North Germanic religion
The North Germanic religion is understood as the totality of cults and the underlying religious ideas that were widespread in the Scandinavian region in pre-Christian times .
background
Since the textual tradition only begins in Christian times, the original form of religion in the filtrate of the transmission can hardly be grasped. B. the Eddic Norns rather as an equivalent to the Latin Parzen . The Edda stories are literary episodes with gods in the lead role. They are, as the Dutch old Germanist and religious scholar Jan de Vries says, “speculation and poetic fantasy”. They are not necessarily representative of the collective consciousness.
Geographically, the records cover an area that extends from northernmost Norway to Central Europe. While some religious cults appear to have actually spread throughout this region, others are believed to have been practiced only locally. A cult topography or a regional religious history cannot be created with this material. A comprehensive generalization of traditions that relate to certain places of worship should be viewed critically.
Faith and religious practice can be described as far as the sources allow . The religion that was lived (then) was linked to a living myth in the practice of the cult. The separation of religion and myth results from the historical distance. It was only from the distance of tradition that myth became poetry.
According to Karl Marx , religions are “an expression of the social practice” of their believers. Since the northern Germans are arable farmers, the associated type of religion is the arable farming religion, as it existed as a type similar to other arable farmers.
Pre-Viking times
There are no narrative sources for the religious practice of the Stone Age and Bronze Age in Scandinavia. Rather, one is dependent on the interpretation of rock drawings , such as those found in the grave of Kivik , and on grave goods . Other sources are the archaeological finds at burial and sacrificial sites. In addition, one draws conclusions from known ideas of peoples of a similar stage of development.
According to this, it is assumed that the people of that time, insofar as they were Middle Neolithic hunters and gatherers , with a religion typical for this “social practice”, did not regard the phenomena around them as separate units, but assumed an inner mystical connection. Similar things were related to each other. This was also true between humans and game that could be hunted. So the hunt had to be prepared with religious ceremonies. One interprets the rock carvings with game that can be hunted in this context. This is supported by lines in the outlines of hunted animals, which can also be found in corresponding drawings of hunter cultures living today. The location of the drawings is seen as a further indication: they are often attached to steep rock faces and hard-to-reach places in northern Scandinavia, where the hunting population continued to exist after agriculture moved into the south (around 4000 BC). In Vingen near Bremanger (Western Norway) there are around 4,000 deer and reindeer drawings on a steep rock face. All animals turn their heads towards the water below the rocks. This is said to be related to the hunting method in which the animals were driven over the rock face. The grave finds from the early Stone Age are too poor to derive religious ideas from them. At most, the proximity of the burial sites to the settlements suggests a trusting relationship between the living and the dead.
Younger Stone Age
In the younger Stone Age, the grave structures and their furnishings indicate a pronounced cult. It is assumed that the hunters and gatherers were displaced as the arable farmers advanced . The first bog finds date from this time. They are seen as offerings. Food supplies in the tombs suggest that it was believed that the dead would continue a life comparable to earthly life. This can only be proven for the upper class, but there was no caste religion. There is no archaeological evidence of what happened to the other people after death. The group of people who are attributed to the battle-ax culture buried their main dead with less effort in a crouching position.
Bronze age
In the Nordic Bronze Age (from 1500 BC) burial mounds were built, some of which were mighty dimensions, and the custom of cremation emerged. She later disappeared to reappear. It is not known which religious ideas are behind the change. It is believed that the previous physical view of existence after death was replaced by a more spiritual view, according to which a surviving soul had to be freed from the body. Burial and cremation were carried out side by side or alternately. The Trundholm sun chariot and the circular rock carvings suggest a sun cult. An echo of this can be found in the Edda:
|
Skinfaxi is called, |
His name is Skinfaxi, |
The idea that the sun is pulled across the sky by shiny gold horses is common in the Indo-European region. According to Oscar Almgren , the rock carvings from the Bronze Age are usually ritual scenes: processions, adorers , etc. The ships are also not profane ships, but religious ship processions . Carrying the ceremonial ax around with an erect phallus in the picture on the right is supposed to symbolize fertility. If Ström is right about the fact that figures with oversized hands and a particularly large ax are supposed to represent the sky god, this would result in an anthropomorphic idea of god / god that exists in all agricultural cultures .
During the Bronze Age, the moor was the preferred place of sacrifice. The Danish finds in particular show sacrificed horses, cattle, sheep and pigs, and human sacrifices have also been proven.
Iron age
It is striking that in the Older Iron Age in the Norwegian and Swedish burial grounds the graves of women clearly predominated, while in the Viking Age the graves of men were in the majority. Some researchers assume that these are graves of women with cultic functions related to fertility cults.
One of the finds is the Hjortspringfund , which dates back to around 300 BC. Is dated. The weapons in this find were deliberately destroyed and so laid down. Most of the sacrificial finds show a similar picture until around AD 400.
The increased occurrence of boat graves and ship settlements next to or in combination with cremation continues the line from the Bronze Age. One imagines the dead going on a mental journey. The found boat and ship settlements find no correspondence in the mythological poetry of the time. Nor can there be any references to the other stone settings from mythology . It is noticeable that surprisingly few religiously recognizable symbols are found among the grave goods. Only here and there are Thor's hammer amulets, possibly from conscious traditionalists during the missionary period.
Orosius describes the sacrificial practice of the Cimbri and Teutons after the victorious battle of Arausio in 105 BC. Chr.
“Uestis discissa et proiecta est, aurum argentumque in flumen abiectum, loricae uirorum concisae, phalerae equorum disperditae, equi ipsi gurgitibus inmersi, homines laqueis collo inditis ex arboribus suspensi sunt, itgnia ut nihil praedae uiserictus, itgnia ut nihil praedae uiserictus”.
“They tore their clothes and threw them away, they threw gold and silver into the river, they smashed the armor, they destroyed the jewelry of the horses, they drowned the horses themselves in the raging current, people were with a noose around their necks Hanged up in the trees, the victor recognized almost nothing as prey, he gave no pity to the living. "
The destruction of the sacrifice in the sense of final alienation has probably always been given but is characteristic of the Iron Age. To what extent these sacrifices were reserved for war deities alone cannot be determined. But the destroyed offerings essentially consisted of military equipment. In addition, numerous human bog bodies have been discovered, the vast majority of which have died by hanging. This suggests that they were dedicated to Odin . Folke Ström points to another interpretation of human sacrifice, which is represented: Tacitus reports in the 14th chapter of Germania about the cult for the earth goddess Nerthus . She becomes the male god Njörðr in the Edda . This change is interpreted in such a way that it was originally a pair of gods in which only the goddess was of importance at the time of Tacitus, which is why the informant of Tacitus did not mention the male partner. In the Edda, the pair of gods is a pair of siblings. Some believe that the male representative was killed after the holy wedding to keep the sacred secret. An important religious element, however, is the round trip of the Nerthus wagon through the fields in the areas of their worship, which is supposed to ensure the fertility of the land. A parallel can be found in Ögmundar þáttur dytts : Gunnar helming, who fled the country, came to pagan Sweden, where Freyr was worshiped as the main god. He had a young priestess who administered his sanctuary. She asked Gunnar for protection. She kept him with her and he accompanied her next to the idol on her tour of the land to increase fertility. She becomes pregnant, the Swedes become suspicious after the initial enthusiasm, and he has to flee. This adventure narrative, which is in itself unhistorical and fluctuating, builds on the aforementioned round trip of the idol, which is therefore assumed to be known to the readers. It can be assumed that both the tour of the fertility goddess and the cultic intercourse were very widespread in this context. When it comes to the question of whether the hanged bog bodies were consecrated to Odin or to the fertility deity, the anonymous Historia Norvegiae should also be consulted. There it is reported about the Ynglinger king Domaldi that he was hung up as a sacrifice for the goddess Ceres. Ceres is the Latin equivalent of a fertility goddess that cannot be identified in Sweden.
The Germanic gods
That said , the following can be made out for the Viking Age :
These myths referred to under Nordic mythology can only be viewed with reservations as the basis of the North Germanic religion. Because on the one hand the names are undoubtedly very old, on the other hand it is largely an intellectual poetry of a royal warrior caste, e.g. B. the institution of Valhalla. Even the fact that Odin pawned an eye for the sake of wisdom may have been far removed from the original peasant society of the Bronze Age. Rather, it follows from the bracteates in particular that the shamanic side was probably in the foreground. The pessimistic worldview of Ragnarök is certainly not an original conception of a peasant society. On the basis of the votive texts one can assume a balanced and confident relationship with the fate-determining powers among the peasant population.
The toponymy gives further information: The gods Ullr and Njörðr appear relatively often as components of the name, especially in the pre-Viking era, which suggests great popularity, although the mythologists Snorri and Saxo Grammaticus hardly mention them at all. In the Viking Age, the component Thor, Frey and Freya is widespread. But the name Odin is used very rarely , which suggests that it was not deeply rooted in the population. The place names also contain completely forgotten gods, such as the goddess * Njärd , the wife of the god Njördr in the names "Njärta" and "Nälsta".
Though there were many gods, it was customary to have a particular god preference and often this would follow gender from generation to generation, as is the case for Thor and Frey in the Icelandic family sagas. Odin was the typical god of kings and chiefs. The peasant warriors could identify with the god of war Tyr, and Frey was there for everyone who needed a good harvest. There were also local gods and gods for special problems, household gods, whom St. Birgitta described as “empty gods” in a letter from the 14th century. These include Disen , Norns , Elves and other spirits.
Outside the cult were gods who only have their place in constructed mythology. These include Balder , Loki, and the giants who fight the sir .
Religious practice
The life of the devout pagan was accompanied by acts of worship. The North Germanic religion was a pure cult religion. It wasn't a matter of attitude. There are no signs of piety in the modern sense.
Archaeological sources
The archaeological sources are objects that have come down from pre-Christian times. They themselves do not provide any information about their use and meaning. Rather, they need textual references to be able to be interpreted. Where these are missing, as is the case with objects from the Bronze Age and the time before, the fact that the object is not suitable for profane use often (not always e.g. toys, exercises) reveals the cultic determination derive, but beyond that, no statements about the meaning are possible.
