30 – Crisis Rituals

Jens Peter schjødt

according to the classification suggested in (è25),1 ‘Crisis Rituals’ is one of the main categories in religions worldwide (cf. also DuBois 2006: 74). They are characterized by the aim of bringing a negative condition back to normal.2 The goal of these rituals may be oriented towards an individual or a collective, that is, poor health on the part of an individual or threats against the whole of society such as war or famine. Divination is often an important part of crisis rituals: in order to detect the reason for a crisis and thus the most efficient means to solve it, it is necessary to obtain knowledge of what or who has caused it. This is also what we see in some of the examples dealt with below.

1 The chapter (è25) in general should be seen as an introduction to the present and the following two chapters (è31–32). Many examples of various rituals and ritual features are mentioned there and will therefore not be treated in the following chapters. Especially for rituals of a magical kind, which may also be seen as crisis rituals, we refer to (è26).

2 ‘Crisis’ here should be understood in a rather narrow sense. from a certain point of view, we could argue that all rituals are about crises, since cyclical rituals, as well as many rituals of passage, exist in order to prevent crises that can, to a certain extent at least, be anticipated.

one of the main characteristics of crisis rituals, however, as we saw in (è25), is that they are not predictable. Therefore, the rituals to be treated here are rituals that are related to crises that exist here and now. as genuine crisis rituals, however, we must also view rituals which are performed with the aim of preventing failure in situations that might be immediately dangerous, such as long sea journeys or other risky tasks. another category here could be the deposits made in connection with moving into new buildings, perhaps forming new households (è26).

Whether we should see the performance of such rituals as an attempt to prevent crises or as a kind of rituals of passage is not easy to determine, which show that models are not reality.

Jens Peter Schjødt, Professor of the study of Religion, aarhus University The Pre-Christian Religions of the North: History and Structures, Volume ii, ed. by Jens Peter schjødt, John lindow, and anders andrén, PCRN-HS 2 (Turn hout: Brepols, 2020) pp. 781–796

BREPols

PUBlisHERs

10.1484/M.PCRN-EB.5.116957

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Sources

as is frequently the case, we do not have a great many descriptions of such rituals, although we do have many hints scattered about in the germanic and Norse sources that may be dealing with crisis rituals; most of them, as is to be expected, concern public rather than private rituals.3 We cannot touch on all the examples here and will only treat a small selection of those detailed enough for a ritual analysis. a special problem is that in many descriptions of rituals we are not told precisely why they are performed, which of course creates problems when we attempt to classify the individual rituals. for instance, we are told in adam of Bremen, as in many other sources, that when war is impending, sacrifices are performed to Óðinn, which would certainly indicate a crisis ritual,4

whereas in Hákonar saga goða ch. 14 (è31), we get the impression that the toasts for victory are part of a yearly ritual. Therefore, two rituals performed in honour of Óðinn and with the same purpose — namely, to gain victory —

need not be performed in the same way or in the same context. as we also see from these two sources, neither narrates how the particular ritual is performed, and this is the typical situation: even though there are, as mentioned, hints to be found in sagas and other source categories, the information on concrete details is scanty. We do have a few examples, however, which inform us rather well about possible ways in which such rituals could be carried out, although these are not exactly detailed either.

The problem here is, as is often the case when rituals are mentioned in the sources, that only very few instances provide us with anything like a ritual sequence that can be analysed according to the structure outlined in (è25).

Probably also a great many archaeological finds are remnants of such rituals, but there is rarely any way of ascertaining the motivation for the individual ritual from archaeological evidence alone. However, one form of sacrifice, which could be somehow connected to crises, comprises the weapon deposits in bogs in southern scandinavia. although these should probably be seen as thank offerings rather than as genuine crisis rituals, we can say for sure that they are not 3 again, it must be emphasized that the borders between private and public rituals are not always easy to draw. There certainly are examples which undoubtedly belong to one category or the other, but, for instance, one of the most famous descriptions of a crisis ritual found in the textual corpus — namely, that of the seiðr-woman in greenland from Eiríks saga rauða

— is not very easy to classify. We shall return shortly to this below.

4 see, for instance, Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar ch. 27 (cf. Vellekla st. 29), Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks ch. 7, etc.

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figure 30.1. ship from the

weapon deposit at Nydam

in southern Jylland. Nydam

is one of about forty sites

in southern scandinavia

where weapons and other

equipments were deposited

at irregular intervals,

indicating that the deposits

were parts of crisis rituals.

Museum für archäologie

schloss gottorf, schleswig.

