The Vǫlva (Norse Seeress) and Seiðr
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- Опубліковано 23 кві 2018
- An Old Norse expert discusses the vǫlva (or völva), the type of witch or seeress seen in so many poems of the Poetic Edda and Norse sagas, and what little we know about seiðr, her magic forbidden to men.
Dr. Jackson Crawford is Instructor of Nordic Studies and Nordic Program Coordinator at the University of Colorado Boulder (formerly UC Berkeley and UCLA). He is a historical linguist and an experienced teacher of Old Norse, Modern Icelandic, and Norwegian. Visit JacksonWCrawford.com
Music © I See Hawks in L.A., courtesy of the artist. Visit www.iseehawks.com/
Logo by Elizabeth Porter (snowbringer at gmail).
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Jackson Crawford’s translation of The Poetic Edda: www.amazon.com/gp/product/162...
Jackson Crawford’s translation of The Saga of the Volsungs with The Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok: www.amazon.com/gp/product/162...
Jackson Crawford’s Patreon page: / norsebysw
It looks like I might have misinterpreted the widely available drawings of Birka grave 845 to include a drum, but the item looks like it might just be the remains of some kind of vessel. Judge for yourself with this full list of its contents, with many photos and drawings: kulturarvsdata.se/shm/context/html/1034
The same style of report is available for Birka grave 760 here Länk: kulturarvsdata.se/shm/context/html/957 and Birka grave 660 here kulturarvsdata.se/shm/context/html/860
Please remember, as I'm often at pains to point out here and in my classes, that my expertise is in language and texts and that while I am trying to incorporate archaeology to make these presentations a little richer, I don't have the same command over that material.
Yeah, on reading further, Neil Price says it's "a wooden bucket with an iron handle and iron nails around the base. Roughly 30 cm high, the bucket stood on the floor of the chamber at the mid-point of the south long wall. The bucket's handle was standing vertically, resting against the shaft of the staff" (The Viking Way, Uppsala 2002, p. 140). Interesting, but not a drum.
Thank you and I appreciate that you bring so much integrity and passion to a topic that I have only recently (Jan 21st to be exact) begun to study. What does your class syllabus and book requirement look like? I would love to take an online course of you offered it. Thank you. Joining your Patreon today.
Sorry, in the video where you say the vanir have a "lower threshold" for sexual shame to explain Freya's connection to seithr, is that a mispeak or just ambiguous?
Aww, I was actually a little disappointed by this errata, because lately I've been looking into the history of frame drums used in different cultures and it looks like the majority of frame drum players were women back in the day, at least in the MENA, Southern European and Near Orient regions.
It would have been cool to discover that that used to be the case in viking age Scandinavia as well.
Neil Price also writes "No trace of drums have ever been found in Norse archaeological context, nor anything that might resemble a drum-hammer or beater "
I was kinda disappointed to here you say something like that. But I can remove my dislike now :)
(though I disagree with you on more points than just this)
Watching UA-cam's closed caption try to handle this video is pretty humorous
Did you know that a woman's grave was excavated at the viking fortress Fyrkat in Jutland containing blue garments, rare jewellery, cans with balms, some sort of staff, henbane seeds and a hollow buckle with some fittings soldered onto it and containing remains of white lead? Now it appears that a fitting which could be from the very same buckle has been excavated at the newly found viking fortress Borgring on Zealand. Both fortresses are currently considered to have been erected by Harald Bluetooth. It's all quite interesting.
Are there any articles written on this and where would I find them?
Also, what archeological group did this? I'd like to read more on it.
Thank You
@@danscalone8110 Here is an article in English from the Danish National Museum. Unfortunately, it isn't quite new so it doesn't mention the newly found fitting from the other fortress. What I called a hollow buckle is apparently called a box brooch: en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/denmark/prehistoric-period-until-1050-ad/the-viking-age/religion-magic-death-and-rituals/a-seeress-from-fyrkat/.
