Lewis Stead

The Ravenbook

collective

spirit of the family ancestors. Freya is called the great Dis and

there may be some linkage here to her position as a seidhrwoman. We

know from the sagas that Seidhr was involved with talking to various

spirits (including the dead) and its possible that this is the source

of Freyas name. It is also possible that she performed much the same

function as a Dis to her tribe the Vanir.

Closely linked to the idea of the Disir is the Fylgia. These spirits

are attached to an individual person in much the same way that the

Disir are associated with a family. Fylgia usually appear either as

animals or as beautiful women. They correspond to the fetch,

totem, or power-animal in other cultures. Most of the time the

fylgia remains hidden and absent, it is only with truly great or

powerful persons that the fylgia becomes known. They may have

something to do with Seidhr as well, because many sagas offer evidence

of spirit travel in the shape of animals. This corresponds exactly to

notions of shamanism found in other cultures.

The remaining spirits include Alvar or elves, Dokkalvar or dark elves

or Dwarfs, kobolds, and landvaettir. While some have defined one

being as doing one thing and another serving a different function, Im

not inclined to draw very sharp distinctions between these various

creatures. They all seem elfish in origin, and there seems to me to

be no pattern of associating one name with a specific function. We

know that various landvaettir or land spirits were honored with blots.

We also know that Frey is the lord of Alfheim, one of the nine worlds

where the alvar are said to live.

Of all the remaining spirits, the dwarfs are the most consistent in

description. We know that the dwarfs are cunning and misanthropic in

character and incredible smiths, capable of creating magickal objects

so valuable they are considered the greatest treasures of Asgard.

Thors hammer Mjolnir, Freyas necklace Brisingamen, and Sifs golden

hair are all creations of the dwarfs. They live beneath the earth and

have little to do with mankind or the Gods unless one seeks them out.

What place they had in the religion we no longer know. It would seem

wise to invoke them as spirits of the forge, but I can think of little

other reason to disturb them.

Elves are the most difficult magickal race to pin down. Mythological

sources tell us that the Alvar or light elves live in Alfheim where

Frey is their Lord. However, we also have the enduring belief in

folklore of the elves as faery-folk: beings associated with the

natural world. These two conceptions of elves might still be linked,

however, as Alfheim is known to be a place of incredible natural

beauty, and Frey, their leader, is an agricultural deity. To further

confuse this issue, Norse folklore has a strong belief in the

Landvaettir, or land spirits who may fit into either or both of these

categories. Im inclined to lump them all together as similar beings

that we simply dont know enough about to tell apart. What is

important is that Asatru, like all Pagan religions, honors the natural

world and the earth very deeply. Whether one calls the spirits of the

land as the elves, the faeries, or the landvaettir, or uses all of

these terms interchangably, respect is all important. Asatru is known

for being one of the most politically conservative of the modern

Pagan religions, but youll find few of us who arent staunch

environmentalists.

One of the most important spirits to honor is the house-spirit.

Folklore is also filled with stories of various spirits variously

called faeries, elves, kobolds, brownies, tom-tin, etc who inhabit a

house and see to its proper conduct. In the usual form of the tale,

they offer to perform some housekeeping functions, but eventually turn

on the owners of the house when they are insulted by overpayment. We

dont have any concrete evidence for how our ancestors honored these

beings, but this is not surprising because such a thing would not be a

public observance and its unlikely it would be recorded in the sagas

or Eddas. We usually leave a bowl of milk out when we feel we need

their help in something.

In general folklore does not paint the various elves and spirits as

particularly benevolent figures. With the exception of house spirits,