Norse Goddess Magic (26 page)

APPENDIX C

Queen Olga

Retold from the
Russian Primary Chronicle

During the tenth century Igor was king of the Rus and ruled in
the city of Kiev with his queen, Olga. One year he led his troops against the
Derevlians in order to gather tribute. As he and his army were returning from
this successful expedition, he suddenly decided to send his army on ahead while
he and a few followers returned for more booty. The Derevlians, who now far
outnumbered him, were able to slay him and all his troops.

The Derevlians then said, “Now that we have killed the prince of the Rus, let
us marry his wife, Olga, to our own prince Mal; in that way we will obtain
possession of her young son, Svyatoslav, and influence him according to our
will.” They therefore sent twenty of their best men to Kiev by boat, and they
arrived on the shores of the Dnieper River below the heights of the city.

When Olga heard that the envoys had arrived, she welcomed them into her
presence and asked why they had come. They replied that they had been sent to
report that they had slain her husband because he was as crafty and greedy as a
wolf but that their own prince was good and so Olga should come and marry their
prince Mal.

Olga replied, “Your proposal pleases me, and indeed my husband is dead and
cannot rise again. But first I want to honor you before my people. Therefore
return to your boat and remain there with an attitude of arrogance. Tomorrow I
shall send for you, and you shall say, ‘We will go neither by horse nor on foot.
Carry us in our boat.' And you shall be carried, and everyone will see how you
are honored.” Thus the Derevlians returned to their boat and did as she bade
them.

Now Olga commanded that a large, deep ditch be dug in the hall of a castle
she had that stood outside the city. On the next day she sat in that hall and
formally sent for the envoys. The Derevlians responded as the queen had
instructed them and demanded that they be carried to the audience in their boat.
The people of Kiev lamented that their prince was dead and now their queen
intended to marry Prince Mal and make them all slaves, but they carried the
Derevlians as they were ordered. The envoys sat in their finest robes all
swollen with pride. When they were carried into the hall, the Kievans dropped
both boat and envoys into the deep ditch. Olga leaned over and asked if they
found this honor to their liking. They answered that it was worse than the death
of Igor. With that Olga commanded that they should be buried alive, and thus she
avenged her husband's death.

Olga then sent a message to the Derevlians, saying that if they truly wished
her to come there, they should send a party of their most prominent men to
escort her in honor, for otherwise the people of Kiev would not let her go. When
the Derevlians heard this, they gathered together their best men and sent them
to her. When the second party of Derevlians arrived, Olga ordered a bath to be
made ready and invited the representatives to refresh themselves before
appearing before her. When the bathhouse was heated and the Derevlians went in
to bathe, Olga's men closed the doors behind them, and the queen ordered the
doors to be set on fire so that all the Derevlians were burned to death.

Olga then sent another message to the Derevlians, saying that she was now
coming to them and asking them to prepare quantities of mead in the city where
her husband had been killed so that she could honor him with a funeral feast.
When the Derevlians received this message, they did as she asked. Olga journeyed
to Dereva with a small escort, and when she arrived at Igor's grave, she wept
for him and had her followers build him a grave mound and then commanded that a
funeral feast should be held. When the feast was ready, the Derevlians sat down
to drink and Olga had her followers wait on them. The Derevlians inquired after
the envoys they had sent to her earlier, and she replied that they were
following with her husband's bodyguard. When the Derevlians were drunk, Olga
ordered her men to attack them. She herself went among them urging them on, and
they killed five thousand of the Derevlians. Meanwhile, Olga returned to Kiev
and gathered an army to attack the survivors.

Olga and her son, Svyatoslav, gathered a large and courageous army and
attacked the country of the Derevlians, who came out to meet her forces. When
both sides were ready for battle, Svyatoslav cast his spear over the Derevlians,
but because he was just a child, his spear fell short and struck the horse on
the leg. But Olga's men cried out, “The prince has already begun battle. Forward
after the prince!” And they conquered the Derevlians, so that the remnants of
the Derevlian forces fled back to their cities and barricaded themselves inside.

