Galdr is voiced practice. The Old Norse word is connected with singing, calling, or chanting, and the surviving sources repeatedly place powerful speech in the mouth of a living speaker. They preserve spells, songs, curses, and spoken formulas, but almost no instruction about breathing, posture, pitch, or vocal technique.

A völva travels to a chieftain’s hall to set luck and ward a union. Freyja and Eir honored in blót, vé tended, red thread bound, friðr kept.