The Great Knowledge

By Maria Kvilhaug

The Great Knowledge is a cumulative treasure trove of information on magical and spiritual practices described in written sources dating back to the Iron and Viking Ages. Maria Kvilhaug provides a wealth of source material shining new light on the lore of old, the roles and practices that existed, healers, sorcerers, shapeshifters, berserkers, poets, initiation rites, the genderfluid, and the influence and invocations of spirit beings in the shapes of gods, trolls, giants, elves, norns.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Three Little Sisters
• Release date: May 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224614066

Book preview

The Great Knowledge by Maria Kvilhaug

Great Knowledge

Fjǫlkyngi-Stories of Seiðr and Initiation

By Maria Kvilhaug

Copyright ©Maria Kvilhaug

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. All images within this book are property of The Three Little Sisters and may not be duplicated without permission from the publisher.

ISBN13: 978-1-959350-99-6

Set in: Georgia 9/10/11pt, Bondi 72 14/16pt, Times New Roman 18pt

©The Three Little Sisters

USA/CANADA

Contents

1: Linguistic, Mythical and Legendary Origins of Seiðr and Other Forms of Fjǫlkyngi 50

2: Seiðr as a Tradition of Oracular Divination 121

3: Healing Seiðr 211

4: Animism, Shapeshifting, and the Animal World 238

5: Animism -Controlling Natural Powers 290

6: Curses and Dark Seiðr 323

7: Necromancy – Waking the Dead

8: War-Seiðr 429

Initiation 576

9: Witches and Warriors 579

Epilogue: Sacred Landscapes 787

Bibliography 794

To the forest holt I went

and to the living tree:

A great wand to get,

a great wand I got.

List of Terms

Álǫg (neutral): curse, spell (from lǫg: fate, destiny). Can be placed on [leggja á] someone (Álǫgum þeim, er Ógautan lagð á mik = That curse, which Ógautan placed on me)

Ánauð (feminine): Need, powerlessness, slavery, bad curse, spell that captures

Átrunaðr (masculine): Faith, belief (religious)

Berserkr (masculine): bear/bare shirted: A title for warriors who were able to hámast – change shape – or to enter a state of battle frenzy and fury that made them oblivious to pain and fear and near invincible in battle.

Berserksgangr (masculine): To go/become berserkr – the process of entering and being in battle frenzy

Bjargvættr (feminine): Rescue Spirit = Helpful spirit, supernatural helper, someone who helps in a supernatural, magical manner

Blót (neutral): Sacrifice (ritual)

Blóta (verb): To ritually sacrifice

Blótbolli (masculine): Vessel for the sacrificial blood

Blótdrykkja (feminine): Sacrificial drinking banquet

Blótgóði (masculine): Sacrificial priest

Blótgrǫf (feminine): Cave or hole for sacrificing into

Blótguð (neutral): Deity that receives the sacrifice

Blótgyðja (feminine): Sacrificial priestess

Blóthaugr (masculine): Mound/Cairn on which sacrifice takes place

Blóthús (neutral): Sacrifice house = temple

Blóthǫrgr (masculine): Shrine/Temple for sacrifice

Blótkelda (feminine): Water source/spring for sacrifice (the reception of sacrifice)

Blótkona (feminine): Woman who sacrifices/is religiously devoted

Blótlundr (masculine): Grove for sacrifice

Blótmaðr (masculine): Man who sacrifices/is religiously devoted

Blótmatr (masculine): Food on the sacrificial banquet

Blótnautr (neutral): The animal/person/object that is being sacrificed or sacrificed to

Blótskapr (masculine): Heathenry

Blótstallr (masculine): Altar for the gods

Blótstǫpull (masculine): Tower for gods (temple)

Blóttrygill (masculine): Kettle for the sacrificial blood

Blotveizla (feminine): Sacrificial banquet where the sacrifice is consumed

Blótviðr (masculine): Sacrificial grove/forest/clearing

Blótvǫllr (masculine): Field for sacrifice rituals

Bragð (neutral): Deed, trick (magical), the taking of action, brief moment

Bragðakarl (masculine): Man of deeds/tricks (magical deeds), illusionist

Bragðakona (feminine): Woman of deeds/tricks (magical deeds), illusionist

Díar (masculine plural – from Celtic Dia: God): Gods, temple priest

Draughús (neutral): House of the Draugr - Grave, burial site, home of the undead

Draugr (masculine): Zombie, walking dead (=haugbúi)

Drótt (feminine): Army, royal following, royal court

Dróttinn/Dróttnari (masculine, plural: Dróttnar): God, lord, ruler

Dróttning (feminine): Queen

Einrænn (adjective): Lone runner (introvert, loner)

Einsetumaðr (masculine): Lone-seated-man: Hermit. Used for wise man, spámaðr.

*ErilaR (masculine) (=iarl): Earl (originally a rune master?)

Fitonsandi (masculine): Prophetic spirit

Fjǫlhugaðr (adjective): Intent on (magical) knowledge

Fjǫliþrott (feminine): Great Sport/Skill (=magic skill)

Fjǫlkunnig (adjective): Knowledgeable about magic

Fjǫlkunnr (adjective): Particularly knowledgeable, familiar with something

Fjǫlkyndi (feminine): "Great knowledge (about magic) = Fjǫlkyngi

Fjǫlkyngi (feminine): Great Knowledge (Seiðr, galdrar, tǫfr, Skáldskap, berserksgangr

Fjǫlkyngisbók (feminine, medieval): Book of Magic/Witchcraft

Fjǫlkyngisiðrott (feminine): Skill/practice of Fjǫlkyngi

Fjǫlkyngislist (feminine): Witchcraft (Great Knowledge Cunning)

Fjǫlkyngismaðr (masculine): Man who knows Fjǫlkyngi

Fjǫlkyngiveðr (neutral): Weather controlled by magic

Fjǫlkyngismaðr (masculine): Very wise man – who is fjǫlkunnigr (versed in magic)

Fjǫlkynnarkóna (feminine): Very wise woman (who is fjǫlkunnigr (versed in magic)

Fjǫlmaðr (masculine): Very wise man - who is fjǫlkunnigr (versed in magic)

Fjǫlsvíðr/ Fjǫlsvinnr (masculine): The Very Wise – an Óðinsheiti and the name of a jǫtunn and a dwarf in Norse mythology.

Forn (adjective): Ancient, old, heathen (forn siðr: old custom, forn í lundr: ancient in the grove = knowledgeable about heathen ritual customs, forn í brögðum: ancient in practice (practices the old religion/heathenism)

Forspár (adjective): Pre-prophesying = Clairvoyant

Flagð (neutral): Sorcerer of any gender, troll, giant

Flagðkóna (feminine): Sorcery woman (sorceress), troll woman, giantess

Framviss (adjective): Pre-knowing = Clairvoyant

Freyiuheiti (neutral): Heiti for Freyia (see: Heiti)

Fróðhugaðr (adjective): Wisdom-minded

Fróðleikr (masculine): Wisdom

Fróðkunnigr (adjective): Very wise and knowledgeable

Fróðr (adjective): Wise person who is fróðkunnigr (wisdom-knowledgeable) or fróðhugaðr (intent on wisdom)

Furor berserkicus (Latin): The fury of the berserker

Gala (verb): to sing in a high-pitched tune (gala galdrar)

Galdr (masculine): Spell-song

Galdra (verb): To sing spell-songs

Galdrasmiðr (masculine): Galdr-smith (composer/maker of spell-songs) = the gods

Gambanteinn (masculine): Powerful/great wand (a teinn could also mean a spindle or a twig or branch of wood

Gandreið (feminine): Riding the Wand/Riding the Magic

Gandrekr (masculine): Invoking storm by magic

Galdrakóna (feminine): Galdr-woman (singer of spell-songs)

Galdramaðr (masculine): Galdr-man (singer of spell-songs)

Gand (Sámi): Magic, the might of the magician/noaidi, or the soul moving outside of the body

Ganda (verb): To perform magic

Gandr (masculine): Staff, wand

Gandreið (feminine): Riding the staff, riding with magic

Gerningar (masculine plural): Deeds, usually meaning witchcraft, often appearing as a formula: galdrar ok gerningar – spell-songs and deeds (of witchcraft).