Photo: anders andrén.

cyclical rituals, carried out annually, since the distance in time between them can be more than a hundred years (cf. ilkjær 2000, 2003). Thank offerings may be linked to all of the three above-mentioned main categories of rituals (è25), but the weapon deposits are surely related to some sort of crisis and its elimina-tion: namely, the battle that had taken place and the victorious outcome. Even so, it is hardly possible from this evidence to come close to any sort of detailed reconstruction of how the ritual was carried out. We do know, of course, that the weapons were destroyed, most likely within a ritual frame, and that they were gathered into bundles and wrapped in cloth (ilkjær 2000: 14), but this is still not very much when seeking to reconstruct the religious part of the ritual.

There are other hints at crisis rituals in the germanic sources, for instance in Tacitus’s Historiae 4.60–70, dealing with Veleda of the Bructes, and also other authors from antiquity who mention seeresses, such as strabo’s account ( Geography 7.2.3) of the Cimbrian seeresses’ sacrifices of war prisoners. also supporting the archaeological interpretations of the weapon deposits is orosius’s account of how the Cimbri destroyed the booty they had acquired during battles ( Historia adversus paganos 5.16). But nowhere do we get a detailed description of the rituals performed (è6, è12, è25).

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There is no doubt that crisis rituals of various kinds were performed whenever a crisis was threatening, and also when it had been eliminated, as we know from most religious societies; nor is there any doubt that they were very important. However, because of the source situation, we will discuss just a few textual examples from which it is actually possible to reconstruct at least parts of the rituals that were performed on the occasion of crises.5

Private Rituals

as mentioned, we know less about private rituals than about public ones, and many of those we do know are perhaps better described as ‘magical’ acts. one example of this is from Egils saga Skallagrímssonar ch. 72. Egill is visiting a man called Þorfinnr; while he is there, he sees a sick woman lying on the cross-bench, and he asks what is wrong with her. Þorfinnr answers that she is his daughter who has been ill for some time. Egill asks if anyone has attempted to find out what is wrong with her, and he is told that a farmer’s son has carved some runes in order for her to be cured. When Egill has finished eating, he goes to the woman and demands that she be lifted out of the bed after which he examines the bed. Here, he finds a whalebone with runes on it and, having read them, he scrapes them off and burns the whalebone. Then he speaks a verse ( lausavísa, 38):

skalat maðr rúnar rísta

nema ráða vel kunni

þat verðr mǫrgum manni,

es of myrkvan staf villisk;

sák á telgðu talkni

tíu launstafi ristna

þat hefr lauka lindi

langs ofrtrega fengit.

(No man should carve runes

unless he can read them well

many a man goes astray

around those dark letters.

on the whalebone i saw

ten secret letters carved

from them the linden tree [woman]

took her long harm.) (p. 143)

5 other examples are mentioned by de Vries (1956–57a: i, 314–15).

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after that, Egill carves some new runes,

which he places under the pillow; imme-

diately, the woman thinks she has awak-

ened from a sleep and now feels well

again, although still weak, and her par-

ents of course are very happy.

apart from learning important things

about how runes were perceived and

how they could be used, both in creating

and solving a crisis, which is most clearly

expressed in the stanza quoted, we are

also given some details about that sort

of ritual. as was probably the case with

many private crisis rituals, carried out

within the household, it does not appear

very spectacular, but the structure is nev-

ertheless similar to all other rituals of this

kind: there is an individual crisis, and the

ritual then consists in finding the reason

for it and eventually eliminating it. We

do not hear about the involvement of

any beings from the other World, which

was probably also very typical for ritu-

als of this type — and one of the reasons

why they are so often seen as ‘magic’. But

there is no doubt that some influences

from the other World should be seen in

the runes. as we are told in the stanza,

the runes carved first are regarded as

‘dark letters’ ( stafir), meaning that they

are attributed some numinous power in figure 30.2. a staff of yew from a bog at themselves, and the goal of the ritual is Hemdrup in skarp salling in Himmerland, northern Jylland, dated to the ninth or

to manipulate this numinous power. The tenth century (DR EM85;350, Samnordisk fact that runes are involved may be an runtextdatabas). on the staff a rhombic pattern indication that behind the ritual power is carved, with four dog-like animals, a human lurks Óðinn, god of the runes.

figure, and two runic inscriptions in the rhombs.

in general, we can assume that curing The interpretation of the texts is disputed, but one inscription includes the word ‘flying’,

illnesses would be the kind of crisis ritu-

which may refer to fever or to seiðr. Photo:

als most often performed in the private Erik Moltke, Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen.

