# Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (1876)/Appendix A

APPENDIX A
The Wandering Jew
IN the Bragda Mágus Saga, an Icelandic version of the Romance of Maugis, but with considerable alterations in the story, is the following very curious passage, which seems to indicate a belief in a life indefinitely prolonged, not attached to the Jew, Cartaphilus. I quote from the edition “Bragda Mágus Saga, med tilheyrandi Fáttum, skrif. af Gunnlaugi Thordarsyni. Kaupmannahöfn, 1858. Cap. 35—40.”
“Mágus went before the king (Charlemagne), and greeted him courteously. The king received him well, and asked him his name. He said he was called ‘Vidförull.’ The king said, ‘You are a vigorous man, though you seem very old.’
“Vidförull replied, ‘Sire, you say right that I am very old, but I have been much older, and it may fall out that I become younger.’
“‘How can that possibly be,’ asked the king, ‘that you could have been older than you are, and will be younger?’
“Vidförull said, ‘That I will make clear to you. Twice have I cast my old skin, and become each time younger than before.’
“When he said this all the guard of the king sprang up, laughing, and said he should not venture to talk such non​sense before the king. Then the king took up the word, and said,
“‘Do you mean to say that you have twice cast your skin?’
“‘It is quite true, sire!’ answered Vidförull.
“The king asked, ‘Do you suppose that you will cast it again?’
“‘I am sure,’ answered Vidförull, ‘that in this very month I shall have to slough it off, and that not many days hence.’
“‘How old are you wont to be,’ asked the king, ‘before you cast it?’
“Vidförull replied, ‘The time is not always the same. The first time I was aged 330, and then when I had undergone the process I was only about thirty, and I regained all the vigour of youth. . . . . Now, sire, if you wish to know my powers, and see me cast my skin, then show me a seat, and I will remain in your court a few days, till the time comes. . . . “36. . . . . The second time I cast my skin, I was aged 215; and when I found the time arrive for my change I sought Rome, where then reigned Hermanric.’ The king asked how the operation had taken place. Vidförull answered, ‘The first time it was rather strange; I was then much more vigorous, though I had lived longer, for then men’s ages were longer than they are now, and though I was over 300 years old, I was sturdy and could hunt; and one day as I was at the chase I felt thirst, and I lay down by the water with the intention of drinking; then there flew over me a dragon, which grabbed me up, and carried me off to a lofty crag, where was a cave. Then I . . . . escaped after a struggle, and fled to a beautiful plain, and there, exhausted with age, there came over me a lassitude, and then there peeled off me my first skin, as I was in a fainting fit. A little while after I revived, and I was as hale and hearty as a youth of thirty. . . 37. Now I will tell you how I cast my skin the second time. I had been a little while in Rome, and I learned by a dream that I was to undergo the change. I was then some two ells ​taller than before, and I was exceedingly able-bodied and strong, though very old.’ (The king then asks him about the heroes of olden time, and Vidförull describes to him their personal appearance, the colour of their hair, eyes, and their stature.) ‘And one day I was wrestling in the water with the knights of King Gunnar, and I was reluctant to do it, because I doubted my powers. However, to please the king I went in; and when I was fresh I held most of the knights under water, but I soon tired, and then came my exhaustion over me, and they then held me under, and I could not rise, so I sank to the bottom, and lay there all day. And I woke up as I was washed ashore; and it was like as when a man strips off his clothes, for I was younger then again, as though I was thirty.’
“40. It was one festival, in the morning, that the king and his court went to church, and they saw that a great log had come under the hall-wall, and by it stood Vidförull, and he came to the king and greeted him, and he was very cheerful. The king said, ‘What is the cause of your merriment?’
“Vidförull replied, ‘Sire, you must not be surprised when I tell you that to-day is the time when I shall have to cast my skin, and I should like you and all the court to witness the process.’ The guard were right pleased, and laughed for joy. The king smiled and said, ‘We must go to church first and hear mass, and after that we shall be ready.’ Vidförull said it was well that they should do so. And when all the office was over, the guard scampered out of the church, for all were eager to see what would happen. The king went forth as usual, and back to his hall. And when he got there Vidförull went to him, and fell on his knee, and said, ‘Now I wish, sire, that you and all your suite should take your places, and watch me accomplish my desire, for I have long desired to quit this age and become young again.’ . . . Then he bared his head, and stroked his arms, and all his body and belly and his legs, then he rolled together the skin he was ​in, and lay down before the post, and muttered to himself, ‘Away with age, that I may have my desire!’ Then all the court laughed as loud as they well could, but he lay a little while motionless. And, when they were least aware, he dragged at the post, and worked himself headforemost into the post, and it closed upon him as his feet entered. The king ran to it with all his men, but the beam was solid. Then they began to discuss what was to be done.
“Earl Uppi said:—‘It was a Troll, and he has vanished into the earth.’ But next they heard a great noise in the beam. They thought it very strange that the post was at one time bigger than at another. And after this had gone on a while, they saw come out at the end of the beam a man’s feet, then a man as far as to his middle. They saw the beam shrink and expand, and it was like a woman in her pangs; at last the post contracted, and shot Vidförull completely out, and he lay a while as though dead; but when the assistants were least expecting it, he sprang up, rolled up the skin from off his head, stepped up to the king, and saluted him. And they saw that he was no other than a beardless youth, and fair faced.”