Ásb Lv 1VIII (OStór 2)/1 — seiði ‘magic rites’
Sagði mér á seiði,
söng um þat löngum,
at ek á feigum fæti
færik norðr á Mæri.
Vætki vissi völva;
vera mun ek enn með mönnum
glaðr í Gautaveldi;
gramir eigi spá hennar.
Sagði mér á seiði, söng um þat löngum, at ek færik norðr á Mæri á feigum fæti. Völva vissi vætki; ek mun enn vera glaðr með mönnum í Gautaveldi; gramir eigi spá hennar.
She told me through magic rites, sang of it at length, that I would travel north to Møre on feet fated to die. The seeress knew nothing; I will still be glad among men in the realm of the Gautar; may trolls take her prophecy.
notes
[1] á seiði ‘through magic rites’: Seiðr was a form of sorcery said to have been employed by women and a few men (as well as the god Óðinn) to bring about some change, usually for the worse, in a human being, or to predict whether the forthcoming season or harvest would be good or bad. Descriptions of the rituals accompanying seiðr indicate that the practitioners usually sat on a platform of some kind, and that chants were sung either by the seeress or her female assistants. The locus classicus in Old Norse literature is Eir ch. 4 (ÍF 4, 206-9). See further Strömbäck (1935) and Meulengracht Sørensen (1983, 19).