Here is an abridged article from a site called sciencenordic.com which I found on Facebook. It mentions the new fitting: m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2483132741716379&id=129784597051217. Interesting, isn't it?
As far as I know a group of archaeologists from the University of Århus led by Søren Sindbæk carried out the new excavation. I don't know about the old one at the first fortress, though.
This is quite interesting! Thank you for this!
Yesss, it immediately popped into my mind as well, a fascinating case. I ran across a single article back then and sadly heard no more of it… if anybody has some research on that burial I’d love to read it. And if I remember correctly there was a wand in addition to the staff, and oddly enough, toe rings :)
the cat skin gloves would not be a house cat, but a Lynx
HempMasterNinja this could also potentially be Norwegian forest cat
There's been archaeological findings of cats in nordic areas so I'm pretty sure cat gloves were made out of cats. Try catching a lynx, I dare you.
Thank you for the video! Interestingly, a plot strikingly similar to the story of Oddr being killed by Faxi the Horse also appears in Early Russian literature, the protagonist being Oleg of Novgorod (also known as Helgi the Wise), a 9-early10 century ruler of Novgorod and later Kiev. This plot appears in the Chronicle compiled in the early 11 century.
It's very interesting how often the cat-skin gloves come up in context of sorceresses. Hrolf Kraki saga mentions a man being turned into a bear after he is struck by a seeress with a cat-skin gloves. If it's mentioned that often is it important some how?
Hail the Volva! Thanks for another great video Dr Crawford!
Appreciated.
In swedish we still use the term "Spåkvinna" which means, word for word, the same thing as "spákona"
I always imagined the practice of magic being associated with woman/a feminine art via the connection of weaving & 3 Wyrd Sisters/Fates. One weaves a spell & casts a fate.
Jackson mentions Urðr, the Norn, and as with the Fates and Wyrd Sisters there are indeed 3 Norns: Urðr, Verðandi, and Skuld. (In fact Urðr's name is equivalent to old English "Wyrd".)
It's mentioned at one point that in general they carve the fates on wood (rather than weaving like the Greek Fates). But in one of the poems they visit the newborn Helgi, and there they do "weave the web of fate," establishing his destiny as a great hero.
@@GaryDunion I believe there are more than 3 norns
@@yensid4294 Yes, I was simplifying because I didn't think the apparently numerous unnamed Norns were relevant to your point that there is a common motif of three magical women who determine destiny. Whereas the three principal Norns do support your observation.
@@GaryDunion I kinda figured the Maid/Mother/Crone & other Triple aspect goddesses like The Morrigan were probably related. Mythologically & biologically women are associated with blood & birth so perhaps that was seen as magical & the connection was strengthened thru midwifery. Traditionally, oracles were female in Greek society. I only mentioned there being more than 3 Norns because 9 was the meaningful number to Vikings & I think there is only one rather gory story that has them weaving (with someone's entrails if memory serves?) The 3 Norns named are associated with Yggdrasil & the Well of Urd & usually the norns are depicted as carving sacred runes into Yggdrasil, not weaving, which is interesting. It was the weaving that caught my attention since that was a feminine craft I thought maybe that was why magic was considered feminine & therefore unseemly for any male to practice. Sorry for the ramble...
I enjoyed this video immensely! Thank you!
thank you Dr Crawford - interesting as always - really appreciate all the work you put into these, it's very much appreciated.
Amazing work. Thank you so much for all you do and share. This is fascinating.
Thank you, this is very interesting.
I greatly appreciate your breaking this language down word-by-word, at times by syllable. It helps me understand the grammatical structure of this wonderfully musical and percussive language. I'm a composer in the San Francisco east bay trying to incorporate Galdralag and Leidrhodr (undoubtedly butchered that one) into my work. Just found your "art of Viking poetry - how to." Thanks again!
Very interesting to learn about the sami connection. Thanks!
Very interesting, as always.
Hello. I'm a first time viewer, I really enjoyed hearing what you have said. I'm not a scholar but curious, the writing you showed looked vaguely like Gaelic and/or old Scottish words I had seen from my grandparents. Thanks I will be watching.
