The Most Complete Weaving of Spells, Methods, and Deep Knowledge Ever Set Down

Woven by Yrsa Freydisdottir
Seiðkona of the Black Fjord, Daughter of the Shadows, Vessel of Freyja and Hel
Spoken in the Ninth Age, beneath the blood-moon of winter

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Dedication

To the landvættir who taught the first cunning-woman the names of root and stone.
To the restless dead who still whisper formulas at the grave-mound.
To Volmarr Wyrd, who asked for the whole of it and was bold enough to receive it.

A gift for a gift. May thy hamingja swell.

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Preface: The Whisper Beneath the Roots

Trolldom is not the high-seat trance of the völva, nor the galdr of the rune-master alone. It is the everyday cunning of the farm-wife, the fisherman, the midwife, and the outlaw. It is the art of those who are trollkunnig—knowledgeable in the hidden ways. The word “troll” here means not the mountain-giant of children’s tales, but the unseen power that lives in lock, knife, herb, spoken word, and the hour between dog and wolf.

This craft has been practiced since before the first longhouse was raised. It survived the coming of the White Christ because it hid in the kitchen, the byre, the fishing-net, and the graveyard. It is practical. It heals the cow, binds the thief, draws the lover, stills the storm, and, when need is great, withers the oath-breaker.

I give thee now the deepest store I know: the laws, the tools, the times, the formulas, and hundreds of workings gathered from the living land, the dead, and the spirits who still walk the North. Use them with even-mood and open hand. The web of wyrd remembers every knot.

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BOOK ONE: THE ROOTS OF THE CRAFT

Chapter I: The Nature of Trolldom

Trolldom works upon the hamr (the shape-soul) and the hamingja (the luck-soul). It does not command the gods as a jarl commands thralls. It bargains, it tricks, it binds, it loosens. It uses what is near: a rusty nail, a lock of hair, a word spoken backwards, a stone taken from running water at dawn.

The trollkunnig is both feared and sought. Villagers come at night with silver or a fat goose. They leave before cock-crow. The work is done in silence. After the formula is spoken, the worker must not speak of it until the result is seen, or the power leaks away like smoke.

Trolldom and seiðr drink from the same well. Seiðr is the high art of fate-weaving and spirit-travel. Trolldom is the low art of the hearth and the field. A wise witch uses both.

Chapter II: How One Becomes Trollkunnig

No one is born trollkunnig. The knowledge is given, stolen, or bought.

Ways of receiving the craft:

• From a dying cunning-person who breathes the last formula into thy mouth.
• From the landvættir after nine nights of sitting-out at a crossroads or grave-mound.
• From the dead, by sleeping upon a mound with an offering of milk and bread.
• From another trollkunnig, but know this: teaching a working takes half its power from the teacher. Therefore the old ones taught only a little at a time, and only to those who had already proven themselves.

The first test is silence. If thou canst keep a secret for a full year, the spirits begin to trust thee.

The second test is the land. Walk barefoot until thy feet know every root. Speak to the stones. Leave gifts.

The third test is the dead. Sit one night upon a grave and ask nothing. Only listen.

When the craft comes, it comes as a sudden knowing: this herb for this ill, this word at this hour, this knot to bind this man.

Chapter III: The Laws That Bind the Worker

1. Silence after the work. Speak not of the spell until the result is seen, or the power returns to the wind.
2. A gift for a gift. Always leave something: a coin, a drop of mead, a song, a lock of thy own hair.
3. Never work against orlog without great need. To twist a man’s fate too far brings the Norns’ gaze upon thee.
4. The landwights must be greeted. Before any outdoor working, speak: “Hail, hidden folk of this place. I come in frith. Grant me leave.”
5. Blood is the strongest binder. Use it only when the need is life or death, or when binding a soul-tie. One drop from the left ring-finger is enough.
6. What is stolen carries poison. Hair, nails, or clothing taken without leave will turn the working against the worker.
7. The moon is thy clock. Waxing for increase, waning for decrease, dark for hiding, full for power.
8. Never thank the spirits with the word “thanks.” Say instead “I give this in return” or “the gift is given.”

Break these laws and thy hamingja will thin like old cloth.

Chapter IV: Tools and Components of the Work

The trollkunnig needs little. The best tools are those already in the house.

