CLIVE TOLLEY

Vçrôr and Gandr:

Helping Spirits in Norse Magic

The Vçrôr
The Background in Seiðr
Seidr is the distinctive term for certain Old Norse magic practices,
attributed to both gods and m en.1 The earliest reference in skaldic
verse to seiðr is in Korm ákr’s Sigurðardrápa, c. 960; it is also m en­
tioned in the Eddie Ls and Vsp .2 Prose works such as the 13th century
Heimskringla and Eiriks saga, and several of the 14th century fomaldar-
sggur, present instances of the practice.3

References to texts are to page, or in the case o f poetry to stanza numbers. I use the
abbreviations o f N eckel and Kuhn for Eddie poem s (Gg, Grm, Hdl, Hrbl, Ls, Vsp), and
the follow ing for other texts:
ANF A rk iv för nordisk filologi
APhS Acta Philologica Scandinavica
AR Altgermanische Religionsgeschich te (J. de Vries)
Fit Flateyjarbók
FSNL Fomaldarsögur Norâurlanda
Hkr Heimskringla
HN Historia Norvegiae
ÍF islenzk Fomrit
KLNM Kulturhistorisk Leksikon for N ordisk M iddelalder
MM M aal og M inne
Skj Skjaldedigtning (ed. Finnur Jönsson)
SnE Snorri’s Edda (ed. Finnur Jönsson)
1 The m ost co m p lete study o f seidr remains that o f Strömbäck, published in 1935.
Strömbäck's work leaves many gaps, however. I have considered seidr and its parallels
with shamanism in ch. 5 o f my doctoral thesis (Tolley 1993).
2 M uch archaic material is used in these poem s, indicating their early date; see
Dronke 1989, 106-8.
3 The sources are surveyed by Strömbäck 1935, 17-107; they include: skaldic:
Sigurðardrápa, and probably Ynglingatal (seidr is m entioned in Ynglinga saga in Snorri’s
prose sum m ary o f stanzas he does not cite); Eddie: Ls, Vsp, H dl; family sagas (13th
century): Laxdæ la saga, Vatnsdcela saga, Korm aks saga, Eiriks saga; other 13th century:
Landnám abók, Hkr; fom aldarsçgur (late 13th-14th century): Hrólfs saga kraka, N o m a
Gests þáttr, Fridþjófs saga, Q rva r O dds saga, Þáttr O rm s Stóróljssonar, Gçngu Hrólfs saga,
Sçgubrot, Sturlaugs saga starfsama, Vçlsunga saga, H alfdanar saga Brçnufôstra, Diàriks
saga.
58 Clive Tolley

The functions of seidr fall into two categories: most instances o f its
use are divinatory, i.e. for fortune-telling, reflecting the com m onplace
nature of prophecy as a poetic device; the efficatory uses vary, b u t
consist of effecting a physical change by means of magic, i.e. they are
spells; sometimes the spell is for good, as w ith Þuríðr sundafyllir, w ho
used seidr to fill a fjord with fish (Landnámabók p. 186), but m ore
often it is for a sinister purpose such as murder. Changing of outw ard
form could also be effected with seidr (as the seidkona exchanges
appearance with Signý in Vçlsunga saga: FSNL I: 121). In Vsp 21-4
seidr emerges as the magic needed for rebirth, used by the Vanir in
their war against the Æsir.4
T hat some form of trance was involved in seidr is indicated in par­
ticular by Vsp 22, where the seidkona Heiðr is described as leikin
‘entranced’ while she practises seidr.0 The existence of trance does not
necessarily imply the concept of the free-soul wandering, such as is
often found among Lappish and Siberian shamans, but for which
there is no evidence in seidr; it may equally indicate that the seeress
has p u t herself in a receptive state to hear information passed to her
by spirits sum m oned in the course of the séance, and to send these
spirits on missions if need be (Bäckman & H ultkrantz 1978, 20). The
m ention of yawning as a preliminary to seidr, m entioned in Hrólfs saga
kraka (FSNL I: 7-8), probably indicates a breathing in of spirits, such
as is found in certain shamanic rituals6 (rather than a letting out o f the
free-soul).
Eiriks saga rauda gives the fullest account we have of a seidr séance;
in brief, the saga tells the following story (pp. 206-9):

A famine is raging in Greenland. Þórbjprg, a peripatetic spåkona

‘fortune teller’, had the custom o f travelling round the farms in w in­
ter foretelling fortunes and árferd (i.e. p eop le’s livelihoods). Her
dress, including a staff, is described at length. She com es to a farm
and is fed; she asks for w om en to be fetched w ho knew the art o f
uardlokur, which was necessary for the performance o f seidr. Guðríðr
is the only one w ho knows it. After som e discussion, som e w om en
form a circle around Þórbjprg, w ho places herself up on the seidhjallr

A As argued by Dronke 1988, 230-1.

5 The word is used in the sense ‘out o f his mind' in Eyrbyggja saga (146): syndisk
mçnnum þann veg heizt sem hann myndi leikinn, þ v i at hann fór hjá sér ok talaði viå sjalfan
sik, ‘it seem ed to people m ost likely that he was possessed, since he w en t out o f his
mind and talked to h im self. I therefore take leikin, in connexion w ith seidr, to mean
‘entranced’.
h See note 34.
 Vçrôr and Gandr: Helping Spirits in Norse Magic 59

'seiðr platform ’. Guðríðr proclaims the kvæði ‘verse’ w ell, and Þór-
bjçrg thanks her for it, saying that a good many spirits had com e that
otherw ise w ould have avoided them , and a lot o f things are clear to
her now w hich were hidden before, w hich she goes on to reveal, each
person asking his fortune in turn.

