The Myth of the “Seidhr Complex”: The Role of Trolldomr (Part 3 of 4)
Last week, we explored the role of the Vitki/Volva, as it is set apart from the “seidhr complex”, continuing a blog series which began the first week of March. This week, we continue our exploration, digging up the evidence that has been left to us of the mysterious path known as Trolldomr.
The Path of the Troll-Rider is one that has gone largely unexplored in the modern world, mostly because of continually being “lumped together” with the “seidhr complex”. This is the magickal path of the Middle Worlds, for it actively uses those things and even entities which populate those Middle Worlds to accomplish its ends. More than perhaps any other of the Paths, this one is actively involved in a working relationship with the Invisible Population, including its darker denizens, such as Trolls and Huldrafolk. It is an autumn and august path, but it also the closest thing to a “left hand path” that we have in the Northern Tradition. “Left”, because it curses as freely as it blesses, not because it is “evil” in any form or fashion, for the true Troll-Rider curses as justly as they bless. In the Iron Age, practitioners of Trolldomr were feared: we know this from the evidence of their grave-goods. Some were even beheaded, to keep them in the grave; in other cases, their lower jaws were removed, post-mortem, so that they could not mutter curses in the afterlife. Pig jawbones are often associated with those who were likely practitioners of Trolldomr, apparently intended to likewise keep them in their graves.
Words in Old Norse which may have applied to practitioners of Trolldomr include:
fjolkyngisberendr “sorcerory-bearer”; “magick-bearer”
gandrekr “gandr-man”; “gandr-warrior”; may be taken as either “wand-man” or “spirit-man”, implying one who works with wands as tools, or one who communes with and sends out spirits
kunattumadhr “man who knows magick”
tauframadhr “charm-man”; “talisman-man”
gerningamadhr “sorceror”; “wizard”; “man who enchants”
kveldridha “evening rider”
trollridha “rider of witchcraft”
myrkridha “darkness-rider”; “night-rider”
munnridha “mouth-rider”
nindridha “fence-rider”; “roof-rider”
kaldridha “cold-rider”
thradhridha “thread-rider”
flagdhkona “witch”; “sorceress” (associations with trolls and trolldomr)
fala “witch”; “sorceress” (as with flagdhkona)
gygr “witch”; “sorceress” (as with flagdhkona)
hala “witch”; “sorceress” (as with flagdhkona)
skass “witch”; “sorceress” (as with flagdhkona)
Trolldomr may be defined as magick which influences the visible world via invisible means, and which may or may not contain elements of implied harm, such as cursing. Most of our descriptions in the secondary sources are clouded by a Christian lens, sometimes “lumping together” trolldomr with the seidhr complex; other times, confusing trolldomr with normal instances of religious practice (as with vitki and volva); yet others painting a picture in broad strokes of a sort of “demonic” or “black” art among the Scandinavians. In truth, it can be neither of the latter two, as the mythic reality of pre-Christian Scandinavia left little room for such things. Issues, people, even actions, were rarely “black” or “white”, wholly evil or wholly good, but instead, varying “shades of gray”, based on a very definite system of justice and reciprocity. The morality of true trolldomr would have been based not in the easy delineations of the later Christian Church and its hierarchy, but rather in a system of communal justice at the local level.
While it is likely that many vitki and volva also participated in trolldomr, it is equally likely that there were those who specialized in this particular branch of the Scandinavian magickal arts. How does this present in the material culture? How did these specialists practice their “craft”, and what purposes did they serve within the community? Some of the potential tools used by those participating in the “trolldomr complex” are listed in the very names for such ritual specialists: the wand (gandr), the “familiar spirit” (i.e., a physical animal representative of a spirit animal, which could be “sent out” by the practitioner on a non-physical level, and/or ridden by the practitioner, to effect change on the physical level), and the charm (taufr). Further study of these graves provides us with yet more potential “tools of the trolldomr trade”: the “trollbird”, the pig jawbone, the animal-headed staff, tweezers, needles, needle-cases, and crampons (possible evidence of “Hel-shoes”). The contents of the graves that follow effectively suggest that, while the magickal techniques of the Troll-Rider may most certainly be performed in service to the community in the same way as the Vitki or Volva, the nature of most of those actions is profoundly geared to a more one-on-one or even solo practice.
