Falconry and the Boundary Between Civilization and Wilderness

I recently finished reading an 81-page thesis on falconry, and it ended up being one of the most fascinating pieces of research I have encountered so far. I originally selected it because I expected it to connect to my chapters on Freyja and Skadi. What surprised me was how much it also touched on broader themes that appear throughout pre-Christian Scandinavian culture, particularly the relationship between civilization and the wilderness.

One of the first things the author points out is that birds of prey occupy a unique position among animals used by humans. Unlike livestock, horses, or dogs, they were never truly domesticated. As the thesis explains, "They remain wild animals that cannot be tamed nor domesticated, which means that they are acquired from their natural habitat" (p. 1).

This creates an interesting paradox. Falcons were trained to hunt alongside people, carried specialized equipment, and were often closely associated with their handlers. Yet they never ceased to be wild animals. They lived in a space between two worlds.

That idea immediately made me think of Skadi.

In Norse mythology, Skadi is often associated with mountains, winter, hunting, and the wilderness. Although she becomes connected to the gods through marriage, she never fully leaves her identity behind. She enters the world of the Aesir but chooses to remain in the mountains rather than permanently settling among them. Like the falcon itself, she exists between civilization and wilderness without fully belonging to either.

The thesis argues that the boundary between settled society and the wild was not as clear-cut as we might imagine today. Rather than a sharp dividing line, there were transitional spaces between villages and the unknown world beyond them:

"This means that a wild intermediary area must have existed between the thoroughly settled landscape and the truly foreign wilderness" (p. 25).

Falconry occupied this same liminal space. The bird belonged to the wilderness, but it worked alongside humans. The falconer lived within society, but regularly entered wild spaces to hunt. Neither existed entirely within one realm.

One of the most fascinating archaeological discussions in the thesis concerns bells found in falconry burials. Alongside the remains of birds of prey, researchers have discovered bells that were attached to falconry equipment.

According to the author:

"The bell establishes the boundary between domestication and nature—between Miðgarðr and Útgarðr. As long as the bird of prey carries its bell, it is secured—or rather kept—from wilderness" (p. 37).

I found this symbolism especially compelling. Earlier in the thesis, the author emphasizes that birds of prey cannot truly be domesticated. Yet these bells served as a physical marker of the relationship between human and bird. The falcon remained wild, but the bell connected it to the human world.

The bells also served a practical purpose during hunts. Their sound allowed falconers to locate their birds and maintain awareness in uncertain environments. As the thesis notes, the presence of bells represented safety and familiarity, while their absence heightened awareness of danger and the unknown wilderness beyond the settlement.

These bells may also reveal something about social status. Falconry appears to have been associated with elite households, and the equipment itself likely functioned as a visible symbol of prestige. This connection is particularly relevant to my chapter on Freyja, where questions of wealth, status, and social identity frequently emerge.

Perhaps the most thought-provoking question raised by the thesis concerns the relationship between the falcon and its handler. The author asks whether, when released into the wilderness, the bird possesses the falconer in the same way that the falconer possesses the bird while it remains in captivity.

It is a fascinating reversal.

Throughout the article, the falcon appears as a living bridge between worlds. It carries the wilderness into the settlement and accompanies humans back into nature. As the author writes, "Birds of prey are a beacon of wilderness in the settlement; and they are in their environment during the hunt" (p. 27).

This idea becomes even more interesting when viewed alongside Norse beliefs about the soul, shapeshifting, and spiritual travel. Some interpretations of the evidence suggest that birds of prey may have been understood as extensions of the falconer's spirit or soul. The falcon was not merely a hunting companion but potentially something much more significant.

That connection between falconry, spirituality, and concepts of the soul deserves its own discussion, which I will explore in a future post.

Lefebvre, Alexandre. A Falconer's Ritual: A Study of the Cognitive and Spiritual Dimensions of Pre-Christian Scandinavian Falconry. Master's thesis, Université Laval, 2017.