Regarding Icelandic stave magic.
Icelandic magical staves have always been a controversial topic in modern Heathen circles. Many will argue until they’re blue in the face that they are “Christian”, as staves used in later Icelandic magic bear resemblance to the contents of the Key of Solomon:
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Ægishjálmur (Helm of Awe)
https://www.brutenorse.com/blog/2018/5/14/the-gishjalmur
https://youtu.be/3J4G7-et6LI
Vegvisir
https://sagy.vikingove.cz/en/origins-of-the-vegvisir-symbol/
https://youtu.be/IROvre0w6hc
'Neither the Vegvísir or the Aegishjalmur are a Germanic thing, it came to Iceland through Christian Esotericism and it comes from Jewish Solomonic Magic... Solomonic magic was appropriated by Christian esotericists directly from Kabbalah.'“
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But first, let’s look at the Key of Solomon itself.
The magical staves in the Key of Solomon are essentially reinterpretations of ancient Greek, Roman and Mesopotamian magical symbols, such as Roman Charaktêres, collected and recorded in Hebrew by Jewish and Arab chroniclers in the Byzantine Empire. As well as Icelandic magic, the Key also heavily influenced Kabbalah, and later Islamic mysticism.
Several rituals in the Lesser Key involve invoking demons, and the Greater Key deals with the proper format for making sacrifices of food and animals to these spirits and demons, as well as invoking the planets named after the Roman pantheon. (That’s not very Christian, I must say.)
While the language changed, hiding its contents under a thin veneer of Abrahamism; Hebrew language, association with King Solomon, and a passage advising the reader to ask for God’s protection before summoning a demon; the roots of the Key of Solomon are very much pagan, making it an extremely controversial work for centuries.
Now, let’s look at the Ægishjálmur, the “Helm of Awe”.
The term “Helm of Awe” was recorded around 200 years earlier in the Fáfnismál, denoting a helmet, or stave, worn by Fáfnir;
“The fear-helm I wore to afright mankind,
While guarding my gold I lay;
Mightier seemed I than any man,
For a fiercer never I found.”
~Fáfnismál 16, Bellows
In ancient India, a nearly identical stave appeared called the Ashtánga Yantra, each arm representing Shiva’s Trishul. The Yantra “detains the word in the mouth of the enemy”, striking fear into opponents.
The Ægishjálmur is one stave which confirms that the roots of some of these staves are Indo-European.
An important thing to remember about Iceland is, for centuries, it was one of the few places where folk magic was openly practiced. Iceland only officially accepted Christianity because of pressure from king Olaf II of Norway, and many ancient traditions persisted far out of the sight of puritanical continental Europe for generations. The witch hysteria that swept across Europe and the Colonies didn’t reach Iceland until the 17th Century.
And until then, practice, research and development of these magical traditions continued. Due to the destruction of countless pagan records during the Middle Ages, the few surviving grimoires such as the Key of Solomon were used by Icelandic sorcerers to fill in the gaps.
While staves like the Vegvisír are in no way Viking Age symbols, they are the result of a continuation of much older magical traditions.
Various galdrastafir collected in 1847 in the Huld Manuscript, including the Vegvisir (wayfinder), Draumstafir (dream staves), Svefnþorn (sleep thorn), Óttastafur (fear stave), Lásabrjótur (Lock breaker) and various staves to deter or find a thief.
