The concept of trolls turned to stone isn’t merely folklore—it’s woven into the very geology of Iceland. According to Nordic mythology, trolls fear daylight and are condemned to petrification when the sun catches them unaware. Walk through Iceland’s mountain ranges and rocky terrain, and you’ll begin to see what countless locals have observed for centuries: the faces of trolls frozen mid-motion across the landscape.

This August, I spent several weeks exploring Iceland’s remote valleys and peaks, searching for something between geology and legend. What I discovered was a photographic series titled Rocks & Trolls—images that capture the uncanny resemblance between eroded stone formations and the weathered features of creatures caught in their final moments of daylight.

The Troll Stone Connection

In Icelandic tradition, natural rock formations have long been attributed to petrified trolls. Place names scatter across the country as testament: Trollhella, Trollabotn, and the famous Drangey formation in the northwest—said to be a troll and her companion, caught crossing a fjord as dawn broke. These geological anomalies find elegant explanation in mythology, yet stand as legitimate landmarks on any map. It’s the intersection of the explainable and the inexplicable that fascinates photographers and storytellers alike.

The more time you spend among Iceland’s barren plateaus and scree slopes, the more your eye begins to decode them. A ridge becomes a profile. A weathered outcrop becomes a jaw. The subtle play of light and shadow across fissured granite reveals what might have been expressions, turned inward, forever.

A Series Unfolds

Rocks & Trolls presents a collection of photographs from across Iceland where natural stone formations suggest something more than accident. Some are unmistakable—clear enough that you’d swear the transformation happened only moments before your arrival. Others require patience and a certain openness to suggestion; the troll appears only if you let your gaze settle and your imagination work.

Each image captures a different moment in this silent narrative: trolls in various states of petrification, some defiant in their final stance, others seeming almost peaceful in their stony sleep. The series explores the boundary where natural phenomenon and folklore intersect, where geology becomes mythology.

This project will unfold across multiple posts, with new images and stories from specific locations throughout Iceland featured in subsequent installments. Each post will explore not only the visual peculiarities of these formations but also the legends and landscape from which they emerged.