In view o f its remoteness from the pagan period (Eiriks saga was com ­
posed in the early thirteenth century) the saga cannot be regarded as
authentic in all, or even many, of its details about seidr.7 Nonetheless,
it preserves certain ancient elements, and the general outline of the
séance may reflect actual practice; this is confirmed to some extent by
its closeness to th e shamanic practices of the neighbouring Lapps,
whose com m onplace presence in Norse society as fortune-tellers and
magicians may well have influenced the Norse practices.
Séances varied according to time, place and purpose, but it is pos­
sible to give a com posite analysis based on all the accounts we have
from th e 17—18th centuries (Bäckman and H ultkrantz 1978, 97-101);
not all th e elements were necessarily present in all places and on all
occasions:

The shaman prepares h im self for a day beforehand by fasting. H e

takes an intoxicant (lye or brandy). H e sits naked, beats the shamanic
drum and starts singing, accompanied by the m en and w om en pre­
sent; the singing (juoigos) is m ostly inarticulate, but includes words
referring to the places to be visited by the shaman in trance, or to
details o f the journey. The shaman runs around like a madman, hold­
ing glowing embers and cutting himself. After the shaman has
drum m ed for at m ost quarter o f an hour, he turns black, walks on his
knees w ith his hands on his hips, sings a juoigos in a high voice, and
falls down exhausted as if dead. H e stops breathing; the return o f his
breathing indicates he is leaving trance. T he trance lasts half to one
hour, during w hich the shaman’s soul wanders in the spirit realms
and the realm o f the dead (in a different ritual, during trance the
shaman sends out helping spirits to fight against spirits o f rival
shamans). The journey o f the sham an’s free-soul takes place in the
com pany o f his helping spirits (w hich take the form o f birds and fish;
the reindeer spirit takes part in fights). W hilst in trance watchm en are
left to guard the sham an’s body; these probably consisted o f a choir
ordered by the shaman. A t the beginning o f the séance all those
present seem to have taken part in the singing, but a special choir was
appointed for continuing operations: this is in several accounts said to

' Ström bäck already pointed this ou t w ith regard to Eiriks saga; for a recent critique
on the sam e lines see North 1991, 157.
6o Clive Tolley

consist o f w om en or one woman. Singing continues throughout the

séance, the purpose being to remind the shaman o f his mission. Som e
sources indicate that the singing was concentrated or confined to the
final stages o f the trance, and the aim here was to wake the shaman;
it seem s to have been the particular responsibility o f one girl to per­
form this waking song, and her task involved searching for the
sham an’s soul, so she must herself have gone into trance.8 As the
shaman returns, the choir starts to sing again, and he rises, puts the
drum to his ear and beats it slowly; he then stops and sits thinking,
before recounting the details o f his journey and what he has found
out (about the healing o f the patient, for example, depending on the
purpose o f the séance). He also praises the girl w ho woke him and
sings to her, alluding to his genitals and her sexual qualities.

The Vardlokur
O f greatest interest in the Eiriks saga account is the word vardlokur.
W e are told the following about the word, m uch of which parallels
the role of the singing in the Lappish séance;

a. It is a kvæài, some form of verse, perhaps a song.

b. It was normally pronounced by a group of women, who gathered
around the seiðkona during the séance.
c. In this instance it was however recited by just one woman, there
being no others who knew it.
d. It is recited by way of preparation: the effect is to sum m on
spirits, from whom the seidkona acquires information. The
summoning of spirits — gandir— is also m entioned in Vsp 22 in
connexion with seidr.

The vardlokur is to be compared to the Lappish juoigos, sung to enable

the shaman to make his trance journey, as well as to call spirits (the
Saiva guelie fish appears after the shaman sings a juoigos for it; its
length varied according to the length of the song). There is no hint
that the song was by preparation for a trance journey in seidr, how ­
ever. The one girl in the Norse replaces, or rather acts as spokesman,
for a normal choir, and corresponds to the choir, with its preparatory
function, in the Lappish, rather than to the one girl there responsible
for rousing the shaman from trance.

8 An assistant with the responsibility o f waking (or assisting in the waking of) the
shaman is found elsew here, e.g. am ong the Yukagir (Jochelson 1926, 196-9), and the
Evenk (Anisim ov 1963, 102-3).
 V çrôr and Gandr; Helping Spirits in Norse Magic 61

W hilst th e function of vardlokur in the Eiriks saga account of seidr

is clear — it is explicitly used to summon spirits who inform Þór-
bjprg —the meaning of the word is debatable.

Etymology
Vard- is the stem (used in compounds) derived from vçrdr 'guard,
watch, p ro tector’. In so far as the word designates a spirit it m ust
therefore be a 'guardian spirit’; such a use is found in m odern N or­
wegian vord and Swedish vård (Pering 1941, 131-4). Thus an inde­
pendent spirit is implied, who in some way acts as the guardian of the
sum m oner.4
The plural form -lok(k)ur is to be explained as referring to the
kvœði as a collection of verses. Forms w ith both k and kk occur in the
MSS, making two etymologies possible: lokur is the fern. pi. of loka
‘fastening’; lokkur is not recorded as an independent noun: we m ust
assume it is a fern. pi. noun from the verb lokka ‘entice’, thus ‘entice­
m ents’.10 Two meanings for varôlok{k)ur are therefore possible: ‘guar­
dian spirit fastenings’, i.e. w hat ‘locks the spirits in’, under the power
of the summoner; and ‘guardian spirit enticem ents’ — the song en­
tices th e spirits to be present; it is in this sense th at the author of
Eiriks saga appears to have taken the word. There is little difference
betw een these interpretations in practice, as the implied effect of
sum m oning the spirits for consultation is the same.

