# Do over half of Icelanders REALLY believe in Elves? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 20, 2009, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-over-half-of-icelanders-really-believe-in-elves/493757 "2009-04-20T18:42:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-over-half-of-icelanders-really-believe-in-elves/493757/21 "2009-04-20T23:41:39Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > Well more than 80% of the world’s population believes in God or Gods, so why is it so unreasonable that the Icelanders would believe in Elves?. > > Both are religious/spiritual beliefs that can not be proved or disproved scientifically Not so. They can’t be disproved of course, but they could be proved definitively by the appearance of an elf (or god) in my living room this minute. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-over-half-of-icelanders-really-believe-in-elves/493757/22 "2009-04-20T23:48:54Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Three things about belief: > > 1. It’s analog, not digital. In other words, it’s not as simple as yes / no, as the surveys make out. Imagine a similar statement about Americans believing in extraterrestrials. “I believe I’m the love-child of an alien and Madonna” would score the same ‘yes’ as "I think it’s possible that extraterrestrial life exists, somewhere, though I have yet to see evidence of such a thing."y. Right, I have a vague hopeful “belief” that there is some sort of life after death. Does that mean I beleive in angels with white robes and harps on clouds? No. I do not believe in Area 51 having a flying saucer or alien bodies, most of this is Venus and swamp gas, the rest hoaxes. But I do believe there is other intelligent life somewhere out there. ---
**Author:** ![Goosey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/0ea827/32.png) [@Goosey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Goosey)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-over-half-of-icelanders-really-believe-in-elves/493757/23 "2009-04-21T10:55:44Z")
The wording is very deliberate: “54 percent of the Icelandic population _will not deny_ that they exist”, not “_believe_ that they exist”. That seems consistent with a 1975 study which gave 55%. That 55% is broken down like this:- 7% are ‘certain’ elves exist. 15% think elves are ‘probable’. 33% think elves are ‘possible’ (but not probable or certain). (A further 18% believe elves are unlikely, 10% believe they are impossible, and 17% have no opinion.) So do more than half of Icelanders believe in elves? The answer is: it really depends on how you define ‘belief’. Myself, I’d say that 22% of Icelanders believe in elves. ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-over-half-of-icelanders-really-believe-in-elves/493757/24 "2009-04-21T15:18:23Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > My mother believes in fairies. She’s an obsessive gardener and believes they’re necessary in a flower garden, part of what makes it work. And how do you lure them to your garden? I’ve been improving the yard every year, but some fairies might really turn the corner on the work so far. I would settle for an elf, though. Can’t be worse than the deer, squirrels, raccoons and bunnies already present. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-over-half-of-icelanders-really-believe-in-elves/493757/25 "2009-04-21T15:27:15Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Not so. They can’t be disproved of course, but they could be proved definitively by the appearance of an elf (or god) in my living room this minute. True dat ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-over-half-of-icelanders-really-believe-in-elves/493757/26 "2009-04-21T15:33:45Z")
Just as _bases_ is the plural of _basis_, _Elves_ is the plural of _Elvis_ It’s not, as some folks think, _Elvi_ (or, worse yet, _Elvodes_) Heck, here they are, flyingg\*: [http://www.flyingelvi.com/home.html](http://www.flyingelvi.com/home.html) \*Ignore the gra,mmatical error. They’re Elves, after all, not grammarians. ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-over-half-of-icelanders-really-believe-in-elves/493757/27 "2009-04-21T16:02:10Z")
Well, there’s always Findhorn to be remembered in discussions like these. Personally, I find it curious, and very interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-over-half-of-icelanders-really-believe-in-elves/493757/28 "2009-04-21T16:13:07Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > When I was in Iceland, everyone claimed to believe in trolls Anyone with Internet access knows that trolls are real. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-over-half-of-icelanders-really-believe-in-elves/493757/29 "2009-04-21T16:18:09Z")
It depends on when you ask them. It’s like God, you remember him, he’s the guy no one believes in, till about 10 seconds before you die 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Poster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Happy\_Poster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Poster)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-over-half-of-icelanders-really-believe-in-elves/493757/30 "2009-04-21T17:14:34Z")
> [@brujaja](#): > > Well, there’s always Findhorn to be remembered in discussions like these. Personally, I find it curious, and very interesting. What they don’t tell you is that Findhorn is RIGHT next to an RAF base. I reckon it’s something in the fumes 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-over-half-of-icelanders-really-believe-in-elves/493757/31 "2009-04-21T18:26:35Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > It depends on when you ask them. > > It’s like God, you remember him, he’s the guy no one believes in, till about 10 seconds before you die > > 🙂 Yeah, no atheists on deathbeds. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2009, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-over-half-of-icelanders-really-believe-in-elves/493757/32 "2009-04-21T18:42:52Z")
[quote] Just as bases is the plural of basis, Elves is the plural of Elvis [quote] At least, for the most common pattern for Latin 3rd-declension nouns. But the plural of “Elvis” could also be something like “Elvites”-- Latin doesn’t really have any hard rules for the nominative forms of 3rd declension nouns. As for the OP, you also have to define “elves”. If you ask me if there was ever a race of people of a different species from _H. sapiens_, smaller than us, but who coexisted with us, of course I would say yes. If you then ask me if any of them lived in Iceland, or still exist, I’d say probably not, but then, I think I can say that I believe in triceratops, and none of those live today or in Iceland. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-over-half-of-icelanders-really-believe-in-elves/493757/33 "2009-04-25T08:00:59Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > Santa Elves, Tolkien Elves or Harry Potter Elves? I thought traditional European pagan beliefs were more along the lines of “don’t piss them off or they’ll fuck you right up” kind of elves. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-over-half-of-icelanders-really-believe-in-elves/493757.md?page=1)