What ties them together is a retrospective antiquarianism by authors of Icelandic magical texts, popularly referred to as “galdrabækur” (sg. The two are different and distinct, but not totally unrelated. A symbol by the name of ægishjálmur, depicted in Icelandic occult literature from the Early Modern Era.įor clarity, the first will be referred to in italics by its Old Norse form ægishjalmr, while I will reserve the modern Icelandic form ægishjálmur for the symbol. A magical helmet called ægishjalmr, mentioned in Old Norse legendary literature.Ģ. The symbol itself takes a variety of forms, though usually depicted as a cruciform or radial sign with either four or eight spokes and fork-like protrusions that bear a passing resemblance to runes.įor the convenience of more impatient readers readers I’ll summarize my point right now: The ægishjálmur is not a Viking Age symbol under any reasonable definition, but a post-Medieval magical appropriation of an older concept, which I’ll be referring to by its Old Norse name. In some cases it helps you get laid, in others it makes your angry boss chill out. Though often spoken of as a charm to daze or instil fear in enemies, the stave’s exact purpose varies from manuscript to manuscript. The ægishjálmur is certainly one of the most recognizable symbols from the corpus of Early Modern Icelandic magic, collectively refered to as “galdrastafir”, or “magical staves”. Now, time is long overdue to raise the banner once more and declare hunting season on yet another sacred calf of the misguided and opportunistic: The ægishjálmur. Vets to the blog may recall my rough-handed, but no doubt justified assault against the so-called * valknútr and the anachronisms surrounding it. No subject is too sacred to be spared from the Brute Norse fatwa against disinformation. Clubbing Solomon's Seal: the occult roots of the ægishjálmur. Stockholms universitet, Religionhistoriska avdelingen: Stockholm Svartkonstböcker: a compendium of the Swedish black art book tradition. (2011) "Vil du jeg skal vise dig Fanden?" Presten som magiker i det postreformatoriske Norge. Norske Hexeformularer og magiske opskrifter.
Musical contribution by Darya & Månskensorkestern: Before we go on to discuss the influence of continental sorcery, and ultimately the appearance of grimoires on the Scandinavian occult horizon.īuy my book "Love Spells and Erotic Sorcery in Norwegian Folk Magic" at /įor all things Brute Norse, see: linktr.ee/brutenorseįeaturing musical arrangements by Helge Taksdal. Focusing on the legend-steeped early modern grimoire tradition in Norway, we start our Faustian adventure with the question of runic magic and its developments towards the peak of runic literacy in the High Middle Ages. There’s a lot that’s not really known about the origin and development of the Icelandic magical staves, but it is clear that they are part of a wider European “black book” tradition.In this ghoulish episode we'll be looking at magic and sorcery in literary transmission while Eirik wrestles with his own personal demons. There are actually kind of a lot of these books of magic spells and signs in Iceland, which are called galdraskræða (plur. galdraskræður) or black books in English. It can be difficult to determine what parts are home-grown Icelandic ideas and what parts originate in more southern parts of Europe. They are obviously collections of things from elsewhere, some probably copied from other books which have themselves now been lost. One theory is that at least some of the Icelandic magic staves are complicated bindrunes which have become stylized, either intentionally by the creator or maybe over time while being copied. It’s true that the symbols don’t look like any runes that we’re used to seeing, but by this time there were huge collections of alphabets that the manuscript authors called “runes” but which are completely unrecognizable as them. Here are two pages from Huld, ÍB 383 4to from 1860, compiled from at least three older manuscripts according to Galdrasýning (which dates it rather to 1847) which can be viewed online at handrit.is. Alphabets 325-329 are all called Völvurúnir ’Völva’s runes.’ If it is true that staves were composed in that way, the number of symbols the creators had at their disposal is really completely unknown. They also had incredibly complex and detailed methods for ciphering.
It could also be that the theory is wrong, or just doesn’t apply to this particular symbol. Thorsson (actually, under his real name, Stephen Flowers) did translate the Galdrabók into English, and the commentary is problematic but the translation is okay (he is usually more down-to-earth when he’s using his real name).
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