Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.12.2017, Qupperneq 54

The Healing
Sounds of Rituals
Viking traditions reinvented with multicultural influences
Words: Jessica Peng Photo: Art Bicnick
When you stumble into a perfor-
mance by Læknishljómar, you
might think you have traveled
through time. Two men are sit-
ting on stage, and their enigmatic
throat singing is resonating in
the air. One of them is chanting
from his book of Icelandic magical
staves and sometimes blowing on
a musical horn called Shofar, an
ancient Jewish instrument. Two
percussionists bang on the Sami
drums, traditional to Northern
Finland. The ambience is sombre
and mysterious, and the audience
is silent.
In English “Læknishljómar”
means “healing sounds.” A proj-
ect started earlier this year by Ice-
lander Sigurboði Grétarsson, the
group have had some performanc-
es in Reykjavík in autumn. Un-
like other musical performances,
Læknishljómar “performs rituals,”
according to Sigurboði.
Runes and Icelandic
magical staves
“The initial idea was to start off
with rune magic,” Sigurboði says.
Runes are a set of ancient letters
used in Nordic countries and Ger-
many between 150–1100 AD. “Not
many people know that each rune
has a meaning,” Sigurboði ex-
plains. “For example, ᚺᚻ is ‘h,’ but
it also means ‘hail.’ ᛊᛋ is ‘s’ and it
means ‘Sun.’”
Besides runes, Læknishljómar
also uses Icelandic magical staves.
The magical staves are symbols
credited with magical effect and
were used mostly by farmers from
the 17th Century and later. Some
traditional staves have various
meanings, such as, “To prevail in
battle,” “to win in court,” “for luck
in fishing” etc.
In Sigurboði’s very own book of
magical staves, there are around
40 staves he created himself. Each
stave has a unique purpose. He
explains, “For every gig I make a
new stave specifically for what I
want the purpose to be. During the
ritual, I activate the stave so others
can use it”. He also assigns specific
runes to each stave, commenting,
“Because I made it, I need to infuse
it by chanting these runes over and
over again with ritualistic words.”
The healing
“I believe that with music there
is energy,” Sigurboði says. “All
I want is to unlock the imagina-
tion of people so that they’re dif-
ferent from when they came in”.
The acoustic nature of Læknishljó-
mar’s performance gives listeners
space for their imagination to run
wild. “When you can free your
mind, there is a form of healing in
that,” Sigurboði muses. “It won’t
cure cancer but it will certainly
help.”
As for the effect of staves, Sig-
urboði thinks it all comes down
to intent and faith. He says, “It’s
not magical, but if it helps you,
gives you faith, and makes you feel
better, then I don’t see anything
wrong with it.”
Multicultural influences
Læknishljómar uses throat sing-
ing from Mongolian Tuvan tradi-
tion, the Shofar horn from Jewish
culture, Sami drums from North-
ern Finland, and a flute of Native
American influence. How much
more eclectic and multicultural
can you get?
“I looked into a lot of influences
from all over the world,” Sigurboði
explains. “The overall feel to the
ritual was inspired by Bön, the
old religion of Tibet before Bud-
dhism took over.” While preserv-
ing Icelandic and Nordic roots,
Læknishljómar is open-minded
and absorbing from different cul-
tures. “We are still developing and
finding out new things to do for
the ritual,” Sigurboði concludes.
54 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 21 — 2017
The hills are alive with the sound of Vikings
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