The Black Books of Elverum - Rustad Mary 2009

foreword

/“V\ ary Rustad has made a wonderful find. In a dusty old attic, vl-z she came upon two handwritten Black Books. In publishing them—and enlisting the help of Per Hoick (a medical doctor and one of Norway’s foremost authorities on folk medicine) to explicate them—she reveals a fascinating and important contribution to our understanding of a little known facet of the Norwegian heritage.

The Black Book—even today the name conjures up images of witchcraft and Satanism. Their terrifying reputation notwithstanding, they usually turn out to be practical handbooks for addressing daily concerns. They reward a modern reader by opening a window unto another age. The cures, advice, prayers, and incantations contained within their pages (and those to follow here) provide an intimate glimpse into the world of impoverished Norwegian peasants before the age of industrialization.

Magical Thinking

The books reveal not only these peasants’ outward way of lifefarming, fishing, hunting, waging war—but also give insights into their way of thinking where beliefs about witches, ghosts, and other manifestations of the supernatural firmly held sway. The Elverum Black Books speak to us from a time gone by, telling of the farmers’ struggle for survival—their livestock threatened by wolves and bears, their buildings imperiled by fire, they themselves

menaced by snakes and the fearful prospect of going to war. While finding tremendous consolation in their Christian faith, desperation drove many to seek protection in Black Book incantations such as those presented here.

Just as fishing and hunting augmented the meager food supply these farms could muster, the Black Books offer incantations to magically increase the yield derived from these activities: what if one could find a bottomless huldrepond teaming with unlimited fish or bewitch bullets to unfailingly seek their target?

On Norway’s subsistence farms, butter was one of the few commodities whose production exceeded immediate nutritional need. It could therefore be used to pay taxes (old documents commonly express land values in measures of butter) and to barter for needed goods. Much could go wrong during the churning process, however, and rather than ascribing a poor yield to the cream’s deficient butterfat content or improper temperature, they blamed it on envious witches or evil spirits, whose existence they did not doubt. Witches could cast a spell over the livestock, too. It therefore behooved one to discover who among the neighbors possessed such powers, and the Black Book provided incantations for this purpose as well.

The Elverum Black Books also reveal much about the cleanliness—or lack thereof—during pre-industrial times, when primitive facilities prevented all but occasional bathing, house cleaning, and clothes washing (all limited to about four times a year), while necessitating close contact with soil and soot as well as human and animal wastes. No wonder these pages abound with remedies for bedbugs, body lice, and infections. Equally strongly they reflect a fear of drifters and thievery; the peasants’ impoverishment meant that lost property could likely never be replaced, even as the danger of theft constantly loomed and demanded recourse.

No recent phenomenon, the Black Books’ formula for poking out the eye of a thief actually goes back to ancient Egypt, where it appears in the Magical Papyri, a compendium of remedies not unlike the Elverum Black Books. Many international incantations regarding personal health go back that far, too, and bear a remarkable resemblance to the cures printed here for boils, growths, fever, injuries, and excessive bleeding. Such afflictions would naturally befall workers whose bodies bore labor’s brunt before the age of machines.

With the future of the farm depending on the next generation, Black Books showed special concern for women’s reproductive health. We find incantations offering to enhance male potency, increase the odds of becoming pregnant, induce labor, ease the pain of childbirth, and encourage the flow of breast milk.

Nor does a reader look in vain for advice on abortion. While little stigma attended birth prior to marriage among courting couples, single mothers not only suffered intense social ostracism but also brought hardship among themselves, the child, and the community in this time of profoundly limited resources. Aiming to address psychological health as well as physical, some incantations sought to calm anger, cure alcoholism, or balance the prevailing hardship by instilling hopes of great wealth.

Magical Means

The actual materials and specific methods employed by the Elverum Black Books also speak volumes, not least of their users’ desperation to find a remedy. With striking frequency they prescribe items associated with death (graveyard soil, a dead man’s tooth), sin (deeds performed on Sunday when one should have been in church), or crime (a hangman’s noose). According to international folk belief, these items join feces (or similarly putrid-smelling

substances known as “devil’s dreck”), bones, urine, and breast milk in lending extra power to accomplishing the words of the incantation. Evil spirits (thought to have caused the disorder) would find these items repulsive, so the thinking went, and therefore be warded off. Items associated with the Christian religion had a similar effect, so making the sign of the cross, reciting the Lord’s Prayer, and singing a hymn also empowered these incantations, as did repeating the prescribed magical act three times and performing it on Thursday.

Though a few incantations do urge renouncing God and swearing allegiance to Lucifer, far more often they invoke Christ, St. Peter, the Virgin Mary, or the Trinity. Several of the Elverum Black Book’s incantations employ the well known pattern from other Black Books of portraying one of these Christian figures suffering from, then ultimately prevailing over the same affliction the incantation aims to cure. Folklorists call the kind of wizardry that underlies such formulas “sympathetic magic.” Resting on the concept that “like influences like,” the idea was that the image of Christ or St. Peter overcoming the affliction would help the afflicted person overcome it as well.

The concept of like influences like also underlies formulas for curing fever or toothache that begin by writing a very long word, then repeatedly rewriting it, each time removing one letter, until only one letter remains. The fever or toothache, so the thinking goes, thereby also diminishes. In a largely illiterate society, words in themselves seemed magical, and this way of thinking also surfaces in the Black Books’ instructions for making amulets by writing certain words on paper, which would protect their wearer from bullet wounds and other dangers.

By no means unique to Norway, the international pedigree of the means employed by these Black Book incantations reminds

us that they have come down to us from ancient times, even as they incorporate elements from later cultures, such as the many Catholic prayers (and frequent use of Latin) and the Lutheran hymns. Nor did the Norwegians (or other immigrant groups) leave this lore behind when they came to America. Just such a Black Book, published in Chicago in 1892, enjoyed enormous popularity and is today found in the rare book room of Luther College’s Preus Library. Who knows how many Black Books still may lurk in dusty old attics, also in America?

—Kathleen Stokker

Professor of Norwegian

Luther College Decorah, Iowa

Preface

Che publication of these two Black Books from Rustad in

Elverum will turn out to be a major event in the study of folklore in the U.S. for various reasons. Americans of Norwegian descent will be given an opportunity to get acquainted with an intellectual universe unknown to many. In a wider perspective, these two Black Books may well serve as an excellent basis for the study of magic in general. It is to be remembered that magic is not a mixtum compositum of curiosa. On the contrary, magic has been throughout the centuries a means to survive various forms of hardships. The magical procedures present a certain outlook, a certain world view. Above all, it is a way of organizing life, a mode of orientation. Magic has to be studied in its various contexts. It is certainly dependent on these factors:

• • The ecological system

• • The historical background

• • The social strata

• • The frame of reference (the knowledge of tradition)

• • The emotional attitude (hate, envy, expectations, eagerness, neighborly love, determinedness)

• • Age

• • Gender

• • Profession (the knowledge of magic varies from one profession to another)

• • The victim (whether the victim is a human being, an animal, or a supranormal being)

• • Value

• • The literary influence

Of course, not all forms of magic contain all these factors. There are nevertheless certain constant factors; namely, b,d, and j.

This shows that magic is never done in a social vacuum. By reading the charms and the recipes presented here, one understands that behind all these forms of magic there are certain resistant mental structures. With closer scrutiny, we will detect certain permanent patterns.

Many charms in this publication are to be found elsewhere in Europe and even in the U.S., brought there by immigrants.

The Black Books contain not only magical procedures, but medical recipes as well. They have served as medical handbooks in former times. They have been found not only at the farms in Norway, but at several vicarages as well! The clergymen used them when the cattle were attacked by more or less mysterious ailments or when people visited the local clergymen to seek advice for their illnesses. In former times, there were very few educated doctors in Norway. One had recourse to the clergymen or wise women or men well versed in the esoteric mysteries of magic. To cure illnesses by means of charms was considered legal because it was white magic, while using magic to hurt people was black magic. This is a distinction dating back to c. 1400. However, the authorities did not look at it that way. Many a wise man or woman

was burned on the pyre in fifteenth-century in Norway for having practiced magic.

The contents of the Black Books presented here are very representative and fascinating. They give an insight into a world view now lost in industrial areas in our time but that may be detected in isolated enclaves both in the U.S. and in Europe.

One must be very grateful both to Mary S. Rustad and the publisher Galde Press for making these Black Books known to a wider reading public.

—Ronald Grambo

Former professor of folklore at the University of Oslo

An Old Dusty Attic

It is dark and dusty up in the old attic. Generations of spiderwebs hang ghostly down from the rafters. Along the walls are old clothes, old family photographs, and torn feather blankets. Old boxes are everywhere. Over in a corner stands an old loom, seeming as if someone could have used it just the day before. The floorboards creak, but otherwise it is quiet.

