Drift Seeds and the Brísingamen

Heimdall the Brisingamen, and it is usually thought to be a splendid necklace, the treasured possession of Freyja. In the Hasdrapa, however, the same object was called singasteinn, which is probably a mistake for *signasteinn 'magic stone, amulet,' and explained as hafnyra 'sea kidney.' Birger Pering argued cogently that this consisted of a girdle on which was suspended the seed of a West Indian plant, such as is carried to the coasts of Europe from the Straits of Gibraltar to the North Cape, and which is found on beaches on the west of Scandinavia, Scotland, Ireland, south-west England, France, Spain and Portugal and on the islands off these coasts.' Because of their mysterious origin these seeds have long been regarded as magic; and in Scandinavia various names were applied to them. In Iceland they (or at least some of them) were called lausnarsteinar 'birth stones;' in Norway sobonner 'sea beans;' and (in the Faeroes as well as in Norway) vettenyrer 'wight kidneys'-a wight being a semisupernatural being such as an elf or a goblin. Pering states that one such 'stone' was bound to the hips or thigh, or placed in the hand, of a woman in labour, to lessen the pain.2 Since Freyja was a fertility goddess, and women are represented as calling on her for help in childbirth, such a birth amulet would be an appropriate attribute of hers; and Pering's argument that it was one of these seeds which was the cause of the

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