Norse Goddess Magic (27 page)

Ull
(Ullr): The winter god of hunting, archery, skiing,
and skating; a god of oaths and single combat.

Urd
(Urðr): One of the three great Norns who shape
ørlög; her name means “That Which Is.”

Valhalla
(Valhöll): “Hall of the Slain”; Odin's hall in
Asgard, where the souls of many of the battle-dead and those pledged to Odin go
after death.

Vali
(Váli): Son of Odin and Rind; Aesir god who avenges
Balder's death by killing Hod.

Valkyrie
(valkyrja): “Chooser of the Slain”; a female
supernatural being attending Odin, god of war; the Valkyries help decide the
outcome of battles and conduct the chosen slain to Valhalla.

Vanaheim:
The home of the Vanir gods.

Vanir
(sing. vanr): The race of gods, including Freyja,
Frey, and their kin; particularly associated with prosperity, fertility,
eroticism, nature, and hidden wisdom.

Var
(Vár): Frigg's attendant; Aesir goddess who listens
to the vows and contracts made between men and women.

vatni ausa:
“Sprinkling with water”; Norse naming ritual
in which a child is accepted into the family and given an ørlög.

Ve
(Vé): “Holy Place”; Aesir god who, along with his
brothers Odin and Vili, shaped the world.

Verdandi
(Verðandi): One of the three great Norns who
shape ørlög; her name means “That Which Is Becoming.”

Vidar
(Víðarr): An Aesir god noted for his silence and
his strength.

Viking
(noun): A Scandinavian warrior-adventurer and
seafarer; Vikings raided and traded on the coasts of Europe from the eighth to
the tenth centuries.

viking
(verb): To go on an expedition of discovery,
trade, and raiding.

Vili:
“Will”; Aesir god who, along with his brothers
Odin and Ve, shaped the world.

völva:
A female magician who specializes in divination
and prophecy.

Vor
(Vör): Frigg's attendant; an Aesir goddess said to
be so wise that nothing can be hidden from her.

wergild:
In Anglo-Saxon and Germanic law, a monetary
compensation paid to the kin of a slain person.

wish maiden
(öskmær): Another name given to the
Valkyrie; she aids Odin in carrying out his will in his function as dispenser of
gifts and granter of wishes.

wood wife:
Female land-wight, a wild, elflike dweller in
the deep woods; wood wives sometimes give advice and help to humans in exchange
for gifts and favors.

wyrd:
“Fate”; also the OE form of the proper name Urd,
the Norn who represents “That Which Is.”

Footnotes

*1
. Generally the term
norns
is capitalized when referring
to the three great Norns (similar to the Greek Fates), who are goddesses of
sorts and control the fate of the Universe, and is lowercase when referring to
the various lesser norns believed to be associated with individual people or
families. You will see both usages in this book.

Endnotes

CHAPTER 1. THE IMPORTANCE OF MYTHOLOGY

1.
 Doty,
Mythology,
6.

2.
 Lowry,
Familiar Mysteries,
15.

3.
 Bolle,
Freedom of Man in Myth,
38.

4.
 Eliade,
Myth and Reality,
19.

5.
 Bolle,
Freedom of Man in Myth,
109.

6.
 Doty,
Mythology,
23.

7.
 Lowry,
Familiar Mysteries,
3.

8.
 Ibid., 4.

9.
 Doty,
Mythology,
48.

10.
 Eliade,
Myth and Reality,
19.

CHAPTER 3. DEFINING TRANCE AND ITS MANY MANIFESTATIONS

1.
 Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary:
trance,
defined as “stupor,
daze,” “a sleeplike state (as of deep hypnosis) usu. characterized by partly
suspended animation with diminished or absent sensory and motor activity,” and
“a state of profound abstraction or absorption.”

2.
 Butler,
Magician,
114.

3.
 Harner,
Way of the Shaman,
21.

4.
 Gundarsson,
Teutonic Magic,
211–12, 290.

CHAPTER 4. HOW TO DO TRANCEWORK

1.
 Thorsson,
Northern Magic,
161.

2.
 Price,
The Viking Way,
174.

CHAPTER 7. THE INFLUENCE OF THE QUEEN OF THE GODS ON GERMANIC CULTURE

1.
 De Vries,
Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte,
2:303.

2.
 Ingham,
Goddess Freyja,
123.

3.
 De Vries,
Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte,
2:306.

4.
 Ibid., 2:304.

5.
 Gundarsson,
Teutonic Religion,
41–42.

6.
 Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology,
1:270 n.

7.
 Guerber,
Norsemen,
38.

8.
 Davidson,
Gods and Myths of Northern Europe,
111; and Turville-Petre,
Myth and Religion of the North,
72.

9.
 Guerber,
Norsemen,
43.

10.
 Ibid., 51.

11.
 Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology,
1:285; and Guerber,
Norsemen,
57.

12.
 Guerber,
Norsemen,
51–53.

13.
 Ibid., 53–54; and Ingham,
Goddess Freyja,
191–92.

14.
 Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology,
1:275; and Ingham,
Goddess Freyja,
203.

15.
 Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology,
1:276–77.

16.
 Ibid., 1:429 n.

17.
 Ibid., 1:277–78.

18.
 Ibid., 4:1370.

19.
 Ingham,
Goddess Freyja,
206.

20.
 Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology,
3:1162.

21.
 Ibid., 1:280.

22.
 Ibid., 4:1368.

23.
 Ibid., 1:271–72.

24.
 Ibid., 1:269.

25.
 Ibid., 4:1370.

26.
 Ibid., 1:269n.

27.
 Ibid., 4:1370.

28.
 Ingham,
Goddess Freyja,
176.

29.
 Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology,
1:274.

