FUN FACT 2ND EDITION, The protectors

Landvættir  pronounced (Land- vi-tir) with an emphasis on, vi, are spirits of the land in Norse mythology 

Iceland is protected by four great guardians

According to a saga in Heimskringla a king of Denmark, King Harald Bluetooth Gormsson intending to invade Iceland, had a wizard send his spirit out in the form of a whale to scout it out for points of vulnerability. Swimming westwards around the northern coast, the wizard saw that all the hillsides and hollows were full of landvættir. 

The dragon (Dreki) in the east

The Griffin (Gammur) in the north

He swam up Vopnafjörður, intending to go ashore, 

but a great dragon came flying down the valley toward him, followed by many snakes, insects, and lizards, all spitting poison at him. So he went back and continued around the coast westward to Eyjafjörður, where he again swam inland. This time he was met by a great bird, so big that its wings touched Breiðafjörður. 

There he was met by a huge bull, bellowing horribly, with many landvættir following it.

The bull (Griðungur) in the west

 The giant (Bergrisi) in the south.

He retreated again, continued south around Reykjanes, and tried to come ashore at Vikarsskeið, but there he encountered a mountain bergrisi,a giant with his head higher than the hill-tops, with an iron staff in his hand and followed by many other giants (jötnar). He continued along the south coast but saw nowhere else where a ship come in, "nothing but sands and wasteland and high waves crashing on the shore.

The four landvættir are now regarded as the protectors of the four quarters of Iceland, and are portrayed on their coast of arms and their money.