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"Lapland Sorcerers" 227
work, probably the most influential of the day in its field,
was to go through several editions within a few years.
Muenster's map shows Lappiiland as Finno-Russian
Lapland, divided by a river from Finmarc. Book IV has
a chapter, "Laponia", giving a detailed account of the
people which owes much to Ziegler, a debt which Muenster
acknowledges elsewhere. While not a word-for-word
transcription, it follows Ziegler's original closely, gives the
same etymology for Laponia and a similar account of
Lapp customs. Muenster deals more cautiously with the
sorcery. Dicuntur prceterea incantatores esse perefficaces,
he says, putting the responsibility presumably on Ziegler,
and to the report that the Lapps practise the magical arts
he adds, quod alij negant. 32
Olaus Magnus, brother and successor as archbishop of
Uppsala to Ziegler's informant Iohannes, issued his
Historia de Gentibvs Septenirionalibus in Rome in 1555.
The work proved popular, and soon passed through
several editions in different European towns, the editions
differing slightly in pagination and chapter numbering.
In Book III Olaus Magnus has several chapters on northern
magic, some connected specifically with the Lapps, some
not. Chapter 16 of the first edition is entitled De Magis,
et malejicis Finnorum (clearly referring to our Finnar,
since he equates Finlandia with Lapponia). He tells how
the Finni sell winds, using three knots to control their
strength, and how this unhappy people is misled by
a belief in second sight. In the following chapter, De
magicis instrumentis Boihniee, he describes other magical
practices: shape-shifting, blunting swords, killing by
means of lappskot, etc. Olaus Magnus uses material from
several sources, but his wording here, though often
different from that of Ziegler and Muenster, occasionally
echoes theirs closely enough to make it clear that he either
took material from or shared a source with them. Of
course, he could have got the same information from his
aaS. Muenster, Cosmographiae Universalis Lib. VI . . . (Basilese 1552), 849.