Odin Stone
The Odin Stone is a monolith that was probably built in the 3rd millennium BC. BC on the Orkney island Mainland in Scotland .
description
In 1988, archaeologists found about 140 meters north of the Stones of Stenness stone version of Odin Stone .
The menhir ( English Standing Stone ) had an estimated height of 2.5 and a width of one meter.
The stone is known because it had a circular hole . He probably belonged as outliers ( English outlier ) of the Stones of Stenness .
Medieval tradition
Husbands and wives, who had shaken hands through the hole in the middle of the stone and swore the Odin Oath, were also considered married couples for a year and a day before the law (according to the old law) . The tradition is secured by a report by Daniel Defoe on the The Crown trial against John Gow . Here the right to refuse to give evidence of the wife of the pirate arrested on Orkney, who was married in the same way, was confirmed.
The Odin Oath
The "Odin Oath", which is occupied on the Orkney, represents the equivalent of the Teltown wedding apparently adopted by the Northmen and their successors . The Odin Stone was known as the place of the agreement of binding marriages. The orcadians met at the stone to take a vow by grasping their hands through the hole in the stone and saying "Odin Oath". The oath was an unbreakable pact, the wording of which has unfortunately been lost. From a paper from 1774 we learn: "This ceremony was so sacred that the person who dared to break the commitment was expelled from society". A case recorded in 1781 tells of a young man who abandoned the pregnant girl. He was asked in court: “You do not know what a bad man this is; he has broke the promise of Odin ". A mention of the Odin oath is also found in the old ballad The Play o 'de Lathie Odivere :
- "An swore bae him dat hang on tree 'to marry her"
- "He bragged near and far he won his wife bae Odin's Aith"
The reference to "hanging on the tree" refers to Norse mythology. The god Odin hung for nine nights in the world tree Yggdrasil.
destruction
The immigrant and farmer Captain W. Mackay destroyed the stone in December 1814. Its fields, on which the Odin Stone stood, among other things, was trampled over and over again by the locals. At that time, the stones still played a role in the everyday culture of the locals.
The stone fragments of the Odin Stone were supposedly used by Mackay to build his cow barn, but there is no reliable source for this.
Only the part with the hole is secured. It was used as a joint for a horse mill. In the 1940s, however, the owner of this horse mill also destroyed this stone during demolition work.
Trivia
- After the destruction, the locals tried several times to burn down Mackay's farm.
- According to tourist information, the father of the owner of the old horse mill got upset with the sentence
- “ You had no damned business to break that stone: that was the Stone o 'Odin that came from Barnhouse ! ”Responds.
- Translated: "You had no damn reason to destroy this stone: It was the Odin Stone that came from Barnhouse."
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ The Odin Oath
- ↑ Quote: The Odin Stone
Coordinates: 58 ° 59 ′ 43 " N , 3 ° 12 ′ 31" W.