Mary feels goose bumps, but she just loves to explore the old rooms on the farm. History is everywhere and it unfolds how people lived in the old days, especially women—what they had to carry, and what they had to be able to make. Women had a hard life, without a doubt. Many died in childbirth, others were worn out at an early age caring for animals and small children and because of sickness. There where wild animals and no cures for serious illnesses. Old letters have been found regarding sickness and death. It is thrilling to wander through history and be so near to her forefathers. Now and then Mary almost feels the presence of past generations. Are they near and looking over her shoulder? Maybe they are watching now.

Several of the boxes have been barely looked into in this century. Every box she opens reveals historical evidence of memories from times past: sorrows, loss, hope, love, and hate. Everywhere a living history of her kin.

Mary came to the farm, North Rustad, at the age of twenty-five in 1977. That year she married her third cousin, who was to inherit the farm. Her great grandfather was from the same farm and immigrated to America in 1879. Mary, of the fourth generation, has returned to her roots. All over the farm she can see traces of her great grandfather, his brothers and sister, parents, wives,

and children. It is strange to think that after three generations in the United States, she would return here. It is both her husband’s heritage and her own that she is surveying.

In one of the old boxes she finds two strange books. At first she thinks that she has found diaries, but quickly realizes that something is completely different. One of the books seems empty, but the middle pages are full of writing. It appears as if this script was meant to be kept a secret and is now long forgotten. She cannot help but notice that the pages in the middle are worn and have been used a good deal. After thumbing through the first blank pages, she comes to some pages that are handwritten in Old Norwegian and Gothic lettering. It is clear that not just anyone will be able to read what has been written here. The other book is bigger, with the title written on the cover. The pages are handsewn together. The paper is thick, almost like parchment. “A little book of skills,” it says on the cover. All at once it hits Mary that she has found Black Books. They are Black Books! And there are two of them! In older times, a person could be punished for possessing occult literature. People were burned at the stake for the slightest suspicion of black magic or witchcraft. As a matter of fact, one of the last witches burned in Norway was one of Mary’s ancestors.

Even if it was difficult to read what was written, Mary understood all the same that her discovery was a small historical sensation. This was a find that sent chills up the spine. The few words she could decipher revealed magic and incantations from a different time than the present. Nevertheless her curiosity was greater than her fear, and she took the books down from the attic. That first night, Mary dared not read the books while in bed. She walked around the house going through the incantations again and again 'rying to understand what could be written on these old pages.

Together with her husband she very slowly stumbled through several of the incantations. Some of them were scary, others almost comical. Counterclockwise, a swallow’s heart, Belsebub: what does it all mean? Mary decides experts are needed to help with the interpretation of these books. An old friend of her husband was contacted and the books were translated word for word, later into modern Norwegian, then finally into English.

The books from Rustad are detailed compared to the other Norwegian Black Books and unique because every book is different. There are few remaining Black Books in Norway. Most were probably thrown away or maybe buried with their owner.

Fire could not destroy a Black Book. If the book was sold, the owner had to ask a price that was lower than what he had paid for it. It was important on the last point to follow the rules. (Remember just who you were dealing with here, a higher and a lower power!)

—Nils H. Rustad

fnstoriod Introduction

Che Black Plague that ravaged through Asia and Europe in the middle of the 1300s spread to Norway when a ship docked in Bergen in the year 1349. History tells us that one third of the population died because of the Black Death. Numerous farms were laid waste, and it took about 150 years before the population regained the same level as before the plague began.

Farms and small villages died out and were covered by forest. Decades later it was not uncommon for hunters and woodsmen to come across deserted buildings and farms in the middle of overgrown forests. One time a hunter, aiming at a wood grouse, missed the bird but heard a loud clanging noise where his arrow landed. He walked through the forest in the direction of the sound and found to his surprise that his arrow had hit the bell of an old, hidden church, all covered with trees. As he walked in the church and up toward the altar, he met a furious bear. The bear had wintered behind the altar. The hunter killed the bear with his spear, and the fur from the bear hung on the church wall many generations after this incident.

Little by little, life returned to normal, land was cleared, and people started farming the land again. In our part of Norway, Osterdalen (Eastern Valley), which is mainly known for its forest, a great deal of land was cleared in the middle of the 1500s, including the Rustad farm.

We know little about the time before the 1500s because of the Reformation, when most of the district’s church books were

burned. However, Rustad must have been an area where some Vikings lived, because artifacts were found in a burial mound in one of the fields just north of the present farmhouse. Objects, mostly weapons, can be seen in the National Museum of History in Oslo.

The name Rustad is a derivative of the Old Norwegian word ruthrstadir, or clearing place. Many of the farmers who lived on the farm took the name Rustad.

The first farmers, however, from the middle of the 1500s, did not live on the Rustad farm, which was at that time not a farm but was used as a forest pasture. Grass was harvested and then transported back to the main farm, in this case thirteen miles away. The first farmer on record is Bottolv Rustad in 1528. Bjorn Grundset started to use the farm in the 1500s. He was one of our forefathers, and died on Rustad in 1664.

Norway was unified with Denmark as far back as 1380 (Denmark-Norway). This union lasted until 1814. Much of the Norwegian culture during this period shows signs of Danish influence. Most of the governmental posts were filled by elite men from Denmark. They were here to protect the Danish king’s interests. These men were officers of the crown. They were given large pieces of land, usually places where farms were few and far between. The Black Books found at Rustad could have been brought here by one of these high officials, or by a minister. Norway, at that time, did not have its own university. Norwegians had to study in Denmark in order to obtain degrees in higher education.

In 1709, Denmark-Norway was pulled into a Nordic war with the Swedish king, Karl XII. King Karl had lost large areas in Poland and Germany and wanted to take Norway as a replacement for what he had lost. The war lasted for twenty years and

ended when King Karl was killed at Fredriksten Fort in Haldon, Norway, November 30, 1718. Rumors said he was murdered by one of his soldiers.

The 17th of May, 1814, was a very important date for Norway. Many influential men were chosen to participate in a meeting at Eidsvold. Ola Evenstad was one of 112 men who helped put together Norway’s constitution. Ola was the brother of one of the author’s forefathers, Helge Olsson Evenstad, born in 1777. Norway had only a few months of independence before the country had to enter into a new union with Sweden. The Danish king, Fredrik VI, who had been Napoleon’s ally, had to cede Norway to Sweden. Napoleon lost after the battle of Leipzig in Germany.

Karl Johan, the Swedish king, was happy that Napoleon had been defeated. In the fall of 1814, the king sent forty thousand soldiers to Norway and forced the country into a new union with Sweden. The Norwegian people had to struggle for almost one hundred years before getting their final independence.

In November 1905, the new royal family of Norway came ashore in Kristiania (later called Oslo). The Danish prince Karl took the name Haakon VII, and ruled Norway as a good king until his son Olav took over in the 1950s. King Olav died in 1993. His son Harald is now the king of Norway. I have to add that the Norwegian people have always been very proud of their royal family.

Farm life on Rustad was not easy. The climate could be unfriendly, especially in the wintertime. At times there were floods and summer droughts. There was a big flood in 1789 when many of the farmers lost valuable farming land, as well as livestock and houses. It was after this flood that the Rustad farmhouses were moved farther away from the river.

Before 1850 the farming in Norway was more or less nonmonetary. Everything was grown, made, and stored at the farm. In newer times, sugar and salt were bought by trading in hides and dairy products. Hunting was important, and traps (large holes) were made in the mountains, where moose, reindeer, and bears were caught.

In early times, the forest was used basically for firewood. Later there were sawmills along the creeks, and log buildings were replaced by plank buildings. Flax was grown and spun into linen, and clothing was made from cloth woven on looms. Iron ore and blacksmiths played an important role on farms.

Most of the time there were fifteen to twenty-five people working on the Rustad farm. Some people were born there and many died there. The farm also served as a nursing home. When people became old, handicapped, or sick, they were taken care of and did not have to starve.

The potato was imported to Norway in 1750. Many ministers explained to their congregations on Sunday how to plant and care for potatoes and how to prepare them for eating. Around 1810 Norway had a hunger period, and the potato helped save the population from a major starvation catastrophe.

The Rustad farm went out of the family for several generations, but was bought back by Helge Tollefson Kilde in 1838. He was born in 1796 and was married to Ingebor Helgesdatter Mel-hagen, born in 1805. Helge bought the farm because his wife did not get along with his sisters who lived on the farm that he had inherited in Rena. Helge and Ingeborg had six children-. Tollef, Helge, Gotmar, Johan, Ola, and Pernille. It is interesting to note that they were all scared of wolves, which were sometimes so hungry that they took farm dogs tied up by the farmhouse. The

Rustad farmhouse at that time was in a very poor condition. At night the children could see the stars between the logs in the wall. After breakfast, they had to participate in the tasks around the farm and everyone had to work hard.

