Lbs 143 8vo ‘Galdrakver’
Helm of Awe
Purpose: Conquer your enemies
The ægishjálmur is a powerful working that should be know by any practising magician in the northern tradition. We all encounter, from time to time, situations in which we may feel overawed by others: an interview for a coveted job; a meeting with a bank manager to discuss a loan; a visit from representatives of the tax and revenue service; or perhaps suddenly being confronted with a hostile situation.
To use: When meeting an adversary, visualise the stave between your brows. Speak calmly and with authority, and let the stave do the work. It can also be visualised instantly if there has been no time to prepare in advance.
The most striking and beautiful form of the helm of awe, and the one most people associate with the term, is this one found in Lbs 143 8vo ‘Galdrakver’ from around 1670:
“Ægis hjálmur. It shall be made in lead, and when a man expects his enemies he shall imprint it on his forehead. And thou wilt conquer him. It is as follows.”
No other actions or words are prescribed in this case and the stave is not visualized but stamped in lead and then pressed against the forehead to leave a visible mark.
If you do not have time to make it as prescribed, it is suggested that you use your spit and draw it with your finger on your forehead, when usage is necessary. The stave should always be traced or projected (by visualization) on the forehead “between the brows”.
Ægishjálmur: The Helm of Awe
The name of this symbol is ægishjálmr, or Ægishjálmur, which literally means “helm of awe”. An alternate translation is “helm of terror” in the sense of striking terror into one’s attackers.
What is it? Basically the Helm of Awe is an 8-branched radial symbol, known commonly as a Galdrastafur or “singing-stave”. There are actually a number of different radial “singing-staves” including multiple “Helms of Awe”, each being an 8-fold repetition of a single rune. The most common one seen today (largely thanks to the survival of the Icelandic Sagas) is an 8-fold repetition of the Elder Futhark Algiz rune (right), with triple crossbars on each of the 8 copies.
Since Algiz is basically a rune of protection (the branching prongs of the symbolic elk-horn keeping danger at bay), repeating the rune 8 times in all directions serves the purpose of blocking or evading attacks from all directions, both the obvious and the concealed. In this sense it may also be used by runenmeisteren as a powerful esoteric charm against malevolent psychic attacks.
The idea of Ægishjálmur being a combination of 8 radially arranged Algiz runes with amplifying triple-cross lines and a central circle, is not far-fetched at all – and being essentially a magickal symbol for invincibility in battle, it is definitely related in purpose to the reported nature of Algiz, since the Anglo-Saxon rune poem, which renders Algiz as Eolh, or the Elk, indicates this rune represents a prickly and dangerous thing never to be touched:
Quite a terrible “sedge” indeed. And the Elk-sedge is thus a primally appropriate motif for the basic units of the Helm of Awe, such that composing the symbol from these Algiz or Eolh runes will strike fear into all foes, such that their wounds in battle will be ghastly and they will flee in fear of massive blood loss.
A person carving this symbol into any sort of sacred object in ancient times, or even into their own flesh, would have to be a warrior or at least on in severe need of a warding-spell to drive away all who approached them.
The Seiðr Theory
If the “Helm of Awe” referred to a metaphysical “helmet” of invisible magick, anchored to the physical world by the radial symbol, it would indeed be appropriate for this to be a seiðr construction. As in the Sagas, the Helm is typically painted in the center of the forehead, in the spot where many old Aryan traditions, both northern and southern, tend to depict the Third Eye in their mystical iconography. In that sense, it can be said to tap into some of the most primal energies of the universe through one’s Third Eye, and then project an activation of pure living force (which come call the Od or Odic force) to either form a healing aura, or one of pure terror, depending on the intent and emotion channeled.
The precise workings of seiðr are largely lost to time, though there are reports of modern magickal groups attempting a reconstruction of the practice, after some members’ long years of study in related Indo-European disciplines.
Seiðr itself, however, had many different uses. It could be used to both help and harm. Traditionally among Viking-age warriors and rune-masters however, it was feared and even despised as a “dark art” used by malevolent witches to possess the target’s mind and trap them in webs of forgetfulness, delusion, or terror. they were alleged to create illusions of wraiths or visions of disaster so terrifying that the victim often became insane, suicidal, or simply lost the will to live.
| Hávamál
113 |
Translation
I advise you, Loddfafnir, |
| 114 Hon svá gørir at þú gáir eigi þings né þjóðans máls mat þú villat né mannskis gaman ferr þú sorgafullr at sofa |
– she will make sure that you heed not Thing’s nor king’s words; food you will not desire nor mankind’s joys; you fall sorrowfully to sleep. |
However, not all applications of seiðr were harmful or malevolent to the subject. Ægishjálmur in particular was intended as a sacred stave or protection for the warrior, to strike terror into his enemies and make him utterly fearless of the possibility of his own death, thus all but guaranteeing him absolute victory.
Nevertheless, Ægishjálmur is, like nearly all effective magick, very much a “dual-use technology”. It can be used to protect a loved one from harm, but it can also be used to cause great harm to others in an unprovoked attack. Much like the honor-combat tradition of Holmganga was intended to prevent the decay of society through dishonor, slander and tribal feuds, but could also be abused by thuggish individuals to “legally” steal land and possessions from elderly or poor farmers. Eventually, much like this led to Holmganga being banned in Norway, the abuse of seiðr apparently led to its instruction being highly restricted by the Viking age, aside from its later suppression by Christianity – and very little of it was passed down beyond the 13th century CE.
