Hafdís Huld

Hafdís Huld Þrastardóttir (born 22 May 1979), known simply as Hafdís Huld, is an Icelandic singer and actress. She began her musical career as a member of the electronic band GusGus in 1995 and left the group in 1999. Hafdís made her solo debut with her 2006 album Dirty Paper Cup.

Career

Debut with GusGus (1995–1999)

Hafdís joined the Icelandic electronic band GusGus at its inception in 1995 at the age of 15. During this time, she participated in two world tours.

Collaborations and other activities (2000–2005)

After leaving the band she started writing her own songs, and collaborated with FC Kahuna, co-writing their singles "Hayling" and "Machine Says Yes", which were included in the 2002 album Machine Says Yes. Elsewhere she sang with dance producers Ewan Pearson and Tom Middleton. During the same period, she made two feature films and modelled clothing for Extreme Sports. She later studied at the London Centre of Contemporary Music, graduating with a Distinction in 2006. Hafdís was featured on the track "The News (A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Microsoft Inc.)" on the conceptual rap album Deltron 3030 in 2000.

Huld

In Scandinavian mythology, Huld is only referenced by völva or seiðkona, that is a woman who practiced the seiðr. She is mentioned in the Ynglinga saga, Sturlunga saga and a late medieval Icelandic tale. In the latter source, she is Odin's mistress and the mother of the demi-goddesses Þorgerðr and Irpa. As her name suggests, Huld may be in origin the same being as the Huldra and the German Holda.

Attestations

In the Ynglinga saga it is related that she was first hired to kill the Swedish king Vanlade, by his wife Drífa. She "hag-rode" him to death.

Snorri also quoted some lines from Ynglingatal composed in the 9th century:

Later she was hired by Vanlade's grandchildren to kill his son Visbur.

It is said in Sturlunga saga that Sturla Þórðarson entertained King Magnús lagabœtir with a story about Huld in 1263, which he told "better and more cleverly than any of those present had heard before" (betr ok fróðligar en nokkurr þeira hafði fyrr heyrt, er þar váru). According to Sturlunga saga, the story was about a great troll-woman and was well received by the king's followers and by the queen; it took a good part of the day to tell.