The oldest archaeological sources that provide information about religious beliefs are the burial places. Here, grave goods in particular allow important conclusions to be drawn about the concept of the afterlife. These are treated under death and afterlife . but also building floor plans and finds within the floor plans occasionally show a superimposition of religious rituals and profane festivals, such as in the festival hall in Helgö .
Further archaeological sources are the large cauldrons ( cauldron from Gundestrup , cauldron from Rynkeby ) and precious drinking horns, e.g. B. the gold horns of Gallehus . The cauldrons come from the pre-Roman Iron Age and were found in southern Scandinavia, but are of Celtic origin. Their specific cultic use is not known. Therefore, these sources cannot yet be interpreted.
Another group are the human-shaped wooden posts. They are only preserved in moors in Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein, Oldenburg and Thuringia and were made in the pre-Roman Iron Age and Germanic Iron Age. There are also two small bronze statues of gods in Viking Age Sweden. Bronze statuettes of Roman gods that were imported into free Germania are known from the Roman Empire. The consecration stones for the nautical goddess Nehalennia are regarded as a major exception, bearing an image of the goddess as well as an inscription that comes from merchants and boatmen.
Skin boats of Scandinavian hunter cultures with animal heads on the stern are already depicted on rock carvings. Three wood-carved dragon heads from the time of the Great Migration were found in the Scheldt. One of the heads still has the peg on the neck that was used to attach it to the stem. According to Ulfljót's Law for Iceland (around 1060), ships going to Iceland should remove these heads from the stems as soon as Iceland was in sight so that the land spirits would not be frightened.
Representations on the gold bracteates also give certain information about cult practice.
Text sources
The first Christian laws Gulathingslov , Frostathingslov and Gutalag, which forbid certain pagan rites, are an important source of text on the everyday practice of pagan religion . Especially in Gutalag from Gotland, in the chapter "af blōtan", anyone who does worship with food and drink that does not follow Christian custom is punished. Another source is Snorri's story of Håkon the Good in Heimskringla chapters 14-18. There the sacrificial feasts of Lade and von Møre are described.
Snorri's description
Håkon had been brought up as a Christian in England. He had been elected king at the Ting in Trondheim because he had promised to confirm their ancestral rights. At Frostathing he wanted to persuade the population to become Christians. They refused and asked the king to sacrifice to the gods. Sigurd, the Jarl von Lade, organized a festival of sacrifices at Ark. All the farmers in the area had to show up and bring their food and beer. Cattle were slaughtered, especially horses. The blood was collected as sacrificial blood in special sacrificial bowls. The divine altars and the walls of the temple inside and outside were sprinkled with blood with sacrificial wags. The meat was boiled in kettles over long fires in the temple and eaten by the festival community. The beer mugs were passed over the fire. The head of the feast blessed the cups and the sacrificial food. First you drank the Odin's cup, then the cups from Njörd and Freyr "til árs og friðar" (for a good year and peace). People also drank to their deceased relatives. The king sat on his perch. When the first cup was handed, Jarl Sigurd spoke over it the blessing of Odin and drank to the king. Then the king took the cup and made a sign of the cross over it. This outraged those present, but the Jarl reassured them that it was the sign of Thor's hammer. When they went to dinner the next day, those present demanded that the king eat the horse meat, which he seriously refused. When it came to almost serious conflict, the Jarl advised him to open his mouth over the handle of the kettle, which was very greasy with soot. The king wrapped a cloth around the handle and opened his mouth over it. Then he went back to his high seat.
For the Yule festival there was a sacrifice festival in Möre. Eight chiefs, four from the Trondheim area and four from outside, agreed to put an end to Christian belief. The four from outside drove to Möre by ship, killed three priests there and burned their churches. Then they drove back. When the king came to Möre, he was forced on the first day by the peasants to eat the meat of the slaughtered horses. He also drank all the souvenir cups, this time without the sign of the cross.
Source criticism
The source criticism came in the course of time to opposite appraisals of Snorri. The German German scholar Walter Baetke, who advocated extreme source criticism, set the tone until 1950. According to Düwel, the terms Snorri used to describe cult activities in no way go back to pagan times, so that the processes and institutions depicted did not exist. The term "rjoða stalla" (to redden the altar) is derived from the Old Testament, for example. The “erfiöl” (hereditary beer) mentioned in the Eyrbyggja saga is also of Christian origin, as is the formula “til árs og friðar” (for a good harvest year and peace). Snorri is an interpretatio christiana in that he depicts paganism in such a way that his cult practice predicts something Christian. In this way he is feigning knowledge of pre-Christian conditions that has long since been extinguished. Preben Meulengracht Sørensen objects that Snorri did not want to present the historical truth per se, but only wanted to give his interpretation of these facts, which naturally depended on the ideas and questions of his own time. He expressed himself with the help of Christian thought processes and terminology. The primary access to the past of today's historian consists of the syntheses that the historians of the High Middle Ages created from the prehistoric data available to them. Hultgård also points out that the earliest written fixation does not reflect the time of origin, so that the formula could well be older. Such a formulaic phrase does not appear in the authoritative Christian texts. Instead you can find the line on the Stentoften stone in Blekinge ( DR 357 ) from the 7th century: "With nine rams, with nine stallions HaþuwolfR had a good year". According to Weber, Snorri understood paganism as a preliminary stage to Christianity. The pagan acts of sacrifice must be seen in the light of Christian demon teaching. After him, Jarl Sigurd was the representative of demons to the Christian king. Under the mantle of friendship and well-meaning advice, the Jarl had thwarted the king's efforts to Christianize until he finally fell away from the faith himself. So it is a Christian interpretation of pre-Christian worship of gods, but it is far from being a poetic fantasy. The examples show that the tradition is not taken literally, but today more attention is paid to the separation of factual history and mentality history.
Other sources
The attitude towards the gods was completely different from that of the Abrahamic religions. One did not confront the gods as rulers of fate who could have asked for something. When the skald Egill Skallagrimsson lost his last son at sea, he wrote a poignant lament. Significantly, however, he does not address a god, but speaks of the gods who have caused him this suffering only in the third person. Even the traditional prayer sayings are seldom addressed to a deity; rather, one asks without naming a god for “ ár ok friðr ”, for “a good year and peace”, whereby with “peace” only the calm and security within one's own society is meant. Thorkel's prayer in the Víga-Glúms saga is an exception , where he addresses and addresses Frey directly as his special patron god.
Faith was expressed in ritual, which in turn was part of social life. This anchoring in observance of custom is characteristic of dogma-free religions.
People's attitudes towards gods and cult were very different. In addition to those who tried the rituals, there were many who believed in nothing. When a group of Vikings wanted to join King Olav on his very last military campaign, the latter asked their leader Gauka-Þórir if they were Christians. He replied that they were neither Christian nor Gentile:
"Höfum vér félagar engan annan átrúnað en trúum á okkur og afl okkað og sigursæli og vinnst okkur það að gnógu."
“We journeymen here have no other belief than that we rely on our own power and strength and our good fortune to win. That's enough for us. "
Similar statements have been handed down elsewhere. There was no personal relationship with the gods, as is a prerequisite for piety. How these people were embedded in the local society, in which the Thingplatz was a holy place, the law was under divine supervision, the perjury was unpunished because it was punished directly and directly by the deity is unknown. Possibly it was just a question of refusing to participate in the cults, or of being part of them but not attaching any importance to them.
Sacred royalty
The religious position of the king is controversial, but it is largely accepted. On the Stentoftenstein by Sølvesborg in Blekinge it is said that Hådulf gave a "good year". It is believed that Hådulf was a local tribal king. That would mean that it was part of the king's function to give a “good year”, that is, to ensure a good harvest. He was then an intermediary between the fertility deity and his tribe. The clearest form of such a sacred kingship can be found in Uppland, Sweden . The Ynglinger dynasty derived its origin from the fertility god Yngvi / Freyr. Therefore he was also responsible for the growth of the field crop, but also for inner peace and the luck of war. This view persisted for a long time among the people. Gustav Vasa still complained bitterly about this bad habit among the peasants. The Norwegian kings strove to tie their line to the Ynglingers in order to gain legitimacy. Snorri writes of Halfdan the Black that under him the greatest fertility prevailed, so that it was believed that his corpse would bring fertility to the land in which he was buried. Snorri also reports that King Domald was sacrificed to put an end to the bad harvests. In contrast to the “Historia Norvegiae”, he was not hung up at Snorri, but killed in blood and sprinkled the altar with his blood. Finds of bog bodies suggest that hanging and fatal wounds were committed together in the ritual regicide. The cultic connection is controversial. Originally it was believed that the king was held responsible for the bad harvests. Today this declaration is no longer in the foreground. Rather, it is believed that the king was the most valuable thing that could be offered to God in order to make him forgiving and gracious.
Even if the king was present, he was not in charge of the sacrifice ceremony, but the local chief. The king was only the most distinguished participant. Jarl Sigurd presides over the festival of sacrifice in Ark described above.
The public cult
One can differentiate between public and private cult. The public cult was common for a ruling district and was carried out on a sacred cult place, which was often connected to a thing place. The religious celebrations served to strengthen social cohesion as well as to strengthen the gods.
people
Archeology has so far discovered no signs of religious specialists such as a priesthood. However, name research believes it has found evidence of a priesthood. The word “vé” means “sanctuary”. “Véseti” is the one who sits at the sanctuary, the priest. Names that end in -ve are interpreted as the names of priests. The existence of minor temple servants at large sanctuaries is believed to be possible. In the Goden , a proven name in Norway and Iceland, secular power and religious office were combined. He held the thing and ran the trial. The word “Gode” is related to the word “God” and shows that the position of power has evidently been legitimized essentially religiously. The office of the Goden also included the maintenance of the holy places and sacrificial sites in his district and the holding of public sacrifices. He is said to have received a fee for this.