"Ström bäck (1935, 138) argues that the m eaning is the 'free-soul’ sent out by the
seidkona. H e cites the parallel betw een the one girl in the Norse account w ho recites the
verse, and the single girl in the Lapp accounts w ho is responsible for recalling the
sham an’s spirit. H owever, that there is only one girl singing in Eiriks saga is specifically
m entioned as unusual, and her role there is clearly not to recall the seidkona’s spirit.
M oreover, there seem s no reason w hy a free-soul should be designated by a word
m eaning 'guardian', for w hich nom enclature no evidence exists from the Old Norse
period (later uses o f vçrdr, as noted by de Vries (AR § 160), no doubt result from con ­
fusion b etw een independent spirits and the soul, probably under the influence of
Christian antipathy to the idea o f independent spirits em ployed by w itches).
1(1 In G g 7 Gróa sings a charm called 'Urdr’s lokur : lokur here im plies the sense
'spells’; the poet also plays on the sense o f 'lock, hold fast’, for the next word is halda
‘hold, keep safe’. Urdar lokur is similar in sound to vardlokur, it is likely that the poet
has deliberately rem odelled a no longer understood traditional word vardlokur (or per­
haps by an even closer *vardarlokur: in com pound forms the genitive ( vardar) could as
well be used as the stem (vard)) bringing in fate in the person o f Urðr (th e p o et’s m en ­
tion o f Urôr is deliberate: she is m entioned again at the end o f the poem , indicating a
structural use o f fate).
62 Clive Tolley

Conclusion
Eiriks saga clearly witnesses to a genuine tradition about the circum ­
stances of a seidr séance in so far as the summoning of spirits was in­
volved (cf. Vsp 22). It may be surmised that these were called verdir, a
pagan usage barely understood by the time of the com position of
Eiriks saga, which refers to them by the Latin word n á ttú ru ru
It appears that the Norse seidr corresponded to Lappish shamanism,
at least in so far as the summoning of ‘guardian spirits’ was concerned,
but differed from it in the absence of soul wandering during trance.

The Gandr
The Gandus and Lappish Shamanism
Lapps are frequently to be encountered in Old Norse literature; when
they are not being tyrannised for payments of tax in the form of furs,
they are presented as powerful fortune-tellers and magicians. They
could, for example, take on the shape of beasts and recover distant
objects: in ch. 12 of Vatnsdœla saga (pp. 34-5) Ingimundr sends some
Lapps from Norway to spy out his future home in Iceland, which they
manage to do in three days; Landnámabók (p. 218) relates the same
story: sendi hann [Ingimundr] þá finna tvä i hamfçrum til Islands eptir
hlut sinum ('he sent two Lapps to Iceland in assumed shapes to re­
cover his talisman’) .12 T hat the Lapps’ renown for magic powers ex­
isted not merely in the realm of fable is shown by the law which for­
bids anyone to trúa à finn eda fordædi ‘believe in a Lapp or in sorcery’
(Norges Gamle Love I: 389, 403).n
The rich traditions of Lappish sorcery would have ensured that

11 I do not accept N orth ’s interpretation (1991, 157) o f the use o f th e Latin word,
namely that it indicates the w h ole scene was fabricated on the basis o f ecclesiastical
sources. This w ould pose insurm ountable problem s for explaining how the word vard-
lokkur appears here at all.
The story is very similar to that in Ôlàfs saga Tryggvasonar w here Haraldr Gorm s-
son sends a ‘w ise m an1 (kunnugr madr) in w hale shape to spy ou t Iceland (H kr I: 271).
H e found a cold w elcom e at the hands o f the Icelandic landvcettir (guardian spirits o f
the land). Snorri does not describe him as a Lapp, but in view o f the sim ilarity to the
Ingimundr story, and o f the Lapps’ partiality for travelling in w hale shape, such a sup­
posai is likely. For exam ple the Lapp w ho died in H N was travelling as a w hale or pos­
sibly som e other large water beast (in cetinam effigiem).
13 There is even a verb finnvitka in O ld Norse, ‘to Lapp b ew itch ’, indicating the
extent o f the association o f magic w ith Lapps.
 Vprôr an d Gandr: Helping Spirits in Norse Magic 63

contem poraries would find nothing untow ard in the account of a

Lappish shamanic séance in the tw elfth century Historia Norvegiae;
yet for us the account stands out as extraordinary, for it is the only
genuine account of Lappish shamanism by the Norse, and is indeed
th e oldest account of Lappish shamanism in existence:14

