Gripla - 2022, Side 135

133
in the lapidary. And just as we find stones operating through physical
contact with the body, so too do we find treatments in Læknisfræði that
appear to involve haptic transmission: for example, binding a “blỏd cauli”
(caulis leaf) on the right foot of a pregnant woman facilitates childbirth.110
Another example is a headache treatment, which implies a kind of sym-
pathetic correspondence between curative item and bodily impairment:
sker horn af hỏfde kvikfi[ar] ok ger af kamb, ok kembi karllmadr
ser med karlkendu kvikendis horni, en kona med ber-kvikendis
horni.111
(cut the horn from the head of livestock and make a comb from
it, and comb a male person with the horn of a male animal, but a
woman with a horn from a female animal.)
The treatment operates through direct contact between the animal-horn
comb and the human head. There are two sets of correspondences: first,
the correspondence in bodily register between the location of the human
ailment (headache) and the location of animal ingredient (horn). Secondly,
the efficacy of the comb relies on a correspondence between the sex of the
human user of the comb and the sex of the animal supplying the material
for the comb. The operation of this treatment therefore tells us two things
about the perceived relationship between human bodies and non-human
entities (both objects and animals): the animal-object (comb) retains the
sexed identity of the animal, and animal maleness and femaleness is per-
ceived on the same level as human maleness and femaleness.
In this section, I have discussed the Old Norse lapidary tradition and
argued for its relevance to discussions of medieval conceptions of health
and agency. I focused on AM 194 8vo’s translation of De Lapidibus, out-
lining the range of properties that stones exhibit in this text. I found that
stones heal physiological ailments, alter emotional states, treat mental
illnesses, facilitate one’s social interactions, enhance bodily and cognitive
capabilities and occasionally act on the non-human world. I also analysed
how stones work, finding that they need to be worn in close proximity to
the flesh; powdered and applied topically to ailments; or ingested with
110 AÍ, 76.
111 AÍ, 75. This treatment also appears in RIA 23 D 43 and in AM 434 a.
LAPIDARIES AND L Y F S T E I N A R