InNorse mythology and laterIcelandic folklore,landdísir (Old Norse "dísir of the land") are beings who live inlanddísasteinar, specific stones located in NorthwesternIceland which were treated with reverence into the 18th and 19th centuries. The landdísir are not recorded in Old Norse sources, but belief in them is assumed from the namelanddísasteinar.[1]
Rudolf Simek says that the landdísir "are perhaps identical to thedísir, female protective guardian spirits, or else related in some way to thelandvætter, Icelandic protective spirits." According to Simek, since the landdísir were believed to live in stones and were venerated there, the practice could represent a form ofancestor worship. Simek notes that Icelandic folklore tells of other beings who live in stones and hills, such asdwarfs andelves.[1]
Gabriel Turville-Petre theorizes that "the femalelanddísir, dwelling in their rocks, were probably not far removed from the masculine elves." Turville-Petre connects their veneration to the continental Scandinavian practice of theDísablót (thesacrifice to the dísir), theDisting (thing of the dísir), and various Scandinavian place names involving the dísir where worship may have occurred. Turville-Petre concludes that "thelanddísir of theÍsafjörður were dead women ancestors of the people who lived there. They had come to be venerated, being goddesses at once of death, fertility, and rebirth."[2]