Antara Darah dan Hati: Dream Reality English Translation

Chapter 13 Part 2 "Seiðr"

*play the song above for the theme of this part, soundtrack for Helheim in God Of War video game.

POV Gertud

The day after the party assembly, I conveyed to the party's leader regarding the equipment and facilities that my two sisters and I needed to perform this ritual. Some of the items we asked for included black dresses and scarves, long metal sticks with a cage-shaped ornament on the top, spindles, yarn, amulets, incense, Henbane plant, Marijuana, tied horse hair, seal blood, and wolf blood. We also asked for an empty building away from the crowd so that we could be focused when contacting the spirits and gods that we worship.

After putting on the clothes that had been provided, the three of us sat in a circle, I burned the Henbane and Marijuana plants that I put in the middle, the smell of burning Henbane and Marijuana filled the entire room, we started singing songs of praise to the Gods whom we worshiped, followed by singing Hávamál starting from the opening part which called as Gestaþáttr, containing the rules for visiting a house or a dwelling, I started singing the first stanza.

"Gattir allar,
aþr gangi fram,
vm scoðaz scyli,
vm scygnaz scyli;
þviat ouist er at vita,
hvar ovinir sitia, a fleti fyr.

(All the entrances, before you walk forward,
you should look at,
you should spy out;
for you can't know for certain where enemies are sitting,
ahead in the hall.)" I continued to sing it with my two sisters until we got to the seventy-seventh stanza.

"Deyr fę,
deyia frǫndr,
deyr sialfr it sama;
ec veit einn
at aldri deýr:
domr vm dꜹþan hvern.

(Cattle die,
friends die,
and the same with you;
but I know of something that never dies
and that's a dead person's deeds.)"

We continued our singing until it was finished at the seventy-ninth stanza and continued our singing with Loddfáfnismál which contained advice on morals, ethics and instructions for doing what is right, followed by Rúnatal which is also named as Odin's song, containing the story of how Odin found the Runes and His sacrifice of Himself and to Himself. It was at this time that we started spinning the yarn with the metal sticks and spindles.

"Vęit ec at ec hecc
vindga meiði a
nętr allar nío,
geiri vndaþr
oc gefinn Oðni,
sialfr sialfom mer,
a þeim meiþi,
er mangi veit,
hvers hann af rótom renn.

Við hleifi mic seldo
ne viþ hórnigi,
nysta ec niþr,
nam ec vp rv́nar,
ǫpandi nam,
fęll ec aptr þatan.

(I know that I hung on a windy tree
nine long nights,
wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin,
Myself to Myself,
on that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run.