Relevant glossary to help you understand old norse belief systems.

Old norse Glossary…

These are some of the most important words, and their definitions, to help you understand the old Scandinavian mindset.

A

Animism: a world view in which every entity and every thing in the world is believed to contains consciousness.

The landscape is thus imbued with personhood and spirit, that allow us to create mutually beneficial relationships with the environment and entities around us, to increase our livelihood. This world view is based on mutual respect and care and is fundamental to the old norse belief system.

Auðhumbla: the primordial cow, representing the abundant humle that nurtured Ymír, creating life.

F

Fylgja, (fulgjur):

G

Ginnungagap: void, gaping mouth. The nothingness that came before the creation of the cosmos. Out of the gaping mouth of ginnunga, where mist/ice met heat/ fire, came the primordial beings Ymír and Auðhumbla.

Galðr: norse type of magic or witchcraft, linked to the performance of spell songs and sound.

þ

þulr:

H

Hamingja: ancestral spirit and fortune, (a manifestation of cause and effect). The power that attracts good fortune, victory and renown, or misfortune, hardship and defeat, depending on the amount of it that you possess.

The hamingja is inherited and passed down through the family line, thus, your initial hamingja depends on your ancestry and the people that came before you.

Honor, courage, kindness and good leadership will grow your hamingja, which in turn increases your personal fortune, while dishonour, poor leadership and cruelty against women will decrease your hamingja and bring your personal fortune down.

Hamr: the shape, form or skin of someone, (not to be confused with the Lik.) That which can change with the power of the hugr and be projected forward through the fylgja.

Hugr: thought, mental capacity, awareness.

J

Jötun, (jötnar): devours, often mistranslated as giants.

These entities predate the gods in norse mythology and represent chaos, the wild and uncontrollable nature and natural phenomenons that came before the order, created by the gods.

L

Lik: the body, in a strictly physical sense. That which is left behind, when we die and our consciousness travels to hel.

M

Megin: spiritual essence within all entities and things, especially linked to the release of set essence.

Minni: ancestral memory, the stream of memories that flows through us, connecting us to the wisdom and knowledge of all who came before us. Linked to Mímir, the well of Urð, the Norns and the subterranean streams of the underworld.

O

Önd: spirit (the animating force, linked to the air element), breath.

Óðr: ecstasy, frency, madness.

S

Seiðr: norse type of magic or witchcraft, linked to a shamanistic type of practice.

Sleipnir: Odin’s eight legged horse, a mythaphorical vehicle for spirit flight or astral travel, used by the god Odin to travel between worlds in old norse mythology. Linked to the ash tree Yggdrasil.

V

Vard:

Völva, (völvur): seeress, propethess, witch.

Y

Yggdrasil: axis mundi, the nordic tree of life.

Beyond being a symbol of life, this tree is a metaphorical link, connecting all the worlds of norse mythology and allowing the god Odin to travel between worlds.

This tree, is linked to shamanic type practices, near death experience, trance work, spirit travel and the symbolic horse Sleipnir, representing the same concept.