Galdr - what is it?

Galdr

Galdr (plural galdrar) is one Old Norse word for "spell, incantation", and which was usually performed in combination with certain rites. It was mastered by both women and men. Some scholars have assumed they chanted it in falsetto (gala).

The Old Norse word galdr is derived from a word for singing incantations, gala (Old High German and Old English: galan) with an Indo-European -tro suffix. In Old High German the -stro suffix produced galster instead.

The Old English forms were gealdor, galdor, ȝaldre "spell, enchantment, witchcraft", and the verb galan meant "sing, chant". It is contained in nightingale (from næcti-galæ), related to giellan, the verb ancestral to Modern English yell; cf. also the Icelandic verbað gala "to sing, call out, yell". In Dutch language gillen.

The German forms were Old High German galstar and MHG galster "song, enchantment" (Konrad von Ammenhausen Schachzabelbuch 167b), surviving in (obsolete or dialectal) Modern German Galsterei (witchcraft) and Galsterweib (witch).

The incantations were composed in a special meter named galdralag. This meter was similar to the six-lined ljóðaháttr but adds a seventh line. Another characteristic is a performed parallelism, see the stanza from Skirnismál.

A practical galdr for women was one that made childbirth easier, but they were also notably used for bringing madness onto another person, whence modern Swedish galen meaning "mad".Moreover, a master of the craft was also said to be able to raise storms, make distant ships sink, make swords blunt, make armour soft and decide victory or defeat in battles. Examples of this can be found in Grógaldr and in Frithiof's Saga. In Grógaldr, Gróa chants nine (a significant number in Norse mythology) galdrs to aid her son, and in Buslubœn, the schemes of king Ring of Östergötland are averted.

It is also mentioned in several of the poems in the Poetic Edda, and for instance in Hávamál, where Odin claims to know 18 galdrs.

Why Galdrtanz is called like that?

As you see word Galdr means – “Incantation, song, poem, enchantment, sing, chant”, from what we can conclude that it is a poem which was used in magical, ritual purposes – it is believed that this poem have powers – a magic poem. Tanz is a High German word and it means Dance – so literally can mean “Dance of magical poems”. And now how this poetic explanation is connected to Runes? As you know, and see, from our previous texts, Runes are Old European Alphabet, used in many ways – Divination, Magic, Writing, to make signs or symbols… poetically speaking Runes are magical, so this is there connection to galdr. If Runes are magical alphabet, and Galdr are magical words, dancing runes we dance many different powerful forms, symbols and abstractions, we are singing, storytelling, “enchanting” with our bodies, trough movement!