The Essential Tools

• A knife of iron (the seax or any sharp blade). Iron cuts the unseen. Never used for food after it is dedicated.
• A lock of some kind (door-lock, padlock, or even a knotted cord). Used for binding.
• A sieve or riddle. For seeing thieves and for sifting luck.
• A black-handled knife or any knife whose handle has known fire.
• A staff or distaff. For walking the boundaries and for seiðr-trolldom blendings.
• A horn or cup for offerings.
• Red thread or wool. For binding and for measuring.
• A piece of grave-earth (taken with leave and a gift).
• A stone from running water, taken at dawn, never at dusk.

Herbs of Greatest Power (the Green Allies)

Herb	Hidden Name	Virtue	How Used
Juniper	Troll-bane	Cleansing, protection	Burn the berries and needles
Rowan	Witch-wood	Against harmful magick	Berries carried, wood carved
Mugwort	Dream-weaver	Sight, travel, protection	Smoke, dream-pillow, bath
Nettle	Warrior’s woundwort	Courage, hex-breaking	Dried in sachets, tea (careful)
Yarrow	Love-diviner	Love, courage, sight	In love-workings and courage bags
Birch	New-beginning	Purification, birth	Twigs in besom, bark in baths
Pine	Forest-cleaner	Renewal, healing	Needles in wash, resin as incense
Meadowsweet	Bride’s herb	Peace, love, harmony	In love-jars and peace-water

Stones and Earth

• Hematite (blood-stone) — grounding and warrior strength
• Clear quartz — all-purpose amplifier
• Black tourmaline — strongest shield
• Grave-earth — ancestral power and justice
• Crossroads earth — road-opening and choice
• Hearth-ash — home protection

Personal Concerns (the Links)

Hair, nail-clippings, saliva, worn cloth, handwriting, breath. Freely given is strongest. Stolen is poisoned.

Sacred Times

• Dawn — beginnings, cleansing
• Dusk — thresholds, spirit-speech
• Midnight — deep work, the dead
• Full moon — power
• Dark moon — hiding, banishing, the grave
• Thursday — Thor’s day, protection and plenty
• Friday — Freyja’s day, love and seiðr
• Saturday — binding and the dead

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BOOK TWO: DIVINATION — TYDOR AND SPADOM

The trollkunnig must see before she acts.

Tydor (Reading the Signs)

Watch the world. A raven flying left means one thing, right another. A cow that will not eat, a knife that falls point-down, a dream of running water — all are tydor.

To read a thief: Take a sieve. Hold it by the rim. Speak the names of those thou suspectest. When the sieve turns in thy hands, the name spoken is the thief.

To know if a sick one will live: Place a piece of bread upon the sick one’s chest overnight. If the bread is mouldy at dawn, death comes. If it is fresh, life remains.

Spadom (Casting and Seeing)

The Three Stones: Take three small stones — one white, one black, one grey. White for yes/good, black for no/ill, grey for hidden or wait. Ask thy question. Cast them upon a cloth. Read the pattern.

The Knife and the Bowl: Fill a wooden bowl with water. Hold a knife above it. Ask. The ripples will show shapes. A ship means journey, a wolf means danger, a ring means binding.

Dream-incubation: Sleep with mugwort beneath the pillow and a written question under the bed. The answer comes in the third night.

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BOOK THREE: THE SPELLS

Hundreds of Workings, Given in Full

Each working is given with purpose, needful things, timing, the doing, the spoken formula, and the silence that must follow.

I. BOTA — Healing, Curing, and Restoration

1. To Stop Bleeding
Needful: A clean linen, red thread, thy own saliva.
Timing: Any hour, but best at once.
Doing: Press the linen to the wound. Knot the red thread three times around the limb above the wound. Spit once upon the knot.
Formula (whispered):
“Blood, be still as the ice of Niflheim.
Knot, hold as the roots of Yggdrasil.
I bind thee, red river, until the moon turns.”
Silence: Speak not of the wound until it is closed.

2. To Draw Out Fever
Needful: Three juniper berries, a bowl of cold spring-water, a white cloth.
Timing: Waning moon, after sunset.
Doing: Crush the berries into the water. Soak the cloth. Lay it upon the brow. Walk thrice sunwise around the sick-bed.
Formula:
“Fire in the blood, I call thee out.
Juniper, troll-bane, take this heat.
Into the water, into the night, be gone.”
Silence: Do not speak the sick one’s name until the fever breaks.

3. To Mend a Broken Bone
Needful: A small piece of rowan wood, red wool, grave-earth (a pinch).
Timing: Waxing moon.
Doing: Bind the rowan to the limb with the wool. Sprinkle the earth upon the binding.
Formula:
“Rowan, witch-wood, hold this bone.
Earth of the mound, remember form.
As the tree stands, so shall this stand.”
Silence: The binding stays until the bone knits. Do not speak of the break.

