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Chapter 7. At the Well of Urð 191
in another paragraph, he discusses the Saamí or “Lapps” proper. In this particular
passage, most likely, he is speaking of an already blended culture, a border zone,
and a variation of spiritual philosophy which has already crossed the boundaries of
ethnicity.
The noaide played a central role in the Saamí religion but this seems not to have
been the case for the Germanic peoples at least in the sagaic or eddaic writings,
but the figure of the wizard and the witch did present itself in these writings rather
extensively so that this method for accessing knowledge must have been well-known
to the Germanic peoples. James Chisolm, in a review of the Eddas and sagas for
references to seiðr, fjölkyngi, and görningar (all forms of sorcery as opposed to
charm-making), revealed a body-count of at least 150 different persons in Norway,
Sweden and Denmark who were all considered to have had access to the knowledge
of Mímir’s Well through wizardry or witchcraft. Less than a half dozen of these
are listed as diviners, and even fewer are listed as functioning in any official or
central capacity within the Germanic religion of the time. Without the central role
in religion or society, they all fall outside Mircea Eliade’s definition of shaman.
In early Germanic society, it was customary that people who lived and functioned
outside the auspices of a family, community, or kingdom and sets of social rules
were greatly frowned upon. Berserkers, men who were capable of becoming totally
overcome with rage in the fury of battle, were regarded with suspicion and tended
to live on the outskirts of a town (probably for safety’s sake since they were known
to kill both friend and foe in the chaos of battle) but were generally accepted, albeit
cautiously, within the communities of warriors. Outlaws, however, people who had
been disowned by their own community, were despised and loathed to such a degree
that many of the adjectives describing them contain the word vargr (ON “wolf”)
which was the most hated animal of northern Europe and was usually killed on
sight; an outlaw was considered the lowest of human or animal forms and, according
to the system of wergild, could be killed on sight with no legal need to compensate
the family.
The description of wizards in the eddaic and sagaic literature usually showed a
man or a woman who did not seem to have any firm ties to a family, community, or
king, and when they were described as belonging to a community, i.e. living in the
geographical area of a community, no binding ties to family or society are given. It
is quite possible, then, that the claims of perversion on the part of the wizard had
to do with this odd break from community, being neither part of a community nor
quite an outlaw, a ”fence-rider” with one foot within and the other without. There
are a great many descriptions of wizards being killed for one reason or another but
never any description of how compensation to the families were handled.
Curiously, Óðínn was often accompanied by “pet wolves,” and considering the