Jens Peter schjødt
Most of the more spectacular descriptions of rituals in the old Norse sources seem to be occupied with so-called cyclical rituals, that is, recurring rituals, celebrated at certain times of the year (è28) or perhaps on a daily basis, such as, for instance, the Vǫlsi ritual, as we shall return to below, or within other cyclical periods. Many cyclical rituals have as an important function, besides manipulating the supernatural beings to be benevolent, to establish a calendar to be used in the agricultural work. as in the previous chapter on crisis rituals (è30), we shall be occupied mainly with some of the most famous and spectacular ritual descriptions in the sagas and in other sources, some of which we will quote quite extensively, although there are many more hints to rituals of this kind (Näsström 2001: 106–14; è25).1
Sources
By far the largest amount of descriptions of rituals in general, and cyclical rituals in particular, are to be found in the various saga categories. But also sources in latin, such as the chronicles by Thietmar, bishop of Merseburg, from the early eleventh century, and adam of Bremen from the later part of the same 1 a typical example of such a hint, we find in Gísla saga Súrssonar ch. 10, where it is said that it was customary to have a vetrnáttablót (a sacrifice for the winter). This piece of information serves a purely literary function, and we are not told anything about the ritual as such. But of course we are dealing with a cyclical ritual taking place at a certain time of the year.
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. 797–822
BREPols
PUBlisHERs
10.1484/M.PCRN-EB.5.116958
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century give valuable information. Concerning the germani from the early part of the first millennium ce, we also get some information from the authors of antiquity (not least Tacitus) and the early Middle ages, although the information concerning any of the cyclical rituals is not sufficient for reconstructing them in any detail.
as mentioned, in (è30), it is not easy from archaeological material to judge what the reason was for carrying out a particular ritual, and thus which of the three categories, crisis rituals, cyclical rituals, or passage rituals it belonged to.
When archaeological findings are interpreted as cyclical rituals, it is very often on the basis of written sources, and the use of comparisons in general (see, for instance, Kaliff 2003: 48–49).2 This also goes for much of the pictorial material, such as the gold foils (‘guldgubber’; dated to the period between the sixth and the ninth centuries) which were by Magnus olsen as early as 1909 interpreted as parts of recurring fertility rituals, and thus cyclical rituals (olsen 1909). gro steinsland, however, has in several publications (e.g., steinsland 1997: 91–96; steinsland 2000: 74–78) argued that they were parts of a wedding ritual, and thus a passage ritual. it is not likely that such discussions will ever be settled, since they will be very dependent on more general views, held by the respective authors.3 The gold foils in themselves cannot tell us how, and in which rituals they were used.4
Private Rituals
We have already mentioned some of these rituals, especially in (è25),5 where we saw that álfar could be recipients of sacrifice in the private cult ( Óláfs saga 2 We may also get a hint about the ritual contexts by looking at sacrificed animals, when we can determine their age and thus deduce at what time of the year they have been slaughtered (è27).
3 an interesting attempt of a fresh interpretation is Ratke and simek (2006), where it is argued that the traditional view of the motives on the gold foils as mythological must not necessarily be true. instead, it is argued (2006: 263) that they could be part of a ‘legal-ritualistic context’, depicting human beings showing different legal gestures.
4 There can hardly be any doubt, however, that at least a large number of the gold foils were connected to rituals having to do with fertility, but it is hard to be more precise than that. for good introductions to and discussions of the gold foil figures, we can refer to numerous works of Margrethe Watt (for instance, 1999a, 1999b, 2007, and 2009), and to sundqvist (2016: 409–17).
5 a recent analysis of ‘private’ rituals or ‘household’ rituals, adding some which are not mentioned in the following paragraphs and with many interesting observations, can be found in Murphy (2017a: 140–89; 2017b).
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helga ch. 91), or perhaps the dísir in the so called Vǫlsa þáttr from Flateyjarbók, as we shall see below.6
The interesting passage, related in snorri’s Óláfs saga helga (ch. 91) about the skald sigvatr and his companions who are travelling in the east towards the beginning of winter, tells that they are not allowed in at the farms where they seek shelter for the night because the farmers are conducting an álfablót, a sacrifice for the álfar. The reaction is apparently the same at several farms, but the most relevant passage is worded as follows: ‘stóð þar húsfreyja í durum, bað hann ekki þar inn koma, segir, at þau ætti álfablót’ (There the woman of the house stood in the doorway and told them that they could not come in there, saying that they were sacrificing to the elves). This can be interpreted in two ways: either that the húsfreyja was in charge of the ritual, as is argued by olrik and Ellekilde (1926–51: i, 171), or that she went to the door because somebody else, perhaps her husband, whose exact status remains unknown, was busy performing the ritual. it could thus indicate that, at least when it comes to private rituals, women played important roles.7 in the stanza spoken by sigvatr, it is further said that the woman of the house fears the wrath of Óðinn if she lets in the strangers. This statement should hardly be seen as if Óðinn was involved in the sacrifice, but simply that he is a representative of the heathendom, to which, she also declares, the people at the farm belonged to, as she says ‘erum heiðnir vér’ (we are heathens).
The private character of the ritual seems to be quite clear, not least since sigvatr and his companions approach other farms with the same result: they are rejected. Thus people do not gather for this sort of celebrations but perform the ritual, apparently within the individual household. However, apart from learning that the ritual was performed towards winter (and took place during the night), and that the recipients of the sacrifice were the álfar (è63) and thus 6 a dísablót is also celebrated during the winter nights in Víga-Glúms saga ch. 6. Here, however, it is difficult to tell whether it should be classified as a private or a public ritual (cf. Turville-Petre 1964: 221), which is also the case in Þiðranda þáttr. another dísablót is mentioned in Egils saga ch. 44, and here it is clearly a ‘public’ celebration, attended by King Eiríkr (bloodaxe) and his queen. However, in none of these sources are we told anything about how the ritual is performed, except that a lot of drinking went on. for an overview of medieval as well as later folklore concerning private as well as public rituals, olrik and Ellekilde (1926–51: 148–333) can be recommended (and other sources connected to rituals involving the dísir, in particular, are mentioned p. 326).
7 for the source value of sigvatr’s poem, see also the comments in lönnroth (1996). The use of þau here indicates that males as well females were involved.
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that the aim of the sacrifice was connected to fertility of some kind, it is not possible to reconstruct what went on (è29).
There are some parallels in another famous description of a private cyclical ritual: namely, the description in Vǫlsa þáttr. Here it appears that the ritual is carried out on a daily basis (at least for a limited period of time), and as it stands the stanzas seems to be more about sexuality than fertility in general.
This, however, could very well be due to the literary context which aims at presenting this farmer family as very primitive and very heathen, and thus very occupied with sexuality.