Olga besieged the city where her husband had died but was still unable to
conquer it for more than a year, for the Derevlians now realized that she would
show them no mercy. Finally, the queen thought of a plan and sent this message
to the town: “Why do you continue to hold out? All your other cities have
surrendered and paid tribute and now plow their fields in peace, but you would
rather starve than submit.” The Derevlians replied that they would pay tribute
gladly, but they feared it was revenge she was after. She answered, “Since I
have already three times avenged my husband's death, twice when your messengers
came to Kiev, and a third time at my husband's funeral feast, I do not desire
more, but I do request a small tribute. After we have made our peace, I will
return to my home again.”

The Derevlians asked what she wanted of them, offering her honey and furs.
Olga responded that by this time they probably had neither honey nor furs, but
because she knew their resources were exhausted by the siege, she asked only one
small token gift, three pigeons and three sparrows from each house. The relieved
Derevlians collected the birds from each house as she asked, sending them to
Olga with their greetings. Olga then told them to return to their city and
promised that she would depart for her own capital on the next day. The
Derevlians returned to their city with the news and all the people rejoiced.

Then Olga gave a bird to each of her followers and ordered them to tie a
piece of sulfur wrapped with cloth to each of them. At nightfall she had them
release the pigeons and sparrows, which returned to their nests in the Derevlian
houses and thus set all the roofs on fire. With so many houses afire at once,
the people could not put them out and fled from the city, where Olga's troops
were waiting for them. Thus she took and burned the city and captured its
elders; some she killed, some she gave as slaves to her followers, and the rest
she left behind to pay a heavy tribute.

Olga ruled for many years, until her son, Svyatoslav, was old enough to
become king. His people had flourished under his mother's reign, and she had
reared him to be a great and powerful prince, with the courage of his father and
the cunning of his mother.

I chose this story because it shows a successful Germanic queen
in action, and Olga possesses many abilities and personality traits I tend to
associate with Frigg. First, all her actions throughout the story are designed
to protect and empower her son, whom she intends to rear to be the next king in
his father's stead. She is also trying to ensure the social order of her nation,
which would not fare well if the country came under the control of its enemies,
and to preserve her husband's inheritance for his heir. She has the complete
obedience and respect of her followers, an uncanny knowledge of human nature,
and a great supply of cunning and energy.

Throughout the story she turns the virtues expected of an obedient wife to
her own ends—she appears only too willing to give up the burden of rulership to
a strong husband, acts the eager and gracious hostess to all the ambassadors,
plays the part of the grieving widow at her husband's gravesite, and is utterly
reasonable and conciliatory in her request for a suitable wergild for her
husband's loss. When the Derevlians continually take her at face value and fall
into her trap, she is ruthless and efficient about annihilating her enemies.
But, above all, she is a queen and a mother; she knows in her gut that the
Derevlians mean no good to her son or her realm, and she exerts all her strength
and energy over a period of many years to achieve her goals.

Glossary of Terms

Aegir
(Ægir): A jotun, husband of Ran; ruler of the
deep sea.

Aesir
(Æsir, sing. áss): The race of gods and goddesses,
including Frigg, Odin, and their kin; particularly associated with air and fire,
consciousness, intellectual knowledge, magic, and war.

Althing:
A Thing (a legal assembly) with a constituency
covering a wide area, such as a nation.

Asatru
(Ásatrú): Literally “true to the gods”; a modern
term used by some for the original pre-Christian religion of the people of
northwestern Europe, particularly Scandinavia.

Asgard
(Ásgarðr): The home of the Aesir gods.

Asynjur
(Ásynjur, sing. ásynja): The Aesir goddesses.

Balder
(Baldr): An Aesir god, called “the Beautiful”;
son of Odin and Frigg, brother of Hod, and husband of Nanna; accidentally killed
by his brother Hod; said to return to rule Asgard at the end of the age; symbol
of the heroic warrior, a god of masculine potency, regeneration, transformation,
wise counsel, and goodness.

barrow:
A burial mound.

