The thing I really loved about believing in Santa Claus was the idea that reindeer would land on our roof. It didn’t matter that our fireplace was non-functional and hidden behind furniture, when my mom would rattle those jingle bells at midnight, I was like “fuck yeah, Blitzen’s here!” (Rudolph is so overrated.) So naturally, when I learned that there is a reindeer conservation park in East Iceland, I jumped at the chance to go meet some Dashers and Dancers and Donners.
Located in Fellabær, right on the edge of Egilsstaðir, the Reindeer Park is run by reindeer expert Björn Magnússon, who we met with along with his granddaughter, Kolbrún Edda (Edda) Jensen Björnsdóttir, also works at the park. House of reindeer The park began by happenstance in 2021, when two abandoned infant reindeer were found by snowmobilers travelling on Mount Snæfell and brought to Björn. “They tried looking around and they didn’t find anyone or see any more reindeer, so they actually took them in their backpack and called my grandpa right away,” says Edda.
“He came with milk right away because they won’t live for many hours without their mother. He lives in a small house in Egilsstaðir, so he just brought them home and they slept in his bathroom the first night. My grandmother didn’t love it.
” Those two calves were named Garpur and Mosi; they were three and ten days old, respectively, at the time they were found. At that age, they are smaller than a newborn lamb, bu.