In Germanic paganism, a seeress is a woman said to have the ability to foretell future events and perform sorcery. They are also referred to with many other names meaning "prophetess", "staff bearer" and "sorceress", and they are frequently called witches both in early sources and in modern scholarship. In Norse mythology the seeress is usually referred to as völva (, from the word for a staff) or vala (for the knucklebones used in divination).
Seeresses were an expression of the shamanism in Europe, and they held an authoritative position in Early Germanic culture. Mentions of Germanic seeresses occur as early as the Roman Empire, when, for example, they at times led armed resistance against Roman rule and acted as envoys to Rome. After the Roman era, seeresses occur in records among the North Germanic peoples, where they form a recurring motif in Norse mythology. Both the classical and the Norse accounts imply that they used wands, and describe them as sitting on raised platforms during séances.
Ancient Roman and Greek literature records the name of several Germanic seeresses, including Albruna, Veleda, Ganna, and, by way of an archaeological find, Waluburg. Norse mythology mentions several seeresses, some of them by name, including Heimlaug völva, Þorbjörg Lítilvölva, Þordís spákona, and Þuríðr Sundafyllir. The goddess Freyja has a particular association with seeresses in Norse culture, and there are indications that the Viking princess and later saint of Kievan Rus', Olga of Kiev, was one such, serving as a "priestess of Freyja" among the Rus' elite before they converted to Christianity.
Archaeologists have identified several graves that appear to be the remains of Scandinavian seeresses. These graves contain objects such as wands, seeds with hallucinogenic and aphrodisiac properties, and a variety of items indicating high status.
Societal beliefs about the practices and abilities of seeresses would contribute to the development of the European concept of "witches", because their practices survived Christianization, although the practitioners became marginalized. Germanic seeresses are mentioned in popular culture in a variety of contexts.
In Heathenry, a new religious movement within modern paganism, seeresses once again play a role.
Names and terminology
Aside from the names of individuals, Roman era accounts do not contain information about how the early Germanic peoples referred to them, but sixth century Goth scholar Jordanes reported in his Getica that the early Goths had called their seeresses (Goth-Latin). The word also appears in Old English (OE), ("seeress" or "witch") and in Old High German (OHG) as ("necromancy") and ("necromancer"), and from these forms an earlier Proto-Germanic form *xalja-rūnō(n) has been reconstructed, in which the first element is *xaljō, i.e. Hel, the abode of the dead, and the second is *rūnō ("mystery, secret"). At this time the word *rūnō still referred to chanting and not to runes, and in the sense "incantation" it was probably borrowed from Proto-Germanic into proto-Finnic, where runo means "poem".
In OE, hellerune ("seeress" or "witch"), or helrūne, has the synonym hægtesse, a term that is also found in Old Dutch, haghetisse ("witch") and in OHG , hagzussa or hagzissa. These West Germanic forms are probably derived from a Proto-Germanic word with positive connotations, *xaʒaz, from which are also derived Old Norse (ON) hagr ("skillful") and Middle High German (MHG) be-hac ("of pleasure"). However, it is sometimes proposed that the first element is a term corresponding to Swedish hage ("wooded paddock") in the sense of "fence", i.e. PGmc *xaʒōn ("pasture", "enclosure"), from whence also English hedge (through *xaʒjaz). In that case it would be etymologically related to ON túnriða and OHG ("fence rider"), where tún/zûn does not refer to an enclosure but metonymically to the fence surrounding it. In the Västgötalagen, it was a punishable offence to accuse a woman of having ridden a fence-gate, in the appearance (hamr) of a troll. Friedrich Kluge reconstructs the PGmc form as *haga-tusjō, where the last element *tusjō could mean "spirit", from PIE *dhwes-.
The various names in North Germanic sources may give the impression that there were two types of sorceress, the staff-bearers, or seeresses (vǫlva), and the women who were named for performing magic (seiðkona). However, there is little that the scholar could use to differentiate them, if such a distinction ever existed, and the two types of names are often used synonymously and about the same women.
The term vǫlva means "staff bearer" and is related etymologically to the names of the early Germanic seeresses Ganna, Gambara and Waluburg. The use of wands in divination and clairvoyance appears to have lived on from the classical era into the Viking Age. The name vǫlva and derivations of the name appear 23 times in the sources, and seiðkona ("seiðr woman/wife") appears eight times; the two terms are often used interchangeably. The second most common term is spákona ("prophecy woman/wife") with the variants spákerling ("old prophecy woman") and spámey ("prophecy maiden"), which appears 22 times, again interchangeably with vǫlva and seiðkona to refer to the same woman. There is also the name vísendakona ("knowing woman"), which appears eight times in the sources. Þorbjörg Lítilvölva, in the Saga of Erik the Red is called both a vísendakona, vǫlva and a spákona. It is possible that the names once had different meanings, but at the time of the saga's composition, they were no longer distinguished in meaning, just as the words sorceress and witch are interchangeable in modern popular language. There are also five instances of a group of rarer names having the element galdr ("incantation"), with the names galdrakonur ("galdr women"), galdrakerling ("old galdr woman") and galdrasnót ("galdr lady"). In addition there is the word galdrakind ("galdr creature") with negative connotations.
