Deconstructing Seid: A Form of Magic in Norse Paganism

Völva  from Fredrik Sander's 1893 Swedish 

edition of the Poetic Edda

Seid, or seiðr in Old Norse, or seidhr, seidh, seidr, seithr, or seithis in its anglicized versions, is a type witchcraft associated with women belonging to the pagan culture of the Norse in pre-Christian times. Mythologically, in the Ynglinga saga, written in 1225, it is stated that Freyja – the goddess of love, beauty, fertility, and war – is the one who introduces seid to the Æsir (the first gods), when she and the Vanir (the second gods) join pantheons. An example of seid magic appears in Völuspá, the first poem of the Poetic Edda, written sometime in the 10th or early 11th century; it depicts a vision of the creation of the world, and its approaching end as narrated by a völva addressing Odin – the ruler god.[1] Mainly known by its Icelandic term, a völva, or vǫlva in Old Norse, or vala in English, was a type of female prophet/shaman throughout Norse paganism.[2] Alternatively, the term spákona or spækona were also used to describe a practitioner of spá (prophecy).[3] Völvas were workers of various forms of indigenous magic and divination; most importantly, völvas were famous for being seiðkonas – practitioners of seid.[4] By analyzing the the mythology, archeology, and sociology of the North, one can try to conceptualize what this mysterious form of witchcraft known as seid was all about. 

At first glance, there is much temptation to link the term seid to sidh (or sith), term used for the legendary fairies of Ireland who once inhabited the surface of the land but now live hidden from humans; however, we now connect the Sidh fairies to the Tshuds, a supernatural race of creatures also vanished from the lands among the the Finnish, and Arctic Circle.[5] The etymology of the word “seid” is officially unknown; however, it is clear that there are  etymological equivalents known from Old High German and Old English words meaning ‘cord, string’ and ‘snare, cord, halter’; in fact, there is a line in verse 15 of the 9^th century skaldic poem Ragnarsdrápa, which uses seid in that context.[6] Subsequently, giving its connection with the word “string”, scholars argue that seid was about spinning, which could support the abundant presence of the distaff in Norse mythology; Norwegian Scholar Eldar Heide defends this argument, noting clear examples throughout Scandinavian folklore:

“With a cord, one can not only bind, but also attract things, and this is characteristic of seiðr. In perhaps half of the prose sources, the effect of seiðr is that desired objects, persons or resources, like fish, are drawn to the sorcerer. The clearest example is Saxo’s version of the seiðr séance in Hrólfs saga kraka [a 13-15^th C. manuscript depicting events in the late 5^th and 6^th C]. The prophetess’s task is to see where two boys are hiding, and Saxo says that they are ‘drawn out of their recess by the weird potency of the enchantress’s spells and pulled under her very gaze’. In Icelandic seiðr tradition, from recent times, attraction dominates and most of the sources have the fixed expression seiða til sín – ‘attract by seiðr’. In some of the sources, it is as if the victim is pulled by an invisible rope. As far as this kind of seiðr is concerned, the etymology ‘cord’ makes very good sense". [7]

Woman with distaff and spindle. Norway, 1717.

This cord/string theory actually holds a lot of validity. Norse people, just like the Greeks, believed that fate was controlled by three supernatural mythical völvas, the Norns - Urðr (Wyrd), Verðandi and Skuld – who controlled everybody’s life through a series of threads, making the cord/string theory culturally accurate. Many distaffs have been excavated from völva graves, along with wands and weapons.[8] There was even an instance in which a warrior and a woman were buried together, with the man holding a spear, and the women holding a wand.[9] This puts in perspective the power that the Norse people held magic up to. Even though the men fought wars with their blood and sweat, women were equally powerful in a spiritual level, being able to practice seid. This status of women as passive holders of amazing power is reflected in Nose Mythology. Odin is the ruler of the gods, and from his throne in Asgard (the world of the gods) he is able to observe the nine worlds of Nose Cosmology. He is a warrior and a frequent traveler, and he’s with no doubt the most powerful of gods, but then you have Frigg, Odin’s wife. She’s is not a warrior, she’s not associated with war, and unlike in Greek mythology, where Hera never tolerates Zeus’s multiple love affairs, Frigg never confronts Odin about his. She plays an extremely silent passive role, and yet Frigg holds the power to see everyone’s fate, but cannot reveal what she knows. In the Prose Edda (13^th C.), Odin has to sacrifice his eye at Mímir's spring (Mimir – the wise one) in order to gain the Wisdom of Ages, a knowledge that Frigg already knows. Frigg is as powerful as Odin, but in a different way, inwardly, magically; this kind of power holds the same caliber as Odin’s physical strength, for she’s the only other deity able to sit on Odin’s throne, with her distaff by her side. 

