Seiðr

In Old Norse, seiðr (sometimes anglicized as seidhr, seidh, seidr,

seithr, seith, or seid) was a type of magic which was practised in
Norse society during the Late Scandinavian Iron Age. The practice
of seiðr is believed to be a form of magic which is related to both
the telling and the shaping of the future. Connected to the Old
Norse religion, its origins are largely unknown, and the practice of
it gradually declined after the Christianization of Scandinavia.
Accounts of seiðr later made it into sagas and other literary sources,
while further evidence of it has been unearthed by archaeologists.
Various scholars have debated the nature of seiðr, some of them
have argued that it was shamanic in context, involving visionary
journeys by its practitioners.

Seiðr practitioners were of both sexes, although it appears that

practicing it was considered a feminine trait, with sorceresses being
variously known as vǫlur, seiðkonur and vísendakona. There were
also accounts of male practitioners, who were known as seiðmenn,
but by practicing magic, they brought a social taboo, which was
known as an ergi, upon themselves, and they were sometimes
persecuted as a result.[1] In many cases these magical practitioners
would have had assistants to aid them in their rituals. A depiction of Freyja. Within Norse
paganism, Freyja was the deity
In pre-Christian Norse mythology, seiðr was associated with both primarily associated with seiðr
the god Óðinn, a deity who was simultaneously responsible for
war, poetry and sorcery, and the goddess Freyja, a member of the
Vanir who was believed to have taught the practice to the Æsir.[2]

In the 20th century, adherents of various modern Pagan new religious movements adopted forms of
magico-religious practice which include seiðr. The practices of these contemporary seiðr-workers have
since been investigated by various academic researchers who are operating in the field of pagan studies.

Contents
Terminology and etymology
Old Norse literature
Sagas
Erik the Red
Other sagas
Practices
Mythology
Óðinn and seiðr
Freyja and seiðr
Origins
 Seiðr and gender roles in Norse society
Contemporary Paganism
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
Academic books and papers
Non-academic sources

Terminology and etymology

Seiðr is believed to come from Proto-Germanic *saiðaz, cognate with Lithuanian saitas, 'tie, tether' and
Proto-Celtic *soito- 'sorcery' (giving Welsh hud, Breton hud 'magic'), all derived from Proto-Indo-European
*soi-to- 'string, rope', ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *seH2i- 'to bind'.[3]

Related words in Old High German (see German Saite, used both in string instruments and in bows) and
Old English refer to 'cord, string,' or 'snare, cord, halter' and there is a line in verse 15 of the skaldic poem
Ragnarsdrápa that uses seiðr in that sense.[4] However, it is not clear how this derivation relates to the
practice of seiðr. It has been suggested that the use of a cord in attraction may be related to seiðr, where
attraction is one element of the practice of seiðr magic described in Norse literature and with witchcraft in
Scandinavian folklore.[4] However, if seiðr involved "spinning charms", that would explain the distaff, a
tool used in spinning flax or sometimes wool, that appears to be associated with seiðr practice.[4] In any
case, the string relates to the "threads of fate", that the Nornir spin, measure, and cut.

Old English terms cognate with seiðr are siden and sidsa, both of which are attested only in contexts that
suggest that they were used by elves (ælfe); these seem likely to have meant something similar to seiðr.[5]
Among the Old English words for practitioners of magic are wicca (m.) or wicce (f.), the etymons of
Modern English 'witch'.

Old Norse literature

In the Viking Age, the practice of seiðr by men had connotations of
unmanliness or effeminacy, known as ergi, as its manipulative aspects ran
counter to masculine ideal of forthright, open behavior.[6] Freyja and perhaps
some of the other goddesses of Norse mythology were seiðr practitioners, as
was Óðinn, a fact for which he is taunted by Loki in the Lokasenna.

