THE HUMAN SOULThere are many Old Norse stories about gods and humans with the capacity to trans-
form themselves into temporal guises in order to fulfil a particular intention while their
bodies lay in wait. The ability of the human soul to function outside the body is a
fundamental conception in sagas as well as in myth where the direct influence of
a particular character is in want of explanation – be it Óðinn, an evil-minded woman or
a lovesick youth.
There are two fundamental terms for the conception of the human soul: hugr and
hamr. Hugr is often translated plainly as ‘soul’, but is said to have had wider connotations
entailing notions such as personhood, thought, wish and desire. Some people with a
strong hugr had the ability to act over long distances without actually moving their
bodies. In the tangible guise of an animal or object they could cause harm while their
physical bodies lay as if dead. The shape adopted for the temporary appearance most
often revealed the purpose or the moral status of the sender: a strong bear, an aggressive
wolf, a noble eagle.
Hamr, literally ‘skin’, was the name of the temporary guise the hugr was able to adopt
for its movements. The ability to change shape and act out of the ordinary body in a new
guise was either inborn or acquired through learning.
To be hugstolinn or hamstolinn, to be deprived of the hugr or hamr, was a metaphor for
illness, that is, the infirmity was caused by an ill-willed attack from the outside.
SHAPESHIFTERSThere were many names for persons with the capacity to change their shape and tempor-
arily act outside the ordinary body. The term ‘shapeshifters’ is used here as an umbrella
for a wide range of characters in Old Norse literature who were said to have the ability to
propel their hugr into a temporary body or guise, hamr, that is, of being a hamhleypa or
someone who leaps into a hamr. Individuals with such capacities appear in both the
mythological narratives and the sagas.
Thus between reports of the factual existence of hamhleypa and the abundance of their
appearances in Old Norse literature, it is quite impossible to distinguish the assumed
ability of transformation from the metaphorical metamorphosis found in poetry and
myth.
In Ynglinga saga (ch. 7 ) Óðinn is described as the foremost shapeshifter. Snorri depicts
how Óðinn would lie as if dead or asleep while his hugr, in the guise of a bird, animal,
fish or serpent, enacted various deeds for the benefit of himself and others. His regular
body was said to have been left behind, while his soul alone assumed temporary forms,
a scenario that is common to most Old Norse shapeshifting narratives. There is, in fact,
no mention in any of the literature of a single instance in which a transformation
occurred that involved the complete disappearance of the corporal body; some part of the
body was always left behind. Thus the time of transformation was viewed as a time
of grave danger for the shapeshifter since it provided his or her enemies with a
golden opportunity to either steal or harm the temporary body – an action that would
immediately cause a parallel stigma to appear on the inert regular body.
The expressive term sendingar is frequently employed in Old Norse literature as the
name for certain figures that were dispatched by individuals who possessed a strong
–– chapter 17: Popular religion in the Viking Age––