Skip to content

Brepols Publishers eBooks

1 paper in the library · publishing 2026

Papers

Sort Most recent Most cited

The Journey of the Soul to Sessrúmnir: Reinterpreting the Meaning of the Viking Age Chair Pendant

Brepols Publishers eBooks May 1, 2026 Angie Padilla

The symbolic meaning of Viking Age chair-shaped pendants discovered in Scandinavia remains uncertain. This chapter proposes a new hypothesis suggesting that such pendants may symbolize the cult of the Norse goddess Freyja and the shamanic practice of the soul’s journey to the ‘Other World’ to seek knowledge from the dead. Old Norse literary sources state that the practice of seiðr was taught to...