Sagas

Erik the Red

In the 13th century Saga of Erik the Red, there was a seiðkona or vǫlva in The Skern Runestone
Greenland named Þórbjǫrg ('protected by Thor'). She wore a blue cloak and a has a curse regarding a
headpiece of black lamb trimmed with white ermine, carried the symbolic 'siþi' or 'seiðr worker'.
distaff (seiðstafr), which was buried with her, and would sit on a high
platform. As related in the saga:
 En er hon kom um kveldit ok sá maðr,
er móti henni var sendr, þá var hon
svá búin, at hon hafði yfir sér
tuglamöttul blán, ok var settr steinum
allt í skaut ofan. Hon hafði á hálsi sér
glertölur, lambskinnskofra svartan á
höfði ok við innan kattarskinn hvít. Ok
hon hafði staf í hendi, ok var á
knappr. Hann var búinn með
messingu ok settr steinum ofan um
knappinn. Hon hafði um sik
hnjóskulinda, ok var þar á wood[8]), and therein was a large skin-bag, in
skjóðupungr mikill, ok varðveitti hon
þar í töfr sín, þau er hon þurfti til
fróðleiks at hafa. Hon hafði á fótum
kálfskinnsskúa loðna ok í þvengi
langa ok á tinknappar miklir á
endunum. Hon hafði á höndum sér
kattskinnsglófa, ok váru hvítir innan
ok loðnir.[7]
Now, when she came in the evening,
accompanied by the man who had been sent to
meet her, she was dressed in such wise that she
had a blue mantle over her, with strings for the
neck, and it was inlaid with gems quite down to
the skirt. On her neck she had glass beads. On
her head she had a black hood of lambskin, lined
with ermine. A staff she had in her hand, with a
knob thereon; it was ornamented with brass, and
inlaid with gems round about the knob. Around
her she wore a girdle of soft hair (or belt of touch
which she kept the talismans needful to her in
her wisdom. She wore hairy calf-skin shoes on
her feet, with long and strong-looking thongs to
them, and great knobs of latten at the ends. On
her hands she had gloves of ermine-skin, and
they were white and hairy within.[9]

Other sagas

As described by Snorri Sturluson in his Ynglinga saga,[10] seiðr includes both divination and manipulative
magic. It seems likely that the type of divination of seiðr-practitioners was generally distinct, by dint of an
altogether more metaphysical nature, from the day-to-day auguries performed by the seers (menn framsýnir,
menn forspáir).

However, in chapter 44 of the Icelandic saga Vatnsdæla saga, Þórdís Spákona loans someone her black
cloak and stick (stafsprotann) for magic. The stick is used to strike a man three times on his left cheek to
make him forget and three times on his right cheek to make him remember.

Practices
Price noted that, because of its connection with ergi, seiðr was undoubtedly located on 'one of society's
moral and psychological borders'.[11] Seiðr involved the incantation of spells (galdrar, sing. galdr).[12]

Practitioners may have been religious leaders of the Viking community and usually required the help of
other practitioners to invoke their deities, gods or spirits. As they are described in a number of other
Scandinavian sagas, Saga of Erik the Red in particular, the practitioners connected with the spiritual realm
through chanting and prayer. Viking texts suggest that the seiðr ritual was used in times of inherent crisis, as
a tool for seeing into the future, and for cursing and hexing one's enemies. With that said, it could have
been used for great good or destructive evil, as well as for daily guidance.[13]

One author, Neil Price, argues that it was very likely that some parts of the practice involved sexual acts.[11]
Scholars have highlighted that the staffs have phallic epithets in various Icelandic sagas.[14]

Mythology
Óðinn and seiðr

British archaeologist Neil Price noted that "the realm of sorcery"

was present in Óðinn's many aspects.[15]

In Lokasenna, according to the Poetic Edda, Loki accuses Óðinn of

practising seiðr, condemning it as an unmanly art (ergi). A
justification for this may be found in the Ynglinga saga, where
Snorri opines that following the practice of seiðr rendered the
practitioner weak and helpless.

