Blót

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Depiction of a blót in honor of Thor, god of thunder (painting by JL Lund)

The Blót is the Norse sacrifice , i.e. a cult act dedicated to the gods .

etymology

The noun Blót goes back to the Old Norse verb blóta (cf. Gothic and Old English blōtan , ahd. Blōzan , bluozan or pluozan ). These forms go back to a Germanic noun * blōtą with the meaning "sacrifice, worship". Associated with this is a strong proto-European verb * blōtaną , which also means “to sacrifice, to worship”. The term also appears in Old Norse as blót-hús "house of worship" and in Old High German as bluoz-hūz "temple". With a different nominative affix one finds the same root word in the proto-European noun * blōstrą "victim" (occupied in the Gothic * blostr in gu in -blostreis "worshiper of God" and old high German bluostar "victim"). It is assumed that the root of the word with the ancient Germanic verb * blōaną "blow, bloom, sprout" and the noun * blōmô " blossom " can be associated.

Other attempts at explanation

The English bless "bless" leads to an aengl. blǣdsian , blēdsian fort, from an urgerm. * blōðisōjanan .

Jacob Grimm discusses the term in Chapter 3, pp. 31–33 of his German Mythology . The original meaning of the verb is difficult to grasp because it is formed from a very common root * bhlā . The Oxford English Dictionary connects it directly with the word for “blood”, meaning “consecrate with blood” (or similar), on the other hand Grimm denies this direct derivation.

The ultimately underlying idg. Root is * bhlē- , which covers a wide range of meanings for “grow, swell, inflate, sprout, flow, gush” etc. The blood (aisl. Blōð , as. Ags . Blōd , ahd. Bluot ) is interpreted as the "bubbly", from the same root comes ahd. Blāt (t) ara , aengl. blǣdre "Blattern", ahd. blāt , ags. blæd aisl. blǣr " blowing , gust of wind", ahd. blāsan "blow", etc., ags. blǣd m. "breath", n. "bubble", f. "blossom", ahd. blāt "blossom".

Sophus Bugge has suggested an etymological connection to the Latin flamen , which would lead both words back to an Urindo-European tribe * bhlād- "babble, murmur" or * bhlād (s) men . However, the etymology of flamen itself is uncertain and is usually interpreted differently today.

Grimm equates the meaning with the Greek thuein . Wulfila uses the verb transitive, blôtan fráujan "to worship the Lord" ( Deum colere , already without thought of bloody animal sacrifice). Cædmon uses blôtan for "to sacrifice, to kill a victim", with the victim in the dative ( blôtan sunu "to sacrifice a son" "). The ahd. Pluozan (preterite pliez and pluozta ) only occurs in glosses for libare, victimare, immolare . The corresponding Ahd. Noun is pluostar, bluostar . In contrast to the Gothic, the Agl. And Ahd. Word retains its pagan character and is not applied to the Christian cult. In Old Norse the word also retains an emphatic pagan character; Trygdamâl svâ viða sem kristnir menn kirkior sækia, heðnir menn hof blôta .

In Middle High German the word is largely dying out, but seems to survive in some expressions , such as blotzen, “ blechen muss ”, ie. H. "Sacrifice money", or in blotz for an old knife or sword. The Livonian Rhyming Chronicle (verse 4683) seems to use the almost forgotten word again in its original sense, in a passage about animal sacrifice by the Samoyed: ir bluotekirl der threw zuo hant / sin lôz nâch ir alden site / zuo hant he bluotete everything mite / a quek. ( Quek is a living animal, bluetekirl is borrowed from aschwed. blôtkarl "heathen. priest").

Another Old Norse term for the sacrifice is húsl, húsel ( aengl . Húsl, húsul, húsel , Got. Hunsl , from an idg. * Kwnt- (e) l- ). The Slavic word for "holy", * svętъ, is related to this .

