Abstract

This article presents a historical ethnography of an imaginary road. Drawing on printed sources, archival material, and new field research, the article analyses the Icelandic folktale of ‘Loss of Men on Heiðarbæjarheiði’ (Manntjónið á Heiðarbæjarheiði), a story of regional importance in the Strandir district of the Icelandic Westfjords, especially the fjord of Steingrímsfjörður. The article shows the shape this story takes when encountered locally, where it appears in the form of minimalist place-storytelling that is actualized in the engagement with particular places. It thus contributes to our understanding of how legends work ‘on the ground’. In this local form as place-storytelling, the narrative shows considerable variation and a strong focus on the interpretation of local place names. Based on the contexts and variation observed between the different variants of the story, this article reads ‘Loss of Men’ as a formulation of collective fears, thereby contributing not only to research on legends, but also to the current discourse on emotions in the humanities more generally.

摘要

本文介绍了一条虚构道路的历史民族志。该文章利用印刷资料、档案材料和新的实地研究，分析了冰岛民间故事“Heiðarbæjarheiði 上的人失踪”（Manntjónið á Heiðarbæjarheiði）)，这是冰岛西部峡湾 Strandir 区，尤其是 Steingrímsfjörður 峡湾地区具有重要意义的故事。这篇文章展示了这个故事在当地遇到时所采取的形式，它以极简主义的地方讲故事的形式出现，在与特定地方的互动中得以实现。因此，它有助于我们理解传说是如何“在地面上”运作的。在这种地方叙事形式中，叙事表现出相当大的变化，并且非常注重对当地地名的解释。根据故事不同变体之间观察到的背景和变化，本文将“人类的丧失”视为集体恐惧的表述，从而不仅有助于对传说的研究，而且有助于当前人文科学中关于情感的讨论更普遍。