Description
Vegvisir pendant: The Vegvísir is an Icelandic magical seal drawn and well described in the manuscript Huld (1860), written by Geirs Vigfússonar and based on older sources.
The Icelandic name translates to "Guide for the path" and the author of the manuscript has accompanied the reproduction of the seal with the following words:
"Beri maður stafi þessa á sér villist maður ekki í hríðum né vondu veðri þó ókunnugur sá"
"carry this sign, and you never lose your way in the storm or in bad weather, even if you are in unfamiliar places."
In the Iceland of past centuries, with its long dark winters, frozen lands and stormy seas, getting lost could mean death; today it is no longer so risky but uncertainty about the route to follow is not overcome, which is sometimes not only unknown but also mystified, hidden, invisible to our eyes.
Galdrastafir (From "galdra", "magic") are ancient Icelandic magical seals, whose origin probably dates from the late Middle Ages. The first appearances of these Norse symbols is indeed testify around 1400, but quickly they consolidate and spread throughout Iceland inheriting a long and strong secular tradition of magical wisdom. Galdrastafir appear in fact as complex graphic processing of ancient pagan symbols and, in some cases, combined and intertwined with the new Christian symbolism. Galdrastafir unite in a single seal pagan, norse, runic, mythological, folkloric, and in some cases Christians symbols and elements.