There is also the reconstructed word *vitka which may be connected to the Wecha in Gesta Danorum, book III and refer to a kind of sorceress. It seems to be the feminine form of vitki ("sorcerer"), and it is only attested from Lokasenna 24, where Loki accuses Odin of having travelled around the world vitka líki (in the "guise of a vitka").
The personal name Heiðr appears 66 times as a word for sorceress in the prose sources. It appears twice in the Poetic Edda, in Hyndluljóð and in Vǫluspá, where it is a name assumed by Gullveig in connection with the Æsir–Vanir War. In a study by McKinnell of the sagas and Landnámabók, there is only one instance of a woman named Heiðr who does not act as a seeress. The name has been connected to heath and heathen, but it has also been explained with meanings that connote "radiance and golden light, honour and payment".
Lastly, there is the term fjolkyngiskona that only meant "sorceress", and a number of derogatory names that correspond to "witch" with many negative connotations, and these terms include skass ("ogress"), flagð(kona) ("ogress"), gýgr ("ogress"), fála ("Giantess"), hála and fordæða ("evil doer").
The term shamanism
There has long been an academic debate on whether the seeresses' practice should be regarded as shamanism. However, this does not pertain to the concept of shamanism in a wider definition (see e.g. the definitions of the OED), but rather to what degree similarities can be found between what is preserved about them in Old Norse literature and the shamanism of northern Eurasia in a more restricted sense. The majority of scholars support the "shamanic interpretation, and the presence of ecstatic rituals" (e.g. Hilda Ellis Davidson, Åke Ohlmarks, Hermann Pálsson, Meulengracht Sørensen, Gabriel Turville-Petre and Jan de Vries), while a minority is skeptical (e.g. Sophus Bugge, Dillmann, Georges Dumézil, Näsström and Schjødt), but there are divergent opinions within the two camps. Clive Tolley, who is among the sceptics, writes that if shamanism is defined as "tundra shamanism" as represented by the Sámi of Scandinavia and as defined by Edward Vajda, then the differences are too great. He allies himself with the position of Ohlmarks, who was familiar with a wide range shamanism and rejected it in 1939, in a debate with Dag Strömbäck who found similarities with Sámi practices. However, Tolley concedes that if shamanism is defined in line with the words of Åke Hultkrantz (1993) as "[...] direct contact with spiritual beings and guardian spirits, together with the mediating role played by a shaman in a ritual setting [...] The presence of guardian spirits during the trance and following shamanic actions [...]" then it is correct to define their practices as "broadly shamanic". However, he considers that in this case shamanism also includes traditional practices from a large part of Europe, such as the European witchcraft and the Sibyl in Hellenic culture. An opposing view is held by Neil Price, who has studied circumpolar shamanism, and argues that he finds enough similarities to define the North Germanic seeresses as shamans also in the stricter sense.
Role in society
Fate is central in Germanic literature and mythology, and men's destiny is inextricably linked to supernatural women and seeresses. Morris comments that the importance of fate can not be overstressed, and the seeresses were feared and revered by gods and mortals alike. Even the god Odin himself consulted them. The Norns are an example of the link between women and fate, which was elevated in Germanic society, and the association was incarnated by the seeresses.
The political role that the seeresses played was always present when the Romans were dealing with the Germanic tribes, and the Romans had to take their opinion into account. Ganna's political influence was so considerable that she was taken to Rome together with Masyos, the king of her tribe, where they had an audience with the Roman emperor Domitian and were treated with honours, after which they returned home. The Roman historian Tacitus, who appears to have met Ganna and to have been informed by her of most of what we know of early Germanic religion, wrote:
Another telling account by Tacitus about their power was a statement by the Batavian tribe to the Romans:
However, the seeresses do not appear to have been just any women, but were those who occupied a special office. Both Mogk and Sundqvist have commented that although the seeresses were referred to as "priestesses" by the Romans, they probably should not be so labelled in a strict sense. As for the later North Germanic version, Näsström writes that the völva did not perform any sacrifices, but her roles as a prophetess and as a sorceress were still important aspects of the spiritual life of her society. Price comments that Katherine Morris has usefully defined these women:
Attestations Germanic seeresses are first described by the Romans, who discuss the role seeresses played in Germanic society. A gap in the historical record occurs until the North Germanic record began over a millennium later, when the Old Norse sagas frequently mention seeresses among the North Germanic peoples. It is noteworthy that Veleda, who prophesied in a high tower in the first century, finds an echo in the thirteenth-century account of Þorbjörg lítilvölva who prophesied from a raised platform in Eiríks saga rauða. Simek comments that the saga's account of Þorbjörg's raised platform and her wand conveys authentic practices from Germanic paganism.
Roman Era
In his ethnography of the ancient Germanic peoples, Germania, Tacitus expounds on some of these points. In chapter eight, he reports the following about women in then-contemporary Germanic society and the role of seeresses: A. R. Birley translation (1999):