THE TEXT: The customs of heathen folk are satirized in the tale of Volsi, in which a part of a horse’s anatomy becomes an object of fascination for a rural Norwegian family.
THE SCENE: In late autumn the farmer’s horse died. Heathen men ate horse-meat, and since the horse was fat, it was utilized as meat. While skinning it, the slave cut off that member, which nature has given to all animals that multiply by intercourse, and which is named “dangler” on horses, according to the ancient poets. As the slave cut off this member, and was about to throw it away, the farmer’s son ran by laughing, caught it, and took it into the parlour. There, his mother was sitting, accompanied by her daughter and the slave-woman. He shook the phallus at them, shouting mocking remarks, and uttered this stanza:
Here you may see
a vigourous phallus
severed from
a father of horses.
For you, slave-woman,
this Völsi
is not at all dull
between your thighs.
The slave-woman roared out and laughed, but the farmer’s daughter begged her brother to take away the disgusting thing. The old woman stood up, approached her son, and took the thing from him, saying there was no need to waste a thing which might be of use. She then went into the kitchen, dried the member carefully, and wrapped it in a linen cloth along with leeks and other herbs, to prevent it from rotting, and then laid it into her coffer.
All that autumn she would retrieve it every evening and address it with a prayer of worship, believing it to be her god, and making the rest of the household accept this heresy. By the power of the devil the thing grew and became so strong, that it could stand upright by the old woman, when she wanted it to. She made it her custom to carry it into the parlour every evening, where she, first of the household, recited a verse over it. She would then hand it to her husband, who then handed it to the next person, and so on, until the slave-woman received it. All were expected to recite a verse.
– The Story of Volsi, Viks, 14th Century AD
