Miller, William Ian. Dreams, Prophecy and Sorcery

• Author: Miller, William Ian
• Title: Dreams, Prophecy and Sorcery: Blaiming the Secret Offender in Medieval Iceland.
• Published in: Scandinavian studies 58.2
• Year: 1986
• Pages: 101-23
• E-text:
• Reference: Miller, William Ian. "Dreams, Prophecy and Sorcery: Blaiming the Secret Offender in Medieval Iceland." Scandinavian studies 58.2 (1986): 101-23.

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Annotation

In this article, Miller explores the concept of the secret offender, focusing on the process of accusation by means of 'irrational techniques' such as dreams, prophecy, divination, and sorcery accusation. He then proceeds to exemplify these techniques by presenting several cases as seen in the sagas, suggesting they had an impact in both social and juridical matters. The support of the community was necessary for success in claims of secret offences; divinational techniques, as well as sorcery accusation, served the purpose of approaching the offender to their goal by giving some sort of hint, or implanting suspicion, to their audience. Consulting a character versed in the foreseeing arts gave a way of provoking gossip, which was the major way of establishing blame. Moreover, blaming someone of sorcery was a way of explaining death and illness where no other explanation was to be found. Miller then concludes that these acts of accusations, which serve a self-evident literary convention, also fulfilled a social function, at least in the society of the sagas.

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References

Chapter 53: og rekur sporann við eyra Gunnari : “Once the misfortune was perceived as a wrong, however, responsibility for it needed to be assessed, a wrongdoer had to be found and blamed. There was no problem of identification in the case of an accident. […] Gunnarr knew Otkell spurred him.” (p. 102)

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• Written by:Meritxell Risco de la Torre
• Icelandic/English translation: