(Essay 10) The Norse Goddesses behind the Asir Veil: The Vanir Mothers in Continental Scandinavia by Kirsten Brunsgaard Clausen

[This part and the forthcoming sequels are an elaborated version of the original article entitled “The Norse Goddesses behind the Asir Veil: The Vanir Mothers in Continental Scandinavia—a late Shamanistic Branch of the Old European Civilization?” by Märta-Lena Bergstedt & Kirsten Brunsgaard Clausen, included in Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture (Mago Books, 2018) Edited by Mary Ann Beavis and Helen Hye-Sook Hwang.]

Fröja – the Shaman and High-Völva of Sejd

Regardless all changes made to her in Asgård, Fröja upheld her specific title, Vanamö (Vanir Maiden) or Vanadis (Vanir Disir).[1] She kept her identity as High Völva or Vala (shaman), patroness of the sejd, the genuine Norse shamanism. Sejd was a specific Vanir feature. The indigenous, animistic and shamanistic cultures have professional s, the shamans, but everyone is familiar with shamanism for private and everyday use,[2] as discussed for the Sami people above. Also the  indigenous Germanics had professional sejders, the völvas/valas, and shamanism was to what it seems, primarily on female hands. To the Asir gods the skill of sejd was originally unknown – and abhorrent. Odin, eventually practicing the sejd, after for a long time having pestered Fröja to give it to him, was never able to take control over Fröja, nor was Iron Age society fully able to control the human völvas, until their extinction. The sejd belonged to and was deeply rooted in the Vanir world, in which the meaning of its symbolism was fully familiar.

In indigenous cultures, the task of traditional shamans was to work for the best of society, keeping up harmonious relations between nature and humans, and to travel into the spiritual world to find answers to urgent questions. This was also true for the Scandinavian Vanir vala/völva. The Nordic sejd is considered to have reached a particularly high and advanced level.[3] Sharing the basic principles of world-wide shamanism, the Norse sejd also had a unique character of its own. First, Norse sejd seems to have been a female and collective phenomenon. Second, instead of using shamanic drums, women would stand in a ring around the völva and sing sejd-songs, galders or varðlokkur (circle-sejd-songs).[4] These galders were rhythmic runic songs that helped the völva, when traveling in the spiritual realms. Third, whereas shamans generally perform physical movements on the ground, the völva would sit quietly aloft at her hjäll, a wooden High-Chair, probably once stationary,[5] but later built for each new Sejd-session (not to be confused by the High-Seat of the chieftain at the end of the table). She would hold unto her upright staff, her eyes covered to be able to see clearly in the spiritual world. In the Saga of Red Eric in Greenland, details from a Viking Age sejd-session around 1000CE are depicted.[6] Miniatures and pendants in silver of the vala´s wooden High-Chair (hjäll), snake symbols, and staffs are features, all found in many late (Iron Age), and most often very rich völva-graves.

The word völva is agreed to derive from the ON volr, meaning staff. The Völva was the staff-holder.[7] Another epithet referring to her staff-holding is Gand-bera.[8] At least in Viking Age, the late Asir-believers treated the völvas with a combination of both fear and disrespect. They called her names and saw her as witch and evil. Even Fröja was shouted at and treated this way in Lokesenna 32. “Be silent, Freyja! thou foulest witch, And steeped full sore in evil.” Examples are many, and we have come to conclude and agree with Scholar in Mythology and Folklore, Lotta Motz that it is fully possible that the epithet völva is not the original old name for a Vanir shaman. Instead the word völva, meaning stick- or stake-holder, could well be a late derogatory name given to her with salient allusions to the male organ (at least of horses), the völ-sa (perhaps even vulva?). And further, female shaman-graves with divination tools and shamanic tokens stretch back throughout Bronze Age, but the old graves all lack staffs! Graves containing the typical sejd-staffs is an Iron Age phenomenon. The reason could be that not until after their institution had been brought to collapse, did the völvas start to walk about.

For her title, if not völva, what then was her title?

Vala is another well-established epithet, deriving from falling (into trance), and by W.B. Hjort translated as natural consciousness of the divine.[9] In original Old Norse language and texts Vala is the epithet used, and it is preferred and preserved in all Swedish translations. Only Danish and Norwegian translations have by tradition favored the word völva/volva. Vala is found though, in combination with Edda places´, a fact that would warrant an original and enduring use. An example is Odin´s settlement, called the Vala-skjálf (meaning settlemet of the Vala (“shelf” or ledge on the mountain)), which he took from the high-völva. From there he could overlook all worlds. Therefore, we are inclined to give preference to the word, vala as the original title of the Vanir shaman.[10]

Fröja’s fivefold staff became her her token of dignity when wandering. It may signify the World Tree that connects the three shamanic worlds; underworld, midworld and overworld. It is said to have been made from the hollow elder tree, commonly known also asFröja’s Tree, as it grows rapidly and easy; its berries endowing us with Fröja-power all winter long.[11] In Iron Age (Viking Age) onwards, wen no longer stationary but walking about, the staff was indeed carried by Fröja´s human representatives, the völvas/valas. It was so significant that it is suggested to have had its own name,[12] and it followed the human völvas into their graves, at least in the late centuries of the völvas´ existence. Archeologically, female graves with staffs – and other specific items as leather-bags with divination tools, certain brooches and jewelry, like the small silver chair pendants, and the oval brooches with bead-sets, fire-steels pendants, snake-images, etc. (see fig. 27-30), have been found in various places in Scandinavia (one third of these are from Birka (Sw), Fyrkat (Dk), Hedeby (Dk).[13] The famous and extremely rich Oseberg ship, Norway, was the grave of two highly estimated women (834CE), buried with staffs; the Aska grave, Sweden (c. 950CE), renowned for its unique Fröja-brooch; and the late Danish Fyrkat-grave (c. 980CE), all contained staves. There will be a further discussion about the human völvas and the völva-institution below.

