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the pre-Christian age, it had limited application. However, this form predominates as a mode of operation in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
    We only have indirect information about magicians and magic of this period. Many texts were composed in this period, but they mostly harked back to the Heathen Age when magic came into play. Later folktales, for the most part collected in the 1700s and 1800s, report on one famous magician of this early age: Sæmundur Sigfússon the Wise (1056–1133). He was the goði (priest-chieftain) of Oddi. He is reputed to have been the most learned man of his time, but all of his writings are now lost. His fame was such even into modern times that the collection of poetry that came to be known as the Poetic Edda (or Elder Edda ) was originally ascribed to him and called the Sæmundar Edda. Furthermore, he was said to have acquired a great deal of magical knowledge as a captive of the “Black School of Satan.” This legend most likely stems from the fact that he was one of the first Icelanders to study Latin and theology on the Continent. Despite the supposed origin of his magical knowledge, Sæmundur had the reputation of being a “good” magician. The designation of “white” or “black” magic that the historical magicians acquired was due more to literary stereotyping and regional conflicts than to any historical or practical facts. Sæmundur’s sister Halla also “practiced the old heathen lore,” as one text describing her puts it, although the writer feels obliged to add that she was “nevertheless . . . a very religious woman.” *8
    PROTESTANT PERIOD
    When Protestantism was introduced in Iceland beginning in about 1536, a radical new situation came into being. As learning decreased in quality for a time and persecutions of magic increased in intensity, elements of Icelandic magic already in place began to be increasingly admixed with elements from previously rejected paganism. The result of this was that the new Protestant establishment in some cases equated elements of Catholic practice with pagan lore.
    As the Catholic period drew to a close, there lived two contemporary Icelandic magicians with very different reputations. One was Gottskálk Niklásson the Cruel (bishop of Hólar from 1497 to 1520), who had a reputation as an “evil” magician. He was said to be the compiler of the fabled Rauðskinna book of magic (further discussed in chapter 7). Gottskálk is otherwise well known in Icelandic history as a ruthless political schemer who conspired against secular political figures for his own benefit. This bad reputation is probably the real source of his image in the folk tradition. An approximate contemporary of Gottskálk was Hálfdanur Narfason (died 1568), vicar of Fell in Gottskálk’s diocese of Hólar. Little is known of Hálfdanur’s life, but there is a rich body of folktales concerning him. He appears as the legendary “white” counterpoint to the “black” bishop, Gottskálk.
    Hálfdanur and Gottskálk stand at the gateway of transition between the Catholic and Reformation Ages in the history of Icelandic magic. Much later on in the Protestant period we again meet with a pair of strongly contrasted magicians: Eiríkur and Galdra-Loftur (Loftur the Magician). Eiríkur was a quiet and pious vicar who lived from 1637 to 1716. He is little known in history but shares with Sæmundur the reputation of being a practitioner of good magic, wholly derived from godly sources. This reputation was maintained despite the fact that he was not above practicing the most dreaded arts, such as necromancy, for “pedagogical purposes.” Here I refer to one of the most telling anecdotes in the history of Icelandic magic—one that emphasizes the character, courage, and level of humor necessary to practice magic. This passage about Eiríkur testing two