Gerningaveðr (neutral): Deed-Weather = magical weather, magically invoked storm

Hamast (adverb) To change hámr (shape, form)

Hamfar (neutral): Literally Hide-Journey, meaning Shape-Changing, a journey through shape-changing, out of body traveling, as when one makes a hamferd (fara i hamfari/ fara i hamfǫrum = to travel in the hide-journey, that is, to travel outside of body in the shape of something else)

Hamferd (neutral): = Hamfar

Hamhleypa (feminine) Hide Runner (shapeshifter, out-of-body traveler)

Hamingja (feminine): In modern Icelandic, the most common meaning of hamingja is fortune or luck. But in earlier stages of the language, the hamingja was a luck/fortune bringing, benevolent feminine spirit entity, possibly a benevolent fylgja, related to the norns, with influence on destiny. It derives originally from ham-gengja – one who walks in the hide/shape of a person.

Hamr (masculine): Form, shape, hide

Hamrammr (adjective): Hide-Strong = Shape-shifter

Hamremmi (feminine) A person who is hamrammr – a shape-shifter

Hamstolinn (adjective): hide-stolen – one whose hamr (hide, shape, form) has been stolen, and has thus become crazy, lost one’s mind.

Haugabrjótr (masculine): One who breaks into a haugr (grave-robber)

Haugaeldr (masculine): Fire that seems to burn over burial mounds or hidden treasures (supernatural light), or a poetical term for hidden treasures, grave treasure (referencing the glimmer of gold and metal in the grave/underworld/otherworld in a poetical metaphor)

Haugaǫld/ Haugsǫld (feminine): The Age of Mounds – a mythical/legendary historical age when people buried their dead in mounds/cairns

Haugbúi (masculine): Mound-Dweller (the person residing in the grave, often as a draugr)

Haugbrót (neutral): Mound-Break-In: a ritual of breaking and entering a grave in order to retrieve treasure and symbolic items and powers or talents that could be inherited through the ritual claiming of what they had owned in life and been buried with

Haugfæra (verb): Mound-go" = to bury someone in a haugr

Haugferð (feminine): Mound-going = burial (or pilgrimage to a mound)

Haugganga (feminine): Mound-entry = the entry into a grave mound/grave chamber, or a break-in (= Haugbrót)

Haugr (masculine): Mound, burial mound, cairn, grave

Haugsetja (verb): Mound-Seating = To bury someone in a mound

Haugstaðr (masculine): Mound Place = cemetery of burial mounds, place of burial mound

Haustblót (neutral): Autumn Sacrifice

Heðan (adverb): go from here, to go from this side, to go from this world (=to die), on this side of something (as opposed to the other side), from this, hereafter

Heið/Heiðr (neutral): Clear sky, brightness

Heiðbúi (masculine): Heath dweller = serpent (poetical term)

Heiðindómr (masculine): Heathenry, paganism

Heiðingi (masculine): Heathen, pagan, or of the heath=wolf, warg

Heiðingaþjóð (feminine): A heathen flock/people, a pagan people

Heiðna (verb): to make a pagan out of someone

Heiðnast (adverb): To become pagan

Heiðneskr (adjective): Heathen

Heiðni (feminine): Heathenry, heathen age

Heiðir (masculine): Hawk (poetical term, the bird hunts on heaths)

Heiðirligr (adjective): Honorable, worthy, great, esteemed

Heiðr (feminine): Heath, clearing, grove, open, bright open place surrounded by the dark forest

Heiðr (masculine): Honor, glory, gift, reward, salary

Heiðra (verb): To honor

Heiðran (feminine): honoring

Heiðrún (feminine): Heath Rune (Bright Open Space Symbol) – the name of the goat that produces the mead of resurrection to the einherjar of Valhǫll.

Heiðrsmaðr (masculine): A man of honor

Heil (feminine): heart, mind (=húgr)

Heila (verb): to heal, make whole

Heilagr/heiligr (adjective): Sacred, holy

Heilan (feminine): healing, recovery (to become whole)

Heili (feminine): Health, wholeness

Heilivágr (masculine): Whole-Wave = healing salve, healing liquid

Heill (neutral/feminine): Luck, fortune, lucky charm/amulet

Heill (masculine): Wholeness, brain

Heill (adjective): Whole, healthy, unharmed

Heilla (verb): To enchant, put a spell on someone, to hex

Heilsa (feminine): Health, healing

Heilsubót (feminine): Remedy for healing

Heimr (masculine, plural: Heimir): World, universe, land, country, home, residence

Hel (feminine): The giantess/goddess of the dead

Hel (feminine): The world of the dead

Hel (feminine): Death (personified)

Héla (feminine): Frost, cold

Helblár (adjective): Death-blue/black (the color of a corpse)

Helblindi (masculine): Death-blinder (=immortal), an Óðinsheiti

Helga (adverb): Sanctify, make holy, wed, make inviolable, assume fathership of and grant inheritance to a child born outside of wedlock

Helga (feminine): Holy (woman) – a personal name

Helgaldr (masculine): Death curse (a spell-song that causes death)

Helgari (masculine): The one who ritually sanctify something or someone

Helgi (masculine): Holy (man) – a personal name

Helgi (feminine): holiness, sacredness, inviolableness

Helgráði/Helgráðr: Hel Greed = malevolent level of greediness that is fatal, deadly, dangerous, irrational desire/greed for something in a manner that portends/is an omen of death

Helgrind (feminine): Hel Gate – death gate, the entry into Hel’s inner court

Heljarkóna (feminine): Woman who is of Hel (=is about to die or has died)

Heljarmaðr (masculine): Man who is of Hel (=is about to die or has died) (=Heljarkarl/Heljarskegg)

Heljarmyrkr (neutral): Hel’s darkness, the darkness of death or the darkness in Hel

Heljarskinn (neutral): Skin as black as Hel’s. Nicknames for two dark-skinned chiefs from Rogaland.

Hella (feminine): Mountain, stone

Hellir (masculine): Cave, a cliff-cave (the space beneath a protruding stone in a mountain)

Hellisdýr (feminine): Cave entrance, opening into cave

Hellismaðr (masculine): Cave man – man who lives in a cave

Helluland (neutral): Cave Land – mythical/legendary place and also another name for Vínland – America

Helreið (feminine): Ride to Hel – to die, or the journey into Hel to fetch something or seek knowledge

Helskór (masculine): Death shoe = the shoes that a corpse wears at burial

Hélugr (adjective): frost-covered

Hélukuldi (masculine): Frosty coldness

Héluþoka (feminine): Frosty mist

Helvarðr (masculine): Death Guard, an entity of Hel

Helvegr (masculine): Hel-path – the way to Hel, a road or path in the realm of the dead, to walk the Hel-path meant to die

Heygja (verb): To bury someone in a mound

Heygð (perfect tense): Someone who is buried in a mound

Hleypa í (sentence): To run within – spirit possession, such as when a god or other spirit animates an object – gods, for example, could animate a wooden statue of themselves, or a spirit could be made to run within an object or within some other being.

Hof (neutral): Temple, court

Hofgóði (masculine): Temple priest

Hofgyðja (feminine): Temple priestess

Hofstaðr (masculine): Place where there is a temple, a main place in the region

Hól (neutral): Hole, wound, empty inside, hollow

Hóla (feminine): Cave, hollow

Horn (neutral): Horn, drinking horn, musical horn

Hǫrgr/Haurg (masculine): Shrine, temple, altar, ritual place

Horsc (adjective): wise, cunning, knowing (runes etc)

Iarl/Jarl (masculine): Earl, may have earlier meaning of rune master (*ErilaR)

Íþróttr (feminine): Sport, skill - from ið (returning) + þróttr (strength).

