Chapter 7 Manning the High Seat: Seiðr as Self- Making in Contemporary Norse Neopaganisms

Abstract

This passage illustrates the Norse god of mischief taunting Oðinn AllFather in the medieval Icelandic poem Lokasenna, “The Flyting of Loki.”1 Flytings, or insult battles, were a common literary device in medieval Norse poetic literature; the harshest and crassest of these insults were nið, slurs of a grossly sexual nature.2 Niðsayers meant to enrage their opponents and scandalize an audience, both goals manifesting a social hierarchy that prized hypermasculine virility. In the stanza above, Loki literally accuses Oðinn of having acted in an unmanly (argr)3 manner by engaging in magical practices, or seiðr.4 In short, Loki just called Oðinn a spellcasting faggot.5 As this epigraph shows, seiðcraft (Norse magical practice) has a complex historical relationship to gender. Traditionally, seið practitioners were women; the medieval Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson recounted that the goddess Freyja brought seiðr to the Norse sky gods.6 But the practice was never excluManning the High Seat: Seiðr as SelfMaking in Contemporary Norse Neopaganisms