Queering the Cosmology of the Vikings: A Queer Analysis of the Cult of Odin and “Holy White Stones”

Solli, Brit

doi:10.4324/9781315876900-10

Cited by 1 publication

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“…Nor were physical “changes” impossible to imagine in the context of seiðr : bodies themselves could transform in the process of using this magic. Numerous scholars have highlighted connections between seiðr and shamanism (Bjørby, 2001; Dillmann, 1992; Price, 2019; Solli, 1999, 2008). As Solli has argued, “Old Norse religious practices were ecstatic, shamanistic and challenged boundaries concerning gender and sex,” (Solli, 2008, p. 194; see also Ohlmarks, 1939; Czaplicka, 1969; Strömbäck, 1970, p. 78; Bleibtreu‐Ehrenberg, 1970).…”

Section: Queer Magic: Odin and The Practice Of Seiðrmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Numerous scholars have highlighted connections between seiðr and shamanism (Bjørby, 2001; Dillmann, 1992; Price, 2019; Solli, 1999, 2008). As Solli has argued, “Old Norse religious practices were ecstatic, shamanistic and challenged boundaries concerning gender and sex,” (Solli, 2008, p. 194; see also Ohlmarks, 1939; Czaplicka, 1969; Strömbäck, 1970, p. 78; Bleibtreu‐Ehrenberg, 1970). In practice, shamanic rituals from the native tribes of Labrador to the Siberian steppes involve hyper‐sexual religious rituals and the ability to change between gender identities, some scholars theorizing that this aspect includes a “third” gender expression unique to shamans themselves (Saladin d’Anglure, 1992; Hutton, 2001, p. 109).…”

Section: Queer Magic: Odin and The Practice Of Seiðrmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In practice, shamanic rituals from the native tribes of Labrador to the Siberian steppes involve hyper‐sexual religious rituals and the ability to change between gender identities, some scholars theorizing that this aspect includes a “third” gender expression unique to shamans themselves (Saladin d’Anglure, 1992; Hutton, 2001, p. 109). Potentially, in the act of performing seiðr , shamans changed “genders,” or came to represent a gender of their own beyond hvatr and blauðr —perhaps even coming to represent the deviance against which the normative hvatr was constructed (Balzer, 1996; Solli, 1999, p. 423, also 2008, pp. 203–204).…”

Section: Queer Magic: Odin and The Practice Of Seiðrmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Magic, Genderfluidity, and queer Vikings, ca. 750‐1050

Bell

2021

History Compass

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From the Nazi Reich to the deadly storming of the U.S. Capital building on January 6, 2021, symbols of pre‐Christian Norse religious practices, especially magic, have come to represent androcentricity, authoritarianism, and White nationalism. This modern misrepresentation contrasts how the Norse people themselves potentially saw these same signs and images: as subversive, subaltern, and queer. Rather than the austere and distorted image left to us by monastic chroniclers of later centuries, recent historical, archaeological, and literary studies have taken into consideration new evidence that suggests magic was a vibrant and interwoven part of everyday life for the Norse people in the Viking Age. New methodological approaches and material discoveries have enabled scholars to re‐evaluate the socio‐sexual systems of Viking‐Age Scandinavia and theorize about the potential for ungendered, transgendered, and gender‐fluid readings of how individuals subverted these regimes through sorcery. This article surveys this recent turn in Old Norse studies and explores the possibilities for such scholarship to revolutionize how we think of the Vikings' place in the circum‐polar history of Shamanism, gender‐bending, and queer magic.

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Section: Queer Magic: Odin and The Practice Of Seiðrmentioning

confidence: 99%