Seiðr
In Old Norse, seiðr was a type of magic practiced in Norse society during the Late Scandinavian Iron Age. The practice of seiðr is believed to be a form of magic relating to both the telling and shaping of the future. Connected with Norse religion, its origins are largely unknown, although it became gradually eroded following the Christianization of Scandinavia. Accounts of seiðr later made it into sagas and other literary sources, while further evidence has been unearthed by archaeologists. Various scholars have debated the nature of seiðr, some arguing that it was shamanic in context, involving visionary journeys by its practitioners.
Seiðr practitioners were of both sexes, although females are more widely attested, with such sorceresses being variously known as vǫlur, seiðkonur and vísendakona. There were also accounts of male practitioners, known as seiðmenn, but in practising magic they brought a social taboo, known as ergi, on to themselves, and were sometimes persecuted as a result. In many cases these magical practitioners would have had assistants to aid them in their rituals.
In pre-Christian Norse mythology, seiðr was associated with both the god Oðinn, 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.
In the 20th century, adherents of various modern Pagan new religious movements adopted forms of magico-religious practice that include seiðr. The practices of these contemporary seiðr-workers have since been investigated by various academic researchers operating in the field of pagan studies.
Terminology and etymology
Seiðr is believed to come from Proto-Germanic *saiðaz, cognate with Lithuanian saitas, "sign, soothsaying" and Proto-Celtic *soito- "sorcery", all derived from Proto-Indo-European *soi-to- "string, rope", ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *seH2i- "to bind".Related words in Old High German 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. 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. 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. 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 ; these seem likely to have meant something similar to seiðr. Among the Old English words for practitioners of magic are wicca or wicce, 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. Freyja and perhaps some of the other goddesses of Norse mythology were seiðr practitioners, as was Oðinn, 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 Greenland named Thorbjǫrg. She wore a blue cloak and a headpiece of black lamb trimmed with white ermine, carried the symbolic distaff, which was buried with her, and would sit on a high platform. As related in the Saga:Other sagas
As described by Snorri Sturluson in his Ynglinga saga, 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.However, in the Icelandic saga Vatnsdæla saga, a Spákona's cloak is black but she also carries a distaff, which allegedly had the power of causing forgetfulness in one who is tapped three times on the left cheek by it.
Practices
Price noted that, because of its connection with ergi, seiðr was undoubtedly located on 'one of society's moral and psychological borders'. Seiðr involved the incantation of spells and possibly a circular dance. Practitioners of seiðr were predominantly women, although there were male practitioners as well.These female practitioners were religious leaders of the Viking community and usually required the help of other practitioners to invoke their deities, gods or spirits. The seiðr ritual required not just the powers of a female spiritual medium but of the spiritual participation of other women within the Norse community: it was a communal effort. As they are described in a number of other Scandinavian sagas, Saga of Erik the Red in particular, the female 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.
Excerpt from Saga of Erik the Red about The Practice:
The seeress seems generally to have sat on a special platform or chair and to have used a staff or wand and a "drum". The ritual began with a call to the appropriate spirits, inviting them to participate in the rite. The magic seems to have begun when the seeress yawned, after which questions could be put to her.
Sex magic
Certain aspects of seiðr were sexual in nature, leading Neil Price to argue that it was very likely that it actually involved sexual acts. Scholars have highlighted that the staffs have phallic epithets in various Icelandic sagas.Mythology
Oðinn and ''Seiðr''
British archaeologist Neil Price noted that "the realm of sorcery" was present in Oðinn's many aspects.In Lokasenna, according to the Poetic Edda, Loki accuses Oðinn of practising seiðr, condemning it as an unmanly art. 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 vision given to Oðinn in the Vǫluspá by the Völva after whom the poem is named. Her vision is not connected explicitly with seiðr; however, the word occurs in the poem in relation to a character called Heiðr. The interrelationship between the 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 Oðinn, the Norse goddess Freyja is also associated with 'seiðr' in the surviving literature. In the Ynglinga saga, 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.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 Oðinn:
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 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. 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.''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 practising 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. Because Seiðr was viewed as a feminine practice, men who engaged in it were associated with a concept called ergi, the designation of a man in Norse society who was unmanly, feminine and possibly homosexual.
Sometimes, female practitioners of the craft would take on young male apprentices, and those who became mothers would teach the practice to their sons. Though not seen as a respectable thing, it wasn't 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. 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. Diana L. Paxson and her group Hrafnar have attempted reconstructions of seiðr from historical material. 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. According to Blain, seiðr is an intrinsic part of spiritual practice connecting practitioners to the wider cosmology in British Germanic Neopaganism.