The Greenlanders - Jane Smiley [313]
“Now it happened that my wife, Steinunn Hrafnsdottir, showed some winter distress at the steading of Solar Fell, for indeed, folk say that this was an unusual winter, and hard for folk who are not accustomed to it, and so she removed herself to Gardar and stayed with the priests, and went to the cathedral every day for long prayers, and as a witness to this, I have Sira Eindridi Andresson. And it is the case that my wife Steinunn was much given to holy things, and so her desire to be at the seat of the bishop, where the relic is, came as no surprise to me or to anyone else who knows her. But it so happened that with great suddenness she began to go with this Greenlander whom she had never before shown any knowledge of. And for this knowledge, we have as witnesses Thorgrim Solvason and Bork Snaebjornsson, and myself and Snorri Torfason, for we all came upon them when they were together. And this behavior was accountable in only one way: that is that she was seduced by witchcraft, such witchcraft as this fellow, who goes about not as other men do, learned of from the Devil himself in the waste places. And here is another sign of enchantment, that after she was carried away from him, she fell into a stupor that still clings to her, so that she can neither stand nor sit up, nor speak, nor eat much, so that broth runs out between her lips and meat sits unchewed in her mouth. It seems to me that she will die from this, and others agree with me. And so we make our case, not upon the fact of seduction, but upon the grounds of witchcraft, and we ask for this, that the man be burnt at the stake, as those found guilty of witchcraft are treated in Norway and Iceland and elsewhere in the north.” And now Thorgrim held out his hands, palms up, and showed that he had no weapons on him, and so Gunnar, who was standing nearby, looked about at the Icelanders, but they made no move toward their stock of weapons, and Gunnar saw that he had prepared to counter the wrong strategy, and that the Icelanders had no intention of breaking up the Thing with fighting. Now Thorgrim sat down, and Bjorn Bollason called to Sira Eindridi to stand up, and come into the circle, and this is what Sira Eindridi said:
“All men must know that the Devil himself is always among us, that his minions swarm over the ground like mosquitoes in the summer, that they get into our eyes and our ears and our mouths without us knowing about them, and they carry their evil intentions into our hearts. The wastelands are home to these devils, for they find little rest among Christian men. Do we Greenlanders not see their creatures all about us, in the form of skraelings, who perform evil magic in their little boats? Who put spells upon the seals, and upon themselves, so that they may capture seals at their blow holes all winter? Think you that any man is safe against this evil, if he not strive against it with all his might? I tell you that he is not, and that once it gets into him, he brings it with him among others, a great contagion that dooms men to live among devils for all of eternity.” And this is all that Sira Eindridi said, and he went out of the circle, and the shipmaster Snorri Torfason went into the circle, and described again the condition of the woman, and told how others he had seen in other places who had been the victims of witches had fallen into the same condition, sometimes dying and sometimes not, and he cited four cases of this, two in Iceland and two in Norway,