Jartegn (neutral): Omen

Kraptr (masculine): Craft (also witchcraft), might, strength, power, virtue, supernatural help, wonder, miracle, divine being

Kunnatu (feminine): knowledge (magical)

Kyngi (feminine): knowledge, particularly magical knowledge, sorcery

Kyngikraptr (masculine): Knowledge Craft – The art of witchcraft, sorcery

Kyngiveðr (neutral) «knowledge-weather»=magical weather, magically invoked storm

Kynligt (adjective): Weird, wondrous, mysterious

Leysigaldr (masculine): Release galdr – (spell-song for helping someone out of captivity or fear-paralysis during battle)

Licnargaldr (masculine): Healing galdr (spell-song for healing)

Lifsgras (neutral): Life-herb, a healing herb, medicine

List (feminine): Art, skill, knowledge, learning, courtesy, cunning, sorcery, craft

Listarkóna (feminine): Woman of Arts/Skills/Knowledge/Cunning (seiðr) = Sorceress

Listarmaðr (masculine): Man of Arts/Skills/Knowledge/Cunning (seiðr) = Sorcerer

Ljóð (neutral): Verse, stanza, song, spell-song/incantation = galdr

Ljóðasmiðr (masculine): Verse-smith (composer/maker of songs) = the gods

Lyf (neutral): Medicine, remedy, magic item

Lyfð (feminine): Medicine, remedy

Lyfja (adverb): To heal, make good for someone

Lyfjaberg (neutral): Medicine Mountain

Lyfrúnir (feminine plural): Healing runes

Lyfsteinn (masculine): Medicine stone, healing amulet

Lækidómr (masculine): Medicine, healing

Lækna (adverb): to be healing, made good again

Læknan (feminine): Healing, the art of medicine/healing

Læknanligr (adjective): Healing

Læknidómr/Læknisdomr (masculine): healing verdict = medicine or state of healing

Lækning (feminine): Healing, the art of healing, medicine

Lækningaríþróttr (feminine): The Skill/Knowledge of Healing

Lækningarkaup (neutral): Salary/payment for healing

Lækningarlyf (neutral): Medicine

Lækningslyf/læknislyf (neutral): Medicine

Lækningartól (neutral, plural): Healing equipment

Læknir/læknari (masculine): Medicine man (Healer), surgeon

Læknirkóna (feminine): Medicine Woman (Healer), surgeon

Læknisblað (neutral): Healing leaf (medicine)

Læknisgras (neutral): Healing herb (medicine)

Læcnishendr (feminine plural): Healing hands

Lækniskunnasta (feminine): Healing art

Mara (feminine): Mare, as in nightmare, a spirit entity that can cause nightmares or sleep paralysis. Can be sent out by a seiðr to harm or kill someone.

Margkunnugr (adjective): Much knowing (versed in magic)

Marlíðendr [sea-travelers] (masculine plural): shapeshifters, witches, bad spirits

Máttr (masculine): Power, strength, health – or a power (spirit power)

Máttugr (adjective): Powerful, healthy, strong

Máttugr (masculine): A power (spirit entity – actually mátt-húgr = "powerful-intent)

Menna (verb): To mentor, to educate

Mennast (adverb): Be mentored, become educated

Ment/Mentan (feminine): Mentorship, education

Mentr/mentan (adjective): Mentored, educated

Myrkríða (feminine): Darkness Rider (shape-shifter, out-of-body traveler, feminine)

Náttfarsseiðr (masculine): Night Faring Seiðr – rituals at night, preparations for seiðr

Náttura (masculine): Nature = disposition, but also used for a spirit entity/supernatural power

Nǫttríða (feminine): Night Rider (shape-shifter, out-of-body traveler, feminine)

Óðinsheiti (neutral): Heiti for Óðinn (see: Heiti)

Ragnarǫk (neutral): Shattering of the Rulers = Prophesized apocalypse ending this world and beginning a new one

Rammaukinn (adjective): Powerfully increased (by magic), magically endowed

Rún (feminine): Letter, symbol, secret, whisper, the marks of fate (rune)

Sceadugenga (Anglo-Saxon): Shadow Walker

Seiða (verb): To perform seiðr (=Siða)

Seiðberendr/Seiðberandi (masculine): Seið-pregnant/seið-womb/seið-vagina

Seiðgaldra (verb): To sing seið-spell-songs

Seiðhjallr (masculine): Seið-platform (elevated seat)

Seiðlæti (neutral): Seið-song (=galdr)

Seiðmaðr (masculine): Seið-man

Seiðmagnan (feminine): Empowerment through (performance of) seiðr

Seiðkóna (feminine): Seið-woman

Seiðkóna (feminine): Woman who knows and performs seiðr (vǫlva).

Seiðvilla (feminine): Seið-confusing What interrupts, lessens or blocks the effects of seiðr

Seiðskratti: Seið-sorcerer

Seiðstafr (masculine): Seið-staff (= vǫlr)

Seiðr (masculine): the most powerful of all forms of Fjǫlkyngi. Includes oracular divination but also other forms of witchcraft and magic. Originally taught by Freyia, and then by Óðinn.

Siða (verb): To make seiðr (=Seiða)

Siðaskipti (neutral): Change of religion

Siðr (masculine): Custom, common practice, ritual custom, religion (forn siðr = old religion, heathenism)

Sieidi (Sámi): A holy place

Skáldblætr (adjective): The entity/god that poets make sacrifice to

Skáldfé (neutral): The salary/gift/payment given to poets for a poem

Skáldfiflahlutr (masculine): Poet Fool’s Part – the part of the mead of poetry that came to incompetent poets after it was shat out of Odin´s arse when he escaped Suttungr. The vomit came into the cauldrons of the gods and went to the good poets.

Skáldr (masculine): Poet, bard

Skáldkóna (feminine): Poet woman (woman skáldr)

Skáldmey/Skáldmær (feminine): Poet Maiden (young/unmarried girl/woman skáldr)

Skáldskapargrein (feminine): Poet Creation Branch = Genre (poetic, literary genre, verse-style)

Skáldskaparlaun (neutral): Salary/payment for a poem (=skáldfé)

Skáldskaparmál (neutral): Poet Creation Speech = poetic language, poetical metaphors, riddle-speech, cover words, symbolic use of language in poetry

Skáldskapr (masculine): Poet Creation (=poetry) – a form of Fjǫlkyngi

Skáldstǫng (feminine): Poet-Pole = Níðstǫng

Skessa (feminine): witch, sorceress, giantess

Skratti/ skrattakarl (masculine): Sorcerer/ wizard man

Snótr (neutral): Eloquent, wise person

Snotra (verb): To become wise, to mature, to become eloquent

Són (feminine): Atonement (= blót - sacrifice)

Sónarblót (neutral): Atonement sacrifice

Spá (verb): To divine, make a prophecy

Spádómr (masculine): Prophecy/Prophetic gift

Spáganda (verb): To make magical divination (= Seiða)

Spágandr (masculine): Magical divination (=Seiðr)

Spákona (feminine): Prophetic Woman (Sibyl, spaewife, oracle = vǫlva)

Skessa (feminine): Sorceress, giantess

Sprót: Wand, staff (vǫlr)

Stáfr: Staff, wand (vǫlr)

Stallr (masculine): Pedestal, altar

Tafl (neutral): Board, game board, game piece (Leika/sitja at tafli = to sit at the board= to play a board game

Tafla (feminine): Game piece, also the board at the front of or above an altar

Taflbragð (neutral): Game trick, a feat in the game, genial move in a game

Taufr/Tǫfr (neutral): Sorcery, witchcraft

Taufra (verb): to perform witchcraft

Taufrad/Tǫfrad (adjective): Enchanted or cursed by sorcery

Tauframaðr/Tǫframmaðr (masculine): Sorcerer man

Taufranorn (feminine): Sorcery norn = sorceress

Þula/Þylja (verb): to recite, chant, count up

Þularstóll (masculine): The chair of the Þulr (the chair from which the Þulr performed his recitals

Þulr (masculine): Speaker, Singer (wise man knowing old lore)

Trǫll (neutral): Troll, also referring to jǫtnar, witches and sorcerers

Trǫllaukinn (adjective): Troll-empowered/increased = berserker fury or being magically endowed with special powers. In modern Icelandic, it refers to something unusually large.

Trǫlldómr/Trolldómr (masculine): Witchcraft, sorcery, magic

Trǫllkarl/Trollkarl (masculine): Troll-man = wizard

Trǫllkóna/Trollkóna (feminine): Troll-woman = witch, sorceress

Trǫllkund (adjective): Troll-wise (magically versed)

Trǫllríða (feminine): Troll rider = troll woman or sorceress

Trǫllskapr (masculine): Troll-creation = magic, witchcraft, sorcery

Tunríða (feminine): Court Rider (shapeshifter, out-of-body traveler)

Úlfhanzkar (feminine): Wolf-gloves – a spellbinding or cursing tool

Undirdjúp (neutral): Depths Below (the deepest level of the underworld)

Undirheimr (masculine): Underworld

Valgaldr (masculine): Spell-song to wake up the dead

Valhǫll (feminine): The Hall of the Chosen Slain

Valr (masculine): The slain – chosen by valkyriur

Valshamr (masculine): The Hide of the Chosen Slain = Freyia’s falcon hide that Loki often borrows to move between worlds

Varðlokka/Varðlokkr (feminine): A song: Invoking the Wards (guardians, spirits)

Varðr (masculine): Guard, Ward, Benevolent Spirit

Vé (neutral): Shrine, holy place

Veiðimaðr (masculine): Hunter Man – one saga describes a Hunter Man who is clearly of Fjǫlkyngi

Verk (neutral): Deed (magical deed)

Vitki: Knowing man (wizard)

Vítugr/vittugra (adjective): Wise, knowledgeable, crafty

Vítr (adjective): Wise

Visendakóna: Wise Woman, Wisdom Woman

Vættr (feminine): Spirit entity

Vǫlva (feminine): Wand-wed = woman practitioner of seiðr, oracle, seeress. Plural: Vǫlur

Vǫlr (masculine): Staff, Wand, Horse Penis

Vǫndr (masculine): Wand, staff

List of Practitioners, Mentors and Initiates

Albruna (2.1.2): Oracle/Sibyl. Iron/Migration Age. Germania 8

Arinnefja (3.11/9.2): Flagðkóna, Kerling, Queen of the Giant World, skin-less: master surgeon, healer and shapeshifter. Initiate and Mentor. Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar Berserkjarbana.

