A good friend of mine wrote to tell me that she has obtained her Irish citizenship and is planning to move to Ireland for a year or two to see how it goes. Let’s just say she is living my dream. Sigh.
I have never been to Ireland, and it is one of those places I’ve always wanted to go to, along with other countries that start with “I,” such as Italy, India, Indonesia, Israel, and Iceland, the latter of which has been somewhat of a fascination of mine for years. For some reason it just stirs something within me, this feeling that it’s my destiny to go there. I think I’m drawn mostly to the strange landscape, the sagas, and the folklore. The other day I had a very vivid dream that I was in Iceland, and when I woke up, I thought, if not now, then when? Now that the economy has tanked, perhaps it’s actually affordable… Then again, I also had a vivid dream that I was planning a trip to the moon, but when I woke up I realized it was based on the second episode of Doctor Who Season 3 in which the Judoon transport the hospital the Doctor and Martha Jones are in to the moon.
But penny scribblers like me can’t exactly afford taking off to another country to have an adventure. The best they can do for now is poke around and find books and videos and pretend. I unearthed this trailer for an Icelandic movie called Huldufolk 102.
According to folklore, the huldufolk came into being when Eve was washing her many children (I’ve also heard the same story starring Lilith instead of Eve). When God arrived (although, hey, isn’t God everywhere?), she hid the yet unwashed kids. God inspected the clean ones, then asked Eve if she had any others. Out of fear, she denied her existence, so God then declared: “What man hides from God, God will hide from man.” So I’m definitely ready to go to Iceland and meet them, or maybe shrink and live in a rock.
Or am I too much like Meggie’s aunt from Inkheart, someone who would rather read about adventures than have them? Anyway, I saw the movie yesterday. Don’t listen to those spoilsport movie reviewer naysayers; the acting is impressive, the sets and special effects are good, and the script is tight. I loved it, so did my son, and apparently so did the rest of the audience–they applauded afterward.
