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Religious Practices

of the Pre-Christian and

Viking Age North

by Alfta Reginleif

Religious Practices of the Pre-Christian and

Viking Age North

by Alfta Reginleif

Feasts Held Regularly At Longer Intervals

Time-Keeping

The Two Great Seasons

The Turning of the Moon

Nights Before Day

Day Names

Month Names

Modern Practice

Introduction

The Sacred Enclosure

Rules for Sacred Ground

Images of the Gods and Goddesses

The Wild-fire

The Bl ót-feast and the Full

The Solemn Oath

Offerings

Hallowing

When To Bl ót

Bl ót Activities

Conclusion

Footnotes (page 1)

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Table of Contents

Cover

Digital Dwarf Adv.

Title Page

Introduction

Sacred Enclosures

The Hof

Stave Churches

The H örg

Sacred Groves

Sacred Trees

Sacred Stones

Holy Mountains and Hills

Sacred Rivers, Lakes, Bogs, Springs, etc.

Descriptions of Sacred Places

Pillars, Posts and the Irminsul

Sacred Ground

Images of the Gods

The Bl ót-feast

Bl ót Feast Descriptions

The Procession

The Full

The Solemn Oath

Hallowing

Facing North

Offerings

Prayer

Animal Sacrifices

Sacred Fire and Holy Water

Salt Springs

Sacred Fire

The Landv ættir

The Annual Feasts

The Harvest Feast

The Álfablót

Winter Nights

D ísarblót

J ól

The Wild Hunt

The Oath Boar

Thorrabl ót

Class, Location and the Tides

The Spring Rites

Sigrbl ót/Summer Finding

Ostara (Eastre/Easter)/Walpurgis Day/May

Day

Rites of Spring Summary

Sun's Wending (Midsummer)

The Religious Practices of the Pre-Christian

and Viking Age North

hope to present it in an organized manner by

grouping it into logical groups. Then I would like to

offer my thoughts on how we, as modern followers

of the Northern Way, can take those practices and

incorporate them into our modern practice as we

honor the Regin and strengthen the ties that have

with them. I will leave it to the reader to judge as

to whether or not I have been successful in this.

Introduction

The undertaking of this article is one that I have

felt was needed for some time. Since The Northern

Way is a reconstructionist tradition I wanted to

shed a little light on the actual practices of our

Northern European fore-fathers. The common opi-

nion is that there is little in way of information a-

bout the Religious Practices of the Pre-Christian

and Viking Age North. I therefore expected to find

maybe 20 or 30 pages worth of notes and, from

that, be able to offer some very rough outlines. It

was not long before I realized that there was more

information out there than I had thought. What I

found is that there was information to be found. It

was like someone had made a puzzle that was the

Religious Practices of the Northern Europeans and

then taken those puzzle pieces and spread them to

the wind. Every book I read or every saga I looked

through, would yield more pieces to that puzzle. I

am confident that, had I had time and had been

able to study more sources, I would have found

more pieces to that puzzle. Unfortunately I had a

deadline and I had to stop somewhere and start

working on writing this article. So I took the puzzle

pieces I had gathered and began to organize

them. With each puzzle piece I began to see an

overall picture of the Religious Practices of the Pre-

Christian and Viking Age North. I did not find all

the puzzle pieces and I most likely never will, but I

believe that I now have enough to be able to get a

fairly decent picture of those religious practices.

It is certain that scholars have made many studies

of the religious practices of

pre-Christian Northern Europeans. I don't consider

myself a scholar by any means, although I hope

that my studies will one day earn me that title. I

think that, as excellent as the work done by scho-

lars on this subject is, it still lacks a view point

which would, in my opinion, shed much light on

the subject. That point of view is one from the be-

liever, that is, the point of view from one who sees

the Regin as reality instead of some attempt of

"primitive" man to describe the forces of nature or

any of the other various theories that come from

the religion called Science. I hope to be able to of-

fer that view (i.e. of a believer) and that those rea-

ding this article will find that view of use.

