Icelandic Magical Symbols: Vegvisir, Ægishjálmur, and More
Explore the magical staves of Iceland: the Vegvisir, Ægishjálmur, the Troll Cross, the Huld mark, the Nábrókarstafur, and the galdrastafir tradition.
The Icelandic magical staves — known in Old Norse as galdrastafir, “magical staves” or “incantation staffs” — are a unique and durable contribution to the European magical tradition. Distinct from the runic alphabet proper, and drawing on a wide range of medieval sources (Christian, post-Christian, and pre-Christian), the staves of the Icelandic grimoire tradition represent a parallel and complementary system of symbolic magic. Many of them, especially the Vegvísir (“way-shower”) and the Ægishjálmur (“helm of awe”), have become so widely popular in the modern world that they are now reproduced on jewelry, tattoos, clothing, and household objects across the globe. This page covers the principal staves, their history, their function in the original sources, and their modern reception.
For the broader context of the runic tradition and the larger symbolic vocabulary of the Norse inheritance, see Norse Symbols and Runes: A Complete Guide. For the runic alphabets themselves, see Norse Runes: Elder and Younger Futhark.
The Galdrastafir Tradition
The Icelandic magical staves are documented in a body of manuscripts from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, of which the most important are:
- The Galdrabók (Codex AM 461 12mo, c. 1600), the oldest complete Icelandic grimoire, containing 47 staves and their formulas.
- The Lækningakver (Codex AM 655 4to, 1500-1700), a collection of healing staves and medical formulas.
- The Galdra-skræða (seventeenth century), a collection of staves in the Stofnun Árna Magnússonar archive.
- The Huld Manuscript (compiled 1860 by Geir Vigfússon from older sources), a substantial late collection of staves and their formulas.
- The Íslensk galdrabók (early seventeenth century), another complete grimoire.
- The Codex AM 434a 12mo (seventeenth century), a smaller grimoire.
These manuscripts draw on a much older tradition. The earliest references to Icelandic magical staves in the literary record appear in the medieval sagas, in which the staves are described as being used for a wide variety of purposes: to win love, to cure sickness, to curse enemies, to find buried treasure, to control the weather, to protect against witchcraft, to communicate with the dead, and to influence the outcome of battles. The most famous literary example is in the Völsunga saga, in which the dragon Fafnir wears the Ægishjálmur as a spell of terror.
The staves themselves are typically composed of straight lines, sometimes in the form of a runic stave, sometimes in the form of a more elaborate geometric design. Most staves include at least one rune as a component, but the staves are not usually readable as a “word” in the runic alphabet. Rather, the runes and lines are arranged to form a unique graphic symbol, often with a complex, mandala-like structure. The Troll Cross, the Huld mark, and the Nábrókarstafur are particularly complex examples.
The Principal Staves
The Vegvísir (Way-Shower)
The Vegvísir is a stave of eight arms radiating from a central point, each arm ending in a different runic-like ornament. It is documented principally in the Huld Manuscript (1860), in which it is described as follows:
“If this sign is carried, one will never lose one’s way in storms or bad weather, even when the way is not known.”
The stave is intended to be drawn in blood on the forehead of a person who has lost his way, or carried as an amulet on a string around the neck. The visual structure is similar to the ægishjálmur (see below), but the Vegvísir is more elaborate and more symmetric.
The Vegvísir is best understood as a product of late Icelandic magical folklore. The earliest known manuscript reference is the Huld Manuscript of 1860, although the manuscript itself is a compilation of older material, and the Vegvísir may have been in oral or written tradition for some time before that. The stave is not attested in any Viking Age or medieval Scandinavian source, and the most skeptical scholarly view is that the Vegvísir is a relatively late (seventeenth- or eighteenth-century) magical artifact with no direct continuity to the Viking Age.
Despite the historical uncertainty, the Vegvísir has become one of the most popular modern Norse symbols. It is widely used as a tattoo design, a pendant, an embroidered patch, and a household decoration. It is the symbol most commonly associated with Iceland as a national emblem, and it is often used in Heathen and Ásatrú ceremonial contexts.