While the conceptual origin of seid might have come from spinning and weaving, the methodology by which this magic was performed was far more radical, presenting a different school of thought about seid. According to various historical accounts, völvas sat on platforms, reciting various galðrar (galðr is a singing incantation), until she, and sometimes the people present, transcended into a state of ecstasy where she was possessed by the spirts, and could work magic and predict the future.[10] This is definitely supported by the archeological finding of henbane seeds in völva graves, along with seeds of cannabis.[11] Henbane (hyoscyamus niger) is known for its psychoactive properties that include visual hallucinations and a sensation of flight. Seid could have also easily incorporated drumming sounds along with shamanic techniques taken from the Indigenous Sami people of the North. That is certainly the case presented by many scholars, who link seid magic to Finnic-Baltic origins, comparing the practice to that of the noaidi, the shamans of the Sami people. [12] However, there is an element of seid magic that is purely unique to the culture in which it was practiced, and that is the answer to the questions many ask when they first learn about seid – Why is it a woman’s art?  
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Freja by John Bauer (1882–1918)

In Lokasenna, a poem from the Poetic Edda, we learn from Loki (trickster god) that Odin once practiced seid on the island of Samsey (Samsø, Denmark), accusing him of being unmanly. Loki himself is also accused of being an ergi (unmanly), suggesting that he was willing to take the role of a passive partner in homosexual sex . It was implied that for a man to become a seiðmaðr (male practitioner of seid), one had to “become” a woman; this was extremely looked down in society, for seiðmaðrs were considered ergi. An example of this comes from the saga of Eric the Red (13^th C.), which narrates how Ragnvaldr Rettilbein, one of Harald Fairhair's sons by the Sami woman Snæfrid, was a seiðmaðr. The king had him burnt to death inside a house along other male practitioners.[13] There’s no subtlety here; if seiðmaðrs were considered homosexuals because they had to assume a woman’s role in order to practice seid, it is my belief that seid magic called for sexual rituals involving female intercourse – something a male could mimic though anal intercourse. Many source do indeed link  völva rituals with sex, but never flat out describe it (perhaps for fear of persecutions). Since seid magic and völvas fell under the jurisdiction of Freyja – goddess of fertility and sex – this is also culturally accurate; as demonstrated by archaeology, phallic symbols were worshiped all throughout the Norse lands in the form of statues. In Old Norse, vǫlva means "wand carrier" or "carrier of a magic staff”; even though most wands excavated from völva graves are distaffs, and regular wands (which are phallic by nature anyways), there has been findings of wands clearly shaped as phalluses.[14] Perhaps these were ritualistic phalluses used in seid magic. It is not a surprise that the term völva is phonetically similar to vulva; both terms originate from words of similar meaning: walwōn (Germanic) and volvere (Latin), meaning “to roll”, obviously referring to the labia of the vagina. With a combination of hallucinations, along with the transcendental power of what the french call la petit morte ( the spiritual release that comes with orgasm), völvas opened themselves up to the the spirit and magic realm.

Seid magic, and any other forms of witchcraft disappeared in the Norse lands with the Christianization of Scandinavia, which took a bit longer than the rest of Europe. In an example of common law by the Catholic Church, Edgar I, king of England in the 10^th century, also known as Edgar the peaceful, enacted the following laws:

"If any wicca (witch), wiglaer (wizard), false swearer, morthwyrtha (worshipper of the dead) or any foul contaminated, manifest horcwenan (whore), be anywhere in the land, man shall drive them out".

