Gulla Hermannsdóttir
Phallological Museum
The Icelandic Phallological Museum must be Iceland’s best-known museum. This unconventional museum was founded in 1997 and houses the world’s largest collection of penises and penile parts of all sorts. Nearly 100 animals are represented, including whales, seals and various land mammals, and this being Iceland of course elves and “hidden folk” are represented as well! In 2011, the museum finally secured its first human penis, a quest which was covered by a Canadian film making team in the documentary The Final Member.
The museum‘s founder, SigurðurHjartarsson, worked as a teacher and principal for nearly 40 years and when he retired he made his life-long hobby of collecting various penises into a museum. Sigurður‘sfascination with all things phallic started when he was a young boy and was given a bull‘s pizzle which kick-started his penis collecting mania. Acquaintances from whaling stations and slaughterhouses were drafted intoSigurður‘s mission and helped source various penises, and thus the collection grew steadily year by year. It now includes nearly 300 specimens. The largest is that of a blue whale, measuring 170 cm long and weighing 70 kg. The smallest comes from a hamster and needs a magnifying glass to be viewed.
The folklore section of the museum contains specimens from elves, trolls, mermen, ghosts, monsters and even one of our Santa-Clauses apparently! The museum also exhibits penis related “phallobelia“, such as lampshades made of bull scrotums, an 18th century engraving depicting the circumcision of Christ, and even sculptures of 15 penises based on the Iceland national handball team (the sculptures are in silver as the team had just won silver at the 2008 Olympics!) Most of the collection has been donated and the museum‘s only purchase to date has been of an elephant‘s penis.
The museum continues its mission to gather more human specimens and has received pledges from four men from around the world who intend to donate their members. The one human penis found at the museum is that of 95-year-old man who passed away in 2011. The man was apparently a bit of a womanizer in his youth and wanted to ensure his member‘s “eternal fame“. One of the current pledgers is American actor and TV personality John Falcon who allegedly has the world‘s largest penis.