Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1964, Page 89

Færeyinga saga, chapter forty
97
will protect himself and all the other witnesses of the
manifestation of the dead men. Considering the vast scope
of homoeopathic magic, this does not seem an excessively
remote possibility. A parallel might be seen in the belief
that to fix a dead*walker it was sufficient »att slá ned en
pále pá ett stálle var som helst«, examples of which are
quoted by Sandklef.1) This idea would not be far from de
Vries’s tentative suggestion as to the significance of the
procedure described in the saga: »das deutet vielleicht auf
einen magischen Kreis, in den die Seelen von Sigmundr
Brestisson und seinen Gefáhrten gebannt werden sollten«.2)
Given the situation, however, it may seem preferable to
think that the centre of the grindr and reitar represents the
world of the living, thoroughly protected from the dead
who come from outside.
A second possible explanation is that the author of the
description was himself not clear about the function of the
grindr and reitar, even though he understood that they were
appropriate in a necromantic context.3) If they do consti*
tute a »blind« motive in this way, we may at any rate be
reasonably sure that the author did not invent them. This
would add in some degree to our faith in the authenticity
of the grindr, whether this paper has done anything to
clarify their function or not.
') It is interesting to note that in one example quoted by Sandklef
(op. cit., 79—80) the fixing of the dead in this way was done by planb
ing a thornsbush at the place haunted by the dead man, and that in
another example it was done by driving in nine stakes around the
place where a revenant was »manet ned«.
2) Cf. also Lid: »Og den færøske fyregjerdi stár nær til parallele
fyregjerder i svartebokstrolldomen der djevelen skal manast i ein ring
dei har drege upp.«
3) That the author did not know much about »heathendom« is
suggested by his quite implausible description of the temple of f>orí
gerðr Holgabrúðr in ch. 23 of the saga (Flateyjarbók I 144—5).