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Little Bones women
Little Bones
Women©
Amongst the Holy
women of the early Germanic tribes were the little known healing seers who held power and
respect with the local folk. The church considered them shadowy
figures and certain references taken from the evidence of the
Icelandic Sagas composed nearly a thousand years later suggests that
such women still existed in Viking times, though the power they once
wielded was no longer political and had become purely spiritual in
nature.
A great deal of
misunderstandings have come via modern interpretations of what the Wölwa,
sometimes referred to as The Little Bones Women were meant to be.
As the Druids were to the Gauls, so
these Wölwa’s
were to the Proto-Germanic tribes. They presided over the great
passages of life, healed with herb runic charms and oversaw every
important tribal gathering before organised religions was instituted
in the North. They were present at births to read a child's fate. They
read oracles to forecast the coming season at the principal religious
feasts. They conducted great ceremonies for the dead. And they
accompanied the barbarian army into battle, determining through rune
casting or trance possession the most propitious time to go to war.
This work is hoped to put the record straight.
Wölwa with apprentice
from "The Little Bones Women" by Rig Svenson©
Julius Caesar writes
of them:
'It was the custom
among the Germans that their matrones should decide by lots and
divinations whether or not it was expedient to go into battle'.
Such was her fame that it was said, "Life or Death can be found by
looking at a Wölwa’s
fingernails" as depicted in the picture.
 Please
contact the author directly for further
information on this publication.
sá ek ok þagðak
sá ek ok hugðak
hlýdda ek á manna mál
of rúnar heyrða ek dœma
Havamol
Rig Svenson 5th October 2009
Viking
Weddings © by Rig
Svenson
TRADITIONAL
LIFE-RITES
CELEBRANTS
This
will now be on ebook, please see author for details:
The written text and the archaeological evidence on
how weddings were performed by our honoured Germanic heathenfolk remains sketchy even so much less the fragmented heathen
traditions surrounding the Anglo-Saxon tribes of
England today. Vikings did however inter-marry with the English and
by borrowing elements from the Icelandic Sagas,
and incorporating heathen elements both oral and
historical, a Viking Age wedding ceremony may just be possible to
reconstruct such a ceremony? This worked is based primarily upon
research into Viking times taken from many sources, some more
accurate than others to re-create as far as is possible a valid and
usable structure of what a Northern Traditionwedding
ceremony should be. This was passed on through family ties or
fragments of half forgotten folklore. Nothing was ever written down
from the oral traditions and therefore is a bold attempt to piece
together and give the modern Northern Tradition couple, good and
strong workable guidelines so that they may follow in the footsteps
of our noble ancestors with their own Traditional Viking Age Wedding
Ceremony.
Footnotes:
Icelandic Sagas refer to stories emanating from the
farmsteads and monasteries of a large, windswept island in
the North Atlantic and composed mainly in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries, the Icelandic sagas are among the most
extraordinary literary products of the Middle Ages. They are
not novels or secular dramas, they are neither truly
egalitarian nor wholly realistic, but they are closer to all
of these things than almost any pre-modern European
writings. They attest to a passionate and continuous
interest among Icelanders in story, and in the past, both of
the Nordic and wider worlds.
Northern Tradition
refers to a
sacred and magical world-view that was a part of the ancient
Indo-European way of life. Indian Hinduism is the eastern
end of this observance whilst the Northern Tradition is the
north-western end. Essentially a spiritual observance of the
Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Frisian, Germanic, Norse and Baltic
regions, originating from prehistoric times but continuing
in a modified and updated reconstructed form until the
present day as folk-custom, the veneration of saints,
household magic and rural practices.
Music:- Boadicea
Artist: Enya
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