The "erilaR" and the "gudija", which can be found on some runic inscriptions, without its function being able to be determined more precisely, were also identified as religious functionaries.
Ottar Grønvik has recently discovered signs in the Hávamál that there were special people, the Þulr, who, after an initiation rite described in the Hávamál, fell into ecstasy and experienced a Unio mystica with Odin, where they learned secret teachings and spells. More details are set out in the article on Hávamál. However, a cultic function is not known.
The role of women in the cult can only be inferred indirectly from the sources and seems to have been very different from region to region and time. The background is initially that it is assumed that the Van cult is specifically old Scandinavian, while the Aesir later penetrated into Scandinavia. In the Van cult, men and women were given equal rights, while in the Asenk cult, men dominated. The war between Asen and Vanen is believed to be a remnant of this conflict. The description of the Nerthus cult in Tacitus is assigned to the Norse cult of Van.
In the Icelandic sagas women are often mentioned who presided over the sacrificial ceremonies and were called " gyðja ". They ritually corresponded to the male Goden. Most of the Gyðja mentioned in Iceland came from the Norwegian Trøndelag or from the surrounding area. Here was a center of Freyr worship. Sogn also seems to have been such a center. In any case, the unusually richly furnished women's graves are interpreted in such a way that the status of the women went far beyond their own family, i.e. that they were Gyðja . In contrast to a Goden, a Gyðja could not manage a thing.
Another female cult figure was the Völva . Their role in the entire cult landscape has not been finally clarified. From Völuspá and the Hyndlulióð it is believed that it can be attributed to a Heimdall cult that developed outside of the usual cult practice and was based on magic and divination. Possibly the cult goes way back to a cult for giantesses, female jotuns , a gender that Thor constantly fights.
places
Rivers, lakes and moors were particularly sacred and therefore particularly suitable places for victims. Apparently collective sacrifices were made here and repeated at longer intervals. In individual sacrificial sites for one-off victims, gold bracteates can often be found without it being possible to determine their significance. They have only been sacrificed in a relatively short period of time.
The existence of special cult buildings is also doubtful. However, foundations were excavated in Uppåkra five kilometers south of Lund between 2000 and 2004, which archaeologists have interpreted as belonging to a cult building and dated to around 200. They base this on several pieces of evidence: the extensive rat excrement indicates that the building was only used sporadically. Nevertheless, the building was obviously rebuilt more often than other buildings in the area. It was only demolished around 800. The dimensioning of the corner stub points to an unusual height. A metal beaker (from around AD 500) and a two-tone glass bowl were deliberately buried in the immediate vicinity of the hearth. The glass bowl was made around 500 on the Black Sea. Many pieces of stamped gold sheet were found in the wall foundations and the post holes. Many intentionally bent swords were unearthed near the building. But one cannot infer a general custom from this individual building. It is more likely that the large hall of the house was also a cult space. This is what it says in the non-historical Frithjofs saga Kap. 9: “The kings now sat in the house, but their wives warmed the gods by the fire. ... Frithjof went to the fire and saw the good ring on Frau Helgis' hand. He reached for her so that she dragged. The idol rolled out of her lap into the fire and burned; When Frithjof came to the door, he tore the ring from her arm. ”So the author assumed that the gods were previously worshiped in the king's hall. However, the source value of this point is not to be estimated as high, since the author z. B. no longer knew that Frithjof's ring was a bangle by seeing it on the woman's hand.
The Thingplatz was considered a sacred area. Shedding blood there was considered a serious crime. Law was a divine sphere in the world. Oaths are sworn on a golden temple ring, which the god wore on his upper arm, and one called Freyr, Njörð and the "almighty sir", which probably meant Thor.
Victim
There were three expressions for sacrifice, mentioned in stanza 144 of the Hávamál :
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veiztu, hvé blóta Skal? |
Do you know how to sacrifice? |
The word blót for sacrifice has nothing to do with “blood”. The most likely basic meaning of the verb blóta (in German about "blo (t) zen") is "to strengthen" or "to fill with magical power". One strengthened the god with his sacrifice so that he would be able to provide for fertility and well-being. Senda is sending the sacrifice to the gods, specifically sending one to be killed to Odin. But the word also includes the serving and distribution of food, in connection with the sacrifice, i.e. distributing the sacrificial meat to the sacrificial community.
The word sóa is etymologically interpreted as "appease", that is, a reconciliation. This is what the Ynglinga saga says about the death of King Domaldi:
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Þá er árgjörn |
Jutland's enemy
Sweden's people had
slaughtered |
But the word could also simply mean “kill”.
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At Bölverki þeir spurðu, |
They asked after Bölwerkr |
The word sóa does not appear in Christian texts, from which it is concluded that it was too heavily burdened by the pagan sacrificial customs. In contrast to the mainland, where Tacitus and Strabon describe human sacrifice, there are no contemporary written sources on how such a sacrifice took place. There is only one description of Snorri from Christian times , in which the residents of Tröndelag Håkon forced the good , who had become a Christian in England, to take part in such a sacrifice: the farmers brought all kinds of animals, sheep and above all horses, and slaughtered them . Their blood (" loud ") was caught in vessels, and tufts were sprinkled with it on the altars. Snorri equates these tufts with the Christian ones with which the people are sprinkled with holy water. Christian ceremonies are possibly already the basis of this description. This ceremony is also reported in other sources, e.g. B. in the Eyrbyggja saga. The horse was a prominent sacrificial animal, and the horse's liver, in turn, was a special piece that belonged to the king. This is evident from the continuation of the story. The next year the farmers force King Håkon to make the sacrifice in Mære. There he had to eat the horse liver. The horse's special position is also evident from the later Christian ban on eating horse meat.
While the atonement sacrifice, like that of King Romaldi, is rarely mentioned, the communal sacrifice with feast seems to have been the rule.
It is also reported of gods that they sacrificed and thus supported the order of the world. It is assumed that the large gold hoard finds in southern Scandinavia from the migration period are related to a weather catastrophe around 536 described in many sources. The gold was supposed to strengthen the sun, which was apparently darkened by a thick haze of dust throughout the year.
Human sacrifices are often mentioned in the sagas: In the Ynglinga saga it is King Aun who consecutively sacrifices his sons Odin in order to prolong his own life, which Odin also grants him. In the Jomsvikinga saga , Håkon Jarl sacrifices his son Erling to turn the battle in his favor. Even if the victims described are not historical, the texts show that human sacrifices were common in the early imagination. Of course, the Eyrbyggja saga also assumes human sacrifice:
“Þar sér enn dómhring þann er menn voru dæmdir í til blóts. Í þeim hring stendur Þórs steinn er þeir menn voru brotnir um er til blóta voru hafðir og sér enn blóðslitinn á steininum. "
“You can still see the court circle in which the men were sentenced to sacrifice. In this circle is Thor's stone, on which the backbone of those destined for sacrifice was broken, and you can still see the blood stains on the stone. "
Since the work of Hubert and Mauss, four elements are required for a victim: the victim, the recipient of the victim, the victim and the victim who causes the victim. If some elements are missing, according to this definition, there is no victim, even if the sources speak of victim. With regard to human sacrifice, a distinction is made between sacrifice and ritual killing. With human sacrifice the noblest member of the community is offered to God, with ritual killing it can be the cause of a disturbance of the cosmic order, which is supposed to be restored by killing without thinking of a divine recipient. The people killed at the burial of a chief were not victims, but were given to the dead to serve in the afterlife. In early Scandinavian times it seems to have been quite common for chiefs to have his wife or favorite wife buried with him as a widow. Whether the noblest people were really sacrificed is a matter of dispute. Among other things, one refers to the Kristni saga .
"Inir heiðnu menn Höfðu þá stefnu fjölmenna ok tóku þat ráð at blóta tveim mönnum ór hverjum fjórðungi ok hétu á heiðin goð til þess, at þau léti eigi kristni ganga yfir landit. Þeir Hjalti ok Gizurr áttu aðra stefnu við kristna menn, ok létust þeir vilja hafa ok mannblót, jafnfjölmennt sem inir heðnu. Þeir mæltu svá: ‚Heiðingjar blóta inum verstum mönnum ok hrinda þeim fyrir björg eða hamra, en vér skulum velja at mannkostum ok kalla sigrgjöf við dróttin várn, Jesúm Kristum. Skulum vér lifa því betr ok syndvarligar en áðr, ok munum vit Gizurr ganga til fyrir várn fjórðung sigrgjafarinnar. '"
“The pagans came together in large numbers. They decided to sacrifice two men from each part of the country and appealed to the pagan god that he should not allow Christianity to spread in the country. Hjalti and Gissur had another meeting with the Christians, pretending to offer human sacrifices in the same way as the Gentiles. They said: The heathen sacrifice their good-for-nothing and throw them off the mountain and cliff. But we want to choose the best men and call that a victory sacrifice for our Lord, Jesus Christ: We want to live better and less sin than the others, and I and Gissur want to go to our neighborhood and make ourselves available for it. "
It is now evident that this rhetorical juxtaposition of pagans and Christians cannot serve as a source for the fact that criminals were sacrificed in pre-Christian times. Other places also mention sentencing to sacrifice. Today, however, this is interpreted as meaning that they were condemned to be peaceful and then, like prisoners of war, could be used as victims.
Archaeological finds show that babies were sacrificed in the course of construction work and buried in the holes for the load-bearing beams, now and then apparently even alive.
Whether there was still human sacrifice in the late Viking Age is uncertain, although likely. Adam von Bremen reports about it at the big "blot" in Uppsala. There nine male individuals of all living things, including people, were sacrificed and hung in a grove that surrounded the temple. A large tree with people hanging from it is depicted on a tapestry from the Oseberg find . It should have been a sacrifice of Odin, since Odin was also hanging on a tree and Odin was a main god in Uppsala. It is also assumed that the rites of the cult acts in Scandinavia, as well as the funeral customs, were very different from region to region, so that general statements cannot be made. Thietmar von Merseburg reports on a festival of sacrifices that was held every nine years in Lejre before Christianization . 99 people, just as many horses, dogs and roosters are said to have been sacrificed. In the Orkneyinga saga , a cruel custom is described when Jarl Einar captured the son of King Harald hårfagres Halfdan:
"There they found Halfdan Hochbein, and Einar had an" eagle "cut on his back with his sword and detached all ribs from the spine and pulled the lungs out there, and he gave them to Odin to win."
