Performing Weather Magic in Medieval Scandinavia

In the last two decades, Old Norse studies have witnessed a surge in academic research focusing on magic in the Norse Middle Ages. Weather manipulation, a prevalent magical motif in Old Norse literature, is found across various genres of Old Norse literature. By the thirteenth century, Literary Norse magic practitioners displayed a recurring ability to control abnormal weather on land and at sea. The abundance of weather-magic instances in Old Norse literature and poetry presents a unique opportunity for scholarly analysis. This chapter aims to shed light on the different ways weather magic performances were portrayed in medieval Scandinavia from approximately 800 to 1555 AD.