Galdrastafir
Icelandic magical staves, drawn in manuscripts of the 1600s onward, meant for protection, luck and other aims.
Also: Icelandic magical staves, Vegvisir, Helm of Awe, Aegishjalmur
Galdrastafir, meaning spell staves, are drawn symbols recorded in Icelandic magic books from the 1600s, such as the Galdrabók, with instructions to carve or draw them for aims such as winning a case, finding a thief or staying safe at sea. They have names like the Ægishjálmur, helm of awe. The Vegvísir, a wayfinder, appears in a nineteenth-century manuscript and is often wrongly called a Viking symbol, since it is centuries later. The practice grew in a country where Lutheran authorities prosecuted magic: unusually, most of the Icelandic people tried for witchcraft in the 1600s were men. The Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft in Hólmavík tells this history, and modern Heathens use the staves as tattoos.