Trolldom: Spells and Methods of the Norse Folk Magic Tradition Paperback – May 1, 2015

First and foremost, this is. LIVING tradition. That means it will be loaded with Christian vocabulary, and in some cases, Christian symbolism. This is to be expected with any living tradition like Trolldom, Braucherei, Curandera, etc. A person who has done any research on Germanic Paganism will be able to read between the Christian lines and quickly pinpoint the Pagan heritage of the older recorded charms in this book.It's familiar to me because "Powwowing" of Breucherei is part of the Pennsylvania Deitsch culture I was raised with. I truly believe Trolldom to be descended from the same ancient Germenic roots as Breucherei and Hexerei. The thought, philosophy, composition of charms and spells, and overlapping sympathetic magic symbolism is familiar to me. The contents of this book will be relatable to anyone belonging to the Germanic cultural sphere.

I love this book. I seen people complaining that there are Christian spells in here - if they were smart they would study the structure of the spell then just rewrite it in a pagan context, for example: instead of “ in the name of god the father, son and Holy Ghost say “in the nameof Thor, Odin and Frigga”. This gives many examples of the types of troll formulas that were in use and Johannes’ commentary about their structure. I’m currently taking Johannes’ class online which is invaluable if you’re looking to really become a trolldom practitioner. I’ve actually used a spell from this book to catch a thief the other day and it worked! My girlfriends brother stole the package, which I suspected, soI put the piece of parchment with the spell written in my blood (which I got from flossing my teeth and mixed with dragons blood ink) where it was stolen late at night and the next day he gave my girlfriends mother the package to give me back once she informed him it was mine and not my girlfriends. This was all after he claimed he left it on the porch when he seen it was my girlfriends 😂😂

I love this book!!! It has helped me connect with my Scandinavian heritage that has been lost and I’m just glad to be reclaiming the folk magic of my ancestors, this is a truly special book in my craft. Thank you so much Johannes Björn Gådbäck, you have helped me reconnect with what was lost in time in my lineage ❤️❤️❤️❤️

I thought the book would be based on the original Norse belief systems, not the post Christianised world they were forced into. Good book, but kind of a bait and switch tactic if you ask me.

Finally a book on Norse Folk magic! The book is mostly a collection of various spells used for a variety of reasons. The spells are based on pre Christian methods but in reality a variety of spiritual entities are called upon. Occasionally Thor and Odin will show up in a spell, on even more occasions the devil and his demons will be summoned, and finally most of all the Christian deities of Jesus, Mother Mary and the Holy Ghost are invoked. The reason the methods survived and not the belief in deity is that when Christianity took over, the Norse used the same spells and prayer but adopted them too different saints and other spiritual creatures in the Christian Pantheon. So the saints after a while get the prayers.Trolldom is any sort of magic that falls outside the official purview of the Church. The spells include the usual gambit of blessing the field and cattle, protecting the cattle and farmstead from both magic and regular human assault. There are a variety of spells for revenge, hunting luck, getting Justice , so forth and so on. There is also extensive discussion on divination and talk of the different spiritual creatures that are still worked with.While I am not too sure about how many people use this magic, I think the numbers are dwindling. The spells are relatively simple which would qualify this as low magic, or magic to obtain things. Some of them are impractical cause they ask you to take the parts of a dead man, or hair of an intended lover or put something in their food. No one is going to do that. There are other spells that can be used and they are simple to perform.

I really did not appreciate the incredible amount of information in this book when I ordered it, got it, and first started reading it.However, very soon I was agape at the incredible information presented in this book.It has the kind of ancient ways and knowledge that those of us who are interested in magic would be blessed beyond belief to have passed down to us directly!It is precisely as if a long-dead practitioner were able to write down their spells and personally hand them to us on paper.This book is probably not well understood enough in its subject matter to scream "Buy Me" to the casual observer, but take it from a serious student of old magic and ways, this book is an absolute treasure horde of knowledge wrapped in an unassuming title.If you are interested in genuine, nature based traditions which work, this is the book to buy. And though it is collected in a more modern era which calls upon Christian Gods, anyone familiar with the older Norse traditions can use those gods instead as these traditions may be older than either pantheon, and one can see where vestiges of Norse and not Christian traditions exist (i.e. the use of the number "9" in magic, which is a significant number in Norse, but not Christian, traditions).Get this book! And give yourself the time to devour and absorb it. You will NOT be disappointed!