Ásmundr Berserker-Bane (7.9/9.2): Initiate. Social Status: Prince. Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar Berserkjarbana.

Atli (1.2/4.4.2/5.1/5.2/7.11/8.2.1/8.2.2/8.2.3): Acts like a court shaman and spiritual mentor and counsellor to kings and princes in Helgakviða Hiǫrvarðssonar

Bergfinnr the Austramaðr [East-Man] (4.3.4): A wise man, trading captain and dream-interpreter in Gunnlaugs saga Ormstunga.

Bersi (3.6/4.2.1): Owner and user of the Lyfsteinn [Medicine Stone] in Kormáks saga

Bósi (9.3): Initiate, Shapeshifter and Master Musician/Skáld, Fjǫlkyngismaðr. Social status: Karl. Bósa saga ok Herrauðs

Búi the Loner (9.1): Initiate who retrieves the Game Board and drinks the famous drink within the mountain of Dofri. Social status: Karl. Kjalnesinga saga.

Busla (4.2.3/6.6/9.3): Mentor, teaches galdrar and tǫfr (witchcraft) to Bósi, Smiðr and Herrauðr. Is a shape-shifter (uses the hide of a weasel). Social status: Commoner, Concubine to a Karl. Bósa saga ok Herrauðs

Bǫðvarr Bjarki (4.2.4/8.1.4/8.4.6): Shapeshifter and Berserker in Hrólfs saga Kráka

Dagr Rauðúlfsson (2.4.2/2.4.3): Wise man in Rauðúlfs þáttr [The Short Story of Rauðúlfr] in Flateyjarbók.

Dead Vǫlva (2) in Laxdæla saga 76

Dead Vǫlva (Introduction, 2.3.3, 2.3.4) in Vegtamskvíða

Dís (9.4): Hamhleypa (shapeshifter), a woman who owns the Drinking Horn, daughter of Kolr Body-Backwards in Þórsteins saga Víkingssonar

Dofri (9.1/9.8) Jǫtunn (giant), Mentor, Adversary, owner of the Gold Ring. Appears in Flateyarbók’s saga of Haraldr Hárfagri, Kjalnesinga saga, and Illuga saga Tagldarbana, as well as in numerous Norwegian folklore sources

Drauma-Finnr [The Sámi of Dreams] (4.3.5): A Sámi dream-interpreter in the Ljósvetninga saga

Egill Skallagrimsson (3.8/6.8.1/8.4.5): Historical person, berserker, healer and skáld in Egils saga Skallagrimssonar 75

Egill Einhendi (3.11 & 9.3): Initiate in Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar Berserkjarbana

Einsetumaðr [Lone-Seated-Man = Hermit] (2.4.1): Unnamed spámaðr who prophecies the baptism of Óláfr Tryggvason in the Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason chapter 32 in Heimskringla.

Esja (9.1.2): Wise and powerful woman and mentor, forn i brǫgðum [Wise in the ancient ways] in Kjalnesinga saga.

Eyvindr Cauldron [Eyvindr Kelda] (5.4/8.3.4): Seiðr-man who fights Óláfr Tryggvason in Heimskringla, Snorra Sturlusonar: Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar 69 & 70, Flateyjarbók: Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar 44

Farmer’s Daughter (9.3): Mentor: A wise and cunning woman who shows the way for Bósi in the wilderness; how to find a pagan temple and rescue a bride from the inner chamber, how to rescue a bride from a cave, and how to find Edda in a sacred grove. Demands sexual services for her help, but also gets gold rings and three golden walnuts for her advice,

Finnr Fjǫlkunnigr (9.1) Sámi noaidi who acts as First Mentor to Prince Haraldr Lúfa

Finna eina Fjǫlkunniga (Vǫlva) (2.2.1): Sámi vǫlva from Hálógaland who prophecies emigration to Iceland. Vatnsdæla saga, chapter 10 (Is called vǫlva & named Heiðr in Landnámabók, chapter 56)

Fríðr (9.1): Daughter of Dofri. Lights the path through the labyrinth cave of Dofri and opens up the portals, serves the famous drink and enables Búi the Loner to retrieve the Game Board of Dofri for king Haraldr Hárfagri Dofrafóstra.

Foster-Mother (5.10): Blind fóstra who predicts the future in Eyrbyggja saga

Fóstra Framvisa [The Clairvoyant Foster Mother (=mentor)] (4.3.6): Wise woman unnamed who mentors Helgi in Vápnfirðinga saga

Fóstri (4.3.7): Foster-Father – unnamed spiritual mentor to Eyjolfr in Ljósvetninga saga.

Galdra-Heðinn [Spell-Song-Heath-Dweller or Heðinn of the Galdrar] (5.9): A pagan practitioner of spell-songs who opposes the Christian Mission in Njáls saga 102.

Gambara [Gand-Bera: Wand/Magic Carrier] of the Langobardi (2.1.1): Oracle/Sibyl. Iron/Migration Age. Gesta Danorum VIII.284, Origo Gentis Langobardum, Historia Langobardum

Ganna of the Semnones (2.1.4): Oracle/Sibyl. Iron/Migration Age. Historia Romana (Cassius Dio)

Gautr (5.7/9.4.2): Fjǫlkyngismaðr, brother of Ógautan. Has listr – cunning, craft.

Geirríðr Gandvikurekkja [Bed of Wand/Magic Bay] (9.6): Healer and sorceress of the cave in Gríms saga Loðinkinna

Geirríðr Þórólfsdóttur [Thorolf’s Daughter] (6.3): Shapeshifter woman and sorceress in Eyrbyggja saga.

Geitir (2.3.4) Shepherd and guardian of the oracle in Grípisspá)

Geitir (4.3.1): Wise man and þulr in Þorsteins þáttr uxafóts, Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta in Flateyiarbók

Gríðr (9.5): Healer and cave sorceress and mentor to Illugi

Gríðr (9.1): Giantess mythical vǫlva and mistress to Óðinn, mother of Víðars the Silent and mentor to Thor, owns the Wand of Truce

Gríma (5.6): The mother in a family of sorcerers known from the Laxdæla Saga

Grimhildr (9.6): Evil stepmother sorceress in Gríms Saga Loðinkinna

Grimhildr (4.4.4/8.1/8.2): Mother to Guðrún Giukadóttir

Grípir (2.3.4/8.2.3): Wise man performing divination seiðr for his nephew in Grípisspá.

Gróa (3.4): Vǫlva who heals with galdrar in the 9th century skaldic poem Haustlǫng (where she is referred to as öl-Gefjun [Ale Provider] and as Gróa in Prose Edda’s Skáldskaparmál 25.

Gróa [To Grow] (1.5/2.3.3): dead vǫlva who sings galdrar from her own burial mound in order to take her son to Útgarðr (the Outer World), so that he may find the Great Maiden. Gróagaldr.

Guðmundr (1.2/1.4/8.2.2/9.1.2): Shapeshifter/Gendershifter. Helgakviða Hundingsbana

Guðrún Giukadóttir (4.4.4/8.1/8.2): a woman of Fjǫlkyngi in the Edda poems Brot af Sigurðarkviðu, Guðrúnarkviða hin fyrsta, Sigurðarkviða hin skamma, Helreið Brynhildar, Dráp Niflunga, Guðrúnarkviða önnur, Guðrúnarkviða hin þriðja, Oddrúnargrátr, Atlakviða hin Grœnlenzka, Atlamál hin Grœnlenzku, Guðrúnarhvöt.

