Seidr II

Seiðr II

Certain aspects of Seidr were sexual in nature, leading Neil Price to argue that it was very likely that seidr actually involved sexual acts. Various scholars have argued that the staff used by seidr practitioners may have been used as an imitation penis. As evidence, they have highlighted the fact 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', Loki accuses Odin of practising seid, 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 seid rendered the practitioner weak and helpless.

One possible example of seid in Norse mythology is the prophetic vision given to Odin in the 'Völuspá' by the 'völva', 'vala' or seeress, 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 (who is traditionally associated with Freyja but may be identical with the völva). The interrelationship between the 'völva' in this account and the Norns, the fates of Norse lore, is strong and striking.

Another noted mythological practitioner of 'seiðr' was the witch Groa, who attempted to assist Thor, and who is summoned from beyond the grave in the Svipdagsmál.

Freyja and Seiðr

Like Oðinn, the Norse goddess Freyja is also associated with 'seiðr' in the surviving literature. In the 'Ynglingasaga' (c.1225), written by Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson, it is stated that 'seiðr' had originally been a practice among the Vanir clan of gods, but that Freyja, who was herself a member of the Vanir, had introduced it to the Æsir clan when she joined them.

The goddess Freyja is identified in 'Ynglinga saga' as an adept of the mysteries of seid, and it is said that it was she who taught it to Odin: 'Dóttir Njarðar var Freyja. Hon var blótgyðja. Hon kenndi fyrst með Ásum seið, sem Vönum var títt' ('Njörðr’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').

Old Norse literature

In the Viking Age, the practice of seid by men had connotations of unmanliness or effeminacy, known as 'ergi', as its manipulative aspects ran counter to the male ideal of forthright, open behaviour. Freyja and perhaps some of the other goddesses of Norse mythology were seid practitioners, as was Odin, a fact for which he is taunted by Loki in the 'Lokasenna'.

Sagas

Eric the Red

In the 13th century 'Saga of Eric the Red', there was a seiðkona or 'völva' in Greenland named Thorbjorg ('protected by Thor'). She wore a blue cloak and a headpiece of black lamb trimmed with white cat skin, carried the symbolic distaff ('seiðstafr'), which was often buried with her, and would sit on a high platform. As related in the Saga:

En er hon kom um kveldit ok sá maðr, er móti henni var sendr, þá var hon svá búin, at hon hafði yfir sér tuglamöttul blán, ok var settr steinum allt í skaut ofan. Hon hafði á hálsi sér glertölur, lambskinnskofra svartan á höfði ok við innan kattarskinn hvít. Ok hon hafði staf í hendi, ok var á knappr. Hann var búinn með messingu ok settr steinum ofan um knappinn. Hon hafði um sik hnjóskulinda, ok var þar á skjóðupungr mikill, ok varðveitti hon þar í töfr sín, þau er hon þurfti til fróðleiks at hafa. Hon hafði á fótum kálfskinnsskúa loðna ok í þvengi langa ok á tinknappar miklir á endunum. Hon hafði á höndum sér kattskinnsglófa, ok váru hvítir innan ok loðnir.

Now, when she came in the evening, accompanied by the man who had been sent to meet her, she was dressed in such wise that she had a blue mantle over her, with strings for the neck, and it was inlaid with gems quite down to the skirt. On her neck she had glass beads. On her head she had a black hood of lambskin, lined with ermine. A staff she had in her hand, with a knob thereon; it was ornamented with brass, and inlaid with gems round about the knob. Around her she wore a girdle of soft hair, and therein was a large skin-bag, in which she kept the talismans needful to her in her wisdom. She wore hairy calf-skin shoes on her feet, with long and strong-looking thongs to them, and great knobs of latten at the ends. On her hands she had gloves of ermine-skin, and they were white and hairy within.

Other sagas

As described by Snorri Sturluson in his 'Ynglinga saga' (sec. 7), seid includes both divination and manipulative magic. It seems likely that the type of divination practised by seid was generally distinct, by dint of an altogether more metaphysical nature, from the day-to-day auguries performed by the seers ('menn framsýnir', 'menn forspáir').

In 'Örvar-Odd's Saga', however, the cloak is black, yet the seiðkona also carries the distaff (which allegedly has the power of causing forgetfulness in one who is tapped three times on the cheek by it).