One of the best examples of possible indications of trolldomr practice from material culture comes down to us via one of our previously discussed vitki at Valsgarde: Boat Grave 7. As aforementioned, this grave contained the only intentionally decapitated Snowy Owl to be excavated in a Norse context. As also aforementioned, the Snowy Owl in Saami culture was believed to represent the troll bird (Vuogo), which gathered gandfluer (essentially: “elf-shot”) for its “master”. The connotations here are, hopefully, obvious, for we have very obvious usage of the words gandr and troll in the description of this bird’s identity and intent. While it is likely that many vitki and volva also participated in trolldomr, as with the man interred in Valsgarde Boat Grave 7, it is equally likely that there were those who specialized solely in this particular branch of the Scandinavian magickal arts. Most of the graves which have been found thus far are those of what I might term “cross-practitioners”: vitki, volva, or seidhr-bearers who also clearely practiced trolldomr. However, three finds in Sweden suggest practitioners who were likely exclusively Troll-Riders: Cremation Graves 85 and 94 at Valsgarde, and Bj.959 at Birka. I have since come to view the grave-goods of these three inhumations as the foundation for any sort of “trolldomr grave criteria”.
Bj.959 was discovered and first excavated in 1881, consisting of a flatmark grave: essentially, a depression in the ground surface which contained a human skeleton, and dated to the 9th-10th century (mid-800s-mid-900s CE). Much to the surprise of those initial archaeologists, the woman within had been intentionally beheaded prior to burial, though beheading has not been determined as cause-of-death. Her head was situated beneath her right forearm, rather than atop her neck, across which had been lain the jawbone of a pig. Unlike other graves which have contained beheaded humans in Scandinavia, this woman’s grave was far too richly appointed to suggest that she may have been a criminal punished by decapitation. Her grave was situated in the same NNE-SSW positioning as other “magickal graves” (those of vitki and volur) at both Birka and Valsgarde. Within were found large bronze oval brooches, formerly connected by a string of beads which included pearls, and a small bronze spiral pendant. Iron shears, iron tweezers, an iron ring, and an iron knife adorned by silver thread had apparently hung from her waist at the time of initial burial, as well as a bone needle-case. At her feet was found a spoon fashioned from antler, which may have previously been accompanied by a collection of wooden bowls. Some scholars have suggested the pig jawbone was placed as a charm or ward to keep her in her grave. Two stones were placed at her feet, as well as another on her right collarbone, possibly suggesting that these were likewise used in an attempt to keep her corpse from rising. Her lower jaw had also been removed: perhaps to prevent her from speaking or uttering curses after death. Clearly, she may have been feared by the community which buried her.
Valsgarde Cremation Grave 85 was first excavated in 1951, and dates to the early 10th century (900-950 CE). Its external structure at that time consisted of a defined rectangle of stones around a dirt interior which contained the cremation layer, located in the southern part of Valsgarde Gravefield, between boat-graves 3 and 4. A large amount of iron rivets and nails were also found within the cremation layer of Valsgarde 85, suggesting that the woman within was initially placed in a small, slender boat, which was then set afire. The occupant of Valsgarde 85 was apparently an elderly woman, and like the occupant of Bj.959, she was richly equipped with jewelry, including an equal-armed brooch, an arm-ring of plaited bronze wires, a necklace of carnelian, rock crystal and glass beads (around 50 beads were recovered). Also like the woman in Bj.959, she had apparently been appointed with a knife (of which only the bronze mounts of the sheath remained). In addition, an iron hook was uncovered within the assemblage of grave-goods, which bore an animal head carving, trimmed with silver collar detail. Perhaps the most striking item of all among these grave-goods, however, was the remnant of an animal-headed staff, comparable to that of the Oseberg burial in Norway. Previously, it had been posited that the staff-head was fashioned of walrus ivory, but subsequent testing has revealed it is more likely to be composed of bone; its eyes were made of carnelian. The assemblage of artifacts in Valsgarde 85 also included a bone comb, iron horse crampons, and a clay pot. In addition to the cremated human remains, animal evidence was also found, including the jawbone of a pig (which was unburnt), the cremated bones of a horse, a dog, and a chicken.