The Black Books could have originated from one of two farms a little farther up north in the valley. Helge was from the farm. Kilde and Ingeborg came from the Melhagen farm. But this is only a guess. Both of these farms were large farms and the people who lived on these farms had the opportunities to come in contact with elite, educated people from Denmark, who would have had access to the Danish Cyprianus.

editor’s Dote

1 believe that my fellow Norwegian Americans will find this unfamiliar material about Svarteb0ker fascinating, just as I did. I do not in any way believe in or practice black magic. 1 also do not take any responsibility or recommend that individuals attempt to perform any of the incantations in this book. My only intention in putting together this volume is to enlighten Norwegian Americans about a portion of our history that has been swept under the carpet. Enjoy!

—Mary S. Rustad

Cbe BUck Books from Rusted in Dornwy

It must be considered a small, local, historical sensation that recently two Black Books have surfaced at North Rustad in Elverum, Norway, and that somewhere on the farm there is to be found a third one.

The farm of North Rustad has been in the same family since 1837, and it is not possible to confirm whether the books are from the farm’s previous owners or were owned by the family before 1837. The family is from Kilde in Arnot and is a branch of the Alme family tree. Tollef Kilde can perhaps be suspected as the source of the books. He was born in 1772 and was father to the well known Tollef Kilde. It was Tollef’s oldest son and first heir who settled down in Rustad. He could have taken the books as part of his inheritance from his father.

Nils H. Rustad remembers that many years ago he came across a Black Book with a black cover that has since vanished and is probably long gone. It was while rummaging through a number of old books and documents in the attic, and also looking for that first book, that Mary Rustad came across the other two Black Books.

The two books are both rich in content and are in good condition. One is a simple, pamphlet-like writing book with a gray cover, the type used in schools. The other is a thick, bound book with only some of the middle pages written on.

The two books are difficult to date accurately, but both the handwriting and content indicate that they are around the same age and from 1790 to 1820.

They also are in agreement with many of the other Black Books that are known from the same time period.

The books do not contain any names, initials, or dates that can help us to identify them. There are thirty-two incantations in one book and seventy-eight in the other. They are not numbered like many other Black Books.

Assistant Professor Per Sande of the public archives in Hamar interpreted and typed the books for the owner.

It is difficult to estimate how many Black Books there are to be found in Norway. Some of them are publicly owned by museums, in the public archives, and in teaching and research institutions, while others are privately owned. The number of books is probably between 100 and 150. There are a couple of private owners who own several books, but it is a rarity to find two or three books on the same property. Here in Elverum, we previously knew of only two other Black Books, one from Stenham-mer and one from Findstad.

Svarteboka

Many have heard about Svarteb0ka, or the Black Book, but few have held one in their hands. The name alone gives many people chills up the back. I know one owner of such a book who dares not sleep in the room where it is kept. Not everyone can overlook completely that special texts or rituals can free dark powers.

One of the myths surrounding the Black Book was that it was written in blood, as a link in an agreement with the devil. But after the witch-burning era, this idea was toned down, and the books we know of from Norway were written with pen and ink.

In my youth there were many older people that denied or doubted the books’ existence. This could be because people no longer believed in magic formulas, and the general opinion that no book could have such a subject matter could easily lead to the view that the book itself was a myth. The baby was thrown out with the bath water.

Because the book has a proper name, in the same way as the Bible, many believe that we are talking about a book with very specific contents and that one example is like another. But this is not the case. The books are handwritten, and scarcely two books are found that have the same content.

One major reason for the considerable differences is that most of the books originated in a period when word-of-mouth tale telling lived parallel with the written word. It happened that when a person got hold of an incantation, or several, or maybe a whole book, that person freely picked out incantations that seemed to be the most useful, not to mention current within the realm of local opinion, and slightly revised them with local and verbal tradition.

Another reason can be sloppy handwriting and worn-out books that have been difficult to decipher. Poor orthography and a lack of knowledge about alien words and foreign languages have led to writing errors and difficulties in making copies. It has especially caused problems when the foreign incantations were written in Greek and Latin and Hebrew. This is also a problem for today’s Black Book interpreters.

Even if the result has been a number of individual books with clearly different contents, there are also books with similarities that clearly point to a common origin. One researcher will perhaps see a clear connection between them, but this is relatively uninteresting in a popular presentation of the material. It is however worth mentioning that two books respectively from Eiker

and Jeloya have the most in common with the books from Rustad. However, there are only a few parallels with the other Black Books from the district.

Traditions with magic books are known from as far back as Babylon and Egypt. The Black Books’ roots possibly come from Egypt, where in the first hundred years after the birth of Christ a number of books were written that represented mixed compilations of Egyptian and Greek philology, religion, and mythology, together with the Jewish cabala* and Christian superstition.

The tradition was further passed down by the scholars of the Middle Ages, who in the name of religion and philosophy were absorbed in classical magic. The study of the secret knowledge culminated in the 1500s and 1600s, the same time as the witch burnings. The Germans were industrious authors of magic literature, and many of the myths that surround the Black Book are built up around the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg. Both magic books and the witch burnings found their way into Norway, where foreign and local traditions were blended together.

The book that has left the most impression on the Norwegian Black Book tradition is recognized as Danish. It is probably from 1608 and was written by a Lutheran minister and spread both in Denmark and Norway by the clergy. It was dedicated to the famous magician Cyprianus, who around the year 300 was the Bishop of Antioch and a Roman Catholic martyr and saint. Other known names that are associated with the book are Albertus Magnus, Paracelsus, Agrippa of Nettesheim, the German Dr. Faust, and

’The cabala is a system used by the Jews of the late Middle Ages in an endeavor to interpret and illuminate the Talmud. They were particularly interested in magical words and the numerical values of letters of the alphabet.

Pope Honorious. They are believed to be the authors of an incantation book called Grimorium. Many will also maintain that large portions of the magic incantations are taken from the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses.

Some of the Black Books give indications about their origins without being necessarily reliable. In one of the books from Rus-tad, three claims are made:

A little Book of Black arts/or a/summary of the/Cyprianus/that was written by Bishop/Johannes Sell from Oxford/in England/year 1682

A copy of the actual Black book, written at the University of Wittenberg year 1529 and thereafter found at Copenhagen Castle in the year 1591 in a white marble chest, written on parchment.

Remember that:

These incantations that are found in the Cypriani Black Arts Book are sometimes so old that their sources are from heathendom, but for the most part they are from Catholic times. This can be recognized in the ancient northern ballads.

These three claims are a useful start for those who wish to find out more about where these two books from Rustad belong in a larger perspective.

The Black Book, in its early beginnings was used by few, if only because of the lack of reading abilities at that time. But after a while it had a larger circulation. It is assumed that, at the beginning of the 1800s, some hundred books were in circulation in Norway. They were used by people of widely different social status, from the clergy to wise people, who entirely or partly made a living by helping others.

Sickness flourished in the paths of undernourishment, uncleanliness, and unscientific reasoning. Skilled medical help was not to be found. Concerning medical questions, people therefore had to choose between the usual folk remedies that most people knew themselves or take the advice that could be gotten from someone who knew more than just the Lord’s Prayer.

The following pages contain the complete incantations of the Black Books from Rustad. The contents vary from well meant and innocent folk remedies to the blackest devil conjuring.

The contents of the two books, like many other Black Books, is a fine blending of Norwegian and foreign folklore. One book is especially extensive and rich in contents.

The most extraordinary feature about these books is the almost total lack of advice concerning sicknesses caused by evil spirits, although Norwegian folklore is usually full of it. The explanation could be that the author lived at a time when the belief that sickness was caused by spirits was beginning to lose its hold. Belief in the other evil powers was clearly enough.

You are invited on an exciting walk through our forefathers’ ways of thinking and living around two hundred years ago, in a domain that very little is written about in the history books.

—Ottar Evensen

A little Book of Black Arts or a summary of the Cyprianus* that was written by Bishop Johannes Sell** from Oxford in England year 1682+

*A common name for black-art books.

"Bishop Sell was actually the English author, publisher, and clergyman, John Fell (1625-1686). Fell was the palace curator for Charles II and later headmaster at Christ Church College in Oxford. He became a bishop there in 1667. He published Saint Cyprian, which deals with the alleged originator of the Black Books, the mysterious Cyprianus of Antioch, who lived in Turkey in the fourth century. Cyprianus was a sorcerer and devil worshiper. He was able to free himself from the powers of demons and the devil by making the sign of the cross and converting to Christianity. Cyprianus became a bishop and was later honored as a martyr and saint in the Roman Catholic Church.

tThis date varies somewhat in the Black Books that have been discovered previously.

Remember that:

These incantations that are found in the Cypriani Black Arts book are sometimes so old that their source is from heathendom, but for the most part from Catholic times. This can be read about in the ancient Northern ballads.*

Motto:

If you are sensible...

