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Paper short abstract

This lecture will consider how the vanishing islands of the North Sea area represent supernatural naturecultures, negotiating thresholds of human maritime subsistence and nautical fears, which stand in stark contrast to Irish insular paradises and the Old Norse Glasisvellir.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines traditions of vanishing and re-emerging islands in Faroese, Norwegian, and Orcadian folklore. Narratives of islands such as Svínoy, Utrøst, and Sule Skerry and the submerged city of Finfolkaheem portray landscapes that defy stability. These shifting geographies complicate any notion of ‘nature’ as fixed or coherent. Still, these islands are never merely natural phenomena, rather also representing social spaces governed by rulers like the “Utrøst mannen”, who are depicted as engaging human beings in interactions of hospitality, trickery, or even abduction. Thus, such “peekaboo” islands both mirror and distort human cultural structures all the while remaining entrenched in maritime environments. By scrutinising various traditions of these vanishing islands, I contend that they represent supernatural naturecultures that navigate thresholds between land and sea, human and other-than-human, stability and impermanence. Instead of being inert “creatures of nature”, these islands and their denizens are entangled with human livelihoods, fears and desires, especially those tied to seafaring and maritime subsistence. Furthermore, this paper sheds light on how these North Sea traditions highlight instability, danger, and liminality over timelessness and divine light by situating them alongside the Irish insular paradises often compared to the Norse notion of Glasisvellir (‘Glittering Plains’). Consequently, these “peekaboo” islands question dichotomies of nature and culture, extending a productive lens to folkloristics on how supernatural landscapes embody more-than-human entanglements.