"Lord of the Rings" series author J.R.R. Tolkien wasn't the only one who had a thing for elves.
Environmentalists in Iceland are protesting the construction of a new road that would require the destruction of volcanic rock on the Álftanes peninsula, Live Science reported Tuesday. Protesters say building the road through the rock, located near the capital Reykjavik, would damage the homes of the elves who make the rocks their home.
Environmentalist groups like Friends of Lava have been stymieing efforts to build the highway for the last several months, often brining hundreds of people to stand in front of the bulldozers, the Associated Press reported last December.
The area of volcanic rock is especially important because it is the location of an elf church.
"It will be a terrible loss and damaging both for the elf world and for us humans," Ragnhildur Jonsdottir, a "seer" who says she can telepathically communicate with elves, told the AP.
Elves, or the "hidden folk," are an integral part of Icelandic culture and lore. To Icelanders, elves are a part of the land, living in a world separate from humans and worthy of respect.
"To the Icelanders, the land was never just an accumulation of inanimate matter- a pile of stones here, a patch of earth there- but a living entity by itself," folklorists May and Hallberg Hallmundsson wrote in 1987, according to Live Science.
A significant amount of Iceland's 320,000 population still believe elves exist. A 2007 survey conducted by the University of Iceland found that of the 1,000 participants, 62 percent said they think its possible that elves are real, the AP reported.
Terry Gunnell, a University of Iceland folklore professor, told the AP he isn't shocked by the widespread belief in elves.
"This is a land where your house can be destroyed by something you can't see (earthquakes), where the wind can knock you off your feet, where the smell of sulfur from your taps tells you there is invisible fire not far below your feet," Gunnel told the AP, "and where hot springs and glaciers talk."
There have also been similar protests in other parts of the world, particularly in the 90's in Great Britain that involved fairies, Live Science reported.
"Fairies have inspired a counter-cultural movement," folklorist Andy Lechter wrote in 2001, according to Live Science. "The culture adopted an important fairy mythology which placed protestors within an almost fairytale like struggle between the benevolent forces of nature and a tyrannical and destructive humanity."