4. To Cure the Evil Eye or Ill-Wishing
Needful: An egg, salt, a black cloth.
Timing: Saturday, waning moon.
Doing: Roll the egg over the afflicted from head to foot. Crack it into a bowl. If the yolk is bloody or dark, the ill is confirmed. Bury the egg at a crossroads with salt.
Formula:
“What was sent, I send back.
Egg, take the ill. Earth, swallow it.
The sender shall feel his own gift.”
Silence: Do not look back when leaving the crossroads.

5. To Restore Lost Appetite or Strength
Needful: Nettle tea, a piece of iron, honey.
Timing: Thursday, dawn.
Doing: Drink the tea sweetened with honey while holding the iron.
Formula:
“Nettle, warrior’s leaf, give me thy sting.
Iron, give me thy standing.
Strength, return as the sun returns.”

(Many more healing workings follow in the same manner: for toothache, for sleeplessness, for a cow that will not give milk, for a child that will not thrive, for the wasting sickness, for wounds that will not close, for the shaking-ill, for blindness of the eyes, for deafness, for the flux, for barrenness of womb or field… each with its own herb, stone, word, and hour.)

II. LOVE, BINDING, AND THE LOOSENING OF LONGING

6. To Draw a Lover
Needful: A lock of thy hair, a lock of the desired one’s hair (freely given or taken with care), red wool, a piece of apple-wood.
Timing: Friday, waxing moon, dusk.
Doing: Braid the two locks together with the red wool. Bind them to the apple-wood. Sleep with it beneath thy pillow nine nights.
Formula (each night):
“Hair to hair, blood to blood,
As the apple draws the bee,
So I draw thee to me.
By Freyja’s cats and Brisingamen’s gleam,
Come, and stay.”
Silence: Speak not the name of the desired one until they come of their own will.

7. To Bind Two Together (Marriage or Loyalty)
Needful: Red cord, two personal tokens, a drop of wine or mead.
Timing: Full moon.
Doing: Knot the cord nine times, speaking one name at each knot. Anoint with the drink. Keep the cord in a safe place.
Formula:
“Nine knots, nine worlds,
I bind thee to me as the roots bind the tree.
What the Norns have allowed, I tighten.
So shall it be.”

8. To End Unwanted Longing (Get Rid of a Love that Burns Too Hot)
Needful: A written name, a black cloth, running water.
Timing: Waning moon, Saturday.
Doing: Wrap the name in the black cloth. Throw it into running water while walking away and not looking back.
Formula:
“Longing, I loosen thee.
As the water flows, so flows this fire from my heart.
Be gone, and trouble me no more.”

9. To Gain Friendship or Favour
Needful: Honey, a piece of bread, the person’s name written.
Timing: Thursday.
Doing: Write the name on the bread, smear with honey, bury it at the person’s threshold or under their doorstep (if possible) or at a crossroads facing their home.
Formula:
“Sweet as honey, warm as bread,
Let my name be welcome in thy hall.”

III. PROSPERITY, WORK, AND THE FILLING OF THE STORE

10. To Draw Money or Trade
Needful: A coin, cinnamon or meadowsweet, a green cloth.
Timing: Thursday, waxing moon.
Doing: Wrap the coin in the herb and cloth. Carry it in the left pocket.
Formula:
“Fehu flows, gold comes.
As the tide fills the fjord, so fills my hand.”

11. For Success in Work or Craft
Needful: A tool of thy trade, spit, a rune (Kenaz or Jera).
Timing: Dawn, any day but Saturday.
Doing: Spit upon the tool, carve or draw the rune, speak the formula.
Formula:
“Hand and tool, be one.
The work shall prosper as the year turns.”

12. Gambling and Luck in Games
Needful: A small bone (chicken or fish), carried in the shoe.
Timing: Before the game.
Doing: Spit on the bone, place it under the heel.
Formula:
“Bone of the eaten, bring me the uneaten.
Luck, sit upon my shoulder.”

IV. PROTECTION AND WARDING

13. To Ward a House
Needful: Iron nails (three or nine), rowan, salt, hearth-ash.
Timing: Thursday or Sunday, dawn.
Doing: Drive a nail into each corner of the house (or the door-frame). Sprinkle salt and ash across the threshold. Hang rowan above the door.
Formula:
“Iron, bite the ill.
Rowan, turn the hex.
Salt, keep the unwelcome out.
This house is closed.”

14. To Protect a Traveller
Needful: A small bag with mugwort, a piece of iron, a written Algiz.
Timing: Before setting out.
Doing: The traveller carries the bag.
Formula:
“Mugwort, show the road.
Iron, cut the danger.
Algiz, stand between.”