My goals with this article are to first present the

actual practices that we have evidence of from the

lore and from established and quality scholarship. I

Sacred Enclosures

The types of places considered sacred are surpri-

singly varied. A sacred area might be in a grove of

trees or a particular tree. A large standing stone or

a spring might be considered sacred or a hill or a

lake. Any striking landmark might be considered

sacred. From the evidence we have, it seems that

these types of sacred sites were the norm until the

Viking Age (roughly from 700 C. E. until about

1100 C. E.) at which time build structures became

more prominent. Despite this, natural landmarks

as sacred ground continued well until the Christian

conversion.

The Hof

Sacred groves and various other sacred sites of

that sort continued but as the Viking Age neared

its end the hof became more common. Zoëga gi-

ves the definition for the word "hof" as "Heathen

temple." (1) These Heathen temples were also cal-

led goðahús (House of the Gods) or blóthús

(House of Sacrifice). (2) Although the word hof is

generally taken to indicate a temple of some sort

there is some debate as to whether or not this is

true as there have been no actual Heathen

temples to survive into modern times. Archeology

has yielded no sure answer to this question either.

Because the word 'hof' occurs in many place na-

mes it was once thought that this indicated the e-

xistence of many temples but later scholarship has

shown this to be nothing more than the assumpti-

ons of "later antiquarians." (3) If hof does refer to

a temple proper then judging from the place na-

mes there would have been quite a few temples.

The word hof may have referred to farm buildings.

Hof could have referred to a large communal hall

where large gatherings for the feasts that were

held on Holy Nights. (4) It would have been used

after the blót or sacrifice. If this were the case the

animal which was sacrificed was killed at the holy

site and prepared for cooking in the hof, while the

parts that were dedicated to the gods were left

hanging on a sacred tree or on poles. An example

of this type of hof was excavated in an area in

north-eastern Iceland called Hofstaðir. When it

was first excavated it was thought, from the

ground plan, to be a large temple. Later scholars-

hip thinks it more probably that this was a great

hall for a farmhouse and that it was used by the

leading gothi of the area to hold feasts during the

major Holy Days. It would not have been built for

purely religious purposes and could have been u-

sed for other purposes. (5) Possible proof of this in

the lore comes from the story of how the Christian

skald Sigvatr Þorðarson (c.1020) was sent by the

Christian king of Norway to arrange a marriage

between the king of Norway and the daughter of

the king of Sweden. At this time Norway was

Christian but the people of Sweden still clung to

the ways of Hethenism. When Sigvatr came to a

farm that was called "hof" seeking shelter and was

turned away. The farm wife there explained that

they were in the midst of the álfablót (Feast of the

Alfs/Elves) and that she feared the anger of Othinn

if the skald were allowed in. He experienced this at

several farms. As noted one of the farms he visited

was called hof. This could have been referring to

the hall which he was barred from entering. (6)

Further proof of this might be found in the word

Dísasal (7) which is the name given to a place of

worship for the goddesses or dísir in many sour-

ces. The Old Norse word salr means room or hall

and the words salskynní and saldrótt mean ho-

mestead and household folk respectively. (8)

Although we cannot be sure that there were

temples built that were solely for the religious pur-

poses early on, they most certainly developed so-

me time during the Viking Age and perhaps earlier.

While natural features in the land were regarded

as sacred sites, there developed a need for an enc-

losed or fenced off area as the word vé (9) (sacred

enclosure) indicates. From the evidence we have

the use of idols to represent the Regin was a late

development. We know that the Germans in the

1st centuries did not represent their gods and god-

desses with images. (10) It is possible that the

need for an enclosure developed as a response to

the development of depicting the gods and god-

desses in human form. These idols would have

needed a place to set them apart and or house

them.