Berchte,
or
Perchta:
German goddess similar to
Frigg and nearly identical to Holda; associated with spinning and other crafts,
children, the Yule season, and the Wild Hunt; worshipped in southern Germany.

Bifros
t (Bifröst)
:
The rainbow bridge of fire,
air, and water that links the world of the gods to the other worlds.

blót:
“Blessing” or “sacrifice”; a religious ceremony in
which offerings (nowadays usually intoxicating drink, but traditionally
sacrificial animals) are made to the gods and in return their power is
distributed in the world of humans.

bragarfull:
“Promise cup”; in a sumble or other ritual,
the toast over which one makes a vow or promise.

Bragi:
An Aesir god, son of Odin and husband of Idun;
god of poetry and poets (called skalds), fame, and hospitality.

Brisingamen
(Brísingamen): “Necklace (or Belt) of the
Brisings”; Freyja's treasure, made by four dwarves; it embodies the life force
of which Freyja is mistress.

byname:
A nickname or alias, often used by gods and
others traveling between worlds.

dísir
(sing. dís): Ancestral female beings with powers
of protection and fertility.

Draupnir:
The gold arm-ring of Odin, which produces
eight rings of equal worth on every ninth night.

Edda:
Either of two important works in Icelandic lore
dealing with Norse myths and legends. The
Elder Edda,
or
Poetic Edda,
is a collection of poems preserved in the Codex Regius on the Norse religious
and heroic traditions. The
Prose Edda,
or
Younger Edda,
was
written by Icelander Snorri Sturluson between 1222 and 1235 and includes Norse
cosmology, legends, and poetic traditions.

Eir:
Aesir goddess of doctors, healing, and childbirth.

faring forth:
Engaging in out-of-body travel.

Fensalir:
Frigg's hall in Asgard.

Ffraed
(Ffræd): Welsh goddess of poetry, fire, and
healing.

Fjörgynn
(f)/
Fjörgyn
(m): An earth or fertility
deity; the name appears in both feminine and masculine form.

Forseti:
Son of Balder and Nanna; a god of civil law,
cooperation, compromise, peace, reconciliation, and fairness.

Frau Gode,
or
Frau Wode:
“Mrs. Odin”; German
goddess connected to the Wild Hunt and the harvest.

Frey
(Freyr): Njord's son and Freyja's brother, who gave
up his sword and his horse to win the jotun maiden Gerd for his wife; god of
male potency, fertility, peace, prosperity, joy, and kingship.

Freyja:
The foremost Vanir goddess, Njord's daughter,
and Frey's sister; goddess of love and beauty, eroticism and sensuality, war,
death, magic, clairvoyance, wealth, independence, and the life force itself.

Frigg:
Odin's wife and queen of the Aesir; goddess of
the home and family, motherhood, domestic affairs, crafts and craftspeople,
divination, social order, and relationships.

frith:
Peace, with connotations of freedom and
fellowship.

full:
The ritual cup or toast in a Germanic ceremony.

Fulla:
Frigg's sister and keeper of her secrets and
treasures; Aesir goddess of abundance, fruitfulness, and generosity.

fylgja:
A guardian spirit, often seen as a
semi-independent part of the soul, which usually appears in the shape of an
animal or a female.

galdr:
Magical song or chanting, especially used in rune
magic.

Gefjon
, or
Gefjun:
Aesir goddess of farming and
agriculture, fruitfulness in potential, young women, and merrymaking.

Gerd
(Gerðr): A beautiful jotun maiden who married the
Vanir god, Freyr, after a difficult courtship; represents the untilled earth.

giants:
See
jotun.

Gna
(Gná): Frigg's messenger who travels through the
different worlds on her horse Hofvarpnir.

Grid
(Gríðr): A jotun-wife, mistress of Odin, and mother
of the god Vidar. She lent Thor her magic gloves, girdle, and staff to fight the
giant Geirrod.

