Page 43.

Hakon vs Thorleif Conict, Magic was used:

Thorleif was disguised as a beggar and tricked Hakon by reciting a curse as a fake poem.
Hakon retaliated by invoking two goddesses, Irpa and Thorgerd, who had trollish and prophetic powers. As a
result, Thorleif died.

- This tale comes from a literary account, the earliest records of this tale come from the 14th Century.

- The problem is that most such stories come from a post-conversion Europe, and as such, these accounts combine
real facts with ctional embellishments to make the tales more interesting.

- To discover later occurrences of "magic" (which by then were inuenced by multiple cultures), we have to look at
late sources and infer from them the details.

Conversions to Christianity (approximate dates):
- Gauls and Anglo-Saxons of England (6th - 7th century)
- Germanics on the Continent (7th - 8th century)
- Slavics and Scandinavians (10th century).

Process of Conversion:
1. King/Queen/Monarch is baptized
2. Monasteries, bishoprics, local churches start to replace pagan temples
3. Christian clergy start to replace pagan clergy
4. People naturally turn to christianity for their religious needs.

Naturally, some pagan aspects were accommodated during conversion, to ease the transition. Pope Gregory the
Great (reg 590-640) ordered missionaries to 1. Repurpose pagan temples instead of destroying them, and 2. give
pagan rituals christian meaning. As a result, missionaries started to incorporate pagan magic into their cultural
perception, and sought to create christian versions to conform with the conversion.

Example of Accommodation: (pg 45, Woden example)

Limitations of Conversion Process: Missionaries couldn't do much about kings' beliefs that they are descendants of
the gods. The solution was to declare pagan magic as demonic-magic, and chastise those who praised any pagan
gods. Punishments were decided by priests for anyone performing magic and holding pagan beliefs.

Page 46
O"enses: Celebrating auguries
Omens from birds
Divination
Hosting people who do these things
seeking out magicians
Using magic for sterility, abortion, death, love, robbery, killing animals, etc

If clergy commits these, they are cast out
if secular persons commit these, they are punished for 5 years

Later treaties written by clergymen dismissed the beliefs that magic had any real power and could do any of those
things, and that people could not transform into animals, as this would deny God his all-powerful status.

Investigating actual magical practices of the northern european peoples is di#cult because we don't have many
written records, only archaeological ndings, which are subject to interpretation.

Two main areas for exploration: 1. Pre-christian cultures of northern europe were not illiterate and had forms of
writing, often used for magical inscriptions. Most important of these are the Norse inscriptions that were spread out
through Europe by way of trade and looting.
2. There are narrative sources from the time after the conversion that reect customs and mentalities of pre-christian
era. The most important of these is again the norse.



Page 47
Magic is intimately bound up with writing.
To cultures where writing is uncommon, it may well appear magical. Examples given at end of page 47 and
beginning of 48.

Runes became a thing in scandinavia, iceland, and part of england occupied by the danes. Runes were inscribed on
whale bones or sh bones, or on stones and near graves. While the magical purpose was not always clear, or
implicitly intended, sometimes it can be obviously intended for magical e"ect.

Medieval literature depicts magic as occurring in the middle of every day situations. Later literature of the 13th
century (Iceland) talked of people clinging to ancient pagan beliefs, thus giving us an account of pre-christian magic
from a christian point of view. Icelandic saga example given on page 49.

What we nd out is that magicians are depicted as specialists who perform services for others. The main source of
power in witchcraft is the spoken and written word. Magic was found bad not because it caused harm, but because
it was unfair and overpowered. Magic in these stories is almost always a means to confront or avoid one's enemies.

Types of magic depicted: Ensuring enemies are wounded in battle
Raising a storm while enemy is at sea
Killing accusers of witchcraft
Making life miserable
keep a man from having sex with his wife
change people into animals
"the evil eye" (caused capturers to put a bag over magician's head once caught)

There is no evidence that sorcery is an organized pagan religion that has hidden underground, nor does magic
depicted in icelandic stories seem to be connected to worship of norse gods.

The stories that deal with humans are called Sagas, the ones that dealt with gods are called Eddas
Irish and celtic writings resemble eddas more than sagas.
Fairies in irish writing can have good and evil sides, and while they can represent paganism, they can also be said to
hold christian faith. (see example page 53).

The di"erence between magicians and saints performing feats, is that magicians obtain their power from demons
and the devil, while saints obtained their power from their faith in God.

Tradition of magic page 57:
Magic in medieval europe was distributed widely, and it was not regularly limited to any specic group.

Monks studied medicine within their monasteries and did what they could to propagate this knowledge. They
studied the works of ancient greek and latin authors such as hippocrates to gain knowledge about medicine, and
they also made copies of those works.

Monks didn't consider themselves magicians or using any magic at all, but they denitely acted similarly to
magicians. (example top of page 58, and bottom of the page)

There were healers other than monks, known in England as leeches. These healers had no formal education and had
to build their knowledge from folk medicine and observation.

informal healers believed that the secret of healing could only be passed down from woman to woman, or man to
man, or inherit powers through lineage. There were also procedures for acquiring powers without inheriting them.
(example of healer page 59 + 60)

Informal exorcists and diviners existed as well.

Later, scientic physicians educated at universities replaced these magical healers and abolished their techniques.
There grew a competitiveness between physicians and surgeons, where surgeons were inferior and sought to
establish their own schools and gain the same recognition and credentials as physicians.
Barber-surgeons, even more inferior than surgeons, were not only barbers, but also did routine maintenance work on
people, such as draining their blood (belief at the time was that excessive blood was a thing. and it was bad.)

Midwives were considered to use magic as well, and the career was exclusively for women. Serious magic included
becoming a broker for baby bodies and such items used for rituals (page 63 example).

The introduction of paper later (due to being cheaper than parchment) ooded european towns with writings on
many topics: Healing yourself, draining your own blood, examining their urine, etc. Now anyone could learn magical
arts.

10th century Leechbooks (physician manuals) largely borrowed from christian rituals (page 65).
11th century texts leaned more towards magic
herbs and animal parts become the ingredients for drugs.

Their potions and drugs were not established through scientic measurements, but rather through their experiences.
Trial and error was all they needed to declare a drug as e"ective, even though the patient might have been cured by
coincidence. What matter was whether a remedy worked, not how.

Page 67 outlines the requirements of ingredients for healers.

For christian methods there are prayers (to god), blessing (wish of wellness), and adjurations/exorcisms (command
to illness) (page 69/70)

amulets were protective devices (page 75), they promoted health of mind rather than health of body. Examples of
amulets on page 75
talismans are di"erent in that they have words written on them.
superstition: the improper use of a holy object
curses: charms used for evil

If a woman was cursed to the point of being unable have sex, the man may divorce her.

Divination: A means for knowing a destiny that was foreordained.
Oneiromancy: explaining dreams. There were complex rules for interpreting dreams. Social status and physics
conditions were taken into consideration.

Divination usually looked to the sky for information, but palms were also read, and animals were consulted. (page
86)

Experimental divination involved the use of luck, such as opening a book to a random page.
Some divination was really just practical jokes or pranks for entertainment. (example page 91). These pranks were
not real magic (the so-called magician knew they were fake), but the audience was intended to believe they were.