From this it was concluded that it was an Odin victim. Others believe that it was a prisoner-of-war custom that did not in itself constitute a victim. Saxo Grammaticus describes the same procedure when King Hellas of England was captured by Siward and Biorn.
The private cult
The private cult only affected their own courtyard with those behind. It was performed on burial mounds or sacred stones. In the Gutasaga from the 14th century, the last eight pages of Gutalag, a law from around 1220, it is said that in pagan times sons and daughters and cattle along with food and beer were sacrificed. It shows that the holy places, depending on the region, belonged to a private cult on one occasion and a public cult on another. In western Norway, the private cult was led by women. For them there was also a special name hafgyðja analogous to Hofgoden.
The penis of a slaughtered stallion played a special role in many private rituals. It was wrapped in a cloth ("lin ok lauk") with strengthening herbs (leeks) and kept by the housewife and was supposed to promote the well-being of the entire house. The rituals performed by the housewife with this penis at certain times, probably in autumn, and the accompanying texts, were perceived by Christians as extremely obscene. A description can be found in the Völsa þáttr der Flateyjabók. The burlesque act around the ritual suggests that the ritual was ascribed a more mechanical, lawful effect that managed without devotion or other solemnity. Such a horse penis was also found in a woman's grave.
Drinking together is passed down as the most common cultic activity. In the descriptions, however, it is not about the intoxication and a connection to the divine sphere that it creates, but only about doing things together in memory of the deceased or to strengthen the supernatural forces of growth. Here, too, the descriptions are entirely devoid of solemnity. Rather, it was pure effect drinking to the point of unconsciousness. The Egils saga reports on the visit of Egill Skallagrímsson and King Erik the Bloodaxe to Bard:
“Síðan var þeim borið oil að drekka. For minni mörg, and skyldi horn drekka í minni hvert. En er á leið um kveldið, þá kom svo, að förunautar Ölvis gerðust margir ófærir, sumir spjóu þar inni í stofunni, en sumir komust út fyrir dyr. "
“Now they were brought beer to drink. Many mementos for the deceased circled, and a horn should be emptied for each memorial drink. And as the evening went on, many of Ölvir's men became heavy on their feet. Some spat into the hall, others went outside the door. "
And Egil's visit to Armod is described as follows:
„Því næst var oil inn borið, og var það hið sterkasta mungát; var þá brátt drukkinn einmenningur; skyldi ann maður drekka af dýrshorni; var þar mestur gaumur að gefinn, er Egill var og sveitungar hans; skyldu drekka sem ákafast. Egill drakk ósleitilega fyrst langa hríð; en er förunautar hans gerðust ófærir, þá drakk hann fyrir þá, það er þeir máttu eigi. Gekk svo til þess, he borð fóru brott; gerðust þá og allir mjög drukknir, þeir er inni voru, en hvert full, er Ármóður drakk, þá mælti hann: "Drekk eg til þín, Egill;" en húskarlar drukku til förunauta Egils and Höfðu hinn sama formála. Maður var til þess fenginn að bera þeim Agli hvert full, og eggjaði sá mjög, að þeir skyldu skjótt drekka. Egill mælti við förunauta sína, að þeir skyldu þá ekki drekka, en hann drakk fyrir þá, það er þeir máttu eigi annan veg undan komast. Egill fann þá, að honum myndi eigi svo búið eira; stóð hann þá upp og gekk um gólf þvert, þangað er Ármóður sat; hann tók höndum í axlir honum og kneikti hann upp að stöfum. Síðan þeysti Egill upp úr sér spýju mikla og gaus í andlit Ármóði, í augun and nasarnar and í munninn; rann svo ofan um bringuna, en Ármóði varð við andhlaup, og er hann fékk öndinni frá sér hrundið, þá gaus upp spýja. "
“Then beer was brought in and it was heavily brewed house drink. Soon there was a single drink. Each man should empty a horn alone. Particular care was taken where Egil and his men were. You should drink as hard as possible. Egil drank heavily at first, and when his companions could no longer he also drank what they no longer liked. This went on until the tables were taken away. Everyone in the room was quite intoxicated. Armod cried out with every horn he drank: 'I'll drink to you, Egil.' But his servants drank Egil's companions with the same encouragement. One man was charged with always bringing a full horn to Egil and his people, and he encouraged them to drink quickly. Egil persuaded his companions that they shouldn't drink, and he emptied for them what they should have otherwise. But Egil noticed that it was no longer good for him. So he got up and walked across the fireplace where Armod was sitting. He grabbed it by the armpits and pressed it against the seat post. Then Egil spat powerfully Armod into his face, into his eyes, nose and mouth. It flowed into his chest and almost took his breath away. But when he was able to breathe again, he spat too. "
One gets closer to the private cult if one uses the oldest written Christian law from the Gulathingslov : “ We are forbidden to make (pagan) sacrifices (' blot '), so that we are not allowed to sacrifice to pagan gods, hills and stones (' horge ') . “Not only gods to be named were objects of the cult, but also hills and Horge.
In ancient Norway, “Horg” means a pre-Christian sanctuary, an open-air altar. It doesn't have to be dedicated to a particular god. These altars were of great importance in daily life. a. from the nickname of St. Olav " horgbjótr " (= altar smashers). The Gulathingslov also forbids calling a place a "Horg". The Horge were evidently part of a fertility cult that was widespread among farmers. While the Asenkult apparently penetrated in the 1st millennium AD from abroad, perhaps from Germany, this fertility cult is certainly very old and probably Indo-European common property. The rock carvings from the Bronze Age and the phallic stones to be found all over Scandinavia and certain parallels in the Indian and Persian regions attest to this.
The hills that are called in Gulathingslov are surely the tumulus tombs. This indicates a kind of ancestral cult, of which there is no other evidence. It could also have been a necromantic or spiritualistic practice. In Borgarthingslov there is a stipulation that he should be peaceless who sits outside (i.e. at the barrow) and wakes trolls.
In the Christian manner of the king Sverrir the forbidden pagan customs are described in more detail: "If it is known by someone and this can be proven that he aufschüttet hill and a house makes that he" hörgr "calls or erecting a pole and" shame pole called " , ... “This pole was erected to mock the enemy and, if necessary, connected with magic spells. Egil Skallagrímsson set up such a pole (niðstöng) against King Erik and his wife Gunnhild . A later version of Gulathingslov calls magic, witchcraft, belief in prophecy, in beings who dwell in hills and waterfalls, sitting outside to inquire about fate, denial of God and the Church in order to find treasures in burial mounds or rich or otherwise getting clever, trying to wake revenants or hill dwellers. Eidsivathingslov deals with domestic cults and the possession of magical objects that can no longer be clearly identified today is a criminal offense. The Borgarthinglov also speaks of magic remedies: "... and when witch stuff is found in people's beds or pillows, human hair or frogs' feet or human nails or other things used for magic ..." and "When a woman is proven that if she is a troll, then she should leave the area with her belongings, since she is not to blame for being a troll. ”So-called“ white magic ”was also forbidden:“ A woman who believes that she can heal with forbidden means can pay three marks ... ". Another custom is "when a woman bites off a finger or a toe of her newborn for a long life ..." although it remains unclear whose life should be extended.
Soul and person
The soul was generally considered to be the immaterial I and the center of the person's spiritual faculty. It was thought of as being so independent that it could detach itself from the body and act independently of it. For the very complex idea there was the term "hugr" = "sense, soul, heart, mind, disposition, desire, inclination, desire, view, thoughts, memory, inner voice, hunch, brave mind and courage." Experience and interpretation of the dream as an independent form of action of the soul while the body is sleeping. When the soul freed itself from the body, it could also assume another physical form. This was called "hamnskifte" = "change of shape". "Hamn" was the material shell that surrounds the soul. However, this change of shape was not possible for everyone, but only for certain people with a special disposition. These were magical. Egil Skallagrímssons Úlfr's grandfather was endowed with this ability.
“En dag hvern, er að kveldi leið, þá gerðist hann styggur, svo að fáir menn máttu orðum við hann koma; var hann kveldsvæfur. Það var mál manna, að hann væri mjög hamrammur; hann var kallaður Kveld-Úlfur. "
“But every time it came to evening he got so angry that only a few people could get into conversation with him. When it got dark he used to get sleepy. It was said that he often walked around in a transformed form at night. The people called him Kveld-Ulf (= evening wolf). "
When the soul sought out another person on its journey, this approach made itself felt in the person. Usually he was suddenly overcome with tiredness, an irresistible need to sleep. Conversely, such sudden tiredness was interpreted to mean that a strange soul was approaching, usually with hostile intent. A related idea was that approaching enemies make themselves known through warning dreams. So if a man dreamed of a pack of wolves, he interpreted this dream that the wolves were the souls of hostile men. Wolves have consistently been viewed as a sign of hostility.
