On SeiðR

By: Radböd Ártisson

 

 

It is well known that various different types of magics were known and practiced by our ancestors. The application of these skills was never the way of the majority of people, but there were enough practitioners that the abilities of practitioners were well known. Today, as an outgrowth of the Reawakening, one finds a certain number of individuals within the Heathen community who attempt to revive the crafts so that they may play an rôle in our modern Heathenry just as it did for our forefathers.

Our ancestors knew of a variety of magics including: rúncræft (rune-workings), galdR (the singing of magical songs or reciting of poems, presumably based on runic knowledge), the building of the niðstang (cursing pole), spá (prophesy) hamfarir (traveling outside the body in animal form), utiseta (mound-sitting to gain knowledge from the dead), and seiðR (evil runes, witchcraft).

 “Wait!” the reader may be thinking, “I’ve known people to practice seiðR so that we could speak to a god through him/her—and it wasn’t ‘evil’”. It is this misconception that will be addressed in this paper.

The Edda indicates that seiðR involves some sort of influence over the minds/souls of others. In Völuspá 22, HeiðR “seið hón leikinn” (deluded with seiðR), she is described as “ever the delight of evil women.”

 

From the statement in Heimskringla that Freyja was the first in ÁsgarðR to practice seiðR comes the mistaken conclusion that Freyja is the same as Gullveig. Gullveig is called HeiðR when she comes among men, and it is she who teaches the art to Freyja. Hyndluljod tells us that HeiðR is the daughter of the jötun, Hrimnir. In Volusungasaga we find that Hrimir’s daughter is a maidservant of Frigg, who plays as important an rôle as Loki is in the corruption of Order.
This brings us to the common assumption that Freyja Sýr taught seiðR to Óðinn. Nowhere in the lore is it stated that Freyja taught seiðR to Óðinn; this is simply the logical conclusion drawn from the fact that she brought the craft to the Æsir.

Very little is preserved in the lore regarding the methods used by a seiðkona (female practitioner, usually translated as “witch;” also seiðmaðr) or by the more rare seiðkarl (male practitioner). But we do know of three important details: (1) the use of a platform or high seat during the performance of enchantment; (2) the recitation of chants to enlist the aid of spirits; and (3) activities which were considered ergi (sexually shameful, esp. passive homosexuality). It is these three characteristics that have caused many writers to compare seiðR practices to the shamanism of other nations. This is an incorrect assumption. Although some elements of the shamanic complex are present in the lore, most notably faring forth in animal form to gain information or to do battle, they are specifically not associated with seiðR. Egil’s Saga accuses GunnhildR of being a hamhleypa (body-leaper) when she comes in swallow-shape to distract Egil from his poetry (ch. 59), but not of practicing seiðR.

 
The word “seiðR” is never used in conjunction with any sort of shape-shifting or out-of-body travel, let alone for journeys to one of the other worlds. Further, “seiðR” is never used for healing, soul-retrieval, or guiding the dead; nor is there any evidence that a seiðkona underwent any sort of traumatic initiation typical of shamanism. Moreover, practitioners of seiðR fail to demonstrate the amazing physical capabilities characteristic of shamans: the ability to avoid injury by extreme temperatures; resistance to cuts by knives or pins; or the ability to demonstrate incredible feats of physical control.

 
The purpose of the high seat, called a seiðhjallR, is not explained in any of the surviving lore. But we could speculate that its use may be similar to that of the þular stóll (thule seat) on which the worker applies all the might of his/her abilities, suspended between MiðgarðR and the other worlds. Such a seat may also make it easier for the practitioner to detach from the ordinary world and from the people around him/her.

 
The use of chants, called varðlokkur, was used to attract spirits to the working. A lone seiðkona hardly ever appears in the sagas. Troupes up to 80 are mentioned (Haralðs Saga ins Hárfagra), although some had to make due with available family members. The individuals performing the chant apparently required no magical skill or spiritual enlightenment.

