Icelandic Magic Read Online Free PDF Page A

are two real tendencies in Icelandic pagan magic, the moral distinction appears to be a later development. Óðinn is called the “father” of galdr (ON Galdraföðr ) and its natural master, but it is also reported that he learned the arts of seiðr from the Vanic goddess Freyja.
    One traditional field of Germanic magic from which the galdur of our texts inherits many of its methods is that of “rune magic.” The runes (Ice. rúnar or rúnir ) form a writing system used by the Germanic peoples from perhaps as early as 200 BCE. The use of runes survived into the early nineteenth century in some remote areas of Scandinavia. Such runes, or rune staves (Ice. rúnstafir ) as they were often called, were at first used for non-profane purposes. By around 1000 CE they began to be used increasingly for ordinary communication. The word rún in Icelandic signifies not only one of the “staves,” or signs, used in writing, but also the idea of a “mystery,” “secret,” or “body of secret lore.” This idea of “secret lore”—which in fact reflects the original sense of the word rún —was then transferred to the phonetic signs (writing) that made communication over time and space possible.
    Just before the inception of the Viking Age, the last pagan recodification of the runes took place. It was out of this time period that many of the pre-Christian aspects of magical practice found in the historical books of Icelandic magic seem to have grown. As in earlier times, each rune had a name as well as its phonetic value (usually corresponding to the first sound in its name). There were also interpretative poetic stanzas connected to each rune. These are of great interest to us as they were recorded in Iceland and Norway in the 1400s and 1500s, a time period that is actually quite close to when our earliest texts of galdor magic were composed. We can be fairly certain, therefore, that the galdramenn (magicians) had some detailed knowledge of the esoteric lore of pagan runology. Many of them were certainly literate in runes. The system of the Viking Age runes, as it would have been known to the Icelanders, is shown in table 2 .
    Several things can be learned directly from this table about the significance of what we encounter in the spells discovered in historical books of magic. The number 16 is often found underlying the composition of the stave forms in the spells. Most often these are not actual rune staves; rather they tend to be stylized magical letters or abstract symbols. However, they do reflect the formulaic significance of the number 16, which is the total number of runes in the Viking Age rune row . Additionally, the rune names occur in the spells themselves, where they apparently signify the corresponding runes. Certain rune names, such as hagall (hail) , also show up in the technical names of the special “magical signs” (Ice. galdrastafir ) themselves .
    In pre-Christian times rune magicians were usually well-known and honored members of society. In the Northern tradition, runelore had been the preserve of members of an established social order interested in intellectual or spiritual pursuits. Most commonly these men were followers of the god Óðinn, the Germanic god of magic, ecstasy, poetry, and death. Historically, men were more often engaged in rune magic than were women—a social phenomenon that is reflected in the later statistics concerning witchcraft trials in Iceland. These statistics show that men were more likely to be accused of practicing witchcraft than were women.
    In pagan times the technique of rune magic consisted of three main procedural steps, as follows:
    carving the staves into an object
coloring with blood (or dye)
speaking a vocal formula over the staves to load them with magical power
    The basic components of this direct technique, which is not dependent on any intervention by gods or demons, will later