"Þórður segir: 'Bæta mun það vora ferð fóstri minn að þú farir. Segir mér svo hugur um að í þessi ferð mun eg þín mest þurfa ef mínir draumar vita nokkuð. ' Eiður mælti: 'Hvað dreymdi þig fóstri minn?' Þórður segir: ‚Það dreymdi mig að eg þóttist kominn til Hvítár í Borgarfirði og eiga tal við útlenda menn, eigi síst um kaup nokkur. Og í því komu í búðina vargar eigi allfáir og var mér mikill viðbjóður við þeim. Síðan réðu þeir á mig og vildu drepa mig og rifu af mér klæðin en eg brá sverðinu og hjó eg í sundur einn varginn í miðju og Höfuðið af öðrum. Síðan hlupu að mér vargarnir öllu megin en eg þóttist verjast og varð eg mjög móður og eigi þóttist eg vita hversu mér mundi vegna. Í því hljóp fram fyrir mig einn bjarnhúnn og vildi verja mig og í því vaknaði eg. Nú þykir mér draumurinn tíðindavænlegur. '"
“Thord said, 'That will benefit our journey, my boy, if you ride with us. I sense it as if I will need you especially on this trip, when my dreams mean something. ' Eid said, 'What did you dream, father?' Thord replied: 'I dreamed that I came to Hvítá in the Borgarfjord and was talking to foreign men, mainly about some business. Many wolves came into our booth, and I felt disgusted at them. They attacked me trying to tear me apart and pulled my clothes off. I drew my sword and cut a wolf in half, and I cut off the head of another. Then the wolves fell on me from all sides. I felt like I was defending myself and I got very tired and didn't think I knew how it would go. A young bear jumped in front of me and wanted to help me, and at that moment I woke up. Now it seems to me that the dream indicates things that are to come. '"
These dream figures were called "fylgja". Usually they appeared in animal form, the shape depending on the character traits of the respective person. But there were also human followers of their own family who brought warnings in the dream. In the Vatnsdæla saga it is reported that the sorceress Groa invited Thorstein to a feast in order to win him over by magic.
"Og hina þriðju nótt áður Þorsteinn skyldi heiman ríða dreymdi hann að kona sú er fylgt hafði þeim frændum kom að honum og bað hann hvergi fara. Hann kvaðst heitið hafa. Hún mælti: 'Það líst mér óvarlegra og þú munt og illt af hljóta.' Og svo fór þrjár nætur að hún kom and ávítaði hann and kvað honum eigi hlýða mundu and tók á augum hans. "
“Three nights before he was supposed to ride home, Thorstein dreamed that the woman who had accompanied his ancestors would come to him and ask him not to ride. She said: 'That seems unwise to me, and it will bring you bad luck too.' And so it went for three nights that she came and reproached him for not doing it, and she touched his eyes. "
Belief in fate
A special characteristic of North Germanic attitude towards life is his belief in fate. Accordingly, it is very complex and consists of many different elements. There is a conception of an impersonal principle that directs fate from outside. There is also the idea of a power of shaping life that is effective within man. There is a belief in a life span predetermined from birth. In addition, there is the idea that divine powers influence life and lifespan. The idea that at the moment of birth Disen determine the fate of the newborn is also often held. Originally it was the function of the Disen to support the expectant mother during the birth. This then resulted in the function of determining fate. This function then earned them the special name of Nornen . While the Norns Skuld and Werdandi have no tradition in Norse myths, Urd is regarded as the real and original power of fate. Fate was seen as inevitable. It could therefore not be influenced by prayers. It was a blind-working order that determined human life from outside. In this respect, belief in fate differed in principle from belief in gods. But there was also another tradition, according to which fate is a quality of man himself. This view is richly documented in the Icelandic sagas and is associated with the term “ hamingjá ” = “happiness”. This was a personal characteristic that was seen as the cause of success, happiness and its strength. Whoever lacked hamingjá lacked efficiency and courage. Hamingjá was not only related to an individual, but resided in a gender as a whole. In the Vatnsdæla saga the magic of the Groa fails due to a warning from the protective and follower spirit (quote in the previous section). Groa's reaction to this failure is described as follows:
"Þann aftan þá er sól var undir gengin sá sauðamaður Gró að hún gekk út og gekk andsælis um hús sín og mælti: 'Erfitt mun verða að standa í mót giftu Ingimundarsona.'"
"This evening, when the sun had set, a shepherd Groa saw how she stepped out of the farm and walked around her farm against the course of the sun and said: 'It is difficult to withstand the happiness of the Ingimund sons.'"
The ruling family had this characteristic most strongly. Harald Hårfagre was extraordinarily endowed with this luck, which was reflected in his luck in battle.
Festivals
The Christian Saga writers assumed that there were pagan communities that were bound to a temple and that the chief levied something like a temple tax at the temple. The place names on -hov (= temple) testify that there were temples, comparing this with the Gothic term Alhs, Alah means the pagan place of consecration, place of worship simply the temple. Wulfila used this term in his Bible translation in the 4th century a. a. in Mk 15.38 EU for the Greek "ναός" (Naós), Most Holy, the sanctuary. These locations are generally fairly central to the populated area. But on a linguistic basis, it looks like they weren't very old and only came into being during the Viking Age . It is also unlikely that it was a building such as the term “templum” in Latin sources, e.g. B. suggested by Adam von Bremen . More detailed investigations into excavations of churches have shown that these were built on the remains of older churches, but not on pagan temples. It is therefore justified to conclude that pagan cults were usually held outdoors. Since the chiefs were wealthy, the meetings may have taken place in their nave, but not in special buildings. Proof of this could be the longhouse in Borg . The festival hall in Helgö in eastern Sweden is an important testimony to the festival practice at that time . Numerous shards of glass vessels, 26 small gold sheets with depictions of lovers, a Krümme and a Buddha figure were excavated there.
For all that is known, the temple in Uppåkra was an exception. But it is also to be expected that the use of buildings for religious celebrations was very different from region to region.
What is certain is that there were ritual celebrations. Every festival needs something like a “maître de plaisir”. But even the question of whether the festivals were of the same type across the entire area, or whether they followed local traditions, can only be answered approximately, since it is difficult to separate actual processes from Christian-colored descriptions in the description of the festival. In any case, Adam von Bremen's description of the festival in Uppsala differs considerably from the sacrificial festival in Lade, which Snorri Sturluson describes. Adam reports about priests, Snorri does not. The Hammarsstein by Bunge pictured above represents a sacrificial scene for which there is no written counterpart. It does not make sense to doubt the descriptions as there is no counter information. If the multitude of Christian graves from the 11th century in Uppsala is used against Adam, we know from the history of the Christianization of the Roman Empire in the 3rd to 5th centuries that this is no counter-evidence for a simultaneous pagan temple in the same place is. If one discovers elements that seem Christian in Snorri's description of the rituals, it must be taken into account that there are certain archetypes of acts of consecration (sprinkling with blood) that do not necessarily have to be in a filiation relationship. It is obvious that in Uppsala certain functions were entrusted to a particularly knowledgeable person who can be called a priest, since one can assume that a rite that is only performed every 9 years has an increased degree of complexity in the celebrations.
The festivals were called "blót". “Blót” means “to strengthen”. The gods should be strengthened. Some of the festivals have survived:
According to the season:
- Herbstblót: It was celebrated around the middle of October. The main character was Frøya.
- Winterblót: It was celebrated sometime in winter and had the special name jól . Again, Frøya was the main character. It should have been a private fertility festival. Because in Gulathingslov it is prescribed that the beer to be drunk is to be consecrated to Christ and St. Mary with the saying “ til árs ok friðar ”, the pagan request for fertility.
- At the beginning of the fourth winter month of þorri , the þorra-blót was celebrated. It is the only one of the festivals of that time to have survived to the present, interrupted only by the severe famine at the end of the 18th century.
- In spring the Gói-blót was celebrated, which, like the jólblot, is associated with fertility rites.
- Sommerblót was celebrated around the middle of April. This festival was dedicated to Odin. With this festival the season for the exit and the campaign began.
- Álfablót (Elven Festival): We know next to nothing about him. 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 doorway, she said that he was not allowed to come in, the elven sacrifice was being held. "
according to the place:
- Blót in Uppsala: Adam von Bremen reports on the last phase of paganism . After that, a gold-plated temple with a large statue of Thor is said to have stood in Uppsala, with Odin and Frøy at his side. Everyone had their priests. Thor is sacrificed in plague and famine, to Odin in war and Frøy in weddings. Every ninth year, a solemn festival is celebrated for all landscapes in Sweden. Nine males of all living things would be sacrificed. Their blood is sacrificed to the gods, the bodies are hung in the nearby sacred grove. It is about dogs, horses and also people. Many songs would be sung. One often doubts the correctness of his description, because as a missionary he was interested in a negative representation of paganism. Only his readership was already Christian, which hardly needed to be deterred by paganism. His Christian background is not sufficient to generally cast doubt on his description, especially since scenes with people hanging on trees have been found in the remains of woven wall hangings from the time. Odin himself also hung on a tree for nine days to gain wisdom. The festival took place on the full moon in the month after the month of July. The festival was also connected with a big meeting of things.
- Blót in Mære ( Steinkjer ) in Trøndelag . Snorri Sturluson describes the festival in broad outline.
