The Vikings had a firm belief in both the supernatural and magic. They practiced several different types of magic including rune magic and Galdr magical chants, but the most common form of magic among the Vikings was Seidr, or more accurately Seiðr magic.
Seidr was almost exclusively practiced by female witches, who were known as Volva. According to Norse mythology, these Seiðr practitioners learned the art from the goddess Freyja.
Origins of Seidr in Norse Mythology
The word Siedr seems to mean “to tie” or “to tether” in Old Norse. This links Seidr with Norse ideas of fate. The Vikings believed that the Norns, the Norse fates, spun a person’s fate as a thread from birth, weaving it into the greater tapestry of life, and then cut the thread when a person died. The name Seidr seems to suggest that Seiðr practitioners pulled on and tied these threads to affect change in the world.
According to Norse mythology, Seidr magic was an art practiced by the Vanir gods, deities close to nature from a clan of deities separate from the Aesir, the gods led by Odin. Near the beginning of time, the Aesir and the Vanir gods went to war, and the Vanir are described using Seidr in their offense.
The Vanir goddess Gullveig was a powerful magic worker and used Seidr to penetrate the stronghold of the Aesir. In the battle that followed, she was pierced by spears and burned three times by the Aesir, but she used her magic to come back to life. She is specifically described as a Volva (witch) performing Seidr.
When the war was resolved in a truce, hostages were exchanged and among other Vanir, Freyja was sent to live among the Aesir. Like Gullveig, she was skilled in the art of Seidr, and at Odin’s request, taught the art to him. Freyja is also described as being installed as a high priestess among the Aesir, suggesting a connection between magic and worship.
Volva Seiðr Practitioners
Among the Vikings, witches who engaged in Seiðr practice were called Volva, or more accurately Völva, which means “wand-wed” or “staff-carrier” in Old Norse. This refers to a staff that was carried by the witches and used in their practice of Norse magic. Some ancient examples survive in the archaeological record. It is better described as a distaff, a longer wand used in spinning. Spinning was considered a female task, so the association with the distaff reiterates the feminine character of Seidr.
The principal power of the Volva was telling prophecy. It is a Volva who tells Odin the prophecy of Ragnarok. However, it is interesting to note that Freyja is never described as a seeress or having visions of the future. In contrast, the goddess Frigg was a powerful seeress who saw the fates of all, but never told anyone what she was.
In the Norse Sagas, Volva are described using Sedir to so various other things such as raising storms, casting love spells, sending nightmares to kill someone in their sleep, affecting memory, and healing. These types of spells often seem to have been achieved by singing magical enchantments. In one story, the god Thor gets a rock lodged in his skull in a fight with the giant Hrungnir. He goes to see the Volva Groa to have it removed, and she works by singing a spell.
The other thing that the sources seem to reveal about the Volva is that they lived outside of normal society. Instead, they wandered from town to town and farm or farm, where they were always welcomed in exchange for delivering prophecies and performing magic. They were treated with great respect on arrival and could speak with whomever they wished regardless of social rank. But they were clearly considered “other”.
While there were some male practitioners of Seidr, this was rare and generally considered taboo. In the story of the Lokasenna, in which Loki throws insults at all the gods over the dinner table, he ridicules Odin for engaging in the feminine art of Seidr. This didn’t seem to bother Odin, who coveted wisdom in all its forms.
Seiðr Magic Rituals
In all the surviving Norse texts, only one gives a lengthy description of what Volva looked like and how she undertook her Seidr rituals. It is the story of a Volva named Thorbjord traveling around Greenland, who stopped at the hall of Erik the Red.
She arrives at Erik’s hall wearing a floor-length blue or black cloak trimmed with precious stones sewn into the hem. She carries a jewel-encrusted wand and wears a stunning crystal necklace, which may have been in imitation of Brisingamen, the necklace worn by Freyja. She has a pouch at her waist for her other magical tools. She wears a hood made of black lamb skin and trimmed in ermine fur, calfskin slippers, and wildcat skin gloves lined with ermine fur. Cats were also associated with Freyja.
The witch is treated with great respect. She is served a special dinner of goat’s milk and an assortment of animal hearts. Later, she is escorted to a high seat from which to conduct her art, made comfortable with goose-down pillows.
To complete her work, she needs a chorus of women to function as backup singers. They will sing the magical galdr song that allows her to reach a state of ecstasy between life and death or between mortal and divine. It is when she is at this boundary that she can work her magic. In the story, there are no women present who know the chant, but they find a young Christian woman who learned it from her mother. She is eventually convinced to participate.
Grave of the Volva at Frykat
It is likely that a 9th-century burial found near the ring fortress of Fyrkat in Öland, Sweden was the burial of a Volva. It was a rich burial, with the woman placed in a horse-drawn carriage, indicating that she was a person of importance.
She wore a blue and red dress with gold thread and was buried with a wand or distaff, 82 cm long, made of iron, and decorated with bronze details. She wore several silver toe rings, which were unusual among the Vikings. Her clothing and staff connect her to Seidr.
Other pieces buried with her seem to be indicative of her Seidr practice. She had a small silver amulet in the form of a chair. This would seem to reflect the chair on which the Volva sat to deliver their prophecies.
She had a silver brooch plated in gold that contained white lead powder, which is toxic. It may have been used in certain rituals. She also had a small purse containing poisonous henbane seeds. When rubbed onto the skin as a salve, these can cause hallucinations. She also had bowls, animal bones, and other ritual objects.
Singing Galdr as Norse Magic
When Groa is described as singing a spell to heal the god Thor, she is singling a Galdr, which is a magical spell. There are also examples in the surviving sources of women singing Galdr to ease the pain of childbirth and send someone mad. Knowledge of these spells seems to be considered Seidr.
Odin is said to know a variety of magical songs, many not known to any other being. They could be used to blunt weapons, stop a spear in flight, heal the sick, hush stormy seas, and more.
Rune Magic in the Viking Age
Another type of magic commonly mentioned in the Viking world is rune magic. According to mythology, Odin saw the Norns using the runes to write fate and became jealous of their knowledge. Consequently, he hung himself from the world tree Yggdrasil for nine days and nights to learn the secrets of the runes.
Rune magic seems to have been considered a male art, as many Viking warriors are described as using the runes, but it is rarely associated with women. According to incidents in the sagas, it could be used to heal the sick, discover poisons, curse others, and much more.
It is unclear how closely Viking rune magic is related to the rune magic described in the Icelandic magical grimoires. These date from the 16th century onwards, so well after the Viking period and the Norse conversion to Christianity. There are also many clear Christian influences in the grimoires.
But one of the common magical approaches in the grimoires is stacking runes on top of one another to create a magical runic symbol, known as a Galdrastafir. These could detect thieves, protect against curses, and send prophetic dreams. The most famous Galdrastafir are Aegishjalmur, or the Helm of Awe, which grants success in battle, and Vegvisir, or the Norse Compass, which is a wayfinding rune.
The idea of stacking runes to create more complex magical symbols does seem to belong to the Viking Age. In the pre-Viking age, the runic letter combination ALU is very common but seems to have no meaning. Scholars suggest that it was a rune combination for protection. There are also examples of inscriptions with the same rune, such as the Tyr rune, written several times in a row for no apparent reason. Scholars suggest that this may have had a magical purpose.
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