The Dísir

Their story

The dísir were honoured at the dísablót, which the sagas place around the start of winter, and in Sweden at a great gathering and market held at Uppsala. The Ynglinga saga tells of a king who died after falling in the Dísarsalr, the dísir's hall, during a sacrifice. In some tales they appear to a person near death, as a warning or a summons.

Best times to give to them

• Winter Nights (dísablót)
• the late winter Dísting
• Mothers' Night at Yule
• family anniversaries

What they like being given

• mead or wine, or blackcurrant cordial
• home-cooked family recipes
• bread and butter
• flowers
• a lit candle by old photographs

How to honour them

1. Keep a shelf for the women of your family line, with photos, names or heirlooms.
2. Cook a recipe handed down in your family and set a portion aside for them.
3. Hold a small dísablót at the start of winter, even just a candle and a toast.
4. Tell your children stories of their grandmothers and great-grandmothers.

How they can help you

• family protection
• luck and good fortune
• childbirth
• guidance from ancestors
• healing family wounds

Symbols

• the hearth
• family heirlooms
• the Dísarsalr (hall of the dísir)
• women's jewellery

Festivals

• Dísablót Sources differ: in Sweden around late February or early March, in Iceland and Norway at Winter Nights in October; the date here follows the Swedish timing
• Winter Nights (Vetrnætr) The start of winter in the old Icelandic calendar, the days before the first day of winter on the Saturday between 21 and 27 October; many modern heathens keep it in mid to late October

More Norse spirits

• The Álfar The elves, bright and hidden folk
• The Landvættir The spirits of the land
• Jötnar The giants, elder powers of the wild
• The Daughters of Ægir and Rán The nine waves of the sea
• Dvergar The master smiths under stone
• The Sons of Ivaldi The dwarf smiths of Sif's hair and Skíðblaðnir
• Einherjar The chosen dead of Valhalla
• Fylgja The follower spirit at your side