Music/FX: Giggling
Hutchison: Her name is Gudbjorg Bjornsdottir. When I first met her, I must admit, I thought she had a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock. It turned out, that she just had fairies at the bottom of the garden.
Magnus translates: Grey hair a tiny moustache, a tiny moustache
Hutchison: Gudbjorg Bjornsdottir is describing a gnome, shes known for years. Hes about 80, is wearing a red waistcoat and of course that snappy little moustache.
For those who cant see him, perhaps you need to visit Iceland, where it is believed there could be as many as 20,000 characters just like him or that elf, hiding in the shrubbery.
You see, when the Vikings first came here 1100 years ago, they soon realized they were not alone.
For behind invisible doors in the cliffs, in lonely empty arctic plains and those great big rocks near the freeway live gnomes, elves and fairies collectively known as Hidden People.
This is one of the most remarkable places that we have here and it is the hidden people who live in this stone here.
His name is Magnus Skarphedinssion Icelands foremost expert on all things ahh hidden.
Magnus: We have on file and I met witnesses --that have been invited into these stones. And inside there is a farm with a kitchen and tables and chairs and everything. And they drink coffee and eat pancakes and everything was very natural.
We dont have any logic explanation to this this simply is and happens and thousands and thousands of Icelanders have communications with these beings.
Hutchison: And apparently, these beings, actually do look just like this and this and this.
Which was all rather a relief given our meagre special effects budget.
Music
Scandinavian folklore is full of mystical figures, but in Iceland the Hidden People have managed to survive scepticism and ridicule.
While only ten percent of Icelanders genuinely believe in them about 80 percent, dont like to mess with the prospect. And one of those people is the President.
Iceland President: You have to realize for a thousand years the total population of Iceland was only about 70 to 80 thousand people.
So the people enlarged the population of the country by thinking about elves and fairies and trolls that inhabited fjords and valleys and rocks and hills and mountains, so even in the dark days of winter in the isolated farms, they knew they had company. And we still believe that in this country we have company, and give them my greetings when you meet them.
Thirty years ago, this rock lay in the path of a planned freeway in Reykjavik. Authorities wanted to blow it up, but they hadnt figured on the family of hidden people, living inside, who promptly put a curse on the whole project.
Things started to go wrong, machinery failed, blokes hit their thumbs with hammers. Anyway, the transport ministry finally called in a consultant to talk to the unhappy stone owners.
Magnus: They were very angry naturally, that their home would be taken. So, in the end it was made agreement between the state road company and the authorities and the hidden people living here in the stone that the hidden people would move out for a week and the authorities would move their home very gently 50 metres to where it is now.
Hutchison: I noticed the rock had been cut in half, but was too polite to ask if that meant theyd subdivided.
This is probably the most famous psychic hill in Iceland. It sits in the splendour of suburbia near the basketball courts and the high school.
Music
Hutchison: The Vikings saw elves here too. And theyve been around ever since. Although in 1974 their home was nearly destroyed when a cement truck was driven over it.
Magnus: When you do harm or rough things, brutal things to the hidden people or elves, you get a revenge. And the cement truck driver, he drove over their houses, this nine ton heavy truck lifted up and fell on its side without any logical explanation at all.
Hutchison: Revenge of the elves.
Magnus: And none of the witnesses was in the slightest doubt it was revenge of the elves.
Hutchison: At this point I was wondering if Icelanders perhaps enjoy too much fresh air.
Iceland President: My grandmother very much had an ongoing dialogue with them, I have not been blessed in that way.
Hutchison: Your grandmother was a woman Im sure of very sound mind?
Iceland President: Oh, absolutely, she was very down to earth, very down to earth. But you can also look at the paintings of one of our great painters of the 20th century Kjarval -- I have one here in the residence -- where he paints elves and trolls and fairy horses into the landscape.
Hutchison: Despite his knowledge and enthusiasm, Magnus has none of the psychic powers required to see those who dwell in these rocks.
Magnus: Well, you can just imagine being the expert on elves and hidden people for 23 years, always having to talk with second hand witnesses I would give a fortune to be able to knock on the door and to be let in.
Music
Gudborg: The house is here and then the new extension for the daughter and the baby.
Hutchison: Instead, Magnus has to rely on people like Gudborg Bjornsdottir, who although too polite to say too much, reckoned we were all a bit odd because we couldnt see the little bloke in the red waistcoat.
Gudborg: Hes standing like this. Hes living here. He was expecting us.
Hutchison: And what did I make of it all?
Gudborg: Hes coming now.
Hutchison: Well the best explanation I could find came from an old bloke I met the day before. He remembered as a child asking his mum if the hidden people existed. Her reply well if they ever did, Im sure they still do now.
