THE SCENE: The Catholic church’s attitude towards magic has always been inconsistent, as is demonstrated by this passage – written by the archbishop of Uppsala – in which the author consistently contradicts himself about whether or not magic exists and whether or not it is a good thing.
THE TEXT: There was a time when the Finns, among other pagan delusions, would offer wind for sale to traders who were detained on their coasts by offshore gales, and when payment had been brought would given them in return three magic knots tied in a strap not likely to break. This is how these knots were to be managed: when they undid the first they would have gentle breezes; when they unloosed the second the winds would be stiff; but when they untied the third they must endure such raging gales that, their strength exhausted, they would have no eye to look out for rocks from the bow, nor a footing either in the body of the ships to strike the sails or at the stern to guide the helm.
Those who have scornfully proclaimed there is no such power in the knots have suffered greater misfortune and this they deserve, for all those who consult wizards and seek prophesies or omens for doing their business are always uneasy and, eager for what is to come, are never at rest between fear and expectancy. If the seers announce good fortune, they begin there and then to rejoice in an empty, groundless hope, yet if they hear the opposite, they are seized at once by a melancholic apathy.
Alas for wretched mortals! The feedbleness of their talents and the dullness of their minds drag them hither and thither and keep them in uncertainty. Crazy indeed are the proofs which our credulity has devised so that we may be all the more cruelly tormented. If only such a fiction would depart from men’s minds, since it has even been shown by our forebears to be false and insignificant. But through the restraint of the laws these people of the North have never, since the acceptance of Christianity, been seen to practice magical skills openly; nor have they passed it on and taught it to others, on peril of their lives. It is a pity that it cannot at some time be based not on fabrications but on genuine principles and then transmitted, but the whole expertise of magic rests upon the most deceptive foundations.
– A Description of the Northern Peoples, Olaus Magnus, 16th Century AD
