Völva

The tale of the völva

In the Viking Age, when a farm or a district wanted to know what the coming year would bring (a good harvest, an end to famine, a husband for a daughter), they sent for a völva, a seeress. She travelled from farm to farm, and wherever she came she was treated as the most honoured of guests.

The Saga of Erik the Red describes one in Greenland, around the year 1000: Thorbjörg, "the little völva". She wore a blue cloak set with stones down to the hem, a necklace of glass beads, a hood of black lambskin lined with white cat fur, and gloves of catskin. She carried a staff topped with brass and stones, and a pouch of magic charms hung at her belt. She was given a high seat with a cushion of hen feathers, and a special meal of porridge and the hearts of every kind of animal on the farm.

The next day the women gathered around her high seat and sang the special songs, the varðlokkur, that called the spirits close. Thorbjörg went into a trance, and then she spoke. The famine would soon end, and the girl who had sung the songs so beautifully would have a great future.

The prophecy of the seeress

The most famous völva of all is in the poem Völuspá, "the prophecy of the seeress", the first poem of the Poetic Edda. Odin himself, the god of wisdom, needs her knowledge. In some tellings he raises her from her grave with his magic.

She tells him everything, from the very beginning to the very end. She remembers the time before the world, when there was only the yawning gap of Ginnungagap. She tells of the making of the earth from the giant Ymir's body, of the world tree Yggdrasil and the Norns who spin fate at its roots. And then she tells the future: Baldr's death, the binding of Loki, the wolf breaking free, the World Serpent rising, the fire giant Surtr setting the world on fire, and the gods falling one by one. At the end the earth rises again, green and new, out of the sea.

Again and again, as she speaks, she asks Odin the same mocking question: Do you know enough yet, or what?

Völva in Battle of Myths

The Völva is a cost 2 Norse mystic and mage. Her ability, Runes of Fate, casts runes at her target for magic damage and, in the same casting, shields the two weakest allies. As her quote says: she has seen how this ends; sit, and she'll tell you for a price. Like every Norse hero, she grows stronger with Ragnarök the longer a fight lasts.

Did you know?

• Archaeologists have found graves of women buried with iron staffs, which they believe belonged to real seeresses.
• The word völva means "staff carrier".