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Abstract
One thousand years ago, the Lawspeaker of Iceland went "Under the Cloak" in quest of answers to problems of religious difference. This "out-sitting" has been interpreted as a kind of "seidr," potentially shamanistic practice of Northern Europe. This article discusses practitioner interpretations of evidence for seidr and its relation to "shamanism" in the old literature, revealing seidr as gendered shamanistic practice, involving ecstatic communication with spirits, journeying and shape-shifting, arousing mixed feelings in communities in which practitioners worked. The article explores ways in which people in North America and Britain are reconstructing seidr today as shamanistic practice with its own contradictions and contestations.
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