When a domestic animal is infested with lice or other varmints, you should take warm ashes and spread them over the animal on a Sunday during the church service when the minister is in the pulpit delivering his sermon to the congregation.

’Northern Ballads: Ballads from the Middle Ages.

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A copy of the actual Black Arts book, written at the University in Wittenberg,* year 1529, and thereafter found at Copenhagen Castle in the year 1591 in a white marble chest, and written on parchment.

When you want to release the angels from Hell, you should in the morning when you rise say this:

“I renounce you, God the Father that has made me. I renounce you, the Holy Spirit that has blessed me. I will never worship or serve you after this day, and I completely swear to Lucifer, ruler of the dark abyss. And 1 swear to his rule, and he shall serve me and do what I ask of him. In exchange I will give my own blood as insurance and a pledge. This insures me to him with body and soul for all eternity, if he does what I ask, order, or command of him. And thereupon 1 sign with my own hand and with my own blood. This to be certain and true in every possible way.”

’The University of Wittenberg, Germany, is where the Reformation started.

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Be aware of:

The day you will release and follow after Lucifer, you should rise in the Devil’s name, get dressed in the Devil’s name. Yes! Wash, comb your hair, and go out in the Devil’s name. Everything that you undertake shall happen in the Devil’s name that day.

No. 1

To conjure up the evil spirits to force a thief to return that which he has stolen

“I call for you, devils, that have powers on earth as well as in Hell, I [name] conjure you, devils, in heaven and on earth, that you stop that person who has stolen from [name]. Once again, I conjure you, devils, that you do not allow this person tranquillity or rest, neither sleeping nor waking, sitting nor lying, walking nor standing, riding nor driving. Thus 1 throw this curse on him, that he will never have rest on this earth before he has returned everything he has stolen from [name], I beseech and call upon you, evil spirits, with God the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, along with all the elements...

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...that you never let that thief receive any rest before he returns home the stolen goods. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Solomon shall help you. Oh! You holy cross that stood on the mountain of Calvary, on which the Saviour was nailed, that which was found again by the Empress Helena,* and from this cross and nail from the cross, she had made a crown and bit [for a horse] for her son. I call upon you, all the devils in Hell, that you lead this person back with everything he has stolen from [name]. With help from the worst devils that are in Hell, and they are

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If you notice a disturbance where it begins to rumble and howl in the air when you are out on an open field, take this as a message that the evil spirits have carried out your command and are giving you a sign.

How to control the evil spirits

When you have first conjured up the evil spirits, go three steps backwards as you perform the sign of the cross three times on yourself: one for your head, one for your breast, and one for your feet. Then recite the Lord’s Prayer. Immediately after you have done...

’According to legend, the holy cross was rediscovered in the fourth century by the Empress Helene, mother of the Emperor Constantine. The mass of the cross has since been celebrated on May 3.

...this, say the following:

“I whose name has released these devils from Hell in Satan’s name command that they shall be led back there again. Because you and your brothers did rebel against God and wanted to be his equal, you will therefore be sent downward to the abyss where you and yours will stay. I therefore pray to God that he will bless this place that I stand upon. I call upon you, Lucifer, with all your followers to return to the same place you came from. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.”

After, sing this hymn: “A mighty fortress is our God.”*

To make yourself hard (strong)

Take a swallow.** There is a stone in its head. Take earth from a graveyard and two shillings worth of mercury and carry these ingredients with you.

To cause sleeplessness

Take the eye from a swallow and throw it in a bed so that whoever lies in it cannot sleep.

The art of seeing who has bewitched another’s animals

Ihke a spoonful of milk from a cow that has recently calved, a spoonful of a woman’s breast milk, and a spoonful of your own urine....

’This hymn was written by Martin Luther.

"It was thought that the stones inside a swallow’s head could be used as a magic ingredient in medicine.

...Blend them together. Put the mixture in a glass and bury it down in a manure heap overnight. Then say these words three times, while you are sitting down:

“Hosala Diesla Euga.”

After retrieving the mixture, say this three times: “Go then he who now rules over Belsebub in his world.” Then walk into the parlor and place the glass on the table. After one hour there will come a sorcerer or a witch and ask for either salty food or something to drink. But do not give it to him; only show him the way out when you want him to leave.

When you wish for someone to sleep twenty-four hours

Take the resin from a pine tree, dry and crush the resin to a powder. Then give it to the person you wish to sleep, in a glass of beer to drink. He will then sleep for twenty-four hours.

When everyone in a house shall sleep

Take the eyes from the head of an owl and lay them in water. One will float, but the other will sink. Take the one that floats and a dead man’s tooth and hang them over the parlor door. The people in that house will then sleep until the eye and tooth are taken away.

Protection against being bewitched

Write on a piece of paper the following words: “Porto Hamasias F Emanuel F dorenus.” Carry this with you, always.

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Protection against being captured in war

Write these words on a piece of paper, “FF Laie FF alila ayrata b: b: U: F: alias FFF:”. Carry this always with you.

So you won’t miss when shooting

Take a human bone, crush it to powder, and blend it in gunpowder. Use this blend of gunpowder in the gun. This is a mixture that has been well tested.

Protection from arrows

Write these words on a piece of paper:

“Araba Omel alifal Cuttar uden et armoen

Trola Coblamot Fasteanus.”

Carry these words with you.

So that dogs won’t bark at you

Carry either the heart or the eye of a wolf with you. No dog can bark at you then.

To win when trading

Take the head of a peewit (bird) and put it in your purse along with your money. No one will be able to deceive you.

To be bulletproof

Write on a piece of paper the following words: “Anel artus Dun.” Keep this writing with you. If you have doubts about this working, try it on a dog first. But remember: the same words must be bound fast to the dog in order for the dog to be protected.

To free yourself from promises you’ve unwisely made

Write on a piece of paper with the blood of a black dog these words: “Max, phax, umax, Patris, Filius, Spiritus, Sancte.”* Carry this paper with you. Then those unwanted promises you’ve unwisely made will vanish.

To avoid bullets

When you hear gunfire, pull up the sod under your right foot. Turn it and lay the green side down. As long as the sod lies this way, guns cannot fire at you.

So that wolves and bears cannot hurt cattle

Take the bones of a wolf and bear, crush them into small pieces. Give this salted to the cattle on a Thursday morning.

To weaken the poison from a snake

“Jesus and St. Peter walked down a road. There they met a dead man. ’What has killed you?’ Jesus said. ’Jon Klingelmann** has stabbed me,’ replied the dead man. Jesus said, ’Stand up and you shall be healed instantly.’ In the name of the Holy Trinity.” Recite the Lord’s Prayer three times.

To put out a flame or an accidental fire

The eggs from a chicken that are laid on a Maundy Thursday never rot. Throw three of these special eggs over the fire. Do this in the name of the Holy Trinity. The blaze will be put out immediately.

•This distorted “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” seems to be taken from Catholic liturgy, which can help contribute to dating the incantation.

"Jon Klingelmann is an old nickname given to a snake.

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Another way to put out a fire

Write the following words on a piece of lead and throw the lead on the fire. The words are: “Anoeam, Emanean, Natan.” Note: Try first with a stone that weighs the same as the lead to see if you are able to throw it on the fire, because if you are not able to throw the lead on the fire, you may find yourself in trouble.

To cure a fever (colla)*

Write this on a piece of bread and give it to the patient for eight days, specifically a piece each day, and on the ninth day, burn the last piece, which is C x.

Colameris x, Colameri x, Colamer x, Colame x, Colam x, Cola x, Col x, Co x, C x

After doing this, the fever will be gone.

To win at card and dice games

Write these words on your hand with your own blood. Take the cards in your hand. You will then win.

The words are: “Ncesi axus Porus.”

To win in judicial proceedings

Remove the tongue of an eagle and take it with you to church three Sundays in your side pocket.

Nasi axus Porus

*Colla or cold-fever was a name given to all fever sicknesses that began with the chills.

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The first thing in the morning, before the sun rises, go to your enemy’s door with a small rag. Spit on it three times, and say: “Nome Astaeoht.”

When you stand before the court, hold the rag in your right hand with your thumb bent inward. While looking righteously at your enemy, say these words to yourself:

“I see you with six eyes. My two, your two, and the Devil’s two.

You shall be silent, I shall speak. Lucifer’s chains shall bind your hands and mouth. You shall have the disadvantage and 1 shall have the advantage. In the name of Augusta Deck Regsition and Mortification Hadrok Segena Amen.”

To fish in a hulder’s pond*

Sprinkle the dirt from a graveyard around in the water. After that you will catch fish in quantities.

To heal an eye infection

“Jesus and St Peter walked down a road, there they met a blind man. The man said: ’Make my eyes as well as your good mother; you made her eyes well.’ In the name of the Holy Trinity.” Then say the Lord’s Prayer.

*A hulder was a wicked fairy. She was very beautiful, but she had a tail. People thought that a hulder had a pond with a double bottom where there were particularly large quantities of fish.

