Since their demise, many legends have circulated about the Cathars, usually centring around the so-called Cathar Treasure, which was said to have disappeared during the siege of Montségur, and their relationship with the Troubadours and the Knights Templar. While much of this seems to be the result of the romanticisation of the faith by writers

Iceland’s remoteness kept the missionaries at bay, and the Icelanders remained deeply superstitious (I haven’t even mentioned the giant worm that lives in Kleifarvatn, a 1,000-meter-deep volcanic lake; or that another monster lives in Lagarfljót, a lake in eastern Iceland; or that the Westfjords still have a reputation for witchcraft).