Seiðr, kunnosta, fjölkyngi. Le parole della magia nelle prime saghe della Heimskringla

This article aims to point out those narrative and lexical elements that, in the first sagas of Snorri’s Heimskringla, relate to magic and the use of magic. In the Nordic world, magic was strictly connected to ancient pagan beliefs; for this reason, magic elements are more common in those sagas settled in a pagan environment. Nevertheless, the pagan rituals and cult are never openly described, because the sagas were written in a Christian and Christianised context. Their author was not interested in conveying the old deviate belief of Paganism to his contemporaries, but only in narrating the heroic past of Norwegian kings. In the Sagas, thus, pagan cults are regarded as mere mistakes, due to the kings’ naiveté. Paganism could not possibly undermine the kings’ noble progeny, which included, among others, Olaf the Saint. This is the reason why many of the magic aspects in the Sagas are related to foreign, non Scandinavian, characters, especially Sámi. They are described as wise and fearsome at the same time, expert in seiðr, that is, magic stricto sensu. They possess superior knowledge, which, however, is not a merit, being, on the contrary, what characterizes them in a negative way. The art of seidr, in fact, though symptomatic of their knowledge, is a devious art, connected to vicious and lascivious behaviours (ergi). The episodes about magic arts recounted in the Sagas reveal aspects typical of Sámi’s shamanism. It is quite likely that such shamanic rituals were not only typical of Sami people but also of Scandinavians. This is, however, not testified in the Sagas, which reject any Scandinavian connection with magic, pushing the magic practices beyond the Scandinavian borders and attributing them to foreign peoples.