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Puffin Island

by Daniel Mackie September 27, 2019

 

On Drangey Island in Skagafjörður in Iceland puffins lay their eggs, Only one each year. However there is something Demonic lurking in the tall cliff faces where the birds nest. Legend has it that when the locals would scale the cliff faces to harvest eggs from the nests for their tea, a demon would reach out of a cave and send them to their deaths! 

Fortunately, there was a saint, Guðmundur the good, well, actually a bishop as the Catholic church has not recognised him as as a saint, although by all accounts he  was pretty awesome; very good at dealing with demons, this one in Drangey among others!

Guðmundur visited Drangey and blessed the island with holy water. The demon showed himself and asked  Guðmundur to stop his blessing, making the case that even evil needed a place to live. Guðmundur thought this fair enough and cordoned of part of the island for the creature to live. After that every one went on harvesting puffin eggs from the other part of island for their tea! Which is a bit sorrowful as puffins only lay one egg. Maybe Guðmundur thought the demon was actually doing the puffins a service by maintaining their population!

 

 



Daniel Mackie
Daniel Mackie

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