Icelandic Magic Read Online Free PDF Page B

syncretism in which elements of the ancient native heritage and the new foreign religion were being blended together. This is the period just prior to the time when the Icelandic books of magic began to be composed.
    Pagan elements would naturally tend to be diminished over time, both as new material was introduced and as knowledge of the technical aspects of the pagan tradition began to fade through neglect and lack of old established support. Nevertheless, the old material and techniques continued in a real way for many generations. In many respects, however, this is a “dark age” for our knowledge of the actual practice of magic in Iceland. This is because the works composed at this time tended to depict earlier Viking Age practices, and we have no actual galdrabækur from the period itself.
    There are a number of runic inscriptions from Scandinavia that help fill in the gap in our knowledge of the time; for example, the magical formulas found in Scandinavia from this period, which make use of (often defective) Latin formulas executed in the runic alphabet. This shows the blending of the Christian and pre-Christian cultures. The fact that the Latin is often riddled with grammatical errors demonstrates that these inscriptions were probably executed by laymen or young students. However, a few inscriptions are grammatically flawless, which shows that some members of the well-educated clergy also indulged in these arts. On the one hand, the fact that the formula is in Latin demonstrates the mythic dominance of Christian symbolism in the magician’s world, but the fact that the inscription is executed in runes also shows that the old runic symbolism provided something to the inscription that the Latin alphabet was thought to lack.
    A medieval rune stick found in Bergen reads:

    Fig. 2.1. maria perperit cristum, elisabet perperit iohannem
baptisam in illarum ueneracione sis absolutaøcsi inkalue dominuste uacat
adlu[cem]
    Maria perperit Christum, Elisabeth perperit Iohannem Baptistam. In illarum veneratione sis absoluta! Exi, incolea! Dominus te vocat ad lucem!
    â€œMary gave birth to Christ, Elizabeth gave birth to John the Baptist; in their veneration be absolved. Come out child, with hair! The Lord calls you to light!”
    This is a Christian magical formula to allow for easy childbirth. It was believed that a child born with hair would be healthy.
    Based on what we see in later material, it is possible to speculate that many features of the pagan tradition were kept alive for a long time but that eventually these were blended together with elements from the Christian medieval tradition that had come to the North during the long Christianization process. It must, however, be understood that practicing magic in the first place was considered by orthodox Christian dogmas to be heretical and even diabolical in and of itself. This may explain why there appears to have been an active, explicit merger between the old gods and the demons of hell, and even why demonic entities can appear in spells next to apparently orthodox religious figures such as Raphael or the Savior.
    Christian influence on the tradition was most clearly seen in new elements introduced into the formulas. These include personalities from Judeo-Christian mythology such as Solomon, Jesus, and Mary. In addition to these figures, certain formulas were also incorporated during this period: the invocation of the Trinity, (Latin) formulas of benediction peculiar to the Catholic Church, the “Our Father” in Latin, and so on. Other elements, such as Judeo-Gnostic formulas (for example, Jehovah Sebaoth [Yahweh Tzabaoth], Tetragrammaton), must have come directly from magical books imported from the Continent. With regard to the actual methods of working magic, there was a shift in emphasis to the prayer formula in which the magician bids for the intercession of some supernatural entity on his behalf. Although this was known to some extent in