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To calm anger

Take the heart from a swallow and spear it on a stick. Then take the tongue of the swallow and place it under your tongue. Then display the swallow’s heart. When someone is angry at you, display the swallow’s heart, then place the bird’s tongue under your tongue and speak to him. His anger will stop.

To win in court

When you are attending judicial proceedings, place a swallow’s tongue under your tongue. The case will go in your favor.

The magic from swallow stones

It is said that a swallow has three stones in its nest. The stones should be collected on a Thursday night after the sun has gone down. One is white, the other black, and the third red. Carry the white stone with you and you’ll never have sorrows; carry the black and you will never be free from not* being deceived by any woman or the falling sickness.** Carry the red one and you are saved from being haunted by ghosts. And by having the red stone in your mouth when you kiss a girl, will make her love you in every way.

’The word “not” must not be omitted here. "Falling sickness is epilepsy.

To make yourself invisible

Poke out the eyes of a bat and put them in your pocket. Smear yourself with bat’s blood. Then take the eye of a black cat. Cook it in sweet milk. After eating and drinking this, you’ll be invisible for nine hours.

To sleep for nine days

Take the liver from a hare that has been dried, crush it, and serve it together with alcohol and sour beer.* Lay the hare’s lung under the person’s head. That person will then sleep for nine days or until the sour beer mixture is poured in his mouth.

The skill of receiving and having luck with money

Skin a black cat in secret. Make a purse from the hide. The first coin you get thereafter must be rubbed against the purse. Secretly lay the purse on a grave and let it lie there three Thursday evenings. Retrieve the purse again and you will see a wonder. Place the coin in your purse and never take it out of there again. Hereafter, before every holiday evening (that is, Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost Sunday), you must throw a skilling* ** toward the north and say: “This gift I give you, you the goddess Dalix.” You will never lack for money after that.

Tn old days the over-yeasted beer was badly preserved and could easily sour.

**A skilling is a copper coin formerly used in Norway.

To protect hidden goods

“In Jesus’ name! These goods that lie here concealed and that are hidden by people, I claim them with three bands that have three names: the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yes! I have the power with the word of God. I compel and exhort you, Hell’s eight princes, who are: Lucifer, Belsebub, Astaroht, Satanas, Anubes, Dryttianus, Drakeus, Belial, that you depart from here with all your company. Let these goods come into human hands. After saying this, I stamp my foot. Jesus! who is God’s and Mary’s son. I strengthen my courage to take these goods in the holy and blessed name of God. I now take these goods with my hand, in the holy and blessed name of God. In the name of the Holy Trinity.” Then say the Lord’s Prayer.

To point out a thief

If you want to know who has stolen from you, take incense and Easter candles or marjoram, holy water,* and breast milk from a woman who has delivered a boy child. Make a dough out of these ingredients. Then take a mirror and smear the glass completely with this mixture at 9:00 on a Thursday evening.

’This is obviously from Catholic Church services and can contribute to dating this incantation.

Draw a heart in the middle of the mirror and write these words around it, as the following figure shows:

Jesus Christ’s side and heart

were pierced through with a spear.

This done, hide the mirror in a dark room for three nights. Then go to the mirror again and you will then find the thief’s name and where he can be found.

To put a spell on a thief

Write the following words over the door of the house which the thief has burgled.

Auratabul—Auratabu—Auratab—Aurata—Aurat—Aura—

Aur—Au—A

Write these words three times. The thief will come back again and can be caught.

A spell to be read over salt and running water

This to is to be given to a person upon whom evil has been cast, or who has been bewitched. Perform this incantation on a Thursday evening:

“Today which is D.N.N.* day over all Christendom, I read these words with God’s power and might and with Jesus Christ’s finger. I point to wherever bewitching has been performed by witches, using bird or fish bones, by the north or the south...

’D.N.N.—the Lord’s.

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...wind, by soil or by mountain or water sprite, on purpose or by accident, in or outside, in food or in drink, sitting or lying, riding or driving. I hold today your liver and lungs, your heart and tongue, your hands and feet and your cursed heart’s roots. You shall never do more harm to any person. I say this with the highest power and might in the name of the Trinity. You shall remit yourself to these words as salt for the running water.

Amen.” Then the Lord’s Prayer three times.

To heal an injury*

“Jesus rode over a steep bridge. There waiting on the path were the evil dark spirits. Jesus walked by the evil spirits and knelt down and healed an injury. The leg and foot bones met again, and joint met joint again. This being performed in the name of the Trinity.” Then recite the Lord’s Prayer to the end.

For airborne epidemic infections**

“Our Lord Jesus and St. Peter and St. Andrew, along with the other disciples, walked up and down along the river. There they met a terrible being that came up out of the water as a fish and...

’“Injury” here means all kinds of joint and bone injuries (sprains, breaks, etc.) “People thought epidemic infections were due to arrows shot by the evil powers.

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...tried to swallow them up. Jesus grabbed it by the tail and asked: ’Where shall you go?’ The evil spirit answered: ’I shall go to [name] farm to harm horses, swine, goats, and sheep. There bones to break, meat to eat, and blood to drink.’ ’No! you shall not,’ Jesus said. ’You shall turn back to them who have let you out, down in the river again, and to the greatest depth there is.’ In the name of the Three.” Then recite Lord’s Prayer three times.

A prayer for protection against witches

“Jesus and the Virgin Mary walked over a wide bridge. There they met the witch, Lede.* ’Where are you going?’ Jesus asked. ’I’m going to a farm and injure people, goats and sheep, horses and cattle to the ninth generation.’ ’No,’ Jesus said, ’you shall go away, you horrible bag, over this brook. You shall burst in the very roots of your heart and in your cursed feet.’ In the name of the Trinity.” And then three times the Lord’s Prayer. This is called a “protection prayer.”

If you are having trouble shooting accurately at wild birds or animals

This trick, which is often used, consists of...

’Lede—the evil one.

...cutting a cross on the bullet or on the gun. You can also take hot stones from the fireplace in the kitchen, or from a fireplace anywhere, and put them in the gun. Then shoot at the animal with it.

If you wish to see witches

There are old tales that state, four nights a year, witches have the power to appear in the church; namely, at Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and on the Midsummer’s night. It is possible to see witches walk around in a church in the evening. Stand outside a church and have with you castoreum,* dyvelsdrek,** grain and malt, and a page from an old church book. Make a ring around you with a stick, and at the same time you draw the ring slowly around, say: “In Jesus’ name I stand here, in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.” After 12 midnight, stand in the ring until the process has been finished. If anyone talks to you, either from one group or anyone from another group, do not answer....

’Castoreum is a bitter, strong-smelling, creamy, orange-brown substance that consists of dried perineal glands from the beaver and their secretion.

"A strong-smelling substance, dyvelsdrek, devil’s dirt. It is from a plant that people thought would hold the evil power at a distance.

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...Note: You can also stand by the church bells, since it is very likely that witches can be observed there because they like to gnaw on the bells with their teeth.

Another way for protection while observing witches

Cut a clump of sod from a church yard, but only if it is in the right season. You’ll be able to stand where you wish if the sod clump is placed on your head. You can stand inside or outside the church. You need have no other protection with you, and you don’t need to stand in the ring. But standing by a baptismal font is the best protection in the church, if the church has such a font.

The fishing prayer

“Jesus, standing on land, asked Peter to find a boat. Peter did what he was asked. The boat was out on the water. Jesus said: ’Enough fish you shall now catch, of big and small size. I catch and will catch plenty of fish sent with the help of God’s power, with God’s might. In the name of the Trinity.’ ” Then say the Lord’s Prayer to the end.

If a thief leaves his turd behind him after he has carried out a burglary

Take glowing live embers and sift them over...

...the turd which was made, while saying these words: “The Devil I send to you, because you have stolen from me.”

Another one

Take the turd that has been left behind. Stuff it in an old musket pipe. Take yeast or sourdough and place the turd in an environment so the mixture rises and ferments some days. Then place one end of the musket pipe in the fire. Yes, the more you wish to torture the thief, the longer you can let the pipe lie there, only ’til the thief falls, but spare however his life. When you lay the pipe in the fire, say the same words that are stated in the first part. (“The Devil I send to you, because you have stolen from me.”)

To make a divining rod

The mentioned stick: the divining rod must be cut on Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Ascension Day, Whitsunday, and on Midsummer’s day, and always before the sun comes up. The stick must be cut anew on two Sunday mornings, always with new knives that have never been used before.