What do I have to do to get into your classes?
Be an undergrad at Boulder is your best bet
Catonius ?
So interesting, thank you. 🌞N
Seems like the shamanic connection is undeniable (Sámi, use of drum)...
Thank you Dr Crawford for your fascinating lectures.
Some Völva did travel with their staff(wand). Some were based in towns. Not just used for prophesy but, for healing & other spells, sigils etc. The travelling Völva were often paid by Kings, & the prophecy or spell was done in public. Town Völva were also paid but, at a lesser rate. Völva were women, it was seen as un-manly for men to practice magic.
In professor Britt-Mari Näsström's book on berserkers she describes the varđ as the image of a person's soul, and also as possibly belonging to divine beings. She translates the word varđlokka as "teasing out the varđ".
At first I didn't understand this but then I said it to myself in Swedish and it very well could be the case. I'm assuming Näsström is Swedish also. If varð does means soul or something akin to it, it makes a lot of sense for lokka to be cognate with the Swedish "locka" to lure (out)
Amazing thank you
This is a great video.
Was it examined whether vett is a loanword from the sami?
I adored this lecture and the previous one. It is a window into the pre-Christian culture of the Old Norse like no other.
ohhhh I'm impressed - in a tale of witches and magic there is witchery magic at 4:20 ;) ♥
🔥
Very interesting - especially the astral travel to find the statue.... Thanks much.
❤️~✿~❧~🌿~❧~✿~❤️
Hey Dr Crawford! Can you indicate some secondary sources about this theme? I wanted to make an essay about it for my university course of Vikings and I wanted some bibliography to have some perspective over the subject before I start to read the primary sources. Thank you very much!
@ 1:24 I grew up in the same place as Gisle Sursson (Surnadal), have his saga in my book shelf. Maybe you could make a video about him one day? Your videos rocks!
varðlokur the second part sounds quite similar to what we say in swedish lockare someone who lures by calling which could infer that varð be some old name for spirit, so spirit caller which would make sense in this context?
I agree/ jag håller med
But is volva related to the same word used for the cup like part of a mushroom that “holds” its stalk? I’ve been wondering about that seeing as mushrooms have been associated with Norse witches.
thank you..
I really thought that in a previous video, Dr. Crawford discussed the Norse concept of fate as being somewhat more fluid, and influenced by ones ancestral luck, and personal agency (as in, fate is headed in this direction, if left alone, but that you still had some ability to influence it). I know that it is a very complicated concept, and that of course, different writers and interpreters would have different ideas on the subject- but am I wrong that there have been videos by Dr. Crawford that challenge this "fate is unchangeable" concept? I have a poor memory, so I welcome being corrected on this...
Look at it this way - even Odin, the king of the gods, cannot escape his ultimate fate, which is to be killed by the Fenris wolf in Ragnarok. And it's not for lack of trying to change this sinister fate! Remember, Odin spends his entire life gathering a huge army of the best and bravest warriors in Valhalla - all in preparation for that final showdown. But in vain. The gods (Aesir) WILL be killed in Ragnarok.
any similarities between the Volve and the Sami Noaide ?
A staff or wand of a likely Seeress in a grave in I think Denmark was 82cm or 32 inches long - would that count as a staff or as a wand? Are their staves that short?
Thank you!
Just a thought about the translation/meaning of Vardlokur: in Dutch, 'lokker' means someone or something that lures, and sounds exactly like 'lokur'. Wouldn't 'Valdlokur' mean something like guardian lure?
I've often heard that the practice of seidr is akin to "calling in the spirits", so maybe it is luring in the spirits with song? That way, they can speak to you to tell you what it is that you need to know...
At the end you speak about that fate is fixed in ancient Norse thought. I have heard it expressed from another scholar that Seidr is the practice of fate and working with the weavings of fate, often times to change it. Have you found any evidence of this?