"Sigurðr Hlaðajarl var hinn mesti blótmaðr, ok svá var Hákon, faðir hans. Hold Sigurðr jarl upp blótveizlum öllum af hendi konungs þar í Þrœndalögum. Þat var forn siðr, þá er blót skyldi vera, at allir bœndr skyldu þar koma sem hof var ok flytja þannug föng sín, þau er þeir skyldu hafa, meðan veizlan stóð. At veizlu þeirri skyldu allir menn oil eiga; þar var ok drepinn allskonar smali ok svá hross; en blóð þat old, er þar kom af, þá var kallat hlaut, ok hlautbollar þat, er blóð þat stóð í, ok hlautteinar, þat var svá gert sem stöklar; með því skyldi rjóða stallana öllu saman, ok svá veggi hofsins utan ok innan, ok svá stökkva á mennina; en slátr skyldi sjóða til mannfagnaðar. Eldar skyldu vera á miðju gólfi í hofinu ok þar katlar yfir; ok skyldi full um eld bera. En sá er gerði veizluna ok Höfðingi var, þá skyldi hann signa fullit ok allan blótmatinn. Skyldi fyrst Óðins full, skyldi þat drekka til sigrs ok ríkis konungi sínum, en síðan Njarðar full ok Freys full til árs ok friðar. Þá var mörgum mönnum títt at drekka þarnæst Braga full. Menn drukku ok full frænda sinna, þeirra er göfgir Höfðu verit, ok váru þat minni kölluð. "
“Sigurd, the Jarl von Lade, was an avid sacrifice, and so was his father, Håkon. Sigurd presided over all sacrificial feasts there in Drontheim in place of the king. It was an old custom that if a blood sacrifice was to take place, all peasants should come to the place where the temple stood and that they should bring all the food they needed while the festival lasted. And for this festival all men should also bring beer with them. All kinds of cattle and especially horses were slaughtered there. But all the blood from these was called sacrificial blood, and the bowls in which the blood stood, sacrificial bowls. but the sacrificial fronds were made in the manner of explosive fronds. The altars of the gods should all be sprayed with these, as well as the walls of the temple inside and outside. The blood of the sacrifice should also be sprinkled on people with them. But the meat was to be boiled for a happy feast for those present. But fires were lit in the middle of the temple hallway, and kettles should be over them, and full goblets should be passed over the fire. But the organizer and leader of the feast should bless the cups and the entire sacrificial food. First one should drink the Odin's cup for the victory and reign of his king, and then the cups of Njord and Frey for a fruitful year and peace. After that, some men used to drink the Bragi mug. People also drank cups on their relatives who were already in their graves, and these were called memory cups. "
With all Blóts the deceased were remembered:
“Síðan var þeim borið oil að drekka. For minni mörg, and skyldi horn drekka í minni hvert. En er á leið um kveldið, þá kom svo, að förunautar Ölvis gerðust margir ófærir, sumir spjóu þar inni í stofunni, en sumir komust út fyrir dyr. "
“Now they were brought beer to drink. Many mementos for the deceased circled, and a horn should be emptied for each memorial drink. And as the evening passed, many of the men of Ölvir grew heavy on their feet. Some spat into the hall, others went outside the door. "
- After the occasion: The term “blót” is not used here, but “øl” (beer). Sacrifices were not only directed to God, there were also social events in which the so-called "drinking community" played a special role. The word "Øl" in Norwegian not only meant beer, but also "religious feast". The beginning of the life was the " Barnsøl " (child's beer), then came " Brudeøl " (bridal beer) and at the end " Gravøl " or " Arveøl " (funeral beer, inheritance beer), in between often also " Festensøl " (festival beer). The main function of the cult activities was to renew the cohesion of the cult community.
magic
Runic magic is reported for Norway and Iceland. In Sweden, too, the runes seem to have had magic power. In the Egils saga , the skald Egil is ascribed the knowledge of rune magic . At a banquet he was supposed to be poisoned by his host and the queen.
"Drottning og Bárður blönduðu þá drykkinn ólyfjani og báru þá inn; signdi Bárður fullið, fékk síðan Ölseljunni; færði hún Agli and bað hann drekka. Egill brá þá knífi sínum og stakk í lófa sér; hann tók við horninu og travels á rúnar og reið á blóðinu. Hann kvað:
Rístum rún á horni,
rjóðum spjöll í dreyra,
þau velk orð til eyrna
óðs dýrs viðar róta;
drekkum veig sem viljum
vel glýjaðra þýja,
vitum, hvé oss of eiri
oil, þats Báröðr signdi.
Hornið sprakk í sundur, en drykkurinn fór niður í hálm. "
“The queen and bard mixed a potion with poison and brought it in. Barð dedicated the cup with the mark of Thor's hammer and then handed it over to the innkeeper. She brought it to Egil and asked him to drink. Egil drew his knife and stabbed his hand. He took the horn, carved runes into it, smeared them with blood and said:
Runes carved into my horn:
Red as blood they were worthy.
Chose pithy motto
Wisent's main jewelry , you Disen :
Gladly good-
humored prostitutes Golden drink I swing!
What you, Barð, consecrated:
How it's going , now see!
Then the horn broke in two and the drink flowed down onto the litter. "
He also heals a girl with healing runes (the story is described in the article Runes ).
The Merseburg magic also seem to have been based on ideas that were spatially very widespread. Their visual implementation can be found on gold bracteates that were found in Gudme on Fyn. The ciphers of the Odins and Balder representations are the same from Denmark to Obermöllern in southern Lower Saxony and Straubing in Bavaria. Their myths were known everywhere. Another form of magic are spells against wound infections, or poisoning for healing and defense against damage. As with the second Merseburg spell, in the so-called Canterbury Charm (spell of Canterbury) against blood poisoning, a deity, Thor, is invoked to prevent damage, or this serves as a guarantee for the effectiveness of the spell. The saying comes from a manuscript from the English Canterbury of the 11th century, but the runic form, the clear reference to the Nordic myth, and the monosyllabic form of God's name vouch for the Nordic origin, probably from Denmark.
kuril sarþuara,
far þu nu funtin is tu.
Þur uigi þik Þ (u) rsa trutin,
kuril sarþuara.
uiþr aþrauari.
Kuril, cause of wounds,
you go now, you are found.
Thor bless (destroy) you, Lord of Thursen (disease demon),
Kuril wound-maker.
Against ulcerated veins.
Death and afterlife
The grave goods testify to a belief in survival after death. The deceased stayed with the family. The relationship between the living and the dead was mutual. The dead were a source of strength that had to be supported by offerings. These were offered less out of piety than in their own well-understood interest. The grave goods also show that the social stratification was preserved after death. The Germanic peoples knew no egalitarian society for the realm of the dead either. The weapons in the graves suggest that the afterlife was not peaceful. But the plentiful dishes show that celebrations were also expected.
The dead got everything they needed to continue their life there for the journey to the afterlife. This is how the dying Brynhild describes what Siegfried and her should be given at the stake:
|
þeygi mun ór for |
Our journey will |
Archaeological finds confirm such an arrangement of the journey into the dead, including the following into the dead. In the case of high-ranking people it was often the wives, even the cupbearer and the marshal. The enclosed means of transport, harnessed horses, ships and wagons, can be interpreted with the help of the picture stones. They were necessary for the various stages of the journey into the dead. In addition to the grave goods, deliberately broken objects were also found in southern Sweden, carefully put together near the burial sites and only slightly buried under the ground. They date from the 5th century. This is interpreted to mean that they should be given to the dead. They were saddles and bridles and weapons. These are victims' finds in Hösdala (in the municipality of Hässleholm ), Fulltofta (in the municipality of Hörby ) and Vennebo (near Roasjö, Västergötland ). They are known under the collective name "Sösdalagruppe". They are very similar to corresponding finds from the areas of the southeastern equestrian nomads (Huns, Heruler ). Similar finds were made in Untersiebenbrunn , for example . Ibn Fadlān describes in detail the burial of a Varangian prince among the Rus. However, it is questionable to what extent the rites described there are representative for all of Scandinavia.
A central element of the funeral for a householder was the funeral feast ( gravøl, arveøl ). It was held on the seventh day after death. Early Christian law attests that the funeral feast was lavish, sharply opposed to the excessive opulence that was viewed as pagan. The word component "-øl" (= beer) indicates the central element of the funeral feast, namely memory drinking. The focus was on the “ bragarfull ”, the oath cup. The emptying of the oath cup was a ritual and legal act with which the heir raised the claim to the succession after the deceased and to his place at the high seat. The solemn oath while drinking the oath cup for an intended deed proved the worthiness of being the noblest of his sex. The deceased was thought to be invisibly present while drinking the memory, and this strengthened fellowship with him. A continuation of the cult of the dead in the subsequent period cannot be taken directly from the sources. But the early Christian rights turn against rites that are performed on hills, which certainly also means burial mounds.
There were different opinions about the whereabouts of the dead. In the sources, Hel appears as the goddess of the underworld. Half of her face was blue-black and half of normal skin color. She was greedy and merciless; once she had, she never let go. This personification of the kingdom of death is probably not very old in the religion of the north, but probably dates from the Viking Age, although the word " hel " is older and in common Germanic usage and is probably related to the verb hylja = to hide. Even the gloom of the realm of the dead need not have been an original element. When Hel was waiting for Balder, it was said that she had festively decorated her halls. One would have imagined the realm of the dead as concretely as the barrow in which the dead lay.
Another idea was that the dead would die in a mountain. The mountain Helgafell in Iceland (Holy Mountain) therefore got its name. In the Eyrbyggja saga it says: “Thorolf Helgafell (Heiligenberg) called this hill and believed that he would go into it when he died, and so did all the relatives on the headland.” And later: “The shepherd wanted one autumn evening Thorsteins drive the cattle home north of Helgafell. Then he saw the hill open on the north side. He saw great fires in the hill, and heard from it a cheerful noise and the sound of horns. And when he listened carefully to see if he could distinguish a few words, he heard how they greeted Thorstein and his companions and said that he would soon be sitting on the high seat opposite his father ... “This idea is thought to be younger than that of Kingdom of the Dead of Hel and for a forerunner of Valhalla.
In the 10th century another realm of the dead encounters in the skaldic poems, Odin's “Valhalla”. There came those who fell in battle. They enjoyed each other and fought each other every day. Whoever fell got up again in the evening. How deep this belief went is difficult to say. It is a literary product and appears to reflect the ideal world of a warrior caste rather than an expression of religiosity. This is supported by the fact that women have no place in this idea. In Christianity, the kingdom of Hel was equated with hell.
In pre-Christian times, death also seems to have had an erotic component. It is said in the Ynglingatal, the first text of the Heimskringla, that the deceased kings lay in Hel's embrace. The skalds also use erotic expressions when describing the death of a sea warrior at sea: It is said that they climbed Ran's bed or they lay in the embrace of their daughters.
The revenant also played a major role in popular belief . If the deceased was not buried according to custom, then he could not find rest in the grave. The dead could then bypass and cause damage. Especially in times of crisis, many damaging events were attributed to the revenants. Therefore the dead man had to be killed again. A stake was rammed into the grave through the corpse to pin the body down, or his head was cut off to prevent him from getting back to the living. This also means that the grave itself was seen as the place of residence of the dead. That is why the cultic acts of worshiping the dead were performed there. The pre-Christian ancestor cult lasted a long time.
The name of a recently deceased close relative was given to a newborn child and it was believed that this was how the newborn's characteristics were passed on to the new family member. The name was an essential expression of personality. The living were a link in the chain of generations and stewards of the fortune capital accumulated by the deceased.