Swearing over a divining rod

“I, [name], beseech you, noble stick, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, that you truthfully show me, point out, and guide me to the place where there is gold, silver, or money, which has been made by human hands and is hidden in the earth. Be as true as the Virgin Mary was a pure virgin, before and after the birth of Christ.* So certain and true as Christ is the son of God, and so certain and true as God’s son died for man’s sins and is all mankind’s savior. I beseech you, stick, with your might and power as Jesus conquered the Devil and all evil spirits and made them most humble. I beseech you, stick, that you alone point out old treasures which are hidden by man, and not any other minerals or metals. Continue looking when you are commanded. With God’s holy gospel, His holy word, with the angels, the martyrs, the Devil’s downfall and confinement, and with the loud trumpet’s sound that on the day of judgment shall give life to all natures dead and living...

’The incantation is obviously from the Middle Ages.

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...creatures that have been on the earth. And so certain and true is this that like heaven and earth shall perish with fire, and that a judgment follows, equally so certain and true that you divine, genuine stick, and shall show me the treasures I have named.” And all this must be recited in the name of the Trinity. Amen.

To make yourself horny

Write the following words and carry them with you: “Fetgar:

Faettrim Fobra Jahcomhia. J. 0: F: H:”

So that you never will shoot incorrectly

Take in secret a steel hook from a woman’s clothes. They are best, but you can well use hooks that have not been used. Place the hook on the outermost part of the muzzle-loader of the weapon, or between the powder and the shot. After doing this, you should never have problems shooting correctly at animals or birds. But never shoot at targets when using hooks.

To make ink which only lasts for twenty-four hours

Let a gall nut* cook together with nitric acid until the solution is dark in color, then add iron sulfate together with a little gum arabic and ammonia. This mixture makes an ink that disappears from paper after twenty-four hours time.

’Gall nut—a swelling of plant tissue usually due to fungi or insect parasites and forming a source of tannin.

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To expel a fetus or to give to a girl so that she can be rid of her burden, if it is in the first five months*

She should drink cups of this soup wherein a blue stone color** is cast. Drinking of it several times, she will then abort.

Another one

Strong castoreum can also expel a fetus from people and cattle.

Another one

Saffron mixed in a drink of French alcohol forces strongly.

So that a mare shall give birth to its foal

Let the mare smell fresh swine intestines.

To force milk from the udder of a cow or a woman

Wash the udder/breast with alcohol once or twice.

’Even today an abortion after three months is estimated as risky. ’’Copper sulfate—very dangerous!

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So that cows will come home during the summer by themselves at night

Take salt in a rag. Pass it three times between the chemise undergarment and the naked body while saying these words: “Inn Domini Deus Patria et Spiritus Sanctus Amen.”

(It is understood here that the cows are given the salt to eat. The salt has the scent of the woman who takes care of them. The cows should easily now find their way back to their caretaker.)

To endure a bullet

“Bullet, stand still for His sake, for He that created heaven and earth and the entire world: By his judgment and Jesus Christ’s sufferings sake: Amen.” Note: Bind these words to the breast.

So that a girl shall love you and follow you

Write these words on a cup and serve her any kind of drink: “Bell, Pelom, Corocerstu:”

So that a drinker shall give up drinking alcohol

Take three baby mice: Lay them in half a pint of alcohol for fourteen days. Let the patient...

...drink it up.

To drive away bedbugs

Take a sliver from a wheel (torture instrument) and set it in the wall crack where the bugs are. The bugs will soon be gone.

So that a girl can expel her fetus

Castoreum, devil drink, put in alcohol to drink.

For a person to feel normal again after being bewitched into love

In secret, take or clip hair from his or her head. Put the hair in your left shoe and walk on it for a time. The unnatural, bewitched feeling usually goes away.

So that lice shall not thrive on you

Thke a human bone from a graveyard and sew it into your clothes, but don’t take the bone on Tycho Brahe days.*

’Especially unlucky or dangerous days named by the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), who calculated such days for the Holy Roman Empeor Rudolf II of Prague.

To expel a fetus from a woman

Gather juniper berries and cook them immediately and give this to the patient to drink on a empty stomach. Probatum.*

For a girl who usually has intercourse and is not with child

If you want your woman to be pregnant and you allow her that, nonchalantly and jokingly hit her three times on the back of the skirt using a stick or cane with which a worm has been beaten to death. Probatum.*

If you are out of the country and you want to know if your relatives and kinsfolk are dead

This can only be performed in the summer. Dig up a little stone that lies in the earth where no other stone is. Under the stone you will see a worm. If it is lively and healthy, it means that your relatives are well. If the worm is powerless, it means that there is someone in your family sick or incoherent. If you only see decayed mucus from the worm,...

’Probatum—Proven. Means that the spell has been tried successfully.

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...it means that the person in your family you think most about in your heart is dead.

To cause a person a constant headache

Get some hair from his head and fasten it in a tight crevice where two trees rub against each other when the wind blows and say these words: “Headless in the Devil’s name.”

For a man who is going to run the gauntlet*

Take raw egg whites and suet. Melt this together and smear the man’s back with it and have him step in toward the fire two or three times. (The suet will then stick firmly to the back, adding protection against the blows from the whips.)

To dull the sword of your enemy in war

Read these words: “Our Lord, He went on a gentleman’s expedition. He dulled all the drawn swords. ’All drawn swords,’ he said, ’I take from them point and edge, so they cannot injure, neither woman nor man.’ Peter with his sword did the Devil’s mischief. In the name of the three.” Then recite the Lord’s Prayer.

To make a jinxed gun perform correctly again

Warm up the gun by a fire and whip the gun with alder twigs. Continue whipping the gun as long as you wish to torture him who has put the hex on your gun.

’Gauntlet—To run the gauntlet was a military punishment where a man had to walk between two lines of a whole company of soliders outfitted with whips. Each man was allowed one blow to the man’s back.

Another one

Pull her three times backward through a freshly split roan tree. (It is difficult to determine what this incantation was meant to help.)

To stop a snake

“Woman the seed shall thread, snake the seed in until fall. I command! Snake, I stop you, with God’s words so powerful, that you shall lie paralyzed for me until I release you again. With Christ’s and Paul’s hand, freeze! You cannot injure! In the name of the Trinity.” Then say the Lord’s Prayer.

When your churning won’t make butter

Throw a piece of silver into the butter churn, even if it’s nothing but a silver two shilling. Observe: Silver has a strong binding power.

If a person haunts after death

Spread linseeds around the farm where the deceased once lived. His ghost will then go away. You can likewise spread linseeds in the coffin with the deceased. You are to be assured that person won’t haunt again.

That boils and growths on people break out fast

Coat the boils or growths with iron sulfate.

END OF BOOK ONE

In order for a man to make himself hard as steel, like iron from an axe or knife. First take the stone from a swallow’s head.* Then take white soil from a graveyard and one halfpenny’s worth of mercury. Put the fixings under your left armpit. You will be strong for twenty-four hours.

An Incantation.

“Sole mando oasiluta Sabra Spesis Fera habat Tabenta Jasa Sanar qvadua dimas pulmoruno famaseise Sapas Crema alfunt debmus Seara Seraslos alo Seurata Cabi Lolulos in Nomine Matris Sieuts Spiritus Amen.** Keep this written incantation with you....

"It was thought the stones inside a swallow’s head could be used as a magic ingredient and medicine.

•’This incomprehensible and meaningless incantation contains distorted fragments from the Latin liturgy. The medical advice probably dates back to the Middle Ages.

...This incantation can be recited for protection against being attacked.

Probatum est.*

To make everyone in a house dance

Take an aspen leaf and write the following words on it: “Elo

Elleam Fagiam Grantem.” Then lay the leaf under the doorstep.

To reveal a thief

Write these words on a piece of cheese with alum** water. Then read the Lord’s Prayer three Sundays over the cheese while fasting, never saying Amen. Have the person that you believe to be the thief eat the cheese....

’Probatum est—It is proven.

”A solution of mineral salts.

...If he is guilty of thievery, he will immediately throw up.

The words are these; “Max, Pax, Firax.” Or write these words on the cheese: “Neguba, Exgvieda arraro Finte am Tuam Tasie dollore.”*

Another way to get back what a thief has stolen

On a Monday morning, take hot embers and lay them in a mustard-seed grinder and turn the grinder counterclockwise** with your left hand and say these words five times.

“Hafel. Ageltor. Hafel.”

It won’t take longer...

’This incomprehensible and meaningless incantation contains distorted fragments from Latin liturgy.

"Counterclockwise—to move against nature was an important principle in the art of magic.

'l/Vt-

...than turning the grinder with the embers counterclockwise before the thief who has stolen from you will give the goods back to you. And as the embers burn, so will that person’s heart burn and never stop burning before he brings back again the goods that he has stolen. Then take the burning embers and step on them with your right foot, and say: “Like this ember shall your heart...

...be. Just like this ember under my foot. “In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Read this incantation three times.

Another way to make a thief come back

Take a coin in your hand and go to where water is running from south to north, on a Thursday night, and say this: “I command you, sun and moon, that you do not shine on this thief....