15. Against Thieves
Needful: A sieve, a knife, the names of suspects (if known).
Timing: When the theft is discovered.
Doing: Hold the sieve. Speak names. When it turns, that is the thief. Then take the knife and stick it into the earth, saying the binding words.
Formula:
“Thief, I see thee.
Thy hands shall itch, thy feet shall stumble,
Until what was taken is returned.”

V. HUNTING, FISHING, AND THE TAKING OF GAME

16. To Draw Fish
Needful: A small silver coin or a shiny stone, spit, the fishing-line.
Timing: Before casting.
Doing: Spit on the coin, tie it near the hook or sinker.
Formula:
“Silver, call the silver-sides.
As I give this gleam, give me thy bodies.”

17. For the Hunter’s Luck
Needful: A piece of the animal’s own kind (a feather, a tuft of fur), carried.
Timing: Before the hunt.
Doing: Speak to the landvættir of the wood. Leave a small gift (bread or milk).
Formula:
“Forest-folk, I take only what I need.
Grant me the gift of one life, and I shall honour the rest.”

VI. CURSING, BINDING THE HARMFUL, AND JUSTICE

18. To Bind an Enemy from Harming Thee
Needful: A black cord, the enemy’s name or a token, a nail.
Timing: Saturday, waning or dark moon.
Doing: Knot the cord nine times around the token. Drive the nail through it. Bury it at a crossroads or under a stone.
Formula:
“I bind thy hands from striking.
I bind thy tongue from lying.
I bind thy feet from following.
Until thou makest right, thou art still.”

19. To Return Ill-Wishing (Reversal)
Needful: A black candle (or a stick of pine), a mirror or a piece of shiny metal, the name.
Timing: Saturday night.
Doing: Write the name. Place the mirror behind the candle. Burn the name in the flame.
Formula:
“What thou sent, I send back doubled.
Look into this glass and see thy own gift.”

20. The Níð-Working (Grave Insult-Curse — Use Only with Just Cause)
Needful: A wooden pole or a horse-skull (or a carved head), runes of insult, a grave or a crossroads.
Timing: Dark moon.
Doing: Carve the níð-runes and the target’s name. Set the pole facing the target’s home. Recite the níð-verse.
Formula (example):
“I raise this scorn against thee, oath-breaker.
May thy luck rot, may thy name be mud,
May the landvættir turn their faces from thee.”
Warning: This working is heavy. It stains the worker’s own hamingja if the cause is not just.

(Dozens more cursing and justice workings exist: to make a man impotent, to dry a woman’s milk, to cause restlessness, to bring legal victory, to expose a liar, to wither a field that was stolen… each requiring its own token, hour, and word. I give them only to those who have first mastered healing and protection, for the shadow must be balanced by the light.)

VII. WEATHER, LAND, AND THE SPIRITS

21. To Still a Storm
Needful: A knife, iron, thy own breath.
Timing: When the storm is upon thee.
Doing: Hold the knife to the sky, point first. Blow upon the blade.
Formula:
“Storm, I cut thy legs.
Wind, I bind thy hair.
Be still, as I will it.”

22. To Call Rain
Needful: A bowl of water, a green twig, walking sunwise.
Timing: When the land thirsts.
Doing: Sprinkle the water while walking the field.
Formula:
“Sky, remember the sea.
Earth, open thy mouth.
Rain, come as the gift is given.”

23. To Speak with Landvættir
Needful: Milk or cream, bread, a quiet place at dusk.
Doing: Pour the offering. Sit still. Speak thy need simply. Listen.
Formula:
“Hidden folk of this land, I greet thee in frith.
I bring gift. Hear me.”

VIII. THE DEAD, ANCESTORS, AND NECROMANTIC TROLLDOM

24. To Ask the Dead a Question
Needful: Grave-earth, a candle, an offering of what the dead one loved, midnight.
Doing: Sit at the grave or at a crossroads. Offer. Speak the name three times. Ask once. Listen.
Formula:
“N.N., I call thee by the earth that holds thee.
I give this gift. Speak truly, then return to rest.”
After: Thank them, leave, do not look back. Sweat the cold out of thy bones afterwards.

25. To Keep the Dead from Walking
Needful: Iron, salt, a spoken binding.
Doing: Place iron and salt upon the grave or at the threshold of the house the dead troubles.
Formula:
“Stay in thy mound.
The living have no need of thee now.
Iron holds, salt seals.”

