The Norse Sorceress : Mind and Materiality in the Viking World

This study offers a comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and contextualized investigation of the figure of the völva, situating her in the wider context of pre-Christian Nordic religion, culture, and ritual practices. Old Norse literature abounds with descriptions of magic acts that allow ritual specialists of various kinds to manipulate the world around them, see into the future or the distant past, change weather conditions, influence the outcomes of battles, and more. While magic practitioners are known under myriad terms, the most iconic of them is the völva. As the central figure of the famous mythological poem Völuspá (The Prophecy of the Völva), the völva commands both respect and fear. In non-mythological texts similar women are portrayed as crucial albeit somewhat peculiar members of society. Always veiled in mystery, the völur and their kind have captured the academic and popular imagination for centuries. Bringing together scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds, this volume aims to provide new insights into the reality of magic and its agents in the Viking world, beyond the pages of medieval texts. It explores new trajectories for the study of past mentalities, beliefs, and rituals as well as the tools employed in these practices and the individuals who wielded them. In doing so, the volume engages with several topical issues of Viking Age research, including the complex entanglements of mind and materiality, the cultural attitudes to animals and the natural world, and the cultural constructions of gender and sexuality. By addressing these complex themes, it offers a nuanced image of the völva and related magic workers in their cultural context. The volume is intended for a broad, diverse, and international audience, including experts in the field of Viking and Old Norse studies but also various non-professional history enthusiasts. The Norse Sorceress: Mind and Materiality in the Viking World is a key output of the project Tanken bag Tingene (Thoughts behind Things) conducted at the National Museum of Denmark from 2020 to 2023 and funded by the Krogager Foundation. The Norse Sorceress 1 Title 3 Copyright 4 Contents 5 List of Contributors 7 The Vǫlva and Her Sisters: A Foreword by Neil Price 9 Introduction Leszek Gardeła, Sophie Bønding & Peter Pentz 11 Part 1 Rituals, Myths, and Material Culture 15 1 The Vǫlva’s Ritual Repertoire: Between Magic and Divination 17 2 Between the Material and Immaterial: Burial Objects and their Nonhuman Agencies 29 3 Gender in the Viking World 45 4 Folklore and Prophecy 55 Part 2 Places and Spaces: Rituals and their Settings 65 5 Places and Spaces of Pre-Christian Religion: An Introduction to Part 2 67 6 Cult Buildings and Ritual Sites: A View from Gamla Uppsala 77 7 Of Bodies and Buildings: Rituals in the Halls of the Vikings 87 8 Ritual Activities Involving Domestic Work and Outhouses 101 9 Rituals in the Open Landscape 113 10 Pre-Christian Rituals at Elite Sites 123 11 Processions and Ritual Movement in Viking Age Scandinavia 135 12 Ritualised Executions and Human Sacrifices in the Viking World 159 13 Women and Sacrifice: Roles and Connections 175 14 Surely Every Live Man Fades Among the Dead: Fear and Desire in the Afterlife of Viking Age Graves 185 Part 3 Animals in Ritual Practices 199 15 Animals in Pre-Christian Scandinavian Religion: An Introduction to Part 3 201 16 Human–Avian and God–Avian Relations in Viking Age Religion and Mythology – as Mirrored by Contemporary Pictorial Art 205 17 The Roles of Horses in Viking Age Ritual Action 227 18 Conjuring Canids: Wolves and Dogs in Viking Age Sorcery 243 19 The Oseberg Wagon: Reopening the Case 253 Part 4 Ritual Specialists 271 20 Ritual Specialists in the Viking World: An Introduction to Part 4 273 21 Gender, Prophecies, and Magic: Cult Specialists in Denmark before the Viking Age 281 22 Women of Another World: Some Reflections on Religious Aspects of Pre-Christian Scandinavian Female Names 297 23 The Fyrkat Vǫlva Revisited 307 24 The Fyrkat 4 Grave 315 25 The Textiles from the Fyrkat 4 Grave 343 26 The Birka Sorcerers 353 27 The Vǫlva from Gutdalen: Identity, Belief, and the Performance of Power in Viking Age Western Norway 369 28 Burials of Ritual Specialists? Case Studies of the Graves from Trekroner-Grydehøj and Gerdrup, Sjælland 395 Part 5 The Sorcerer’s Toolkit and Other Ritual Paraphernalia 415 29 Religious Paraphernalia, Amulets, and Other Elements of the Sorcerer’s Toolkit: An Introduction to Part 5 417 30 Magic Staffs in the Viking World 433 31 Necklaces and the Sorcerer’s Toolkit in the Viking Age 449 32 Miniature Chairs: On Seeresses, the Future, and Conflict 465 33 Wheels for Freyja’s Chariot? Wheel-shaped Pendants from the Viking Age 477 34 Miniature Weapons in the Viking World: Small Things with Great Meaning 493 35 Wearing a Banner: Cloak Pins with Miniature Weathervanes 511 36 The Magic of the Mask 519 Offers a comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and contextualised investigation of the figure of the völva, situating her in the wider context of pre-Christian Nordic religion, culture, and ritual practices.