...I call upon you, Lucifer and all your followers. And I conjure the Devil from Hell.” (Then throw the coin into the water.) “Do not give this thief either rest, relaxation, or tranquillity before he brings back to me that which he has stolen from me. God do not let this thief have any rest or tranquillity, day or night, morning or evening. Let his heart burn like a burning ember that can never be extinguished....

...And let him be as restless as a wave on a wild beach, until he has returned the goods he has stolen from me, to the spot or place it was taken from.

This shall fully happen in the Devil’s dreaded name that lives in Hell’s abyss.” The names of Hell’s ten princes can be added here.

To put out the eye of a thief

Take the fat from a chicken and mercury and man’s blood, on a Sunday morning during the church service. Blend together to make a dough.Then draw an eye with this mixture on a table with these words around it, as follows:

Then take a copper nail that has been forged on a Sunday morning...

///.-

? 7

WH

...before the sun goes up, made with three blows from a hammer in the Devil’s name. Then set the nail against the drawn eye and strike three blows with the same hammer and say: “Satan, Beelsebub, Bellial, Ashtarath, and all the devils that are in Hell.”

To identify a thief in water

Write the following words on a piece of paper: “Siesnbra flat Tacit Nameium Dempus alligeum Tinut.” Let it lie under a heavy stone three Thursday nights. Pick it up again and spread bleach water on the other side...

...then turn the written side up. Fasten the paper to a plate with white virgin beeswax* on the four corners. Then fill the saucer with water and you will then see the thief s face for three hours. Then burn the image.

How to awaken love in a woman

Take a cup of beer, and give her a toast. Then fill the cup again, adding a little swallow’s blood, and let her drink...

“Virgin beeswax was sold at the druggist under the name Cera alba. Virgin beeswax was really only wax from young beehives, and the wax had a dirty white color.

...After drinking this she will be very loving.

Ditto one

Go to a swallow’s nest and take a swallow—never with bare hands, however— and take...*

To stop bleeding

“It was a blessed time and period that Jesus was in Mary’s embrace. He rose up so beautifully from eternal death with his...

’The original text stops here.

...blood so red. And to be sure that this is true and certain, stop this bleeding in the name of Jesus Christ and his power.

Amen, minonare

Our Father.”

To stop a damaging fire

Write these words on the door of the house that is burning and break the door down and make it silent. The fire will extinguish itself. The words are these:

“I Erbum die Manet Me Terunem.”

To calm a flow of blood

“Be still the bleeding of [name], like the current stood still where Jesus and his ten disciples crossed over. In the name of the Trinity: The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit."

Ditto

“Stand still the blood of [name], like the terrible Satan in Hell that stands steadfast. Jesus has trapped and bound him, in the name of Three [the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit].” Then recite the Lord’s Prayer.

For a toothache

Write these words on a piece of paper. Then cut it into three pieces. Have the sick person place the first piece on the bad tooth in the evening and, in the morning, quietly spit the paper on the fire. Do the same morning and night with the other pieces. The words are these:

“Agerin Nagerin Vagerin

Jagerin Ipagrin Sipia.”

These words should be written with a new pen.

Ditto

Write the following words on paper money. Then place it on the bad tooth.

“Ageron, Jegerom Negerom Sipia.” The word “Sipia” is thrown to a dog.

Ditto

Ratalibus x Ratalibu x Ratalib x Ratali x Ratal x Ratax Ratx Ra x Rxx

NB: xxx iii

This writing shall be conducted in the course of 8 days, and on 9th day burn the last which is left.

Rxx xxx

iii

[This incantation is for a toothache. Like the previous incantation, these words are written on paper. Start the first day with the word Ratalibus x and place the paper on the bad tooth. Then every day thereafter, write one less letter. This is continued for eight days. On the ninth day, burn the letter R xx. The understanding was that, as the word got smaller, so would the pain.]

Regarding card and dice games

If you are able to make yourself a band from a piece of a noose with which a thief was hanged, no one will be able to beat you at the game you are playing. The band has to be tied around your left arm.

Ditto

No one will be able to beat you at cards if you take blood from a black dog and write these words:

“Rat, Pat, Cat.”

Ditto

Place the heart of a mole under your left armpit.You’ll then have luck when playing dice or cards. The same can also be done with the heart of a wood owl.

Ditto

Take either the heart of a black male cat or the heart of a bat and sew the heart in...

...a new, green piece of silk. Place it in your left armpit. Then say quietly to yourself when you’re gambling: “I’ll win the game against you, in the name of the Trinity.”

Ditto

Take salamander eggs and mix them with wax and keep the mixture on your person. Then you will win.

Ditto

Write these words on your hand with your own blood: “Nesi, Axus, Porus.”

To make birds or animals stand still*

When you first step out of your door, walk backward and say: “Minate.” When you reach a forest, take three pinches of earth under your left foot and cast the...

*To hinder or restrain an animal and make it stand still so that it can be killed.

...dust three times and say each time: “Hall.” Then walk three steps backward in a circle counterclockwise and say this for each step. When you see birds or animals, point at them with your finger and say this: “0 AXMAX VAX.” If there are many animals, shoot as many you want, but spare three. Let them go. If there are three animals, shoot two and let the third one go....

...After shooting an animal, take your knife and cut a little piece of meat from under the left front leg. Throw the piece of meat toward the north* and say: “Habe mihi siger lamp.” If it is a bird you shoot, twist the left foot off and throw it away while saying “Seilama Lallua.” Write on a piece of paper. The paper must be straight and hang...

’This must be interpreted as an offering to the evil powers, which live in the direction of north.

...on a red silk thread around your neck, with the following written on it—

4 7 3CI [name] conjure and swear to you the god Naron Ner-iot Ashtart. No animal or birds can run, leap, or move to one side of my bullet. But I kill it in the name of ax max

23 I T F L n Ts

m 3 7

tot

To stop a drifter

Take a piece of the drifter’s clothes, even if it’s no more than one thread. Place it in the middle of a grindstone and turn it around three times counterclockwise. Then take the thread again and go out on a field and throw it toward the north as far as you can. Throw it up toward the sun at sunrise, and say...

...this three times. Then he’ll come again as if he were confused.

Probatum: “Oh you Devil before me, return this person who owns this rag or thread, in the Devil’s name, in the Devil’s name, in the Devil’s name.”

For a girl to love you

It is written that a swallow has three stones in its nest: one red, one black, and one white. The stones should be collected two hours after the sun goes down on a Thursday. Put the red stone in your mouth when you kiss a girl, and she’ll then take you as her sweetheart....

...If you carry the black one, you will never be seduced by any woman, and you’ll also be free from the falling sickness.* Carry the white stone, and you’ll never be sad in any way.

’Falling sickness: epilepsy.

Protection for your cows this year against wolves and bears

“I take my cows today to the green pasture, before the Virgin Mary’s dearest knee, the victor’s stall door. Rise up, conqueror. Take the key in hand. Protect against wolf’s teeth, bear claws, and the witch’s hand, and for anything that can hurt my cows ...Jerulla, in the name of the Trinity: God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Then read the Lord’s Prayer. This should be read over salt and given to the cows before they have been fed on New Summer’s Day.* But do not give salt to one of the small cows, so it may be sacrificed. He must have one offering. If it is not done on the New Summer’s Day, then it must be done the morning after....

’April 14, New Summer’s Day, marks the transition to the Gregorian calendar that changed the year by eleven days (introduced to Norway in 1700).

...This incantation must be read by the person that takes care of the animals.

Probatum.

By Morten Fuglesande,* for those who believe in it.

•Morten Fuglesande is unknown.

WWW

For an alcoholic, to put aside his alcoholic ways

Take three baby mice. Lay them in /₂ quart of alcohol for fourteen days. Then let the patient drink the alcohol.

To drive away bedbugs

Take a sliver from a wheel* and set it in the wall or a wall crack where the varmints are. Then they will disappear.

So lice will never thrive on you

Take a human bone from a churchyard and sew...

’Wheel (steile): a torture instrument used in medieval times. It was designed to mutilate a victim by stretching or disjointing.

...it in your clothes, but do not take a bone on Tycho Brahe days.*

So that boils and growths on people rapidly come to a head

Coat them with vitriol* ** oil.

To expel a foster from a girl

Take juniper berries? Cook them. Let her smell and drink of it after she has been fasting.

Probatum.

•See footnote on page 49.

•• Vitriol: iron sulfate.

fjuniper berries were a well known drug used in the Middle Ages to cause abortions. They are very poisonous.

For a woman who is having a difficult labor, so that the baby will be born quickly

Take two pieces of a white lily root. Give it to the woman to eat. Soon the baby will come and then the afterbirth. The woman will be unharmed.

or:

Take two eggs, let them cook to the consistency of hard-boiled eggs. Have the woman, on a empty stomach, take a couple of good sized spoonfuls of the water that the eggs were cooked in. The birth will then rapidly start. This has been used with very good results and is harmless to the woman.