Thus, in Vǫlsa þáttr from the Flateyjarbók,8 we hear about King Óláfr (the future st Óláfr) arriving one evening with two friends, all three of them in disguise, at an isolated farm in the far North, inhabited by a man and a wife, their son and daughter, and a thrall and a servant maid. The story says that earlier on at this farm, a large stallion had died sometime during the autumn, and after skinning it the farmer’s son cut off its penis, which is referred to as Vǫlsi as well as vingull, and proceeded to tease the women of the farm with it. But the wife takes it, dries it, and wraps it in linen cloth, with onions and herbs in order to preserve it, and it becomes full of power so that it can swell and stand beside the housewife.9 from then on she brings it into the living room every evening, and each of the six persons on the farm then has to speak a verse over it before handing the horse penis on to the next person. These verses are mainly of an obscene and sexual nature, and they all have the refrain: ‘þiggi Mǫrnir | þetta blœti’ (may Mǫrnir receive this sacrifice).10 all this also takes place on the evening when the king and his friends arrive, but when the phallus is handed to the king, he throws it to the dog that eats it. although the wife regrets what has happened, the family all become good Christians when the visitors finally reveal who they really are.
apart from the obvious Christian overtones, this story may be one of the very few that actually give us glimpses of the private cult. Even if it is hard to distinguish clearly a sacrificial object in the story, there is apparently a receiver of the sacrifice, Mǫrnir, as is evident from the quotation above. The sacrificial 8 for further discussion of this þáttr and its source value, see (è43) and Tolley (2009b: 681).
9 Heizmann (1992: 384–85) suggests that the onion was seen to have an aphrodisiac function, causing the horse penis to swell, and also, based on a comparisons with older runic material, that such a meaning reaches far back in time (p. 389).
10 Mǫrnir is problematic on philological grounds, since it could be both feminine plural or masculine singular. in the latter case it seems to be the name for a sword, known from a þula and could thus be seen as a metaphor for a phallus.
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gift would then appear to be either the verses spoken by the people, which are then perhaps better described as tribute to the mysterious Mǫrnir, or, and more likely, the penis itself. Britt-Mari Näsström (2001: 104) argues that, although the text does not say so explicitly, the ritual described goes back to real horse sacrifices, the penis playing the role of a pars pro toto for the stallion which is identified with freyr. The identity of Mǫrnir has been much discussed,11
but, although we can be quite certain that this is a figure (figures?) closely connected to sexuality and fertility, we cannot say whether we are dealing with one of the known gods from the extant mythology or with some local deity. The important thing here, however, is that we have another example of a sacrificial ritual, carried out in the private sphere portraying a woman, here the housewife, as being in charge of the act. The time appears to be connected to the winter nights, once again, since the stallion died at that time.
Thus, even if we are, as mentioned, rather poorly informed about private rituals,12 we must assume that the men as well as the women in the households would take active part in the ritual. We do not know of private rituals being performed at other times of the year than in the autumn, except from much later folkloristic material (cf. de Vries 1956–57a: i, 460–83, and much more extensively in Mannhardt 1904–08). Nevertheless, there can hardly be any doubt that rituals performed for the well-being of the household must have been an important part of the daily existence of the household in these agricultural societies, and that both rituals of the álfablót type (several households celebrating the ‘same’ or similar rituals at approximately the same time) and 11 olrik and Ellekilde (1926–51) and ström (1954) suggest that Mǫrnir could be the dísir, the argument being based, among other things, on an apparent identification of Mǫrn with skaði ( Haustlǫng st. 12), and it thus could be a heiti for a goddess. Most modern scholars, however, tend to see the name as a synonym for the god freyr (e.g., Turville-Petre 1964: 258; Näsström 2001: 103–04), while others again interpret it as referring to giant women, indicating a kind of hieros gamos between freyr, identified with Vǫlsi, and a giant-woman (steinsland and Vogt 1981: 97–98; this idea has been heavily criticized by Tolley 2009b: 694–96). finally Maths Bertell in a recent article has suggested that Mǫrnir should be identified with vanir goddesses (Bertell 2016: 118). This shall not occupy us here, but it is obvious that the ritual concerns sexuality and fertility, which would accord well with the cult of the vanir. Turville-Petre, who identifies Vǫlsi as well as Mǫrnir with freyr, thus states that he was ‘both the sacrifice and the recipient of the sacrifice’ (1964: 258), an identification which cannot be ruled out; but again: we must maintain that Mǫrnir cannot with any certainty be identified with any of the known gods. Therefore we may also assume that Mǫrnir, whether singular or plural, should rather be identified with some local deity or deities.
12 Åke V. ström has gathered most of the material on these kinds of sacrifices (ström 1975: 222–24; cf. also olrik and Ellekilde 1926–51, including the folkloristic material).
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those of the Vǫlsi type (the individual household performing individual rituals) were very common, and probably constituted the main parts of rituals for most people in pre-Christian times, and often with women in charge, or at least playing a more dominant role, than seems to be the case with the public rituals (cf. olrik and Ellekilde 1926–51: i, 166–69 and Kaliff 2001: 443).
although of dubious source value,13 Vǫlsa þáttr is particularly interesting because it lets us glimpse a kind of ritual which is not mentioned in other written sources: although there is no apparent sacrifice to be seen, and there is no known god(s) explicitly involved, we learn that ritual relations between this and the other World took place at the individual farms with the whole household taking part in the performance, which can in this case be characterized as a kind of phallus cult, and that poetry could be involved. These features are in no way surprising, and the most surprising part is the fact that so little information about the private cult has survived from the old sources. if we draw in the later folkloristic material, however, this situation changes dramatically, and all kinds of natural phenomena seems to have been objects of some sort of cultic performance, such as trees, wells, mounds, and so forth, together with various kinds of supernatural beings, such as the vættir, some of them probably to be identified with some of the major gods from the pre-Christian period (Þórr, freyr, and Óðinn) (cf. olrik and Ellekilde 1926–51: i, 202–12), whereas others are more or less anonymous. for instance there are many examples of vættir living in mounds close to the farms, and bringing health and fertility to the inhabitants on the farm. Therefore, of course, the inhabitants brought sacrifices to these beings (olrik and Ellekilde 1926–51: i, 242–49).
Public Rituals
according to Guta saga (ch. 1), on gotland there were three levels of public rituals: namely, one covering the whole island; below that, a sacrifice covering a third of the island; and finally, smaller sacrifices carried out by the local communities. although hardly surprising, this shows that public rituals were not all carried out by the same ‘public’, which is also one of the reasons why it is sometimes difficult to draw the lines between ‘public’ and ‘private’. it is also worth noticing that there seems to be a connection between the sacrifices performed and the legal assemblies, although in Guta saga this is directly stated 13 as is often the case there is no way to be certain how much of the þáttr reaches back to pagan times: steinsland and Vogt (1981) would say almost everything, and Tolley (2009b) would say virtually nothing. The truth could very well be somewhere in between.
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only for the third level rituals, ‘en smeri þing hafþu mindri blotan’ (but smaller assemblies held a lesser sacrifice). But, as we shall see below, there is no doubt that this connection was the rule, rather than the exception (è20).
Cyclical rituals have no doubt taken place during several millennia in the North as well as everywhere else. one of the most famous descriptions of such a ritual from the Early iron age is Tacitus’s description of the Nerthus ritual in Germania ch. 40. although it is not said explicitly that this is a cyclical ritual, there is no doubt that it is recurring and that it involves the whole community.
like with most other rituals of this type, we are not told at what time of the year the Nerthus procession took place, but since it is clearly a ritual connected with fertility and peace, we may conjecture that it was not during the summer, which was the season for war and other kinds of male activities (see below).