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sphere, and apparently several runic inscriptions support this idea, although the interpretations are self-evidently uncertain. Examples of this, according to the interpretations by McKinnell, simek, and Düwel, are the Ribe skull fragment (McKinnell and others 2004: 50–51), and the Hemdrup rune-pin (McKinnell and others 2004: 66–67), both from Jylland. There is obviously no way for us to get information about the ritual contexts of these carvings, but it is not unlikely that magic formulas or stanzas, like the one Egill spoke, may have accompanied the carving. But as the saga indicates, there is no reason to imagine that any spectacular ritual actions were performed in these contexts.

Whereas this ritual evidently belongs to the private sphere, our next example is more doubtful. it is definitely much more spectacular, and there are many more people attending it. on the scale ‘private — public’, we are clearly moving towards the public, although we are still far from the big public gatherings we hear about from, for instance, adam of Bremen.

This ritual is the famous description in Eiríks saga rauða ch. 4 of a seiðr-

woman in greenland performing a divinatory ritual because of a crisis linked to climate and the resulting shortage of food.6 Because of the amount of detail in the description and because it is referred to often throughout this entire work, it will be quoted in full (skálholtsbók version):

Í þenna tíma var hallæri mikit á grœnlandi; hǫfðu menn fengit lítit fang þeir sem í veiðiferðir hǫfðu farit, en sumir eigi aptr komnir.

sú kona var þar í byggð er Þorbjǫrg hét; hon var spákona; hon var kǫllut lítilvǫlva.

Hon hafði átt sér níu systr, ok váru allar spákonur ok var hon ein eptir á lífi. Þat var háttr Þorbjargar á vetrum at hon fór á veizlur, ok buðu men henni heim, mest þeir er forvitni var á um forlǫg sín eða árferd. ok með því at Þorkell var þar mestr bóndi, þá þotti til hans koma at vita hvenar létta mundi óárani þessu sem yfir stóð.

Þorkell býðr spákonu þangat, ok er henni búin góð viðtaka, sem siðr var til, þá er við þess háttar konu skyldi taka: Búit var henni hásæti ok lagt undir hœgindi; þar skyldi í vera hœnsafiðri. En er hon kom um kveldit ok sá maðr er í móti henni var sendr, þá var hon svá búin, at hon hafði yfir sér tyglamǫttul blán ok var settr steinum allt í skaut ofan; hon hafði á hálsi sér glertǫlur; hon hafði á hǫfði lamb-skinnskofra svartan ok við innan kattskinn hvítt. staf hafði hon í hendi ok var á knappr; hann var búinn messingu ok settr steinum ofan um knappinn. Hon hafði um sik hnjóskulinda, ok var þar á skjóðupungr mikill; vardveitti hon þar í taufr þau er hon þurfti til fróðleiks at hafa. Hon hafði kálfskinnsskúa loðna á fótum ok i þvengi langa ok sterkliga ok látúnsknappar miklir á endunum. Hon hafði á hǫndum sér kattskinnsglófa ok váru hvítir innan ok loðnir.

6 The same motivation for a ritual performance, including sacrifice, occurs for instance in Reykdæla saga ch. 7.

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En er hon kom inn þótti ǫllum mǫnnum skylt at velja henni sœmiligar kveðjur, en hon tók því eptir [því] sem henni váru menn skapfelldir til. Tók Þorkell bóndi í hǫnd vísendakonunni og leiddi hann hana til þess sætis er henni var búit. Þorkell bað hana renna þar augum yfir hjǫrð ok hjú ok hýbýli.

Hon var fámálug um allt.

Borð váru upp tekin um kveldit, ok er frá því at segja hvat spákonunni var matbúit: henni var gǫrr grautr af kiðjamjólk en til matar henni váru búin hjǫrtu ór allskonar kykvendum þeim sem þar váru til. Hon hafdi messingarspón ok kníf tannskeptan, tvíhólkaðan af eiri, ok var af brotinn oddrinn.

En er borð váru upp tekin gengr Þorkell bóndi fyrir Þorbjǫrgu ok spyrr hversu henni virðisk þar hýbýli eða hættir manna eða hversu fljótliga hon mun þess vís verða er hann hefir spurt eptir ok menn vildu vita. Hon kvezk þat ekki mundu upp bera fyrr en um morgininn, þá er hon hefði sofit þar um nóttina.