Horum itaque intollerabilis [sic] perfidia vix cuiquam credibilis

videbitur, quantum ve diabolicae superstitionis in magica arte exerce-
ant. Sunt namque quidam ex ipsis, qui quasi prophetæ a stolido vulgo
venerantur, quoniam per im m undum spiritum, quem gandum voci-
tant, m ultis multa praesagia ut eveniunt quandoque percunctati præ-
dicent; et de longinquis provinciis res concupiscibiles miro m odo sibi
alliciunt nec non absconditos thesauros longe remoti mirafice pro-
dunt. Quadam vero vice dum christiani causa com m ercii apud Finnos
ad mensam sedissent, illorum hospita subito inclinata exspiravit; unde
christianis m ultum dolentibus non mortuam sed a gandis æmulorum
esse deprædatam, sese illam cito adepturos ipsi Finni nihil contristati
respondent. Tunc quidam magus extenso panno, su b 15 quo se ad
profanas veneficas incantationes præparat, quoddam vasculum ad
m odum taratantarorum sursum erectis manibus extulit, cetinis atque
cervinis formulis cum loris et ondriolis navicula etiam cum remis
occupatum , quibus vehiculis per alta nivium et devexa m ontium vel
profunda stagnorum ille diabolicus gandus uteretur. C um que diu-
tissime incantando tali apparatu ibi saltasset, hum o tandem prostratus
totusque niger ut Æ thiops, spumans ora ut puta freneticus, præ-
ruptus ventrem vix aliquando cum m axim o fremore em isit spiritum.
Turn alterum in magica arte peritissimum consuluerunt, quid de
utrisque actum sit. Q ui simili m odo sed non eodem eventu suum
im plevit officium, namque hospita sana surrexit et defunctum
magum tali eventu interisse eis intimavit: gandum videlicet ejus in
cetinam effigiem inmaginatum ostico gando in præacutas sudes trans-
formato, dum per quoddam stagnum velocissim e prosiliret, malo
om ine obviasse, quia in stagni ejusdem profundo sudes latitantes
exacti ventrem perforabant; quod et in mago domr mortuo apparuit.

Moreover their intolerable paganism, and the am ount o f devilish

superstition they practise in their magic, will seem credible to alm ost
no one. For there are som e o f them w ho are venerated as prophets by
the ignorant populace, since by means o f an unclean spirit that they
call a gandus they will declare many predictions to many people,
when they are petitioned, as they turn out; and they draw desirable
things to them selves from far o ff regions in a w ondrous way, and

14 T h e tex t is from Storm ’s edition (Storm 1880, 84-6).

Iri M anuscript reading. Storm em ends needlessly to super.
64 Clive Tolley

amazingly, though them selves far away, they produce hidden treas­
ures. By som e chance w hile som e Christians were sitting at the table
amongst the Lapps for the sake o f trade their hostess suddenly b ow ed
over and died; hence the Christians mourned greatly, but w ere told
by the Lapps, w ho were not at all distressed, that she was not dead
but stolen away by the gandi o f rivals, and they w ould soon get her
back. Then a magician stretched out a cloth, under w hich he prepar­
ed him self for im pious magic incantations, and w ith arms stretched
up lifted a vessel like a tambourine, covered in diagrams o f w hales
and deer w ith bridles and snow -shoes and even a ship w ith oars, v eh i­
cles w hich that devilish gandus uses to go across the depths o f snow
and slopes o f mountains or the deep waters. He chanted a long tim e
and jum ped about w ith this piece o f equipm ent, but then was laid
flat on the ground, black all over liké an Ethiopian, and foam ing from
the m outh as if wearing a bit. His stomach was ripped open and w ith
the loudest roaring ever he gave up the ghost. Then they consulted
the- other one w ho was versed in magic about what had happened to
them both. H e performed his job in a similar way but not w ith the
same outcom e — for the hostess rose up hale — and indicated that
the deceased sorcerer had perished by the follow ing sort o f acci­
d e n t : h i s gandus, transformed into the shape o f a water b ea st,1' had
by ill luck struck against an enem y’s gandus changed into sharpened
stakes as it was rushing across a lake, for the stakes lying set up in the
depths o f that same lake had pierced his stomach, as appeared on the
dead magician at hom e.

W e have to wait several centuries before we find further lengthy

accounts of Lappish shamanism, w ritten in the 17th and 18th centu­
ries by Norwegian and Swedish missionaries, who zealously set out in
considerable detail the beliefs they were intent on eradicating.18 These

U) I have translated this sentence to make clear that the shaman, not the hostess, is
the subject throughout, which the Latin leaves ambiguous. For the hostess to report
w hat had happened on the spirit journey she w ould herself have to be a shaman, w hich nei­
ther this text nor Lappish tradition, w hich scarcely recognises fem ale shamans, suggest.
1 T he obvious translation, ‘w h ale’, is problem atic since the setting is a lake; cetus can
in fact refer to any large water beast. ‘Pike’ may be intended, as this functioned as a
fresh-water equivalent to the whale for shamanic journeys (H aavio 1952, 124-5). If
‘w h a le’ is the intended meaning, the writer may either have been influenced by the
com m on p lace that Lapps transformed them selves into whales, or the word lacus could
indicate ‘fjord’ rather than ‘lake’, a more natural setting for a whale.
18 T he relative merit o f the various accounts is assessed in Bäckman & H ultkrantz
1978, 39; Skanke, O lsen, Rheen and Lundius are the m ost valuable. W e possess almost
no records o f the shamanic beliefs and practices o f the Lapps o f Finland and Russia
taken dow n w h ile shamanism was still practised. Lappish shamanism was moribund
already in the 18th century, and was extinct other than as a folk m em ory by th e early
19th century.
 Vçrôr and Gandr; Helping Spirits in Norse Magic 65