There are many other important pieces of information, which we have dealt with above, however, in connection with processions (è25; see also Nygaard and Murphy 2017: 44–46). The information concerning this sort of rituals from the pre-Viking age, in general, is so scattered that we cannot reconstruct them, although the sources dealing with the germanic area fully confirm that they existed. We shall therefore move directly to the pre-Christian rituals of later times, and in some much more detailed sources.14
The three blót feasts (october, December/January, and early spring)15 dealt with in (è28) (and to a lesser degree in è25) no doubt were of a public nature.
it also seems that the two first mentioned were concerned with fertility, whereas the third was concerned with victory in war, as is stated by snorri, who says about the laws instigated by Óðinn ( Ynglinga saga ch. 8): ‘Þá skyldi blóta í móti vetri til árs, en at miðjum vetri blóta til gróðrar, it þriðja at sumri, þat var sigrblót’ (a sacrifice was to be made for a good season at the beginning of winter, and one in midwinter for good crops, and a third one in summer, for victory).
as we shall see below, however the reality was probably a bit more complicated, and several goals can probably be found in most of these public rituals, most 14 since, in the following we shall concentrate on a few rather detailed descriptions, we will refer to olrik and Ellekilde (1926–51: i, 335–588), mentioning most of the medieval as well as modern folkloristic evidence for public rituals, including placename material, more or less connected to the pagan period. They also mention all kinds of supernatural beings as well as natural phenomena as objects of the cult.
15 There might have been a fourth one in the middle of the summer ( miðsumarsblót, cf. Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar ch. 65), which is, however, mentioned much less compared to the three others.
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of them surrounding the political leaders, just as the function of the leader involved several aspects, such as victory, fertility, and general success (è23).
in this section we shall mainly deal with some classical descriptions that will be quoted and analysed in some detail. However, as we have already seen, hints to various kinds of rituals, including those of a cyclical nature, can be found scattered all over the textual corpus. Many of these are referred to in various chapters in this work, and the following, therefore, is far from exhaustive.
We shall begin with three saga descriptions which have by most scholars been seen as mutually dependent, because there certainly are conspicuous similarities. Nevertheless, as we shall see, they do vary, and it cannot be ruled out that the authors, snorri and two unknowns, have known different versions. The passages are those from Hákonar saga góða ch. 14, Eyrbyggja saga ch. 4, and Kjalnesinga saga ch. 2 that are quoted here in full:
Hákonar saga góða
sigurðr Hlaðajarl var inn mesti blótmaðr, ok svá var Hákon, faðir hans. Helt sigurðr jarl upp blótveizlum ǫllum af hendi konungs þar í Þrœndalǫgum. Þat var forn siðr, þá er blót skyldi vera, at allir bœndr skyldu þar koma, sem hof var, ok flytja þannug fǫng sín, þau er þeir skyldu hafa, meðan veizlan stóð. at veizlu þeiri skyldu allir men ǫl eiga. Þar var ok drepinn alls konar smali ok svá hross, en blóð þat allt, er þar kom af, þá var kallat hlaut,16 ok hlautbollar þat, er blóð þat stóð í, ok 16 for a thorough discussion of the word forms hlaut (feminine and neuter) or hlautr (masculine), see Düwel (1985: 21–38). These words were seen by snorri and other saga writers to denote ‘sacrificial blood’, whereas etymologically they are rather to be connected to hlutr (lot).
Düwel’s conclusion is that since the word cannot be shown to go back to pagan times, it was misunderstood by snorri and his contemporaries, and only at that time given the meaning ‘sacrificial blood’. Therefore we cannot rely on snorri and other authors, which should prevent us from using these saga descriptions for reconstructions of the pagan cult. Düwel’s methodology has been criticized by Preben Meulengracht sørensen (particularly in 2001c). Main proponents for this critical and somewhat negative view are, besides Düwel, olaf olsen (1966), Ernst Walter (1966), and many others, whereas Meulengracht sørensen, anders Hultgård (1993), and olof sundqvist (2005 and 2016) take a much more positive stand towards the source value of these authors. The meaning of hlautr (and thus also hlautteinn), however, cannot be decided with any certainty, but the semantic development that may have taken place, could perhaps indicate that sacrifice and divination could be part of the same process, as was already suggested by finnur Jónsson in Lexicon Poeticum (1931: 261) (see also Boyer 1986b: 183), rather than discrediting the medieval authors. anyway, specific words will of course mirror the situation at the time of the written source and do not tell us much about the content: if snorri really attempted to write about pagan rituals, he would still have had to use a vocabulary that could be understood by his readers. it could therefore be that sacrificial blood was only called hlaut in the Middle ages, but this choice of wording does not indicate that sacrificial blood did not play an important role in pre-Christian times (and the reddening with sacrificial blood of vari-
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hlautteinar, þat var svá gǫrt sem stǫkklar, með því skyldi rjóða stallana ǫllu saman ok svá veggi hofsins útan ok innan ok svá støkkva á mennina, en slátr skyldi sjóða til mannfagnaðar. Eldar skyldu vera á miðju gólfi í hofinu ok þar katlar yfir. skyldi full um eld bera, en sá, er gerði veizluna ok hǫfðingi var, þá skyldi hann signa fullit ok allan blótmatinn, skyldi fyrst Óðins full — skyldi þat drekka til sigrs ok ríkis konungi sínum — en siðan Njarðar full ok freys full til árs ok friðar. Þá var mǫrgum mǫnnum títt at drekka þar næst bragafull. Menn drukku ok full frænda sinna, þeira er heygðir hǫfðu verit, ok váru þat minni kǫlluð. (pp. 167–68) (sigurth, earl of Hlathir, was a most ardent heathen worshipper, as had been Hákon, his father. Earl sigurth maintained all sacrificial feasts there in Throndheim on the king’s behalf. it was ancient custom that when sacrifice was to be made, all farmers were to come to the heathen temple and bring along with them the food they needed while the feast lasted. at this feast all were to take part in the drinking of ale. also all kinds of livestock were killed in connection with it, horses also; and all the blood from them was called hlaut […], and hlautbolli, the vessel holding that blood; and hlautteinar, the sacrificial twigs […]. These were fashioned like sprinklers, and with them were to be smeared all over with blood the pedestals of the idols and also the walls of the temple within and without; and likewise the men present were to be sprinkled with blood. But the meat of the animals was to be boiled and to serve as food at the banquet. fires were to be lighted in the middle of the temple floor, and kettles hung over them. The sacrificial beaker was to be borne around the fire, and he who made the feast and was chieftain, was to bless the beaker as well as all the sacrificial meat. Óthin’s toast was to be drunk first — that was for victory and power to the king — then Njorth’s and frey’s, for good harvest and for peace. following that many used to drink a beaker to the king.17 Men drank toasts also in memory of departed kinsfolk — that was called minni. (p. 107) Eyrbyggja saga
Þar lét hann reisa hof,18 ok var þat mikit hús; váru dyrr á hliðvegginum ok nær ǫðrum endanum; þar fyrir innan stóðu ǫndvegissúlurnar, ok váru þar í naglar; þeir ous ritual phenomena is known from many other sources; see sundqvist 2016: 332–34). and the same argument can be used in connection with the word signa which is clearly of Christian origin (but could perhaps be ‘borrowed’ before the conversion; cf. Williams 1996c: 79).
17 The translation of bragafull (or bragarfull) is disputed. Cleasby and Vigfusson (1957: 75–76) simply translate it ‘a toasting cup’ and add ‘to be drunk esp. at funeral feasts’. Bragr means ‘best’ or ‘foremost’ and it would thus be a natural designation for a king, maybe a deceased king. However, it could also be drunk at other kinds of feasts, and often it is connected with making vows of future deeds, as mentioned, for instance, in the U-version of Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks ch. 4.