One possible example of seiðr in Norse mythology is the prophetic The 7th century Tängelgårda stone
vision given to Óðinn in the Vǫluspá by the völva after whom the shows Óðinn leading a troop of
poem is named. Her vision is not connected explicitly with seiðr; warriors all bearing rings. Valknut
however, the word occurs in the poem in relation to a character symbols are drawn beneath his
called Heiðr (who is traditionally associated with Freyja but may be horse, which is depicted with four
identical with the völva).[16] The interrelationship between the legs.
vǫlva in this account and the Norns, the fates of Norse lore, is
strong and striking.

Another noted mythological practitioner of seiðr was Gróa, who attempted to assist Thor, and who in the
Svipdagsmál in a poem entitled Grógaldr "Gróa's spell" is summoned from beyond the grave.

Freyja and seiðr

Like Óðinn, the Norse goddess Freyja is also associated with seiðr in the surviving literature. In the
Ynglinga saga (c.1225), written by Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson, it is stated that seiðr had originally been
a practice among the Vanir, but that Freyja, who was herself a member of the Vanir, had introduced it to the
Æsir when she joined them.[17]

Freyja is identified in Ynglinga saga as an adept of the mysteries of seiðr, and it is said that it was she who
taught it to Óðinn:

Dóttir Njarðar var Freyja. Hon var blótgyðja. Hon kenndi fyrst með Ásum seið, sem Vǫnum
var títt.

"Njǫrðr’s daughter was Freyja. She presided over the sacrifice. It was she who first acquainted
the Æsir with seiðr, which was customary among the Vanir."

Origins
Since the publication of Jacob Grimm's socio-linguistical Deutsches Wörterbuch (p.  638) in 1835,
scholarship draws a Balto-Finnic link to seiðr, citing the depiction of its practitioners as such in the sagas
and elsewhere, and linking seiðr to the practices of the noaidi, the patrilineal shamans of the Sami people.
However, Indo-European origins are also possible.[18] Note that the Finnish word seita and the Sami
variants of the term sieidde refer to a human-shaped tree or a large and strangely-shaped stone or rock and
do not necessarily reference magical power. There is a good case, however, that these words do derive
ultimately from seiðr.[19]
Seiðr and gender roles in Norse society
Strength and courage are traditionally manly qualities that were highly valued in Old Norse societies. This
is exemplified in the attitudes surrounding seiðr and its place as a feminine craft.

A woman practicing seiðr would sometimes be called völva, meaning seeress. She would also sometimes
be described as spá-kona or seið-kona, meaning 'prophecy-woman' and 'magic-woman', respectively.[20]
Because seiðr was viewed as a feminine practice, any man who engaged in it (seiðmaðr)[21] was
associated with a concept called ergi, the designation of a man in Norse society who was unmanly,
feminine and possibly homosexual.[20]

Sometimes, female practitioners of the craft would take on young male apprentices, and those who became
mothers would teach the practice to their sons.[22] Though not seen as a respectable thing, it was not rare
for men to be involved in seiðr magic.

Contemporary Paganism
Contemporary Paganism, also referred to as Neo-Paganism, is an umbrella term used to identify a wide
variety of new religious movements, particularly those influenced by the various pagan beliefs of
premodern Europe.[23][24] Several of these contemporary pagan religions draw specifically on the original
mediaeval religious beliefs and practices of Anglo-Saxon England as sources of inspiration, adopting such
Anglo-Saxon deities as their own.