accounts are, however, usually generalised, rather than recounting

specific observed séances.
O ne of the m ost striking features of the H N account is the part
played by the gandus; th e later accounts enable us to see som ething of
the Lapps' beliefs about spirits, against which the account of the H N
may be assessed.
The H N account is consistent with later accounts, in its portrayal of
the shamanic contest, and in th at behind it clearly lies the sending out
o f the free-soul by shamans in trance.19
However, this is not quite w hat the writer of the account presents;
he seems to see the séance as a magic ritual for the sending of the
gandus on its mission. The Christian author clearly regards the gandus
as an evil spirit quite independent of the shaman (or his soul). His
picture of th e gandus may be summarised thus:

a. It is an unclean spirit;
b. It functions as a helping spirit to the shaman, telling him future
(and present) happenings, and enabling him to retrieve distant
treasures;
c. H arm to it results in harm to its owner;
d. It can steal people (i.e. their souls, since the body clearly remains
stationary);
e. It travels by means of animals, ships, snow-shoes;
f. It can assume the shape of w hales/w ater beasts and other ob­
jects.

In brief, th e Lappish shaman in trance was in contact with three sorts

of spirit: th e dead; anthropom orphic spirits who were responsible for
initiating him as a shaman, and who could later provide him with

19 Som e confusion has arisen in that these tw o shamanic activities are conflated in
the H N , unlike in any later account. Shamanic journeys aim ed at retrieving souls taken
to the otherworld always involve the shaman's ow n soul in later accounts; in shamanic
fights the sham an w ent into trance, during w hich he sent out a helping spirit (in later
accounts usually the reindeer, but the fish spirit could conceivably also have been used)
to fight that o f the enem y shaman (his ow n soul not being involved). Presumably in the
H N séance the shaman did send his soul out; the attack on his helping spirit occurred
by accident not design. The author writes o f the collapse and death o f the shaman
w ithout separating them , whereas in fact the shaman m ust first have a. collapsed as if
lifeless, b. sent ou t his soul, and c. subsequently have died w hile in trance as a result o f
the attack on his helping spirit. A lthough it m ust be the hostess’s soul that is stolen, the
H N writer does not show that he is aware o f the sending out o f the free-soul during
trance taking place at all: indeed, he talks o f the shaman ‘sending ou t his spirit’ only in
the sense o f dying, and this at a point into the trance w h en according to Lappish b elief
h e w ould already have sent his soul out (not, o f course, to die).
66 Clive Tolley

sought for information; theriom orphic spirits in the form of birds, fish
and reindeer, who accompanied the shaman on his trance journeys,
and who were responsible for fighting against the spirits of rival
sham ans (this was particularly the reindeer spirit’s role in the extant
accounts), such that any injury sustained by the helping spirit would
appear on the shaman as he lay in trance:20 this feature is preserved
accurately in H N , with the difference that the spirit is in the form o f a
w ater beast rather than a reindeer.
In points a, b, and c it corresponds to the Lapp animal helping
spirits, though it was anthropom orphic spirits that were consulted for
inform ation (Bäckman & Hultkrantz 1978, 43).
In point d it corresponds to Lapp helping spirits or the dead.
In point e it may represent the Lappish sham an’s own soul, which
could travel on the animal spirits as steeds; ships and snow-shoes are
not recorded as spiritual vehicles, and these depictions may have
served a different purpose from that assigned by the Norwegian
writer.
Point f either represents a distortion of the animal spirit, which had
animal form, but not as a result of transformation, and did not assume
other forms, or it may represent the shaman himself, who in later
tradition could transform himself, and take on the form of various
beasts (not just those of the helping spirits), though not, as recorded,
stakes.21 A more sophisticated concept may have underlain this fea­
ture: cf. the Evenk marylya, a spiritual clan-boundary fence of stakes
guarded by shamanic spirits.
It thus appears th at the Norwegian w riter has recast and amalga­
m ated various Lapp spirits, both anthropom orphic and theriom or­
phic, as well as the sham an’s free-soul and the dead. This spirit he
calls a gandus. This is not a Lappish word, but the O ld Norse gandr,
found in a num ber of sources.22

20 As recorded by Jens Kildal (c. 1730-50) (J. Kildal 1943-5, 138-9).

21 In Evenk shamanism, however, a shamanic helping spirit in the form o f a split
stake is responsible for seizing an escaped disease spirit and bringing it back to the
shaman to deal w ith (A nisim ov 1963, 104, and 110 on the m arylya fence).
221 do not consider m odern Norwegian uses o f gand: Lid covers this topic in great
detail (Lid 1927, 331-9). To summarise: gand is used in the senses ‘stick ’; 'swollen ridge
around a damaged place on a tree’; ‘m agic’ specific to the Lapps: in particular, it desig­
nated a sort o f artificial mannikin m ade o f twigs, nails, hair etc., w hich m ight in venge­
ance be sent unseen into the intestines o f a victim .
 V çrôr and Gandr; Helping Spirits in Norse Magic 67

