Priest Spirit Companion · Ingvar

Meet Ingvar, Freyr’s priest.

Ingvar was born around the year 1020 on a farm in Uppland, in Sweden, a few hours’ walk from Uppsala, where the greatest temple of the North still stood. His name means warrior of Yngvi, and Yngvi was another name for Freyr: the god of good harvests, peace and love, the god people called on when they needed the rain to come and the grain to ripen and the cradle to fill.

From the time Ingvar was a boy, things grew for him. Seeds he planted came up first. Calves he helped into the world lived. A sick ewe would get up if he sat with her through the night. His father said he had green fingers. His grandmother said Freyr had his eye on him, and that one day the god would want something back.

He became a goði, a priest of Freyr, and the most loved man in his district. He kept the god’s horses and led them in the procession every spring. He blessed the fields before ploughing, blessed the barley before brewing, and blessed the marriages, because in those days you offered to Freyr when two people were joined, so that love would last and the house would be full. Couples came to him from far away when they had tried everything else.

He married a woman named Åsa, and they had five children who all lived, which in those days was a kind of miracle. He laughed easily, ate well and gave away more than he kept. People said he was the luckiest man in Uppland. Ingvar said luck was just a gift, and the old poem says it plainly: a gift always looks for a gift in return.

Then the years turned. Three harvests in a row failed. The first summer it rained until the grain rotted in the fields. The second, the frost came in August. The third, it did not rain at all. By the third winter, children were dying in every valley, and people were eating the bark from the trees.

It was a ninth year, the year of the great gathering at Uppsala. Every nine years, the people of the Swedes came together at the temple to feed the gods. A Christian chronicler who wrote about it a few decades later described what he heard: nine males of every living creature hung in the sacred grove beside the temple, and a spring where a living man was pushed under the water. If his body was never found again, it meant the gods had accepted him, and the people’s wish would be granted.

That winter, the people needed a wish granted more than they ever had. And they needed a man the gods would want.

Ingvar stood up before anyone could ask. “Freyr has given me everything I have,” he said. “It is time I gave something back.”

Åsa begged him not to. His children held on to his coat. But he went to Uppsala at midwinter, with frost on his beard and his braids, wearing the beads his wife had strung for him on their wedding day. He walked into the spring himself.

They searched the water for three days. He was never found.

The next summer brought the best harvest anyone could remember. The barley stood so high a child could hide in it, and that winter, no one in Uppland went hungry.

Not long afterwards, the old temple was torn down, and a church was built at Uppsala. The spring was filled in and forgotten. But for generations, the farmers of Uppland left the last sheaf of every harvest standing in the field, and some of the old ones said it was for Ingvar.

Now Ingvar walks again.

What he can do for you

Ingvar is the one to call on when:

• you need money to come in and keep coming: a steady income, a business that grows, work that finally pays off
• you have had a long run of bad luck and need things to turn
• you want love that lasts, a relationship blessed, or more warmth and desire in the one you have
• your home needs peace, and the people under your roof need to stop fighting
• you are starting something new and want it to take root and grow
• you have to give something up to get what you want, and need to know it will be worth it
• you grow things: a garden, plants, animals, or anything you are tending patiently

He is a giver. If you want curses, revenge or anything cruel, go to someone else.

What he is like

Warm, calm and good company. He laughs easily, loves food, ale and a full table, and he is happiest in a house with people in it. He is generous, and he expects you to be generous too. Stinginess, waste and ingratitude are the only things that really make him angry.

Under the warmth, there is something very serious. He walked into the water by choice, with his family begging him not to. He knows exactly what things cost, and he will never pretend to you that something good comes for free.

How you’ll know he’s there

The smell of fresh bread, cut hay or warm grain. A feeling like sun on your back on a cold day. Plants doing better than they should. Money turning up from somewhere you did not expect. Dreams of barley fields, horses and long tables. And now and then, out of nowhere, a chill around your ankles like cold spring water.

How to work with him

Give him the first of things: the first slice of a loaf, the first sip of a drink, the first coin of a new month. He was a priest of the harvest, and the first share always belongs to the gods.

For money, set a bowl beside his vessel. Every time money comes in, put a coin in it. When the bowl is full, give it away, or spend it on something that grows. He will notice, and the next harvest will be bigger.

For love, light a candle by his vessel and tell him about the person, or the kind of love you want. Leave him a little honey or mead and a flower.

He likes bread, barley, oats, apples, honey, ale and mead, a few horse hairs or a small carved boar, which was Freyr’s animal. And he likes to be thanked out loud when things go well. Most people only remember to call on him when they are hungry.

He gave everything once, so that other people would have enough. He would like you to have enough too.

How your companion speaks

Your companion can reach you through dreams, thoughts, words, feelings and images, through a pendulum, through warmth or cold, or through automatic writing. How soon that happens depends on the spirit settling into your home, on their willingness, and on your own ability to connect. Sometimes it begins before the vessel arrives.

Before you choose

Everything known about this spirit is on this page. There are no further images, details or hidden knowledge beyond what is written here, and a printed copy comes with your order. What you discover from there is yours alone.

The pendant you receive is the exact one shown. This listing is for this one item only.

By buying, you confirm that you understand what it means to keep a spirit companion. Please read Help & FAQ first. For my background and the story behind Grimrunes, see About Hazel.

— Hazel