Reporter: Geoff HutchisonCamera: John BenesEditor: Simon BrynjolffssenResearch: Renata Gombac
Hutchison: Her name is Gudbjorg Bjornsdottir. When I first met her, I must admit, I thought she had a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock. It turned out, that she just had fairies at the bottom of the garden.
Magnus translates: Grey hair a tiny moustache, a tiny moustache
Hutchison: Gudbjorg Bjornsdottir is describing a gnome, shes known for years. Hes about 80, is wearing a red waistcoat and of course that snappy little moustache.
For those who cant see him, perhaps you need to visit Iceland, where it is believed there could be as many as 20,000 characters just like him or that elf, hiding in the shrubbery.
You see, when the Vikings first came here 1100 years ago, they soon realized they were not alone.
For behind invisible doors in the cliffs, in lonely empty arctic plains and those great big rocks near the freeway live gnomes, elves and fairies collectively known as Hidden People.
This is one of the most remarkable places that we have here and it is the hidden people who live in this stone here.
His name is Magnus Skarphedinssion Icelands foremost expert on all things ahh hidden.
Magnus: We have on file and I met witnesses --that have been invited into these stones. And inside there is a farm with a kitchen and tables and chairs and everything. And they drink coffee and eat pancakes and everything was very natural.
We dont have any logic explanation to this this simply is and happens and thousands and thousands of Icelanders have communications with these beings.
Hutchison: And apparently, these beings, actually do look just like this and this and this.
Which was all rather a relief given our meagre special effects budget.
Music
Scandinavian folklore is full of mystical figures, but in Iceland the Hidden People have managed to survive scepticism and ridicule.
While only ten percent of Icelanders genuinely believe in them about 80 percent, dont like to mess with the prospect. And one of those people is the President.
Iceland President: You have to realize for a thousand years the total population of Iceland was only about 70 to 80 thousand people.
So the people enlarged the population of the country by thinking about elves and fairies and trolls that inhabited fjords and valleys and rocks and hills and mountains, so even in the dark days of winter in the isolated farms, they knew they had company. And we still believe that in this country we have company, and give them my greetings when you meet them.
Thirty years ago, this rock lay in the path of a planned freeway in Reykjavik. Authorities wanted to blow it up, but they hadnt figured on the family of hidden people, living inside, who promptly put a curse on the whole project.
Things started to go wrong, machinery failed, blokes hit their thumbs with hammers. Anyway, the transport ministry finally called in a consultant to talk to the unhappy stone owners.
Magnus: They were very angry naturally, that their home would be taken. So, in the end it was made agreement between the state road company and the authorities and the hidden people living here in the stone that the hidden people would move out for a week and the authorities would move their home very gently 50 metres to where it is now.
Hutchison: I noticed the rock had been cut in half, but was too polite to ask if that meant theyd subdivided.
This is probably the most famous psychic hill in Iceland. It sits in the splendour of suburbia near the basketball courts and the high school.
Music
Hutchison: The Vikings saw elves here too. And theyve been around ever since. Although in 1974 their home was nearly destroyed when a cement truck was driven over it.
Magnus: When you do harm or rough things, brutal things to the hidden people or elves, you get a revenge. And the cement truck driver, he drove over their houses, this nine ton heavy truck lifted up and fell on its side without any logical explanation at all.
Hutchison: Revenge of the elves.
Magnus: And none of the witnesses was in the slightest doubt it was revenge of the elves.
Hutchison: At this point I was wondering if Icelanders perhaps enjoy too much fresh air.
Iceland President: My grandmother very much had an ongoing dialogue with them, I have not been blessed in that way.
Hutchison: Your grandmother was a woman Im sure of very sound mind?
Iceland President: Oh, absolutely, she was very down to earth, very down to earth. But you can also look at the paintings of one of our great painters of the 20th century Kjarval -- I have one here in the residence -- where he paints elves and trolls and fairy horses into the landscape.
Hutchison: Despite his knowledge and enthusiasm, Magnus has none of the psychic powers required to see those who dwell in these rocks.
Magnus: Well, you can just imagine being the expert on elves and hidden people for 23 years, always having to talk with second hand witnesses I would give a fortune to be able to knock on the door and to be let in.
Music
Gudborg: The house is here and then the new extension for the daughter and the baby.
Hutchison: Instead, Magnus has to rely on people like Gudborg Bjornsdottir, who although too polite to say too much, reckoned we were all a bit odd because we couldnt see the little bloke in the red waistcoat.
Gudborg: Hes standing like this. Hes living here. He was expecting us.
Hutchison: And what did I make of it all?
Gudborg: Hes coming now.
Hutchison: Well the best explanation I could find came from an old bloke I met the day before. He remembered as a child asking his mum if the hidden people existed. Her reply well if they ever did, Im sure they still do now.
Reporter: Geoff HutchisonCamera: John BenesEditor: Simon BrynjolffssenResearch: Renata Gombac