The Icelandic Sorceresses

: Folk-lore And Legends Scandinavian

"Tell me," said Katla, a handsome and lively widow, to Gunlaugar, an

accomplished and gallant young warrior, "tell me why thou goest so oft

to Mahfahlida? Is it to caress an old woman?"



"Thine own age, Katla," answered the youth inconsiderately, "might

prevent thy making that of Geirrida a subject of reproach."



"I little deemed," replied the offended matron, "that we were on an

equality in t at particular--but thou, who supposest that Geirrida is

the sole source of knowledge, mayst find that there are others who equal

her in science."



It happened in the course of the following winter that Gunlaugar, in

company with Oddo, the son of Katla, had renewed one of those visits to

Geirrida with which Katla had upbraided him.



"Thou shalt not depart to-night," said the sage matron; "evil spirits

are abroad, and thy bad destiny predominates."



"We are two in company," answered Gunlaugar, "and have therefore nothing

to fear."



"Oddo," replied Geirrida, "will be of no aid to thee; but go, since

thou wilt go, and pay the penalty of thy own rashness."



In their way they visited the rival matron, and Gunlaugar was invited to

remain in her house that night. This he declined, and, passing forward

alone, was next morning found lying before the gate of his father

Thorbiorn, severely wounded and deprived of his judgment. Various causes

were assigned for this disaster; but Oddo, asserting that they had

parted in anger that evening from Geirrida, insisted that his companion

must have sustained the injury through her sorcery. Geirrida was

accordingly cited to the popular assembly and accused of witchcraft. But

twelve witnesses, or compurgators, having asserted upon their oath the

innocence of the accused party, Geirrida was honourably freed from the

accusation brought against her. Her acquittal did not terminate the

rivalry between the two sorceresses, for, Geirrida belonging to the

family of Kiliakan, and Katla to that of the pontiff Snorro, the

animosity which still subsisted between these septs became awakened by

the quarrel.



It chanced that Thorbiorn, called Digri (or the corpulent), one of the

family of Snorro, had some horses which fed in the mountain pastures,

near to those of Thorarin, called the Black, the son of the enchantress

Geirrida. But when autumn arrived, and the horses were to be withdrawn

from the mountains and housed for the winter, those of Thorbiorn could

nowhere be found, and Oddo, the son of Katla, being sent to consult a

wizard, brought back a dubious answer, which seemed to indicate that

they had been stolen by Thorarin. Thorbiorn, with Oddo and a party of

armed followers, immediately set forth for Mahfahlida, the dwelling of

Geirrida and her son Thorarin. Arrived before the gate, they demanded

permission to search for the horses which were missing. This Thorarin

refused, alleging that neither was the search demanded duly authorised

by law, nor were the proper witnesses cited to be present, nor did

Thorbiorn offer any sufficient pledge of security when claiming the

exercise of so hazardous a privilege. Thorbiorn replied, that as

Thorarin declined to permit a search, he must be held as admitting his

guilt; and constituting for that purpose a temporary court of justice,

by choosing out six judges, he formally accused Thorarin of theft before

the gate of his own house. At this the patience of Geirrida forsook her.



"Well," said she to her son Thorarin, "is it said of thee that thou art

more a woman than a man, or thou wouldst not bear these intolerable

affronts."



Thorarin, fired at the reproach, rushed forth with his servants and

guests; a skirmish soon disturbed the legal process which had been

instituted, and one or two of both parties were wounded and slain before

the wife of Thorarin and the female attendants could separate the fray

by flinging their mantles over the weapons of the combatants.



Thorbiorn and his party retreating, Thorarin proceeded to examine the

field of battle. Alas! among the reliques of the fight was a bloody

hand too slight and fair to belong to any of the combatants. It was that

of his wife Ada, who had met this misfortune in her attempts to separate

the foes. Incensed to the uttermost, Thorarin threw aside his

constitutional moderation, and, mounting on horseback, with his allies

and followers, pursued the hostile party, and overtook them in a

hay-field, where they had halted to repose their horses, and to exult

over the damage they had done to Thorarin. At this moment he assailed

them with such fury that he slew Thorbiorn upon the spot, and killed

several of his attendants, although Oddo, the son of Katla, escaped free

from wounds, having been dressed by his mother in an invulnerable

garment. After this action, more blood being shed than usual in an

Icelandic engagement, Thorarin returned to Mahfahlida, and, being

questioned by his mother concerning the events of the skirmish, he

answered in the improvisatory and enigmatical poetry of his age and

country--



"From me the foul reproach be far,

With which a female waked the war,

From me, who shunned not in the fray

Through foemen fierce to hew my way

(Since meet it is the eagle's brood

On the fresh corpse should find their food);

