Icelandic Phallological Museum
Encyclopedia
The Icelandic Phallological Museum in Húsavík
, Iceland
houses the world's largest collection of penis
es and penile parts. By July 2011, it had 276 penises taken from 46 species, including Homo sapiens. Its collection includes 55 penises taken from whales, 36 from seals and 118 from land mammals, including a wide variety of domestic, wild, terrestrial, and marine animals and an unfortunate stray polar bear
shot by fishermen who found it drifting on pack ice off the Westfjords
. The museum acquired its first human penis in July 2011.
) which was used as a cattle whip. He began collecting penises after a friend heard the story of the bull's penis he owned as a child and gave him four new ones, three of which Hjartarson gave to friends. Acquaintances at whaling stations began bringing him whale penises as well, and the collection grew from there, expanding through donations and acquisitions from various sources around Iceland. The organs of farm animals came from abattoirs, while fishermen supplied those of seals and the smaller whales. The penises of larger whales came from commercial whaling stations
, although this source dried up after the International Whaling Commission
implemented a global ban on commercial whaling in 1986. However, Hjartarson has been able to continue to collect whale penises by harvesting them from the 12–16 whales that fall victim to stranding on the Icelandic coast each year.
In 1997, Hjartarson opened the Phallological Museum in Reykjavík to put his penises on public display for the first time. By 2003, it was attracting 5,200 visitors a year, of which 4,200 were from abroad. He put the museum up for sale in 2003, and offered it to the city of Reykjavík as a gift. However, he was unsuccessful in obtaining financial support from the state or city and when he retired in 2004, and therefore could no longer afford the rent on the museum's premises.
After his retirement, he moved along with his collection to Húsavík, a fishing village with a population of about 2,200 people, some 298 miles (479.6 km) northeast of the capital. The museum is currently housed in a small building, formerly a restaurant, that is marked with a giant wooden penis and a stone phallus standing outside on the street. The inhabitants were said to be skeptical at first, "but when people realised there was nothing pornographic here, they came to accept it." According to Hjartarson, "Collecting penises is like collecting anything. You can never stop, you can never catch up, you can always get a new one, a better one."
Beginning in 2012, the museum will be under new management, when Hjartarson hands it over to his son, Hjörtur Gísli Sigurðsson. It is intended that the collection will be moved back to Reykjavík, where it will be more accessible. The new location is : Laugavegur 116 Reykjavik.
The museum also has a "folklore section" exhibiting mythological penises; its online catalogue lists specimens taken from elves
, trolls
, kelpie
s, and "The Nasty Ghost of Snaefell". As Icelandic elves and trolls are invisible, so too are their penises.
The museum's website states that it enables "individuals to undertake serious study into the field of phallology in an organized, scientific fashion." It aims to collect penis specimens from every mammal in Iceland. The museum also exhibits phallic artwork and penis-related objects such as lampshades made from the scrotum
s of bulls. Most of the collection has been donated by benefactors (the only purchase to date has been an elephant's penis measuring nearly 1 metres (3.3 ft) long) and are either preserved in formaldehyde
and exhibited in jars or dried and hung around the walls of the museum.
Hjartarson has used a variety of techniques to preserve his penises, including preservation in formaldehyde, pickling, drying, stuffing and salting. One particularly large penis has been converted into a walking stick. Many of the museum's exhibits are illuminated by lamps made by Hjartarson from rams' testicles. Hjartarson has also created wooden phallus carvings, which can be found adorning various objects around the museum, and has a bow tie decorated with phalluses that he wears on special occasions.
Josh Schonwald of Salon.com
described his impressions of the museum when he visited in 1998:
The museum is open between May and September, and attracts up to 11,000 visitors annually, sixty percent of whom are women. It has attracted widespread international attention from the media around the world, most recently as the result of the donation of a human penis to the collection.
team donated fifteen casts of their penises, now displayed in a cabinet in the museum. Hjartarson was also able to obtain testicles and a foreskin from two separate donors. The foreskin was donated by Iceland's National Hospital after an emergency circumcision
operation. Four men – an Icelander, a German, an American and a Briton – pledged to donate their penises to the museum after their deaths. The American sent a cast of his penis, which he called "Elmo", to serve as a substitute in the meantime. According to Hjartarson, the American donor "is a bit crazy. He wanted to have his penis cut off even during his lifetime and then visit the museum."
The Icelandic donor, though, was to have first priority, as the museum's mission is to display the organs of Icelandic mammals. The act of removing it, however, was not easy, as Hjartarson explained: "The donor and the doctors are in agreement, it must be taken while the body is warm. Then bleed it and pump it up. If it cools you can't do anything, so [the donor] is eager to have it taken warm and treated to be preserved with dignity." The donor was a 95-year-old Icelander from nearby Akureyri
who was said to have been a womaniser in his youth and wanted to donate his penis to the museum to ensure his "eternal fame". Hjartarson said that, even at the age of 95, the donor remained active, "both vertically and horizontally."
