Awesome Info for Reconstructing Seiðr! https://www.facebook.com/Odroerirjournal/notes

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

anuary 1, 2014 roundabouts 3:23in the evenin'

"Heið they called her, wherever she came to houses, the Völva with pleasing prophecies, she charmed them with spells; she performed seiðr wherever she could, with seiðr she played with minds, she was always the favourite of wicked women." Völuspá 22, TS- Terry Gunnell

On Dec. 31st the Daily Mail ran the following article:"The Viking witch's magic wand: 9th century grave relic 'was disabled by terrified villagers who feared its sorceress owner would rise from the dead"

The Daily Mail's attempt to depict a seiðr-woman.

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2531575/The-Viking-witchs-m... Óðrœrir saw the publication of this article as an opportunity to articulate a few points of interest.

 

The article speculates that perhaps "Bending or breaking the buried possessions of the dead could have served to neutralise their magical properties - preventing their former owners from casting spells from beyond the grave."This is not necessarily true.  Since the end of the Bronze Age, Scandinavians and other's have been sacrificing objects, in part, by ritually breaking them.  Perhaps a broken object nolonger belongs to "this world", much like a sacrificed animal, and according to Jack Glazier, may be a "surrogate for the conveners of the sacrifice."We would also like to point out that while it is true the "Völva" seemed to have, in some time and place, resided in the periphrial of society, this was not always the case.  The Oseberg ship burial contains some of the richest finds from the Viking age, and housed the bodies of two women.  One of whom has also been identified as a "Völva" by some scholars.  She seemed to reside in an important, central position within her society.

Woman's grave with staff. Reconstruction of a grave at Birka. Illustration by Thórnhallúr Thráinsson. Found In Neil Price´s Viking Way.

But what is seiðr?  What was a völva?  What do we know about the role of the staff's used by seiðr-women?  If you are wondering these questions, and want some deeper insight into the type of woman the Daily Mail is describing and whose staff is going to be going on display on March 27 at the British Museum's new early medieval gallery, then we hope we can help.Neil Price, Professor of Archaeology at Aberdeen, Scotland has written one of the most comprehensive books on the subject of Seiðr in The Viking Way: Religion and War in Later Iron-Age Scandinavia.  In it he covers not only the range of artifacts found (Including a variety of staffs), but goes into the history of their scholarship and enterpretations, as well as that of the role of magic in Scandinavian society, and of teh so-called "Völva".  If you are interested in seiðr, magic, or a tremendously large chunk of the Viking Age worldview, then this book is mandatory.  Despite that, it has been out of print.

The Viking Way, 1st Edition.

Has. Been.  We are celebrating the republishing of The Viking Way in a 2nd edition by releasing a review (of 1st edition!) in the coming weeks.  You can preorder the book at both Amazon and the publisher, Oxbow Books.http://www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/the-viking-way.htmlHowever, if you simply cannot wait to get your  hands on the book, we have another bit of literature on seiðr and seið-staffs which you can read right now.  The link is below, and it's found in a phenomenal book called Between Paganism and Christianity in the North, featuring scholars such as  Jens Peter Schjødt, and Rudolf Simek.  This is also highly recommended!

Between Paganism and Christianity in the North

So, in the meantime, enjoy this article found within Between Paganism by Leszek Gardela, called "A Biography of the Seiðr-staffs.  Towards an archaeology of emotions.  In it you will find special reference to and criticism of Neil Price´s enterpretations, which we think are important to consider when reading his book!http://www.academia.edu/347081/_Gardela_L._2009_A_Biography_of_the_... -Reference to Jack Glazier, in Encyclopedia of Social and Structural Anthropology. p 1133