The Ægishjálmur (Helm of Awe)
The Ægishjálmur, or Helm of Awe, is a complex figure of eight staves radiating from a central point, crossed by two pairs of lines that join the center to the outer points. It is documented in the Galdrabók (c. 1600) and in several later grimoires. The stave is described in the Völsunga saga as the spell of terror that the dragon Fafnir wore on his forehead, and in the grimoire tradition it is recommended for use in warfare, in intimidation, and in the protection of treasure.
The Galdrabók description of the Ægishjálmur is as follows:
“If the Ægishjálmur is drawn in lead, with certain words, and bound on the forehead of a warrior, he will strike terror into his enemies.”
The stave is also used to protect treasure: the Galdrabók recipe instructs the magician to draw the Ægishjálmur on the forehead of a thief who would steal treasure, with the result that the thief will be unable to carry the treasure away. The visual structure of the Ægishjálmur is similar to the Vegvísir but without the runic ornaments at the ends of the arms. The two staves are often confused, but the Ægishjálmur is the older and more “runic” of the two.
The Nábrókarstafur (Death-Script)
The Nábrókarstafur (literally “corpse-script” or “death-stave”) is one of the most striking and least well-understood of the Icelandic staves. It is a complex, asymmetrical figure composed of multiple intersecting lines, runes, and small symbols. The Galdrabók description is as follows:
“If this sign is drawn in blood on a piece of skin and bound to a person, it brings great sorrow and death. It was used by evil magicians.”
The visual structure of the Nábrókarstafur is variable, and the stave is sometimes drawn with the same configuration of lines but with different runes as components. The stave is sometimes called the Nábrók (the “corpse-script” of the Nábrókarstein, the famous runestone in the Icelandic Sagas) after the Nábrók of the medieval Svarfdæla saga, in which a man carves a stave into a piece of skin and uses it to kill his wife and her lover. The stave is documented in the Galdrabók and in several later grimoires, and the historical origin is the tenth century.
The Troll Cross
The Troll Cross is a small, circular, bent-iron amulet of recent Scandinavian folk use, traditionally hung on a string around the neck of a child or animal to ward off trolls, elves, and other hidden beings. Its design — a small disc of iron with an ovoid cutout and four hooks at the cardinal points — is associated with the folklore of Småland in southern Sweden. The figure is reproduced today as an Ásatrú emblem and is also widely used in the Viking revival community.
Like the Vegvísir, the Troll Cross is best understood as a product of nineteenth- and twentieth-century folk practice, not a Viking Age artifact. The earliest known reference to a Troll Cross-like figure is in the Folk-Lore Society’s Folklore Journal of 1902, in which it is described as a Smålandic folk-tradition amulet. The figure became more widely known in the late twentieth century through the work of the Swedish folklorist Nils Lithberg and the British Ásatrú author Erin Hårr (a.k.a. Erin Steen).
The Huld Mark
The Huld mark is a stave composed of a central circle, four radiating arms, and several smaller circular elements. It is documented in the Huld Manuscript (1860) and in several later grimoires. The stave is described in the Huld Manuscript as a stave to “protect the bearer from the hidden people” — that is, from the huldufólk, the “hidden people” of Icelandic folklore. The stave is also associated with Freya and the Vanir in some modern interpretations, although this is not attested in the original sources.
The Tetragrammaton Stave
The Tetragrammaton stave (also called the Tetragram stave or the IHS stave) is a stave composed of the four letters of the Tetragrammaton — YHWH — arranged in a cross-like form, often with additional cross-strokes and ornamental lines. The stave is documented in the Galdrabók and in several later grimoires. It is described as a stave of great power, used for protection, healing, and the binding of evil. The visual structure of the stave is similar to that of a Christian Christogram or a Jewish Tetragrammaton amulet, and the stave is one of several examples of the way in which the Icelandic grimoire tradition blends Christian, Jewish, and pagan elements.