30.
 Ring of Troth,
Our Troth,
121.

31.
 Ibid.; and Gundarsson, “The Spinning Goddess and Migration Age Bracteates,” 7.

32.
 Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology,
1:275–76.

33.
 Ibid., 1:273.

34.
 Ibid., 2:632.

35.
 Ingham,
Goddess Freyja,
185.

36.
 De Vries,
Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte,
1:451.

37.
 Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology,
3:925–26.

38.
 Ingham,
Goddess Freyja,
210–11; and Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology,
1:252.

39.
 Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology,
1:304.

40.
 Danaher,
Year in Ireland,
14.

41.
 Ibid., 27–28.

42.
 Ström, “King God and His Connection with Sacrifice,” 714.

43.
 Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology,
4:1780.

44.
 Gundarsson,
Teutonic Religion,
49.

45.
 Grönbech,
Culture of the Teutons,
2:164.

46.
 Ibid., 2:165.

47.
 Stokker, “Folklore of Butter,” 19.

48.
 Ibid., 20.

49.
 Wiesner, “Spinning Out Capital,” 234.

50.
 Ibid., 234–35.

51.
 
The Viking,
195.

52.
 Wemple, “Sanctity and Power,” 146.

53.
 Bauschatz,
Well and the Tree,
13–14.

54.
 Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology,
4:1369.

CHAPTER 8. FRIGG—THE ALLMOTHER—AND A SAMPLE GODDESS RITUAL

1.
 Davidson,
Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe,
117.

2.
 Gundarsson,
Teutonic Religion,
240.

3. Ring of Troth,
Our Troth,
494.

4.
 Ibid., 123.

5.
 Lucas,
Common and Uncommon Uses of Herbs,
3.

6.
 Grieve,
A Modern Herbal,
1:266.

7.
 Ibid., 1:267.

8.
 Ibid., 2:864.

CHAPTER 9. EIR—THE DOCTOR

1.
 Tacitus,
The Agricola and the Germania,
107.

2.
 Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology,
3:1163–64.

3.
 Ibid., 3:1165.

4.
 Ibid., 3:1173.

5.
 Mason, “Folk-Lore of British Plants,” 325–26; and Grimm,
Teutonic
Mythology,
4:1812–13.

6.
 Ibid., 3:1166.

7.
 Ibid., 3:1188.

8.
 Ariel, “A Morning's Meditation,” 5–6.

9.
 Davidson,
Gods and Myths of Northern Europe,
62.

10.
 De Vries,
Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte,
2:316–17.

11.
 Snorri Sturluson,
Edda,
157.

CHAPTER 10. SAGA—THE STORYTELLER

1.
 Steblin-Kamenskij,
Saga Mind,
26.

2.
 Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology,
3:911.

3.
 Ibid.

4.
 Suchenwirt [Suchenwirth] cited in Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology,
3:911.

CHAPTER 11. GNA—THE MESSENGER

1.
 Guerber,
Norsemen,
48; and Anderson,
Norse Mythology,
239.

2.
 Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology,
2:896.

3.
 Ibid., 2:897.

4.
 Guerber,
Norsemen,
252.

CHAPTER 12. GEFJON—THE WORKER

1.
 Davidson,
Gods and Myths of Northern Europe,
113.

2.
 Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology,
1:264.

3.
 De Vries,
Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte,
2:330.

4.
 Ibid., 2:293.

5.
 Ellis,
Road to Hel,
75; and Ring of Troth,
Our Troth,
129.

6.
 Ring of Troth,
Our Troth,
129.

7.
 Ibid.

8.
 Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology,
1:311.

9.
 Ring of Troth,
Our Troth,
129.

10.
 This stanza is taken from a poem by the ninth-century Norwegian skald, Bragi
Boddason the Old, which is quoted in both the Gylfaginning (ch. 1) of the
Prose Edda
and the
Ynglinga saga
(ch. 5).

CHAPTER 13. SNOTRA—THE PRUDENT ONE

1.
 Ring of Troth,
Our Troth,
303–4.

2.
 Wicker, “Nimble-Fingered Maidens in Scandinavia” 884; and Spurkland,
Norwegian Runes and Runic Inscriptions,
144–45.

CHAPTER 14. LOFN—THE CHAMPION

1.
 Gundarsson,
Teutonic Religion,
246.

2.
 Grönbech,
Culture of the Teutons,
2:62.

3.
 Snow, “Lofn,” 9.

CHAPTER 15. SJOFN—THE PEACEMAKER

1.
 Guerber,
Norsemen,
49.

2.
 Grönbech,
Culture of the Teutons,
1:53, 1:59.

CHAPTER 16. VAR—THE HEARER OF OATHS

1.
 Grönbech,
Culture of the Teutons,
2:125.

2.
 Ibid., 2:58.

CHAPTER 17. FULLA—THE SISTER

1.
 Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology,
1:308.

2.
 Ibid.

3.
 De Vries,
Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte,
2:328.

4.
 Ibid., 2:171.

5.
 Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology,
1:308.

CHAPTER 18. HLIN—THE PROTECTOR

1.
 Guerber,
Norsemen,
47. Guerber is the only source that mentions this,
but it does fit in with the protective, motherly aspect of Hlin's activities.

2.
 Grimm,
Teutonic Mythology,
3:932.

CHAPTER 19. SYN—THE GUARDIAN

1.
 Brondsted,
Vikings,
241.

2.
 Ibid., 242.

3.
 Ibid.

4.
 Grönbech,
Culture of the Teutons,
1:90.

CHAPTER 20. VOR—THE WISEWOMAN

1.
 Thorsson,
Northern Magic,
159.

2.
 Davidson,
Gods and Myths of Northern Europe,
120.

3.
 Ibid., 121–22.

4.
 Grönbech,
Culture of the Teutons,
2:122.