7 - The Vǫlva

Summary

1. The nature of the vǫlva

Ækki vældr hon þui siolf at hon er troll

‘She can't help being a troll.’

Ældre Borgarthings-Christenret I, 16

The patterns considered in Chapters 5 and 6 often include a prophetess or magic-working woman. She may be the ally or sister of the Winter Princess (Hulð in Ynglinga saga, Irpa, Heiðr in Vǫluspá), or herself the princess (Hvít in Hrólfs saga kraka), or the opponent of the goddess (Hyndla, Hrímgerðr in Helgakviða Hjǫrvarðssonar). Her role may seem secondary, but it is essential to the narrative. In this chapter I shall consider the typical features of the vǫlva figure, whether she is of naturalistic or mythic origin, and whether she can be associated with particular patterns of narrative.

TERMS USED FOR THE VǪLVA

The usual terms applied to the prophetess are vǫlva ‘prophetess’ (from vǫlr ‘staff’) and seiðkona ‘enchantress’, but spákona ‘prophesying woman’ and vísindakona ‘wise woman’ also appear; any of them may refer to the same woman.

One might have expected a vǫlva to predict the future and a seiðkona to perform effective magic, but this distinction hardly emerges. Some women who are called vǫlur also use effective magic; others make predictions but are not called vǫlur. Family sagas often avoid the word, employing euphemisms such as kona . . . fróð ok framsýn ‘a wise woman who could see the future’,5 or nǫkkut fornfróð ‘rather skilled in ancient things’. Alternatively, narrators may disavow responsibility for the information: þat tǫluðu menn, at hon væri fjǫlkunnig ‘people reckoned that she was skilled in magic’. The activities of the vǫlva were evidently seen as disgraceful or dangerous, at least in the thirteenth century, and there is also a general tendency in family sagas to play down supernatural elements.

In legendary sources, by contrast, the vǫlva is sometimes referred to in terms that imply non-human origins. Thus Hulð in Ynglingatal 3 is vitta véttr ‘creature of spells’ and trollkund liðs grím-Hildr ‘the people's troll-born woman of night’; Busla in Bósa saga ch. 5 is vánd vættr ‘evil creature’; and Heiðr in Hauks þáttr hábrókar is hin mikla trǫll ‘the great troll woman’.