Regarding the Viking Age, it is not known with absolute certainty how the religious ceremonies were organised. That blot – sacrifices, in other words – took place, we know, and that these sacrifices were directed to various of the ancient gods depending on what the purpose of the sacrifice was, whether one wished for success in a war, a successful harvest or an uncomplicated pregnancy and childbirth.

On the farm, it could be the husband or the housewife. Specifically, in Iceland, the terms Gode and Gydja were also used for cult leaders.

Who led the more significant ceremonies rests somewhat in obscurity, but what seems likely is that, unlike the Christian Middle Ages that followed, women also held strong positions in the cult.

Someone who was in direct contact with the gods and the hidden was the Völva, who is also the one who has the leading role in the poem in Edda’s first poem, Vǫluspá, or Völvan’s prophecy, where she tells about the destruction of everything in Ragnarök, but also the world that will come after.

The Völva, who makes her voice heard in Vǫluspá and can take pains to both joke with and ironically approach Odin, is certainly closer to the divine realm than one might at least assume the earthly Völvas were. But these existed, and in the preserved sources, they are always portrayed as older women. This meant that the Völva was no longer ”bound” to give birth to children, look after and raise them, or be responsible for the farm.

She also had the freedom to travel around on her own in a way that was not generally common for women in a violent society and time. This has been interpreted as meaning that she had a weak family connection. This could be interpreted as the role of völva, which required one to cut ties with those who would otherwise have been close to one.

The Völva was probably respected and perhaps even somewhat feared because of her abilities. Her position as something of an outsider is underlined by the fact that when Odin raises the ancient völv from the dead to hear her prophecies, she is not with the other dead in Hel where those who did not honourably lose their lives in battle, but in Hel edges. Perhaps this says something about her relationship to society’s collective, even outside the myth.

One place in the ancient sagas where we meet a Völva is in Erik Röde’s saga (Erik the Red), which was recorded in the 13th century by an unknown author and is considered to be based on an older oral tradition. Here, we are told about Þorbiǫrg, the only remaining of a sibling group of nine sisters, all of whom had been völvors.

The story tells that Þorbiǫrg travelled as a guest during the winter among the farms that at that time existed in Greenland, where the story takes place and where her abilities were in demand.

When she arrives at the noble farmer Þorkell, her attire is described: a blue, strapped-together cloak studded with stones, a necklace of glass beads, and a black lambskin hood lined with cat skin, from which her gloves were also made.

The cat skin, in particular, has been interpreted as a connection with Freya and her cats, who must also have pulled the carriage she travelled in.

Þorbiǫrg is received in the tale as an honoured guest, placed in the high seat of the farm while a platform is built for her to hold her ceremony.

During the tale, young men and women are called together to sing a song to help her put herself into the trance necessary to see the farm’s future and people in the story, which, as mentioned earlier, it is made a thing of few claiming to know the song, this concerning their Christian faith. Iceland, where the people of the story have their roots, was Christianised in the year 1000 after a decision made at the Alltinget, and Greenland was colonised 14-15 years after this.

This allows the tale’s action to take place sometime during the 1020s and strengthens the view that the ancient custom and the new religion lived side by side for a period.

Ibn Fadlan also describes, in his meeting with presumably Swedish Vikings along the Volga, where he witnesses a burial with a burning ship, what has been interpreted as a Völva. He calls her the Angel of Death and states that it was she who directed the ceremonies surrounding the chieftain’s funeral that is taking place. According to Ibn Fadlan, the Völvan was assisted by his daughters, which may suggest that the profession was inherited.

As for the described clothing of the Völvan, nothing of the kind has been found when archaeological excavations have been made of graves, which is unsurprising, as textiles and skins do not always survive centuries underground. But she is also described as carrying a staff; ”In her hand, she had a staff fitted with a button. This staff was ornamented with brass, and set with stones at the top, round about the knob.”

Staffs, on the other hand, have not only been found in graves but primarily exclusively in women’s graves, which has led archaeologists to conclude that these graves belonged to völvars, among other things, because the word Völva can mean specifically Staff bearer as the word is connected with vǫlr, which means stick or staff.

A staff was generally a status symbol, but it is unclear how and for what the Völvors’ staff were used. Some have wanted to argue that it is a phallus symbol because why wouldn’t one be necessary in an explicitly female practice?

Another more likely theory is that it was a symbolic so-called spinning rod used by the Norns Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld, who spun people’s destinies at the foot of the tree Yggdrasil.

Staves that have been interpreted as Völva staves have only been found in about 30 graves in Scandinavia, which suggests that it was not an object for everyone. These graves include Badelunda outside Västerås, Birka by Mälaren, Köpingsvik in Öland and Fyrkat in Denmark, which means that the graves have been interpreted as belonging to dead Völvas. A staff has also been found as a loose find in Gnesta.

As a curiosity, it should be mentioned that the Icelandic word for computer – Tölva – is a merger of the words tal (number) and Völva.

Sources:

Fornnordisk religion – Gro Steinsland

The Children of Ash and Elm – The History of the Vikings

The History Museum

Völvorna vävde lycka med magiska stavar – Dick Harrisson

Images:

Finds from Köpingsvik – Creative Commons

The Völva at Fyrkat – Thomas Hjejle Bredsdorff

Amber cat – Ola Myrin, The History Museum

The Völva staff – Helena Bonnevier, The History Museum