I learned somewhere that when initial sounds in words seem to be preserved across languages, thy usually have a common Indo-European root. Do Völa and Vates, female seer in Norse languages, and male seer in Latin, have a common root?
So where does this leave the word "Erilaz" as used in the song "In Maidjan" by Heilung... This means a male sorcerer, but not Sedr?
Magpul...nice.
The Sami men lock themselves in a house to find the idol {in trance} - vardlokur? - guarded by a lock?
Is volva related to the Swedish make of car Volvo?
I have a question
Why do most (modern and somewhat modern) artistic depictions of baldr depict him as having some sort of blue among his clothing, for example in the famous painting of his death he seems to have a blue cape, there are plenty of internet drawings that also depict him as having some blue clothings, Is this just a coincidence? Or is he somewhere mentioned as having a blue cape or something?
lack of oxygen?
First time I red Voluspa my hair stood straight up - it is impressive. Völvans spådom in Swedish Old as hell
"ok draptu á vett sum vǫlur":
I can help but think "vett" is cognate somehow with the English "wight", like e.g. Icelandic "vættur".
If so, that would mean Odin on Samsø struck some kind of creature, in the manner of a vǫlva, and that a vǫlva had an important role in sacrificial ceremonies.
I base this off of a wiktionary entry though, but it's compelling in some ways.
A drum in grave 845?
Interesting on the blue/black difference. I am more from a genetics background and it's believed that humans did not evolve the ability to see blue until ~4000 BC. That should not be a problem with the linguistic family, you'd know much better, but maybe it's factoring into what some other scholars believe? Being a bit over zealous with that aspect or maybe the linguistic roots are deeper? Interesting to think on though.
Does volva have anything to do with a certain Scandinavian car brand.
Robert Ohlen yes I should have known as in Spanish vuelvo meaning I return.
lol
clothing. a mystery since do we know the difference. takk for i dag
In my reading of the Prose Edda I understood the description, given by Snorri, in the prologue to mean that Odinn was not only a great chief (king) but also a shaman.
Shamans are from Siberia. Odin was not a shaman.
"However, Mircea Eliade noted that the Sanskrit word śramaṇa, designating a wandering monastic or holy figure, has spread to many Central Asian languages along with Buddhism and could be the ultimate origin of the Tungusic word"
The term is also believed to be used the lands that we call Turkey and Snorri describes Odinn as a king of Troy (in modern Turkey) so it is a possibility that the term,or it's Trojan equivalent was in use. Or are you just nit-picking?
Snorri made the assumption of the Aesir being from Asia to make them human and not gods, there are no linguistic connection between the words Aesir and Asia, it just sounded that way to him. So incorrect linguistics from Snorri you use as an argument that another linguistic connection is correct? The Turks didn't come to "Turkey" until the 11th century, no one used any tungusic words in Anatolia before that. I'm not nit-picking, I'm telling you that you are wrong.
It is possible that Norse/Sami traditions could have had similarities with other peoples across Northern Eurasia and that Shamans 600 years after the Norse kept some of these practises. But in that case Shamans does a kind of seidr since the sources from Scandinavia are so much older than the Siberian sources, not the other way around. Conclusion: Odin was not a Shaman.
I was stating what my first impressions were when reading the Prose Edda. My comment was not on the linguistics or the validity of Snorri's history of the Norse. I am fully aware that Snorri "disguised" elements to get past the church's attitude towards other beliefs. The piece I quoted was from Mircea Eliade, a Romanian history professor at the University of Cicago. Please elaborate on my innacuracies?
How about Vegvísir? it is part of Seidr?
I have a narcissistic draw to words with the letter V.
what was a male nordic magic practitioner called? shaman?
Seiðmaðr or galdramaðr.
Shaman is a relatively modern word that was borrowed from the Tungus language in Siberia by historians in the early 20th century
Do you think Volvo is named after the Volva?
Nope, it was founded by the owners of SKF a ball bearing company, they used a name that was originally intended as a new ballbearing line. Volvo means "i roll" in latin.
