Reykjavík Grapevine - okt. 2021, Síða 26

It has to be said before we con-
tinue; Galdraskræ!a, or Sorcerer’s
Screed, is a dangerous book and
should be handled with caution
and respect. This is an odd tome,
its first version was handwritten
and published in 1940. It contains
powerful magical runes, magic
letters and black and white magic
that could easily be misused by
dishonest characters. With these
runes, one can protect them-
selves, curse a neighbour, sway
people’s hearts to fall in love or
protect one’s mental health. But it
also contains the secrets of wak-
ing up the dead, forcing people to
steal and there is even a rune to
make ensure a legal case is won.
Should you continue reading, let it
be known you have been warned.
Strange man, dark
history
The author of Sorcerer’s Screed
was a strange man with a deep
interest in the dark history of
Icelanders and sorcery. His name
was Jochum Magnús Eggerts-
son but wrote the book under the
name Skuggi (Shadow, in Eng-
lish)—an aliashe used often when
investigating mysticism. He was
born in 1896 and died in 1966. No
stranger to the written word, Jo-
chum was the nephew of one of
Iceland’s greatest poets, Matthías
Jochumsson, who penned the
poem that serves as the lyrics of
the Icelandic national anthem.
Kr!sar
Jochum had controversial ideas
about the settlements in Ice-
land. His theory was that histo-
rians had changed the history
of the first hundreds of years
after the settlement to omit the
story of a clan called Kr"sar. The
Kr"sar are said to have lived in
Hafnarfjör!ur, in a place we to-
day call Kr"suvík, and they were
originally Irish. The leader of the
clan, Kolskeggur, is said to have
written Iceland’s greatest poems
and books, everything from Njál’s
Saga’s The Story of Burnt Njál to
the Hávamál, a deep philosophi-
cal manuscript about honour.
Jochum also claimed that he had
found a book that Kolskeggur
wrote, called the Golden Script, or
Gullskinna (also known as Gullb-
ringa). Its pages were filled with
instructions about magic as well
as the true story of settlement in
Iceland. Jochum never showed
anyone this book and therefore
never prooved its existence be-
yond doubt, although he claimed
to have it in his possession.
Erased from history
The story goes that the Icelandic
chieftains felt the Kr"sar were too
powerful, and so they decided to
wipe out the clan. And so they did
in the year 1054,
a c c ord i n g t o
Jochum’s theo-
ries. Kolskeg-
gur was killed
a s w e l l . B ut
with time, his
name changed,
and it became
Kölski, which
simply means,
the devil. The
book s of the
Kr"sar were banned or forbidden
and said to be evil books about
black and white magic. Kolskeg-
gur’s grave is said to be in Kr"su-
vík, but a priest decided to build
a chapel on in. To top it all, the
scholar Ari “Fró!i” Sæmundsson
was said to have erased all evi-
dence of Kr"sar’s existence from
history.
Now, this matters, because Jo-
chum’s Sorcerer’s Screed is said to
be based on ideas of sorcery prac-
ticed in Iceland at the time of the
settlement. Although, all of the
runes Jochum found were com-
piled from well-known ancient
manuscripts that one can find in
our national library, some might
be from the mysterious Golden
Script, Gullskinna—if it really ex-
isted at all.
First version
handwritten
The first version of the book was
handwritten—everything from
the runes to the magic letters—
by JOchum himself. Some of the
scripts he used originated in the
Westfjords, where Jochum was
born. Icelanders burned quite a
few warlocks, but only one witch,
in the late 16th century Westf-
jords. Iceland was different from
most European countries when
it came to burning witches, since
we only burned one woman of the
25 people that were executed for
sorcery
Reshaped and
republished
The Sorcerer’s Screed was out of
print for decades before young
students at the Iceland University
of the Arts decided to reshaped
and republish the book in asso-
ciation with the Icelandic Magic
Company (Lesstofan). They re-
wrote it, drawing the runes in bet-
ter quality.
In this book, one can find
hundreds of runes and magic let-
ters. Now, before you go buying
this book with
g r a n d p l a n s
o f w i n n i n g
all your legal
cases or catch-
ing thieves—or
simply waking
up the dead—
keep in mind,
al l of this is
c o n s i d e r e d
quite danger-
ous. But if you
need a protective tattoo, we rec-
ommend the Greater Shield Of
Terror. It can’t hurt. Literally.
Info:
Buy this book at shop.grapevine.is
26The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10— 2021

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The Mysterious Book
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Need to wake up the dead? Look no further
Words: Valur Grettisson Photo: Magical stöff
"The story goes
that the Icelandic
chieftains felt the
Kr!sar were too
powerful, and so
they decided to
wipe out the clan.”
Jochum Magnús Eggertsson