Port of Nordfjordeid

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THE VOLVA WALK

Old City Centre “Tverrgata” (The old Sea Road)

START:
You can walk from the port. Follow the horse shoe prints to the old main street Eidsgata. Half way and in the heart of the street you will see a coffee shop with a tower above the entrance. Here you can make a right turn into the old and magical “Volva Walk” – Tverrgata.  Walk in the invisible footsteps of the magical Volvas.  The street will lead you to the Viking burial mound “Skjoratippen”, where powerful Viking women are buried. One of the relics found in this grave includes a Volva’s magic wand, suggesting a powerful Volva was buried here.

All free Norse and Germanic women were expected to be versed in magic, but some women more so than others. Most of the Germanic tribes, as well as the Vikings, nurtured groups of wise women, witches or priestesses who usually lived unmarried (though not necessarily in celibacy), and who could, it appears, travel alone wherever they liked without fear.

A woman who carried the wand of the witch would never be harmed. They were allied with the fate goddesses and thus wielded the greatest of powers. In the Viking Age Norse context, these women were called the völur, singular völva. The literal translation of this title is “Wand Carrier”.

Völuspá (Prophecy of the Völva (Seeress); is the first and best known poem of the Poetic Edda. It tells the story of the creation of the world and its coming end, related to the audience by a Volva addressing Odin.

If you see a woman in this street –
she might be a Volva