Christianization
While mythology remained unmolested by Christianization, and was passed down in detail by Christians, cult practice was rigorously suppressed. Olav the Saint in particular is reported to have suppressed sacrificial festivals by military means.
„Það haust voru sögð Ólafi konungi þau tíðindi innan úr Þrándheimi að bændur hefðu þar haft veislur fjölmennar að veturnóttum. Voru þar drykkjur miklar. Var konungi svo says að þar væru minni öll signuð ásum að fornum sið. Það fylgdi og þeirri sögn að þar væri drepið naut og hross og roðnir stallar af blóði og framið blót og veittur sá formáli að það skyldi vera til árbótar. Það fylgdi því að öllum mönnum þótti það auðsýnt að goðin Höfðu reiðst því er Háleygir Höfðu horfið til kristni. … „Það he yður satt að segja konungur ef eg shall segja sem he að inn um Þrándheim he nálega allt fólk alheiðið í átrúnaði þótt sumir menn séu þar skírðir. En það er siður þeirra að hafa blót á haust og fagna þá vetri, annað að miðjum vetri en hið þriðja að sumri, þá fagna þeir sumri. Eru að þessu ráði Eynir og Sparbyggjar, Verdælir, Skeynir. Tólf eru þeir er fyrir beitast um blótveislurnar og á nú Ölvir í before að halda upp veislunni. He hann nú í starfi miklu á Mærini og þangað eru til flutt öll föng þau er til þarf að hafa veislunnar. “… Konungur kom um nóttina inn á Mærina. Var þar þegar sleginn mannhringur um hús. Þar var Ölvir höndum tekinn og lét konungur drepa hann and mjög marga menn aðra. En konungur tók upp veislu þá alla og lét flytja til skipa sinna og svo fé það allt, bæði húsbúnað og klæðnað og gripi, er menn Höfðu þangað flutt og skipta sem herfangi með mönnum sínum. Konungur lét og veita heimferð að bóndum þeim er honum þóttu mestan hluta hafa að átt þeim ráðum. Voru sumir höndum teknir og járnsettir en sumir komust á hlaupi undan en fyrir mörgum var féið upp tekið. "
“This autumn the king [Olav Haraldsson (the saint)] received news from Inner-Trondheim that the farmers there held well-attended festivals at the beginning of winter and that there were big feasts there. The king was told that all the cups there were consecrated to the sir according to ancient custom. He was also told that cattle were slaughtered there, and even horses, and that the altars were sprinkled with their blood. Blood sacrifices had taken place, and the reason given was that they should serve a better harvest. Finally it was said that all the people were of the faith, it could be clearly seen that the gods were in anger because the Helgeländer had turned to the Christian faith. … [Thoralsi told the king:] 'I must tell you this truthfully, King, if I am to tell how things are. In all of Inner-Trondheim almost all of the people are pagan in their beliefs, although some men are baptized there. It is now their old custom to celebrate a festival of sacrifice in autumn to greet winter, a second in mid-winter and a third in summer to greet summer. It is a custom among the inhabitants of the islands as well as those of Sparbuen, Verdalen and Skogn. There are twelve men there who take it upon themselves to lead the festival of sacrifice, and now next spring Olvir is about to give the festival. He's just been busy in Mären, and everything that is needed to hold the festival has been brought there. ' … The king arrived at Mären that night, and there the houses were immediately surrounded by a circle of men. Olvir was seized there, and the king ordered him to be killed along with many other men. The king had all supplies for the festival taken away and brought on board his ships, as well as all household items, carpets, robes and valuables that the people had brought there. He had them distributed among his people as spoils of war. The king also had the men seized in their homes who, in his opinion, had the most part in these events. Some of them were captured and put in irons, others managed to escape by escape, but their belongings were taken away from many. "
The cult continuity is explored only recently the subject of the Scandinavian religion. A distinction is made between cult sites continuity , cult buildings continuity , cult administration continuity and cult content continuity .
The theory of place of worship continuity is the oldest and assumes that the Christian churches were built on or in the immediate vicinity of pagan places of worship . Gerhard Schøning concluded from the place names in his travelogue from the 1870s that churches had been built in the immediate vicinity of pagan sacrificial sites. Magnus Olsen followed suit in his research. That has remained the prevailing opinion to this day. He also postulated that the pagans on the continent had become acquainted with Christian churches and had built similar wooden structures for their shrines. It is no longer seen that way today. Rather, it is doubted that there were special religious buildings that were clearly separated from secular buildings. The Danish historian Olaf Olsen in particular emphasized that the pre-Christian cult did not necessarily take place in special cult buildings, but rather in secular buildings, especially in the chief's hall or outdoors. He also turned against the idea that there was an organized religious practice in pre-Christian times. This work led to a more nuanced consideration of the continuity problem.
The tradition that the pagan religion was a cult religion continued for a long time in Christianity. That was also expressed in the language. The pagan religion was called "the old custom" ( forn siðr ), Christianity was called "the new custom". There was no word for today's concept of religion.
The late syncretism
The syncretism that developed during the missionary period has not yet been well researched. In the tradition of Old Norse magic books one finds indiscriminate invocation of pagan gods and Christian prayer formulas. The goddess Frija / Frigg , mother Balder and magical goddess, is depicted on a bracteate from Gudme's hoard with a magic wand in one hand and a cross in the other. And in connection with primsigning , it is expressly emphasized that the pagan traders received the sign of the cross, but believed what they liked best. The gradual expansion from the episcopal cities into the rural areas led to pronounced mixed cults, which at best are reflected in the prohibitions of the oldest written laws Gulathingslov and Frostathingslov . Other signs of syncretism are the carvings in the old Norwegian stave churches , which have many pagan motifs known from the Edda and other myths.
Some Christian rites still show the previous pagan ideas: The funeral rites of the priest, for example, are seen not only as a blessing for the deceased, but also as a protection of the living from the revenants feared in paganism . The prayers and the sprinkling of holy water on the coffin have magical functions. The (Latin) funeral song (líksöngr) is considered a magic song. If the corpse is buried in the absence of the priest, he must immediately make up for the magic:
“En þa he prestr kemr home. þa scal staura niðr i kistu. oc steypa helgu vatne i. En hann scal syngia ivir liksong. "
"When the priest comes home, he should drill into the coffin and pour consecrated water into it and sing the líksöngr about it."
See also
- This
- Germanic religion
- Anglo-Saxon religion
- Germanic deity
- South Germanic deities
- Continental Germanic mythology
- Yule
Web links
literature
- Morten Axboe: The Gold Bracteates of the Migration Period - Production Problems and Chronology (= supplementary volumes to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . Volume 38 ). de Gruyter, Berlin 2004.
- Walter Baetke (ed.): The stories of the orcades, Denmark and the Jomsburg . Düsseldorf 1966.
- Inge Beck: Studies on the manifestation of the pagan sacrifice according to Old Norse sources . Munich 1967.
- Liv Helga Dommasnes: Arkeologi og religion . In: Nordisk Hedendom. Et symposium . Odense 1991.
- 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 Verlag, Göttingen 1969.
- Klaus Düwel: The Festival of Sacrifice by Lade. Source-critical investigations on the Germanic religious history . Vienna 1985.
- Detlev Ellmers : The archaeological sources for the Germanic religious history . In: Heinrich Beck, Detlev Ellmers, Kurt Schier (eds.): Germanic religious history. Sources and source problems (= supplementary volumes to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde ). tape 5 . de Gruyter, Berlin 1992.
- Charlotte Fabech: Offers found from Sösdala, Fulltofta and Vennebo. Eksempler på rytternomadiske riter and ceremonier udført i sydskandinaviske jernaldersamfund. (The sacrificial finds from Sösdala, Fultofta and Vennebo. Examples of rider-nomadic rites and ceremonies in the southern Scandinavian Iron Age society) . In: Nordisk Hedendom. Et symposium . Odense 1991.
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- Karl Hauck: Early medieval image transmission and the organized cult . In: Karl Hauck (Hrsg.): The historical horizon of the god image amulets from the transition period from late antiquity to the early Middle Ages . V&R, Göttingen 1992.
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- Oddgeir Hoftun: Kristningsprosens og herskermaktens ikonografi i nordisk middelalder . Solum Forlag, Oslo 2008, ISBN 978-82-560-1619-8 .
- Henri Hubert, Marcel Mauss : Essais sur la nature et la fonction du sacrifice. - Sacrifice: Its Nature and Function . Paris / London 1964 (first edition: 1898–1899).
- Not so Hultgård: Övergangstidens eskatologiska föreställningar (The eschatological ideas of the transition period) . In: Nordisk Hedendom . Odense 1991.
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- Margret Clunies Ross: Prolonged Echoes: Old Norse Myth in a Medieval Society . 2 volumes, 1994–1998. Odense.
- Klaus von See: Paganism and Christianity in Snorris heimskringla . In: Klaus von See (Ed.): Europe and the North in the Middle Ages . Heidelberg 1999, p. 311-344 .
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- Big stone country: Kvinner og kult i vikingetid . In: Kvinnearbeid in the north fra vikingtiden til reformasjonen . Bergen 1985.
- Gro Steinsland, Preben Meulengracht Sørensen: Mennesker og makter i vikingenes verden. (People and powers in the world of the Vikings) . Universitetsforlaget, 1994.
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- Folke Ström: Nordisk hedendom (Nordic paganism) . Gothenburg 1961.
- Folke Ström: Tro og blot (= Arv ). 1951.
- Snorri Sturlusson: Snorri's Book of Kings (Heimskringla) . Ed .: Felix Niedner. tape 2 . WBG, Darmstadt 1965.
- Fredrik Svanberg: Vikingatiden i Skåne . Lund 2000.
- Jan de Vries: Old Germanic history of religion . 2 volumes. 3. Edition. de Gruyter, Berlin 1970.