En eptir um daginn at áliðnum degi var henni veittr sá umbúningr sem hon skyldi hafa þá er hon skyldi seiðinn fremja. Bað hon fá sér konur þær sem kynni frœði þat er þyrfti til seiðinn at fremja ok Varðlokur7 heita¸en þær konur fundusk eigi. Þá var at leitat um bœinn, ef nǫkkur kynni. Þá svaraði guðríðr: ‘Hvarki em ek fjǫlkunnig né vísendakona, en þó kenndi Halldís fóstra mín mér á Íslandi þat frœði er hon kallaði Varðlokur’.

Þorbjǫrg svaraði: ‘Þá ertu fróðari en ek ætlaða’. guðríðr segir: ‘Þetta er þess konar atferli at ek ætla í øngum atbeina at vera, þvíat ek em kona kristin’. Þorbjǫrg svarar: ‘svá mætti verða at þu yrðir mǫnnum at liði hér um, en værir kona ekki at verri. En við Þorkel met ek at fá þá hluti hér til, er þarf.’

Þorkell herðir nú at guðríði, en hon kvezk mundu gera sem hann vildi. slógu þá konur hring um hjallinn, en Þorbjǫrg sat á uppi. Kvað guðríðr þá kvæðit svá fagrt ok vel, at engi þóttisk fyrr heyrt hafa með fegri raust kveðit, sá er þar var. spákona þakkar henni kvæðit; hon sagði margar náttúrur ‘higat hafa at sótt ok þótti fagrt at heyra þat er kveðit var, er áðr vildi frá oss snúask ok oss øngva hlýðni veita. En mér eru nú margir þeir hlutir auðsýnir er áðr var bæði ek ok aðrir dulðir. En ek kann þat at segja, at hallæri þetta mun ekki haldask lengr ok mun batna árangr sem várar.

sóttarfar þat sem lengi hefir á legit mun batna vánu bráðara. En þér guðríðr, skal ek launa í hǫnd liðsinni þat sem oss hefir at þér staðit, þvíat þín forlǫg eru mér nú ǫll gløggsæ. Þat muntu gjaforð fá hér á grœnlandi er sœmiligast er til, þóat þér verði 7 The two manuscripts S ( Skálholtsbók) and H ( Hauksbók) have different spellings of the word: namely Varðlokur and Varðlokkur (both normalized). The first element must be a composite form of the masculine noun vǫrðr, which may mean a ‘ward’, perhaps a vættr of some kind, or, as argued by Dag strömbäck, a ‘free soul’ (strömbäck 1935: 130). Depending on whether we choose the form given in S or H of the second element, it will mean to ‘enclose the spirit’ or to

‘allure the spirit (or soul)’. strömbäck opts for the meaning ‘free soul’ (of Þorbjǫrg) and argues for an influence from sámi shamanism (1935: 124–39; critically examined by Dillmann 2006: 290–99), although it is obvious from the following part of the text (about the náttúrur) that the author of the saga understood vǫrðr as a kind of external spirit, not as Þorbjǫrg’s ‘free soul’.

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þat eigi til langæðar, þvíat vegar þínir liggja út til Íslands, ok mun þar koma frá þér ættbogi bæði mikill ok góðr, ok yfir þínum ættkvíslum mun skína bjartr geisli, enda far þú nú vel ok heil, dóttir mín.’

síðan gengu menn at vísendakonunni ok frétti hverr eptir því sem mest forvitni var á; var hon ok góð af frásǫgnum; gekk þat ok lítt í tauma sem hon sagði.

(This was a very lean time in greenland. Those who had gone hunting had had poor catches, and some of them had failed to return.

in the district there lived a woman named Thorbjorg, a seeress who was called the ‘little prophetess’. she was one of ten sisters, all of whom had the gift of prophecy, and was the only one of them still alive.

it was Thorbjorg’s custom to spend the winter visiting one farm after another where she had been invited, mostly by people curious to learn about their future or what was in store for the coming year. since Thorkel was the leading farmer there, people felt it was up to him to try and find out when the hard times which had been oppressing them would let up. Thorkel invited the seeress to visit, and preparations were made to entertain her well, as was the custom of the time when a woman of this type was received. a high seat was set for her, complete with cushion. This was to be stuffed with chicken feathers.

When she arrived one evening, along with the man who had been sent to fetch her, she was wearing a black mantle with a strap, which was adorned with precious stones right down to the hem. about her neck she wore a string of glass beads and on her head a hood of black lambskin lined with white catskin. she bore a staff with a knob at the top, adorned with brass set with stones on top. about her she had a linked charm belt with a large purse. in it she kept the charms which she needed for her predictions. she wore calfskin boots lined with fur with long, sturdy laces and large pewter knobs on the ends. on her hands she wore gloves of catskin, white and lined with fur.