The Ægishjálmur belongs to a special type of seiðr practice known to the Vikings-age Norse as sjónhverfing, a colorful term which translates as “sight-deceiving” or illusion charms. In this method, the seiðr -practitioner warps the mind of their target so that they believe illusions to be real, or fail to see things for what they are. This art was used to create lifelike illusions and hide one thing behind an illusion of something else, particularly in hiding a hunted man from his pursuers. In Iceland, unlike in mainland Scandinavia, this art would have had to be especially potent if practiced outdoors, due to the lack of tree cover making concealment in the guise of nearby objects very problematic. The art of “sight-deceiving” doe not so much make one invisible as it hides them in plain sight, in the guise of various easily overlooked objects – a bit like how Frodo’s cloak in The Lord of the Rings does not actually make him invisible, but rather takes on the mottled and worn appearance of a typical rock when used to hide its wearer, thus making him impossible for foes to tell him apart from any of the millions of small boulders in the area.
The base-structure of this magickal ability may have been a sort of hypnosis, an art that was already understood and practiced for thousands of years. Indeed, much like hypnosis, it was possible to counteract the silent spells of a seiðr-witch by depriving her of her sight, or at least separate her sufficiently from the subject of her spell that she was not able to see him, due to natural barriers and terrain and such. Also, the effect of this illusion-based form of seiðr faded when the subject (or the victim, depending on the usage of seiðr bring practiced) was out of sight of the seiðr-practitioner.
A similar magickal technique, and one that may be directly related to the Ægishjálmur, was the spell called the huliðshjálmur, the Helm of hiding, which made one invisible to enemies. The ritual for the huliðshjálmur could vary, from putting your hands on top of the subject’s head as if putting a helmet on their head, to throwing possibly psychoactive powders over them to slow down their heart rate and movement, and there may have been a variety of other means. Though not referred to as a helmet even in a mystical sense, the Vatnsdoela saga mentions that the special pointed hood worn by the seið-master or mistress, resembling the pointed caps of the Scythians and Sarmatians, was said to have the power to make others invisible while the seið-master was wearing it.
Therefore, the usage of the Ægishjálmur symbol may have been as a protective “sigil” painted on a person’s head as a magickal “helmet” to strike dread into his foes and make their hands and weapon strikes unsteady so that they miss his head, without the spell needing to actually function as deflective armor. Much like the huliðshjálmur spell which uses “deception of sight” to make the user invisible, the Ægishjálmur can be used to activate illusions which make them appear mighty and terrifying to all that view them, commanding the immediate loyalty of friends and causing foes to cower or run.
The most famous appearance of the Ægishjálmur is in the legendaryVolsunga saga,
Enn mælti Fáfnir: “Ek bar ægishjálm yfir öllu fólki, síðan ek lá á arfi míns bróður, ok svá fnyýta ek eitri alla vega frá mér í brott, at engi þorði at koma i nánd mér, ok engi vánm hræddumst ek, ok aldri fann ek svá margan mann fyrir mér, at ek þættumst eigi miklu sterkari, en allir váru hræddir við mik.”
Sigurðr mælti: “Sá ægishjálmr, er þú sagðir frá, gefr fám sigr, því at hverr sá, er með mörgum kemr, má þat finna eitthvert sinn, at engi er einna hvatastr.”
[And Fáfnir said, “An ægishjálm I bore up before all folk, after that I brooded over the heritage of my brother, and on every side did I spout out poison, so that none dared come near me, and of no weapon was I afraid, nor had I ever seen so many men before me, and yet deemed myself stronger than them all; for all men were greatly afraid of me.”Sigurd said, “Such an ægishjálmr, few will by means of it gain a likewise victory, for whoever comes among many shall one day find that no one man is by so far in excess the mightiest of all.”]
Some believe that Fáfnir, the legendary warrior who transformed into a dragon due to the curse of Andvari’s gold, as a young man had worn the Ægishjálmur symbol on his forehead, between his eyes.
By the late Viking Age, with the increasing presence of organized Christianity, the awe-inspiring spells of seiðr had been driven far underground. But certain types of magick were still practiced by Icelandic vitkar or wizards, and this was often considered less “foul” by churchmen than the supposed abomination of a woman practicing magick, for the Christian doctrine of fear towards spiritually powerful women as “evil temptresses” were already infamous in Europe. The male vitkar, on the other hand, gradually became amalgamated with the figures the Church syncretistically painted as “good wizards” to make itself more palatable to a magickal culture, such as Santa Claus and Jesus Christ himself. However the belief in the Ægishjálmur lived on, being reinterpreted as a Galdr-stave and hence a runic symbol, thus less obviously seiðr-related and more akin to the indigenous scripts of Nordic countries, and thus far harder to excise from the cultural soul of the people.
The Viking vitkar believed that the symbol should be cut into lead or copper, stained, and then pressed between one’s eyebrows (in which case it would need to be rather small), then the user would recite the words “Ægishjalm eg ber milli bruna mjer,” (“Ægishjalm I carry between my brows”). Victory in battle, or at least a severe demoralizing blow to the enemy, was then assured.
References:
- Volsungasaga Old Norse Text.
- The Saga of the Volsungs (Volsungasaga English translation). Online Medieval and Classical Library Release #29.
- Real rune magick web: http://realrunemagick.blogspot.com/2014/07/aegusjhalmur-helm-of-awe-what-does-it.html