SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Margretar Saga and its History in Iceland 281
saga is given a place with material that is quite unconnected
with it and, as far as can be seen, quite arbitrarily
selected. The idea comes to mind that attention is being
drawn away from the saga, that it is being hidden, and
this would accord with the absence of reference to the
saga in the sources. There can be little doubt but that
the reason for this is that the use of the saga in childbirth
was counted wizardry, as appears from Gul'5mundur
Einarsson's remarks in Hugrds and as is also suggested by
the curious distribution in time of the manuscripts of the
saga.
The witch-hunting age in Iceland lasted 166 years, from
1554 until 1719. Of the 40 manuscripts of the saga
enumerated in the catalogues only two were written in that
period. They are the manuscript belonging to Magnus
Jonsson of Vigur, mentioned above, and AM 667 4to VII,
both from the seventeenth century. Otherwise no post­
Reformation manuscript is older than about 1750, while
there are 24 extant copies written between then and 1895 ;
the remaining 14 are pre-Reformation copies. It is
clear that during the witch-hunting age the copying of
M argretar saga more or less stopped, but it began again
when the echoes of the last witch-trial had died away.
Faith in the efficacy of the M argretar saga in childbirth
obviously lived through the witch-burnings, and indeed it
had little in the way of serious competition when it came
to practical aid for women in childbirth in those days.
This is best seen from the Handb6k presta of 1826, which
follows Danmarks og Norges Kirke-Ritual of 1685, which
also applied in Iceland, in the following passage concerning
midwives:
"Each priest in his parish should instruct them how they
should behave towards the mother and unborn child. I. SO
that they know how properly to comfort pregnant women who
are on the point of giving birth and prompt them to be thankful
to God inasmuch as they have been blessed with the fruit of
life ..." "But should it come to the point where they appear
to be in mortal peril," they are to be urged to "commend