18 Just before this description, we have heard that Þórólfr Mostrarskegg went from Nor-
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hétu reginnaglar; þar var allt friðarstaðr fyrir innan. innar af hofinu var hús í þá líking, sem nú er sǫnghús í kirkjum, ok stóð þar stalli á miðju gólfinu sem altari, ok lá þar á hringr einn mótlauss, tvítøgeyringr, ok skyldi þar at sverja eiða alla; þann hring skyldi hofgoði hafa á hendi sér til allra mannfunda. Á stallanum skyldi ok standa hlautbolli, ok þar í hlautteinn sem stǫkkull væri, ok skyldi þar støkkva með ór bollanum blóði því, er hlaut var kallat; þat var þess konar blóð, er svœfð váru þau kvikendi, er goðunum var fórnat. Umhverfis stallan var goðunum skipat í afhúsinu.
Til hofsins skyldu allir menn tolla gjalda ok vera skyldir hofgoðanum til allra ferða, sem nú eru þingmenn hǫfðingjum, en goði skyldi hofi upp halda af sjálfs síns kost-naði, svá at eigi rénaði, ok hafa inni blótveizlur. (pp. 8–9)
(There he had a temple built, and it was a sizeable building, with a door on the side-wall near the gable. The high-seat pillars were placed inside the door, and nails that were called holy nails were driven into them. Beyond that point, the temple was a sanctuary. at the inner end there was a structure similar to the choir in churches nowadays and there was a raised platform in the middle of the floor like an altar, where a ring weighing twenty ounces and fashioned without a join was placed, and all the oaths had to be sworn on this ring. it also had to be worn by the temple priest at all public gatherings. a sacrificial bowl was placed on the platform and in it a sacrificial twig — like a priest’s aspergillum — which was used to sprinkle blood from the bowl. This blood which was called sacrificial blood was the blood of live animals offered to the gods. The gods were placed around the platform in the choir-like structure within the temple. all farmers had to pay a toll to the temple and they were obliged to support the temple godi in all his campaigns, just as thingmen are now obliged to do for their chieftain. The temple godi was responsible for the upkeep of the temple and ensuring it was maintained properly, as well as for holding sacrificial feasts in it. (pp. 133–34)
Kjalnesinga saga
Hann [Þorgrímr goði] var blótmaðr mikill; lét hann reisa hof mikit í túni sínu; þat var hundrað fóta langt, en sextugt á breidd; þar skyldu allir men hoftoll til leggja.
Þórr var þar mest tignaðr. Þar var gert af innar kringlótt svá sem húfa væri; þat var way to iceland, and how he was particularly related to Þórr, who was his ástvin (dear friend). as some enmity had arisen between him and the king (Haraldr hárfagri), he asks ( gekk til fréttar; è25) Þórr whether he should make peace with the king or leave the country, and he is advised to go to iceland. He brings with him his high seat pillars ( ǫndvegissúlur) in which Þórr was carved, and throws them over board when he approaches iceland, saying that he would settle where the high-seat pillars landed. This is certainly a divinatory rite and is followed by another rite consisting of carrying fire around his land claim. Þórólfr, thus, is a devotee of Þórr, who therefore played a special role in the rituals which guided him to his new home where he raised the temple.
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allt tjaldat ok gluggat. Þar stóð Þórr í miðju ok önnur goð á tvær hendr. frammi fyrir Þór stóð stallr með miklum hagleik gerr ok þiljaðr ofan med járni; þar á skyldi vera eldr, sá er aldri skyldi slokkna; þat kölluðu þeir vígðan eld. Á þeim stalli skyldi liggja hringr mikill af silfri gerr; hann skyldi hofgoði hafa á hendi til allra mannfunda; þar at skyldu allir menn eiða sverja um kennslamál öll. Á þeim stalli skyldu ok standa bolli af kopar mikill; þar skyldi í láta blóð þat allt, er af því fé yrði, er Þór var gefit, eðr mönnum; þetta kölluðu þeir hlaut ok hlautbolla. Hlautinu skyldi dreifa yfir menn eða fé, en fé þat, sem þar var gefit til, skyldi hafa til mannfagnaðar, þá er blótveizlur eru hafðar. En mönnum, er þeir blótuðu, skyldi steypa ofan í fen þat, er úti var hjá dyrunum; þat kölluðu þeir Blótkeldu. (p. 7)
(He [Þorgrímr goði] made many pagan sacrifices. He had a large temple built in his hayfield, a hundred feet long and sixty wide. Everybody had to pay a temple fee.
Thor was the god most honoured there. it was rounded on the inside, like a vault, and there were windows and wall-hangings everywhere. The image of Thor stood in the centre, with other gods on both sides. in front of them was an altar made with great skill and covered with iron on the top. on this there was to be a fire which would never go out — they called it sacred fire. on the altar was to lie a great arm-band, made of silver. The temple godi was to wear it on his arm at all gatherings, and everyone was to swear oaths on it whenever a suit was brought. a great copper bowl was to stand on the altar, and into it was to go all the blood which came from animals or men given to Thor. They called this sacrificial blood and the sacrificial blood bowl. This blood was to be sprinkled over men and animals, and the animals that were given in sacrifice were to be used for feasting when sacrificial banquets were held. Men whom they sacrificed were to be cast into a pool which was outside by the door; they called it Blotkelda. (p. 307)
Before dealing with these texts it should also be stated that part of the discussion relates to the so-called Úlfljótslǫg, presumably the oldest icelandic law complex (see Landnamabók H 268).19 They are not preserved in their entirety, but fragments can be found in Landnamabók as well as in other sources (see słupecki 2009a: 36). The relevant laws, mentioned here, concern a ring which should be placed in the main hof on a stalli (altar?) and worn by the goði on the arm during the law assemblies, and that he ‘rjóða […] þar áðr í roðru naut-blóðs þess, er hann blótaði þar sjálfr’ (he should redden it before with the blood of the sacrificial victim which he himself sacrificed). further, people who had 19 There has been much discussion about these laws and their source value. a very negative view has been presented by olaf olsen (1966: 30–49), who argues that the laws were composed in Christian times around 1200 and had nothing to do with pagan religion (p. 49); an example of the opposite view is słupecki (2009a), and in both works there are extensive references (è29).
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anything to do with the court should swear an oath on the ring and name witnesses, calling also upon ‘freyr ok Njǫrðr ok hinn almáttki áss’ as part of the oath. Who the ‘almáttki áss’ (the almighty áss) is has been discussed, but in all likelihood it is Þórr, since the other candidate, Óðinn, would probably not be seen as ‘the mightiest’ of the gods in an icelandic context.20 it seems obvious that parts of the descriptions from the sagas are very similar to what we learn here about the ring.
The similarities among the three saga episodes and between them and Úlfljótslǫg have caused many scholars to argue that these sources were interdependent in the sense of literary ‘borrowings’ and ‘loans’ (see, for instance, olsen 1966; Beck 1967; Düwel 1985). olaf olsen in particular is sceptical towards the use of the sagas in general and believes that they had no real basis in the historical reality (1966: 54). This view is partly based on the archaeological situation at the time and on a strong methodological scepticism towards the use of the medieval literature as sources. since then, olaf olsen’s own methodology has been criticized by, for instance, Preben Meulengracht sørensen (2001c: 152–55), and new archaeological excavations at Hofstaðir, in the north-eastern part of iceland, appear to demonstrate that much of the information from Eyrbyggja saga could very well be close to the Viking age reality (sundqvist 2016: 152–55). This has of course problematized olaf olsen’s conclusions that there was no historical reality behind the description. We have dealt with the source problems several times, and it shall not occupy us here; we will never be sure that the information related in the sagas is anything but fantasy on the part of the authors, but there are many indications that at least part of the saga descriptions are more than that (cf. sundqvist 2016: 316–63, where most of the elements in the blót descriptions are discussed).
in spite of the similarities among the saga accounts, however, we also notice some differences which are not easy to explain if literary ‘borrowings’ are really all there is in it. We must wonder, for instance, why there are elements in one text which are not mentioned in the others, if the individual author only knew these rituals from the two other sagas or from Úlfljótslǫg. Therefore, although the wording may be ‘borrowed’, one may consider that blót feasts of the same type, but with geographical and social variants, actually took place more or less in accordance with the descriptions transmitted.