Etymology
De Vries argues that gandr derives from a root gan-, an ablaut variant
of gin- found in Ginnungagap, with the deverbative suffix -dm- (cf.
galdr from gala); the basic sense would be 'm agic’. In corroboration,
he notes the runic ungandiR ‘against sorcery’. The nam e of the proph­
etess of the Semnones, Ganna, m entioned by Dio Cassius (Roman
History 67:5), is from the same root (.AR § 229). The word has no
basic sense of ‘staff : depictions of it as such derive from later tradi­
tions (the w itch’s broom stick motif: de Vries 1930-1, 53); a basic
meaning of ‘staff would hardly yield the meanings of 'w olf, or
‘Mighty Serpent’ (Jçrmungandr), nor would it make any sense in the
passage in Fóstbrœðra saga (see next paragraph), since the woman
could hardly ride a staff during sleep.
An initial sense o f gandr as ‘sorcerer spirit’, one that can be sent out
or sum m oned to provide information, and which (not necessarily
always) took animal form, is established from the following. The word
occurs twice in Vsp: the seidkona in 22 vitti ganda ‘sum m oned gandir
with a d ru m ’;23 in 29 Ó ðinn receives spáganda from the vçlva: here
the word is used in the sense ‘[news from] gandir of prophecy’. In
Fóstbrœdra saga (p. 243) it is said vida heft ek ggndum rennt í nótt, ok em
ek nú vis ordin þeirra Muta, er ek vissa ekki ádr, ‘I have caused gandir to
run far in th e night, and I have now become wise about those things
that I did not know before.’ The idea of setting gandir in m otion is
found also in Didriks saga (p. 304), where Ostaciafœ rr ú t ok rærdi sinn
gand, þat kollum ver at hon færi at sæiàa ‘Ostacia goes out and moves
her gandr, th at is, she begins to practise seidr’; this provides confirma­
tion of Vsp’s association of gandir with seidr. The effect of O stacia’s
seidr is to sum m on various animals, and change herself into a dragon.
This indicates an awareness, somewhat distorted, of gandir as animal
spirits.

Animal senses
Gandr is used in the sense ‘w olf in a num ber of kennings: ‘fire’ is
hallar gandr ‘hall w o lf and ‘w ind’ is selju gandr ‘willow w o lf and
stordar gandr ‘coppice w o lf (Meissner 1984, 100, 102). The connexion

23 In Ls 24 ó ð in n is said to ‘strike upon a vétt' w hile practising seidr, vitti almost

certainly com es from the sam e root. W hat the instrum ent was cannot be ascertained,
but its function is equivalent to that o f the Lappish sham an’s drum.
68 Clive Tolley

betw een ‘w olf and ‘sorcerer spirit’ lies in the fact th at wolves w ere
w itches’ steeds: thus 'w o lf in kennings is leiknar hestr ‘ogress’s [i.e.
w itch ’s] steed’ and kveldridu hestr ‘evening rider’s [i.e. w itch’s] steed ’
(ibid. 124-5); The term gandreid, a ‘riding of gandr spirits’ is used in
the sense ‘a ride of the w olf by Sturla Þórðarson in the late 13th cen­
tury (Skj B : II: 123):

En gandreið
grænna skjalda
Svçlnis vegg
sleit á lopti.

The ride (m ovem ent)

o f the w o lf o f green shields [sword]
cut Svplnir's (shield-)wall
up in the air.

T he world serpent is called Jçrmungandr, ‘Mighty gandr in Vsp 47 and

in Ragnarsdrápa,24 which indicates that the w olf was not the only
animal that a gandr could appear as; the meaning of gandr is thus
'animal spirit’. The w itch’s animal helping spirit was above all the
wolf, and gandr often — but not always — refers specifically to the
wolf; the shift from ‘wolf spirit’ to ‘w olf is a small one.
T he gandreid was originally a ‘riding by gandir, to seek out inform a­
tion or for other purposes (e.g. to harm people). In late (14th century)
sources gandreid was also taken to mean ‘ride on a staff : e.g. Þórsteinn
decides to make a visit to the underworld in Þórsteins saga bœjar-
magnis and requests: fá þú mér út krókstaf minn ok bandvetlinga því at
ek vil à gandreid fara ‘get out my crooked stick and my woollen gloves,
as I want to go on a gandreid’ (FSNL IV: 322). The understanding of
gandr as a staff cannot however be reduced merely to late European
influence; it is to be noted that in some shamanic societies the staff is
ridden by the shaman.2''

2-4 Skj B : I: 4. N otice how the word çndurr ‘snow sh o e’ occurs im m ediately before
Jçrmungandr, suggesting a traditional association o f the gandr and the means o f travel
characterised by H N (p. 83), just before the account o f the seance, as typically Lappish.
2:1 See Oinas 1987, 330 for som e details o f these practices.
 Vçrôr and Gandr: Helping Spirits in Norse Magic 69