When she entered, everyone was supposed to offer her respectful greetings, and she responded according to how the person appealed to her. farmer Thorkel took the wise woman by the hand and led her to the seat which had been prepared for her. He then asked her to survey his flock, servants, and buildings. she had little to say about all of it.

That evening tables were set up and food prepared for the seeress. a porridge of kid’s milk was made for her, and as meat she was given the hearts of all the animals available there. she had a spoon of brass and a knife with an ivory shaft, its two halves clasped with bronze bands, and the point of which had broken off.

once the tables had been cleared away, Thorkel approached Thorbjorg and asked what she thought of the house there and the conduct of the household, and how soon he could expect an answer to what he had asked and everyone wished to know. she answered that she would not reveal this until the next day after having spent the night there.

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late the following day she was provided with things she required for carrying out magic rites. she asked for women who knew the chants required for carrying out magic rites, which are called ward songs. But such women were not to be found. Then the people of the household were asked if there was anyone with such knowledge.

gudrid answered, ‘i have neither magical powers nor the gift of prophecy, but in iceland my foster-mother Halldis taught me chants she called ward songs.’

Thorbjorg answered, ‘Then you know more than i expected.’

gudrid said, ‘These are the sort of actions in which i intend to take no part, because i am a Christian woman.’

Thorbjorg answered, ‘it be that you could help the people here by so doing, and you’d be no worse woman for that. But i expect Thorkel to provide me with what i need.’

Thorkel then urged gudrid, who said that she would do as wished. The women formed a warding ring around the platform raised for sorcery, with Thorbjorg perched at top it. gudrid spoke the chant so well and beautifully that people there said they had never heard anyone recite in a fairer voice.

The seeress thanked her for her chant. she said many spirits had been attracted who thought the chant fair to hear — ‘though earlier they wished to turn their backs on us and refused to do our bidding. Many things are now clear to me which were earlier concealed from both me and others. and i can tell you that this spell of hardship will last no longer, and times will improve as the spring advances. The bout of illness which has long plagued you will also improve sooner than you expect.

and you, gudrid, i shall reward on the spot for the help we have received, since your fate is now very clear to me. you will make the most honourable of matches here in greenland, though you won’t be putting down roots here, as your path leads to iceland and from you will be descended a long worthy line. over all the branches of that family a bright ray will shine. May you fare well, now, my child.’

after that people approached the wise woman to learn what each of them were most curious to know. she made them good answer, and little that she predicted did not occur.) (pp. 5–7)

The trustworthiness of this description has been heavily debated (see, for instance, Dillmann 2006: 275–306), but, since it is the most detailed account of a seiðr ritual, it has often been used for reconstructions of such rituals. as is always the case with the sagas, it is very hard to find objective criteria for evaluating their source value, but a priori this passage should arouse some suspicion, exactly because it is so detailed: is it really likely that this wealth of details, some apparently quite unimportant, should be remembered several hundred years after the pagan seiðr ceased to exist? it is perhaps more likely that the author used some magician from the thirteenth century as the model (cf. schjødt 2007c: 183–84). it is also clear that the whole passage is employed as a literary

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means of showing the reader that guðríðr, one of the main characters of the saga, will be the ancestress of several bishops in iceland. When this is said, however, we must accept that there are elements in the description which could very well have roots extending far back in time. There is no reason to expect that the vǫlva’s outfit or her diet were ever standardized. This seems to be confirmed by archaeology (Price 2002), which reveals a rich variety of such outfits, albeit including a number of recurrent elements, such as the staff, also mentioned in the saga passage just quoted (see gardeła 2016 for a comprehensive and critical treatment of staffs in the Viking age).

However, this is not the place to discuss Þorbjǫrg’s equipment. it may be that every detail has some symbolic value,8 but if so, such meanings would probably be very individual. The important thing here is that this example of a crisis ritual taking place in what can be labelled the ‘private sphere’ is concerned with obtaining knowledge concerning the duration of ‘the hard times’. it is, however, only one example of how such disasters could be dealt with. We must assume that many details and also the individual rites would vary from place to place and from time to time. The main rite here is, of course, a divination (è25), which is performed by a religious specialist, in this case a vǫlva. But as can be seen, for instance, in Reykdæla saga ch. 7 (although this saga is not considered trustworthy), they may also include sacrifices, which we shall return to below in connection with a more public kind of ritual involving a king. sacrifices, however, are apparently not a consistent part of private crisis rituals.

