(Volva - Seidr Wands, n.d.)
Throughout history, there have been talks of magical potions, magical spells and magical wands as well. The wizard figurine has unfortunately lost his staff. However, this is still a vital part of a wizard's attributes and the way he channels and enhances its power. The ancient Icelandic tales and the poems of Eddic provide primary sources for the understanding of ancient Northern European notions and conceptions of magic staffs called ‘seidr’. These are often rooted in religions, cults and beliefs around staffs of sorcery which represented the most important element of sorceresses and sorcerers in the late Iron Age and denoted their power. They indicated their wearer’s ability to travel between realms (Gardela, 2008). Notably, the staff as an iconographic symbol, can also be attributed to Hermes, the ancient Greek protector of travellers and merchants and messenger of the Gods (Burnell, 1948). He wore a double serpent-adorned wand and guided the dead to the Underworld (Retief, 2002).
Some seidr staffs have been found in ancient tombs across Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Eastern Europe and England. Each of these had individual shapes, forms and decorations pointing towards a highly personal object. Most of them are made of iron and decorated with bronze fittings (Gardela, 2008). The art of seidr was a specifically Viking practice and typically associated with women or seeresses (volva) rather than men although there were also male practitioners (seidr). Most of them were wanderers who travelled in groups and were sometimes even considered to be outcasts. However, various written accounts testified that seidr practitioners were highly regarded and honoured (Gardela, 2008).
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