Gunnhildr Dróttning (6.1.2/ 6.8.1/ 8.3): Historical queen of Norway and sorceress in Brennu-Njáls saga & Haralds saga ins Hárfagra; Heimskringla

Gyða [Priestess] (8.3/ 8.4.5/ 9.1): Instigates Haraldr on his path towards high kingship

Hákonr Sigurðarson Jarl (Hlaðajarl) inn Ríki [The Powerful] (1.2/ 4.2.5/ 5.8/ 6.8.3/ 6.12.1/ 8.3/ 8.3.3): A man of Fjǫlkyngi and political power who appears as the fiend of Christianity in Jómsvíkinga saga, Njáls saga, and Þorleifs þáttr jarlsskálds, Færeyinga saga, Harðar saga ok Hólmverja, and Ketils saga hœngs.

Hallbjörn Whetstone-Eye Kotkell’s Son (5.6/ 6.7): One of the sons in a family of sorcerers in Laxdæla Saga

Halldóra (3.10): Healer woman in Víga-Glúms saga 23

Hamglama (5.5): Shapeshifter and sorceress in Friðþjófs saga hins frœkna 5-7

Haraldr Lúfa Dofrafóstra Hárfagri (8.3/9.1): Initiate – spends five winters in apprenticeship to Dofri and to a Sámi man of great fjǫlkyngi.

Hardgrepa (1.4/7.12): Necromancer, witch, giantess and mentor in Gesta Danorum I (1.6.4-8)

Heiðr Vǫlva (2.2.1) Vǫlva from Hálógaland in Northern Norway who prophecies emigration to Iceland in Landnámabók 56 [=Finna eina fjǫlkunniga (A Sámi Woman of Great Knowledge) in Vatnsdæla saga 10.

Heiðr Vǫlva (2.2.2): Vǫlva in Hrólfs saga Kráka 3. The same woman is referred to as Incantata [Singer, reciter, invoker] in Gesta Danorum VII H (Vǫlva who makes seiðr and uses breathing techniques to find two hiding princelings).

Heiðr Vǫlva (1.2 & 1.4) the first vǫlva who taught the art of seiðr to unconventional, human women in the Edda poem Vǫluspá (after going through a trial of initiation as Gullveigr).

Heiðr Vǫlva (2.2.3): Vǫlva and seiðkóna in Ǫrvar-Odd’s saga chapter 2. Performs "night-faring seiðr

Heiðr Seiðkóna (5.5): Works shapeshifting seiðr with Hamglama in Friðþjófs saga hins frœkna 5-7

Herrauðr (9.2): Initiate of Busla in Bósa saga ok Herrauðs

Hervǫr/Hervarðr (7.4/7.10): Performs necromancy in Hervarar saga ok Heidreks

Hleið (9.3) Apprenticed to Kolfrosta, to become the next Hofgyðja in the Vulture’s Temple

Hrímgerðr (9.12): Skessa (witch, giantess), Flagðkóna from the Woman’s Cave. Mentor to Illugi Tagldarbani and Kaðlín in the Wilderness of Cave Land

Huldr Seiðkóna/Huldr Vǫlva (6.5.1 & 6.5.2): A vǫlva and sorceress in the Ynglinga saga

Hyndla [She-Wolf, Bitch] (2.3.2): Giantess who lives in a cave on the underworld and rides wolves, performs divination seiðr for Freyia’s companion in Hyndluljóð.

Illugi Gríðarfóstri (9.5): Initiate and Fjǫlkyngismaðr in Illuga saga Gríðarfóstra, apprenticed to Gríðr

Illugi Tagldarbani (9.8/ 9.12): Initiate, mentor and man of fjǫlkyngi in Illuga saga Tagldarbana

Ingibjǫrg (9.2.1): Sorceress queen who tests Arinnefja

Kaðlín (9.12): Apprenticed to Hrímgerðr in the Woman’s Cave in the Wilderness of Cave Land beneath the Blue Mountain, and knows her way around the Heath of the Wandering Sound. Celtic princess who acts as healer, dreamer and wise woman to a band of warriors. Illuga saga Tagldarbana.

Kolfrosta Hofgyðja (9.3): Temple Priestess, trǫllkóna, mentor and adversary in the Vulture’s Temple – Bósa saga ok Herrauðs

Kolr Kroppinbakr [Body-Backwards] (9.4.1): Hamhleypa (shapeshifter), seiðr-man who could appear in many different hides, travels with the wind or with the sea, fjǫlkunnigr. Owns a Gold Ring called Glæsir [Crystal], a Sword and a Drinking Horn in Þórsteins saga Víkingssonar

Kolr hin krappi [the Cunning] (9.4.1): son of Kolr Body-Backwards.

Kotkell (5.6/ 6.7): The father in a family of sorcerers in Laxdæla Saga

Kveldulfr [Evening Wolf] (8.4.5): Berserker and shapeshifter in Egils saga Skallagrimssonar, father of Skallagrímr, grandfather of Egill.

Loðmundr (5.10): Blind man who was rammaukinn and fjǫlkunnigr and used his ring-wand to turn the course of a river in Landnámabók

Lopthæna (9.6): The real identity behind the healer/giantess Geirríðr in Gríms Saga Loðinkinna

Lækniskóna [Healer woman] unnamed (3.11): Óláfs saga helga 234

Oddrún (3.3): Valkyria, but also acting as midwife to a woman in her Edda poem, Oddrúnargrátr.

Ógautan (5.7/ 9.4.2): Fjǫlkyngismaðr, listarmaðr brother of Gautr. Could make magical storms and frost by shaking his bellows. Could find hidden people with his seiðr in Þórsteins saga Víkingssonar

Ólöf Geisli [Sun Ray] (3.11): Healer woman in Viglundar saga.

Rǫgnvaldr Dainty Legs [Rǫgnvaldr Rétillbeini] (8.3.1) sorcerer and prince in Haralds saga ins Hárfagra, Heimskringla

Rauðr (9.1): Mentor to Búi the Loner, teaches him how, when and where to find the entrance into the mountain of Dofri and what ritual he must perform to make the cave open

Rauðr the Strong [Rauðr hin rammi] (8.3.5): Fjǫlkyngismaðr who stood up to Óláfr Tryggvason in Flateyiarbók: The Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason: The Short Story of Red the Strong

Rauðúlfr [Red Wolf] (2.4.2 & 2.4.3): Wise man and dream interpreter in Rauðúlfs þáttr [The Short Story of Rauðúlfr] in Flateyjarbók.

Sigmundr Vǫlsung [Victory Origin Descendant of the Wand] (3.9/ 5.2/ 8.4.7): Shapeshifter, sorcerer in Vǫlsunga saga and Edda poetry (Helgakviða Hundingsbani I&II, Fra dauða Sinfiǫtla,). Father of Sinfiǫtli, Helgi Hundingsbani and Sigurðr Fafnisbani.

Sígrdrífa [Victory Drift] (3 introduction, 2.3.4: A Male Oracle, 3.2): Valkyria, but also acting like a spiritual mentor and teacher of healing, runes, languages, eloquence and wisdom to Sígurðr Fafnisbani. Grípisspá, Sígrdrífumál. Referred to as Brynhildr in other poems, such as the Helreið Brynhildar [Brynhild’s Ride to Hel], Brot af Sigurðarkviðu, Guðrúnarkviða hin fyrsta, Sigurðarkviða hin skamma, Oddrúnargrátr.

Sígurðr [Victory Origin] Fafnisbani [Fafnir’s Slayer] (2.3/ 2.3.4/ 3.2/ 4.4.3): Initiate and sage king - Vǫlsunga saga, Skaldskaparmál and Edda poetry (Fra dauða Sinfiǫtla, Grípisspá, Reginsmál, Fafnismál, Sígrdrífumál, Brot af Sigurðarkviðu, Guðrúnarkviða hin fyrsta, Sigurðarkviða hin skamma, Helreið Brynhildar, Dráp Niflunga, Guðrúnarkviða önnur, Guðrúnarkviða hin þriðja, Oddrúnargrátr, Atlakviða hin Grœnlenzka, Atlamál hin Grœnlenzku, Guðrúnarhvöt.)

Sigurðr Rauðúlfsson (2.4.2): Wise man and dream interpreter in Rauðúlfs þáttr [The Short Story of Rauðúlfr] in Flateyjarbók.

