Icelandic elf, troll gardens to sprout up in shadow of iconic Gimli Viking

The trolls and elves of Icelandic lore may have a new home at the feet of Gimli's 4.6-metre-tall Viking statue by next summer.

"The big old guy is still going to be there and he remains the icon of the community, there's no doubt about that," said Tim Arnason, a long-time Icelandic Festival of Manitoba committee member. "Now there's going to be a little more to do around there."

The Icelandic Festival of Manitoba is hoping to open a park in the shadow of the statue ahead of the 128th annual celebration in August 2017.

"The board of the Icelandic Festival wanted to give back to its host community to thank them for all of those years of allowing us to have our festival in Gimli," said Chris Brown, executive director of the festival.

"It was decided that the best we could do that was to build a park around the Viking statue to help celebrate the culture, history and personal history of those who settled in Gimli and came from Iceland."

The park will consist of three family-friendly gardens — the Troll Storm Garden, Elf Garden and Breakwater Garden — that will be accessible to people with disabilities, Brown said.

The Troll Storm Garden will be built in an area that has been used to collect storm water run-off in the past. Landscape designers plan to plant water-loving Prairie vegetation and flowers at the site and stack boulders with troll-like shapes and faces cut in the stone. As Icelandic legend goes, trolls are nocturnal creatures that turn to stone if they get caught in the sun.

The Elf Garden is another hat-tip to Icelandic mythology. Tiny elf houses will be spread throughout in the same way some Icelanders set up the little homes in their gardens.

A series of pathway stones with runic alphabet letters in them will be laid in the gardens as well. Stones can be purchased for between $125 and $1,250, and buyers can have personalized messages carved into them, Brown said.

Some of the stones with runic lettering will be scattered around and can be assembled like a puzzle.

Arnason hopes the new park boosts the Gimli tourism industry.

"It think it's going to be a great facelift," said Arnason, who is also a member of the Viking Park Legacy Campaign.

A big wall with cultural and historic facts about the shared history of Gimli and Iceland will also be in the park, Arnason said.

"It just adds to the natural beauty that already surrounds the statue and borders the lake," Arnason said.

Winnipeg firm HTFC Planning & Design is behind the landscape design. The rural municipality of Gimli and the Betel Home Foundation are also involved with the project.

The festival has already raised about $500,000 through charitable donations but still needs another $300,000. There isn't any money in the project from the province yet, but Brown said the festival is hoping that will change.

The Gimli Chamber of Commerce erected the Viking statue on a stone plinth in 1967.

The Icelandic Festival has been hosted in Gimli since 1932. Prior to that it was hosted in Winnipeg.

The festival hopes to start construction as soon as the snow melts in the spring.