Tradition and source criticism

Lore

There are no first-hand sources on the Blót. Both regular festivals and simple magical blessings are called Blót. How a Blót took place in the form of a festival is only described incompletely and by authors who themselves were not present at any pagan Blót. What is certain is that drinking the intoxicating mead in the community was an essential part of it. The festive Blót was led by the local ruler, i.e. a large farmer, a chief or a jarl. The king had no necessary function in the cult. The festival was held by the local farmers on a sacred site, "hofs lönd", which was called Vellkla. It may have been the hall of the local ruler.

Occurrence

The story of Saint Mauritius in the Heilagra manna sögur describes a Roman festival of sacrifice as "Blót".

In the Kormak saga , a sorceress blesses Kormak's opponent on the way to a Holmgang , so that he becomes invulnerable. The word Blót is also used here.

The Flateyarbók contains a settlement history of Norway: Hversu Noregr byggðist (How Norway was settled). The first chapter mentions a king Þorri who ruled Gotland, Kvenland (north or east of the Gulf of Bothnia) and Finland. He sacrificed for the Kvener so that they could get good, easy-going snow. This blót should be held in the middle of winter. The time was therefore called the orrah month, Þorri. It was the fourth month of winter, which lasted from mid-January to mid-February. The Þorrablót, which is celebrated by the Icelanders, is derived from this today.

The already Christian King Magnus the Good was forced by the population in Trøndelag , which he actually wanted to Christianize, to take part in the festival of sacrifice in Ark, which is expressly referred to as Blót.

In Elder Gulathingslov, pagan blót is made a punishable offense.

As a rule, the “Festival of the Sacrifice of Uppsala” is added because the Latin text naturally does not know the word “blót”, but the process described fits the blót.

Source criticism

The Uppsala Festival of Sacrifice: It is the most extensive description of a Blót. Nevertheless, the course of events cannot be reconstructed from it. The value of this text as a historical source is judged differently in research. Some researchers consider the representation to be fundamentally credible, despite some errors. Others consider the depiction to be propaganda, which was based on the church-political interests of the Hamburg-Bremen diocese. In this context, Böldl points out that immediately before that, a number of monsters, hybrids of humans and animals, are named in the east of Suedia, which he describes as motifs and stereotypes known from ancient literature. In addition, the archaeological findings do not agree with Adam's report. Occasionally, many animal bones but no human bones could be found in the places in question. From this the conclusion is drawn that due to the cultural influence of the continent at the time of Adam von Bremen no more people were sacrificed, this his description is based on the stereotype of Christian representation of paganism.

The expression "blóta til árs og friðar" (sacrifice for a good (harvest) year and peace), which is usually interpreted as a pagan blessing, is of Christian origin according to Düwel. Long had already shown that the formula "til árs og friðar" appears for the first time in Glælognskviða (around 1030) and in Leiðarvísan (mid-12th century), both Christian poems. Böldl also points to Klaus von See, who accepts a translation of the Christian formula "pax et prosperitas". But equality doesn't always mean dependency. According to van de Leeuw, there is a ubiquitous basic religious concept, according to which the blessing is a very concrete power that guarantees fertility and happiness. Anders Hultgård also considers the formula to be an expression of an ancient pre-Christian cult language. Haid also concludes that from the rune ᛃ = "j" for * jēran = (good) year.

Types of Blót

There were three major public blóts every year:

  • According to today's calendar, the summer blót was celebrated on April 14th and was consecrated to Odin. With this Blót the summer activities began, the ship and trade trips, also the Viking trains.
  • The Herbst-Blót, a kind of harvest festival, which was under the sign of the god Freyr. The harvest was in. Winter was welcomed.
  • The Júl festival was celebrated in mid-winter . Its timing is difficult to determine. According to Nordberg, it was around January 20th. It should help the powers that be to overcome the cold and darkness. It was dedicated to Freyr. Freyr's sacred animal was the pig. Therefore, mainly pork was consumed. Håkon the Good moved the Júl festival to Christmas after the Heimskringla.

The ethnologist Nils Lid also knows three blots:

  • Hausblót in mid-October. Besides being a Freyrblót, it could also be a Disablót . Only relatives and friends were invited to this festival.
  • Miðsvetrablót "Mittwinterblót"
  • Sumarblót in the middle of April. In Uppsala, the Dísablót took place between mid-March and mid-April.

