A Witch-Wife riding a Wolf was seen in a dream by a man named Thord, Harald Hardrada’s man, prior to Harald’s army setting sail for England, 1066. This Witch-Wife was the Eoten Skade, her name meaning ‘to injure’ or ‘harm’ has an English cognate in the word scathe – the OE sċeaþa or sċeaþu and is connected to the English word shadow (OE sceadu) and even the Irish term Scáthach or Shadowy-one.

The Fyrgen Podcast - Episode 47: Symbel, Symbol & Superstition, with Sagnamaðr Stark

https://www.hearthfireradio.com/watchfree?v=MHoZKdqy

Heathen historian and collector of artefacts Sagnamaðr Stark steps into The Fyrgen to discuss heathen practice, folk customs, and theories surrounding the nature of existence according to the traditional worldview.

Links: Telegram

The image of Frīg riding her besom or distaff is sometimes cited as a source of imagery for a witch riding her broom. However there is a sexual reference to ‘riding’ a broom. The broom is a phallic object and it was documented (as early as the 14th century) that salves made with Deadly Nightshade and Henbane were smeared onto the broom handle, then absorbed into the body via the witches genitals. These herbs were hallucinogenic and many users thought they were flying.

An investigation into witchcraft from 1324 reads,

In rifleing the closet of the ladie, they found a pipe of oyntment, wherewith she greased a staffe, upon which she ambled and galloped through thick and thin!

Pictured here is the Lyminster knuckerhole, the watery lair of a knucker. Knuckers are a type of water dragon, found mostly in Sussex, England. We find the word recorded as Nicor in Beowulf.
The Lyminster knucker was killed by a dragon-slayer, for in the Lyminster church there stands the tomb of the dragoner-slayer called the Slayers-slab. On this eroded medieval gravestone the faint outline of a sword (or perhaps the slayer holding the sword) can just be seen.

It’s the full moon tonight (fullest 8.19am tomorrow morning). The Winter-full moon is already visible here in the English sky and not only is this moon a supermoon, it’ll be the largest full moon of 2025.

Each full moon my family-hearth honours the gods and ancestors, tonight special thanks will be given to Frēa (Frey), whom we also call Ing.

Hāl wes þū, Frēa!

Last nights full moon over the glow of our ritual fire. Hāl Mõna!

In the entire Sutton Hoo find, there is
one exception to the use of gold foils with cloisonné garnets: the helmet. The 23 garnets of the proper right eyebrow are all backed with foils, but the 25 garnets of the left eyebrow are not...

The effect is replicated on the face of the animal above his brows. When seen indoors by the flickering light of the fire, the wearer of the Sutton Hoo helmet was one-eyed.

Text from An Eye for Odin? Paul Mortimer, Neil Price

The name Óðrerir means stirrer of óðr, with Boðn and Són meaning vessel and conciliation. Together, forming the horn triskelion, it could be seen as a symbol to draw divine inspiration into a vessel, or runestone, on which it was carved. ࿋

Some new linocut prints I finished this week. The symbol is sometimes associated with the Web of Wyrd, however my view is that this represents the Nine Wuldor Tānas, the Nine Glory-Twigs, perhaps representing the nine herb from the Nigon Wyrta Galdor.

Tānas means twigs, but those cut for making lots, hence one OE term for a diviner was tānhlyta or tānhlytere, a twig or lot caster. We can still associate the lattice pattern with rune divination as the pattern constructs every rune in the futhorc.