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November 22, 2008 |
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As described by Snorri Sturluson in his Ynglinga saga (http://www.northvegr.org/lore/heim/001_02.php sec. 7), seid includes both divination and manipulative magic. It seems likely that the type of divination practiced by seid was generally distinct, by dint of an altogether more metaphysical nature, from the day-to-day auguries performed by the seers (menn frams??nir, menn forsp??ir). In The Saga of Eric the Red, the seiðkona or v??lva in Greenland wore a blue cloak and a headpiece of black lamb trimmed with white cat skin; she carried the symbolic distaff (seiðstafr), which was often buried with her; and would sit on a high platform. In Orvar-Odd's Saga|??rvar-Odd's Saga, however, the cloak is black, yet the seidkhona also carries the distaff (which allegedly has the power of causing forgetfulness in one who is tapped three times on the cheek by it). The colour of the cloak may be less significant than the fact that it was intended to signify the otherness of the seiðkona. How far the saga's elaborate description reflects pre-Conversion practice as opposed to the Christian author's imagination is, however, uncertain. Our evidence suggests that during seances the seiðkona would enter a state of trance in which her soul was supposed to "become discorporeal", "take the likeness of an animal", "travel through space", etc. This state of trance may have been achieved through any of several methods: narcotics, sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, etc. To galdra, i.e. the chanting of galdrar was also involved in the creation of the state of trance. The galdr and its Old English counterpart, the gealdor, has evolved into the word yell (modern Scandinavian: gala), and there are a number of kennings which compare the sound of battle to seid chanting. It is probable that this sound was very high-pitch (music)|pitched. That may be one reason why sei??r was regarded as unmanly. The goddess Freya is identified in Ynglinga saga as an adept of the mysteries of seid, and it is said that it was she who taught it to Odin: 'D??ttir Njar??ar var Freyja. Hon var bl??tgy??ja. Hon kenndi fyrst me?? ??sum sei??, sem V??num var t??tt' ('Nj??r??r???s daughter was Freyja. She was a sacrifice-goddess. It was she who acquainted first the ??sir with sei??r, which was customary among the Vanir'). In Lokasenna Loki accuses Odin of practicing seid, condemning it as an unmanly art. A justification for this may be found in the Ynglinga saga where Snorri opines that following the practice of seid, the practitioner was rendered weak and helpless. One possible example of seid in Norse mythology is the prophetic vision given to Odin in the V??lusp?? by the v??lva, vala, or seeress after whom the poem is named. Her vision is not connected explicitly with sei??r, however: the word occurs in the poem in relation to a character called Hei??r (who is traditionally associated with Freyja but may be identical with the v??lva: see McKinnell 2001). The interrelationship between the v??lva in this account and the Norns, the fates of Norse lore, are strong and striking. Another noted mythological practitioner of seiðr was the witch Groa, who attempted to assist Thor, and who is summoned from beyond the grave in the Svipdagsm??l. Shamanism is a tradition which has been maintained widely throughout the world and it is probably of prehistoric origin. Recent scholarship draws a Balto-Finnic link to seid, citing the depiction of its practitioners as such in the sagas and elsewhere, and link seid to the practices of the noajdde, the patrilineal shamans of the Sami people. However, Indo-European origins are also possible (for references see Hall 2004, 121-22). Note that the word seita (Finnish language|Finnish) or sieidde (Sami language|Sami) is a human-shaped body formed by a tree, or a large and strangely shaped stone or rock and does not involve "magic" or "sorcery"; there is a good case, however, that these words do derive ultimately from sei??r (Parpola 2004). Diana Paxson and her group, Hrafnar, have put in a lot of work reconstructing seid from available historical material, particularly its oracular form. Jan Fries traces seid as an inspiration for his "seething" shamanic technique, though he is less concerned with precise historical reconstruction. See further Blain 2002.
NorseMythology Category:Germanic paganism Category:Shamanism Category:Witchcraft da:Sejd de:Seidr eo:Sejdo fr:Seydr sv:Sejd This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Seid".
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