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this occasion, and anyway it is a wandering motif which could belong every-
where and nowhere. It appears, for instance, in the story of Gu: bjartur flóki
and the bishop of Hólar, which comes earlier in the Rev. Skúli s manuscript
(JÁ I 508 09); cf. further II 463 and Feilberg, Ordbog I 765, IV 240.
FOLK-BELIEF AND FOLK-LEGENDS 211
The main element in the Rev. Skúli s story is Loftur s attempt to get
the book of magic and its consequences, and I do not think that any-
one would do any good by trying improve on this account, one of the
greatest masterpieces in Jón Árnason s collection. But it is clearly
further away from the original than Gísli s version. The contemporaries
(except Dean fiorleifur) are forgotten, and Loftur s footprints in the
dormitory floor are not mentioned. Everything has become simpler
and more consistent, in the manner of a developed folk-legend. There
is only one assistant, who is to ring the bells. There is no fruitless labour
for three nights and no contract with the Devil. The thread of the narrative
is simple; Loftur knows what he is searching for. He has learned the
whole of Grey vellum, and now wants to get hold of Bishop Gottskálk
Nikulásson s Red vellum. It is a story-teller s instinct thus to combine
similar narratives into a sequence. We may add that the prehistory of
both these volumes is told by the Rev. Skúli just before the story of
Galdra-Loftur in his manuscript (printed in JÁ I 514, 508 and 583).
The awakening from the dead scene is very different in the two
versions. Gísli tells of three surges of soil up through the floor, and
then a hand with a black-clad arm and a ring on one finger, and in the
hand was the book. This is a fine and effective picture, but it is noth-
ing compared with the Rev. Skúli s account where all bishops rise out
of the floor one after another, wearing white surplices and pectoral
crosses, the first, last and middle ones with crowns on their heads.
Gently and gravely they warn Loftur of the danger he is about to en-
gulf himself in, and over the whole scene the moon spreads its strange
glitter. Bishop Gottskálk is not the good-natured man of God, who
according to Gísli took the book of magic into his grave so that it
could harm no one, but a monster of cruelty who grudges others the
power and might that he had enjoyed; he stands there, jeering and
grinning, and trying to provoke Loftur to go on with his blasphemy
until the cathedral sinks into the ground. But this does not happen, and
both versions end the same way: Loftur s companion rings the bells
too soon.
The two accounts of Loftur s end are a good example of how a good
story becomes a great one. Little details are added, but each individual
incident is clarified and sharpened and made more interesting, and at
the same time made to seem more like real life and less like a story.
The contrasts are made sharper and the suspense lively.
212 THE FOLK-STORIES OF ICELAND
The depiction of the magician is also very different in the two stories.
With Gísli the only motive is the thirst for knowledge, powerful as an
elemental force, and his Loftur is quite ruthless in his tricks, as is
normal in  eighteenth-century stories . With Skúli, Loftur s spells also
reveal recklessness and unscrupulousness, but in the conjuration epi-
sode his Loftur is more human than Gísli s; he has studied witchcraft
so much that he can only use it for evil purposes, and has to commit
suicide when he comes to die. Only by learning even more, like
Sæmundr the Wise, could he gain power over the Devil, use the art of
magic for good, and save his soul. But since the Black School no
longer exists, he decides to try and get hold of Bishop Gottskálk s Red
vellum. He does not seem at first to have intended to say the Mass
backwards, but he gets into such difficulties that he has to take his
conjurations further and further, until he has transferred God s Word
to the Devil. Then in front of him stands Bishop Gottskálk, grinning.
Loftur goes crazy, rushes further still into a frenzy of blasphemy, does
not stop to think that at this point he needs a cool head and firm con-
trol, and in his frenzy tries to snatch the book from the dead man. But
his assistant misunderstands him, and it all goes wrong.
In the Rev. Skúli s story of Galdra-Loftur it is as if a folk-legend is
on the way to becoming something more sophisticated; one might
perhaps call it a myth. Elsewhere one can see signs that while the
Icelandic folk-stories were in oral transmission, they were handled by
people who were participators in a remarkable literary and learned
activity. The concepts underlying folk-belief and legend were brought
together, and have acquired some kind of rational ordering. This is, of
course, particularly noticeable in the case of the story of Galdra-
Loftur as one would expect, since many of its principal preservers
were schoolboys and parsons. Here Christian ideology was combined
with fragmented ideas from folk-stories about magicians and books
of magic from days gone by, and from it emerges a coherent whole. In
the story Loftur has to guess his way in his search with the help of
legends about Sæmundr the Wise put side by side with legends of a
later age. Doubtless the Rev. Skúli played the greatest part in raising
the story of Loftur above the level of Gísli s narrative, which in any
case should not be underestimated. Most of the local personal and place-
names have dropped out as a result of oral transmission over distant
parts of the country, and the legend itself has become more coherent
FOLK-BELIEF AND FOLK-LEGENDS 213
and powerful, but the Rev. Skúli has also given it a masterly form.
With him everything that happens becomes visible and alive. He enjoys
himself describing Loftur s violence and frenzy, but also knows how
to use restraint when the narrative requires precision and care. But he
does more for the story than this. The concepts that were inherent in it [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]