In January 2011, the donor died and his penis was duly removed. Unfortunately, the operation was not entirely successful and left the penis "a greyish-brown, shrivelled mass." According to Hjartarson, "I should have stretched it and sewn it at the back to keep it in more or less a normal position." Instead, it "went directly into the formaldehyde." Although he was disappointed at the results, he expressed confidence that "I will get a younger and a bigger and better one soon."
Húsavík
Húsavík is a town in Norðurþing municipality on the north coast of Iceland on the shores of Skjálfandi bay with 2,237 inhabitants.-Overview:The income of the inhabitants is derived from tourism and fishing, as well as retail and small industry...
, Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
houses the world's largest collection of penis
Penis
The penis is a biological feature of male animals including both vertebrates and invertebrates...
es and penile parts. By July 2011, it had 276 penises taken from 46 species, including Homo sapiens. Its collection includes 55 penises taken from whales, 36 from seals and 118 from land mammals, including a wide variety of domestic, wild, terrestrial, and marine animals and an unfortunate stray polar bear
Polar Bear
The polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size...
shot by fishermen who found it drifting on pack ice off the Westfjords
Westfjords
The Westfjords or West Fjords is the name for the large peninsula in northwestern Iceland. It is connected to the rest of Iceland by a 7 km wide isthmus between Gilsfjörður and Bitrufjörður. The Westfjords are very mountainous; the coastline is heavily indented by dozens of fjords surrounded by...
. The museum acquired its first human penis in July 2011.
History
The museum was founded by Sigurður Hjartarson, a historian who worked as a teacher and principal for 37 years, latterly at Reykjavík's Hamrahlíd College, where he taught history and Spanish. As a child, he owned a bull's penis (or pizzlePizzle
Pizzle is an old English word for penis, derived from Low German pesel or Flemish Dutch pezel, diminutive of pees 'sinew'. The word is used today to signify the penis of a non-human animal, now chiefly used in Australia and New Zealand...
) which was used as a cattle whip. He began collecting penises after a friend heard the story of the bull's penis he owned as a child and gave him four new ones, three of which Hjartarson gave to friends. Acquaintances at whaling stations began bringing him whale penises as well, and the collection grew from there, expanding through donations and acquisitions from various sources around Iceland. The organs of farm animals came from abattoirs, while fishermen supplied those of seals and the smaller whales. The penises of larger whales came from commercial whaling stations
Whaling in Iceland
Whaling in Iceland began with spear-drift whaling which was practiced from as early as the 12th century and continued in a relic form until the late 19th century...
, although this source dried up after the International Whaling Commission
International Whaling Commission
The International Whaling Commission is an international body set up by the terms of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling , which was signed in Washington, D.C...
implemented a global ban on commercial whaling in 1986. However, Hjartarson has been able to continue to collect whale penises by harvesting them from the 12–16 whales that fall victim to stranding on the Icelandic coast each year.
In 1997, Hjartarson opened the Phallological Museum in Reykjavík to put his penises on public display for the first time. By 2003, it was attracting 5,200 visitors a year, of which 4,200 were from abroad. He put the museum up for sale in 2003, and offered it to the city of Reykjavík as a gift. However, he was unsuccessful in obtaining financial support from the state or city and when he retired in 2004, and therefore could no longer afford the rent on the museum's premises.
After his retirement, he moved along with his collection to Húsavík, a fishing village with a population of about 2,200 people, some 298 miles (479.6 km) northeast of the capital. The museum is currently housed in a small building, formerly a restaurant, that is marked with a giant wooden penis and a stone phallus standing outside on the street. The inhabitants were said to be skeptical at first, "but when people realised there was nothing pornographic here, they came to accept it." According to Hjartarson, "Collecting penises is like collecting anything. You can never stop, you can never catch up, you can always get a new one, a better one."
Beginning in 2012, the museum will be under new management, when Hjartarson hands it over to his son, Hjörtur Gísli Sigurðsson. It is intended that the collection will be moved back to Reykjavík, where it will be more accessible. The new location is : Laugavegur 116 Reykjavik.
