by Rob Shepherd
‘Grýla rode into the yard,
Hoofs she had to walk upon,
Fifteen tails had she and hard,
From her brow the long tuft of a demon,
A bag she bore against her thigh,
And on each tail a hundred bags overhigh…’
Maybe the first Viking explorers who came to ancient Iceland had already stumbled into those! Maybe that vapor allowed men to look at such creatures, as it came out of the ground and was made up of the same primigenial forces the monsters themselves were constituted by, something that had spouted out from the ancient times of their planet, from the deeps of old Earth itself… Did those first settlers discover that their presence wasn’t just part of some legends? Had these things been discovered thanks to the vapors or because of something else? There were other notes on some booklets on fairies and strange beings, stating that such creatures had teeth like burnt and blackened stones or many horns, but those seemed to be some vague or unclear descriptions, even though the teeth he himself had seen that day looked strong. After all, there were so many different depictions and drawings of Orcs and Trolls on books for boys and girls, certainly.
Then another written rhyme came into his hands, this one saying:
‘Down comes a Grýla from the hills,
With forty tails,
Staff in hand,
Coming to cut out the stomachs of the children…’
That could just be it! A possible explanation of what he had seen in the city park that evening! As a matter of fact, the creature had come out of the trees, approaching the couple who held the child, then had elongated one of her many scraping, pointed tails and pierced it directly through his mouth, going down to his abdomen, inserting that scary disgusting protuberance inside his stomach, this way causing the boy to clearly cry and suffer.
‘What if the monster fed on the food the child had eaten that same day? What if she couldn’t take sustenance by herself and had to steal it away from the body of a kid, maybe? Was she unable to eat anything else or was it just her preferred delicacy? Or did she need only predigested nutrients?’ Who knew the truth? Probably the legends that spoke about many tails with a hundred bags just referred to the process of taking food away from the children’s bodies and putting that into their sackcloth, in order to have that available later and then deliver their prizes back home, wherever their homes might be…
Probably the Vikings that first settled this country had the chance to look at those creatures through the vapor coming from the Great Geyser but they hadn’t understood the real truth: those beings didn’t eat the children, actually, but ate through them, by means of the food they had ingested, before it could even be digested.
But such a painful procedure could result in seriously harming or damaging the boys themselves, even killing them, in the end. The scientist had to discover more about all that, and he had to do it soon!
So over the course of the next several days, he searched for the house where the parents of the poor child he had spotted that day lived, and made some subtle and soft inquiries about the family, their jobs and so on. Great was his surprise, and worry, when he was informed that the young son of theirs was presently very ill, and the doctor was said to be giving up hope of saving him. The boy was said to have developed some bad hiccups lately as well.
It was exactly what he feared! Such creatures didn’t feed only on the children’s food in order to survive, but they could even kill the younglings in the process, at least at times…what terrible news! What could he do? ‘Who is going to believe me?’ the man thought, soon after.
The first thing that came to Sigurður’s mind was to report the facts to Gísli as soon as possible. Then his friend’s suggestions and opinions would help him in making a decision about what to do and the way they could inform the local authorities and the policemen! On the other hand, the man didn’t even think of telling those facts to Ylfur. His friend’s sister who worked at the restaurant would never understand, or simply would consider him a madman. So he worried about losing her respect and affections, certainly. He couldn’t be completely honest with Ylfur at that time, because courting was a very slow, delicate process in 1800.
At first his friend Gísli didn’t show much interest, or simply wasn’t convinced by his speech or by the film strips Gisli examined in his laboratory. The farmer was not an experienced scientist, like the man was. Nor had his friend been able to comprehend how his strange, unusual and groundbreaking device even functioned. The man knew Sigurður well, undoubtedly, but not everything a friend tells you can be considered the truth, certainly.
Then Sigurður remembered that ‘seeing is believing’…and he had Gísli accompany him to the park the next morning in order to look at those creatures with his own eyes.
As if by magic, Gísli’s stupor evaporated once he saw them through the transparent ball with the vapor inside. At first he supposed that the monsters were inside the container, but then he understood how things really were. And he almost fainted.
The scary images left his friend’s mind very troubled. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe him or simply thought he had exaggerated the results of his studies and filming sessions - as perhaps the figures on his strips might be due to the film being damaged. Or maybe people had not been properly filmed, or had been moving unexpectedly while the movie camera was at work, and that may have made those strange shades appear on them. But now that Gísli himself had seen everything with his own eyes, there were no doubts anymore: no possibility he could have mistaken what appeared ahead of him, as shown through the transparent ball, certainly!
The two men remained there for a while, staring at each other and speaking quietly, thinking over and over again about all that, trying to find a realistic explanation - some fact of science which could prove useful or at least probable. But they looked uncertain, scared, worried and lowered their eyes in the end. Now the question was how they could reveal the truth to their fellow citizens and to all the world, and what could they do to try to stop such horrible atrocities? How could they fight those terrible creatures and keep the city’s children, and themselves as well, safe for the time being?
