Forgotten Ground Regained

The Galdrmaðr Weaves an Evil Spell

These Þorpfólk threatened and spurned me— these wrongs my wrath has stirred.Verily, I, vengeful Vitki , plan to repay their affront. Tremble in terror they shall. Erilar am I, in anger eager; bloodshed shall be their due!Grudging galdrmaðr , grimly vowing pain their price to pay— sorrow sown by spells. No seiðmann I; I scorn the trance. Though still my staff has power,my tongue is weapon—both warp and woof to weave with words my wrath; fell phrases to unfold. “By woven words, woe now sow! let drought dry their crops,skycandle seer, seed and stalk! Their kine killed by famine! Thus, they too shall starve! “Let pestilence, pain pitiless reign, sickness spread amain! “Let scathing strife beset their days! Murder and mayhem their curse; may crowfeasts be common! “This murderous spell from my mouth, I utter into the wind;Rise, O dead, reeking corpses. Arouse to roam abroad! wend awake once more! “Let earthwombs open; every gravemouth, each moldering maw,disgorge its dead! Dread wanderers, though unliving—taking lives! Make fresh feasts for ravens! “Let no crops grow; let no kine thrive, let all folk run or rot!This land shall learn, By lessons lethal, The price of pain to pay! Thus I, Asfjondi , curse them Þrøngvi against their throng, righting their wrongs to me.
Part of Forgotten Ground Regained: A Journal of Alliterative Verse, Issue 8, Fall, 2025: Norse and Icelandic Forms
Note from the Editor:
This poem imitates galdralag (spell meter), a form used for chanted spells, incantations, and curses.
This stanza form starts out like ljoðahattr: the first four lines alternate between normal four-beat alliterative verse lines (sometimes punctuated as two lines), alliterating on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd stresses, and three-beat lines where two of the three beats alliterate. What makes it galdralag is the presence of one (occasionally more) extra three-beat line(s) (with 2 of the beats alliterating) at the end of the stanza.
Glossary
  • Þorpfólk: folk or people of the thorp or village
  • vitki: sorcerer, “wise one”
  • erilar: early Old Norse for “earl,” in this case “high or royal magician”
  • galdrmaðr: galdr-man, specializing in chants, curses
  • seiðmann: magician using trances, shamanism to induce results
  • Asfjondi: “fiend against God”: the sorcerer’s name
  • Þrøngvi: enemy, opponent
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