Collection
The collection ranges from some of the largest to some of the smallest penises in the animal world. Its largest exhibit is a portion of a blue whale's penis measuring 170 centimetres (66.9 in) long and weighing 70 kilograms (154.3 lb); the specimen is apparently "just the front tip", as the entire organ, when intact, would have been about 5 metres (16.4 ft) long and weighed about 350 kilograms (771.6 lb)–450 kilograms (992.1 lb). The penis bone of a hamster, only 2 millimetre (0.078740157480315 in) long, is the smallest item in the collection and requires the use of a magnifying glass to view it.The museum also has a "folklore section" exhibiting mythological penises; its online catalogue lists specimens taken from elves
Huldufólk
Huldufólk are elves in Icelandic folklore. Building projects in Iceland are sometimes altered to prevent damaging the rocks where they are believed to live. According to these Icelandic folk beliefs, one should never throw stones because of the possibility of hitting the huldufólk...
, trolls
Troll (Iceland)
Trolls are creatures in Icelandic folklore. Trolls are crude, although they said to be always true to their word. They will turn to stone if exposed to sunlight...
, kelpie
Kelpie
The kelpie is a supernatural water horse from Celtic folklore that is believed to haunt the rivers and lochs of Scotland and Ireland; the name may be from Scottish Gaelic cailpeach or colpach "heifer, colt".-Description and behaviour:...
s, and "The Nasty Ghost of Snaefell". As Icelandic elves and trolls are invisible, so too are their penises.
The museum's website states that it enables "individuals to undertake serious study into the field of phallology in an organized, scientific fashion." It aims to collect penis specimens from every mammal in Iceland. The museum also exhibits phallic artwork and penis-related objects such as lampshades made from the scrotum
Scrotum
In some male mammals the scrotum is a dual-chambered protuberance of skin and muscle containing the testicles and divided by a septum. It is an extension of the perineum, and is located between the penis and anus. In humans and some other mammals, the base of the scrotum becomes covered with curly...
s of bulls. Most of the collection has been donated by benefactors (the only purchase to date has been an elephant's penis measuring nearly 1 metres (3.3 ft) long) and are either preserved in formaldehyde
Formaldehyde
Formaldehyde is an organic compound with the formula CH2O. It is the simplest aldehyde, hence its systematic name methanal.Formaldehyde is a colorless gas with a characteristic pungent odor. It is an important precursor to many other chemical compounds, especially for polymers...
and exhibited in jars or dried and hung around the walls of the museum.
Hjartarson has used a variety of techniques to preserve his penises, including preservation in formaldehyde, pickling, drying, stuffing and salting. One particularly large penis has been converted into a walking stick. Many of the museum's exhibits are illuminated by lamps made by Hjartarson from rams' testicles. Hjartarson has also created wooden phallus carvings, which can be found adorning various objects around the museum, and has a bow tie decorated with phalluses that he wears on special occasions.
Josh Schonwald of Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
described his impressions of the museum when he visited in 1998:
The museum is open between May and September, and attracts up to 11,000 visitors annually, sixty percent of whom are women. It has attracted widespread international attention from the media around the world, most recently as the result of the donation of a human penis to the collection.
Human penis
For many years, the museum did not have any human penises, although in 2008, Iceland's national handballTeam handball
Handball is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each pass a ball to throw it into the goal of the other team...
team donated fifteen casts of their penises, now displayed in a cabinet in the museum. Hjartarson was also able to obtain testicles and a foreskin from two separate donors. The foreskin was donated by Iceland's National Hospital after an emergency circumcision
Circumcision
Male circumcision is the surgical removal of some or all of the foreskin from the penis. The word "circumcision" comes from Latin and ....
operation. Four men – an Icelander, a German, an American and a Briton – pledged to donate their penises to the museum after their deaths. The American sent a cast of his penis, which he called "Elmo", to serve as a substitute in the meantime. According to Hjartarson, the American donor "is a bit crazy. He wanted to have his penis cut off even during his lifetime and then visit the museum."
The Icelandic donor, though, was to have first priority, as the museum's mission is to display the organs of Icelandic mammals. The act of removing it, however, was not easy, as Hjartarson explained: "The donor and the doctors are in agreement, it must be taken while the body is warm. Then bleed it and pump it up. If it cools you can't do anything, so [the donor] is eager to have it taken warm and treated to be preserved with dignity." The donor was a 95-year-old Icelander from nearby Akureyri
Akureyri
Akureyri is a town in northern Iceland. It is Iceland's second largest urban area and fourth largest municipality ....
who was said to have been a womaniser in his youth and wanted to donate his penis to the museum to ensure his "eternal fame". Hjartarson said that, even at the age of 95, the donor remained active, "both vertically and horizontally."
In January 2011, the donor died and his penis was duly removed. Unfortunately, the operation was not entirely successful and left the penis "a greyish-brown, shrivelled mass." According to Hjartarson, "I should have stretched it and sewn it at the back to keep it in more or less a normal position." Instead, it "went directly into the formaldehyde." Although he was disappointed at the results, he expressed confidence that "I will get a younger and a bigger and better one soon."