Sinfiǫtli [Pale Fetters] (1.2/ 3.9/ 4.2/ 5.2/ 8.2.2-3/ 8.4.7/ 9.1.2): Fjǫlkyngismaðr, castrate, shape-shifter and mentor to his younger brother, Helgi Hundingsbani, son and nephew of Sigmundr Vǫlsung – Fra dauða Sinfiǫtla, Helgakviða Hundingsbani I & II, Vǫlsunga saga

Skallagrímr [Skull Mask] (8.4.5): Berserker and shapeshifter, son of Kveldúlfr in Egils saga Skallagrimssonar

Skellinefja [Shouting Beak] (9.4): Healer, cave sorceress and mentor in Þórsteins saga Víkingssonar

Skinnefja [Skin Beak] (9.3): Daughter of Thor and Arinnefja in Egils saga Einhenda ok Ásmundar Berserkjarbana

Steinunn Réfsdóttir [Stone Woman Ref’s Daugther] (5.9) – Skald woman and weather-controller invoking Thor to successfully take down a ship owned by Christian missionaries in Njáls saga 101-102, Kristni saga 9 and Landnámabók 27

Stígandi Kotkell’s Son (5.6/ 6.7): One of the sons in a family of sorcerers in Laxdæla Saga 35, 36 & 37

Swanwhid [Swan White] (6.2): Princess in shining armor who saves two princels in distress from a horde of hostile spirits sent out by their evil stepmother in Gesta Danorum II

Thorbjörg [Thunder Fortress] Little Vǫlva [Þórbǫjrg Lítillvǫlva] and her 9 sisters (2.2.4): Vǫlva and Spákóna. Performs divination seiðr and acts as oracle in Eiriks saga Rauða 4: Frá Þorbjörgu spákonu

Thorhallr Hunter-Man [Þórhallr Veiðimaðr] (4.1.2) in Eiriks saga Rauða 8

Thorhilda (6.2): Sorceress and shapeshifter and evil stepmother who sends out bad spirits and her own dragon shape to harm two innocent princes in Gesta Danorum II

Thorhildr [Thunder Battle] (4.3.5): Wise woman in Ljósvetninga saga, where she dreams of fylgjur.

Thordís Spákona [Oracle Woman] from the Oracle Woman’s Hill [Þórdís frá Spákonufell] (3.7/ 8.1.6) in Kormáks saga

Thordís the fjǫlkunniga (9.9): Woman of fjǫlkyngi in Gunnars saga Keldugnúpsfífls

Thorgunn [Þórgunn – Thunder Battle] (4.3.1 & 5.10): vitur kona [wise woman], mjǫg margkunnandi [very much knowing], and forn í skapi [ancient in her disposition], wise woman and mentor in Þorsteins þáttr uxafóts, Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta in Flateyiarbók

Thorsteinn (4.3.1/ 7.4.3) necromancer in Þorsteins þáttr uxafóts, in Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta in Flateyiarbók

Thorveig [Thunder Drink] the Great Knowing One [Þórveigr hina Fjǫlkunniga] (3.7 & 4.2.1): Wise woman and shapeshifter in in Kormáks saga

Thorǫrna [Thunder Eagle] (8.4): A woman who was Fjǫlkunniga in Grettis saga

Þrasir/Thrasi (5.10): Man who turns a river’s course with fjǫlkyngi in Landnámabók

Three unnamed maidens called oracles in a temple name a child and offer prophecy in Gesta Danorum 6 (2.5.1)

Three Sámi sorcerers who travel out of body in Vatnsdæla saga 12, 15 (4.2.6)

Three unnamed vǫlur/spákonur/nornir in Norna-Gests þáttr 11 (2.5.2)

Thurid Bay-Filler [Þuríðr Sundafyllir] (4.1.1): Vǫlva and single mother emigrant from Hálógaland in Norway to Iceland during the settling era, who was commissioned to summon the fish in Landnámabók II,29, Hauksbók 116 & Sturlubók 145. Mother of the skald Vǫlu-Steinn [Vǫlva’s Stone]. She was given a settlement of her own and many sheep from the farmers of the region as salary.

Two Sámi sorcerers who mentor Gunnhildr in Haralds saga ins Hárfagra; Heimskringla (6.1.2)

Véfreyia [Shrine Lady] (9.4): Grows up in the cave of the giantess and shares the wisdom of her mother, Skellinefja/Ingibjǫrg in Þórsteins saga Víkingssonar

Veleda of the Bructeri (2.1.3): Sibyl/Oracle. Iron/Migration Age. Historiae 4.65 (Tacitus), potshard inscriptions

Vífill & other galdramenn & vísendamenn (2.2.2): Wise man in Hrolfs saga Kráka 1, 2 & 3

Vigi the Hide-Strong (Shape-Shifter) [Vigi hinn Hamrammi] (4.2.1): Shapeshifter and wise man in Kormáks saga

Vítgeirr (8.3.1), a man who makes seiðr and poetry in Haralds saga Hárfagra in Heimskringla

Vǫlva unnamed (2.2 Introduction): Orm Stórolfsson’s Story, chapter 5 in The Saga of Ólaf Tryggvason in Flateyjarbók

Vǫlva unnamed (2.2.1): Prophecies emigration to Iceland and makes an object vanish and reappear in another country to prove her point. Is called Finna eina fjǫlkunniga [Sámi woman of great knowledge] in Vatnsdæla saga 10, but the same vǫlva is named Heiðr in Landnámabók 56.

Vǫlva unnamed (2.3.3): Dead vǫlva made to raise from her grave by Óðinn in order to interpret a dream and prophecy the future, called vǫlva vittuga [wise-knowledgeable vǫlva] and vís kona [wise woman] in Vegtamskvíða.

Waluborg of the Semnones (2.1.5): Germanic Oracle/Sibyl who worked as a sibyl for a Roman officer in Egypt, 2nd century. Potsherd inscriptions & Egyptian payroll

Note

In my translations, you will sometimes see that I refer to things, body parts, animals – as he or she. This is because I tend to try as literal a translation as possible, because I believe that language reflects on cultural perceptions that are important to bear in mind. In modern English, there is very little left of the typical, Germanic, grammatical gender distinctions. You will refer to a woman/girl as she and a man/boy as he, but everything else will be it (unless it is a pet, nowadays). In Latin languages, even objects and animals are referred to as he or she, since there is no it.

Latin languages have only two genders, masculine or feminine, and every grouping that involves both genders is solved by applying the masculine form. Example: If you have a room full of women and one man (or many cows and one ox, for example), the group will still be referred to as masculine, even if the females are in majority, which may be a result of deep-set patriarchy in Latin-speaking cultural history, where the masculine is the universal norm. Almost likewise, in the Old Norse, everything, even objects, will be referred to in gendered terms.

However, unlike the two-gendered grammars of Latin languages, the Germanic languages have three grammatical genders; either masculine, feminine or neutral, and the neutral form is applied whenever there is a presence of both feminine and masculine items or beings. Unlike the Latin languages, in the Germanic languages, a gathering of men and women, or a collection of items or beings of both grammatical genders, will be referred to in the neutral form, and objects or living beings can either be masculine (like a dog, unless it is specifically referred to as a bitch), feminine (like a cat, unless it is specifically referred to as a tomcat), or neutral (like a tree).

In modern Norwegian, we tend to refer to objects, natural formations, places and animals in the neutral form, but in many dialects and older forms of our language, even objects, natural formations and animals are gendered, and will grammatically be referred to as him, her or it. Example: If we talk about a forest, we would say he, likewise with an ocean or lake, while a flowing river is referred to as she.

A tré – tree - is neutral, since trees come in both feminine and masculine genders, so when we speak about a tree as such, we would say it - but when we talk about specific tree-sorts, these are gendered: an ash will be a he and an oak will be a she. On a tree, the trunk is masculine, while the roots and the branches are feminine. The masculine in nature tends to refer to the solid and the enclosed, while the feminine tend to refer to the flowing and the outreaching.

Pronounciations of letters

Þ = Th (as in Thor, thunder)

Ð/ ð = a soft d (dh) or th as in they, them

Ǫ/ ǫ = ö or the u in thunder

INTRODUCTION

This is, primarily, a book of stories, a presentation of Old Norse lore written down in the medieval period (mostly), but with roots and references to a bygone time, when the term Fjǫlkyngi did not mean sorcery, but great knowledge. Fjǫlkyngi was an umbrella term for various better-known arts such as seiðr (divination and sorcery), galdrar (spell-songs), skáldskap (poetry), runes (symbols), berserksgangr (battle frenzy), necromancy, spirit summoning and out-of-body travel, and healing.

In this book, I will be going through every piece of ancient, written literature that I have managed to research and which describes some form of fjǫlkyngi [great knowledge] - particularly seiðr, or which describe practitioners of seiðr, or similar arts that seem to have been connected to seiðr – arts of fjǫlkyngi. This book is based on a lecture series consisting of a total of 30 chapters that I held on my Patreon between March 2021 and May 2022: Fjǫlkyngi – Stories of Seiðr and Initiation.