Oliver Haid lists four festivals:

  • at vetrnóttum "at the beginning of winter"
  • at miðjum vetri "at mid-winter"
  • at gói “mid-February to mid-March”.
  • at sumri "mid summer"

The oldest written source on the pagan Júl festival is Haraldskvadet by Þorbjörn hornklofi . It says about Harald Hårfagre that he wants to drink Júl with his men on the ship. This sacred drink was the focus of a festival. The church took over the drinking of juices. One should brew the beer at Christmas and bless it to Mary and Christ for a good year and peace.

As a private festival of sacrifice, the Elfenblót is mentioned at one point for Värmland : we know next to nothing about it. It was local and run by women and strangers were not allowed in. Since it was dedicated to the elves as omnipresent powers and it was run by women, it is believed that it was about ancestors and fertility. The only news of the festival is from Sigvat , the skald of Olaf the Holy . The skald makes a journey to the east, and then the following happens to him:

"Þá kom hann að öðrum garði. Stóð þar húsfreyja í durum, það hann ekki ðar inn koma, segir að þau sættu álfablót. "

“Then he came to another farm. If the housewife stood in the door saying he wasn't allowed to come in, she said the elf sacrifice was being held. "

- Heimskringla. Saga Ólafs hins helga chap. 91.

Today's Blóts of pagan associations in the form of Sumbel circles are at best based on the classic Blóts of Germanic groups described above.

See also

literature

  • Klaus Böldl: Eigi einhamr. Contributions to the world view of the Eyrbyggja and other Icelandic sagas. Walter de Gruyter, 2005, ISBN 3-11-018582-2 .
  • Klaus Düwel: Germanic sacrifices and sacrificial rites in the mirror of old Germanic cult words. In: Herbert Jankuhn (Hrsg.): Prehistoric sanctuaries and sacrificial sites in Central and Northern Europe. V&R, Göttingen 1970, DNB 458553492 , pp. 219-239.
  • Klaus Düwel: The Festival of Sacrifice by Lade. Source-critical investigations on the Germanic religious history. Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-900269-27-0 .
  • Wilhelm Grönbech: Culture and religion of the Teutons. (Danish: Vor Folkært i Oldtiden. Copenhagen 1909/1912). 2 vols. Darmstadt 1987, ISBN 3-534-00943-6 .
  • Anders Hultgård: Ár - 'good year and good harvest' - a complex of motifs in Norse literature and its background in religious history. In: Runica - Germanica - Mediaevalia. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-017778-1 , pp. 282-308.
  • Anders Hultgård: Old Scandinavian sacrificial rituals and the problem of sources. The problem of ritual. Based on papers read at the symposium on religious rites held at Åbo, Finland on the 13th – 16th of August 1991. Ed. T. Ahlbäck. Scripta Instituti donneriani aboensis, 15. Åbo, 1993, ISBN 951-650-196-6 , pp. 221-259.
  • Wolfgang Lange: Studies on the Christian poetry of the North Germanic people. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1958, DNB 452708419 .
  • Gerardus Van der Leeuw: Phenomenology of Religion. Mohr, Tübingen 1956, DNB 452744520 . (1977, ISBN 3-16-139942-0 )
  • Nils Lind: “Blot” in: Kulturhistorik leksikon for nordisk middelalder. Volume 2. Copenhagen 1957. Col. 10-14. For Finland: Matti Kuusi. Sp. 14.
  • Michael Müller-Wille: Viking Age Sacrifice Places. In: Early Medieval Studies. 18. 1984, pp. 187-221.
  • Michael Müller-Wille: Pagan sacrificial sites in prehistoric Europe north of the Alps. The archaeological tradition and its interpretation. Vandenhoeck u. Ruprecht, Göttingen 1989, ISBN 3-525-86242-3 .
  • Andreas Nordberg: Jul, disting och förkyrklig tideräkning. (PDF; 2.1 MB) Kalendrar och kalendarisk riter i det förkristna north. Uppsala 2006.
  • Rudolf Simek : Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X .
  • Great stone country: Norrøn religion. Myter, riter samfunn. Oslo 2005, ISBN 82-530-2607-2 .
  • Åke V. Ström, Haralds Biezais : Germanic and Baltic religion. Stuttgart 1975, ISBN 3-17-001157-X , p. 236.
  • Jan de Vries: Old Germanic history of religion. Volume 2, 3rd unchanged. Edition. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1970, ISBN 3-11-002807-7 .
  • Alfred Bammesberger: The morphology of the ancient Germanic nouns. Carl Winters University Press , Heidelberg 1990. ISBN 3-533-04230-8 .
  • Britt-Mari Näsström: Blot - Tro og offer i det förkristna north. E-bok 2004, ISBN 978-91-7297-033-5
  • Vladimir Orel: A Handbook of Germanic Etymology. Leiden, Brill 2003, ISBN 90-04-12875-1 .
  • G. Steinsland, Sørensen Meulengracht: Männniskor och makter i vikingarnas värld. 1998, ISBN 91-7324-591-7 .