Once they were back at home his friend finally told him: “Everyone in the city is in peril! That monster could have gotten to anyone. Even you and me. At any moment, she could claim all of our bodies.”
Sigurður shook his head, unbelieving. “Then why hasn’t she done it yet? Why not take yours, for example?”
The other man didn’t respond.
“I can tell you why: I’m beginning to think that such monsters prey only on children. It must be something connected to their physique or young age, for even though I have seen such scenes many times before, I never noticed any act against adult people, at least not so far…”
“So, you would conclude that those creatures can’t attack grown men?”
“No, of course I can’t. It could even be that they prey on common people when no child is in the vicinity, or for some other reason perhaps.”
“What do you plan to do, then?”
“I have some ideas, but I am still working on those. First of all, I will go to the city park again tomorrow to film it again, but there is something else I need to know…”
“I don’t know how you can stand to look at such evil knowing that you can’t do anything at all about it.”
“I’m a man of science: studying, researching and testing my theories over and over again - that is all part of my method, it has always been. So what else can I do? I don’t know of any other way to find a weakness in those creatures, something that could prove useful as a weapon against them.”
His friend didn’t reply.
“Are you going to accompany me tomorrow, then?”
“Yes, I’ll go…” he nodded in the end.
Actually, Gísli wasn’t able to reach him on time in the park, as a problem occurred at his farm and kept him there, as Sigurður discovered later that day. So he decided t
o go by himself. After all, he had done that so many times before, he was used to working alone, certainly. But something occurred that day that made the scientist really fear for his safety. He was sitting on a bench at the border of the park, his movie camera already focused on the place and working, when he saw two boys, no older than eight-years-old, probably, running and playing near a pond. While his newly improved filming device was doing its duty, he took the ball-shaped object he now always had with him and began looking at the scenery with a different view: the one with his eyes watching the park through the vapor inside the container. And then the man saw them: two creatures - the same size and shape of the previous ones he had seen on his past footage, with a great stature of about ten feet. They appeared next to the small lake and soon headed for the two little boys.
Sigurður knew what was going to happen, for sure, but he didn’t want to let the monsters to hurt the young ones, so he began trembling, angry about the situation. This time he really didn’t seem inclined to allow any evil act against the two innocent people who were wandering around freely and happily, no more than 10 yards away from his bench. At times, you do something knowing you will regret it deeply, even though you are well aware that your behavior is certainly correct and it is the right action to be taken.
So he simply stood up, finally, and looked towards the place where the children were playing, then cried out, clearly “No! Stay away…”
Then nothing happened for a few moments as the two boys turned towards Sigurður and stared at him with a strange look. It only lasted for a little while, then the young boys started running and laughing again, busy playing their games in the field.
The scientist had another look through the transparent container and, by keeping it before his eyes, carefully checked the next moves of the two creatures he had discovered before in that area. To his great surprise, he noticed that those monsters hadn’t changed their course and were now very near to the young ones. Damn it! What else could he do?
Then he had the idea of trying to throw something at the creatures just to see if such a gesture could keep them away or force the two to move along, without further proceeding their bloody deeds. So he took a stone, about the size of his foot, and raised it until he thought he’d be able to target the one nearer to the pond. As a matter of fact, the stone would have crossed the air and hit the creature with any luck, or it would have fallen into the water nearby if he had missed. Of course, he didn’t want to give the two boys the impression the stone was just meant to hit them…
Actually he threw the stone and it hit the designated target but just went past it, as if going through the creature’s body without any effect. It didn’t even stop against her skin or damage it. It was just as if the stone and the creature were in different realities and physical things couldn’t really touch them. On the other hand those beings were capable of interacting with humans, attacking them and doing exactly as they pleased. They looked like ghosts no one was able to see or even imagine, apart from him of course, thanks to that vapor…
However, that gesture, although of no use apparently, made something happen. In fact, the two creatures suddenly turned to the man and seemed to notice him for the first time ever, then they kept looking at him and began moving towards his bench.
A deep fear was filling Sigurður’s mind at that moment, his eyes widening. What had he done? Why had he been so incautious today? They had him cornered in that space now.
He didn’t want to wait a minute longer. He couldn’t hear their steps ahead of him, beside him, or behind him - but he was able to see their movements, clearly, through the vapor. They made no sound either, not even a soft one, the only sound being his own heart pounding in his chest. The man almost felt the creatures’ presence throughout the park: their vibrations reverberated inside his worried head and his body, too, in some inexplicable way. Seconds went by, followed by those sounds-without-sounds through the open field - he could almost hear them continuously tormenting his ears. None of those were real, of course.