 
One of the more difficult questions to answer is why the practice of seiðR seemed to imply sexual shame for men. The fact that this so is attested to by a wide spread of references: not only Ynglinga Saga, but also in Gísla Saga, where ÞorgrimR carries out his seiðR “með allri ergi ok skelmiskap” (with all femininity and devil working). And, of course, the oft-cited quote from Lokasenna where Loki matches Óðinn’s accusation that Loki has lived as a woman and borne children with the proportionately serious counter that Óðinn has practiced seiðR. Some have theorized that the practice of seiðR could have involved some sort of passive sexual reception, or that the entering of trance implied a loss of self-control that the Norse considered unmanly. Others have concluded that the practice of seiðR may have included some sort of cross-dressing or transgender activity to stimulate the worker’s psychic abilities; or that the use of seiðR in lieu of weapons to deal with adversaries was considered unscrupulous.

 The tenth-century Korpbron stone bears a carved inscription, made of encoded runestaves inside a cross that reads, “siþa Þur”—ÞórR performed seiðR. This connection of ÞórR with seiðR is particularly interesting in regards to the association of seiðR with ergi. One of ÞórR’s most notable adventures, as described in Þrymskviða, involves dressing as a bride to retrieve Mjöllnir, which makes him concerned that the Æsir might consider him argr (womanish). This suggests that there is much more to the mysteries of ÞórR than meets the eye!

 
The only sources in which we see references to seiðR are in the Old Norse—and all of these portray the art as malicious. Today, however, the art of seiðR is often confused with that of spá. This is most likely due to the fact that in Orvar-Odds Saga and Hrólfs Saga Kraki, two later and less reliable sources, the seeresses are referred to as seiðkonur. However, the work of spá, whose foretellings stem from inner knowledge or þúl-cræft which relies on the ability to bring forth the wisdom of the dead, is very different from that of seiðR, as a form of mind-control.

 On occasion, seiðR can have an implication of prophecy similar to spá. An example would be in Ynglinga Saga ch. 7:

”Óðinn knew that accomplishment…which is called

 seiðR, and from that he could know the ørlög of men and things that had not happened, and also thus cause the deaths or loss of hamingjur or loss of luck of men, and also thus take from one man wit or hamingja and give it to others.”

 

However, this is not the general depiction of seiðR, which is more often used as a means of malevolence.

 

“Visbur was the son of Valandi. Visbur had a son,

Domaldi whose stepmother worked seiðR to inflict ill luck

on him. SeiðR was worked so that his father could be slain. Huld, the völva, then told them that she would work such seiðR, but that ever after there would be slaughter among kinsmen in the Scylding family.”

~~Ynglingatal

“So it goes that Gunnhild worked seiðR and worked it such that Egil Skallagrimsson would never live peacefully on Iceland until she had seen him”

                                                                                         ~~Egil’s Saga

 

Another apparent use of seiðR occurs when Freyja Sýr is nearly given to the giant, Grep. Freyja is put under a spell (Völuspá 25). In Beli’s hall she is unconscious, listless, and wasting away for love. She longs for her husband, OðR (Svipdag), but cannot raise her eyes to meet his. She is returned to ÁsgarðR--through the efforts of UllR and FreyR--in this condition. In time the spell is broken by true love’s kiss. Gullveig is burnt for the third time for this.

 

In the opening lines of Skírnismál, Ingunar-FreyR is found to be under a similar spell. He is listless and wasting away for love, which leads to the wooing of GerðR through Skírnir. The cause of freyR’s condition is likewise his future mother-in-law, Aurboða (another name for Gullveig).

 

A third mythic example is that of Óðinn and Rind. According to Saxo Grammaticus, Rind insulted Óðinn three times, and on the third he touched a piece of bark upon which he had carved spells. She immediately fell sick, and, dressed as her nursemaid, Óðinn had his way with her in order to father Váli (Saxo’s Bous). A passage in Skáldskaparmál 9 informs us that “seiðR Yggr til Rindar”, Yggr-Óðinn worked seiðR on Rind. This is the same event referred to in Lokasenna 24.

 

We know next to nothing about the procedure our ancestors used in the performance of seiðR; and we know even less about the reasons for those techniques. We do know that seiðR was practiced as a means of interfering with the mind/soul complex of one’s enemies. And, while it was not socially acceptable, its practice was never strictly forbidden either.

 

As for those who claim to practice seiðR today? Some may be true to their crafts (hamfarir, spá, &c.), but are guilty of failing to call that craft by its appropriate name. Others may be performing mere witchery patterned after the traditions of other cultures or attempting to use runic formulas for woe-working ends. But nobody today practices true seiðR in a fashion anything like what our ancestors did. Unless the secrets are somehow rediscovered, no one will ever practice seiðR again.

 

 

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