Seiðr is interpreted differently by different groups and practitioners, but usually taken to indicate altered
consciousness or even total loss of physical control.[25] Diana L. Paxson and her group Hrafnar have
attempted reconstructions of seiðr (particularly the oracular form) from historical material.[26] Author Jan
Fries regards seiðr as a form of "shamanic trembling", which he relates to "seething", used as a shamanic
technique, the idea being his own and developed through experimentation.[27] According to Blain, seiðr is
an intrinsic part of spiritual practice connecting practitioners to the wider cosmology in British Germanic
Neopaganism.[28]

References

Footnotes
1. Strom, F (10 May 1973). "Nith, Ergi and 5. Hall 2004, pp. 117–30.
Old Norse Moral Attitudes" (http://vsnrweb- 6. Hall 2007, p. 148.
publications.org.uk/Nid,%20ergi%20and% 7. Eiríks saga rauða (http://www.heimskringl
20Old%20Norse%20moral%20attitudes.pd
a.no/wiki/Eiríks_saga_rauða), Chapter 4.
f) (PDF).
8. Gundarsson, Kveldúlfr. "Spae-Craft, Seiðr,
2. Price 2002, pp. 91, 108.
and Shamanism" (http://www.hrafnar.org/ar
3. Hyllested, Adam, 2010, 'The Precursors of ticles/kveldulf/spaecraft/). www.hrafnar.org.
Celtic and Germanic'. in SW Jamison, HC Retrieved 10 May 2017.
Melchert & B Vine (eds), Proceedings of 9. 'The Saga of Erik the Red (http://sagadb.or
the Twenty-First Annual UCLA Indo- g/eiriks_saga_rauda.en)', Chapter 4.
European Conference, Los Angeles,
October 30th and 31st, 2009. Dr. Ute
Hempen Verlag, Bremen, pp. 107-128.
4. Heide 2006, pp. 164–68.
10. "Heimskringla — Ynglinga Saga, p. 2, sec.
7" (https://web.archive.org/web/201004060
41416/http://www.northvegr.org/lore/heim/0
01_02.php). www.northvegr.org. Archived
from the original (http://www.northvegr.org/l
ore/heim/001_02.php) on 6 April 2010.
Retrieved 10 May 2017.
11. Price 2002, p. 210.
12. Thorsson, Edred (1999). Witchdom of the
true: A study of the Vana-Troth and the
practice of seiðr. Smithville, TX: Runa-
Raven Press. ISBN 978-1-885972-12-5.
OCLC 755015906 (https://www.worldcat.or
g/oclc/755015906).
13. DuBois, Thomas A. (1999). Nordic
religions in the Viking Age. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press.
ISBN 0812235118. OCLC 40925957 (http
s://www.worldcat.org/oclc/40925957).
14. Price 2002, p. 217.
15. Price 2002, p. 94.
16. McKinnell 2001, pp. 394–417.
17. Price 2002, p. 108.
18. Hall 2004, pp. 121–122.
19. Parpola 2004, pp. 235–73.
20. Thor, Ewing (2008). Gods and
worshippers: In the Viking and Germanic
world. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Temous.
ISBN 9780752435909. OCLC 195680405
(https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/195680405).
21. A more general term for a male spiritual
practitioner was vitki.
22. Jochens, Jenny (1991). "Old Norse Magic
and Gender: þáttr þorvalds Ens Víðfǫrla".
Scandinavian Studies. 63 (3): 305–317.
JSTOR 40919289 (https://www.jstor.org/sta
ble/40919289).
23. Carpenter 1996, p. 40.
24. Lewis 2004, p. 13.
25. Harvey 1997.
26. Blain 2001, p. 21.
27. Fries 1996.
28. Blain 2001, p. 13.