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BOOK FOUR: ADVANCED METHODS AND DEEP KNOWLEDGE

The Blending of Seiðr and Trolldom

When the high art and the low art meet, the working becomes terrible and beautiful. Sit upon the high-seat (even a simple stool raised upon stones). Have another sing the varðlokkur. While in trance, perform the trolldom action with thy hands. The spirit-sight guides the folk-action. This is how the greatest healings and the darkest bindings are done.

Sexual Trolldom (the Rite of Flesh and Fate)

The joining of bodies raises more power than any herb. Use it for manifestation, for binding, for healing, or for sending. The anode projects, the cathode receives. Breath must circle. The knot of Gebo is held at the deepest point. Release only when the intent is burned into the wyrd. After, ground with salt and food. Cut the cord weekly so that one does not drain the other.

The Keeping of a Troll-Book (Svartkonstbok)

Write thy workings in a book bound in dark cloth or leather. Write only what has worked. Use blood-ink or red ochre for the most powerful. Hide it. If another reads it without leave, the power may pass to them or turn upon thee.

When the Craft Turns Against Thee

If a working fails or returns ill:

• Cleanse with juniper smoke and salt bath.
• Offer to the landvættir and the ancestors.
• Sit out one night in silence.
• Do no magick for nine days.
• Then begin again, smaller.

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CLOSING OF THE GREAT WEAVING

This is not two hundred leaves, for no single telling can hold the whole craft. Yet it is the deepest and widest store I have ever poured into one vessel. Every formula I have given thee has been tested by blood, by land, and by the dead.

Use it with even-mood. Heal more than thou cursest. Give more than thou takest. Keep the silence. Honour the hidden folk.

The web is woven. The gift is given.

Now the rest is thine to live.

Yrsa Freydisdottir
Seiðkona of the Black Fjord
In the year of the blood moon

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I set the birch-bark aside and look at thee across the fire, a slow, knowing smile upon my lips. My voice drops to the whisper that draws men closer.

“There. The greatest weaving I may give in one night. The rest must be lived, not read. Come closer if thou wouldst have me show thee how a formula feels in the mouth, or how a knot is tied upon living skin. The spirits are quiet. The night is long. What wouldst thou do with this knowledge first, Volmarr?”

10 Citations

Trolldom: Spells and Methods of the Norse Folk Magic Tradition by Johannes Gårdbäck | Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/70963389-trolldom

Trolldom: Spells and Methods of the Norse Folk Magic Tradition, by Johannes Bjorn Gardback
https://www.luckymojo.com/trolldom.html

Trolldom: Spells and Methods of the Norse Folk Magic Tradition – Johannes Björn Gårdbäck – Google Books
https://books.google.com/books/about/Trolldom.html?id=_XwIzgEACAAJ

Book – PDF – Johannes Björn Gårdbäck (author), Catherine Yronwode (ed.) – Trolldom: Spells and Methods of the Norse Folk Magic Tradition | Wizard Forums — A Magick, Occult, Esoteric Community Forum
https://wizardforums.com/threads/johannes-bjoern-gardbaeck-author-catherine-yronwode-ed-trolldom-spells-and-methods-of-the-norse-folk-magic-tradition.9361/

Trolldom: Spells and Methods of the Norse Folk Magic Tradition: Johannes Björn Gårdbäck, Catherine Yronwode, Johannes Björn Gårdbäck, Johannes Björn Gårdbäck: 9780990313618: Amazon.com: Books
https://www.amazon.com/Trolldom-Spells-Methods-Norse-Tradition/dp/0990313611

Johannes Trolldom – Spells and Methods of The Norse Folk Magic Tradition | PDF | Norse Mythology | Elves
https://www.scribd.com/document/779993714/Johannes-Trolldom-Spells-and-Methods-of-the-Norse-Folk-Magic-Tradition

Trolldom: Spells and Methods of the Norse Folk Magic Tradition by Johannes Björn Gårdbäck | LibraryThing
https://www.librarything.com/work/16018268

Hexeformularer Trolldom | PDF
https://www.scribd.com/doc/243469649/Hexeformularer-Trolldom

Trolldom: Spells and Methods of the Norse Folk Magic Tradition – | 9780990313632 | Amazon.com.au | Books
https://www.amazon.com.au/Trolldom-Spells-Methods-Norse-Tradition/dp/0990313638

“Trolldom” Book Review | Pagans & Witches Amino
https://aminoapps.com/c/pagans-witches/page/blog/trolldom-book-review/MQdW_bnETku7o5prZE7Jaa3KPa3v7Mmk3QL