Staff in Grave

Gudrun became very religious. She was the first Icelandic woman to learn the Psalter, and spent long periods in the church praying at night. Herdis Bolladottir usually went with her to her nightly prayers, and Gudrun loved Herdis dearly. It is said that one night young Herdis dreamed that a woman approached her. She wore a woven cape and a folded head-dress, and her expression was far from kindly.

She said to Herdis, ‘Tell your grandmother that I care little for her company; she tosses and turns on top of me each night and pours over me tears so hot that I burn all over. I am telling you this because I prefer your company, although you have a strange air about you. All the same I could get along with you, if the distress caused me by Gudrun were not so great.’

Herdis then awoke and told Gudrun her dream. Gudrun thought it was a revelation and the following morning she had the floorboards in the church removed at the spot where she was accustomed to kneel in prayer and the ground below dug up. There they found bones, which were blackened and horrible, along with a chest pendant and a large magician’s staff. People then decided that a prophetess must have been buried there. The bones were moved to a remote place little frequented by men.


- The Saga of the People of Laxardal (Laxdæla saga), Chapter 76


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Note: Though the term "magician" is used here, the original text is referrring specifically to a seiðr user. This is because of a translation choice, explained below. The following quotes are taken from the Glossary included with The Sagas of Icelanders: A Selection, the compilation which includes the translation of this source that I've used.

"magic rite: seiður: The exact nature of magic ritual, or seiður, is somewhat obscure. It appears that it was originally only practised by women. Although there are several accounts of males who performed this rite (including the god Odin), they are almost always looked down on as having engaged in an ‘effeminate’ activity. The magic rite seems to have had two main purposes: a spell to influence people or the elements (as in The Saga of the People of Laxardal, chs. 35–7, and Gisli Sursson’s Saga, ch. 18), and a means of finding out about the future (as in Eirik the Red’s Saga, ch. 4). There are evidently parallels between seiður and shamanistic rituals such as those carried out by the Lapps and Native Americans. See also seeress.

"magician: seiðmaður: Literally means ‘a man who practises seiður’. See also magic rite."