G çn d u ll

Two names derive from gandr. Gçndul is applied to valkyries (Vsp 30,
Darradarljód 5 (Skj B : I: 490, post 1014)); this is to be seen as deriving
from gandr in the sense ‘w olf, which was one of the beasts of battle.
Freyja in Sçrla þáttr is called Gçndul; this reflects her valkyrie nature
(cf. A R § 528, 536), b u t also her familiarity with gandir as spirits, as
she is th e founder o f seiôr (introducing it amongst the Æ sir in Ynglinga
saga ch. 4). The name Gçndlir is borne by Óðinn (Grm 49: 10): it
could be interpreted as referring to his power over gandir as a magi­
cian: this would be in keeping with his connexion with the rites fo­
cused on seidr, involving the summoning o f gandir, it could also signify
‘controller of [the valkyrie] G çndul’.26 Perhaps the m ost likely signifi­
cance is ‘user of a gçndull’, which itself is of uncertain meaning.27
The word gçndull is derived from gandr. It is used in a court case
heard in Bergen in 1325:28 ritt ek i frâ mér gçnduls çndu[m], ein þér i
bak biti, annar i brjóst þér biti, þriði snúi uppá þik hœimt ( / heipt) ok
çfund ‘I ride / thrust from me gçndulls breaths, one to bite you in th e
back, another to bite you in the breast, a third to turn harm and evil
upon you’, Ragnhildr, the defendant, had said. To this is added ok
sídan þesse ord ero lesen skal spýta uppá þau, er til syngzst 'and then
when these words have been read shall those be spat upon that are
being sung against’. The meaning of gçndull here is probably ‘w olf, as
the (spirit) carrier o f the witch's ill-will; the closeness of the form ula
to that from Basel in 1407, cited by O h rt (1935-6, 202), is to be noted:
ich sich dir nâch und sende dir nâch nün gewere wolffe, drie die dich
zerbyssent, drie die dich zerryssent, drie die dir din hertzlich bluot uss
lappent und sûgent ‘I look towards you and send towards you nine
werewolves, three to bite you up, three to cut you up, three to lap
and suck out your h eart’s blood.’ Ragnhildr clearly sent her wolves
out in the form of breaths; Weiser-Aall (1936, 77-8) notes mediaeval
German analogues to this belief in the w itch’s breath being a carrier
of harm; th e same sense is perhaps seen in a kenning noted by Olsen:
gýgjar gçndull, used in Sålus rimur og Nikanórs IX .2, in the sense 'hugr’

2,1 N ote for exam ple h ow Eyvindr says G çndul ok Skçgul sendi G a u ta týr ‘Ó dinn sent
G çndul and S k çgu l’ (Skj B : I: 57).
27 To anticipate m y argument, it m ight be noted that Ó ðinn is associated w ith m agic
wands: in H rbl 20 he is given a gambanteinn by the giant Hlébarðr.
28 T ext in Diplom atarium Norvegicum IX #93. See also Fritzner 1886-96, sv. gçnduli,
A R § 214; K L N M sv. gand; O hrt 1935-6. I take ritt to stand for either rid’ ‘ride’ or rin d’
‘thrust’.
70 Clive Tolley

(M. Olsen 1942, ion. Text in Rimnasafn II: 750); he takes this to be a
shortening of gýgjar ggnduls andar ‘trollkvinnens ulv[spust]’ ('w itc h ’s
w olf-[breaths]’).29
In Bósa saga (FSNL III: 308), however, the word ggndull is used in
th e sense ‘penis’. I suggest that the word ggndull had a regular m ean­
ing ‘staff’, specifically the staff for summoning the gandir:30 there
would have been a fundamental link between the spirit and the staff,
in exactly the same way as there was betw een the deity Vçlsi and the
penis vglsi in Vglsa þáttr (note how the normal word for ‘staff, vglr
derives from the same root);31 hence confusion arose, so that gandr
came to be used in the sense ‘staff, and ggndull in the sense ‘super­
natural w olf, as in the Bergen formula and in the kenning gýgjar
ggndull. It is only from a sense ‘staff that the meaning ‘penis’ for ggn­
dull can be derived.
T he sense 'penis’ is interesting, as it suggests a sexual dimension to
the ggndull staff (cf. the Vçlsi rite); Vsp 22 hints at the unacceptable
practices involved in seidr, for its practitioner was the darling of evil
women: this is to be connected with the sexual anarchy typical of the
Vanir (e.g. their incest: H kr I: 13), and associated with seidr in the
form of erg ‘effeminacy’ (e.g. in Ls 24). Sexual licence is found in
shamanism (e.g. among the Chukchi: see Bogoras 1904-9, 448-54), as
well as in the viking funeral of Ibn Fadlän (where the girl to be
sacrificed both has visions into the afterlife and undergoes several
bouts of sexual intercourse); the summoning of gandir may have con­
stituted one of the unacceptable sexual practices that Vsp hints at as
linked w ith seidr.32 Sexual overtones are also apparent in the Bergen
court case: the purpose of the charm was to prevent another woman
from having sex with a certain man; to this end the defendant had
placed a sword in their bed.33

211 The line G ýgjar er suó gçndull hvass i G reipar láði, in particular the adjective hvass
‘sharp’, suggests an interpretation 'so sharp is the giantess's (i.e. witch's) wind [thought]
in the land o f Greip [m in d ]’: thus the reference w ould be, not to a w itch ’s breath, but
to the belief that w itches travelled in (whirl)winds.
3(1 C om pare the Ket sham an’s staff, provided with a cross bar on which sum m oned
spirits could rest (Nioradze 1925, 79).
31 Fit II: 331-6. For an analysis o f the story, see Steinsland and V ogt 1981.
32 Assum ing som e connexion b etw een the spirits and the staff characterised as a
penis, as in the Vçlsi rite; shamans in many regions had a spirit m ate o f the op p osite sex
w ith w hom they slept, and w ho provided the shaman w ith spiritual know ledge (Eliade
1972, 72-3, 77, 79-81).
33 T h e sword betw een a sleeping couple is o f course a com m on m otif, but in this case
a com parison m ight be m ade w ith the Indian garlanded staff placed b etw een newly
w eds, w hich, whilst ensuring fertility, prevented sexual union for the first three nights.
 V çrôr and Gandr: Helping Spirits in Norse M agic 71

The word ggndull had built up a range of connotations. I suggest all

of the following form parts of the concept involved in gçnduls andar.
a. 'Spirits of the staff, which would be conceived as
b. ‘W olf spirits’;
c. ‘W olf breaths’, i.e. the w itch’s breath bearing her ill-will in the
form of wolves: just as in seidr spirits — gandir — w ould be
breathed in, they could also be breathed out on their mission.34