I bet the poems we have now were songs.
Have you thought about creating a google classroom?
💚
The vulgate bible was written by Jerome from Croatia. The vulgate name has to come from volva.
Gloves and not mittens?
The metal on the staff is a conductor for energy for working with the elements
hey - there is a furry friend behind you at 15.14
I think that was a truck
15:14
The seer dressed to show how powerful she was.
Freya called me just recently. So I first went down the path of knowledge stumbling upon the Vanir and Aesir. Thus leading me here.
Like on the phone? What’s her number
Hello (=
hello that guy :)
The staff is like a wand to the Norse witch
Vett might be a uralic loanword of some kind.
Wardlokr? Bare with me, I speak a Germanic language in addition to English.
Ward will either be "protector", or "host". Lokr will be "lure". In Northern languages this is going to be something like "ad lokka".
So, a song to lure a protector or host(?!??)
Source: trust me bro! (I have nothing but word association over different languages). It sounds plausible to me 🤪
Please improve your audio volume and quality. It's an excellent video when you can hear the pronunciations clearly.
Just occured to me, but in several other cultures the acts of divination and conjuring spirits are seen as very feminine. The Greeks and Romans both have traditions of explicitly female fortunetellers. The Roman sibyls and the Greek Pythia. In Judeo-christian traditions, there were also women who were supposed to be able to tell the future through the use of dark spirits. Maybe it's the act of conjuring spirits that is seen as more feminine since the practitioner must submit to some spirit? Just seems like a parallel that can't be ignored when the descriptions show that level of similarities. The delphic oracle even had a high seat.
>no dislikes
I got here from looking at yugioh cards
What happened to these birches?
odin practices seir
dear Jackson Crawford - here's a bit of info that i shared with a commenter on the Vardlock word and use in the time - yes, by the old english waerloga - is from Vardlokur - and a friend of mine that is an archaeologist and cultural professor in this area -says that the Vardlock refers to 'locking spirits' with spell - and sometimes with a stick in the ground - to hold spirits (yes, lock them) for a period of time - being animist in nature this would not be done for a long time - but for use with help in carrying out magic that was needed.
they left us messages you know...for our times...in our names....if you add all your siblings names fathers and mothers siblings....your find messages .....love from a real VOLVA
vett or folkvett means common sense in swedish
They had Sears in norse mythology? They seem more like a kmart culture to me.
Soo . . . they had the audacity to call Odin effeminate? ROFLMAO
+Sarah Gray Truth! LOL
Thanks to God of War coming out, I've been watching more of these.
I find it disrespectful to call a Volva a ‘traveling fortune teller’. She was so much more than a seeress to her communities and peoples.
"Volkhv" is an ancient Ukrainian/Slavic word that means "pagan sorcerer"
@@moritamikamikara3879 Rus ARE Slavic people and Rus' does not mean Russian, it means people from old Ruthenia or Kyivan-Rus'. Its the other way around, the later Russians were influenced by the earlier Rus' kingdom. Russians are Volga forest tribes who took advantage of a regional power void after the Mongols slaughtered 90% of the urban populations of Kyivan-Rus'.
Its in DNA memories.extrenely beautiful,grounding art.not in any way associated with..evil..satanism..your translation on that part is an error
Are you a pagan?
I don’t believe that manliness was macho or misogynistic, but rather “man” referred to “human” and manly meant humane or humanitarian. That’s how I see it.
All the texts on Norse manliness are explicitly sexual, differentiating man and woman. You are mistaken.
Yep just found out I was one a Völva.i hate the name witch . I'm Norwigian. But raised in the US . I always laugh at my friends that claim to be witches . I just found out I have had my staff since I was 11 . I am good at my staff. I didn't even know we had them . As I said just found out . I can read ruins . I never remeber it . Unless it's important . We dressed in gowns . Sorry o yea I'm a Smith too metal staff that's me. ANY WAYS EARTH X P we go in a trance and feel the energy's you Reach out