The following is a presentation of how we may imagine one type of ritual: namely, one of the major public sacrificial feasts held by the chieftain on behalf 20 Kabel (1975) argues that the words referred to the Christian god, which for a variety of reasons does not seem very plausible (è29 and è43).
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of the people21 and which seems to be part of a cyclical ritual. The ritual as a whole certainly centres on the sacrifice, although there are also other elements involved, and these rituals are therefore called blótveizlur, ‘sacrificial feasts’; they, or some of them, have most likely been connected to legal assemblies.
in Hákonar saga we learn that feasts of this kind are celebrated in the beginning of winter, and it may be that we can deduce that the icelandic rituals took place at the same time, although we cannot be sure. according to the texts, they take place in a hof, a building which was probably also the house of the chieftains,22 but we must assume that some of or parts of the rituals took place outside, for example, the slaughtering of animals (cf. Zachrisson 2004b: 166), and probably also in smaller houses, used exclusively for ritual purposes (see for instance Jørgensen 2009). in Hákonar saga góða, we are thus informed that horses were slaughtered, which one can only imagine as hard to do inside the house. The ritual space was probably marked off from the profane, although not stated explicitly in the texts quoted, but mentioned in other sources in connection with legal assemblies, using the word vébǫnd (sacred bonds), indicating the religious dimensions that were attributed to these assemblies. This is mentioned in, for instance, Egils saga (ch. 56) and in the medieval Frostaþing Law (p. 127) (cf. sundqvist 2016: 298–305). in the hof, there are statues of gods; in Kjalnesinga saga we learn that Þórr was present together with other gods on the sides of him,23 whereas Eyrbyggja only has ‘gods’ in general who are placed around the altar ( stallr). in Hákonar saga góða, nothing is said about statues of the gods, even though they must be assumed to have been present since toasts are presented to them. in this sense, the hof must be considered a 21 olof sundqvist (2012) has argued convincingly that there were differences in the relations between the ruler and the gods in the milieu around the Þórsnesingar of Eyrbyggja saga on the one hand, and the earls of Hlaðir, described in Hákonar saga góða, on the other hand.
sundqvist’s focus, however, is the mythic relations, not the rituals performed. although we do not know how reliable the details in the two sources are, and although we are not told nearly as much as we could wish for, it seems as if the rituals described should be seen within the same discursive frames, i.e., public and cyclical sacrificial rituals with the aim of securing a good outcome for the coming year (cf. also Jón Viðar sigurðsson 2011).
22 Whether there were larger cult houses, separate from the chieftains’ halls, has been debated, but there certainly were smaller ‘cult houses’. for a good overview, see sundqvist (2016: 95–110) and (è27).
23 This description strongly recalls that by adam of Bremen ( Gesta Hammaburgensis 4.26), where Þórr is placed in the middle with Óðinn and freyr at either side; see below. further examples (although very few) of statues and pictures of gods are mentioned by olrik and Ellekilde (1926–51: i, 327).
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temple, a place where the gods dwell, whether it was in separate buildings or in the manor halls. it is also stated that the people attending the sacrificial banquets would have to bring the food themselves, probably in the form of animals to be slaughtered for the sacrifice. in Eyrbyggja saga and Kjalnesinga saga, we hear about a kind of sacrificial altar ( stallr) upon which a ring is placed that is not related directly to the sacrificial act, as is also the case with the oaths we are told about.24 Nevertheless, these ‘legal’ elements suggest that religious rituals and legal assemblies were closely intertwined (è20),25 as we are also told in Úlfljótslǫg. The hlautbolli into which the blood from the sacrificed animals (according to Kjalnesinga saga, also from humans) should be poured was also to be placed on the stallr. With this blood the walls, the altar and the participants should be sprinkled, using a hlautteinn, ‘twig for sprinkling the sacrificial blood’.26 in Hákonar saga we also learn that there were fires on the floor, and that the beaker had to be borne around the fire, a rite that should be seen as a kind of circumambulation. apparently, the flesh was eaten by the participants at the banquet. finally, in Kjalnesinga saga, we are told that outside the hof there was a pool into which the humans who were to be sacrificed were to be sunk, which was called blótkelda, ‘sacrificial well or spring’.27
from the description in Kjalnesinga saga, it is clear that Þórr is the main receiver of the sacrifices, whereas in the two other accounts it is not said explicitly for whom the victims are intended as gifts, but perhaps we can draw the conclusion that, in Hákonar saga góða, the divine beings mentioned in connection with the toasts and the ancestors were thought to be the receivers, and in Eyrbyggja saga the gods who were placed around the altar or platform.
24 The swearing of oaths during this kind of rituals is confirmed in many sources (for instance, in Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks konungs (U-version ch. 4 and 14). sundqvist (2001) suggests that this swearing of oaths could originally be part of an inauguration ritual.
25 for a very detailed discussion about ‘rings’ connected to rituals, see sundqvist (2016: 376–403).
26 Düwel (1985: 34–35) and many others have argued that the motif with the sprinkling of the blood is a ‘borrowing’ from the old Testament (mainly Exodus ch. 12 and Leviticus ch. 7) which certainly have some parallel elements. However, blood in many sacrificial rituals all over the world plays a special role and has to be treated in certain ways, so that similar but independent ideas cannot be ruled out. The parallel, therefore, does not in itself support a rejection of the sprinkling of blood as a pagan rite.
27 as we shall see below we are also told about such a spring ( fons) by adam of Bremen, which is used for divinatory purposes, indicating that sacrifice and divinations probably were strongly intertwined.
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in Eyrbyggja saga, Kjalnesinga saga, and Úlfljótslǫg, we are told that the goði should wear the ring, and in the last-mentioned source it is said that he should redden it with the sacrificial blood. But apart from that, we do not know who was supposed to do what during the ritual sequence. as was mentioned in (è29), it is not clear whether there ever were full time religious specialists in the pagan religion;28 but we do know that the secular ruler, whether a chieftain, a jarl, or a king, played a decisive role in many religious rituals, as we also see in the texts quoted above (è23). Here we notice that the leader built the hof and was responsible for maintaining it, but we hear nothing about his role in the actual performance of the rituals, except that it is said in Hákonar saga that he had to signa the beaker. actually we do not even know with certainty whether the goði or the hofgoði was identical with the secular ruler, although this is highly likely, and we may therefore infer that he had to wear a ring during the rituals, and thus mediate between the religious and the legal aspects of the ritual. anyway, it is likely that there were other specialists involved who took part in various parts of the rituals (the killing of the sacrificial victims, the sprinkling of the blood, the beaker being carried around the fire, etc.), not least if there was some sort of divination involved, which is quite likely, although not stated explicitly in the quoted texts (è25).
