{"id":2652,"date":"2021-01-15T12:55:34","date_gmt":"2021-01-15T12:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/galdrasyning.is\/?page_id=2652"},"modified":"2021-06-18T19:17:25","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T19:17:25","slug":"galdrasteinar","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/galdrasyning.is\/en\/galdrasteinar\/","title":{"rendered":"Famous cases"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Magic at the Cathedral Schools<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For centuries the only schools in Iceland were at the two cathedral seats, at H\u00f3lar in the north and Sk\u00e1lholt in the south. At least four cases of witchcraft were associated with the latter in the second half of the 17th century. None of these was referred to as the secular courts and the punishments were never harsh.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Twice students were found in possession of grimoires and were expelled though some of them were later readmitted. One case concerns a priest who was accused by a student of having caused a sickness he felt in the presence of a girl who both of them were courting. The leniency shown to the students who were dabbling in magic is generally connected with the humanism and sensibility of the bishop, Brynj\u00f3lfur Sveinsson, who was highly regarded as a scholar in Denmark and a disciple of Erasmus of Rotterdam.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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At the other school, at H\u00f3lar, no records are found of cases of magic in the 17th century, but there are numerous accounts of students\u2019 experimenting with sorcery in the 18th century. Among them are many of the historical persons whom later folk tales describe as cunning sorcerers.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00deorleifur Kortsson<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The two cases of the 1650s, at Tr\u00e9kyllisv\u00edk and \u00cdsafj\u00f6r\u00f0ur, were presided over by the same sheriff, \u00deorleifur Kortsson, who lived in Hr\u00fatafj\u00f6r\u00f0ur in Strandir. He later became head sheriff (\u201cl\u00f6gma\u00f0ur\u201d) in the North and West and as such, most of the cases of witchcraft that surfaced during the next two decades were referred to him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Since the 19th century, \u00deorleifur has been blamed for almost single handedly having caused \u201cthe burning-times\u201d in Iceland. However, neither his contemporaries nor the court-records confirm this view.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sickness in Sel\u00e1rdalur\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

One of the persons who referred cases to \u00deorleifur Kortsson (see above) was P\u00e1ll Bj\u00f6rnsson, a clergyman at Sel\u00e1rdalur in the southwest of the Westfjords. P\u00e1ll had studied abroad and was generally thought to be among the foremost scholars of divinity in Iceland. He was also known for his knowledge of Greek and Hebrew.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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An essay of his on Icelandic nature was printed in 1654 in The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London and in French in Journal de Savants in 1675. He was also the first man to measure the exact geographical position of Iceland\u2019s westernmost point. His most famous essay, however, was Character Besti\u00e6 (1674), a manifesto against magic. It quotes Malleus Maleficarum but bears little resemblance to the sorcery described in Icelandic sources.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In 1669 P\u00e1ll\u2019s wife, Helga, fell ill and for a time their farm had to be evacuated because of evil spirits that made it inhabitable. Finally, it was decided that Helga\u2019s illness had been caused by a farmhand who had wanted to marry one of her maids. P\u00e1ll had him burnt with the help of his brother Eggert Bj\u00f6rnsson, the county sheriff, along with a second man who they claimed had taught the farmhand sorcery.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Helga, who undoubtedly was psychologically unstable, seems to have had a relapse again and again until 6 persons had been burnt because of her illness and that of their sons. The last man burnt in Iceland was condemned for causing a similar illness in the daughter of P\u00e1ll and Helga. Among those who suffered in connection with the family in Sel\u00e1rdalur was the only woman burnt during the witch-craze in Iceland. Not much is known of this case except that \u00deur\u00ed\u00f0ur \u00d3lafsd\u00f3ttir had recently moved to the area, and her dim-witted son who was burnt with her had boasted that his mother knew how to cross rivers and streams without getting her feet wet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The case was one of several where the death sentence was confirmed by the general assembly after the culprits had been executed.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The pastor and his neighbours<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The local clergyman in Skutulsfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur (the present town of \u00cdsafj\u00f6r\u00f0ur in the Westfjords), J\u00f3n Magn\u00fasson, fell ill in 1654 and remained bedridden for weeks at a time, sweating and shaking and experiencing vivid hallucinations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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He became convinced that two of his neighbors, a father, and son, both named J\u00f3n J\u00f3nsson, had sent him the illness with the aid of magic. The local sheriffs reluctantly took up the case, but under considerable pressure from the reverend J\u00f3n they tried the culprits and in 1656 both of them were burnt.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The priest was awarded a large part of their property as compensation but a little later he had a relapse. He then accused a female member of the family, but this time the authorities declined. The reverend J\u00f3n wrote a book (\u201cP\u00edslarsaga\u201d) to justify his claims. There he describes the illness and the strange hallucinations he suffered.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The work has considerable literary merits but must be treated cautiously as a historical document. Icelandic director Hrafn Gunnlaugsson made a feature film about the subject in 1999 named <\/span>Witchcraft<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The fainting fits in Tr\u00e9kyllisv\u00edk<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Nobody has put forward a convincing theory of what happened in Tr\u00e9kyllisv\u00edk, the northernmost community of Strandir, but the strange occurrences seem to have started in 1652 and continued on throughout the 17th century. In the words of one annal:<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cThat autumn [1652] an evil spirit or a ghost caused disturbances in Tr\u00e9kyllisv\u00edk. Often during the same day and especially in the church, the spirit would suddenly go down people\u2019s throats causing belching and a feeling of overfill, but afterward they felt nothing. Virgins were more prone to this sickness than others.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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When the two-county sheriffs arrived it was soon revealed that the community suspected a certain \u00de\u00f3r\u00f0ur Gu\u00f0brandsson. After repeated hearings, he admitted that he had met the devil in the form of a fox and had sent it to Tr\u00e9kyllisv\u00edk. During the proceedings, the sheriffs heard that two other men, Egill Bjarnason and Gr\u00edmur J\u00f3nsson, were rumored to be sorcerers. After some time in custody, they both admitted having practiced forbidden magic. All three were burnt in September 1656.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In spite of the executions, the belching and fainting fits in and around the church continued, and in 1670 two inhabitants of the community were whipped harshly, first at the general assembly at \u00deingvellir and again in Tr\u00e9kyllisv\u00edk, though no charges against them could be proved and they denied all knowledge of magic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Reports continued of the same disturbances until the last decade of the 17th century when harsh weather and a famine pushed any other concerns out of people\u2019s minds.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

N\u00e1tt\u00farusteinar voru taldir g\u00e6ddir t\u00f6framagni og til margra hluta nytsamir. Tr\u00fain \u00e1 steina er forn og er \u00feeirra m.a. annars geti\u00f0 \u00ed Gr\u00e1g\u00e1s \u00fear sem lagt er bann vi\u00f0 a\u00f0 fara me\u00f0 \u00fe\u00e1 e\u00f0a magna.\u00a0 \u00a0 Fyrr \u00e1 \u00f6ldum var skammt \u00e1 milli \u00feess sem \u00ed dag er nefnt galdur, hj\u00e1tr\u00fa og kreddur annars vegar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2652","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/galdrasyning.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/galdrasyning.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/galdrasyning.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galdrasyning.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galdrasyning.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2652"}],"version-history":[{"count":59,"href":"https:\/\/galdrasyning.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11507,"href":"https:\/\/galdrasyning.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2652\/revisions\/11507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/galdrasyning.is\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}