Gunnlod
(Gunnlöð): A jotun maiden, guardian of the mead
of poetry, who was seduced by Odin when he came to recapture it; possibly the
mother of the god Bragi.

hawk dress:
A magical dress or cloak owned by Frigg
(also attributed to Freyja), which enables the wearer to fly between the worlds
in the form of a hawk.

Heathen:
A follower of a Pagan (non-Abrahamic) religion,
specifically a Germanic religion.

heimchen:
The train of children who follow Berchte in
her procession; said to be the souls of dead and/or unborn children.

Heimdall
(Heimdallr): The Aesir guardian of the bridge
leading to Asgard; forefather and teacher of humans and shaper of the various
classes of society; a god of wisdom, holiness, order and stability, and
fertility.

Hel,
or
Hela:
Daughter of Loki and the female
jotun Angrboda; the goddess of death and the Underworld.

Helheim,
or
Hel:
One of the Nine Worlds—the
Underworld—realm of the goddess of death, Hel.

Hermod
(Hermóðr): Called “the Bold”; the Aesir god who,
at Frigg's request, rode to Hel to try to ransom his brother Balder.

Hlidskjalf
(Hliðskjálf): Odin's high seat in Valhalla
from which he and Frigg can see all that happens in the Nine Worlds.

Hlin
(Hlín): Attendant of Frigg; Aesir goddess of
protection.

Hod
(Höðr): The blind Aesir god who was tricked by Loki
into accidentally killing his brother Balder. He was later killed by Vali to
avenge Balder's death and joined his brother in Hel.

Holda:
German goddess similar to Frigg and nearly
identical to Berchte; associated with spinning, children and childbirth, the
Yule season, and the Wild Hunt; worshipped in northern Germany.

hof:
A temple or ritual area.

Huginn:
“Thought”; one of Odin's raven messengers.

hugr:
The rational part of the soul; consciousness,
mind, intellect.

Huldra:
Scandinavian goddess with similarities to Frigg;
associated with cattle, herding, and dairies; fond of music and dancing.

huldrefolk:
Norse elves or nature beings, usually found
in the mountains. They are led by the goddess Huldra.

Idun
(Iðunn): Bragi's wife, who guards the golden apples
of youth; Aesir goddess of youth, spring, and rebirth.

Jarnsaxa:
“Iron Sword”; the jotun mistress of the god
Thor and the mother of his two sons, Magni (“Might”) and Modi (“Courage”).

Jord
(Jörð): An earth jotun, mistress of Odin and mother
of Thor; a Norse version of Mother Earth.

jotun
(jötunn, pl. jötnar): A being of great age,
strength, and knowledge, associated with the forces of chaos and primal energy;
often in conflict with the gods and humans; sometimes called “giants.”

Jotunheim
(Jötunheimr): The realm of the jotuns.

kindred:
A word used by many modern Heathens to mean a
group of people who gather regularly to study the Germanic Pagan religion and to
perform rituals and other religious observances.

law-speaker:
Among the ancient Norse, a public official
with the duty of memorizing the laws and publicly reciting them at prescribed
intervals.

Lofn:
Frigg's attendant; an Aesir goddess who can remove
obstacles from the paths of lovers.

Loki:
A jotun considered one of the Aesir by virtue of
his blood-brotherhood with Odin; god of change, mischief, and deception.

Lyfjaberg:
A hill of healing inhabited by the goddess
Menglod and her attendants.

Menglod
(Menglöð): “Necklace Glad”; a supernatural
maiden dwelling on the Lyfjaberg, a place of healing, with her attendants; often
associated with the goddess Freyja.

Midgard
(Miðgarðr): “Middle World”; the home of humans;
the physical realm of existence.

Mimir:
The wisest of the Aesir; Odin gave up one of his
eyes for a drink from Mimir's well of wisdom; after Mimir was killed by the
Vanir, Odin preserved his head and from it receives advice and occult wisdom.