It included an almost separate part towards the end; Witches and Warriors – Initiation Narratives and Spiritual Mentors in the Sagas. This latter part could have been an independent book of its own, but it draws heavily on all the themes we had been touching upon in the first parts of the series, so I have decided to include this latter part about initiation in this book also.

Stories of Seiðr

In 2018, I held a three-hour lecture at Idavollen in Trysil, Norway, where I went through many of the sources that we have about seiðr and related arts. I was surprised when I realized that so much of the material I represented came as a surprise to so many in the audience, which was in fact a very well-informed audience. It would appear that the sheer number of sources was the surprising bit – people had generally thought that we know very little about seiðr, due to a lack of sources. When I presented more than seventy different anecdotes from various written sources, the amazement was palpable. I realized that me having spent two or more decades skimming through countless original sources made me capable of presenting knowledge that was hitherto largely unknown to the general public – sometimes even to the more informed public.

I decided that I ought to make all these stories known, and search for more. At the time being, I had not done a lot of translations of my own, and I had not had the time to look for the larger context of these anecdotes, but it had become clear to me that terminology mattered. What is often translated as sorcery, seeress or witchcraft or even as trolls and giantesses, were in fact drawn from original terms that were meaningful and which told a lot more about these concepts and practitioners, than when we only read such generalized and unspecified terms, translated into modern terminology that means something else and less to us moderns than the original terms meant to those who spoke the language and knew of these concepts.

Stories of Initiation

The last part of this book, chapter 9; Witches and Warriors – Initiation Narratives and Mentors in the Sagas, has a longer background story. Back when I had finished my master dissertation at the University of Oslo; The Maiden with the Mead – a Goddess of Initiation Rituals in Old Norse Myths in 2004, I wanted to continue onto the initiation narratives that we find in the saga literature, a theme that had been pointed out by Lotte Motz in her 1993 publication The Beauty and the Hag: Female Figures of Germanic Faith and Myth, where she included a chapter discussing the initiation narratives of fornaldarsǫgur (Sagas of Old Times). However, she only presented short summaries – but these summaries caught my immediate attention and have been with me all the while until I finally sat down to go through these narratives in detail, in their original language and in various translations.

These sagas are usually dismissed as late sources and fairy tales. Motz’ presentation of these stories was only summarized, but I wanted to delve into them and show how they, like the myths of the Eddas, in fact drew heavily on pre-Christian, religious themes, if only we look to the underlying structures and the deeply pagan themes that keep popping up in what I see as a meaningful and clearly pagan context. Apparently, this was not something that the university wanted to endorse, and I set my mind on other projects, such as the work on the meanings of poetical metaphors in Edda and Skaldic poetry that I first presented in a YouTube lecture series between 2009 and 2012, and which finally, in 2013, became manifest in my book The Seed of Yggdrasill.

This Book

As you might deduce from the above, I have long since wanted to make this book, but the time, effort and research involved required financing. It is thanks to my patrons who supported me economically in return for ongoing lectures that it was finally possible for me to take the time to do the research and the presentations, chapter by chapter. I learned a lot in the making. When I had gone through most of the sources that I had uncovered, bit by bit, about seiðr and related arts, I realized that the old urge to write about initiation narratives in the sagas made total sense in the context of the larger project about seiðr and so, I decided to include it.

Terminology: Fjǫlkyngi, Íþróttir and Seiðr

In the first chapter, we shall discuss the term seiðr, which has an uncertain etymology, but which is clearly associated, at least conceptually, to several modern English terms, such as «shamanism», witchcraft, sorcery and divination (as in oracular divination and prophecies). The term fjǫlkyngi [pronounced fee-uuuhl-kýn-gee] has been much overlooked in favor of the term seiðr, but as I was going through the written sources in the original, Old Norse language, it became obvious to me that the term fjǫlkyngi – meaning Great Knowledge – was in fact the most common term for what we today mostly associate with the term seiðr. In modern translations, the term is usually just rendered as witchcraft or sorcery, which I think is way too narrow for its original meaning.

As we shall see, fjǫlkyngi was an umbrella term which included many different but related arts; everything from seiðr [oracular divination and fate magic, witchcraft] galdrar [spell-songs], runes, skáldskap [poetry], berserksgangr [battle frenzy], hamremmi [shapeshifting], tǫfr [sorcery], necromancy, out-of-body travelling, and healing. All these arts of fjǫlkyngi are connected and seen as the arts practiced and taught by the god Óðinn, although he had learned the most powerful form, the seiðr part, from the goddess Freyia. The arts of fjǫlkyngi are also part of a broader term, íþróttir – sports, skills. This is another term that keeps reappearing in the sources. Íþrótt means skill or sport. The term was made up from ið- (who is/moving with) and þróttr (strength).

In modern Norwegian, the descendant of íþrótt was idrett, which means sport – as in the Olympic games and football sort of sports. In modern Norwegian, an idrettsmann means a sportsman, someone who practices a sport; a footballer, a rower, a runner, a thrower – all kinds of sportsmanship. In Old Norse, an iðrottamaðr meant a man of skills – and could refer to him being good at physical sports, but also to him being a good craftsman, or good at poetry, magic, or memorizing songs and stories – in short, any sort of skill or craft, including witchcraft. As we shall see, these are but a few of the terms that we find in the sources, and which I have listed in the end of this introduction.

Our Written Sources (and Source Criticism)

In this book, I have concentrated heavily on written sources; the Sagas, the Eddas, Skaldic poetry as well as chronicles and outsider descriptions in other languages such as Latin, Greek or Arabic. The sources are, of course, problematic in the sense that they are written either by outsiders who could not possibly understand all the things that they had seen or heard about, or by descendants who could not possibly understand everything about the mindset of their pagan forebears, and whose Christian attitudes towards paganism and pagan practitioners is sometimes palpable.

However, when put together, we do see that themes reappear to strengthen each other, that there are sometimes underlying structures that certainly belong to a pre-Christian world, and that many of the descriptions actually read just like ethnographic or anthropological reports from more recent times, descriptions that, by comparison with later and faraway sources, do indeed seem quite realistic, and which seem to reflect heavily on ancient, pre-Christian beliefs and rites. Also, when we dismiss the more colorful and less realistic sagas as fairy tales, we completely miss out on the fact that stories told in ethnographies of actual sorcerers, shamans, and other practitioners of interesting arts – practitioners from traditional societies, show that magic and sorcery, prophecies and spirit worlds are parts of their worldview and have been since time immemorial.

Their stories - of how they learned and how they healed or helped in some way through their arts - will always sound like fairy tales to us modern westerners, at least. But to those who grew up with it and learned to navigate it, this was a dreamscape as real as any other landscape. When looking at these stories with that in mind, we might actually learn a lot about the pre-Christian realities that always lurk - and lurk quite powerfully - behind the layers of Christian attitudes and editions.

We ought to also remember that Scandinavians and Icelanders of the High Middle Ages – among whom the saga writers found themselves - still spoke the same language and knew many of the same stories that their immediate forebears had known. Icelanders in particular took a keen interest in the lore and history of old, and had a very conscious, culture-saving and history-saving approach. We find it stated outright that they wanted to show that they did not just descend from pirates and their slaves, but that they had known a sophisticated culture with a level of poetry and literature that was in fact top notch.

Some of the saga authors, such as Snorri Sturluson, were the last remaining skáldir [bards, poets, reciters], living practitioners of an age-old, orally transmitted literature tradition that reached, unbrokenly, back into the pagan past. Snorri knew hundreds of ancient poems and thousands of verses by heart and could recite them orally on demand. He did not write his sagas or his Prose Edda. He told them. Orally. He was the last oral transmitter of the lore, as far as we know. The reason his stories were written down, was because he was also a wealthy chief who could afford hiring the local clergy scribes to put his orally transmitted stories into pen on parchment.

We can only assume that this was in fact the common way of transmitting oral lore into written lore, and that many of the family sagas may have been told orally by the family or region’s skáld or wise, knowing person, who used transcribers from the monasteries to write them down, often paid for by wealthy men who saw the need to preserve their histories in writing.

It should also be noted that medieval people generally, worldwide, even if long since Christianized, still had a view on reality that certainly included magic, supernatural powers and spiritual mysteries to an extent that we today can barely imagine. What sounds like fairy-tales to us might have sounded like true stories of deep mysteries to them. This is why we should not see the saga writers as funny fairytale-writers, but as recorders of what they considered to be history in a world that did in fact (to them, at least), contain more than one dimension of reality.