(To be Continued)

(Meet Mago Contributor) Kirsten Brunsgaard Clausen.

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[1] Jónsson, Gudelære (Gylfaginning), Cap. 34.

[2] Thøger Larsen, ed. Den ældre Edda. Nordens Gudekvad. (Tryms-Kvadet, trans.Thøger Larsen. (København: Lemvig, 1926), Stanza 15. http://heimskringla.no/wiki/Tryms-Kvadet

[3] Dag Strömbäck, Sejd: Textstudier i nordisk religionshistoria (Stockholm: H. Gebers förlag, 1935).

Annette Høst and Bente Sørensen Møller, Jorden synger: Naturens kraft og nordiske rødder (København: Mønstergårdens Forlag, 2005).

[4] Finnur Magnusson, Den ældre Edda. En samling af de nordiske folks ældste sagn og sange. Vol.1 (Kjöbenhavn: Den Gyldendalske Boghandling, 1821), Prologue (Indledning). http://heimskringla.no/wiki/Indledning_Valas_Spaadom_(FM)

[5] Archeological excavations have disclosed constructions at two locations, Ullevi and Helgö (by Birka) suggested to be permanent Sejðhjälls (Highseats for sejding), dating Ironage, (fvn. seiðhjallr, hjallr).  Mathias Bäck, et al., Lilla Ullevi – historien om det fridlysta rummet Vendeltida helgedom, medeltida by och 1600-talsgård. In UV Mitt, Rapport 2008 (Hägersten: Riksantikvarieämbetet, 2008), 37-40. Olof Sundqvist, Var sejdhjällen en permanent konstruktion vid kultplatser och i kultbyggnader? In Fornvännen 2012 (107):4, 280-285. Birgit Arrhenius, Helgö – pagan sanctuary complex. In Excavations at Helgö XVIII: Conclusions and New Aspects, ed. Birgit Arrhenius, and Uaininn  O´Meadhra (Stockholm: Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien, 2011), 18ff, 39, 214.

The Hjäll may have similarities with the Classic Sacred Tripod e.g. the Delphic Tripod.

[6] Gudni Jónsson, Erik den Rødes saga (Eiríks saga rauða, Þorfinns saga karlefnis), Islændingesagaerna, trans. Jesper Lauridsen. (Reykjavík, 1947. Heimskringla 2014). http://heimskringla.no/wiki/Erik_den_R%C3%B8des_saga

[7] Hellquist, Olof, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (Lund: C. W. K. Gleerups förlag, 1922), 1081; vala, völva. http://runeberg.org/svetym/1170.html

[8] Gand: trolldom (sejd) – also known as Gandskud or Finnegand (sami magic) http://heimskringla.no/wiki/V._N%C3%B8glerne_%E2%80%94_Binde,_klomse

Gjellerup, ed. Ældre Eddas, (Völuspá), Stanza 8. Jónsson Finnur, ed., Den ældre Edda. (Völvans spådom). (Vǫluspǫ́), transl. Finnur Jónsson. (København: G. E. C. Gads Forlag, 1932), Stanza 22. http://heimskringla.no/wiki/V%C7%ABlusp%C7%AB%CC%81.

Bek-Pedersen, Nornor, 61, Footnote 80: from the Longobard, Gambera – staff-bearer.

[9] Hjort, Vilhelm B. (ed)  Valasangen, Ravnegalderet og Vismandstalen, transl. V.B. Hjort. 1860. http://heimskringla.no/wiki/Ravnegalderet. Näsström, Fornskandinavisk, 32, 152. also Valhall “for the fallen”.

[10] Simply sejdkone (sejding crone/matron) is another name used. Jónsson, ed., Snorre Sturlason, Heimskringla, Ynglingesaga, Cap 13.

[11] Marie-Louise Ekelöf, Gröna apoteket (Stockholm: Prisma, Nordstedts förlag, 2007), 23.

[12] Magnusson, Den ældre Edda (Völuspá). Vol.1, 6. Mogensen, Himlasagor, 207.

[13] Gräslund, Anne-Sofie, Symbolik för lycka och skydd – vikingatida amuletthängen och deras rituella kontext. 377-92. In Arkeologiske Skrifter: Fra funn til samfunn Jernalderstudier tilegnet Bergljot Solberg på 70-årsdagen, eds. Knut Andreas Bergsvik and Asbjørn Engevik jr. (Bergen: UBAS Nordisk Universitetet i Bergen, 2005), 387-8.