Neht @fistfightinggod
Ulfhednar and Soul-Parts: A Working Theory aka How Does Old Norse Shapeshifting Work?
The key to understanding the Old Norse concept of shapeshifting is to understand the concept of soul-parts in the Pre-Christian Norse worldview. In the Pre-Christian Norse worldview, the soul is comprised of several parts. Among these parts are the hamingja, or “luck”, which is often passed along to one’s descendants; the hugr, translated as “thought”, which refers to one’s consciousness and probably corresponds best with what we would today call a soul; and the most important to consider in this essay, the hamr. The hamr is the part of the soul used for shapeshifting. Hamr means “skin” or “form”, as in the phrase skipta hǫmum– to change one’s form. The hamr refers not to the physical form of one’s body, but rather the form others perceive the physical body to take. It is also, according to the work of Clive Tolley, used to refer to an animal pelt. But unlike the word serkr which refers to an ordinary animal pelt, the word hamr in this context refers to a pelt used to change one’s appearance, or sometimes capabilities, such as Freyja’s feathered cloak, or in the Vǫlundarkviða, wherein women in possession of swan-pelts can fly (Perabo, 2017). Clive Tolley has also connected the word hamr to certain mental and psychological states through the words hamslauss and hamstolinn, meaning “devoid of hamr” and “deprived of hamr” respectively. The use of the word eigi-einhamr (“one that doesn’t have a single hamr”) in reference to berserkir seems to support this in relation to psychological states, particularly unstable ones (Tolley, 2009). In several stories, the shapeshifter changes only their perceived appearance, rather than their physical form directly. One of the ways this can happen is described in the ‘Heimskringla’: Óðinn skipti hǫmum; lá þá búkrinn sem sofinn eða dauðr, en hann var þá fugl eða dýr, fiskr eða ormr, ok fór á einni svipstund á fjarlæg lǫnd, at sínum ørendum eða annarra manna Odin could transform his shape: his body would lie as if dead, or asleep; but then he would be in the shape of a fish, or worm, or bird, or beast, and be off in a twinkling to distant lands upon his own or other people’s business. 1 The use of the word hamr (declined to hǫmum) here invokes the idea that others are able to perceive Óðinn in this state and/or that his psychological state is unstable, which aligns with the above ecstatic trance-state. This oft-cited account of shapeshifting gives us a look into one of the most common methods of shapeshifting found in myriad traditions around the world. This method involves a trance or trance-like state that can be induced by a number of means. This trance-like state, typically an ecstatic one for the Norse, allows one’s mind to wander freely in whatever form it pleases. This type of so-called “Óðinnic magic” often includes the Norse practice of seiðr. This form of magic is often called “shamanistic” though rarely do scholars discuss it beyond that. Seiðr does, indeed, have vital links to the Sámi shamanic practices of the Noaidi. Please note, however, that these links are not enough to justify the direct use of Sámi religious practice in one’s non-Sámi magical practice. An interesting find in a shipwreck in Hedeby harbor are two animal-head masks (Price, 2004). These are more than likely related to shapeshifting in the Oðinnic sense, and possibly related to Tolley’s notion of the hamr to mean an animal pelt. Although we can’t know for sure what these masks were used for, they appear to be ritual objects, likely involving a shapeshifting ritual. This idea of shapeshifting is also closely related to, as mentioned before, berserkir and úlfheðnar. The notion of shapeshifting in warrior bands is a long-standing one that is an “unbroken tradition from Vedic and Homeric times to those of the Icelandic sagas” (Speidel, 2002). The style of shapeshifting in the tradition of the berserkir and úlfheðnar is also in the style of an ecstatic trance. This is, however, a battle-trance, strengthened and enforced by the thrum of battle and the sound of biting shields. 1 Snorri Sturluson Heimskringla trans. Samuel Laing 27
