Probably from the same place as: 'Every time you masturbate God kills a kitten.'

some sad, screwy, and secluded cigarette smoking soul.

I never heard of that! It's kinda sad. It's probably the same place my mom heard "Sing at the dinner table, have a crazy husband". She sung a whole bunch. haha

I pulled this off the web. There is another one about sailors having made money by selling matches and you were robbing them of income but this one by far makes the most sense There are problems involved with trying to assimilate into the seemingly nonsensical world of Icelandic thought though. Not brought up in it, I was ignorant to the customs and rules. One night, sitting in a relatively empty bar I made the grave mistake of trying to light my cigarette off a candle on the table. I placed the tip between my lips and started towards the flame. Imagine my surprise when not only did the friend sitting with me, but the bar tender as well grabbed for the candle before I could get there. The man now clutching the candle looked at me like I’d just tried to kill his first born child then scowled, clucked his tongue and walked back to the bar. I turned to my friend (cigarette still pursed between lips). “You can’t light a cigarette off a candle, you’ll kill a sailor.” It’s an old superstition he began to explain. Fishing boats used to carry water tight lanterns so they could see each other through the winter darkness. If a light went out it meant the North Atlantic had claimed another boat and more lives. So it came to be that the flame of a candle represented a spirit. To light a cigarette off a candle is not only disrespectful to the sailor that died, but steals some of his spirit away.

Light houses used to uses candles to worn of rocks. Some lighthouse keeper accidentally put the candle out trying to light a smoke, and a ship crash into the rocks as a result. Actually I don't know but that makes a pretty good story right?