Muninn:
“Memory”; one of Odin's raven messengers.

Nanna:
Balder's wife, who died at his funeral so that
she could follow him to the Underworld.

Nerthus:
An early Germanic fertility goddess.

Nine
Worlds:
In Germanic cosmology the universe is divided into nine worlds or
realms of existence.

nisser
(sing. nisse): House ghosts; protective beings
who delight in order and industriousness and who help protect and care for the
house and its grounds.

norns
(pl. nornir): Female beings who shape ørlög or
fate; the three great Norns who shape ørlög for all the worlds are Urd,
Verdandi, and Skuld.

Odin
(Óðinn): Frigg's husband; leader of the Aesir, who
gave up one of his eyes for wisdom; he shaped the world, along with his brothers
Vili and Ve; a god of poetry and the creative arts, magic, ecstasy, inspiration,
magic, wisdom, conflict, war, death, communication, travel, and commerce.

ørlög:
Literally meaning “primal layers”; loosely
defined as “fate.” It refers to the past actions that shape the present and the
future.

Ragnarok
(Ragnarök): The final battle between the gods
and the forces of chaos, which marks the end of the current age.

Rig
(Rígr): A god, usually assumed to be Heimdall, who
fathers the three different social classes of people.

Rind
(Rindr): A princess who was tricked by Odin into
bearing his son Vali, Balder's avenger.

Saga
(Sága): Aesir goddess of history and storytelling,
old lore, and ancestral memories.

saga:
Old Norse word for story or history; usually
refers to part of a body of literature recorded in Iceland in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, dealing with historical and legendary themes.

seiðr:
A magical technique involving trance states,
prophesying, shamanic traveling, and talking to spirits.

shape-shifter:
A magician who can travel out of the body
in the shape of an animal or another being.

Sif:
Thor's wife; her golden hair symbolizes ripe grain;
a goddess of fertility and fruitfulness.

Sigurd
(Sigurðr): Famous hero of the Volsung tribe;
slayer of the dragon Fafnir.

Skjold
(ON Skjöldr, OE Scyld): One of the first of the
legendary Danish kings who founded the Danish royal line with the goddess
Gefjon; he appears in the opening of Beowulf as that hero's father.

Sjofn
(Sjöfn): An attendant of Frigg; Aesir goddess who
turns the thoughts of men and women to love.

Skirnir
(Skírnir): Frey's attendant who traveled to
Jotunheim to woo the jotun maiden Gerd for him.

Skuld:
One of the three great Norns who shape ørlög; her
name means “That Which Should Become.”

Sleipnir:
Loki's child; Odin's magical, eight-legged
horse that can travel between the worlds.

Snotra:
An attendant of Frigg; Aesir goddess of
moderation, known for her wisdom, gentleness, and prudence.

Sokkvabekk
(Sökkvabekkr): “Sinking Brook”; the name of
the goddess Saga's hall in Asgard.

sumble
(OE symbel, ON sumbl): A formulaic Germanic
drinking ritual.

Sunna,
or
Sol
(Sól): The Germanic sun goddess.

Syn:
Frigg's attendant; Aesir goddess who guards the
door of the hall and keeps out intruders; also called on at law assemblies to
defend the accused.

Thing:
Old Norse assembly for legislative, legal,
religious, and social purposes.

Thor
(Þórr): The son of Odin and the jotun-wife Jord
(earth); the red-bearded Aesir god of thunder and the defender of Asgard and the
earth from chaos; a god of strength and physical courage, physical power, force
and energy, fertility, and oaths, and protector of the home and temple.

thrall:
A bond servant, the lowest class of Old Norse
society.

troth:
“Truth”; a pledge or oath; loyalty, faithfulness.

Tyr
(Týr): An Aesir god who lost his right hand in order
to bind the wolf of chaos and keep an oath; thought by many to be the original
Indo-European sky father; god of honor, law and contracts, rational judgment,
oaths, the Thing, warriors, service, and sacrifice.