Icelandic magical staves (sigils) are symbols credited with magical effect preserved in various grimoire

Grimoire

A grimoire is a textbook of magic. Such books typically include instructions on how to create magical objects like talismans and amulets, how to perform magical spells, charms and divination and also how to summon or invoke supernatural entities such as angels, spirits, and demons...

s dating from the 17th century and later. According to the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft, the effects credited to most of the staves were very relevant to the average Icelanders of the time, who were mostly subsistence farmers and had to deal with harsh climatic

Climate

Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...

 conditions.

Table of magical staves

Icelandic name and English translation	Manuscript description	Image
Að fá stúlku	To get a girl.
Ægishjálmur	Helm of awe; to induce fear and to protect against abuse of power.
Angurgapi	Carved on the ends of barrels. Purpose unclear.
Brýnslustafir	For use on whetstone Whetstone Whetstone may refer to:* Whetstone, a sharpening stone used for knives and other cutting tools* Whetstone , a benchmark for measuring computing power* Operation Whetstone, a nuclear test program in the 1960s- Places :United Kingdom... s.
Draumstafir	To dream what your heart desires.
Dreprún	To kill an enemy's cattle.
Feingur	A fertility rune Fertility rite Fertility rites are religious rituals that reenact, either actually or symbolically, sexual acts and/or reproductive processes: 'sexual intoxication is a typical component of the...rites of the various functional gods who control reproduction, whether of man, beast, cattle, or grains of seed'..They... .
Gapaldur	Two staves, kept in the shoes, gapaldur under the heel of the right foot and ginfaxi under the toes of the left foot, to magically ensure victory in bouts of Icelandic wrestling Wrestling Wrestling is a form of grappling type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. A wrestling bout is a physical competition, between two competitors or sparring partners, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position...  (glíma Glima Glíma is the Icelandic national style of folk wrestling.There are four points that differentiate it from other forms of wrestling:*The opponents must always stand erect.*The opponents step clockwise around each other... ).
Ginfaxi
Hólastafur	To open hills.
Kaupaloki	To prosper in trade and business.
Lásabrjótur	To open a lock without a key.
Máladeilan	To win in court Thing (assembly) A thing was the governing assembly in Germanic and introduced into some Celtic societies, made up of the free people of the community and presided by lawspeakers, meeting in a place called a thingstead... .
Nábrókarstafur	A pair of pants made from the skin of a dead man that are capable of producing an endless supply of money.
Óttastafur	To induce fear.
Rosahringur minni	A lesser circle of protection.
Smjörhnútur	Butterknot, to ensure butter was procured through non-magical means.
Stafur gegn galdri	Staves against witchcraft.
Stafur til að vekja upp draug	To invoke ghosts and evil spirits.
Þjófastafur	For use against thieves.
Tóustefna	To ward off fox Fox Fox is a common name for many species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail .Members of about 37 species are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to... es.
Varnarstafur Valdemars	Valdemar's Protection Stave; increases favor and happiness.
Vatnahlífir	Protection against drowning.
Vegvísir Vegvísir A Vegvísir is an Icelandic magical stave intended to help the bearer find their way through rough weather. The symbol is attested in the Huld Manuscript, collected in Iceland by Geir Vigfusson in 1880 .A leaf of the manuscript provides an image of the vegvísir, gives its name, and, in prose,...	To guide people through rough weather.
Veiðistafur	For luck in fishing.

Font

Following a visit to the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft in the summer of 2006, Apostolos Syropoulos designed a font

Font

In typography, a font is traditionally defined as a quantity of sorts composing a complete character set of a single size and style of a particular typeface...

 containing several of the magical staves. This font is now included in the repositories of Fedora

Fedora (operating system)

Fedora is a RPM-based, general purpose collection of software, including an operating system based on the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat...

.

External links

• Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft
  • List of the staves from the same page
• List of the staves at the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft