{"product_id":"volve-spirit-companion-groa","title":"Vølve Spirit Companion · Gróa","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMeet Gróa.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThere is an old poem in the Edda about a young man in terrible danger who goes to his mother’s grave at night and calls to her to wake. She rises from the earth, and from the grave she sings nine charms over him, one after another, so that nothing in the world can harm him on the road ahead. The mother’s name is Gróa. It comes from an old word that means to grow, and to heal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eOur Gróa was named after her.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eShe was born around the year 920 in Himmerland, in northern Jutland, on a farm at the edge of a great forest. Her mother was a vølve, and so was her grandmother, and her grandmother’s mother, so far back that no one could count them. When Gróa was born, her mother looked at her and said she would be the strongest of them all, and gave her the name from the poem.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eShe was right.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eBy twenty, Gróa was travelling from farm to farm across Jutland with her staff, the way vølver did, invited to the great halls when people needed to know what the coming year would bring. She sat on the high seat with a cloak around her and her staff across her knees. She threw henbane seeds onto the fire and breathed the smoke. Then she sang, and the spirits came, and she told the people what she saw. She wore silver rings on her toes, which almost no one else did, and people said you could hear her coming by the small sound they made on the floorboards.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eShe knew the nine charms from the poem, and many more besides. She sang them over warriors before raids, over women before childbirth, over children who were sick, over ships before they sailed. People said no one she had sung over ever drowned.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eShe took pupils, girls who had the gift, and taught them for years. Her favourite was a young woman from the east of Jutland, quick and clever, with a laugh like a bell. Gróa taught her everything.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThen the world began to change.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eIn the 960s, King Harald Bluetooth was baptised, and he raised a great stone at Jelling that says, in runes, that he made the Danes Christian. Priests came. The old halls began to close their doors to the vølver. And around 980, Harald built a huge ring fortress near Hobro, a perfect circle of earth walls called Fyrkat, filled with soldiers and their families.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eGróa’s favourite pupil went to live at Fyrkat. Even there, among the king’s men, people still came to her quietly for the old craft. But she died young, of a fever, and it was Gróa who buried her.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eShe laid her in the body of a wagon, the way the great women of the old faith were buried, so she could ride to the other world. She put a small leather pouch of henbane seeds beside her, so she would never be without the smoke. And she put silver rings on her toes, like her own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eArchaeologists found that grave a thousand years later. It is one of the most famous graves in Denmark. The woman in it is still called the vølve from Fyrkat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eAfter that, Gróa would not stay among the Christians any more. She refused to be baptised. She was already old, and she walked into the forest, the great Rold Forest of Himmerland, and built herself a hut of turf under the oaks. She lived there for the rest of her life, which was very long. Moss grew on the roof of her hut. Moss grew on her cloak. People who came looking for her said she looked like part of the forest.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eAnd people did come. Farmers whose cattle were sick. Women who could not have children. Mothers whose sons were going to sea. They came in secret, and they left in secret, and Gróa sang over them all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe last one to come was a boy of fifteen, about to sail with a ship to England. His mother had died that winter, and he had no one else to sing over him. Gróa did. She stood with her hands on his head and sang all nine charms, slowly, one after the other, the way the Gróa of the poem had sung them over her son.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe boy came home safe the next year and went straight into the forest to thank her. He found her lying under the oak outside her hut, with the moss already growing over her cloak.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eNow Gróa walks again.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe nine charms\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eGróa still knows all nine charms, and they are what she brings into your life. In her own words, as near as they go into English, she sings:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003col dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ethe first, to shake off whatever weighs you down\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ethe second, so you never lose your way\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ethe third, to turn back the floods when life overwhelms you\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ethe fourth, to turn your enemies’ anger into peace\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ethe fifth, to loosen every bond that has been put on you\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ethe sixth, for calm when the sea of your life is wild\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ethe seventh, against the cold, in body and in heart\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ethe eighth, against the dead and the dark things that walk at night\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ethe ninth, for wisdom, and the right words when you need them most\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ol\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eShe is a spirit of protection, guidance, healing and freedom, and she is good for almost everything a life can throw at you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOver the years\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eGróa is very old, and she is in no hurry. She sang over people for most of a century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eAt first, she watches you, the way she watched every girl who came to her wanting to learn. Then, slowly, she begins to sing over you. Keepers often say that things start to loosen in the first year: old weights, old bonds, old fears.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eOver a long time, she becomes something like the grandmother you go to when you need the truth. She has taught a great many women. She is very good at it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat she is like\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eStern, wise and very old, with a dry humour that comes out when you least expect it. She does not suffer fools, and she has little patience for people who ask for help and then do nothing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eBut she has a soft spot for the young, the frightened and anyone about to set out on a long road. She sang over a lot of them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow she shows herself\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe smell of moss, damp earth and oak leaves. A faint, high humming, like a woman singing very far away. A small, clear sound, like silver against wood. Dreams of a hut of turf under great trees, smoke rising from a fire, and an old woman in a green cloak with her hands on someone’s head. And a feeling of hands resting on the top of your own head, just before something hard.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat to do for her\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eGróa lived in the forest with almost nothing. She asks for very little:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBefore something difficult, say: “Gróa, sing for me.” That is enough.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eKeep a little moss, a stone or an acorn by her vessel.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGive her bread with honey, a glass of milk, water or mead.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTake a piece of string and tie nine knots in it, one for each charm, thinking of what you need. Keep it with her.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSpend time in a forest when you can, and tell her about it.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eShe sang over the dead, the living and the unborn for a hundred years. She has a few more charms left in her.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHow your companion speaks\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYour 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eBefore you choose\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEverything 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe pendant you receive is the exact one shown. This listing is for this one item only.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy buying, you confirm that you understand what it means to keep a spirit companion. Please read \u003ca href=\"\/pages\/help-faq\"\u003eHelp \u0026amp; FAQ\u003c\/a\u003e first. For my background and the story behind Grimrunes, see \u003ca href=\"\/pages\/about-hazel\"\u003eAbout Hazel\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e— Hazel\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Grimrunes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54493192716616,"sku":null,"price":1200.0,"currency_code":"DKK","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0839\/6983\/5336\/files\/Billede_4_8972c32d-cabe-4e2b-b2d8-4e289096f40a.jpg?v=1793727872","url":"https:\/\/grimrunes.com\/products\/volve-spirit-companion-groa","provider":"Grimrunes","version":"1.0","type":"link"}