Remarks

  1. ↑ Swedish dictionary database Om Svar Anhålles: "BLOT [... af isl. Blót, n., Bildadt till blóta (se BLOTA) [...]"]
  2. ↑ Alfred Bammesberger: The morphology of the ancient Germanic nouns. Carl Winters Universitätsverlag, Heidelberg 1990, p. 87.
  3. ↑ Worship sacrifice
  4. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary sinnverwandt bless : “The etymological meaning was thus' to mark (or affect in some way) with blood (or sacrifice); to consecrate '. "
  5. ↑ From the same root (but from different levels of Ablaut ) there is also the Greek phallos "penis", in addition to the German bump , bohle , bull , bollen ( Middle High German bolle "bud"), ahd. Bald ( bold ) "kühn", der Divine name Baldr ( aengl . Bealdor "prince"), next to it Middle High German bluost "blossom", nhd. Blust , aengl. blōstma , blōsma , blōstm , an. blōmstr "flower", got. blōma ahd. bluomo , aisl. blomi "flower". See Pokorny (1959)  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.indo-european.nl  
  6. ↑ Elof Hellquist: blota . In: Svensk etymologisk ordbok . 1st edition. CWK Gleerups förlag, Berlingska boktryckerie, Lund 1922, p. 49 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
  7. ↑ blotzen 2). In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 2 : Beer murderer – D - (II). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1860, Sp. 153 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
  8. ^ Preben Meulengracht Sørensen: Håkon den Gode og Guderne. Nogle comments on religion and central magazines in the tiende århundrede - and on religious history and kildekritik. In: Preben Meulengracht Sørensen (Ed.): At fortælle Historien. Telling history. Trieste 2001. pp. 151-167, 165.
  9. ↑ Heilagra manna sögur. Volume I pp. 646, 647.
  10. ↑ Kormaks saga, chap. 22 in Icelandic Sagas 4 volumes. Fischer 2011. Volume 3 p. 114.
  11. ^ Johan Fritzner: Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog. Volume 3.
  12. ↑ Gulaþings lov Cap. 29
  13. ^ Adam of Bremen: Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum. 4th book. Written between 1074 and 1076.
  14. ^ Tilo Brandis: Adam of Bremen: Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum. In: Kindlers Literature Lexicon. Volume 9. dtv 1974. ISBN 3-423-03149-2 . Pp. 3919-3920.
  15. ↑ Peter Sawyer and Birgit Sawyer: The world of the Vikings. Berlin 2002, p. 356.
  16. ↑ Böldl, p. 199.
  17. ↑ Düwel (1985) p. 66.
  18. ↑ Lange p. 119.
  19. ↑ Van der Leeuw p. 464.
  20. ↑ Hultgård p. 306
  21. ↑ Haid p. 16.
  22. ↑ Saga Ólafs konungs hins helga. Cape. 96 lists these three public blóts ( babel.hathitrust.org ).
  23. ↑ a b Steinsland p. 275.
  24. ^ Nils Lind: Blot. In: Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder. Copenhagen 1957. Col. 10-14.
  25. ↑ Oliver Haid: Annual Customs. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. Volume 16. De Gruyter 2000. p. 16.