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SOECEET. 277
went formally to school. The famous Queen Gun.
hilda, who was sent in her youth to Finnmark in
order to learn witchcraft, may serve as an instance.
Finns skilled in magic were often sent for and con-
sulted, when any important magic operation was to
be performed. They were regarded as especially
capable of undertaking' the so-called hamfarir, or
magic flights in transformation.
In heathen times the magicians were often prose-
cuted, and even tried before the courts, and punished
by a sentence of law ; but this was not actually
done because they practiced sorc€*y, but because it
was believed that they could be convicted of having
done harm with their sorcery. It is spoken of as a
universal custom to stone evil-disposed sorcerers and
witches.
It was not to be expecj;ed that Christianity should
be able to tear out at once the deep-rooted faith of
the Northmen in Sorcery, especially when not only
the first Christian teachers, but also the clergy
throughout all the Middle Ages, were as fully con-
vinced of the existence of sorcery as the heathens
were. The only difference between them was, that
the teachers of Christianity regarded it as an
abomination, a work of the devil, which they should
strive to check, even by application of the severest
measures ; while the Asa-faith,- on the contrary, repre-
sented it to be a knowledge imparted to man by the
Gods themselves, a knowledge, therefore, which, by
its abuse only, could deserve punishment. Of the
belief of the Christian teachers in sorcery, and their
zeal to eradicate it, there is abundant evidence
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