Free Icelandic Magic by Stephen E. Flowers

reminiscent of the way Egill Skallagrímsson worked. Furthermore, the Icelandic magician never seems to need to protect himself from the powers upon which he is calling; to the contrary, he appears more concerned with the actions of other humans. Although spiritual entities are involved, it would be more accurate to say that they help the magician work his own will rather than do the work for him—and because the magician has no need to protect himself from the entities he summons, he has no need to banish them.
    Generally speaking, Icelandic magic seems to have worked through one of three media: (1) graphic signs, (2) spoken or written words, and (3) natural substances. These media could be used alone or in combination with one another.
    Graphic signs (including runes and other written or drawn characters) are thought to be conduits or doorways through which various impersonal powers or personalized entities are directed in order to facilitate the will of the magician. The actual physical sign seems to have little power on its own; it is only in combination with the will of a trained magician that any results can be expected. That is why, in the folktales concerning the famous galdramenn, such emphasis is placed on their scholarly characters and on the fact that signs had to be learned by a process that apparently involved more time and effort than just memorizing their external forms. Nevertheless, the memorization of their forms was likely the first step in this process. Except for the most common signs such as the ægishjálmur or the Þórshamar, specific “staves” rarely appear more than once among the various manuscripts. The fact that quite different staves might be called by the same name, however, indicates that it was an inner form—rather than an external shape—that was mainly being “learned.”
    Words, whether spoken or written, are the medium often used to activate the signs. Words can work alone either to direct or command some power or entity or to beseech an entity to act on behalf of the magician. The latter prayer-type formula is usually found only in spells of a Christianized kind. In the medieval Icelandic formularies words and names can activate the corresponding power or entity in a way desired by the magician and as formulated in his verbal spell. The “power of the name” is a well-known phenomenon in the annals of magic, and such a belief was also part of the ancient Germanic worldview. Its most famous depiction is in the lore surrounding Sigurðr Fáfnisbani: after fatally wounding the serpent Fáfnir, Sigurðr attempts to conceal his name from the dying giant because, as we read in the “Fáfnismál,” a poem from the Poetic Edda, “it was the belief in olden times that the words of a doomed man had great might, if he cursed his foe by name.” *12 This ancient Germanic lore was, of course, further reinforced by the importation of Judeo-Gnostic names of God or words of power that are heaped up in some of the Christian-type spells. In all cases these verbal elements are seen as being vitally linked to the actual things they name, and therefore willful and trained manipulation of such words and names constitutes a manipulation of the actual things or entities.
    Certain substances tend to be used in magical operations, the most typical being blood and woods of various kinds. Both are well represented in the heathen type of spell. The blood of the magician can be used, and in the old material four kinds of wood—oak, rowan, alder, and ash—are frequently mentioned. Herbs are also referenced in many old spells. The most useful are millefolium (yarrow) and Frigg jargras ( Platanthera hyperborea ). Many other spells make use of various substances on which staves are to be carved or written. In each case there seems to be an underlying analogical reason for the use of the substance, which must be evaluated on a case-by-case