We are not told either the specific reason for carrying out the rituals. in Hákonar saga, however, the toasts for both victory and for ár and friðr could indicate that the ritual is multipurposed, although it is a bit surprising that the victory of the king is part of a ritual celebrated in the beginning of winter, since we would expect that such rituals would be celebrated rather in the beginning of the summer. a possible explanation could be that in relation to victory of the king the ritual could be seen as ‘thank offering’ after a successful campaign during the summer. But as we shall see below with adam of Bremen, it could also be that some of these rituals apparently concerned the whole well-being of the land, including fertility as well as victory in war.
28 although the question has been much discussed, and even if certain designations clearly point to the existence of several religious specialists (see Vikstrand 2001: 386–97), it must be seen as very unlikely that there existed such full time specialists. in societies like those of pre-Christian scandinavia it seems much more realistic to imagine that since rituals can be rather complicated processes, they would need different kinds of specialists. But it could hardly be afforded to have several religious specialists who had no other obligations than those connected to ritual. Therefore we can probably be quite certain that religious specialists were not only religious specialists, although they could probably be strongly specialized, being in charge of different rituals or of different parts of the more spectacular rituals.
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figure 31.1. Plan of the central part of lejre,
with halls and possible ritual buildings,
according to the latest archaeological excavations
and surveys. after Christensen 2015: 48–49.
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Even in these rather detailed accounts, where much is supported by archaeological finds (sundqvist 2016 passim), it is obvious that we do not have a full description of a ritual sequence. We are informed of some of the elements that form part of such a sequence,for instance, that a sort of divination took place.
However, we do not know, for instance, when the reddening of the participants and the altars took place. But first and foremost we are not informed about how the killing was actually carried out,29 what happened before the killing in order to sanctify the animals, and how ‘sacred’ the sacrificial meal was, and so forth. in other words, we need a model in order to fill out the lacunae and also to evaluate the significance of the information in the sources. such a model must come from comparative evidence, as was suggested by anders Hultgård already in 1993. from that comparative perspective, a reconstruction of this spectacular sacrifice would probably be close to the following.
People, no doubt from the higher social strata, would arrive at the farm of the mightiest chieftain/jarl in the area, bringing with them animals for sacrifices. We must assume, further, although not stated in the texts, that the arrival of people and animals would have had the form of a procession. it is highly likely that horses here had a special position as the most valuable animal, associated with the leaders and the god freyr. The larger animals were slaughtered outside, and the meat was brought in together with the bowl containing the blood from the victims. The whole sacred area was probably enclosed in some way, most likely only temporarily when rituals were about to take place. Then the room and the participants were sanctified, and thus brought into a liminal condition, by being sprinkled with blood. Most important, probably, was the sprinkling of the altar that represents the gods, apparently done by some sort of religious specialist. in this kind of sacrifice it does not seem as if any part of the meat is given to the gods, so that only the blood constitutes the gift. Then the banquet took place and toasts were delivered to the gods, making explicit what was wished for, just as oaths were sworn on some sacred ring. We can also assume that the sacral character slowly turned into a feast of a more profane kind before the whole thing was finished. apart from these sacrificial rituals, we must also assume that legal matters would be part of the gatherings which probably ran over several days.
The sacrificial ritual described here, based mainly in the three sources mentioned above, is thus fully in accordance with both the structure and the elements we would expect when looking at the sources from a comparative perspective: The role of the chieftain, the importance of the blood, the consecra-29 see, however, (è25) in which the possibilities of osteological analyses are mentioned.
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tion of the place and the participants, the meal which is eaten together with the gods — all these elements can be found worldwide; to postulate that they should be ‘borrowed’ from Christianity can only be due to lack of knowledge of this fact. and therefore it is natural to imagine that a ritual of the type just reconstructed would have taken place.
a somewhat different type of ritual is related by adam of Bremen (around 1070) and Thietmar of Merseburg (around 1015). Both describe some large-scale sacrifices in Uppsala and lejre respectively. Whereas Thietmar’s description ( Chronicon 1.17) is very brief, adam is rather detailed, and below we shall therefore quote the two chapters (26 and 27) of his fourth book in full and discuss it briefly. There can be no doubt that both descriptions portray cyclical rituals, since Thietmar says that the sacrifices are celebrated in January, perhaps indicating that it could be the Jól celebration that is aimed at, whereas adam says that the time is aequinoctium vernale (spring equinox) in March and thus toward the summer (è28).
Thietmar of Merseburg
Est unus in his partibus locus, caput istius regni, lederun nomine, in pago, qui selon dicitur, ubi post Viiii annos mense ianuario, post hoc tempus, quo nos the-ophaniam Domini celebramus, omnes convenerunt, et ibi diis suimet lxxxx et viiii homines et totidem equos, cum canibus et gallis pro accipitribus oblatis, immo-lant […]. (pp. 23–24)
(in this land, in the region of sjælland, it is lejre which is the capital of the land; here everybody gathers in the month of January, after the time when we celebrate the advent of our lord, every ninth year, and they sacrifice 99 humans and the same amount of horses along with dogs and roosters — instead of falcons.) Adam of Bremen
- Nobilissimum illa gens templum (schol. 138–39) habet, quod Ubsola dicitur, non longe positum ab sictona civitate [vel Birka]. in hoc templo, quod totum ex auro paratum est, statuas trium deorum veneratur populus, ita ut potentissimus eorum Thor in medio solium habeat triclinio; hinc et inde locum possident Wodan et fricco. Quorum significationes eiusmodi sunt: ‘Thor’, inquiunt, presidet in aere, qui tonitrus et fulmina, ventos ymbresque, serena et fruges gubernat. alter Wodan, id est furor, bella gerit hominique ministrat virtutem contra inimicos. Tercius est fricco, pacem voluptatemque largiens mortalibus. Cuius etiam simulacrum fin-gunt cum ingenti priapo. Wodanem vero sculpunt armatum, sicut nostri Martem solent; Thor autem cum sceptro iovem simulare videtur. Colunt et deos ex hominibus factos, quos pro ingentibus factis immortalitate donant, sicut in Vita sancti ansgarii legitur Hericum regem fecisse.
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- omnibus itaque diis suis attributos habent sacerdotes, qui sacrificia populi offerant. si pestis et fames imminet, Thor ydolo lybatur, si bellum, Wodani, si nuptiae celebrandae sunt, fricconi (schol. 140). solet quoque post novem annos communis omnium sueoniae provintiarum sollempnitas in Ubsola celebrari. ad quam videlicet sollempnitatem nulli prestatur immunitas. Reges et populi, omnes et singuli sua dona transmittunt ad Ubsolam, et, quod omni pena crudelius est, illi, qui iam induerunt christianitatem, ab illis se redimunt cerimoniis. sacrificium itaque tale est: ex omni animante, quod masculinum est, novem capita offeruntur (schol.
141), quorum sanguine deos [tales] placari mos est. Corpora autem suspenduntur in lucum, qui proximus est templo. is enim lucus tam sacer est gentilibus, ut singulae arbores eius ex morte vel tabo immolatorum divinae credantur. ibi etiam canes et equi pendent cum hominibus, quorum corpora mixtim suspensa narravit mihi aliquis christianorum lXXii vidisse. Ceterum neniae, quae in eiusmodi ritu libationis fieri solent, multiplices et inhonestae, ideoque melius reticendae.30
schol. 138: Prope illud templum est arbor maxima late ramos extendens, semper viridis in hieme et aestate; cuius illa generis sit, nemo scit. ibi etiam est fons, ubi sacrificia paganorum solent exerceri et homo vivus inmergi. Qui dum non invenitur, ratum erit votum populi.
schol. 139: Catena aurea templum circumdat pendens supra domus fastigia lateque rutilans advenientibus, eo quod ipsum delubrum in planitie situm montes in circuitu habet positos ad instar theatri.
schol. 140: Nuper autem cum rex sueonum christianissimus anunder sacrificium gentis statutum nollet demonibus offerre, depulsus a regno dicitur a con-spectu concilii gaudens abisse, quoniam dignus habebatur pro nomine iesu con tu-meliam pati.
schol. 141: Novem diebus commessationes et eiusmodi sacrificia celebrantur.
