Gripla - 2022, Page 164

GRIPLA162
Þesser sómu sem j Christi sköla gätu alldre lært Credo nie Pater
noster, þeir geta strax lært j þezum skola (j hvorn þeir eru nu
komner) ... alla lavsnar bokina, med sijnum øllum stófum, reglum,
jnntókumm og excipitur, einkum ad binda þetta vid lærid ä Jod-
siukre kvinnu: Anna peperit Mariam, Maria Christum, Eliza beth
Johannem, Cilicia Remigium, eorum dat salutario ed redemptio,
qvando parias filium tuum, sæc fæmina, og lesa þar epter Margretar
Sógu, in nomine P.F.S.S.22
(‘These same [men] who could never learn Credo [‘The Apostles’
Creed’] or Pater noster [‘Our Father’] in Christ’s school, they [masc.]
can immediately learn in this school (into which they have now
entered) ... all their delivery book, with all of its characters, rules,
intakes and excipitur, in particular: to bind this to the thigh of a
woman in labour – Anna peperit Mariam, Maria Christum, Elizabeth
Johannem, Cilicia Remigium. Eorum dat salutario et redemptio, qvando
parias filium tuum, hæc fæmina – and thereafter to read Margrétar
saga, in nomine p[atris] f[ilii et] s[piritus] s[ancti].’)
As a polemic, Hugrás does not aim to document a specific set or order
of birthing rituals carried out by practitioners of magic or to describe the
existence of a literal “delivery book” but instead to associate ownership of
magical tracts with membership in a community of evil. The immediate
targets of its attack were two handwritten books of charms associated with
the self-taught scholar Jón Guðmundsson lærði (‘the Learned,’ 1574–1658),
which Guðmundur Einarsson had at hand in composing Hugrás, and it is
likely that the garbled Latin prayer “Anna peperit Mariam” quoted here,
which is also found in AM 431 12mo, was part of an obstetrical charm
copied directly from Jón Guðmundsson’s book.
It is worthwhile noting that Guðmundur Einarsson repeatedly invokes
the imagery of schooling and textbooks in Hugrás to contrast inscribed
charms with Christian literacy and schooling in the religious teachings
of the Church.23 In this wider context, Guðmundur Einarsson draws the
reader’s attention to a dangerous segment of the population that he claims
is in secret alliance with destructive diabolical forces. One aspect of their
22 Lbs 494 8vo, 55r–v.
23 Einar G. Pétursson, Eddurit Jóns Guðmundssonar lærða (Reykjavík: Stofnun Árna Magnús-
sonar á Íslandi, 1998), 1:77.