Valsgarde 94 consisted at the surface level of a ring of stones, located just northeast of Valsgarde 85. Within the ring were discovered two ceramic urns, one of which contained cremains, and atop which had been lain the uncremated remains of a chicken. The unburnt jawbone of a pig was also found. Not all of the cremains within the urn were human: there were also those of a horse, a dog, a sheep, a pig, and another unidentified bird. Before cremation, the decedent was clearly richly equipped with jewelry, including a large pair of oval brooches which had previously been strung with carnelian, rock crystal, and glass, and a bronze armlet. They had been equipped with a bronze needle-case, iron shears, iron ear spoons, a knife (decorated with silver thread, similar to that found in Bj.959), and a whip mount, as well as crampons, indicative either of Otherworld travel (crampons are often associated with “Hel shoes”, the helskor mentioned in Gisla saga Surssonar 14) or a winter burial. Like the decedent in Valsgarde 85, the occupant of Valsgarde 94 likewise was in possession of an iron hook; such hooks are often associated with draft harness. There were also two clay pots, one of domestic type and the other of Ladoga type (a style typically fashioned along the Volga by the Svearan Rus). The remains are conclusively osteologically male, even though the grave-goods would traditionally be classified as female.
The whip mount in Valsgarde 94, as well as the hooks found in both graves, and the animal-headed staff may all suggest that these people participated in the “Rider Complex” of trolldomr; of particular interest, Bj.834 (discussed in last week’s post) also contained a whip, that one mounted with rattles. In the secondary sources (i.e., the written lore), those who participated in the “Rider Complex” of trolldomr are characterized as vindictive, evil, and frightening, which may explain the presence of the pig jawbones in all of these graves, inclusive of the decapitated woman at Birka.
As stated previously, the presence of a pig jawbone among grave-goods has become one of my primary criteria for determining those which might be deemed “trolldomr graves”. (Having now explored Bj.959 my reasons for this are hopefully now a bit more clear!) These “animal artifacts” might best be understood as a representation of one of the animals routinely “ridden” or “shape-shifted into” by the practitioners of trolldomr; their inclusion in the graves very much a means of keeping these decedents “in the ground” (rather like burying someone with their car keys). Perhaps in life these jawbones were used as a form of symbolic item—as in modern examples of sympathetic magick—to aid its owner in either shifting their astral shape into that of a boar (which were often associated with war, warriors, and fighting, therefore suggesting activities of spiritual warfare; see also the pressblech plates of the helmet in Valsgarde 7), or with “conjuring” a boar “spirit animal”, on which to ride forth in the Otherworld (i.e., “summoning” a psychopomp; possibly also for purposes of spiritual warfare). A psychopomp is a conductor of souls to the Otherworld or afterlife, from the Greek psych (“soul”) and pompos (“conductor”), which stems from pempein, “to send or conduct/lead”. Horses, such as Odin’s horse, Sleipnir, are frequently depicted as carrying “souls” from one world to the next, as in the story of Hermodhr’s ride to Helheim in Gylfaginning, or in depictions of eight-legged horses in period art, such as the Gotlandic Picture Stones. Pigs may also be understood as serving in this capacity, as with Hildisvini, the “pig-form” of Freyja’s acolyte, Ottarr, in The Lay of Hyndla (Hyndluljodh), or Gullinbursti, Freyr’s golden boar, which we are told in Skaldskaparmal could “run through air and water better than any horse” and which also sported its own “internal light source”, so that it “could never become so dark with night or gloom that there should not be sufficient light where it went”. This concept of “pig as psychopomp” becomes even more interesting when one considers that, among the Saami, the wild boar was often regarded as a “riding animal” of the noaidi (Saami shaman).
In addition to their roles as psychopomps, pigs are also heavily associated with shape-shifting and the fylgja in Nordic culture. We have lore evidence (particularly from Hrolfs saga Gautrekssonar) of swine as fylgja, suggesting that those thus represented by the pig are noble, yet also more fierce than even polar bears or lions. In the secondary lore, shape-shifting is far more often associated with the hamr and the hugr than with the fylgja. Yet the aforementioned “Saami connection” lends itself to the more logical association of the fylgja with shape-shifting.
