top of page

ELVES

  • elf (Old Norse álfr, Old English ælf, Old High German alb, Proto-Germanic *albaz)

  • certain kind of demigod-like being

  • luminous beings, “more beautiful than the sun" -- constantly being linked with the Aesir and Vanir gods

  • lines between elves and other spiritual beings are blurry (especially hard to discern the boundary elves--Vanir)

  • ambivalent relations with humans:

    • commonly cause human illnesses, but also have the power to heal them (willing to do so if sacrifices are offered to them)

    • can interbreed and produce half-human, half-elfin children, appearance of humans but possess extraordinary intuitive and magical powers.

    • humans can apparently become elves after death --> considerable overlap between worship of human ancestors--worship of the elves.

DWARVES

  • dwarf (Old Norse dvergr, Old English dweorg, Old High German twerg, Proto-Germanic *dwergaz)

  • certain kind of invisible being

  • No one really knows what the word “dwarf” and its cognates originally meant; no indication of small stature

  • pitch-black in appearance and live underground in Svartalfheim (labyrinthine complex of mines and forges)

  • most often noted for being extremely skilled smiths and craftspeople. extremely knowledgeable, wise, and magically powerful. turn to stone if exposed to the rays of the sun.[

  • Four dwarves, Austri, Vestri, Norðri, and Suðri (“East,” “West,” “North,” and “South”) hold aloft the four corners of the sky, evidencing their colossal strength.

  • dwarves: occasionally called “black elves” (Old Norse svartálfar); in some instances described as being dead or resembling human corpses.

LAND SPIRITS

  • Land spirits (Old Norse landvættir)

  • localized animating spirits of the land

  • wield considerable influence over the well-being of the land and all who depend on it.

  • can bless or curse those who live or travel within their land, and be blessed or cursed by them in turn. fierce protectors of their native lands, seldom tolerant of mistreatment and dishonor, and seem to have a very passionate disposition in general.

  • those entering the country by ship to remove the dragon-heads from their boats when they sighted land, lest they frighten the land spirits.

VALKYRIES

  • valkyrie (Old Norse valkyrja, plural valkyrjur, “choosers of the fallen”)

  • female helping spirit of Odin

  • modern image = elegant, noble maidens bearing dead heroes to Valhalla --> tendency toward sanitization; focus on love affairs with human men and assisting Odin in transporting his favorites to Valhalla

  • valkyries have always had such characteristics, but in heathen times they were far more sinister.

    • meaning of name, “choosers of the slain":

      • choosing who gains admittance to Valhalla

      • choosing who dies in battle and using malicious magic to ensure that their preferences in this regard are brought to fruition.

  • projections of parts of Odin, semi-distinct beings that are parts of his larger being.

THE NORNS

  • Norns (Old Norse Nornir)

  • three female divine beings who have more influence over the course of destiny than any other beings in the cosmos.

  • dwell within the Well of Urd beneath Yggdrasil

  • shape destiny by carving runes into the trunk of the tree / weaving destiny like a web or tapestry

  • Urd (Old Norse Urðr, “What Once Was”), Verdandi (Old Norse Verðandi, “What Is Coming into Being”) and Skuld (Old Norse Skuld, “What Shall Be”). correspond instead to past, present, and necessity in a cyclical conception of time

  • model of destiny far more dynamic and volatile than this, ample room for individual agency in the shaping of destiny.

  • countless norns with a lowercase “n” – norn is an Old Norse word for a generic practitioner of magic.

ANCESTORS

  • dead remained in their community’s collective memory long after their passing, were perceived to confer blessings upon the land and the people they left behind. especially so if they properly reverenced by descendents.

    • most frequent gift of the ancestors is the fertility of the land (corresponds very well to ecological role of a decaying body)

    • Thehamingja (“luck”) = semi-autonomous parts of the self passed on to a descendent. granted the ancestor’s propensity for success.

      • Sitting on burial mound to receive creative inspiration or answer to burning question is another common practice.

      • are petitioned for help in all areas of life.

  • may have been that those who had brought especial prosperity to people during life were held to also be able to grant especial prosperity to their people after they had died and become an ancestor.

 

Ancestors, Elves, and Land Spirits

  • line that separates human ancestors, elves, and land spirits is exceedingly blurry. 

  • Land spirits and elves: same role as the ancestors in religious customs

    • propitiated in much the same way and held influence over many of the same aspects of the lives of humans.

    • dwelling-places of these types of beings overlapped; elves traditionally associated with burial mounds and chambers of the human dead, would commonly receive sacrifices at these places.

