Gripla - 2022, Page 168

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of using a lausnarsteinn for a difficult birth was vigorously suppressed in
the centuries to follow.36 Both Arngrímur Jónsson lærði (1568–1648) and
Þorlákur Skúlason of Hólar (1597–1656) discussed the phenomenon of
these “stones” with Ole Worm (1588–1654), who explained their natural
origins in more southerly parts of the world.37
It was not until the eighteenth century that the potentially dangerous
nature of birthing practices and antenatal care of mother and child as
practised in Iceland began to receive significant attention, a trend that
continued into the nineteenth century.38 By this time, emphasis was on
medical rather than spiritual preparation for midwifery, with women
instructed in life-saving practices and interventions.39 With the growing
separation of sacred and secular practices in everyday life, midwives
engaging in “superstition” were not seen as endangering souls but rather
physical bodies.
Saintly stories for pious girls
St. Margaret of Antioch was not the only popular virgin martyr saint in
post-Reformation Iceland. Van Deusen has examined the transmission of
the legends of virgin martyr saints in Iceland after the Reformation and
concludes that the narratives were considered suitable for young girls as
models of Christian behaviour.40 Piety, patience, chastity and obedience to
God were among the virtues strongly valued in young girls, and texts such
as the legends of virgin martyrs provided source material that described
36 DI 9, 297.
37 Þorvaldur Thoroddsen, Landfræðissaga Íslands (Copenhagen: Hið íslenzka bókmenntafjelag,
1892–1904), 2:165–66.
38 Loftur Guttormsson, Bernska, ungdómur og uppeldi á einveldisold: Tilraun til félagslegrar og
lyðfræðilegrar greiningar (Reykjavík: Sagnfræðistofnun Háskóla Íslands, 1983), 139–42;
Loftur Guttormsson and Ólöf Garðarsdóttir, “The Development of Infant Mortality in
Iceland, 1800–1920,” Hygiea Internationalis 3.1 (2002): 151–76.
39 The oldest midwifery textbook in Icelandic dates from 1749 and was printed at the initiative
of Bishop Halldór Brynjólfsson, cf. Bragi Þorgrímur Ólafsson, “‘Sá nýi yfirsetukvenna-
skóli’: Uppruni og viðtökur,” Ljósmæðrablaðið 85.1 (2007): 28–33. On the professional-
isation of midwifery in Iceland, see Sigurjón Jónsson, Ágrip af sögu ljósmæðrafræðslu og
ljósmæðrastéttar á Íslandi (Reykjavík: n.p., 1959).
40 Natalie Van Deusen, “St. Agnes of Rome in Late Medieval and Early Modern Icelandic
Verse,” Saints and Their Legacies in Medieval Iceland, ed. by Dario Bullitta and Kirsten Wolf
(Cambridge: Brewer, 2021), 307–32.