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Chapter 7. At the Well of Urð 189
evil and accompanied by something called ergi. In general, the term is translated
as having something to do with sexual perversion, and so was only practiced by
women. There are several reasons for such a translation but the primary one seems
to have come from comparative studies. In many circumpolar-shamanic cultures as
described in Eliade’s work, there is an enigmatic figure, neither man nor woman,
called the “berdache” in French, who is a person of great power and is often the
community’s shaman. This coupled with the idea that seiðr was deemed proper
only for priestesses seems to have resulted in the translation.
This translation of ergi seems fitting when one considers the line from the
Lokasenna where Loki accused Óðínn of “womanish ways” (Hollander translation),
but others have chosen to simply translate the original phrase args athal as traveling
the world “in a wizard’s guise” (Terry and Page translations). There were no
written laws against homosexuality or against transvestitism prior to the conversion
to Christianity (remember the intolerant Christians?), and none of the wizards in
the sagas are described as being particularly effeminate or homosexual. One would
think that if sexual inversion were the basis of loathing towards “wizards” that there
would at least be some description of or allusion to such behavior in at least one of
the many descriptions of the seiðmen, and there are none except where translators
have chosen to translate the term argr as such. The Germanic writers of the Viking
Age seem not to have been overly concerned about the sexual behavior of a man.
Their laws and rules of conduct, however, are more concerned with societal roles,
social standing, and loyalty to family, community and king. The perversion of seið,
then, was most likely related primarily to acting the role of and dressing as a wizard.
Apparently, there was something about this method of accessing knowledge which
was considered perverse, but there is not enough evidence in ancient Germanic
literature to point the finger at transvestitism or homosexual relationships between
men.
The people known as the Saamí were notorious even during the Viking Age for
their skills in magic and wizardry. Although their religion had much in common
with that of the northern Germanic people, it also differed much. One of the main
differences was their community’s use of the noaide, or shaman, who played a central
role in their religion. Secondly, their religious rituals seem to have incorporated the
use of ecstasy to some degree where the Germanic religion did not although it could
be argued that the use of mead or alcoholic beverages during the symbel, or the
drinking bout which apparently accompanied many of the Germanic rituals may
have approached this in some way. Thirdly, even though the noaide was the central
figure in the Saamí community, most of the “common people” in the tribe were
capable of shamanic ecstasy and were encouraged to work their own less powerful
form of magic in their daily lives. To this end, the “Finns,” as they were called by