Gripla - 2022, Page 145

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tradition, which allows for the transmission of properties via physical con-
tact. This transmission involves a relationship not only between wounded
body and curative object but also between the lyfsteinn and sword. When
lyfsteinar are mentioned, they are typically mentioned in association with a
sword. This is true both for Íslendingasögur (see Kormáks saga and Laxdœla
saga) and for fornaldarsögur (see Göngu-Hrólfs saga) as well as riddarasögur
(see Sigurðar saga þögla). In Kormáks saga, we are told that “Bersi átti þat
sverð, er Hvítingr hét, bitrt sverð, ok fylgði lyfsteinn” (Bersi had a sword
which was called Hvítingr, the sharpest sword, and it was accompanied
by a healing stone).156 The same verb (“fylgja”) is used in Laxdœla saga
concerning the relationship between the sword Sköfnungr and its lyfsteinn:
“ef maðr fær sár af sverðinu, þá má þat sár eigi grœða, nema lyfsteinn sá
sé riðinn við, er þar fylgir” (if a man gets a wound from the sword, then
that wound will not heal, unless that the stone that accompanies the sword
is rubbed on it).157 Laxdœla saga further stresses the intimate relationship
between stone and sword in the following chapter, in which the lyfsteinn
is called “Skǫfnungs­stein” (Sköfnungr’s stone),158 the use of the genitive
indicating the sword’s ownership of the stone.
The special curative relationship between lyfsteinn and sword appears
to have been based on physical proximity, since the stones are kept on
the hilt. This suggests that the stones’ gain their potency through a form
of material sympathetic medicine: the homeopathic model of similia si-
milibus curantur (“like cures like,” “cause as cure” or, in more contem-
porary parlance, “hair of the dog”). There are two features that suggest
this in Kormáks saga. Firstly, when Kormákr borrows Sköfnungr from
Skeggi, Skeggi cautions Kormákr not to remove the lyfsteinn-pouch from
Sköfnungr: “pungr fylgir, ok skaltu hann kyrran láta” (a pouch accompa-
nies it, and you should leave it untouched).159 When Kormákr inevitably
does tear the pouch from the hilt, “Skǫfnungr grenjar þá við ok gengr eigi
ór slíðrunum” (Sköfnungr cries out at this and does not come out of the
scabbard).160 That the sword cries out in response to Kormákr ripping
156 Kormáks saga, 234.
157 Laxdœla saga, 214.
158 Ibid., 215.
159 Kormáks saga, 235. Note again the use of the verb fylgja to describe the relationship between
stone and sword.
160 Ibid.
LAPIDARIES AND L Y F S T E I N A R