Óttastafur
Óttastafur, the 'fear stave', is an Icelandic magical sign recorded in the Huld manuscript, compiled by Geir Vigfússon at Akureyri in 1860, and drawn to strike fear into others. As a weapon of psychological magic it was meant to cow rivals or enemies without a single blow, so that the bearer's will prevailed and opponents lost heart. It is one of the aggressive galdrastafir, sitting in the same grimoires as the protective and luck-giving staves and showing that the stave tradition served harm as readily as help. Its earliest known source is a 19th-century manuscript that collected older folk-m