Huldukonan (The Hidden Woman)

Fríða Ísberg’s Huldukonan is a multi-generational novel that traces how grief, secrecy, and desire become transformed into folklore, and how that folklore, once established, begins to shape the emotional lives of those who inherit it. Set primarily in the remote fjord of Dýrleifarvík, the novel moves between the early twentieth century and the year 1984, following a single family whose history becomes inseparable from a local myth: the story of the huldukonan, the hidden woman said to lure children into the river beneath a waterfall.

The novel’s earliest events take place at the beginning of the twentieth century, when Dýrleifarvík is still a thriving fishing community. At its center stands the Lohr house, built by Peter Lohr, a Danish merchant who embodies order, commerce, and rational thinking. The house overlooks both the fjord and a river that descends from the mountains through a narrow ravine, forming a deep, dangerous pool beneath a waterfall. Though the landscape is strikingly beautiful, it is also unsettling. Long before tragedy strikes, locals speak of the ravine with caution, describing strange echoes, oppressive silence, and a feeling that one is trespassing on something not meant for human presence.

Peter Lohr’s elder daughter, Jóhanna, marries and gives birth to a son, Pétur Sigvaldason. Pétur becomes the emotional center of her life, and her devotion to him is intense. One day, while still very young, Pétur disappears near the river. Despite frantic searches along the riverbanks, the shore, and the surrounding slopes, the boy is never found. The only trace left behind is a pair of crudely carved wooden figures discovered near the edge of the waterfall, an unsettling detail that suggests ritual, play, or something darker. Pétur’s disappearance devastates his mother. Her grief is absolute and unrelenting, and as time passes it curdles into bitterness, rage, and isolation. She withdraws emotionally from her family and the community, and eventually leaves Dýrleifarvík altogether aboard a foreign ship, never to return.