The structure of the ritual is pretty clear and in accordance with the structure outlined in (è25). There is a phase involving 1) separation rites — the preparations, not least of the special kind of food, but also the raising of the platform, the eyes gazing at everything in the house, and probably even the sleep of the first night, which is apparently necessary for her predictions. The idea behind this is that dreams in some sense give access to the other World and thus to a state which is more conducive to obtaining information about the future than is the normal waking state. of this we have plenty of examples in the sagas. This is followed by a phase involving 2) liminal rites — the forming of the ring around the platform, the singing by guðriðr, and, of course most interestingly, what Þorbjǫrg does during this singing, of which, however, we are told absolutely nothing. is she in some unconscious state, as is thought by many commentators; is she uttering words or chants, or perhaps both? What we do 8 for instance, the cat skin may be a reference to freyja, allegedly the first divine figure who performed seiðr, and who was undoubtedly associated with cats. However, we cannot be sure that this is the case, since cats are very often linked to magical performances, all over the world.

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figure 30.3. an attempt to reconstruct

the dress and equipment of Þorbjǫrg

lítilvǫlva, based on the description

in Eiríks saga rauða and on general

knowledge of material culture in the

Viking age. illustration: Þórhallur

Þráinsson in Price 2002: 170.

know is that, on the conceptual level, it is imagined that spirits9 come to her, probably telling her what the future would bring, both for the collective and for the individual. finally, there is a phase involving 3) reintegration rites, with the people approaching Þorbjǫrg in order to get their individual predictions.

after this, she leaves for another farm.10

9 The exact meaning of náttúrur (clearly a loan word from latin) is disputed (see Tolley 2009a: 498–501). Tolley argues that ‘spirits’ may not be the correct translation and that it should rather be understood as guðríðr’s innate skills. The prerequisite for that reading is that the text (the Skálholtsbók version) is corrupted (Tolley 2009a: 501), which may well be the case; to the scribe, nevertheless, the meaning is clearly ‘spirits’. This question, however, is not so relevant to our discussion of ‘crisis rituals’.

10 in Historia Norwegie ch. 5, we find a famous description of a shaman who brings a dead woman back to life. Here, we are given many details: he spreads out a cloth, and lying underneath it he prepares himself for intoning spells; he uses a small, decorated vessel, which is sup-

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as is clear, we are told nothing about several significant aspects, the most important being the condition and actions of Þorbjǫrg during the singing.11

and it may be that many other elements were part of such rituals of which we are not informed (perhaps some sort of sacrifice?). However, what we should notice is that the ritual carried out here has a female specialist leading it. although we must be careful about making statistical surveys from the saga material, it seems as if, in public as well as in private rituals, females played important roles, just as was the case with sacrifices above (è25) (cf. Dillmann 2006: 143–61), maybe particularly in rituals concerned with crises. Thus, it is hard to tell from the evidence whether rituals carried out in connection with crises were profoundly different from those carried out in relation to calendrical and passage rituals.

Public Rituals

another description, this time from the more public sphere, is comprised by the incidents taking place in connection with the sacrifice of King Víkarr, as related by saxo and in Gautreks saga (è36 and è42). This description is in no way any more reliable than the one we have just discussed, but it has some interesting details which seem to be genuine for such rituals.

again, the reason for performing the ritual is related to weather phenomena.

This time, the issue is the lack of wind, which prevents the ship of King Víkarr and starkaðr to sail in the direction wished for. Then the saga text says (ch. 7): Víkarr konungr sigldi af Ögðum norðr á Hörðaland ok hafði lid mikit. Hann lá í hólmum nokkurum lengi ok fekk andviðri mikit. Þeir felldu spán til byrjar, ok fell posed to bring him through lakes and across mountains; and he leaps around (until he unfortunately dies and another shaman has to take over). The text clearly shows us how such a séance could be performed. The problem, however, is that it all happens among finns, that is, the sámi, and although we must assume that the germanic-speaking scandinavians were strongly influenced by sámi magic, and that seiðr rituals are likely to have involved similar phenomena, we must also assume that many of the details would be quite different between the two cultures.

11 since we know from other sources that men who performed rituals involving seiðr were considered effeminate, one cannot help wondering whether something went on that referred to female sexuality, perhaps the ways in which words were uttered or some obscene movements.

We may recall ljót from Vatnsdæla saga ch. 26, who is said to perform a kind of sorcery where she walks backwards with her clothes pulled over her head and her head between her legs.

one can easily imagine that kind of performance in a homophobic society, as the old Norse undoubtedly was (è21), to be regarded as something men could not do. However, nothing of that sort is hinted at with regard to Þorbjǫrg.

