Hamr

Shape / skin — capable of being changed

Hamr — the outward shape or 'skin'. Distinct from the lík insofar as the hamr can be altered or shed: hamramr practitioners in the sagas (Egils saga, Vatnsdœla saga) change shape into bears, wolves, or birds, sending the hamr abroad while the body sleeps. Lecouteux frames the hamr as the morphic envelope rather than the meat-body.

Lík / líkamrHamrHamrǪndHugrÓðrHamingjaFylgjaDísSál

Point 2 of 9 in Old Norse Nine-Part Soul (reconstructed)

Cross-tradition overlaps

No overlapping points are registered for this point.

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Sources

Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar (primary_canonical)

Egils saga Skalla-Grímssonar ch. 27 describes Kveldulf's sudden 'shape-strength' (hamrammr) in battle and the exhaustion that follows. The episode attests saga vocabulary of altered or intensified shape, but it does not set out a systematic hamr doctrine or a separate anatomical locus.

Lecouteux, Return of the Dead (secondary)

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