Þórbjörg lítilvölva

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Þórbjörg lítilvölva ( Thorbjörg the little seer ) is a literary character from the Eiríks saga rauða , the Icelandic saga of Erik the Red . Þórbjörg is described in a topical description in a subplot in Chapter 4 as a fortune teller and woman who knows magic, a seer ("Hon var spákona ok var kölluð lítilvölva"). In the small population of the Vikings who settled on Greenland in the 10th century, she is portrayed as a person who exerts a great deal of influence and receives corresponding obeisances. Some of the motifs in the narrative reflect alleged practices and rites from pagan times and indicate features in the figure that can be associated with the so-called historically real Germanic seers .

action

Þórbjörg is the survivor of ten sisters, all of whom were mantically (fortunetelling) gifted. It was her peculiarity to move from farm to farm in winter and to be invited to feasts that she entertained with her abilities. The saga describes her as a colorful person who cultivated a conscious habitus through her appearance as such and underlined it through her clothing and attributes. She was dressed in a full-length blue coat that was studded with precious stones up to the hem, and around her neck she wore a necklace with glass beads. As headgear, she wore a black lambskin hood with a fur lining made of cat fur , and as an attribute of the seer, she wore a knob-reinforced staff that was decorated with copper inlays. On her feet she wore calfskin shoes and gloves, which were also made of cat fur, the coat was held by a belt made of tinder sponge , on which hung a leather bag for her utensils.

The settlers invited Þórbjörg to ask for prophecies from her. Chapter 4 of the saga opens the subplot with the fact that there was a severe famine in Greenland and so the wealthy farmer Þorkel offered the seer a festive reception in order to receive a good future forecast for himself and his household and farm community at an uncertain time. Entering Þórbjörg, impressed by her appearance and function, is greeted with awe by those present. Þorkel leads them to a pedestal, a specially erected high seat of the seeresses ( seiðhallr ). After a feast, he asks her to answer his personal questions about the future "weal and woe" of his household, which - most of the time rather silent - postponed to the next day, as she first needed one night of sleep.

The next scene on the following day is determined by the magic ritual and divination. Everything is prepared by the hosts so that Þórbjörg can satisfactorily respond to the wishes, especially those of Þorkel, through their retreats. The problem arises, however, that the seer needs a woman who would make her magic effective with a so-called varðlokkur , a magic song ( galdr , also seiðlæti = magic tone ). None of those present masters this chant, except for one woman, Guðrið. Guðrið explains impartially that she learned a song called Varðlokkur at home in Iceland as a child. But now she has scruples that as a Christian she could support these pagan rites. Þórbjörg persuades Guðrið that she could help and thus is not a bad person, and also put her under pressure with Þorkel. Guðrið gives in to the pressure of the two and so the women gather in a circle around the podium with Þórbjörg, Guðrið sings the song and the magic could work.

The seer owes nothing to the landlord and predicts a good future and that the current crisis situation will dissolve for the better. The Guðrið predicts that she will have a happy marriage and that she will be the mother of a great sex, after which she will answer the questions of everyone present. This ends the subplot and leads to the main storyline of the saga.

meaning

This scene is actually of no importance for the continuation of the saga. It is for the glory of Gudridur Þorbiarnardóttir, the ancestress of many bishops a powerful family in Iceland and ancestor such. B. Þorlákur Runólfsson, Björn Gilsson and Brandur Sæmundarson. Because only in this context does the detailed description of the seer Þorbjörg in the fourth chapter have a function. Guðriður plays a central role in the divination ceremony and, as is often the case in the lives of important personalities, receives his own prophecy about the bright future of their gender. Jan de Vries rates the depiction of the magical-mantic practices ( Seiðr ) from the impression of being entirely reliable.

See also

Web links

literature

expenditure
Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rudolf Simek: Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition. Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X , pp. 367ff., 424.
  2. ↑ Dag Strömbäck: Sejd och andra studier i nordisk själsuppfattning. Hedemora 2000, ISBN 91-7844-318-0 (reprint of the 1935 dissertation). Pp. 56-60.
  3. ↑ Jan de Vries: Altnordische Literaturgeschichte , Berlin / New York 1998, p. 269