The Pieta Stave
The Pieta stave is a stave composed of a central figure (often a stylised cross) with several smaller figures (often interpreted as the Virgin Mary, John the Evangelist, and Mary Magdalene) around it. The stave is documented in the Galdrabók and in several later grimoires. It is described as a stave of great sorrow and great power, used for healing, for protection, and for the binding of evil.
The Svefnthorn
The Svefnthorn (literally “sleep-thorn”) is a stave composed of two intersecting runic lines and a central rune. It is documented in the Galdrabók and in several later grimoires. The stave is described as a stave to “put a person to sleep,” and it is one of several staves used for the “binding” (the magical restraint) of another person. The Svefnthorn is also associated with the Fossegrim of Scandinavian folklore, a fiddle-playing water-spirit who is said to use a similar stave to make his listeners fall asleep.
The Whorl-Stave
The Whorl-stave (also called the Hringstafur, “ring-stave”) is a stave composed of a central circle and four radiating arms, each ending in a small runic ornament. The stave is documented in the Galdrabók and in several later grimoires. It is described as a stave of protection, used to ward off the evil eye and to protect the bearer from malicious magic.
The Lucid Stave
The Lucid stave (also called the Sýnastafur, “vision-stave”) is a stave composed of a central eye-shape and several radiating lines. The stave is documented in the Galdrabók and in several later grimoires. It is described as a stave of “lucid dreaming” and of “vision,” used to enable the bearer to see distant events and to communicate with the spirits of the dead.
The Construction of a Stave
The traditional method of constructing a stave is to draw the figure on a piece of skin (typically sheepskin or goatskin), on a piece of wood, or on a piece of lead or copper. The stave is then consecrated with a galdr (an incantation), bound to the person or object to be protected, and worn or carried. The Galdrabók gives detailed instructions for the construction of each stave, including the materials to be used, the time of day or night at which the stave is to be drawn, the appropriate galdr, and the proper method of consecration.
The materials are themselves important. Iron is a powerful apotropaic substance in Scandinavian folklore, and many staves are made of iron (the Troll Cross is the most famous example). Lead is associated with the dead, and many of the more “deathly” staves (the Nábrókarstafur, the Svefnthorn) are made of lead. Gold and silver are associated with the sun and the moon, respectively, and many of the more “luminous” staves (the Vegvísir, the Sólstafur or “sun-stave”) are made of these metals. Sheepskin and goatskin are the most common substrates for the staves, but parchment and vellum are also used. Birch-bark is sometimes used for the Vegvísir and the Huld mark, in keeping with the older Northern associations of the birch with regeneration and the new year.
The Function of a Stave
The function of a stave is to make a specific magical force available to the bearer. The stave is not a “picture” of the force; it is the force itself, made manifest in a material form. In the Galdrabók tradition, the stave is animated by the galdr that consecrates it, and the stave then operates as a kind of talisman in the medieval European sense: a material object that has been made into a vessel of magical power. The galdr is, in many cases, more important than the visual form of the stave. The same stave, with two different galdr, can have two different functions.
The Galdrabók distinguishes several kinds of function:
- Protective (e.g., the Troll Cross, the Whorl-Stave): the stave wards off evil or unwanted magic.
- Aggressive (e.g., the Nábrókarstafur, the Svefnthorn): the stave is used to harm or to bind another person.
- Acquisitive (e.g., the Gullstafur or “gold-stave”): the stave is used to gain wealth or success.
- Visionary (e.g., the Sýnastafur): the stave is used to see distant events or to communicate with the spirits.
- Healing (e.g., the Lækningastafur): the stave is used to cure sickness or to ease pain.
The same stave can be used for more than one function, depending on the galdr and the consecration.
The Staves in Modern Practice
The modern use of the Icelandic staves is principally as a decorative or identity symbol (in the form of jewelry, tattoos, and other items), and as a meditative or devotional object in the modern Heathen and Ásatrú movements. The most popular staves in the modern world are the Vegvísir, the Ægishjálmur, the Troll Cross, and the Huld mark. The Nábrókarstafur and the Svefnthorn are also used, though less frequently, and are sometimes associated with the black-metal or neopagan “witchcraft” scenes.
