There’s no website for Freevilli and the Facebook page is outdated, so either you stumble upon the old red Nordic house turned into a workshop and museum, or perhaps you’ve read the TripAdvisor posts. Or, like in my case, you got recommended by a previous traveller who dwelled off far enough from the main ring road in Iceland and ended up in the one-horse town of Djúpivogur in the east fjords. Much like the artist himself and founder and creator of Freevilli, the place is an enigma, an epic tale filled with wisdom more valuable than ever in our current uncertain times. Like a mysterious iceberg, on the outskirts of the town and off the beaten path, you’ll only get to see the nucleus of this almost lost and forgotten saga of Iceland once you spend enough time with Villi and he makes you see what lies hidden beneath the surface and the tip of his art.

Vilmundur, or better known as Villi by the locals, is an infamous, yet elusive, unsung hero from Iceland, that for most tourists gazing from a distance and briefly passing through Djúpivogur before getting back to their cruise ship, might look like just another crazy old Icelandic fisherman or sheep farmer.

Many travellers and tourists navigating through the East Fjords of Iceland might know about the Freevilli museum in the small fishing town of Djúpivogur, but few know about Vilmundur’s past life and who he was or where he came from. This embodiment of mythos and allegory is one of those rare cases where someone turned their dark and bloody past into one of hope and light – and not using his age, culture or ego as an excuse to embrace positive change and a new lifestyle. For the average hasty Western tourist looking at Iceland from a surface level, Vilmundur comes forth as a half-mad hippie with one of the biggest private whalebone collections in the world. But it’s only once you sit down with him and start digging into his past that you’ll find and appreciate the incredible wisdom the man who once was a whaler and hunter now holds.