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svá, at Óðinn vildi þiggja mann at hlutfalli at hanga ór hernum. Þá var skipt liðinu til hlutfalla, ok kom upp hlutr Víkars konungs. Við þat urðu allir hljóðir, ok var ætlat um daginn eftir, at ráðsmenn skyldu eiga stefnu um þetta vandmæli.

(King Víkarr sailed from agder northwards to Hordaland and had a great army.

He stayed long at some small islands, and had a strong headwind. They cast lots for a fair wind, and it turned out so that Óðinn would receive a man from the army, chosen by lot, to be hanged. Then the army was organized for the lot casting, and King Víkarr’s lot came up. Because of that all became silent, and it was decided that the next day the men of good counsel should hold a meeting about this matter.) During the night, a man called Hrosshárs-grani (who turns out to be Óðinn) woke up starkaðr and asked him to follow him. They come to a meeting of the gods, and whereas Þórr is hostile to starkaðr, Óðinn is beneficial towards him, among other things bestowing on him three life-spans and the ability to compose poetry. as a return gift, Óðinn wants starkaðr to send him King Víkarr, which starkaðr agrees to do. Óðinn gives him a spear and tells him that it will seem like a reed stalk. Then the saga continues:

Um morguninn eftir gengu ráðgjafar konungs á stefnu til umráda. Kom þat ásamt með þeim, at þeir skyldu gera nokkura minning blótsins, ok sagði starkaðr upp ráðagerðina. Þar stóð fura ein hjá þeim ok stofn einn hár nær furunni. Nedarliga af furunni stóð einn kvistr mjór ok tók í limit upp. Þá bjuggu þjónustusveinar mat manna, ok var kálfr einn skorinn ok krufðr. starkaðr lét taka kálfsþarmana. síðan steig starkadr upp á stofninn ok sveigði ofan þann inn mjóva kvistinn ok knýtti þar um kálfsþörmunum.

Þá mælti starkaðr til konungs: ”Nú er hér búinn þér gálgi, konungr, ok mun sýnast eigi allmannhættligr. Nú gakktu hingat, ok mun ek leggja snöru á háls þér.”

Konungr mælti: ”sé þessi umbúð ekki mér hættuligri en mér sýnist, þá vænti ek, at mik skaði þetta ekki, en ef öðruvís er, þá mun auðna ráða, hvat at gerist.”

síðan steig hann upp á stofninn, ok lagði starkaðr virgulinn um háls honum ok steig síðan ofan af stofninum.

Þá stakk starkaðr sprotanum á konungi ok mælti: ”Nú gef ek þik Ódni.”

Þá lét starkaðr lausan furukvistinn. Reyrsprotinn varð at geir, ok stóð í gegnum konunginn. stofninn fell undan fótum honum, en kálfsþarmarnir urðu at viðju sterkri, en kvistrinn reis upp ok hóf upp konunginn við limar, ok dó hann þar. Nú heita þar síðan Víkarshólmar.

(The morning after, the councellors of the king went to a meeting to discuss the matter. They agreed that they should make a mock sacrifice, and starkaðr told them what to do. There was a pine tree close by, and close to the pine there was a tall tree trunk. low down on the pine there was a slender branch stretching up into the foli-age. Then the servants prepared food for the men and a calf was slaughtered and cut

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up. starkaðr let the guts of the calf be taken out. Then starkaðr climbed the trunk and bowed down the slender branch and tied the guts of the calf to it.

Then starkaðr said to the king: ‘Now a gallows has been prepared for you, king, and it does not appear too dangerous. so you go there now, and i will put the rope around your neck.’

The king said: ‘if this thing is not more dangerous than it seems to me, then i expect that it will not hurt me, but if it is otherwise, then fate will have to decide what will happen.’

after that he climbed the trunk, and starkaðr put the noose around his neck, and then went down from the trunk.

Then starkaðr stabbed the king with the reed stalk and said: ‘Now i give you to Óðinn.’

Then starkaðr let the pine branch loose. The reed stalk became a spear and went through the king. The trunk fell under his feet and the guts of the calf became a strong withy and the branch went up and lifted up the king into the tree, and there he died. since then that place was called Víkarr’s islands.) This story is also told by saxo (6.5.6–7), who relates a somewhat different version, although these differences have no great impact on our view on the ritual.

saxo likewise speaks of the lack of wind preventing the ships from sailing on, and the lot casting determining that the king should be sacrificed. in saxo, however, Víkarr is killed by a sword and not a spear, and the author casts doubt on the transformation of the reed stalk and the calf guts. Nevertheless, saxo’s version confirms that there existed a vague memory of such kinds of rituals.

