REÐASAFN RARITIES

The title of this post comes from the Phallological Museum/Phallotèque of Reykjavik, which I have visited during this one-week Icelandic adventure (returning to Sweden tonight).

It contains a Folklore Section with formol-preserved penises of male cryptids and magical creatures, the way it sounds, including (now with scientific names, quoted verbatim):

• Changeling: Nanus subterraneus subditus joekuldalensis
• Näkki/Kelpie (in horse form): Equus fabulosus aquaticus islandicus
• Foxcat/catfox ("skuggabaldur," lit. "shadow Balder:" half housecat and half Arctic fox, allegedly the hybrid offspring of these two carnivores --though, in real life, members of the Felis genus cannot reproduce with Alopex specimens--; a fearsome beast that kills sheep and even humans with a single glance): Alopex-Felis islandicus / Felis-Alopex islandicus
• Urda's cat (a huge necrophagous feral housecat; Urda is the Norn of the Past): Felis catus necrophaga thingmulensis
• Troll: Homo gigantus islandicus
• Elf (Icelandic elves are High Men and Women, just like Tolkien elves; i.e. a historical or fantastic interpretation of what humans are or want to be, at least in character): Homo sapiens obscurus / Homo sapiens mysticus invisibilis
• Milkhare ("tilberi" in Icelandic: witches' pet, steals milk straight from the cow's udder): Costa humana lactea lanata
• One-eyed, one-footed, and one-handed merman (fjörulalli, pushes humans into the ocean and preys on them): Homo unipes, unimanus et luscus maritimus
• Merbull (mercattle: the underwater cattle of merfolk): Bos taurus aquaticus islandicus
• Elven billy goat: Caper hircus obscurus conglaciatus
• Elven ram (elves, like merfolk, also keep livestock more productive than that of the humans): Ovis aries mysticus hnallthorensis
• The dreaded Draugur (undead, ice-cold zombie-like undead person, think White Walker) of Snæfellsjökull (the glacier volcano through which the Germans went into the Centre of the Earth in Verne's novel): Umbra malefica snaefiallensis
• One of the 13 Yuletide Lads (the thirteen trolls that bring gifts to Icelandic children during the second Advent fortnight leading up to Christmas Eve): Homo natalicus islandicus
• Naddi (this dreaded monster appears to have been some kind of mer-centaur; he attacked and killed travellers on the coastal path around Njardvík, but was forced into the ocean by a brave farmer): Monstrum terribilis njardvicensis (Orkney Island lore has also a version called the Nuckelavee, with Funko Pop proportions, one cyclopean red hot glowing eye, and a whole physique as skinless as an AoT titan!)