"We teach that every priest shall extinguish heathendom and forbid wilweorthunga (fountain worship), licwiglunga (incantations of the dead), hwata (omens), galdra (magic), man worship and the abominations that men exercise in various sorts of witchcraft, and in frithspottum (peace-enclosures) with elms and other trees, and with stones, and with many phantoms".[15]

Tough mostly unpracticed for centuries, today, seid magic, along with Norse paganism (and many other traditions) have been revived during the Polytheistic reconstructionism movement that started in the 60’s and 70’s, raising momentum in the 90’s, and bringing Neo-paganism and traditions such as Wicca as the fastest growing religions of the 21th century. Today Norse paganism is compiled within Germanic Neo-paganism (contemporary Heathenism), and even though it's not as big a other Neo-pagan paths such as wicca, and even though the movement has branched out in many groups (Ásatrú, Odinism, Germanic Wicca, etc), their goal is one - to reconstruct the spiritual ways of the old Scandinavia.

Among the leading contemporary authorities of Norse reconstructionism and magic is Freya Aswynn. I recommend her book “Northern Mysteries and magic: Runes, Gods, and Feminine Power” for anyone interested in runes, and Norse magic. The following recording from her CD “Songs of Yggdrasil” is perhaps the only recording available of a reconstructed galdr (chanting incantations used by völvas and other Norse shamans) invoking the gods:

  
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[1] Kathleen N. Daly, Nose Mythology A to Z. (New York: Facts On File books, 2004), 27, 108.

[2] Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok. (Lund, Norway: Gleerups förlag, 1922) 1081

[3] Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok, 851.

[4] Andrei A. Znamenski, The Beauty of the Primitive: Shamanism and Western Imagination. (New York: Oxford Press, 2007), 311.

[5]David Mac Ritchie (1893). Notes on the Word "Sidh" The journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 3 (4), 367-379

[6] Eldar Heide, “Spinning seiðr” (paper presented at the international conference Old Norse religion in long-term perspectivesOrigins, changes, and interactions, Lund, Sweden, June 3–7, 2004).

[7] Eldar Heide, “Spinning seiðr”

[8] Dick Harrison, and Kristina Svensson, Vikingaliv (Värnamo: Fälth & Hässler, 2007) 72

[9] Dick Harrison, and Kristina Svensson, Vikingaliv, 62.

[10] Heilan Yvette Grimes, The Norse Myths, (Boston: Hollow Earth Publishing, 2010) 296

[11] Dick Harrison, and Kristina Svensson, Vikingaliv, 62.

[12] Alaric Timothy Peter Hall, “The Meanings of Elf and Elves in Medieval England” (PhD diss., University of Glasgow, 2004).

[13] “The Saga of Erik the Red”, Icelandic Saga Database, accessed November 2, 2011. http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp/about/factsheets.html.

[14] Dick Harrison, and Kristina Svensson, Vikingaliv, 75.

[15] Sharon Turner, The history of the Anglo-Saxons, (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, 1807)151

Bibliography

Daly, Kathleen N. Nose Mythology A to Z. New York: Facts On File books, 2004.

Grimes, Heilan Yvette. The Norse Myths. Boston: Hollow Earth Publishing, 2010.

Hall, Alaric Timothy Peter.“The Meanings of Elf and Elves in Medieval England.” PhD diss., University of Glasgow, 2004.

Harrison, Dick, and Kristina Svensson. Vikingaliv. Värnamo: Fälth & Hässler, 2007.

Heide, Eldar .“Spinning seiðr”. Paper presented at the international conference Old Norse religion in long-term perspectivesOrigins, changes, and interactions, Lund, Sweden, June 3–7, 2004.

Hellquist, Elof. Svensk etymologisk ordbok. Lund, Norway: Gleerups förlag, 1922.

Icelandic Saga Database. “The Saga of Erik the Red.” Accessed November 2, 2011. http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp/about/factsheets.html. 

MacrRitchie, David."Notes of the word 'Sidh.'" The journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 3.4 (1893): 367-79

Turner, Sharon. The history of the Anglo-Saxons. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, 1807.

Znamenski, Andrei A. The Beauty of the Primitive: Shamanism and Western Imagination. New York: Oxford Press, 2007.