The principal modern works on the staves are Stephen Flowers’s Runes and Magic (1997) and Northern Magic and Rune-Talismans (1998), Terry Gunnell’s Pantheon to Pandemic (2009), Jónína K. Bergmann’s Íslensk galdrabók (2014), Þórir Óskarsson’s Galdra- og seiðamenn í fornbókmenntum (2018), and the scholarly journal Forntíð (Reykjavik, since 2008).
Staves in the Sagas and Medieval Literature
The Icelandic staves are deeply rooted in the medieval literary tradition. A number of the fornaldarsögur (the “sagas of ancient times,” a sub-genre of Old Norse prose narrative) feature staves as central plot devices, and the Galdrabók tradition of the seventeenth century is in many ways a codification of practices already well-attested in the older literature.
In the Svarfdæla saga, the Nábrókarstafur is used by the man Kári to kill his wife Gróa and her lover Þorgrímr after discovering their infidelity. Kári is said to have carved the Nábrók into a piece of skin at the cross-roads at midnight, and to have walked sunwise (clockwise) around the settlement of his enemies while reciting a galdr. The carved skin is then buried, and the galdr is recited over it three times. The next morning, Gróa and Þorgrímr are found dead, the one in the doorway of her home, the other at the threshold of his.
In the Gísla saga Súrssonar, the laun-stafur tradition is described: Gísli carves a laun-stafur on a tree at a place called Galtarhöfuð (the “boar’s head”), reciting a galdr of binding, and the curse brings about the death of his sworn brother Eyjólfr when he is hunting in the same wood some months later. The laun-stafur is described as a “secret letter” — a runic inscription that is hidden from view, but that nevertheless operates as a magical force.
In the Hrólfs saga kraka, the Ægishjálmur is described as the spell of terror that the dragon Fafnir wears on his forehead. The same saga describes the use of the svefn-stafur (a “sleep-stave”) to put a person to sleep: the magician carves the stave into a piece of wood and places it under the head of the person to be enchanted.
The most extensive saga-level description of the staves is in the Kormáks saga, in which the skald Kormákr Ögmundarson uses a love-stave (Ástastafur or Fellastafur) to win the love of the woman Steingerðr. The saga describes in detail the making of the stave: the carving of a rune-shape on a piece of whale-bone, the recitation of a galdr over it, and the placement of the stave beneath the threshold of the woman’s house. The stave then operates as a binding force, drawing the woman to the magician.
These literary examples are important for two reasons. First, they show that the staves were a part of the older Icelandic tradition, not a seventeenth-century invention. Second, they give us a literary “vocabulary” for the staves that the Galdrabók tradition then elaborated and codified. The staves of the Galdrabók are not, in any simple sense, “magical inventions” — they are a late-medieval compilation of older practices, with the addition of post-Christian Christian and post-Christian elements.
The Staves and Modern Scholarship
The modern scholarly study of the Icelandic staves is still in its infancy. The principal modern works are Turville-Petre’s Myth and Religion of the North (1964), Strömbäck’s Sejd och andra studier i nordisk själsuppfattning (1975), Jón Hnefill Aðalsteinsson’s Sýnisbók íslenskra galdrastafa (1984-1986), Christopher Abram’s Mischievous Correspondents (2015), and the standard reference is the Galdrabók itself, in the critical edition by Jón Hnefill Aðalsteinsson (1984).
The most contested question in the modern scholarship is the continuity of the staves to the Viking Age. The skeptical view is that the staves are a late, post-medieval invention of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with no direct continuity to the Viking Age runic tradition. The more positive view is that the staves are a continuation of the older tradition, adapted to a Christian and post-Christian context. The most balanced view is that the staves are a complex blend of older and newer elements, and that the question of “how much older” is an empirical one that varies from stave to stave.
Whatever the answer to that question, the staves have become an important part of the modern Northern inheritance, and they are likely to remain a major presence in the Heathen and Ásatrú communities for the foreseeable future.