Conclusion
From the above consideration, it emerges that:

a. The gandr was a spirit conjured during seidr;

b. It could be sent out while the sender slept;
c. It supplied the sum m oner or sender with information;
d. It could harm people;
e. It took the form of beasts. It does not seem to have been lim ited
to one sort of beast, since it is associated both with wolves and
the world serpent;
f. W itches however rode on wolves, giving rise to the narrow er
meaning ‘w o lf for gandr:35 thus there appears to have been con­
fusion betw een the gandr, an animal spirit sent out on a mission
or sum m oned by a witch {vçlva, seidkona), and the w itch’s steed,
a wolf, ridden on a mission, and not associated with seidr;
g. The gandir were sum m oned with a staff (which formed a central
part o f th e vçlva s apparatus, to judge from the w ord’s derivation
from vçlr, ‘staff) which was referred to specifically as ggndull;
Óðinn's nam e Ggndlir may signify ‘user of a ggndull.

The author of H N betrays a familiarity with the Norse gandr in his

presentation of the Lappish spirit he calls a gandus. He talks o f the

The staff seem s to represent the gandharva spirit that dw elt in the world tree and
guarded the soma, and w hich had the ius prim ae noctis (see V iennot 1954, 68 and Eliade
•958 - 3° 9 )-
-14 For an instance o f the breathing o f the shaman representing the breathing in o f
spirits see the detailed account o f a Yukagir séance given by Jochelson 1926, 196-9.
3S T he im plication o f this could be that the w itch ’s soul was conceived as wandering
(the w olves are clearly supernatural). Given the connexion betw een gandr and seidr, this
could im ply soul journeys on the part o f the seidkona during seidr, for w hich there is
little evidence elsew here. T he w itch ride on w olves is not how ever specifically asso­
ciated w ith seidr, and the practice probably belonged to another branch o f magic;
m oreover, there is nothing specifically suggesting that the w o lf was regarded as m ore
than a supernaturally bew itched beast used as a steed.
72 Clive Tolley

gandus assuming various forms (water-beast, stakes); it appears th at

the gandr could take on different forms, could skipta hgmum, whereas
the Lapp animal spirits did not do so. Norse influence is perhaps to be
seen in the interpretation of the depictions on the drum as modes of
transport for the spirit (compare for example Skíðblaðnir as a super­
natural mode of transport for Ó ðinn/Freyr).36
The emphasis in the concept of the gandr on gathering inform ation
I believe furnishes a reason for placing this role at the beginning of the
description of the skills the Lapp gandus conferred in H N , whereas in
later tradition this is not foremost among the sham an’s roles, and is in
any case often perform ed by the sham an’s own soul wandering rather
than by the helping spirits.
The Norwegian writer was led astray by his knowledge of seidr, the
nearest native practice to shamanism, into presenting the séance as
one in which the shaman perform ed certain rites to induce the gandus
into effecting particular things, rather than one in which trance took
place, during which the shaman sent his free-soul out of his body.

General Conclusion
The gandr thus appears as equivalent to the vçrôr implied by the w ord
vardlokkur in the account of seidr in Eiriks saga: both appear as help­
ing spirits, in particular for providing information. The vçrôr, how ­
ever, to judge from the name, was presumably originally seen as a
protecting spirit, corresponding to the Lappish anthropom orphic
spirits; the gandr, an animal spirit, on the other hand corresponds to
the Lappish animal assistant spirits. Both sorts of spirit provided
information, but the gandr also appears to have carried out tasks for
the summoner, again like the Lappish theriom orphic spirits.
O utside seiðr there is no evidence for animal helping spirits in
Norse. W hen the fylgja appears in animal form it is as a foreboding,
not as a helping spirit; helping spirits are presented in hum an form,
such as the great hamingja that appears, inherited by the hero in Viga

3(5 T he change into stakes may be influenced by Norse traditions o f rivers being
staked, as a trap: this is seen in Þórsdrápa, where Þórr crosses such a river (Skj B : 1: 140).
I here follow D avidson’s translation and interpretation (1983, 521, 586-7 (stikleidar veg
breidan ‘the broad path o f the stake-set way'). The Evenk analogue (p. 66 above) h ow ­
ever makes it likely that the Lapps did indeed have concepts similar to the m arylya
fence.
 Vçrôr and Gandr; Helping Spirits in Norse Magic 73

Glúms saga (pp. 30-1). W hen animals appear as helpers (or hinderers)
o f an action, it is always a m atter of either a. a person in disguise, e.g.
Askmaðr in Þorskfirdinga saga (p. 23), who escaping as a pig from a
burning house is struck by a brand, and is found in hum an shape: no
indication is given that his hum an form was anywhere else than w here
his animal form was; b. a person’s soul taking on animal form while
the body remains somewhere else, e.g. in Hjálmþés saga (FSNL
IV: 232-4), where H çrôr and Hervçr remain on board ship in body,
b u t their souls take on the form of fish to help against an attack;3" this
affords evidence th at the Norse were familiar with the typically
shamanic idea of the free-soul, but it is not associated with seidr, and
does not correspond exactly to Lappish shamanic practices.
Seidr may be counted a form of shamanism in that it involved the
sum m oning during trance of various forms of spirit for divinatory and
efficatory purposes. The practice may have been influenced by Lap­
pish shamanism, b u t it is not identical with it: in particular, the evi­
dence does not suggest that soul journeys took place while the Norse
seeress was in trance.

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