The sagas and histories of Viking times tell many tales of astral travel. The Vikings believed that a person had two parts, a hamr (literally: skin, shape, body) and a hugr (mind, spirit). A person who could travel astrally was said to be hamramr, (shape strong). The ability to leave the body and enter an animal was called hamhleypa (body leaping).  There is no mention of the body disappearing or changing into another creature, or of inhabiting another human.

The adept could leap into the body of any animal, but people also had a fylgja, or“follower”, a totem animal that was their lifelong guardian. There are also stories of fylgja that were human ancestors, always women. These guardian women were also known as the disir.

The god Odin was considered the master of magic. He was able to lie as if dead or asleep while his hugr entered the shape of a bird, animal, fish or serpent to journey and act. He owned two ravens, Hugin and Munin, (mind and memory) which he sent out each morning to fly around the world and bring back the news each evening. Odin worried about the birds while they are gone, and feared they would not return.

Leaving the body was dangerous. It was possible to get lost and be unable to find the body. If the animal body is injured or killed, the human body will suffer the same damage. In Kormak’s Saga, a sorceress attacks her enemy’s ship in walrus form. The sailors manage to kill the walrus, and the sorceress dies in her bed where she lies in a trance state. The same tale states that Kormak knew the walrus was the sorceress by the eyes.

In Vatnsdaela Saga, a Saami sorceress tells a wealthy landowner that he will emigrate from Norway to Iceland, and that an amulet of his is missing and is waiting for him there. The landowner hires three Saami sorcerers to travel to Iceland and find his amulet, and bring it back. The Saami tell him that the journey is very dangerous. They must be shut together in a shed for three days, and their names must not be revealed while they are out of their bodies. They return without the amulet, saying that each time they found it, it would fly away. There is no mention of these Saami inhabiting animal bodies during their journey. This could be an omission, or perhaps they did not need host bodies.

The Danish King Harald Gormson sent a wizard to Iceland in the form of a whale, to see if the island was vulnerable to attack. The wizard saw that Iceland was guarded on all sides by land spirits.

In Egil’s Saga, Queen Gunhild, a trained sorceress, takes the form of a twittering bird outside Egil’s window to thwart his attempts to write a poem on which his life depends. Egil’s grandfather was named Kveldulfr, “night wolf,” and was said to be a shape strong.

In Hrolf’s Saga Kraki, a warrior named Bjorn (bear) lay in the hall as if asleep during a battle, while a huge bear joined the battle. When someone woke Bjorn, the bear disappeared and the battle was lost.

In my novels, I have taken these concepts a step further. My astral travelers are able to manifest their hugr as a ghostly image of themselves that can communicate and take part in emotional actions, such as astral lovemaking, which their partner experiences as a dream.

Bibliography

• Sturlason, Snorre, “Heimskringla, or The Lives of the Norse Kings,” translated from the Old Norse, Dover Pub.1990
• “The Sagas of the Icelanders,” Penguin, 2001: “Egil’s Saga,” “Vatnsdaela Saga,” “Laxardal Saga”
• Ankarloo, Bengt and Stuart Clark, eds., “Witchcraft and Magic In Europe” University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002
• Price, Neil, “The Viking Way”  Oxbow, 2019