This “riding” of spirit animals definitely fits into the “Rider Complex” of trolldomr, as evidenced by the titles kveldridha, trollridha, myrkridha, munnridha, nindridha, kaldridha, thradhridha. It is also suggestive of the “hobby horse” traditions which we encounter, scattered across most of Western Europe. Within these traditions (most notably, that of the Morris Dancers in Great Britain), people ride “stick-horses” through the streets, generally symbolic (or at least associated with) luck-bringing, death and resurrection (as in Sovereignty traditions), and sometimes even associated with divination. We find such imagery likewise echoed in the medieval and Witch Trials-era (16th-17th century) depictions of witches riding their broomsticks, and sometimes also pitchforks and distaffs. Within the secondary sources of Norse lore, those participating in the “Rider Complex” of trolldomr are described as (usually) women riding by night through the sky on varying conveyances. These accounts are generally rife with sexual overtones, with the “ridden” target succumbing to such maladies as impotence, usually because they have somehow sexually wronged a woman or someone in a woman’s family. Another term for such riders is mara, from whence we gain the modern term “nightmare”. This term likely traces back to the proto-Indo-European root -mer, meaning to “crush, press, or oppress”. One such mention of the activities of a mara may be found in Ynglingatal, further elaborated upon by Snorri Sturluson in Ynglinga saga: in it, the mara is called a “creature of trolldomr”, and is sent upon King Vanlandi after he abandons his wife, Drifa. Drifa then asks Huldr (aka Huld or Hulda; likely associated, therefore, with the Goddess of Death, Hel or Hela, as all of these names stem from the same root, meaning “hidden” or “concealed”), described as a Finnish seidhrkona by Snorri (although all further connotations within the tale suggest that she was, in fact, Saami, and Snorri is clearly using the terms “seidhr” and “seidhrkona” as synonyms for “witchcraft” and “witch”, rather than as a specific form of Norse magick), to either bewitch or kill Vanlandi. Huldr, in turn, “sends the mara upon” Vanlandi; it subsequently presses him to death, suffocating him.
That we encounter staffs with animal heads in the archaeological record suggests their possible use as a sort of “hobby horse” or “stick horse” by their owners in life. Perhaps they were used, together with ecstatic movement to “invoke” the mara, in much the same way the hobby horse was used in other Western European folk traditions to “invoke” good luck, or to reenact themes of death and resurrection associated with Sovereignty. They may likewise have been used to incur an ecstatic trance-state, much as dance is used in other world traditions, such as Voudun. Whip-mounts, especially those equipped with rattles, as at Birka, might suggest a similar use. Animal heads on other items—such as the iron hook excavated from Valsgarde 85—might suggest a “totemic” (skyddsande) association with that animal, possibly invoking or “summoning” that animal as a psychopomp or helper, via their use.
As mentioned previously, crampons found among grave-goods might assist with dating a burial, as their primary mundane use was to aid in walking in snow and on ice, but they might also be associated with the helskor mentioned in Gisla saga Surssonar 14: “Hel shoes”, which remained a part of folkloric tradition well past the “Viking Age” in areas where the Norse had settled, including Yorkshire in Great Britain. Such “shoes” were understood to aid their wearer in their journey into the afterlife. As such, they are another symbol of the concept of Otherworld travel, likely participated in by the practitioner of trolldomr (as well as virtually all ritual specialists of any kind, within this profoundly shamanic worldview). Crampons, then, might likewise be linked back to the “Rider Complex” of trolldomr.
Further understanding of the potential ritual practice of the Troll-Rider might be revealed in a study of the most seemingly mundane of all of these grave-goods: tweezers, needles, and needle-cases. As previously discussed, grave-goods are evidence of mortuary drama, meaning that everything within these graves was placed there intentionally, meaning that each and every object has definite intrinsic meaning beyond simply “this belonged to this person” or “this was used by this person” or basic sentimentality. While traditionally associated with “female burials”, and often used for the gender-identification of burials (obviously, I hope, a rather arbitrary practice), tweezers, needles, and needle-cases have, in fact, been found within “male burials” and “male burial contexts” in Sweden, in particular. While often used cosmetically (there is proof from bog bodies in Denmark that Iron Age Scandinavian women more than likely plucked their eyebrows in a similar fashion to modern women), tweezers were also often found in context with needles, suggesting that they may have been used to either thread the needle, or to otherwise hold thread (especially in medical contexts, as in the modern performance of stitching a wound). When found in context with other ritual items, such as a staff, wand, or pig jawbone, the presence of such objects among grave-goods suggests far more than “oh, this person was a seamstress”, or “this person practiced great personal hygiene”, or even “this person was a medical professional”: it suggests a deeper, more symbolic and likely ritual attribute of such items. Since these objects are often also found in context with ear spoons (used for cleaning out the ears, in much the same manner as the modern cotton swab), the implication is one of association with the physical body, and possibly also the “magickal specialization” of healing, or even sympathetic physical magick involved with cursing.
