Gripla - 2022, Síða 133

131
is set in silver;89 Crisolitus will only frighten away trolls if a hole is bored
through and it is strung on the hair of an ass and worn on the right arm.90
At other times, a more pharmaceutical operation appears to be required:
for headaches, Saffirus should be rubbed in mead (Marbode has “milk”
not “mead”!) and applied to the head;91 for burns, Magnes should be
sprinkled on them.92 These applications suggest that the stone may have
been ground into a powder and then topically applied, an operation more
akin to many of the medical treatments found elsewhere in AM 194 8vo’s
medical treatise.93
In turn, stones sometimes require internal usage, either held inside the
mouth (e.g., Iacinctus cools the body down;94 Geretisses allows users to
read minds)95 or soaked in a liquid (water, honey, wine, mead), which is
subsequently ingested. It is unclear whether in such instances the stone is
ground up and dissolved in the liquid or whether it is placed whole in the
liquid for a period and then removed; this method is required, e.g., for
Lapis to help prevent fever and tumescence,96 and Magnes, to help with
dropsy.97
The application and operation of minerals in the lapidary tradition sub-
stantially overlaps with the various animal and vegetable remedies found in
another text in AM 194 8vo, its medical treatise, Læknisfræði. This overlap
supports the argument that lapidaries were considered practical, medical
texts and highlights the importance of including lapidaries alongside herb-
als and antidotariums as evidence for medical learning in medieval Iceland.
This connection is further supported by the fact that Læknisfræði actually
contains a few sentences “um steina megin” (on the power of stones).98
89 AÍ, 77: “nema hann se i sylfri.”
90 AÍ, 79: “Ef hann er boradr ok dregit i gegnum hann asna hár […] hann skal bera aa vinstra
arm.”
91 AÍ, 78: “ef hann er gnuinn i miod ok aa ridinn.”
92 AÍ, 81: “ef þu stỏckvir á med honum.”
93 E.g., treatments for hair and beard growth, one of which involves goat-hooves and manure,
burnt and crushed with sour wine and then applied to the head (AÍ, 65).
94 AÍ, 80: “er hann kalldare.”
95 See footnote 79.
96 AÍ, 77: “ef madr dreckr af honum.”
97 AÍ, 81: “ef druckit er af honum i vatni.”
98 AÍ, 75.
LAPIDARIES AND L Y F S T E I N A R