Elves Hall

If you walk down Skolavörðurstígur from the big Church on the Hill, you'll eventually find yourself at the intersection with Laugavegur. Just before you reach this merger of two of Reykjavík's main shopping streets, you'll see a clock store on the right hand side of Skólavörðurstíg and a little port next to it. There's nothing special about this port or the triangle of land that it leads to, as can easily be seen in the picture above. Nothing special to the naked human eye, that is.

What I'm thinking I know about this patch of misused land, though, is that it's got a history only revealed in dreams, or maybe after a deep-night stroll on the thirteenth of Christmas when elves reveal themselves to humans at crossroads. What I know is that there is an Elf Hall there exactly where the photo leads your eye. I've been there three times, in dreams, and I've seen how cavernous their gathering hall is, and how exotic and intimidating these Hidden People of Iceland are as they revel in some parallel world to ours. I wasn't invited but ended there on accident, and managed to find my way back out before I was trapped or discovered. Elves don't like humans too much.

Some things in life you just know and this is one of them: at this spot in mid-town Reykjavík, just behind the Nike store and and old clock shop, two universes collide.