For those of us who are far more familiar with the secondary sources, it may seem odd to connect trolldomr-practice with something as “nice” as healing. Yet again, we must keep in mind that the majority of the material recorded in the secondary sources, indeed as with later accounts of witchcraft in Western Europe on the whole, are or were colored by a “Christian lens”. In fact, this is also true of later ethnographic studies of Saami religious and ritual practice. History, as they say, is written by the “victors”, or, at the very least, those who find themselves in the dominant majority. Modern ethnographic studies of ritual and mystical practices as varied as Modern Traditional Witchcraft (not Gardnerian Wicca!), Haitian Voudun, and Catholic folk magick (as with the Strega of Italy) may serve to show us that healing and “cursing” (or otherwise promoting injury) are but two sides of the same proverbial coin. This may even be said to be true of modern medical practice, wherein all too often, the side effects of the “cure” may be even worse than the original illness (as with some cases of chemotherapy, or the majority of medications available for disabling psoriasis).
Such modern ethnographic studies may also be used to attempt to reconstruct how these items—tweezers, needles, and needle-cases—may have been used within the practice of trolldomr. In Powwow, also known as Pennsylvania Dutch folk magick, needles are often used in conjunction with eggs and urine to remove curses in order to heal; they are also often employed in “fastening spells”, used to “bind” a person from doing (further) harm. Needles also serve as important tools in Western European “poppet magick”, wherein a small doll of a person is crafted, and then used as an effigy in sympathetic magick, to heal, bless, or curse. This latter form of magick is often confused with the West African-inspired motif of the “voodoo doll”, which is actually a bit of a racist stereotype (“voodoo dolls” actually tend to take very different physical forms from the traditional Western European poppet, and also are employed in very different ways and for different purposes). Since the association of tweezers with needles most clearly represents a medical use, this suggests that practitioners of trolldomr more than likely used these objects in conjunction with each other, in much the same way as modern practitioners of “poppet magick”, which may be used for a variety of purposes, from the healing of physical or even mental wounds, to the “shutting up” or binding of a person who has become problematic (consider the story of the Dwarves sewing Loki’s mouth shut in the Lore). Needles may also be used for divination, by stringing them onto a piece of thread and employing them as a pendulum (still done among the Pennsylvania Dutch today). The long-standing Powwow traditions of needles being used in conjunction with other items—such as urine, jars, and eggs—may suggest further uses of these items by the practitioners of trolldomr. Of course, if found outside the further context of a volva’s wand or other magickal “motifs” (such as pig jawbones or chickens), sometimes tweezers, needles, and needle-cases may simply be tweezers, needles, and needle-cases: in the immortal words of Sigmund Freud, “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”.
And then there are the birds of trolldomr: the chicken and the owl. The owl we have already touched upon, as it relates to the vuogo or troll-bird; the connotations of the name alone, together with its association with the gandfluer, making its connections to trolldomr readily apparent. For more information on what chickens might represent, however, we must turn to the accounts of the Svearan Rus, penned by Ibn Fadlan, and to the representation of roosters in Norse lore, and their association with Ragnarok. Ibn Fadlan, a 10th century Muslim traveler who documented his experiences among the Volga “Vikings” in his work, Risala, describes a “Viking funeral”, during which a rooster and hen were both sacrificed and thrown into the ship (in which the decedent was also placed), before a young woman was likewise handed a chicken which was duly sacrificed as well, via beheading. Like the chicken, the young woman was subsequently likewise also sacrificed (via a combination of strangulation and stabbing), joining her master in death on the “funeral barge”. All of this becomes very interesting, when one also considers the symbolism of chickens—and roosters, in particular—within the secondary lore. The rooster, Gullinkambi, is one of three roosters whose crows will signal the start of Ragnarok, the “twilight of the Gods”, which is the primary eschatological myth of Norse cosmology. The other two roosters live in Jotunheim and Helheim, respectively, while Gullinkambi is said to live atop either Valholl in Asgard or atop the World Tree itself, Yggdrasil. Collectively, this source material links chickens with death, the Dead, endings (especially eschatology), and “between” places (such as doorways, thresholds, and the time of day that is twilight, all of which are also associated as “gateways” to the Otherworld in both Norse and Saami Traditions, as well as in other folkloric traditions in Western Europe, such as those of the Welsh and the Irish Celts). The presence of chicken bones in both Valsgarde 7 and Valsgarde 94, as well as the uncremated chicken in Valsgarde 94, may suggest their use, in relation to the practice of trolldomr, likewise as either psychopomps (see especially the Ibn Fadlan account) or as protective animals, capable of crowing warning, even after death.
