Rauðskinna

English

Alternative forms

• Raudskinna

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Icelandic Rauðskinna, from rauður (“red”) +‎ skinn (“skin”). Piecewise doublet of redskin.

Proper noun

Rauðskinna or the Rauðskinna

1. A legendary Icelandic grimoire about black magic, which is said to have been buried with its author: the bishop Gottskálk grimmi Nikulásson.
   • 1967 December 1, Einar Haugen, Fire and Ice: Three Icelandic Plays, University of Wisconsin Press, →ISBN, page 20:

     This concerns Bishop Gottskalk the Grim and his powerful book of magic, the Rauðskinna (The Red Book, lit. “redskin”).

   • 1997 July 31, Kevin J. Hayes, Folklore and Book Culture, University of Tennessee Press, →ISBN, page 51:

     […] but it seems much the same as another book often mentioned in the Icelandic magicians’ legends, the Rauðskinna (Redskin). Legend generally credits the authorship of the Rauðskinna to Gottskálk Nikulásson, […] According to legend, he gathered together all the black spells, none of which had been used since heathen times, and compiled them as the Rauðskinna, […]

   • 2016 January 22, Stephen E. Flowers, Icelandic Magic: Practical Secrets of the Northern Grimoires, Inner Traditions – Bear & Company, →ISBN, page 44:

     The most famous and sinister of all these books was Rauðskinna (Red-Skin). […] Rauðskinna is said to be a book of the blackest magic, drawn from the Heathen Age.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Rauðskinna.