The Saga of Vanadís, Völva and Valkyrja

emembrance of the first religious or cultural shift. It is her own fate, as well as Óðinn’s,
that soars through her memory. Heiður, found in the next stanza, definitely fills the
picture.
Heiði hana hétu
hvars til húsa kom
völu velspáa
vitti hún ganda;
seið hún hvars hún kunni
seið hún hugleikin
æ var hún angan
illrar brúðar.
Völuspá st. 22, Hauksbók version
Heiður she was called
wherever she went
visioning völva
invoking her völur;
seiður performed everywhere
seiður in ecstasy,
ever enchantment
to evil bride.
The name Heiður means both shining, bright, and heathen or ‘she from the heaths
(heiðar)’. In the Middle Ages (which is the time of the recording of this poem), witches
in Germany were often called Heide (Metzner, 1994, p. 167). Heiður is a common name
for a völva, and might have been a kind of a priestess-title, originating in one of Freyja’s
names, like Sibyl became a title, a synonym for a völva, but was originally derived from
the name of the Roman/Anatolian goddess Cybele or Kybele (Onsell, 1994, p. 163;
Walker, 1983, p. 966). The listener/reader gets the impression that Heiður is the same as
Gullveig, she is the one whom they continuously try to burn, to kill, but who is always
reborn. It is as if the völva is giving us the evidence for the still living Goddess, she
herself is that evidence.
There is in fact common agreement around the idea that Heiður is the völva
telling the story, and that she is Gullveig reborn (e.g. Sigurður Nordal, 1923/1993, p. 78).
The völva remembers all, from early beginning, from before there was anything, so if she
is not another incarnation of Gullveig, she has at least been around long enough to know
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