Sorcery in Bjarnarfjörður

At a meeting with the local sheriff in Bjarnarfjörður in central Strandir a woman named Guðrún Magnúsdóttir described in 1660 a malady which she had suffered from for three years. She was evidently prone to fits which made her shake all over and caused pains in her chest. She suspected three men of having caused the illness. The men were ordered to attend a further investigation, but no records survive which tell us the outcome of the case. Numerous cases of this kind are known from most parts of Iceland. Throughout the era when an unexplained illness struck, people turned their eyes to unpopular neighbours and the proof was often a harsh word uttered long before.

Sixteen years later after another court hearing in the same place a man named Jón Pálsson was whipped for possessing a nine page grimoire with strange drawings and two invocations against foxes (a real menace for sheep farmers). Jón was whipped and the grimoires simultaneously burnt under his nose to frighten him from ever dabbling in the occult again. Jón escaped with his life mainly because his neighbours had a good opinion of him and could not believe that he would ever harm anybody with his magic.

Bjarnarfjörður where both these cropped up was the home of Svanur the sorcerer mentioned in Njáls Saga and in the eighteenth century it was the home of two magicians mentioned in Icelandic folk tales.