 

The Continuing Presence of the Dead

  • dead continued to reside amongst their human and ecological community in some capacity, and had the power to bless those who blessed them.

DISIR

  • female spirits known as the Disir (Old Norse dísir, Old Saxon idisi)

  • depicted as being at times warlike, and at other times nourishing and protective.

  • tutelary (guardian) spirits of a particular person, group, or location

  • often depicted as the spirits of dead female ancestors,

  • festival held in honor of the Disir -- dísablót, “sacrifice to the Disir,” beginning of winter. principal ritual act, lavish banquet  / Sweden -- Disting or dísaþing (“Disir-Assembly”) beginning of February

  • Disir always female. some sort of nominally distinct group of spiritual beings

ASK AND EMBLA

  • Ask (Old Norse Askr, “Ash Tree”) and Embla (Old Norse Embla, “Water Pot”)

  • first two humans (male and female respectively)

    • after Aesir created the cosmos -- fashioned Ask and Embla from two tree trunks

    • endowed them with önd (“breath/spirit”), óðr (“ecstasy/inspiration”), and lá (vital processes and health).

    • then given Midgard, the world of human civilization, for their dwelling-place.

    • father and mother of the entire human species.

 

Ask and Embla as Gender Archetypes

  • showing masculinity and femininity to be complimentary, intertwined, and reciprocal cosmological principles, both of which are just as essential to the promotion of life and well-being as the other.

 

Humanity’s Place in the More-than-Human World

  • humankind comes from trees, whether on a beach or in a grove, and stating that we come from gods are different ways of saying the same thing. 

  • no sharp line between humans and the rest of the world. Humanity as much a part of normal order as are trees. 

LIF AND LIFTHRASIR

  • Lif (Old Norse Líf, “Life”) and Lifthrasir (Old Norse Lífþrasir, “The One Striving After Life”)

  • human male and female pair who survive Ragnarok

  • survived Ragnarok by hiding “in Hoddmimir’s forest” and consuming the morning dew for their food. couple went on to repopulate the world

 

Wood, Water, and Destiny

  • emphasis placed on the presence of water

  • links human couple to Yggdrasil and the Well of Urd

  • spiritual essence is inseparable from that of trees and water. 

BERSERKERS AND OTHER SHAMANIC WARRIORS

  • shamanism took several different forms.

    • attainment and use of an ecstatic battle-fury closely linked to a particular totemanimal, usually a bear or a wolf, and often occurring within the context of certain formal, initiatory military groups.

  • “warrior-shamans”:

    • berserkers (Old Norse berserkir, “bear-shirts”)

    • úlfheðnar (Old Norse for “wolf-hides”). 

  • shared a common set of shamanic practices, only substantial difference -- totem animal of berserkers = bear, úlfheðnar = wolf

    • practice of dressing in a ritual costume made from the hide of the totem animal, outward reminder of the wearer’s having gone beyond the confines of his humanity and become a divine predator

  • initiation process characterized by a symbolic (and occasionally literal) death and rebirth, whereby shaman-to-be acquires his or her powers.

    • spent a period in the wilderness, living like their totem animal and learning its ways, obtaining their sustenance through hunting, gathering, and raiding the nearest towns.

    • candidate ceased to be an ordinary human being and became instead a wolf-man or a bear-man, more a part of the forest than of civilization.

  • ability to induce a state of possession by his kindred beast, acquiring its strength, fearlessness, and fury. fasting, exposure to extreme heat, and ceremonial “weapons dances”. 

  • would often enter the fray naked but for his animal mask and pelts, howling, roaring, and running amok with godly or demonic courage. 

  • “unity with the animal world” that they have achieved through “self-dehumanization.”

  • warrior’s shield and weapons were the very emblems of his social persona and status; given to a young man who had come of age by his father or closest male relative to mark his newfound arrival into the sphere of the rights and responsibilities of his society’s adult men.

    • biting or discarding the shield, mythical beast triumphed over the petty man

    • “Odin’s men” tore through the battle, psychologically impervious to pain by virtue of their predatory trance.

  • occasionally depicted with “spirit-wives,” in this case from among the valkyries

  • exemplary devotees of Odin. battle frenzy (“going berserk,” Old Norse berserksgangr). warrior-poets.

  • no ordinary soldiers; their battle frenzy, with all of its grotesqueness and violence, was of a rarefied, even poetic, sort – and, being a gift from Odin, it was inherently sacred.

bottom of page