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''Grógaldr'' or ''The Spell of Gróa'' is the first of two
Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
poems, now commonly published under the title ''
Svipdagsmál ''Svipdagsmál'' (Old Norse: , 'The Lay of Svipdagr') is an Old Norse poem, sometimes included in modern editions of the ''Poetic Edda'', comprising two poems, '' The Spell of Gróa'' and '' The Lay of Fjölsviðr''. The two works are grouped si ...
'' found in several 17th-century paper manuscripts with '' Fjölsvinnsmál''. In at least three of these manuscripts, the poems are in reverse order and separated by a third eddic poem titled, ''Hyndluljóð''. For a long time, the connection between the two poems was not realized, until in 1854
Svend Grundtvig Svend Hersleb Grundtvig (9 September 1824 – 14 July 1883) was a Danish literary historian and ethnographer. He was one of the first systematic collectors of Danish traditional music, and he was especially interested in Danish folk songs. He ...
pointed out a connection between the story told in ''Gróagaldr'' and the first part of the medieval Scandinavian ballad of ''Ungen Sveidal''/''Herr Svedendal''/''Hertig Silfverdal'' ( TSB A 45, DgF 70, SMB 18, NMB 22). Then in 1856,
Sophus Bugge Elseus Sophus Bugge (5 January 1833 – 8 July 1907) was a Norwegian philologist and linguist. His scholarly work was directed to the study of runic inscriptions and Norse philology. Bugge is best known for his theories and his work on the runi ...
noticed that the last part of the ballad corresponded to ''Fjölsvinnsmál''. Bugge wrote about this connection in ''Forhandlinger i Videnskabs-Selskabet i Christiania 1860'', calling the two poems together ''Svipdagsmál''. Subsequent scholars have accepted this title. ''Grógaldr'' is one of six eddic poems involving necromantic practice. It details Svipdagr's raising of his mother Groa, a
völva In Germanic paganism, a seeress is a woman said to have the ability to foretell future events and perform sorcery. They are also referred to with many other names meaning "prophetess", "staff bearer" and "sorceress", and they are frequently calle ...
, from the dead. Before her death, she requested him to do so if he ever required her help; the prescience of the völva is illustrated in this respect. The purpose of this necromancy was that she could assist her son in a task set him by his cunning stepmother. Svipdag's mother, Gróa, has been identified as the same völva who chanted a piece of Hrungnir's hone from
Thor Thor (from ) is a prominent list of thunder gods, god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred g ...
's head after their duel, as detailed in Snorri Sturluson's ''Prose Edda''.Rydberg, Viktor, Undersökningar i Germanisk Mythologi, första delen, ch. 108; Falk, Hjalmar "Svipdagsmál," Arkiv för nordisk filologi, vol. 9-10, 1893-94. There, Gróa is the wife of Aurvandil, a man Thor rescues from certain death on his way home from Jötunheim. The news of her husband's fate makes Gróa so happy, she forgets the charm, leaving the hone firmly lodged in Thor's forehead. In the first stanza of this poem Svipdag speaks and bids his mother to arise from beyond the grave, at her burial mound, as she had bidden him do in life. The second stanza contains her response, in which she asks Svipdag why he has awakened her from death. He responds by telling her of the task he has been set by his stepmother, i.e. to win the hand of Menglöð. He is all too aware of the difficulty of this: he presages this difficulty by stating that: :"she bade me travel to a place :where travel one cannot :to meet with fair Menglöð" His dead mother agrees with him that he faces a long and difficult journey but does not attempt to dissuade him from it. Svipdag then requests his mother to cast spells for his protection. Groa then casts nine spells, or incantations.


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External links


Grógaldr
in Old Norse from «Kulturformidlingen norrøne tekster og kvad» Norway.




Grógaldr (Spanish)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grogaldr Eddic poetry Necromancy