Sigurður’s fingers slipped slowly around that ball of his, as if he had to reassure himself again that he was securely holding the object that made it possible for him to follow the Grýla’s moves and look at them directly. He tried to remember having been there so many times before, without any movie camera or that vapor in a container, without the need to fear anything, without knowing a single detail at all about those beings, their presence in town and the horrible acts they perpetrated against the children. Or, maybe, even against men…
Then the first creature, which had gone a bit in front of him — and was now no more than two yards away from Sigurður — seemed to change her course. Soon the other one followed, and went to the boundary of the park. The scientist was just glad they had averted their direction, and he almost didn’t notice the young couple with their six-year-old daughter, entering the city park just next to the monsters’ path. Then Sigurður understood: that was why the creatures had gone down there, the reason because they had chosen that target instead of coming after him.
As the first Grýla came near the little girl, her many scary tails already on the move, trembling and anxious, clearly eager to act to reach her prey, the hunting began –- the man completely understood the procedure at that point, unfortunately –- and the bloody feeding took place. Sigurður couldn’t help but feel relieved because the final target wasn’t him this time. Looking back later he would feel deeply ashamed about that, but there was really nothing he could do, as his previous action had clearly demonstrated. The fear was simply overwhelming, a sensation he couldn’t master or keep away, at least not yet.
So the man, plainly, gave ground and walked out of range of those monsters. He was retreating under the cover of the horrible act that he knew was going on ahead of him, in that same place, without saying a single word of protest, incapable of opposing it. Later that day he would feel discouraged and angrily regret what he had done, but he didn’t get any relief from his being sorry, of course.
The man passed a troubled night, unable to sleep because of the feeling of great fear and all the many worries that he had on his mind. At a certain point he saw himself in a dream-like scene, composed of old lava fields covered in moss with the occasional bit of meadow and farm, walking with no destination ahead of him, until he got to a lonely location he already knew well: the area surrounding the Great Geyser that he had already visited twice before. All of a sudden he found his body encased by a dense vapor, seemingly coming from the natural feature in the ground, which was erupting almost continuously, making the sun itself disappear and turning everything around into a strange dimness.
He shouldn’t have been able to see in that setting, but he could actually, as some faint figures, strange beings of unusual proportions, appeared to be going around just past the vapor and the many fumaroles nearby. It was the Grýla, a lot of Grýla! Those horrifying monsters, they were coming…but it seemed that they weren’t approaching some child in order to keep tormenting him, as he had seen in the city park the day before, but just the man. They knew he knew, and wanted him. Just him! The scientist simply couldn’t think clearly, and didn’t know how to escape or where to go, so he rolled around in his bed, moved back and forth restlessly, and then disappeared into the vapor, to never again emerge from there anymore. And then he awoke, his eyes still troubled and desperate, obviously.
It was only a dream but it truly expressed his anxieties, what was grabbing and ruling his hidden thoughts. During the day he could look like a calm, pensive and controlled person, busy working at his projects and doing technical experiments, but the things he feared in reality became true when he was defenseless, asleep and preyed on his mind which resulted in finally manifesting the way he really felt inside, the bad and deep sensations that crossed his true self, undoubtedly.
That day the man couldn’t eat and, if it had been up to him, he would have refused to eat for as long as he could hold out. It was only his friend Gísli, who
came to pay a visit the next evening and who listened to all the detailed reports of Sigurður, finally making him feel a little better. In the end his friend forced him to eat something.
After a long discussion, the farm owner suggested to him that, probably, it was just better to leave all that, because too much trouble could come to them from such a situation. After all, such evil creatures had probably been living in that country, and maybe elsewhere as well, since ancient times. No man had ever defied them or spoken about their presence, legends apart. Why should the two of them be the ones to do something, especially because it was going to become so perilous? “You already put your own life in danger yesterday, just keep that in mind!”
The young scientist objected: it was a problem involving Icelandic children, they were in peril, so they had to do something, by any means. The question was just that: what could they think of doing? What weapons did they have at their disposal at present?
“According to what you just told me before, there is nothing we can do.” Gísli stated plainly.
And this time Sigurður had to admit he was right, unfortunately. Then something came to his mind, a thought he hadn’t considered yet, certainly. “As we can’t fight those creatures, or destroy them, we should put all the data we have collected about their behavior and actions somewhere. Maybe by sharing our findings others will one day find the way to attack and stop them. This is the very purpose of science: enlightening the way for the next ones to follow!”
As a matter of fact, it had been the story in that newspaper about the device completed by William Friese-Greene that had gotten Sigurður’s mind to thinking, and inspired him to develop that new instrument of his.
English was spoken fluently throughout the whole country (it had been the Icelanders’ second language since the time of the seafarers, as a matter of fact), so writing in that language and in French as well — that Sigurður knew well as it was the technical jargon of science at that time — could prove very useful and open his studies and their discoveries to a wider number of readers worldwide. That looked the right way to go, spreading the news, making the people aware of these monsters that surrounded them and wounded their poor children. He wanted to force other people to do all they could and never forget to stay on guard against such bloody beings roaming their lands since the ancient times, unseen and unbeknown to men.