Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/234

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The Oldest Icelandic Folk-lore.

and her clothes over her back. Jókull cut off Hrolleifs head and threw it in her face; then she said she had been too late, or the earth would have turned round before her eyes,[1] and they would all have gone mad (v. No. i8). (3. 4.)

26. Groa invited Thorsteinn and his brothers to a harvest-feast. Thorsteinn dreamed three times that he should not go. Then Groa by witchcraft brought down a landslip on all the men that were there. (3. 4.)

27. Steinnraud the strong . . . who did good to many a man to whom other evil spirits did injury. There was a woman called Geirhild, a witch, and one who injured others. Second-sighted men saw Steinnraud come upon her unawares, but she turned herself into the shape of a leathern sack full of water. Steinnraud was an ironsmith, and had a large iron rod in his hand. This verse was made about their meeting.

"The sounder of hammers lets the rod resound on the water(?)-bag of Geirhild ever the more with all his might. The troll's ribs are swollen; the high iron staff shapes a heavy shower for the carline's side at Hjalta-eyri." (3. 14.)

28. Lodmund the old . . . was superhumanly strong and a wizard. He threw his hall-pillars overboard and said he would settle where they came on shore. He took Lodmund's firth, and lived there that winter; then he heard of his hall-pillars to the southward. He put all his possessions on board ship, and when the sail was drawn up he lay down and said that no one was to venture to pronounce his name. He had only lain a short time when a loud noise was heard, and they saw a great landslip rush down on the homestead where Lodmund had lived. Thereupon he sat up and said, "That is my spell, that the ship that sails out here shall never escape safe from the sea." Then he held south by Horn, and then west along the coast, and took the land where his pillars had come ashore, between Hafr-river and Fúla-brook, which is now called Jökul-river, at Solheimasand. He lived in Lodmund's vale, and called it Solheimar. When he was old, there lived in Skógar one Thrasi, who was also a wizard. One morning Thrasi saw a great rush of water coming down, and by magic turned it


  1. This power was attributed to the Finns. (Haralds Saga, c. 36.)