- Gerd Wolfgang Weber: Siðaskipti. The religious-historical model of Snorri Sturluson in Edda and Heimskringla . In: Rudolf Simek, Jónas Kristjánsson, Hans Bekker-Nielsen (eds.): Sagnaskemmtun. Studies in Honor of Hermann Pálsson . Hermann Böhlaus Nachf., Vienna 1986, p. 309-329 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ström p. 12.
- ↑ a b Ström p. 14.
- ↑ Ström p. 17 f.
- ↑ Ström p. 18.
- ↑ Ström p. 19.
- ↑ Vafþrúðnismál St. 12.
- ^ Translation by Heusler.
- ↑ Hällristningar och kultbruk Stockholm 1927.
- ↑ Sröm p. 24.
- ↑ Dommasnes p. 57
- ↑ Dommasnes p. 57 with further literature.
- ↑ Ström p. 28.
- ↑ Svanberg p. 49.
- ↑ Ström p. 29.
- ↑ Ström pp. 33/34.
- ^ PV Glob: Jernaldersmanden from Grauballe . Kuml 1956.
- ↑ Ström p. 38.
- ↑ Marold, p. 689.
- ↑ Britt-Mari Näsström: Blot. Tro och offer i det förkristna north . Stockholm 2002, p. 12 .
- ↑ Britt-Mari Näsström: Blot. Tro och offer i det förkristna north . Stockholm 2002, p. 14 .
- ↑ Ellmers p. 106 f.
- ↑ a b Ellmers p. 98.
- ↑ Ellmers p. 104.
- ^ Hultgård: Sacrificial Rituals , p. 239.
- ↑ Steinsland (2005) p. 37 f.
- ↑ Düwel (1985) p. 66-69. Wolfgang Lange has shown that the earliest use of this formula can only be proven in the Glælognskviða (around 1030) and in Leiðarvísan (mid-12th century), both Christian poems.
- ↑ Sørensen 2001, p. 159.
- ↑ Hultgård: Sacrificial Rituals , p. 244.
- ↑ Hultgård: Sacrifice Rituals , pp. 244–247.
- ↑ Hultgård: Sacrificial Rituals , p. 249.
- ^ Weber quoted from Sørensen, p. 158 f.
- ↑ Steinsland (2005), p. 38.
- ↑ Ström p. 45.
- ↑ Víga – Glúms saga, chap. 9.
- ↑ Ström p. 51.
- ↑ Arnljot Gellini answers a corresponding question from King Olav the Holy “only so much about his faith that he can rely on his own power and strength. 'And that belief has served me well so far. But now I'm even more inclined to believe in you, King '. ”Heimskringla. Ólaf's saga helga. Cape. 215.
- ↑ a b Ström p. 48.
- ↑ Ström p. 49.
- ↑ Ynglinga saga, chap. 15th
- ↑ Ström p. 50.
- ↑ Britt-Mari Näsström: Blot. Tro och offer i det förkristna north . Stockholm 2002, p. 41 f .
- ↑ Jan de Vries, Old Norse Etymological Dictionary pp. 648, 657.
- ↑ John Kousgård Sørenden: Personfornavnene og det før-kristne præsteskab. (First names and the pre-Christian priesthood.). In: Nordisk Hedendom. Et symposium. Odense 1991, pp. 207-208.
- ↑ Ström p. 44.
- ↑ Britt-Mari Näsström: Blot. Tro och offer i det förkristna north . Stockholm 2002, p. 96 .
- ↑ Anders Hultgård: “Runic inscriptions and runic monuments as sources of religious history.” In: Klaus Düwel (Ed.): Runic inscriptions as sources of interdisciplinary research. De Gruyter 1998, pp. 715-737, 718, 722.
- ↑ Steinsland (1985) p. 34.
- ↑ For example Steinvor in the Vápnfirðinga saga Chap. 5; Turid hofgyðja and Sigrid hofgyðja in the Vatnsdœla saga .
- ↑ Steinsland (1985) p. 34 f. with further evidence.
- ↑ Steinsland (1985) p. 37 f.
- ↑ Steinsland (1985) p. 40.
- ↑ Ellmers p. 100.
- ↑ a b Svanberg p. 48.
- ↑ uppakra.se
- ↑ Olaf Olsen: horg, kirke og hov . Copenhagen 1966. Steinsland (1985) p. 34.
- ↑ The story of Frithjof the Bold . Translated by Gustaf Wenz. Jena 1922, p. 31 f. The text is not translated correctly. Because it says "... raknaði hringrinn af hendi henni" (... "and tore the ring from her hand" and not from her arm)
- ↑ Britt-Mari Näsström: Blot. Tro och offer i det förkristna north . Stockholm 2002, p. 30 .
- ^ Translation by Felix Niedner.
- ↑ Hávamál St. 109.
- ^ Translation of Simrock.
- ↑ Britt-Mari Näsström: Blot. Tro och offer i det förkristna north . Stockholm 2002, p. 32 .
- ↑ Heimskringla. The story of Hakon the Good Cape. 17th
- ↑ Axboe p. 270 ff.
- ^ Translation by Klaus Böldl.
- ↑ Essais sur la nature et la fonction du sacrifice (1898–1899)
- ↑ Britt-Mari Näsström: Blot. Tro och offer i det förkristna north . Stockholm 2002, p. 49 .
- ↑ Britt-Mari Näsström: Blot. Tro och offer i det förkristna north . Stockholm 2002, p. 52 .
- ↑ Britt-Mari Näsström: Blot. Tro och offer i det förkristna north . Stockholm 2002, p. 56 .
- ↑ Britt-Mari Näsström: Blot. Tro och offer i det förkristna north . Stockholm 2002, p. 56 . with further examples.
- ↑ Hauge p. 145.
- ↑ Svanberg p. 48. Hultgård: Sacrificial rituals p. 232 f.
- ^ Thietmar von Merseburg: Chronicle, I 17 . In: Robert Holtzmann (Ed.): Scriptores rerum Germanicarum, Nova series 9: Die Chronik des Bishop Thietmar von Merseburg and their Korveier revision (Thietmari Merseburgensis episcopi Chronicon) Berlin 1935, pp. 23-24 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
- ↑ de Vries I, p. 411 f.
- ↑ Nesström p. 59.
- ↑ Saxo Grammaticus Book IX.
- ↑ "… blotaþu Þair synnum oc dydrum sinum Oc fileþi. Miþ matj oc mundgati."
- ↑ Ström p. 57.
- ↑ One of the stanzas spoken by the maid about the penis handed to her reads: “Certainly I could not hold back from / sticking it into myself when we were lying there alone in lust. / Accept this offering to Maurnir. / But you, Grim, our guest, take hold of Völsi. "" Völsi "is the horse penis passed around during the rite. "Maurnir" is interpreted as a collective of female fertility goddesses whose cult stood in contrast to the cult of Odisn, which is also reflected in the unwillingness of some participants to perform the rite. Ström p. 59.
- ↑ Even if the framework of the mission of Olav the Holy is unhistorical, the description of the process is considered to be old and authentic. For it contradicted the attitude of the Christian authors to the requirements of ritual activity. These would certainly have supplemented a gap in tradition with a solemnity and dignity familiar to them and would have limited themselves to presenting the content as reprehensible. Ström p. 58.
- ↑ He took a hazel stick in his hand and walked with it to a rocky spire that looked far into the country. He took a horse's head and put it on top of the pole. Then he did the feud parable, and said, "Here I present the envy rod and turn this insult against King Erik . And Queen Gunnhild" He then briefed the Ross head against the interior of the country and continued: "Even I turn this insult against the Guardian spirits of the land who live in this land, that they should all wander around and find no resting place anywhere until they have driven King Erik and Gunnhild out of the land. ”(Egils saga chap. 57)
- ↑ Borgarthingslov I, 16
- ↑ Walter Baetke: Dictionary of Old Norse prose literature . Berlin 1987, p. 279 f.
- ↑ Ström p. 142.
- ↑ Ström p. 144.
- ↑ Ellmers p. 102.
- ^ Bishop's History of the Hamburg Church IV, 26 ff.
- ↑ Heimskringla. The story of Hakon the Good. Cape. 14-16.
- ↑ The following is taken from Steinsland / Sørensen pp. 71 ff.
- ^ Translation by Felix Niedner
- ↑ On the Skadeberg stone (Stavanger Museum) from the Viking Age from Sola in Rogaland it says: The participants of the drinking community (Ølhúsmenn) erected this stone after Skarðe when they were drinking his arveøl.
- ^ Translation by Felix Niedner. “Wisents main jewelry” = horn. “Whores” = the girls who pour the dishes.
- ↑ Hauck p. 450.
- ↑ Sigurðarkviða in skamma St. 69, 70.
- ^ Translation by Simrock.
- ↑ Detlev Ellmers: "Franconian royal ceremony also in Valhalla." In: Contributions to Schleswiger Stadtgeschichte 25, 1980, pp. 115–126.
- ↑ Ellmers p. 99.
- ↑ Fabech p. 106.
- ↑ Ström p. 157.
- ↑ Steinsland / Sørensen p. 91.
- ↑ Ström p. 159 f.
- ↑ Ström p. 160.
- ↑ a b Steinsland / Sørensen p. 92.
- ↑ Also with Saxo Grammaticus it is said in the third book that Hel appeared to the badly injured demigod Balder in a dream and announced to him that she would "rest in his arms the next day."
- ↑ Steinsland / Sørensen p. 87.
- ↑ Ström p. 149.
- ^ Translation by Felix Niedner
- ↑ Gerhard Schøning: Travel gjennem Norge in 1773, 1774 and 1775. Trondheim 1910. Vol II..
- ↑ Magnus Olsen: Ættegård og Helligdom: norske stedsnavn i Socially og religionshistorisk belyst. Oslo 1926.
- ↑ Olaf Olsen: Hørg, hov og kirke: historiske og arkeologiske vikingetidsstudier . Copenhagen 1966.
- ↑ Røskaft p. 228.
- ↑ Hauck p. 464.
- ↑ Hultgård: Övergangstidens ... p. 164.
