SígewÍf were a variety of Germanic (specifically Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...

) female spirit

Female spirits in Germanic paganism

Female spirits and deities are a frequent element of recorded and reconstructed Germanic paganism and Norse mythology. Scholars, modern and medieval, record many varieties of female spirits or deities who were worshipped. However, some are attested only by single surviving references, linguistic...

 who were believed by the scholars Jacob Grimm

Jacob Grimm

Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm was a German philologist, jurist and mythologist. He is best known as the discoverer of Grimm's Law, the author of the monumental Deutsches Wörterbuch, the author of Deutsche Mythologie and, more popularly, as one of the Brothers Grimm, as the editor of Grimm's Fairy...

 and John Mitchell Kemble

John Mitchell Kemble

John Mitchell Kemble , English scholar and historian, was the eldest son of Charles Kemble the actor and Maria Theresa Kemble....

 to be similar the Idisi of the Merseburg Incantations

Merseburg Incantations

The Merseburg Incantations are two medieval magic spells, charms or incantations, written in Old High German. They are the only known examples of Germanic pagan belief preserved in this language...

. These were spirits who could be called on in battle. They are attested primarily in one spell or incantation from a manuscript at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The sigewif are described by scholars as having the charcteristics of a swarm of bees and the charm is addressed to them as such.

Sigewif means "victory women" and they may simply be another epithet for the Idisi, or refer to a somewhat distinct idea. Grimm offers equivalents in Old High German of siguwip and Old Norse of sigrvif.

Incantation

The original version of the incantation is as follows:

Sitte ge, sígewíf,

sígrð tó corðan,

næfre ge wilde

tó wude fleogan,

beó ge swá gemindige

mínes gódes,

swá bið manna gehwylc,

metes and eðeles.

Kemble gives this translation:

Sit ye victorious women

descend to earth,

never fly ye:

wildly to the wood;

be ye as mindful of

good to me

as every man is of

food and landed possession.

A more modern translation might be:

Be seated you victory-women,

come down to the land.

Never wildly,

fly into the woods.

You bees be as mindful,

of my benefit,

as every man is (of his own) in expecting,

his meat and inheritance.