolls in Icelandic tradition have a consistent weakness: direct sunlight turns them to stone. The Old Woman delayed too long, perhaps because the cattle were slow, or perhaps because she was old and her pace had slowed. The sun came up over the eastern ridges while she was still in the pass. She petrified immediately — mid-step, in the act of driving the cattle. The cattle also petrified, scattered across the slope in the positions they held at the moment of the sunrise. The rock formations on the ridge above the valley are identified in the tradition as the Old Woman's body. The scattered boulders on the slopes below are her cattle. The name Kerlingarfjöll is a straightforward record of this tradition — the mountains remember her. Icelandic place names of this type are taken as documentary evidence: the landscape has been witnessing and recording since before writing arrived. The mountains are accessible in summer and have a small geothermal bathing area. Visitors are shown the Old Woman's stone form by local guides.