The Saga of Vanadís, Völva and Valkyrja

The völva’s main function with her seiður is to give answers to humans, such as
those two in Völuspá and Baldurs draumar give to the goð. She reveals knowledge about
life, love, war and death; about the weather and the outcome of a journey; she reads into
the dreams and hidden auður of the people seeking her assistance. She is the link to the
Goddess, whether in her underworld or fertility aspect, she is the link between the nornir
and the people who have lost their connection to the well of remembrance. Although the
völva usually emphasizes that she is merely uttering what she sees, she seems to some
degree to be able to affect the lives of people with her seiður-premonitions. As we shall
see in the following stories she can give rewards to those who earn it as in the story of
Þorbjörg and Guðríður. In that way she is the representative of the Goddess, one who not
only sees across the borders of worlds, but has power to affect the náttúrur (the spirits of
nature), and thus in a way weave örlög. On the other hand, she is the voice of örlög, of
Urður and auður, the irreversible destiny as in the saga of Örvar Oddur below.
We have to continuously remind ourselves that these are all descriptions from a
time when patriarchy had taken over, first with the Æsir dominance in religion and
culture and then Christianity. Among the many sagas of völvur practicing seiður there are
two that describe the rituals in some detail. Those tales might tell us something about the
then remaining importance of the female energy and values of Freyja in the practice, and
the beginning of the end of it. One is from Eiríks Saga, about a völva in Greenland
towards the end of the10th century and the other is from Örvar-Odds Saga, and takes
place in Norway, a couple of centuries earlier, although chronological time is a little
diffuse here, as elsewhere in the Fornaldarsögur (Old Norse Sagas).
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