#kvaedi

I received a copy of Queering the Runes by Siri Vincent Plouff from Eryn Carter Eaton, Director of Publicity for Red Wheel/Weiser, the publisher of this book. This is the first time I can recall receiving a book from a publisher to review for my blog, so, when I got it in November I determined I would work through it. The book is, at its core, a workbook. You are meant to work through it with…

I am Önd I am breath I am the mouth I am the words I am cleansing I am the estuary I am galdr I am ljóð I am kvæði I am gerningar I am varðlokkur I am frœði I am songs I am chants I am incantations I am poems I am alliteration I am mumbling I am the spoken word I am storytelling I am the story I am reykr I am the prayers that comfort I am the words of blessing I am the…

“The use of chants to bring the seið-worker into a state of trance are well-documented: aside from the saga references, skaldic kennings comparing the noises of battle to seið-chants are not uncommon (Meissner, Die Kenningar der Skalden, pp. 196-97). However, these chants are notably different from galdr-songs. Whereas galdr-songs are described with verbs such as galaand syngja (to sing magically, to sing) and with the noun ljóð (song), the words used in the context of seiðr are inevitably kveða (to speak, to recite); the thing recited is called kvæði(chant) and fröði (wisdom, presumably in the sense of wisdom-chant). While the galdr-song is itself the means of working the magic, and is sung by the chief worker, the seið-chant is only spoken by the chief worker if s/he cannot avoid it. A lone seiðmaðr hardly ever appears in the sagas: troops of up to eighty (as with Rögnvaldr réttilbeini in Haralðs saga ins hárfagra ch. XXXIV) are mentioned, while poorer folk, such as Kotkell and Gríma, had to make do with family members. Further, the chant was something a christian woman was able to perform, so that it clearly relied on no special magical skill, or even spiritual enlightenment. We know little about Viking Age music, so we are not certain what distinguished ‘singing’ (magical or otherwise) from ‘reciting’, especially since the beauty of Guðríðr’s voice was an important factor in the success of the working. However, we may guess that the kvæði probably had a very limited range (perhaps two to four notes), and we may even speculate that it could well have been repetitive and lulling in character (especially since Guðríðr learned it from a foster-mother but apparently not in a context of learning magic in general; one might imagine that it could have done double-duty as a children’s song or cradle-song, as such things are ideal for inducing trance).”