I have often referred to the practice of trolldomr as “the magick of the Middle Worlds” because, of all the Norse magickal paths evidenced within the material record, it seems to most heavily rely on interactions with tools and beings residing in the mundane world and its “cosmological neighbors”, Vanaheim and Jotunheim. Often practiced alongside the “art” of the vitki or volva, or even the seidhrworker (as we shall see in the next blog post), as a practice it more than likely very much involved working at the “grassroots level”, to accomplish extraordinary ends via seemingly mundane means. As such, it likely involved far more of what would be considered sympathetic magick by moderns than the other branches of Norse magick, including the use of the wand, the familiar, and the charm. Used to heal or to curse, its “sympathetic overtones”, via the use of effigies and “frightening tools”, such as the needle, as well as the association of its specialists and enactors with frightening creatures, such as trolls and Jotnar, may be the reasons that it struck such fear in the hearts of its early Christian “documentarians”. Otherwise, its apparent efficacy may have been the cause, as told through the tales which have come down to us in the secondary sources.
Trolldomr was likely the most “fast and loose” of the three paths of Norse Magick, as evidenced by the fact that we find so much archaeological evidence of people who were apparently “cross-practitioners”. That is, they were not solely a practitioner of trolldomr, but instead clearly primarily a Vitki, Volva, or Seidhr-Bearer, who “sidelined”, as it were, in trolldomr. One should consider this “mixing of trades” in view of modern ethnographies of practitioners of Modern Witchcraft, wherein the ritual specialist may find themselves practicing essentially a variety of different disciplines, based on the needs of the community at the time, such as divination, mediumship, healing, spell-casting, cursing, etc., yet none of these variations diminishes the other. As an example: a successful modern witch may make their living reading Tarot cards in a shop (i.e., performing divination), but that in no way lessens their abilities as a ritual leader (in a capacity similar to the staff-carrying volva), or as a worker of sympathetic magick (as with the practitioners of trolldomr), or as a healing medium, diviner, and astral traveler (as with a practicing seidhrworker). Such an assimilation is in fact very much in-line with what we know of Iron Age Scandinavian mindsets at the time when it came to other topics, such as views concerning “outside” religions, for example (as evidenced by the Helgo Buddha hlutr, the crucifix of Birka, coins at York, etc.).
Trolldomr was likely also the most “personal” of the three paths, done as often by the individual for that individual alone, as for the community. It is indeed possible that the former happened more often than the latter, which could explain the fear obviously evidenced by the manner of deposition in some of these graves (see Bj.959 in particular). Sympathetic magick, by its very nature, tends to be rather personal: generally, this type of magick relies on small-scale actions which are believed to bring about larger-scale effects, such as sewing a person’s hair into a poppet to “bind” them from doing harm to themselves or others. On a community level, the types of magick evidenced by trolldomr-associated objects would suggest workings for justice, or even retribution, as well as healing (think of the stereotype of the “hedgewitch” who doubles as midwife and surgeon), divination, and even weather magick (especially important within an agriculturally-based economy).
I have met few true practitioners of Trolldomr in my work as a Vitki and Freyjasgodhi, but the rare ones that I have met have been some of the most loyal friends and best people that I have ever honestly known. One thing is for certain: a step down this path will keep a person honest, and it will teach them which things in life are most truly important. How could such a path possibly serve the community, you may be asking? In order to understand this, we must come to understand that justice works quite differently, from a Norse perspective, than it does in some other paths. The interconnectedness of a shamanic worldview demands that actions be repaid with equal and only sometimes opposite reactions, in a form of intrinsic reciprocity that we have already briefly discussed. This literally trickles down to every facet of society, including magick. The ethics—or seeming lack thereof from a Christian standpoint—of trolldomr were likely another source of the fear associated with its practice. Associations with creatures such as trolls (it’s in the name, people!) and Jotnar make trolldomr the closest thing to a “left hand path” which we have within the corpus of Norse Magick. While there is no such thing as any sort of “threefold law” or “an it harm none” in this Heidhrinn Sidhr, our understanding of reciprocity comes accompanied by its own darker side: retribution. Those who choose to practice the darker aspects of trolldomr would do well to realize they walk a thin line, and weigh those consequences carefully.
Finally we arrive at the Path of the Seidhr-Bearers themselves, which we will uncover next week in the final blog post of this series. I hope that you will join me then.
(Portions of this post appear in Heidhrinn Sidhr by Connla Freyjason, coming soon from Iaconagraphy Press; those portions and this entire blog are copyright 2019 and should not be copied without written permission.)
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