The surfaces include:
- one’s own skin
- the skin of another human
- the hide or fur of an animal
- Homes, boats, and objects
For carving on the skin of a living person (the sorcerer’s own or that of his target), a finger was generally used. To produce an ‘instant talisman’ the stave was often traced onto one’s own forehead or the palm of a hand. In one case, a ‘bargain sealer’, two staves are used, one to be traced on one palm and the other onto the other palm.
Staves could also be traced on one’s own palm as a method of delivery. Most often, it is not specified whether the stave is to be made on the right or left palm, but when the charmed palm was to be offered in a handshake (in seduction spells, for example), it may be assumed that this was the palm of the right hand.
A spell in the Stockholm MS would tend to confirm this:
“Likewise, while fasting, make the latter (helm of awe) with your spittle in your palm when you greet the girl whom you want to have. It should be the right hand.”
The palm of the left hand is stipulated in two cases, one to summon an enemy, the other to inflict fear. However, the database is too small to say with any certainty that the ‘sinister’ hand was associated with spells of malign intent.
When some part of a living animal formed the surface to be carved, the exact position also varied. Staves could be carved on the sides or loin, the forehead, over the heart, or on a hoof. The specifications and the use of language indicate that this was usually done without harm or pain to the animal, by tracing with a finger or pencil, clipping into the hair or wool, or singeing of the wool, but in a couple of cases it seems that branding was used.
The main criterion would appear to be the need for secrecy or otherwise; when a visible mark was to be left, it was generally to heal or protect an animal or make it compliant (indicating ownership), but if harm was intended, the stave was made with a finger or carved on the beast’s hoof.
Direct carving aside, there are many other instances where the surface to be carved presents a fairly obvious choice.
In spells to protect property against theft or to stop the thief getting away, staves could be carved at the doorway of one’s home: on the lintel, the doorpost or the threshold step.
Similarly, staves intended to seduce a girl or woman might be carved on her bedpost so that the magic would work on her as she slept, or on food such as bread or cheese, which she would then eat and unwittingly fall victim to the sorcerer.
Bones, human and animal
Some workings require carving on bone.
Lbs 2413 8vo – “Carve these staves on the hip of a mare with steel, and lay under his head to tell you what you want.” It would appear that the sorcerer harnesses the power of the mare, through the hip-bone of a dead, physical mare, to compel a sleeping man to render his secrets
44, Lbs 764 8vo – “Carve these staves on the skull bone of a dead man and sleep on it; you will dream what you wish.” Unlike some other oneiromantic spells, there is definitely a necromantic aspect to this operation; the use of a human skull clearly implies that the desired information was to emanate from the realm of the dead.
Lbs 2413 8vo – “Carve this on a human (leg) bone and someone will come to you and spit out [i.e. speak forth] who took from you.”
Wood
Wood was still the preferred surface on which to carve magical staves, and here we may assume that they were literally carved, rather than traced or written.
A number of different tree species are stipulated in the grimoires – oak, beech, ash, pine, red spruce, Norway spruce, alder, birch and rowan. Of these, only birch and rowan are native to Iceland, with birch predominating by far. Despite that, rowan is mentioned only twice as the surface to be carved, and birch only once. The wood most often stipulated (in about 70% of cases) is oak, and this would have to have been imported, taken from salvaged ship hulks, or collected in the form of driftwood. The same applies to beech, alder and the coniferous trees cited above.
When it comes to rowan, we are on firmer ground in Icelandic folklore. It is one of the few trees mentioned by name in the Prose Edda; Thor, on one of his journeys, grasps a rowan tree to haul himself out of a swollen river, and from this story, the rowan bears the by-name ‘Thor’s help’ even today. The tree has associations of holiness and innocence in the folk tales, as well as protection against evil. Some Icelanders still plant rowans outside their homes for the latter purpose, and the two workings in the grimoires in which rowan is carved on are both for the creation of talismans against evil spirits.
Paper and parchment
A significant number of the operations described in the spell books specify that one should write staves on parchment or paper. Many of them stipulate that sanctified paper should be used, or the skin of a heifer or ‘from a heifer’s first calf’.
As with the use of oak, it may be taken that a material which was more difficult to procure was held to have greater magical power. Sanctified paper would most likely have to be stolen from Church premises, and would be conceived as having intrinsic magical power because of its source. Similarly, the skin of a heifer or its first calf would have a certain rarity value in a pastoral economy where the ownership of cattle was something of a luxury compared to sheep.
One spell instructs that the skin of a water rail (rallus aquaticus) should be used. This bird lives and breeds on marshy sites between land and water, and may have been prized for its liminal habitat. In a few spells, the colour of the skin appears to have been important.
The fart-rune spell from the Stockholm MS says that the runes should be written in one’s own blood on white calfskin, while a ‘dream stave’ – to dream about one’s chosen subject – in ÍB 383 4to ‘Huld’ states that the stave should be carved “on silver or white skin”.
Another, in Lbs 2413 8vo, is a protective talisman to be worn “when confronting evil spirits and darkness”, and the staves are to be carved on “horse hide of a single colour”.
Metals
A restricted range of metals is also named among the surfaces to be carved. Understandably, these are all of the softer sort – brass, lead, silver and tin – otherwise it would be difficult to carve on them. To use metals in the course of a magical working would have required effort and a foregoing of income or personal treasure, making it a genuine sacrifice and adding to the power of the working.
2413 8vo
“The following seal, when carried, is powerful against all sorcery and all sendings by night and day. Scratch on scrap silver or lead, melted together, which is in clothing, chests, and everything marked in lead. Carve with brass or copper.”