Weather Magic in Medieval Scandinavia: Old Norse-Icelandic Traditions in Broader Scandinavian Contexts

Weather Magic in Medieval Scandinavia explores how people in medieval Scandinavia understood and attempted to influence the weather through magic. Covering the period from c. 800 to 1555 ᴀᴅ, the book reveals how storms, winds, and divine tempests shaped not only medieval imagination but also law, ritual, and power across the North.Drawing on Old Norse sagas, poetry, law codes, religious texts, archaeology, and early modern trial records, this is the first comprehensive study of weather magic across the medieval Scandinavian world. The book argues that weather magic was not a marginal superstition but a key part of how medieval societies conceptualised human and divine agency within nature. It traces how figures such as Óðinn, völur, and saints appear as mediators between people and the elements, and how ideas of magic and miracle blurred in Christian and non-Christian contexts. By combining literary, historical, and material evidence, Weather Magic in Medieval Scandinavia illuminates how weather manipulation was bound to performance, voice, and social power, linking magic, seafaring, warfare, and the legitimisation of elite authority. The study offers new interdisciplinary insights into belief, ecology, and cultural exchange in the medieval North.The book appeals to scholars and students of Old Norse studies, medieval history, folklore, religious studies, and environmental humanities, as well as general readers interested in the intersections of magic, mythology, and climate in the North.

About the Author

Jennifer Hemphill is an independent researcher in Scandinavian Studies whose work explores the cultural history of magic in Northern Europe. She holds a PhD in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Aberdeen and is a co-founder of the international conference series Performing Magic in the Pre-Modern North . Based in Copenhagen, her research combines literary, historical, and folkloric sources to examine how magic shaped medieval and early modern worldviews across the Nordic region.