← Back to Compendium

Galdrabók

Manuscript. Iceland. Antikvarisk-topografiska arkivet, Stockholm, ATA, Ämb 2, F 16-26. Photo: CC unknown.

Object type:

Material:

Style:

Item ID:

ATA, Ämb 2, F 16-26

Findspot: Iceland.

Size: c. L 100 × W 70 mm.

Pages: 64.

Dating: c. 1550-1650.

View in online collection

Galdrabók (ATA, Ämbetsarkiv 2, Vitterhetsakademiens handskriftsamling, serie F 16, volym 26) — the oldest surviving Icelandic grimoire, a small parchment booklet of 32 leaves compiled between the late 16th and mid-17th centuries by four hands, three of them Icelandic and the fourth a Dane working from Icelandic material.

The 47 entries set out a working repertoire of spells and sigils — protective, healing, harmful, divinatory — in a mixture of Icelandic, Latin and runic material, drawing on Christian invocation, Norse gods named outright (Óðinn, Þórr, Freyja) and figures from the demonological tradition. The collection records galdrastafir and innsigli alongside their instructions for use, including the ægishjálmur.

Acquired in Copenhagen by the Swedish philologist Johan Gabriel Sparfwenfeldt in 1682 and passed from his hands to Stockholm, where it is now kept at the Antikvarisk-topografiska arkivet of Riksantikvarieämbetet.