We notice that in Gautreks saga, no women take part in the ritual. This may of course be due to the context, which is that of a raiding party, and so it is quite natural that women were not present. Even so, we see once again that a kind of divination rite is performed, but this time it is obvious that the divination aims at something far more spectacular than just finding out when the wind will change, namely what should be done in order to make it change, and subsequently who is going to be sacrificed in order to have that favourable wind.

if we put aside the mythic/legendary context, in which the emphasis is on the relation between Víkarr and starkaðr,12 we are left with the following initial element: a divination rite in the form of a lot casting, or rather two lot castings.

The first one reveals what is required to do away with the crisis — namely, a 12 There can hardly be any doubt that the saga also concerns an initiation of starkaðr by his foster-father Hrosshársgrani, who is Óðinn, the god who supplies him with many famous skills, as is the case with many other heroes (see schjødt 2008: 271–327; è36). in this sense, the episode contains a description both of a crisis ritual, including a human sacrifice, and an initiation of the man who actually performs the sacrificial rite. it can by no means be ruled out that the two are linked: in order to become one of Óðinn’s men, he must perform a sacrifice.

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sacrifice to Óðinn by one of the men in the army —, and the second one reveals that the victim must be the king. Thus, although we are not informed about any details regarding the lot casting procedure,13 the main lines of the ritual are quite clear: The reason for carrying out the ritual is a crisis in the form of bad weather, and we may also notice that the situation occurs during some military campaign, already indicating that the important figure in the other World could be Óðinn. This is then confirmed in the text, and we are told that the preparatory rites consist of two divinatory rites, while the main liminal rite is the sacrifice of the king. The whole sequence serves to create a bond between the people and the god. Unfortunately, the legendary frame afterwards focuses solely on the reaction against starkaðr, and we are not informed about any rites reintegrating the participants into the non-liminal sphere; but we must expect such rites to have existed.

Compared to the ritual related in Eiríks saga rauða, there are both similarities and differences: Both rituals are carried out because of crises in the local environment, both include divinatory practices, and both make use of a religious ‘specialist’: Þorbjǫrg as the diviner and starkaðr as the sacrificer. The differences, however, are found on the textual as well as the content level. The seiðr-woman appears to be described quite realistically as does the whole ritual sequence, whereas in Gautreks saga we are obviously dealing with a heroic legend that includes many supernatural elements. These differences should of course be taken into consideration. as is usual in the Íslendingasögur, events take place among ordinary farmers and minor chieftains, whereas the setting of the fornaldarsögur is often that of legendary kings and heroes of supernatural strength. Thus, the transformation that takes place in starkaðr’s sacrifice is much more closely related to the mythic sphere. in Eiríks saga rauða, we are not told anything about a sacrifice, although perhaps the animal hearts that are served for the seeress could indicate a kind of sacrifice; and we are only very vaguely informed about the beings from the other World with whom Þorbjǫrg communicates. These, incidentally, cannot be identified with any of the groups of beings that we know from elsewhere. in Gautreks saga, however, it is quite clear who is going to receive the sacrificial victim: namely, Óðinn, god of nobles and warriors. it is hardly a coincidence that the ‘senders’ are also nobles and warriors. so even if the killing of King Víkarr is certainly not ‘historical’, it is most likely that historical crisis rituals among these social groups may have been carried out in such manner.

13 We should probably compare with the description by Tacitus ( Germania ch. 10) of lot casting among the germani (è25), but also with much later sources, such as Rimbert’s Vita Anskari ch. 30 and many others.

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Concluding Remarks

as mentioned, there are many hints to rituals associated with crises in the sagas,14 and in other sources, for example, when adam of Bremen speaks of the reasons for sacrificing to Þórr and Óðinn.15 What appears is that these rituals seem to follow the structure and the basic content of most other rituals in the North as well as everywhere else, although the performers, the motivation, the other World beings involved, and so forth all vary from one ritual to the next.

from the extant material, it does not seem as if there is a clear system here, although we can probably assume that in the higher social layers there would be a tendency to communicate with the great pan-scandinavian gods, whereas among the lower classes, and in more isolated communities, the beings of the other World would most likely vary a great deal from one locality to the next, and, as in Eiríks saga rauða, they appear to be constituted by an undifferentiated group of ‘spiritual beings’.

14 an interesting sacrifice connected to a crisis is that of Dómaldi in Ynglinga saga ch. 15, which has been dealt with above (è25).

15 The whole passage from adam’s work (including a rendering of the relevant passages) will be dealt with in the next chapter (è31) on cyclical rituals.