Northern witch

“Missinningastafur Oðinn eingin forskrift”:

mis-sýning, f. deception of sight.

enginn, qs. einn-gi from einn, one, and the negative suffix -gi :– none.

for·skrift f. formula.

In other words, just as Odin deceived many people with his disguises, you can get the same results using this magical stave.

This stave is repeated in several copied manuscripts and generally appears in the same form (the one above has been copied from the 1670s). One exception, from 1934, has a formula and a description of the results - to put your enemy into darkness and turn him in circles, and under other circumstances drive him crazy. Nasty stuff - I would not recommend using this!

Icelandic magical symbol, Stafur til að vekja upp draug, To invoke ghosts and evil spirits.

heathenfairytale said: 

Isnt Ægishjálmur mentioned in Volsunga sag?

Yeah, Ægishjálmur is mentioned in Fáfnismál, one of the poems in the Poetic Edda which was worked into Völsunga saga, and the description of it – that it strikes fear into your enemies – is also present, but the symbol itself doesn’t actually appear in any of those manuscripts as far as I know. It seems to be a physical object rather than a repeatable symbol:

Sigurður fann þar stórmikið gull og sverðið Hrotta, og þar tók hann ægishjálm og gullbrynjuna og marga dýrgripi.

‘Sigurður found there a great deal of gold and the sword Hrotti, and took from there the ægishjálmur and gold-armor and many precious treasures.’

[Edit: I changed my mind about how valuable this piece of evidence is: http://thorraborinn.tumblr.com/post/93430829603/thorraborinn-hedendom-heathenfairytale]

One of the difficulties in tracing the origin of late Icelandic things is that they never stopped reading old Icelandic things, and trying to interpret and adapt them into their contemporary context.

Ægishjálmur does occupy a unique position among the other staves though, not only because the name is mentioned early on, but also (in my opinion; I haven’t seen this written anywhere by any specialists) because of the relative simplicity of the symbol which makes it look like something of a template for later ones.

There is also an Indian symbol which is startlingly similar which some people have suggested points to a common origin although I would say it’s a simple enough symbol that two independent inventions (especially that aren't exactly the same) doesn’t sound unrealistic. I am aware of at least one cross-shaped bindrune from an early inscription though I can’t find it or remember what it says… it’s a five-letter word with one letter on each “spoke” and one in the middle at the intersection. So it could be an example of the idea in development.

By my own estimation, it seems most likely that the symbol came into use, and then eventually someone noticed it was being used in a manner similar enough to what is described in Fáfnismál/Völsunga saga that they came to be identified with each oher.

There actually are a few symbols called Ægishjálmur beside the well-known one:

“Nine Ægishjálmar” from Galdrasýning, not sure from what manuscript.

Viking Magic Wand

For decades the experts at the British Museum believed that this item, discovered at a woman’s grave from Norway was just a hook used in fishing. However, new research suggests that it was her ‘magic wand’ and that it was deliberately bent to destroy its power. The Times newspaper reported that this item, a 90 cm long iron rod, was first brought to the British Museum in 1894. British Museum curator Sue Branning believes that it was probably a magical staff used to perform ‘seithr’, a form of Viking sorcery predominantly practiced by women. She told The Times: ”These are magical practices, which we don’t fully understand. It involves divination, prophecy, communication with the dead and making people do things. Our rod fits, in terms of its form, with a number of these rods that turn up in the 9th and 10th century in female burials. They normally take the form of these long iron rods with knobs attached to them.” The rod would have been ‘ritually’ destroyed in order to prevent the sorceress from rising from the dead, or to stop anyone else from using it. Branning adds, ”When we hear about the Vikings we hear all about the powerful warriors, but now we know there were also powerful women. These women were very well respected, but they were quite feared as well. They may have been on the margins of society. You might not want to get close to them because they have this power. The sources we have describe them as wearing blue and black cloaks with gems attached.”

Archeological finds here in the Nordic countries shows that witchcraft has been used during the prehistoric age/yore. Witchcraft for good hunt and for good harvest are suggested to be found on rock carvings.

The Sami have a wizard (nåjd) that will drum himself into trance with the zoetrope.

The word ‘häxa’ that means ‘witch’ wasn’t used until the later half of the 1600’s. Before that people called them ‘trollpacka’, ‘trollgubbe’ or ‘trollkärring’. Also the term ‘trollkunnig’ was common. Trollkunnig means ‘magic knowing’.

In the law the witchcraft paragraph was revoked 1779 by the enlightenment king Gustav III. It was met with great opposition from the priests.

The church claimed that the ‘magic knowing’ got their power from the Devil. This led to witch hunts in the 1600’s. During the 60’s and 70’s around 250-300 people were executed for witchcraft.

About the hunts in Bohuslän a narrator of our days tells that “When the witches got too difficult the county man would come and arrest a flock of suspects. Some were laid on the stretch bench, but they felt nothing, because the sufferings were transfered to some animal nearby. Others were thrown into the water. They who floated were guilty. They hid needles in their pockets to make themselves sink, but the trick was discovered and the guilty ones were burned. As far as the smoke reached nothing grew for seven years.”

Witches were not all seen as evil, they were known as wise people as well. They knew things about the unknown and they could do good as well as evil. Many witches were healers and they could help people with their injuries as well as their crops and love life.

Miron-Aku was one of the last infamous finnish witches, the keeper of the ancient knowledge. Her rituals were recorded for studies during the Ahnenerbe expedition, which was led by Yrjö von Grönhagen by the personal appoinment from Henrich Himmler.

2. For Miron Aku, her house not only is her dwelling place, but also the home of the souls of her ancestors, whom she is greeting in the picture. 3. The neighbour thinks she can predict the future by using the pendulum.

Draumstafir is an icelandic magical staff and simply put it is a magical symbol used to dream of unfulfilled desires.

They way it is used is explained in the Huld Manuscript by Geir Vigfússon from 1860:

“Scratch these symbols on silver or white leather, on St. John’s Night and they who sleep on them dream about what they want when the sun is at its lowest.”

(St. John’s Day  is known as Midsummer: the Nothern European solstice between 21st and 25th of June. However St. John’s Night may refer more spesifically to St. John’s Eve: the night before the 24th og June.)

Source

Gloson

In Swedish folktradition, Gloson is a terrible ghost pig that was a part of the challenges a year walker faced on a year walk (Sw. årsgång). She, the pig is usually a sow, could run between the legs of a person and cleave him or her in half. Sometimes she carried a scroll or a book in her mouth, and the one who snatched it could learn magic.