Galder (incantation)

In old Germanic culture, a galder (lit. 'gale-der, yell-der'; Old English: ġealdor, galdor, Middle English: galder; Old Norse: galdr; Old High German: galdar, galstar), among other forms in old Germanic languages, refers to a spell or incantation; these were usually performed in combination with certain rites.^[1]

During the Middle Ages, the term galder often became synonymous with "witchcraft" and "magic" as a whole. In Old Icelandic and Old Swedish, a word for witch was "galder woman" (Old Icelandic: galdrakona; Old Swedish: galderkona, gallirkona; lit. 'galder-quean').

It was performed by both women and men.^[2] Some scholars have proposed they chanted it in falsetto (gala).^[2][3]

Galder essentially equates to "gale-der", or "yell-der", denoting something of galing (yelling, crying, singing). Descendants are derived from a reconstructed Proto-Germanic *galdraz, meaning a song or incantation.

The terms are also related by the removal of an Indo-European -tro suffix to the verbs Old Norse: gala and Old English: galan, Modern English gale, both derived from Proto-Germanic *galaną, meaning to sing or cast a spell. In Old High German the -stro suffix produced galster instead.^[4]

The German forms were Old High German galstar and Middle High German (MGH) galster "song, enchantment" (Konrad von Ammenhausen Schachzabelbuch 167b), surviving in (obsolete or dialectal) Modern German Galsterei (witchcraft) and Galsterweib (witch).

The Modern Scandinavian word for "crazy" (Danish: gal, Norwegian: gal, Swedish: galen) is a derivative of the same root as galder, and originally referred to someone whose mind has been distorted by a spell.^[5] Other related descendants of these words are, Icelandic: að gala ("to sing, call out, yell"), Swedish: gala ("to yell, crowing of a rooster"), the latter component of English nightingale (from nihtegale), related to ġiellan, the verb ancestral to Modern English yell, also cognate with Dutch gillen ("to yell, scream").

Some incantations were composed in a special meter named galdralag.^[2] This meter was similar to the six-lined ljóðaháttr, also used for ritual, but added at least one more C-line.^[6] Diverse runic inscriptions suggest informal impromptu methods. Another characteristic is a performed parallelism,^[6] see the stanza from Skirnismál, below.

A practical galder for women was one that made childbirth easier,^[2] but they were also notably used for bringing madness onto another person, whence modern Swedish galen meaning "mad",^[3] derived from the verb gala ('to sing, perform a galder').^[5] Moreover, a master of the craft was also said to be able to raise storms, make distant ships sink, make swords blunt, make armour soft and decide victory or defeat in battles.^[3] Examples of this can be found in Grógaldr and in Frithiof's Saga.^[3] In Grógaldr, Gróa chants nine (a significant number in Norse mythology) galders to aid her son, and in Buslubœn, the schemes of king Ring of Östergötland are averted.^[7]

It is also mentioned in several of the poems in the Poetic Edda, and for instance in Hávamál, where Odin claims to know 18 galders.^[1] For instance, Odin mastered galders against fire, sword edges, arrows, fetters and storms, and he could conjure up the dead and speak to them.^[8][9] There are other references in Skírnismál,^[1] where Skirnir uses galders to force Gerðr to marry Freyr^[7] as exemplified by the following stanza:

A notable reference to the use of galders is the eddic poem Oddrúnargrátr, where Borgny could not give birth before Oddrún had chanted "biting galders"^[2] (but they are translated as potent charms, by Henry Adams Bellows below):

In Beowulf, ġealdru are used to protect the dragon's hoard that was buried in a barrow:

During the Viking Age, there exist finds of galders written in runes, so-called runic galders (Swedish: rungalder), in addition to other forms of runic magic. Runic galders are found, among other things, written down on rune sticks (runstickor), or on rune plates (runbleck), such as the one on the 12th century Högstena bronze plate (Vg 216).^[16]

The Högstena runic galder roughly goes:

In Medieval Sweden, a drawn or written spell or incantation was called a "galder letter" (Old Swedish: galdra breff, Swedish: galdrabrev, roughly "written spell").^[18] Such, intended to make the holder invulnerable, could be worn as an amulet (for example around the neck) and was called a "sword letter" (Old Swedish: swärdhbref, Swedish: svärdsbrev; Old Danish: sværdbrev, Middle Low German: swertbref).^[19]

This type of signed galder was later banned. An excerpt from the manuscript Själens tröst (Old Swedish: Sjælinna Thrøst), written around 1430, says the following:

There exist records from the 16th century of Icelandic Medieval magic sigils called "galder staves" (Icelandic: galdrastafir, roughly "incantation staves"), today commonly referred to as Icelandic magical staves in English. Such are popular with neopagans and New Age folk.

Famous examples includes the Ægishjálmur and Vegvísir.

• 
  Excerpt of Icelandic galder staves from the manuscript LBS 2413 8vo (c. 1800).
• 
  Excerpt of Icelandic galder staves from the manuscript LBS 4375 8vo (1924 copy of a 1676 original).
• 
  Excerpt of Icelandic galder staves from the manuscript LBS 4627 8vo (c. 1870).

• Grógaldr
• Runic magic
• Icelandic magical staves
• Seiðr

• Schön, Ebbe. (2004). Asa-Tors hammare, Gudar och jättar i tro och tradition. Fält & Hässler, Värnamo. ISBN 91-89660-41-2.
• Steinsland, G. & Meulengracht Sørensen, P. (1998): Människor och makter i vikingarnas värld. ISBN 91-7324-591-7.