Bibliography

Academic books and papers

Blain, Jenny (2001). Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic: Ecstasy and Neo-Shamanism in North
European Paganism (https://books.google.com/books?id=F80luiKZqPMC). London:
Routledge. ISBN 0-415-25650-X.
Carpenter, Dennis D. (1996). "Emergent Nature Spirituality: An Examination of the Major
Spiritual Contours of the Contemporary Pagan Worldview". In Lewis, James R. (ed.).
Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft. Albany: State University of New York Press.
pp. 35–72. ISBN 978-0-7914-2890-0.
DuBois, Thomas A. (1999). Nordic Religions in the Viking Age (https://books.google.com/bo
oks?id=g2-Lga0r62MC). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-
3511-8. Ch. 6.
Gardela, Leszek. Into Viking Minds: Reinterpreting the Staffs of Sorcery and Unraveling
Seidr. Brepols Publishers, 2009.
Hall, Alaric (2004). The Meanings of Elf, and Elves, in Medieval England (https://www.alaric
hall.org.uk/phd.php). Woodbridge: Boydell, 2007.
Hall, Alaric (2007). Elves in Anglo-Saxon England: Matters of Belief, Health, Gender and
Identity (https://books.google.com/books?id=G1V2N0GAkHQC). Woodbridge: Boydell
Press. ISBN 978-1-84383-294-2.
Harvey, Graham (1997). Listening people, Speaking Earth (https://books.google.com/books?
id=dOgeo46z7ZcC&q=seidr). London: C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. ISBN 978-1-85065-272-4.
Heide, Eldar (2006). "Spinning Seiðr". In Andrén, Anders; Jennbert, Kristina; et al. (eds.).
Old Norse Religion in Long-Term Perspectives: Origins, Changes, and Interactions (https://b
ooks.google.com/books?id=gjq6rvoIRpAC). Lund, Sweden: Nordic Academic Press.
pp. 164–168. ISBN 91-89116-81-X.
 Jakobsson, Ármann (2011). "Óðinn as mother: The Old Norse deviant patriarch". Arkiv för
nordisk filologi. 126: 5–16.
Jolly, Karen; Raudvere, Catherine; Peters, Edward (2002). Witchcraft and Magic in Europe:
The Middle Ages (https://books.google.com/books?id=5f5GcD1FwZYC). Athlone History of
Witchcraft and Magic in Europe. Vol. 3. London: Athlone Press. ISBN 978-0-485-89103-4.
Retrieved 28 October 2020.
Karlsson, Thomas (2002). Uthark: Nightside of the runes (https://b-ok.cc/book/5325164/bbb5
e1). Sundbyberg: Ouroboros. ISBN 91-974102-1-7. OCLC 186199355 (https://www.worldca
t.org/oclc/186199355). Featuring rune images by T. Ketola
Lewis, James R. (2004). The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements. London and
New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-514986-9.
McKinnell, John (2001). "On Heiðr". Saga-Book of the Viking Society (http://www.heathengo
ds.com/library/viking_society/2001_XXV_4.pdf) (PDF). Vol. 25. pp. 394–417.
North, Richard (1997). Heathen Gods in Old English Literature. Cambridge and New York:
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-03026-7.
Parpola, Asko (2004). "Old Norse SEIÐ(R), Finnish SEITA and Saami Shamanism". In Irma
Hyvärinen; Petri Kallio; Jarmo Korhonen (eds.). Etymologie, Entlehnungen und
Entwicklungen: Festschrift für Jorma Koivulehto zum 70. Geburtstag. Mémoires de la
Société Néophilologique de Helsinki, 64. Helsinki: Société Néophilologique. pp. 235–73.
Pollington, Stephen (2011). The Elder Gods: The Otherworld of Early England. Little
Downham, Cambs., UK: Anglo-Saxon Books. ISBN 978-1-898281-64-1.
Price, Neil (2002). The Viking Way: Religion and War in Late Iron Age Scandinavia.
Uppsala: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University. ISBN 91-506-
1626-9.
Tolley, Clive (2009). Shamanism in Norse Myth and Magic: Volume One. Helsinki:
Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia. ISBN 978-951-41-1028-3.

Non-academic sources
Fries, Jan (1996). Seidways: Shaking, Swaying and Serpent Mysteries. Mandrake. ISBN 1-
869928-36-9.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Seiðr&oldid=1102260473"

This page was last edited on 4 August 2022, at 05:29 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0;

additional terms may apply. By
using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.