Unaquaque die offerunt hominem unum cum ceteris animalibus ita ut per iX dies lXXii fiant animalia quae offeruntur. Hoc sacrificium fit circa aequinoctium vernale. (pp. 259–60)
(26. That folk has a very famous temple called Uppsala, situated not far from the city of sigtuna and Björkö. in this temple, entirely decked out in gold, the people worship the statues of three gods in such wise that the mightiest of them, Thor, occupies a throne in the middle of the chamber; Wotan and frikko have places on either side. The significance of these gods is as follows: Thor, they say, presides over the air, which governs the thunder and lightning, the winds and rains, fair weather and crops. The other, Wotan — that is, the furious — carries on war and imparts to man strength against his enemies. The third is frikko, who bestows peace and pleasure on mortals. His likeness, too, they fashion with an immense phallus. But Wotan they chisel armed, as our people are wont to represent Mars. Thor with 30 one of the problems with adam’s text is the fact that there are several manuscripts, often being quite different: see, for instance, the edition by Werner Trillmich (1961: 150–55).
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his scepter apparently resembles Jove. The people also worship heroes made gods, whom they endow with immortality because of their remarkable exploits, as one reads in the Vita of saint ansgar they did in the case of King Eric.
- for all their gods there are appointed priests to offer sacrifices for the people. if plague and famine threaten, a libation is poured to the idol Thor; if war, to Wotan; if marriages are to be celebrated, to frikko. it is customary also to solemnize in Uppsala, at nine-year intervals, a general feast of all the provinces of sweden. from attendance at this festival no one is exempted. Kings and people all and singly send their gifts to Uppsala and, what is more distressing than any kind of punishment, those who have already adopted Christianity redeem themselves through these ceremonies. The sacrifice is of this nature: of every living thing that is male, they offer nine heads, with the blood of which it is customary to placate gods of this sort. The bodies they hang in the sacred grove that adjoins the temple.
Now this grove is so sacred in the eyes of the heathen that each and every tree in it is believed divine because of the death or putrefaction of the victims. Even dogs and horses hang there with men. a Christian seventy-two years old told me that he had seen their bodies suspended promiscuously.31 furthermore, the incantations cus-tomarily chanted in the ritual of a sacrifice of this kind are manifold and unseemly; therefore, it is better to keep silence about them.
schol. 138: Near this temple stands a very large tree with wide-spreading branches, always green winter and summer. What kind it is nobody knows. There is also a spring at which the pagans are accustomed to make their sacrifices, and into it to plunge a live man. and if he is not found, the people’s wish will be granted.
schol. 139: a golden chain goes round the temple. it hangs over the gable of the building and sends its glitter far off to those who approach, because the shrine stands on level ground with mountains all about it like a theater.
schol. 140: When not long ago the most Christian king of the swedes, anundar, would not offer the demons the prescribed sacrifice of the people, he is said, on being deposed, to have departed ‘from the presence of the council, rejoic-ing’ that he had been ‘accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the fame of Jesus’.
schol. 141: feasts and sacrifices of this kind are solemnized for nine days. on each day they offer a man along with other living beings in such a number that in the course of the nine days they will have made offerings of seventy two creatures.
This sacrifice takes place about the vernal equinox. (pp. 207–08) The two texts are similar in certain ways when it comes to the ritual descriptions, although they are most likely not dependent on each other; they may therefore be seen as independent testimonies of this sort of ritual in mainland 31 The translation should more likely be: ‘Here are also hanged dogs and horses, together with humans; a Christian has told me that he had seen 72 such bodies hanging carelessly among each other.’
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scandinavia. Thietmar tells us in a rather precise way where and when they took place: namely, in lejre every ninth year in January. We are not told who acted as sacrificers, but the sacrificial victims are ninety-nine of four species: humans, horses, dogs, and roosters. Nothing however is said about the way the ritual is carried out.
adam is much more detailed, but unfortunately many of these details are not related in a comprehensible way, and actually it is likely that adam was mixing several types of rituals in his description.32 Before discussing that we shall, however, take a brief look at the parallels between the rituals described in the two sources. Both of them take place in important central places; they take place (apparently) every ninth year (è28);33 large amounts of victims are sacrificed, and humans, as well as horses and dogs, are mentioned in both texts.34 Compared to the old Norse texts analysed above, it seems as if the sacrifices described in Chronicon and Gesta Hammaburgensis were much more spectacular and not least much more violent. Even if we are told about human sacrifices in Kjalnesinga saga, they appear to be very different from the slaughter we envisage in these texts. These differences can perhaps be explained with reference to the unreliability of the two sources, but it could also be that we are dealing with different historical and social circumstances in the probably much more densely populated areas of Uppland and sjælland, and we can also think that the information related by the two authors would mirror historical situations somewhat back in time, that is, not necessarily the situation in the eleventh century.
adam’s text appears to have a wealth of information, but again we are in reality only getting glimpses of the rituals in gamla Uppsala.35 one of the 32 The source value of adam’s Gesta Hammaburgensis has been debated extensively. Many valuable references to this debate can be found in the articles in Hultgård (ed., 1997), and for more recent contributions we can refer to sundqvist (2016: 110–32). Most strongly the source value of adam’s work has been rejected by Henrik Janson (1998). although adam did not visit Uppsala, his informant, the Danish king sven Estridsen, certainly had done so several years earlier. This is no guarantee, of course, but it should warn us not to reject the description by adam right away.
33 The number nine had a special significance in the pre-Christian world; see schjødt (1988) with references.
34 if the figures mentioned by the two authors are reliable, it seems that the number of sacrificial victims in lejre would have been close to four hundred (396), whereas adam explicitly says that seventy-two living beings are being sacrificed. such figures, however, cannot usually be relied upon.
35 for a good overview of the historical development of gamla Uppsala, we can refer to Zachrisson (2011b).
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figure 31.2. Reconstruction of the main hall at gamla Uppsala in the seventh and eighth centuries. a similar later hall may have been the background for adam of Bremen’s description of a ‘templum’ in Uppsala. illustration: Disir Productions, Uppsala.
main problems with the description, apart from the source-critical problems, is that it apparently does not describe one ritual but more likely several ritual acts that probably do not belong together in one ritual sequence. Thus, in Chapter 27 it is said that the priests36 would sacrifice to different gods according to different ‘threats’ and occasions. This indicates that, apart from the feasts celebrated every ninth year, also some crisis rituals would be part of the ritual activities. However, the main sacrifice is said to take place with nine-year intervals.37 Here we learn that it is a general feast for all the provinces of svetjud and that all have to send gifts for the feasts.38 This is probably to be paralleled with snorri’s account that all should bring food to the feasts at Hlaðir. so also here we can imagine some sort of procession, which is supported by the recent archaeological investigations, where it seems that a ‘processional’ road has been found (sundqvist 2016: 126; Nygaard and Murphy 2017: 54–56). anyway, in 36 in adam’s description we almost get the impression that there was a thing like ‘a priesthood’ comparable to those known from greece and Rome in antiquity. such institutions are not very likely to have existed in pagan time, and, if they did, it must have been in the very last phase and cannot be seen as a characteristic of the pagan religion.
