Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1992, Page 228

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Margaret Cormack
illustrated in one of Jón’s miracles: “ A man called Sveinn Thorsteinsson was
so horribly deluded by the devil that he nearly threw off his faith and forgot
all the morality Christians should follow, and it came about in the following
way. He went mad for a monster, which appeared to him to be an exceeding-
ly beautiful woman, and she maddened him so that he didn’t want to have
anything to do with other people, and went around as if lost in thought, and
paid no attention to his needs.” (“Maðr hét Sveinn ok var Þorsteinsson, hann
varð svá ógurliga leikinn af djöfli, at hann kastaði náliga kristninni ok
gleymdi því öllu siðlæti, er kristnir menn eigu at hafa, en þat varð með því
móti, at hann ærðist at skrímsli nokkuru: honum sýndist þat vera kona helzti
væn, en hon fékk svá ærðan hann, at hann vildi ekki við aðra menn eiga, fór
jafnan sem hugsi veri, en gáði einskis þess er hann þyrfti.”)12
Sveinn’s symptoms - isolation and lack of interest in his surroundings -
correspond to the effects of sleeping with a sorceress as described in
Hávamál: “she will cause you not to care for assemblies nor speech with
princes; you will not desire food, nor joy from anyone, sorrowful you will
go to sleep.” (“hón svá gorir, at þú gáir eigi / þings né þióðans máls; / mat þú
villat né mannzcis gaman, ferr þú sorgafullr at sofa.”)13 Haraldr hárfagri’s
infatuation with the Finnish - and thus by definition, “sorcerous” -
Snjófríðr had similar results; Haraldr “loved her with such madness that he
forsook his kingdom and everything pertaining to his rank and sat with her
night and day as long as they both lived, and three years after she died.”
(“hann ... unni svá með [œr]slum, at ríki sitt ok allt þat, er hans tígn byrjaði,
þá fyrlét hann ok sat hjá henni nótt ok dag náliga, meðan þau lifðu bæði, ok
þrjá vetr síðan hón var dauð.”)14 The theme of going off one’s head after a
sexual encounter with a supernatural being was current until quite recently
in Scandinavian folklore.15
The sagas of Guðmundr Arason contain additional examples of demonic
attack, in a somewhat more aggressive form. We are told that a priest on
whom Guðmundr had been leaning no longer felt his weight, and it was
subsequently learned that Guðmundr had been aiding a man against a troll-
woman (BS I 464). It may be noted in passing that the motif of the spirit
travelling while the body is asleep is attested in Christian, as well as native,
folklore, and there is in fact a good example in the translations of the vitae of
St. Ambrose and St. Martin, which were undoubtedly known to the author
of Guðmundar saga (HMS I 44, 605).
In the mid-fourteenth century, Arngrímr’s saga about Guðmundr
12 BS1170.
13 Hávamál, verses 113-14, Edda: die Lieder des Codex Regius, ed. Gustav Neckel, 5th
ed. revised by Hans Kuhn, Heidelberg, 1983, 35.
14 Ágrip af Nóregskonunga spgum. Fagrskinna - Nóregs konunga tal, ed. Bjarni
Einarsson, íslenzk fornrit XXIX, Reykjavík, 1985, 6.
15 John Lindow, personal communication.