Völva
Völva is the old Norse term for a seer , fortune teller , witch , sorceress , prophet or shaman . It is also known as Wala in Germanic mythology .
General
The word Völva actually simply means “woman with a staff”. The staff was also called völr . He was a symbol of power; in the case of the Völva, it symbolizes power over the supernatural. The king's scepter and the magic wand are remnants of the same symbolism. The old- west Norse word gandr , in today's spelling gandur , means both “stick” and “magic” in Faroese and Icelandic . It may also be a phallic symbol , as there are various reports that women performed phallic rites.
The Völven were the sorceresses ( Seiðr and Galster are names for forms of magic) and seers ( Spá ) of the Middle Ages . You could go into ecstasy and then gain insights into other worlds. In addition, they could even visit these worlds and seek the answers to questions that were asked of them.
The most famous Völva is Heiði , which occurs in the apocalyptic prophecy Völuspá (literally: "Prophecy of the Völva"): Heiði hana hétu hvars til húsa kom ("Heiði [or: Heiðr] they called her where she came to the houses") . The Völuspá does not describe any rituals. In the Vatnsdœla saga , a Finnish woman who knows magic ( Finna a fjölkunnig ) is referred to as Völva.
A description of the Völva Þorbjörg can be found in the story of Erik the Red:
“Þorkel invited the seer to him, and she was given a festive reception as befits a woman of her kind. A high seat was set up for them and their cushions were placed under them. There had to be chicken feathers in it. When she arrived that evening ... she looked like this: She was wearing a blue coat with clasps. It was set up to the hem with precious stones. She had glass beads around her neck. On her head she wore a hood made of black lambskin, lined with white catskin on the inside. In her hand she held a staff with a knob on top. It was inlaid with copper, but set in stones at the top of the pommel. Around her body she wore a belt with a sponge and a large leather pouch hung from it, in which she carried the magic substances she needed for her divination. She had shaggy calfskin shoes on her feet with long and strong straps and large brass buttons on the ends. On the hands, however, gloves made of cat fur, which were white and shaggy inside. ... At the end of the following day everything was prepared for her that she needed for her magic. She called for women to be brought in who knew the song that she needed in order to be able to finish her magic, which was called Varðlokkur. [ie "ways of protection, protective magic chants"]. (There is Guðriður, who the wise men had brought from Iceland with them from their mother) Then the women put a ring around the magic chair on which Þorbjörg was sitting. Then Guðriður sang the song so beautifully and admirably that everyone thought they had never heard one sing with a more beautiful voice than here. The seer thanked her for this song and said: "Some spirits came here and thought how nice this song was to hear - those who had previously turned away from me and no longer wanted to obey me. Now I see many things clearly from me, which so far were hidden from me like everyone else. ""
The male equivalent was the seiðmann or fjölkunnigur (magician). But he did not enjoy a special reputation. The use of spells in combat was considered cowardly and unmanly and was generally used by malefactors. In a fight in which Hrolleif, the son of a sorceress, was involved, he wore a smock that his mother had made impervious to swords. In the fight with Odd, he says:
"Illa bíta þig vopnin Hrolleifur og alls konar er þér illa farið, bæði fjölkunnigur og þó að öðru illa siðaður."
“The weapons bite you hard, Hrolleif; everything you do is shameful, you magician and the other scoundrel. "
The somewhat less gifted Spákona , "the woman who sees", a seer , was widespread . There is an account of their reputation and demeanor in the story of Erik the Red , which, because of its detail, is a unique document about the position and way of life of a Spákona.
Trivia
The Icelandic word tölva for computer actually means number seer, because it was created from the words for number ( tala ) and seer ( völva ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Steinsland (1985), p. 38.
- ^ Normalized old Norse text after Sophus Bugge: Völuspá. Chapter 22. Retrieved September 4, 2019 .
- ↑ Text in today's Icelandic orthography under Vatnsdœla saga. 10. kafli. In: Icelandic Saga Database. Retrieved September 4, 2019 .
- ↑ The story of Erik the Red in Greenlander and Faroese Tales . Transferred from Felix Niedner, Thule - Old Norse Poetry and Prose Vol. 13. pp. 23–48, 28–30.
literature
- Gro Steinsland: "Kvinner og kult i vikingetid." In: Kvinnearbeid in the north from vikingtiden til reformasjonen. Bergen 1985.
Web links
- Posta : Prophecy of the seer. Retrieved September 4, 2019 .