Jóhannes á Kirkjubóli
Jóhannes Ólafsson was a man who lived at the Kirkjuból farm in Arnarfjörður, surviving well past the middle of the 19th century. He was widely known as a sorcerer, and the people of Arnarfjörður shared many stories about his strange abilities. Jóhannes had many children, but all of them died young under tragic and sudden circumstances—a dark fate that the locals whispered was the direct result of his dabbling in the black arts.
Nearby lived Guðrún, known as "the Poet." She was the sister of Reverend Jón Vestmann and was widely considered to be an ákvæðaskáld—a poet whose spoken verses carried actual magical power. Guðrún was very poor and owned only a single cow, which she kept in a stall directly beneath her living quarters.
One day, Guðrún recounted that she saw a ghostly young boy slip into her house. Suspecting immediately that Jóhannes had sent the phantom to cause mischief, she watched as the spirit crept toward the floorboards, intending to go down to the cow. Guðrún quickly moved downstairs to intercept it. Realizing he was facing a powerful woman, the ghost boy fled the house and never returned.
Despite his dark reputation, Jóhannes was sometimes called upon for help. Once, a cow on a neighboring farm fell suddenly ill, and the owners were convinced an evil spirit was to blame. They begged Jóhannes to drive the spirit out. Jóhannes instructed them to go into the cowshed and shout at the top of their lungs: "Jóhannes of Kirkjuból sends his regards to the cow!" The farmers did exactly as he asked, and the cow recovered instantly.
A similar event happened one summer at the Álftamýri estate, owned by Reverend Markús Þórðarson. The farm's sheep and cows were being devastated by a mysterious, supernatural sickness whenever they grazed in the Krákudalur valley. Convinced a malicious spirit had laid claim to the valley, they sought out Jóhannes.
He told the shepherd to drive the flock into the valley and yell as loudly as he could: "Jóhannes Ólafsson of Kirkjuból sends his regards to the valley-dweller!" The shepherd did so, and the attacks on the livestock stopped entirely. However, it is said that Jóhannes was deeply shaken by the ordeal and later swore he would never perform that specific trick again.
Jóhannes once tried to lease a patch of church land called Tjaldanes from Reverend Markús, but the priest firmly refused him.
Sometime later, Reverend Markús became the victim of a violent haunting by a dysbúi—an undead spirit from an ancient burial mound. When Jóhannes heard that the priest was suffering from the relentless attacks, he showed no sympathy. He simply remarked, "I would have chased his ghost boy away, if only he had leased Tjaldanes to me."
Original text
(Eptir handriti sèra Benedíkts Þórðarsonar á Brjánslæk.)
Jóhannes hèt maður og var Ólafsson; hann bjó á Kirkjubóli í Arnarfirði, og varð gamall, og lifði fram yfir miðja 19. öld. Hann var haldinn galdramaður, og þókti þar mörg raun á verða, og eiga Arnfirðingar ýmsar sögur um það. Jóhannes átti mörg börn, sem öll dóu úng og vofeiflega, var það kent galdrakukli Jóhannesar. Í grend við Jóhannes bjó eitt sinn Guðrún skálda, systir Jóns prests Vestmanns Jónssonar, Úlfssonar. Guðrún var haldin ákvæðaskáld, og heit í anda. Hún var fátæk; átti hún eina kú undir baðstofulopti sínu. Einu sinni sagði hún svo frá, að hún hefði sèð strákdraug koma inn í baðstofuna, og ætlaði hún Jóhannes mundi hafa sent hann. Sá hún nú, að draugurinn ætlaði undir loptið til kýrinnar, „og dró eg mig þá ofan,“ mælti Guðrún, „en hann fór burt og kom ekki aptur.“ Einu sinni veiktist kýr á bæ í grend við Jóhannes. Hèldu menn, að það mundi vera af óhreinum anda. Var nú leitað til Jóhannesar, og hann beðinn, að reka hinn ílla anda út af kúnni. Jóhannes mælti, að farið skyldi í fjósið, og kallað hátt þessum orðum: „Jóhannes á Kirkjubóli biður að heilsa kúnni.“ Þetta var gjört, eins og hann mælti fyrir, og batnaði kúnni. Á Álptamýri hjá Markúsi presti Þórðarsyni varð það eitt sumar, að peníngur allur, kýr og ær, skemdust mjög af undirflogum á dal þeim, sem Krákudalur heitir. Ætluðu menn, að meinvættur mundi valda. Var þá leitað ráða til Jóhannesar; en hann mælti svo fyrir, að smali skyldi, þegar hann ræki fèð á dalinn, kalla hástöfum þessum orðum: „Jóhannes Ólafsson á Kirkjubóli biður að heilsa dalbúanum.“ Var nú svo gjört, og gjörðist að fjárskemdununum, en mælt er, að Jóhannes hafi á eptir svarað til, að slíkt skyldi hann aldrei optar gera.
Tjaldanes heitir jörð í Arnarfirði; hún er kirkjujörð frá Álptamýri. Jörð þessa falaði Jóhannes til byggíngar af sèra Markúsi, en fèkk ekki. En þegar Jóhannes frètti, að prestur leið af aðsókn dysbúans, mælti hann: „Jeg skyldi hafa stuggað við dreingnum hans, ef hann hefði bygt mèr Tjaldanesið.“
