Bishop Gottskaulk the Cruel was the greatest sorcerer of his era. He again mastered black magic, which had not been used since pagan times, and wrote a book called “Red Skin.” It was written in golden letters, and there was no more beautiful book in the world. Like any witchcraft, what was said in it was written down in runes. The bishop did not give this book to anyone, and ordered it to be buried with him, and did not pass on his knowledge to anyone. Therefore, he was extremely dangerous: he could cloud the minds and thoughts of people and force them to do what he wanted.
He agreed with the spies to find out whether people eat meat during Lent; and it soon turned out that no one wanted to catch their eye. However, one of the spies was more useful than the rest, because the bishop taught him witchcraft and, among other things, to make himself invisible; but he didn’t teach him everything, so that if something happened he could easily cope with him. One day during Lent, this spy came to a peasant’s farm and lay down by the window; it was completely dark on the street, and it seemed to the spy that there was no need for him to make himself invisible. However, that peasant was smarter than the others: he saw that the spy had come and lay down by the window. Then he asked his wife where the fat side of the sheep was that they had left on the Tuesday before Lent. The wife got scared and asked why he needed it. He told her not to worry about it and told her to bring the side. The wife did not dare to disobey and did as she was told. Then the peasant took the side and said: “What a good, fatty piece!” Then he took a sharp knife, lifted the side and pierced it right through. The light burned dimly, and the spy moved closer to the window to better see what was happening in the house. The peasant began to slowly approach the window. He carried the side in front of him and examined it from all sides, but so that the spy would not see the knife. Suddenly the peasant turned to the window and struck with a knife that was in the meat, so that it pierced deep into the eye of the intruder, and said: “Take this piece to the one who sent you.” The spy screamed loudly and fell down. He had to tell the peasant the whole truth, and then he died in terrible agony. The peasant reported this matter to the lagman Jon Sigmundsson. They came to the bishop together when he was not expecting them - even before he knew about the fate of his man. Although he denied that he was to blame for what happened, he still decided that the most reasonable thing would be to pay the peasant a large sum of money, and Lagman Joun ruled that the man who was at the window had no rights.
From then on, the bishop had no choice but to intimidate the peasants and force them to pay him if he found out through witchcraft that they did not observe the fast, and to kill their cattle with spells if they did not obey him. However, he never quarreled with the peasant who killed his spy, because he remembered how he was greeted there; but he pursued the lagman Youn because he supported the peasant, and did not leave him alone until he caused him great damage. Out of grief, Jon became seriously ill and on the day of his death he summoned the bishop to the judgment of God. And although the bishop was knowledgeable in witchcraft, he could not see how it happened that someone turned out to be stronger than him.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru