Today brings three more short sumbel toasts, one each to Ægir, Óðinn, and Iðunn. All are in ljóðaháttr, and all are two stanzas each, and the stanza break has been removed to avoid confusion. The Óðinn toast features some of his other names. Also, the spellings have not been anglicized this time.
A Toast to Ægir
Once again, it is time for some of the most practical poetry that this blog features: calls to various beings from the lore. Although unusual and unexpected, the calls here may be found quite useful by some. Today I present calls to Ancestors, Others, Dag, and Nótt. Like all previous calls, these are also two stanzas of ljóðaháttr each (with the stanza break removed as before). A call to the ancestors is self-explanatory. The call to the Others is a sort of catch-all for friendly beings who might wish to attend the ritual but who are unknown and/or have not specifically been named in prior calls. (That is, the call is designed to follow specific calls to other named beings. It may not make much sense to use the call by itself.) Dag and Nótt are the Old Norse words for Day and Night, although Snorri’s Edda treats them as supernatural beings and provides a genealogy for them. There are probably few who would hold blóts to Dag and Nótt, but some might wish to try reciting the calls on a daily basis at the appropriate times as part of a personal practice.
Today I present an audio recording of another eddic tale that I’ve set in verse. This time, it is Building Asgard’s Wall, which was posted as text last March. In this spoken version, the words are different in a few places from what I posted, and the original post has not been edited.
Here is the downloadable file of me reciting the poem:
Eirik Westcoat – Building Asgard’s Wall
And here is the inline player:
Enjoy! Feel free to share the file. For details, see the Creative Commons link below.
This post is:
Copyright © 2014 Eirik Westcoat.
All rights reserved.
The linked audio file of Building Asgard’s Wall is:
Copyright © 2014 Eirik Westcoat.
Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives License.
The Yule vacation for this blog has ended, and today I present a short poem in honor of Yule. It is in four stanzas of fornyrðislag. Its title is “A Yule Poem.”
Snow is falling,
silently without,
on the ground gleaming
and giving delight.
But the Wild-Hunt rides,
wending furiously,
when the cold-air
whistles outside.
Today I present an audio recording of another eddic tale that I’ve set in verse. This time, it is The Binding of Fenrir, which was posted as text back in May in part 1 and part 2. In this spoken version, the words are different in a few places from what I posted, and the original posts have not been edited.
Here is the downloadable file of me reciting the poem:
Eirik Westcoat – The Binding of Fenrir
And here is the inline player:
Enjoy! Feel free to share the file. For details, see the Creative Commons link below.
This post is:
Copyright © 2013 Eirik Westcoat.
All rights reserved.
The linked audio file of The Binding of Fenrir is:
Copyright © 2013 Eirik Westcoat.
Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives License.
This week I have some more poetic hallowings share. It has been quite a while since I last posted some hallowings. Today I present a fire warding, a sword warding, and a three wells water warding. Like the previous set, they are designed for the hallowing of what is ordinarily profane space in preparation for Asatru ritual. They should be done with the tools mentioned. That is, if you’re reciting the sword warding to hallow your ritual space, it is best to actually carry a sword at the time. Also, if possible, one should walk the boundaries of the space to be hallowed when reciting them. These are all written in fornyrðislag.
Today I finish the special sequence of elaborate sumbel toasts that I started with a toast to Odin in January and continued with a toast to the Einherjar in September. This third and final toast of the sequence was written for the third round of a typical sumbel, wherein one may present oaths, boasts, or any sort of toast that would not fit in the first two rounds. In particular, one may toast living people, which is disallowed in the first two rounds, as the living are not gods or ancestors while they are still alive! Rather than toast any one particular living person, this final toast is to the living collective of modern heathens known as the Folk. Just like the previous two toasts of the sequence, it is written as a seven stanza ljóðaháttr drápa with the final stanza ending in a galdralag couplet; the refrain is italicized. As with the other toasts, I have completely anglicized the spelling of the Norse names and words.
To the Folk’s future
forward I look,
and praise the past as well;
A full horn I raise
to the Folk today —
the modern heathen heroes.
Over a year ago, I posted a poem about the Nine Noble Virtues. Today I present a second poem on the Nine Noble Virtues, one that takes a different approach. For this poem, I went through the rune staves of the Elder Futhark and paired a single stave to each of the virtues. It is in six stanzas of fornyrðislag. The names of the runes and the virtues are capitalized here.
A mainful song
I sing of virtues;
nine they number,
noble they be.
Useful to have,
they help my quest,
riding the road
to Runes and Mead.
I look to traditional Old Norse forms for inspiration and ideas for new poems. It was perhaps inevitable that I would turn to the genre of the “shield drápa” eventually, and indeed I have. My post today features my first shield drápa, but first I shall say a bit more about what a shield drápa is, with reference to some historical examples, of course.
In the Old Norse period, finely decorated shields, often depicting scenes from the mythology, were occasionally given as gifts. If a poet received one as a gift, it was apparently expected that the poet would compose a poem about it, sometimes even in the form of a drápa. In Egil’s Saga (chapter 81), it is mentioned that a friend of Egil’s, Einar Skallaglam, came to visit him with a shield as a gift. But Egil was away. After three nights, Egil still had not returned. Since staying longer than three nights on a visit was contrary to custom, Einar left at that point, but left the shield behind as a gift. When Egil discovered it, he is reported to have said, “That scoundrel. Does he expect me to stay awake making a poem about his shield? Fetch my horse, I shall ride after him and kill him.” Egil was exaggerating a bit, as he did not actually go out and kill his friend. He is reported to have compose a drápa about the shield nonetheless, though only a single stanza of it is quoted in his saga.
From time to time, I get to write longer poems that have a more central role in a ritual, as opposed to my poetic calls, which generally serve as part of the opening of a ritual. Today’s poem is one of those centerpieces — a longer praise poem to Freyr (a flokkr, since it does not have a refrain) in 12 stanzas of ljóðaháttr with a galdralag ending. I wrote it for the main ritual at Pittsburgh’s Pagan Pride Day 2013, which took place this past Saturday, September 14. The ritual was a harvest blessing primarily in honor of Freyr, performed by the Asatru kindred that I’m a member of: the Hearth of Yggdrasil.
The Skaldic Eagle 