END OF BOOK TWO

A Witch CriAl in 1625

Thefollowing is an account of a woman who was burned at the stake in 1625. Ingeborg 0kset, interestingly enough, is an ancestor to the Rustadfamily. She lived on a neighboringfarm on the other side of the Gloma River. Ingeborg just happened to be one of the many women from her time who were unjustly sentenced to death based only on the grounds of ridiculous hearsay.

A lengthy court document from the year 1625 describes a case

against Ingeborg 0kset, who was sentenced to burn at the stake for sorcery and witchcraft. We also learn that her son had suffered that very same dreadful fate just a few months before her.

During the Middle Ages and just before 1700, witches were burned at the stake over the whole of Europe. The worst period for Denmark-Norway was the 1600s. This may have been because of a monarchy that was especially interested in exterminating so-called witches and people who practiced magic. The monarch at that time was Kristian IV, who is otherwise seen by history as being a good king for Norway.

Why was it so easy to get a person convicted on such grounds? First of all, everything points to the fact that the general public was deeply convinced that some individuals knew about sorcery and that it was possible to sell your soul to the devil in return for the ability to perform magic. The common people held fast to these primitive beliefs. This is not so strange when we consider that

the thinking of the enlightened few at that time—the clergy serving as royal officials, bailiffs, and sheriffs—did not differ from that of the general public. Incredible as it might seem, all witches were judged according to the old Norwegian laws, royal decrees, and often by “God’s own law,” the law of Moses.

The maximum punishment under the official law was given to individuals who had magic skills. Bishops, ministers, bailiffs and others had a special responsibility to perform these duties. This law came into effect only eight years before the case against Ingeborg 0kset. In order to get some insight into her case, we will take a look at the most important “evidence” that was submitted against her.

In the first place, it has been documented that Ingeborg was turned in by her own sister, Gulluf Krogsti of Loten. Gulluf was executed some time before Ingeborg was accused and pronounced guilty of practicing witchcraft. It was assumed that witches were in league with one another. In such cases, the accused had to inform on others whom they knew to be witches. We must remember here that the accused were tortured in the most beastly ways. This was all legalized by statute in 1617.

Something that proved to be much more serious for Ingeborg was being “exposed” by her oldest son, Peder Lassesen. He was condemned to burn at the stake on January 12, 1625. The charges against him must have been especially grave in the eyes of the authorities because it was not very usual to condemn a man in this way. A man’s life was viewed as being worth more than a woman’s. And should a man be punished in such a manner, he was often handled in a more “humane” way. He would often be beheaded before being burned at the stake, just like Peder Lassesen. The thought behind burning at the stake was that the

Pa Kolsas by Theodor Kittelsen

flames had a cleansing effect. The soul would then be saved for the heavenly kingdom.

Part of what Peder had been tried for was repeated in his mother’s trial. He was apparently tortured several times. Peder stated that he had come across his mother on Christmas Eve churning butter. He commented that his mother had always been cruel to him. Another time they had ridden together to Givtola the night before Easter, Ingeborg riding a goat and Peder riding a pig. The animals had first been rubbed down with a magic ointment that Ingeborg had in her possession. It was believed that, especially on Christmas Eve and the night before Christmas, witches were out and about practicing their skills.

Givtola was the local version of Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz Mountains in Germany, where it was said that witches would meet with the devil and hold their revels.

Furthermore, Peder stated that he had used witchcraft at the Banerud farm, after taking advice from his mother on how to destroy Peder Banerud’s beer in the process of brewing.

Ingeborg had supposedly once interfered in what seems to have been a small disagreement between her two daughters-in-law. Gunnor Ingulsdatter (Peder’s wife) came to her mother-inlaw concerning a half pound of goat cheese that was owed her by Sigrid Rolfsdatter. Ingeborg was so offended that she threatened that it would be lean in the future with goat cheese. That very same year Gunnor had lost all of her goats, an accident that was supposedly due to Ingeborg’s witchcraft.

Another charge that was disclosed against Ingeborg involved a previous minister, Lawrits Kristensen. The clergyman had accused her of having bewitched his son, Morten. The minister died around 1610. The rumors surrounding Ingeborg must have circulated some time before a public case was put into motion against her. The minister’s son had probably suffered from one or another physical ailment—or more likely from some mental defect. It was believed that such problems were due to witchcraft being used on the afflicted individual.

It appears that Ingeborg’s husband, Lasse Gudmundsen, tried to free his wife from these false charges of witchcraft when the rumors began circulating. He had sent the Swedish-born Oluf Vai from Arnot to Sweden to get truthful evidence from a wise woman. She was supposed to clarify Ingeborg’s innocence. But Oluf came back with the message that Ingeborg not only knew about the Black Arts but was in fact the shrewdest of them all. Lasse 0xset was so furious that he took back a brass kettle with copper handles

that he had given Oluf for taking the trip to Sweden. This point was mentioned several times during the trial and was clearly emphasized as being of great importance. How Lasse behaved during the trial itself is not known. Otherwise, we know that it was extremely difficult for the accused to receive help. In everyone’s eyes the accused was already judged to be guilty. Helping an accused person who had sold their soul to the devil could be perceived as being a case of one witch helping another.

It also appears that the prosecutor, in this case Sheriff Nils Eriksen, had a certain trick with his interrogation. He asked if it had been a very long time since she had had dealings with the devil. Ingeborg answered that it had been a long time ago. This was as good as saying that she was guilty of a relationship with the devil. And when she later denied this, she was labeled a two-faced liar.

The trial took place at the court on farm #10 in March 1625. On the jury sat Halvor Grotting, Laurits Hovin, Tord Hovin, Peder Moystad, Repper Haugen, Jedvard Bjoset, Arne Berger, Anders Loken, Nils Reten, Gudmund Berger, Morten Berger, and Knut Hvarstad. In addition to these “honourable and wellbred” men, those present included Jedvard Ssetern, then sheriff of Elverum; Torben Skaktavl, juryman for Opplandede; and his Royal Majesty’s sheriff for Hedmark and 0sterdalen, Nils Eriksen. Obviously, none of these well respected men had any doubt about Ingeborg’s guilt.

A transcript from the last part of the court document in the case against Ingeborg Knutsdatter 0kset reads:

We hereby sentence Ingeborg Knutsdatter for her grave and unchris-tianlike deeds. Because she has been found to be a two-faced liar, she shall be punished by paying with her life by burning at the stake, and her property, belongings, and real estate shall be forfeited to the king.

En Radslagning i Kvinne-Foreningen by Theodor Kittelsen

Her last chance for being acquitted was for twelve appointed “honest, respectable, well-bred” women to take an oath together with Ingeborg stating that she was innocent. This was to have taken place ten weeks later, when the case was scheduled to come before the court.

The court assembled again on May 19,1625. None of the named women (Marit Strand, Sigurd Strand, Gjertrud Strand, Anne Grund-set, Ase Garder, Anne Skulstad, Anne Hovin, Gro Opsal, Gro Lille-hov, Oulo Loken, Tora 0sterhaug, and Bodil Skjefstad) were willing to take the oath with Ingeborg. On the contrary, they emphasized that they had always heard that Ingeborg was known for her witchcraft, and this was also well known in Elverum’s congregation.

Even though Ingeborg denied all guilt, the judge did not hesitate in passing sentence. The accused would be burned at the stake.

How was it possible to conduct such a case against a member of one of the most powerful families in the district? Ingeborg’s husband Lasse was the rightful heir and owner of the big farm, 0kset. The family’s influence is demonstrated by the fact that his father had been the sheriff for many years. The 0kset family managed to retain its prominence during the 1600s in spite of the trial. Lasse’s brother, Bjorn Grundset, was the sheriff after Jedvard Ssetern. Could this whole ordeal have its roots in the disputes within a large family? Concerning this case against Ingeborg, we can see that several family members were involved. First and foremost was her son, the rightful heir; then Ingeborg’s two daughters-in-law; and finally Peder Banered, if his sister was Lasse’s sister-in-law. (She was married to Bjorn Grundset.) When we know that sheriff Jedvard Stetern, who was also a jury member in the trial, had a son who was married to the daughter of Bjorn, we can for all practical purposes come to an obvious conclusion. It is also interesting to note that Jedvard Saetern was the son-in-law to the parish Reverend Laurits Kristensen. He introduced the most serious charges against Ingeborg.

On the other hand, it was very usual for the sheriffs and bailiffs to manage such cases with great eagerness when they could seize the opportunity to strike a bargain concerning a farm’s real estatein the king’s name. These properties would be forfeited to the king as a fine.

The driving force behind the trials and sentencing of Ingeborg 0kset and her son Peder is impossible to determine today. But in any case, this whole account is a dismal revelation of the spiritual darkness in which our forefathers found themselves 370 years ago.

—Magne Stener, Elverum Bygdebok III