Skáldskaparmál - 01.01.1992, Page 229

227
“Fj()lkunnign kono scallatu ífaðmi sofa”
contains two cases in which human beings (one of each sex) are taken by
trolls (BSII 32, 140 cf. also BSI 560 (B text, from c. 1320)). These seem to be
straightforward attacks, and we are not told of any activity on the part of the
victims that may have brought them about.
It is otherwise with the most famous example, the story of Selkolla, “the
devil that harmed people and wrought so much havoc in a way unparalleled
at that time of Christianity.” (The closest parallels in the sagas are found in
Eyrbyggja and the sagas about Greenland, in both cases dated close to the
conversion of the respective country.)“A baby girl was born at a farm called
Eyjar, north of Kallaðarnes. Two people, a man and a woman, were
appointed to take it to be baptized at Staðr in Steingrímsfjörðr, because at
that time there was no church at Kallaðarnes. And when they came to
Miklasteinn they lay down, and she put down the child, and he lay with her.
And when they came to the child, it appeared to them dead and evil-
looking, and they left it there; and when they had gone a short distance they
heard a child crying and followed the sound, and it appeared to them even
worse-looking than before, and they didn’t dare to come near it; then they
went home, and told precisely what had happened. People went to look for
the child, and didn’t find it; but a little later a woman appeared there, not
beautiful in appearance, because she sometimes seemed to have a seal’s
head; for that reason she was called Selkolla. People understood from this
that an unclean spirit had entered the body of the child, and that fiend could
be seen by day as well as by night... A farmer was called Dálkr Þórisson, he
lived at Hafnarhólm in Steingrímsfjörðr when these events took place; he
was a craftsman, and considered a popular man ... One day when the
farmer, who was fond of women, was alone preparing his ship in the
boathouse, it appeared to him that his wife came into the boathouse, and he
began to caress her, for they were accustomed to such sport. Now he lay
with this woman (no less a fiend than a woman, because it was his enemy,
sent to cause shame to him and harm to others), and when they parted he
thought that it wasn’t his wife but rather the unclean spirit, Selkolla. He
headed home, but Selkolla wouldn’t part from him, and he was completely
exhausted when he came home, and unlike a human being, but realized what
had happened to him. Then he lay in his bed, and people had to guard him
from Selkolla night and day.” (“... fjanda þeim, er meiddi menn ok gjörði svá
mikinn ófrið af sér, at varla fannst dæmi til í þann tíma kristninnar. Bær hét á
Eyjum, sem er norðr frá Kallaðarnesi, þar var meybarn fætt; vóru feingnir til
tveir menn, karlmaðr ok kona, at fara [með] til skírnar á Stað í
Steingrímsfjörð, því at þá var eigi kirkja á Kallaðarnesi, ok er þau kómu til
Miklasteins, þá leggjast þau niðr, ok leysir konan af sér barnit, en hann legst
með konunni, en er þau koma til barnsins, þá sýnist þeim þat dautt ok illiligt,
ok þar láta þau eptir barnit; ok er þau koma skamt í burt, heyra þau
barnsgrát, ok fara eptir hljóðunum, ok sýndist þeim þat þá enn illiligra en