Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Pages ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
ACCOUNT OF DANISH LAPLAND BY LEEMS. 469
In fucceeding times an opportunity was offered to the Laplanders of acquiring fome
knowledge, however imperfect, of the Saviour of the World, by the miffion of Bifhop
Halvard, in the year of Chrift 1051, into Sweden, to the Warmlanders and Skrit-Fins,
for the purpofe of turning them to the true faith, and afterwards into Norway. It ap-
pears from hiftory, that Olaus Triguefon, that great founder of chriftianity in Norway,
had taken care that his fubjeéts, fhould be converted to chriftianity from Wigia, and
from thofe to Helgeland in Norland. After him King Olaus Haraldfon, commanded
the gofpel to be preached among thofe living in the inner recefles of the bays, who were
Pagans, and as yet unconverted.
Jonas Ramus, an hiftorian, not without celebrity, mentions, among other things,
in the defcription of the Kings of Norway publifhed by him, that King Hagen
Hagenfen, who came to the throne in 1217, had a temple built in the ifland Tromfoe
near Finmark, and that a great number of {trangers, who came from Biarmeland
were baptized, and that habitations were afligned to this new fet, in the bay of
Malanger.
Frederic J., of glorious memory, as foon as he came to the throne, in a council
of the kingdom, held at Odenfe in 1527, gave in charge to the bifhops then prefent,
that each in his diocefe fhould take care that the word of God fhould be preached in
clearnefs and purity. The fame excellent monarch renewed by a decree in 1529, a
full indulgence to the gofpel in his kingdom and realms, on the report of the celebrated
hiftorian Baron Holberg.
Arnas Berentfen of Bergen, in a certain book, named the Fruitful Abundance of
Denmark and Norway, printed in the year 1656, mentions that the Laplanders were
little acquainted with the true religion, yet in his time, that they were brought to
a better knowledge of the true God, and were making daily proficiency in it.
There were {carcely any facred places for worfhip or clergymen in Finmark, before
the Norwegians, called Normans, coming there, fixed their abodes; what is more,
nor even before the time, when the college was eftablifhed moft gracioufly for pro-
moting the progrefs of the gofpel, which was begun in 1714, was there any place of
worfhip any where in Finmark, in the neighbourhood of the Laplanders, as known to
me, unlefs at Alten, in weftern Finmark, where the Norwegians and Laplanders con-
gregate in houfes fufficiently near. But the Laplanders would make ufe of the houfes
of worfhip, which were in the fifhing places, next to the dwellings of the Norwegian
peafants, each in the parifh in which they were allotted.
Now praife be to God, by the moft benevolent eftablifhment of the Kings of Den-
mark of bleffed memory, and by the chriftian and enlightened difpofition and care of
the moft liberal inftitution for promoting the gofpel ; and of the bifhops of the diocefe
of Drontheim, they are provided with fuitable places of worfhip, in which, where they
before beftowed their duties on male idols, whofe alters were reeking with the blood
* i victims they had flain, they can worfhip the Lord God of their fathers and ferve
im alone..
Cuap. XXI.—Of the Magic Arts of the Laplanders, exercifed by means of Runic Symbols,
Hiies: in the Cure of Diforders by means of the Jucigen, or a certain Magic Song, and in
the Reftitution of Things taken by Theft.
IT is my intention in this Chapter, agreeably to its title, to fpeak of the magic arts
ef the Laplanders, by means of Runic fymbols ;. yet the reader kindly will pardon me
if
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
