page_title: The Viking Way (book)
section_title: Part 3: Seiðr
hierarchical_section_title: The Viking Way (book) / Synopsis / Part 3: Seiðr
caption_attribution_description: English: The Norse god Odin on his horse Sleipnir, featured on the Tjängvide image stone in Vallhalla. It also can depict a killed warrior on his way to Vallhalla greeted by Valkyries with horn goblet in their hands. Français&#160;: Le dieu Odin représenté sur la pierre de Tjängvide.
context_page_description: The Viking Way: Religion and War in Late Iron Age Scandinavia is an archaeological study of Norse paganism in Late Iron Age Scandinavia. It was written by the English archaeologist Neil Price, then a professor at the University of Aberdeen, and first published by the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History at Uppsala University in 2002. A revised second edition is due to be published in 2017 by Oxbow Books.
  Price had worked on the subject of Norse paganism for his doctoral thesis, undertaken between 1988 and 2002, first at the University of York, England and then at the University of Uppsala, Sweden. Although primarily archaeological, Price took an interdisciplinary approach to the subject, drawing evidence from other disciplines such as history and anthropology.
  Divided into seven chapters, Price opened the book with a discussion of his theoretical approach, before providing an overview of what is known of pre-Christian Norse religion and magic from both literary and archaeological studies. He then moves into providing a deeper study of Seiðr, or Norse magical practices, identifying shamanic elements within it.
context_section_description: The third chapter is devoted to an examination of the literary and archaeological evidence for Seiðr practices in Norse society. Price starts with an examination of the god Óðinn, noting his literary associations with sorcery and shamanism, as well as identifying the shamanic and magical associations of those supernatural beings that served him, such as his horse Sleipnir and ravens Huginn and Muninn. Furthermore, he lists a total of 240 names which have been applied to Óðinn in the Norse literature, illustrating his multi-faceted role in Norse religion. Moving on to look at another deity, Freyja, Price discusses her association with magic and sorcery, before then discussing shamanistic and magical elements in pagan Norse cosmology.
  Price goes on to look at the "performers" of Seiðr, the majority of whom were apparently female. He discusses various references to female magicians in Old Norse literature, and looks into the multitude of different words used for them, arguing that some of them may have referred to different categories of magician. He then proceeds to discuss male magicians, who were a minority in the surviving literature, being viewed as deviants who had committed ergi. He moves on to deal with accounts of the Seiðr-workers' assistants in the literature, before turning his attention to the burial evidence for Norse magical practitioners. Here, he notes that both inhumation and crematory burial can be interpreted as perhaps being the resting place of sorcerers if they are buried with items which likely had magical uses, such as staffs and narcotics. As evidence, Price highlights a number of Viking Age graves that have been excavated in Scandinavia and found to contain potentially magical items; this includes three inhumation burials at Birka in the town of Björkö in Uppland, and two cremation burials at Klinta in Köpings parish, Öland, all of which were in Sweden, as well as a Danish grave from the cemetery at Fyrkat in Jylland and another from the Swedish cemetery at Aska in Hagebyhöga parish, Östergötland. Looking at the Oseburg ship burial in Norway, he then looks at the burial of what appears to be an Anglo-Scandinavian individual from the Danelaw whom was discovered at Peel Castle on the Isle of Man.
  Price carries on by looking at the "performance" of Seiðr itself, discussing the potential use of ritual architecture and space, dealing with literary and archaeological evidence for seiðhjaller platforms, chair pendants, door frames and empty ritual space (útiseta). He follows this with a study of the clothes that magical practitioners may have worn, discussing ideas regarding masks, veils and head coverings. Debating whether they made use of drums in their performance of Seiðr, he then undertakes a study of the use of staffs and wands in Nordic magic, highlighting the existence of a number of metal and wooden staffs found in the archaeological record. Moving on, he looks at the evidence for the entheogenic use of narcotics and intoxicants such as alcohol, henbane and cannabis. He then rounds off this section of the chapter with a discussion of charms, songs and chants, as well as debating whether we can understand the role of trance and ecstasy in seiðr. Price proceeds to deal with the gender concepts surrounding seiðr, and the fact that male practitioners of sorcery were viewed as social and sexual deviants who had committed ergi. Looking at the role of Óðinn as sorcerer under the lens of queer theory, Price then discusses the evidence that Seiðr practices offered involved sexual acts such as masturbation. Moving on, he looks at the Norse concept of the soul, and the idea that seiðr practitioners could command spirits known as gandir. Finally, the chapter is brought to an end with a discussion of the domestic uses of seiðr, including divination, healing, hunting and weather magic.
caption: Óðinn riding on his eight-legged horse Sleipnir, depicted on the Tjängvide image stone. Price describes the god's association with sorcery and shamanism.
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