37 see, however, Nordberg (2006a) in which it is argued that the ritual cycle was more likely eight years. although nothing is said in the text, it also seems safe to assume that in a place like gamla Uppsala, also cyclical rituals with shorter intervals, probably more than one ritual a year, have taken place (è28).
38 it is not clear what is meant here, since we are also told that everybody has to attend the celebrations, so instead of ‘sending’ gifts we should perhaps rather think that everybody had to
‘bring’ gifts.
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Jens Peter Schjødt
attempting to reconstruct the rituals reported by adam, we have to be aware that they may not all fit into one sequence.39
in scholion 138 we are told that the ritual space is formed as a replica of the cosmological world-view with a tree and a well, probably being modelled on yggdrasil and the well of Urðr, having been observed by many scholars (e.g., de Vries 1956–57a: ii, 381). The well in Uppsala, we learn, is also used for divinatory purposes, which is in accordance with the mythic well having something to do with fate (è35 and è59), and it could perhaps be compared to Kjalnesinga saga’s blótkelda. Close to the temple there is a sacred grove, the sacredness of which is due to the ‘death and putrefaction of the victims’. Thus, it seems that the whole area with temple, well, and grove will have formed a sacred space.
although not related directly by adam, we also know that a legal assembly and market activities took place there attended by all the svear ( Óláfs saga helga ch.
77; cf. Zachrisson 2013: 171–72). and a concilium is mentioned in schol. 140, pointing in the same direction. We also hear of a golden chain that could perhaps be seen as a parallel to the vébǫnd, mentioned above, serving to mark off the sacred sphere, although adam’s wording does not say so.
as mentioned, the nine-yearly festival takes place in the beginning of spring and it lasts for nine days (schol. 141), each day having its own sacrifices consisting of humans, horses, and dogs, and as it is said nine male individuals (or the heads of nine individuals) of each species, whatever that means precisely.40
The blood of the sacrificial victims is used to placate the gods, and it could be that it was sprinkled, as is the case in the old Norse texts, whereas the bodies are hanged in the sacred grove, which points in the direction of some sort of sacrifice to Óðinn (è42). finally we learn that songs were chanted that were inhonestae (unseemly), which probably indicates that they had a sexual content, therefore pointing to sacrifices for freyr. The word used here, libationes, means literally ‘drink offerings’, and it may therefore be contrasted with sacrificium above. if this interpretation is right, it could indicate that there were different kinds of sacrifices to different gods and with different goals involved in these celebrations. as mentioned above, we cannot know for certain whether these 39 We shall not deal here with the information concerning the gods, which are dealt with in many of the chapters in this work. for a discussion of the three gods, their functions, and attributes, mentioned by adam, we can refer to schjødt (2012b).
40 The latin text has capita, which can mean both ‘heads’ and ‘pieces’ (individuals). if the former is the right translation, there seems to be an opposition between ‘heads’ and ‘bodies’ in the following. However, it could also be that the ‘bodies’, corpora, should be seen in opposition to the blood with which they ‘placate the gods’.
31 – Cyclical Rituals
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ritual features were all parts of the same ritual, or whether adam or his sources mixed up different rituals which may not have taken place during the same festival. However it does seem natural that sacrifices of this spectacular kind, lasting for nine days, would involve various kinds of rituals, having different purposes, and aiming at manipulating different gods with different functions.
To sum up, it seems that these celebrations in gamla Uppsala and lejre were of a much more spectacular kind than those related in the three old Norse texts analysed above. The differences are due mainly to quantity: many more sacrificial victims and probably many more people attending. from the old Norse texts we do not know for how long they were celebrated, but probably not as long as the one in gamla Uppsala. Here, however, it is also likely that sacrificial feasts of a lesser duration would take place every year.
if adam is reliable, we should also assume a difference when it comes to the role of religious specialists: whereas the size of the East Nordic rituals would need the attendance of several priests, this is not necessarily so in the West Nordic rituals. We hear about the goði who may be identical with the secular ruler, and we can probably also be certain that some specialists would take care of the killing of the sacrificial victims. in Uppsala, however, it is stated by adam that there were appointed priests for all their gods, perhaps indicating that there were different priests for each of the main gods, and as we also saw they may have carried out different rituals (bloody sacrifices, libations, drownings, etc.). it is not mentioned, either, by Thietmar or adam that food was eaten or toasts proposed, but we should be careful not to over-interpret that sort of argumenta ex silentio; in general there are many details which we can safely assume were part of the rituals, but which are not mentioned by Thietmar and adam. Both authors and their sources were much more interested in the violence and, according to their view, cruelty that was going on than in possible common meals and toasts or ‘oath rings’. in other words, we can easily imagine that during the festival period, sacrificial meals and a lot of drinking would be important parts. actually, we would be surprised if this was not the case.
But we also have a lot of similarities. in all the texts here analysed it appears that people from a larger area have to attend; they have to bring along with them sacrificial animals for the sacrifices; legal and religious affairs went hand in hand, although rings are not mentioned by adam and Thietmar; several gods are parts of the rituals, and bloody sacrifices were carried out; in both east and west the blood had a special significance, although we are not informed about how it was handled in lejre and old Uppsala; and other similarities in the evidence could be mentioned.
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Concluding Remarks
The texts we have dealt with in this chapter, and many others, confirm that recurring rituals were part of the religion in ancient scandinavia as in all other societies. They were carried out on a private basis, some perhaps daily and some in connection with the various seasons, just as we would expect in an agricultural society which was deeply dependent on the outcome of its crops and the well-being of the animals. But they were also carried out in the public sphere, and here, in addition to the fertility aspects, we have also seen that the change of the seasons with war during the summer period had to be celebrated at large public gatherings, in which the secular ruler played an important part, both as an object of the ritual (toasts for the victory of the king) and as a mediator between the legal and the religious aspects of these gatherings. Therefore, these public rituals were ‘multipurposed’ to a much larger extent than is the case with the private settings. of course ‘private’ and ‘public’ must be seen as
‘ideal types’ with a lot of intermediary forms, where it is practically impossible to make a clear distinction between the two. Nevertheless, it is clear that the more densely populated the area is, the more spectacular and ‘public’ the ritual would be. although we cannot find clear evidence in the sources, we must also assume that the longer intervals there were between the celebrations, the more spectacular they would be, which may very well be one of the reasons why the apparently yearly ritual at lade and the ninth-yearly ones in gamla Uppsala and lejre, appears so different in size and expenditure.
The cyclical rituals in pre-Christian scandinavia were, of course, different in many details from such rituals in other cultures, but it seems that the general structures are more or less the same all over the world. gods are addressed to make them help protecting the society and its surroundings; the person in charge of the society also has a prominent role in these rituals towards the gods; the rituals follow a certain structure with preparations, liminal periods, and meals and toasts together with the gods. and just as the secular ruler played a particular role, so also were the religious and the legal aspects — both of utmost importance for any society — celebrated together. sacrifices, religious specialists, communication with the gods, and so forth are all elements that can be found worldwide.
further, as mentioned, it is well known from all agricultural societies that the calendar is bound up on cyclical rituals that have, besides the overt purposes of manipulating the gods to be benevolent towards land and society, the purpose of creating a calendar for the agricultural work, and of course also of keeping up the social identity of the celebrating people.