We should stop looking at these stories with condescendence and start taking them seriously, as examples of an actual, cultural mindset, and sometimes even of spiritual traditions that were as sacred to the people who first told the stories, as any other religion is to their flock. Although the saga writers also knew of humor when they write about these supernatural and fairy-tale-like matters, it becomes clear that this mindset of magical reality was, in fact, also real and self-evident to them, just as they wrote it for an audience that would also just know that these things happened, and that those places and beings existed.

They would have humor about the ordinary human world, too. It was still real. With some discernment and consideration of the times and cultures in which the piece was written down, it is possible to get a rather good picture not only of how the scribes and chroniclers thought, but also of what fjǫlkyngi and seiðr were really about, not only to medieval descendants, but even, to a great extent, to their pre-Christian forebears.

Comparative Contexts

No spiritual practice every emerged in a vacuum, and just as seiðr was essential and central to the pre-Christian religion in Scandinavia, so was it closely connected to similar practices in many other cultures, both as a result of historical movements and of cultural interaction with others. Other cultural influences may certainly have played a part in the evolution of seiðr in Norse society; it is not far-fetched to see a connection to ancient European oracular traditions, such as the famous Oracle of Delphi. The Norse vǫlur, ordained female specialists in seiðr, display many similarities to the Greek oracles, and seem to have specialized in divination through communication with spirits.

We are going to have a closer look at this tradition in chapter 2 about seiðr as a tradition of oracular divination. However, divination through communication with spirits is also common to «shamanism». When going through the sources describing seiðr, we must also consider terms such as witchcraft, sorcery and magic; sometimes malignant - practices that are also common in shamanistic societies as they draw from a similar concept of several dimensions of reality, and from the perceived existence of spirit beings interacting with humans.

Shamanism

So, I have already mentioned «shamanism» twice. This is because «shamanism», as an ethnographic umbrella term, seems so very related to the art of seiðr that scholars have been endlessly discussing whether or not seiðr can be seen as a Scandinavian form of «shamanism», or whether it has a completely different form and context, a discussion that is really about how to define «shamanism» in the first place. If we understand «shamanism» as particular to the Siberian culture that provided the term for it, then we cannot use it to describe related practices in other cultures.

For the last decade, there have been objections about using loan words from other cultures, a habit that is a bit hard to just stop because borrowing and influencing from other cultures it is how languages and cultures have evolved throughout the entirety of human history, and it would seem that even our brains are hardwired to pick such things up and reuse them on their own terms. Our languages and cultures are literally a bunch of diverse terms and concepts from just about everywhere. Our age might be the first to see a conscious and critical approach to what has simply just happened since forever.

Our recent history of colonialism and oppression of other cultures and the general identity mindset of the modern world has led, understandably, to the negative concept of cultural appropriation. The best argument from an academic point of view is perhaps that the term shamanism, for example, is based on a term that meant something very culture-specific to the people who first used it, while the term has now become a generalizing umbrella term for practices with lots of similarities across the entire world.

This level of comparativeness may be problematic, as it will miss out on the culturally unique, and usually also employ one’s own culture’s standpoint as the objective side, or as the norm, while everything from other cultures is compared to and seen as little more than aspects of the objective norm (which is, ironically, always subjective). Another reason why the concept of cultural appropriation has grown as a negative thing may possibly be due to the fact that terms like shaman and shamanism has not only remained an academic term that makes it easier to see the underlying phenomenon as such, regardless of cultural context.

They have, for decades now, been used by so many modern, New Age westerners appropriating the role of shaman – often in order to make money. This tendency could certainly be seen as disrespectful towards the original cultures that practiced «shamanism» and endorsed shamans, especially as western culture has a sorry history of severely and cruelly oppressing exactly these kinds of cultures and cultural expressions. For the last century or so, however, the term has been used as an academic, ethnographic, anthropological term, globalized to describe almost any practice worldwide that involves:

The perception of a multidimensional world or many worlds inhabited by diverse kinds of non-physical or spirit beings that may interact with and sometimes enter the human or the physical world.

The traveling of the soul into other dimensions of reality

The summoning of and communication with spirit entities

The use of techniques of ecstasy such as drumming, dance or song, which puts the shaman in a state of trance where it is possible to travel outside of the body, or commune with spirit entities.

Whatever term should be applied, it is a fact that these four points above together are found in many different cultures worldwide and have very ancient roots. We have no other generalized term for this, so I will be using the term shamanism as a generalizing umbrella term that places one culture’s form of shamanism in connection to others – and the sheer number of cultures that have known some form of shamanism tells me that the core of the practice must be very, very ancient. Whatever one thinks about this, we cannot overlook the fact that «shamanism» in its broadest sense, at least, the umbrella term ethnographic version, shares many likenesses to descriptions of seiðr, even when the seiðr turns oracular or else into some voodoo-like witchcraft sorcery thing.

Original Shamanism

The term «shamanism» derives, originally, from a Siberian people, the Tungusic Evenki word; šamán, of uncertain etymology. It is possibly derived from another Tungusic word; ša- to know. Another possible etymological connection is to the Sanskrit word saman, which meant song. Incidentally, another Sanskrit word for song is seid, which could possibly be related to Norse seiðr. The word was a title, referring to a singer or a storyteller who knew things, but the Tungisic šamán had a wider meaning; he or she was a person who could alter consciousness through techniques of ecstasy such as the use of a repetitive drum beat, song, dance and even drugs. In a state of ecstasy, the sáman could invoke spirit helpers or else travel in spirit outside of the body, often in the shape of an animal. The soul of the šamán could travel into other worlds or dimensions of reality, into the past or the future, gathering information needed by the community or appealing to spiritual powers for help and guidance.

«Shamanism» as a Broad Umbrella Term

The terms shaman, «shamanism» and shamanistic were later applied by anthropologists and ethnographers as a collective term for similar, almost identical practices found in many other circumpolar cultures, from Siberia to the Urals, Scandinavia, Greenland and North America. Similar practices among hunter-gatherers have also been recorded in just about every continent on this earth, and until recently, it has been common to refer to these practices as «shamanism», even if they take place in widely different cultures far removed from each other in space and time.

Such universality suggests that the core of what constitutes «shamanism» as an umbrella term is extremely ancient and may have been practiced in some form or other by most if not all human cultures prior to the great civilizations. Some forms, such as the Norse seiðr, were practiced even in early agricultural, sedentary communities, well into the Iron and Viking Ages. In Scandinavia, the last practitioners of «shamanism» were the Sámi, whose shaman was called a Noaidi – a profession that survived into the present day, even if it was heavily oppressed between the 17th and 20th centuries.

New Age «Shamanism»

In the modern age, «shamanism» has been revived and reconstructed in many alternative spiritual movements in the Western world. Shaman classes and workshops abound, and scholars are speaking of New Age Shamanism. The shamanistic experience of altered consciousness, communication with spirits and out-of-body travel appears, at least according to many shaman classes, to be a talent available to all human beings on a psychological level; integrated into our psyches, ready to be tapped into at will. If this is true, its universality can only testify to its antiquity.

To what degree modern shamans experience the same as those who grew up in diverse shamanistic cultures, we cannot know, but we do know that modern practitioners really do lack something that those ancient shamans had, and still have in certain cultures: the support of a whole community partaking in a shamanistic, animistic worldview, giving the shamans a recognized social status as specialist navigators in a multidimensional reality that is perceived by everybody.

Prehistoric Influences

The Sámi people represent a Finnic-speaking, ethnic minority of many different branches living all over Scandinavia, Finland and parts of western Russia. There used to be a lot of discussion about whether they represented an aboriginal population that was later overrun by Germanic-speaking newcomers, or whether they came in later. Modern DNA research has provided a quite definite answer; both the Germanic-speaking populations and the Finnic-speaking populations descend from the same, many different entries into the north, which happened between 10.000 and 3.000 years ago.

The only difference in our gene-pools is to what degree certain migrations came to dominate among the different ethnicities in the North. Ten thousand years ago, after the last great glaciers had vanished from the Scandinavian peninsula, groups of Ice Age hunter-gatherers began to seep in, some from Doggerland in the southwest, others from southeastern Europe. The people who came in from (the now submerged) Doggerland had the same origins as those who first settled the British Isles; they were all descendants of people who were responsible for the great cave art in Iberia and southern France. They tended to be brown-skinned, black-haired and blue-eyed.

The south-western ones came out of the Balkan and the