Then spared I not, in fighting field,

With stalwart hand my sword to wield;

And well may claim at Odin's shrine

The praise that waits this deed of mine."



To which effusion Geirrida answered--



"Do these verses imply the death of Thorbiorn?"



And Thorarin, alluding to the legal process which Thorbiorn had

instituted against him, resumed his song--



"Sharp bit the sword beneath the hood

Of him whose zeal the cause pursued,

And ruddy flowed the stream of death,

Ere the grim brand resumed the sheath;

Now on the buckler of the slain

The raven sits, his draught to drain,

For gore-drenched is his visage bold,

That hither came his courts to hold."



As the consequence of this slaughter was likely to be a prosecution at

the instance of the pontiff Snorro, Thorarin had now recourse to his

allies and kindred, of whom the most powerful were Arnkill, his maternal

uncle, and Verimond, who readily premised their aid both in the field

and in the Comitia, or popular meeting, in spring, before which it was

to be presumed Snorro would indict Thorarin for the slaughter of his

kinsman. Arnkill could not, however, forbear asking his nephew how he

had so far lost his usual command of temper. He replied in verse--



"Till then, the master of my mood,

Men called me gentle, mild, and good;

But yon fierce dame's sharp tongue might wake

In wintry den the frozen snake."



While Thorarin spent the winter with his uncle Arnkill, he received

information from his mother Geirrida that Oddo, son of her old rival

Katla, was the person who had cut off the hand of his wife Ada, and

that he gloried in the fact. Thorarin and Arnkill determined on instant

vengeance, and, travelling rapidly, surprised the house of Katla. The

undismayed sorceress, on hearing them approach, commanded her son to sit

close beside her, and when the assailants entered they only beheld

Katla, spinning coarse yarn from what seemed a large distaff, with her

female domestics seated around her.



"My son," she said, "is absent on a journey;" and Thorarin and Arnkill,

having searched the house in vain, were obliged to depart with this

answer. They had not, however, gone far before the well-known skill of

Katla, in optical delusion occurred to them, and they resolved on a

second and stricter search. Upon their return they found Katla in the

outer apartment, who seemed to be shearing the hair of a tame kid, but

was in reality cutting the locks of her son Oddo. Entering the inner

room, they found the large distaff flung carelessly upon a bench. They

returned yet a third time, and a third delusion was prepared for them;

for Katla had given her son the appearance of a hog, which seemed to

grovel upon the heap of ashes. Arnkill now seized and split the distaff,

which he had at first suspected, upon which Kalta tauntingly observed,

that if their visits had been frequent that evening, they could not be

said to be altogether ineffectual, since they had destroyed a distaff.

They were accordingly returning completely baffled, when Geirrida met

them, and upbraided them with carelessness in searching for their enemy.



"Return yet again," she said, "and I will accompany you."



Katla's maidens, still upon the watch, announced to her the return of

the hostile party, their number augmented by one who wore a blue mantle.



"Alas!" cried Katla, "it is the sorceress Geirrida, against whom spells

will be of no avail."



Immediately rising from the raised and boarded seat which she occupied,

she concealed Oddo beneath it, and covered it with cushions as before,

on which she stretched herself complaining of indisposition. Upon the

entrance of the hostile party, Geirrida, without speaking a word, flung

aside her mantle, took out a piece of sealskin, in which she wrapped up

Katla's head, and commanded that she should be held by some of the

attendants, while the others broke open the boarded space, beneath which

Oddo lay concealed, seized upon him, bound him, and led him away captive

with his mother. Next morning Oddo was hanged, and Katla stoned to

death; but not until she had confessed that, through her sorcery, she

had occasioned the disaster of Gunlaugar, which first led the way to

these feuds.