Museum of Icelandic Witchcraft and Sorcery

My son went to this museum

The first man burned at the stake for witchcraft in Iceland was Jón Rögnvaldsson from Svarfaðardalur in Northern Ice- land. He was accused of having brought a dead man from his grave and sent him to do mis- chief to his foe. This man swore that Jón was the cause of all his misfortunes and Jón’s guilt was thought proven when some papers with runes and magic characters were found in his bed. The... sheriff in Eyjafjörður was a young man who had recently returned from studying in Copenhagen and Hamburg and he wasted no time on further proceedings and promptly had Jón burned. This was in 1625. The case was never referred to the legislative assembly at Þingvellir.

Numerous tales of raising the dead are found in Icelandic folk tales and the people of Strandir seem to have excelled in dealing with ghosts sent to them. They also had the knowledge of how to raise the dead and one of the more famous sorcerers in Strandir in the eighteenth century even demonstrated to his sheriff how this was done. Perhaps he used the following formula though other signs and other ways are known for the same purpose.