The enclosure may have developed from so-

mething as simple as a raised earthwork or an

ditch that was made to surround (enclose) the sac-

red area. The area enclosed could be circular,

square or rectangular and include other sacred

features such as posts/pillars, springs ect. (11)

There are various examples of this type of enclosu-

re from archaeological finds. One called the Golo-

ring which is near Coblenz is circular in shape and

has a diameter of about 190 metres. The dating of

this site is thought to be around the sixth century

B.C.E. This site contained a large posthole in the

center. Could this have been for an Irminsul (see

"Pillars and Posts")? Another example is in Cze-

choslovakia and was rectangular in shape (80 me-

ters by 20 meters) which was surrounded by a

ditch. In it were bones of children and animals.

This site is thought to have had an artificial plat-

form and pits holding bones and pottery frag-

ments. There was a stone in the shape of a rough

pyramid about 200 cm. high which stood in the

place where the offerings were made. The center

of this enclosure was taken up by the grave of

what is thought to be the grave of a priestess. It

dates back to the third century B. C. E. (12)

The best evidence for a pre-Viking Age temple is

found at Tronheim Fjord. As was common practice

with the Christians, a church was built on the spot

but there were signs of an earlier building that da-

ted back to 500 C. E. which contained numerous

post holes. There was signs of burning, as if the

previous building there had been burned down by

Christians in order to make way for their church to

replace the older Heathen temple. Also found were

tiny pieces of gold foil which were commonly used

on figures known as goldgubber in Denmark. (13)

There have been attempts to rebuild temples such

as the reconstruction of the temple at Uppsala but

that reconstruction is based on the ground plan of

a Wendish temple at Arcona which was destroyed

by the Danes in the twelfth century. (14)

Whether the word 'hof' originally designated a lar-

ge meeting hall where the community would

gather for the sacrificial feast after the blót, which

was held at a separate site, or if it designated a

temple proper or, as Rudolf Simek suggests, that

temples were simply roofed versions of hörgrs (see

'The Hörgr'), (13) it is clear that by the end of the

Viking Age it had come to designate a temple

which was solely dedicated to religious functions.

(14)

Descriptions of hofs do survive in the sagas and in

various other sources from the middle ages. One

common feature is that they seem to all have been

constructed of wood. One possible example was

excavated in Northumberland and is considered to

be from the seventh century which places it in the

Anglo-Saxon pre-Christian period. It measured 11

x 5.5 m. and had inner walls. The doors were in

the center of the longer walls and there was a se-

cond building which scholars belief may have ser-

ved as the kitchen, as many animal bones were

found there. The skulls of these animals were not

found there but in the main building in a pit. The

main building had three post holes as well. (15)

The temple at Mære as well as the temple at Upp-

sala were also described as being made of wood

and post holes were found at those sites as well.

(16) Although there is little doubt that there were

smaller hofs constructed archaeologists have been

unable to uncover any evidence or any large buil-

dings or the outlines of such under churches. The

elaborate descriptions we find in the sagas and

buy such accounts as come to us from Adam of

Bremen may be influenced by accounts of temples

in Christian literature or from the large medieval

churches built of stone. (17)

Thórólf Mostrar-skegg's ("Moster-beard") hof is

described in Eyrbyggja Saga, in chapter 4:

"There he let build a temple, and a mighty house it

was. There was a door in the side-wall and nearer

to one end thereof. Within the door stood the pil-

lars of the high-seat, and nails were therein; they

were called the Gods' nails. There within was there

a great frith-place. But off the inmost house was

there another house, of that fashion whereof now

is the choir of a church, and there stood a stall in

the midst of the floor in the fashion of an altar,

and thereon lay a ring without a join that weighed

twenty ounces, and on that must men swear all

oaths; and that ring must the chief have on his

arm at all man-motes (Things).

On the stall should also stand the blood-bowl, and

therein the blood-rod was, like unto a sprinkler,

and therewith should be sprinkled from the bowl

that blood which is called "Hlaut", which was that

kind of blood which flowed when those beasts we-

re smitten who were sacrificed to the Gods. But

round about the stall were the Gods arrayed in the

Holy Place.

To that temple must all men pay toll, and be

bound to follow the temple-priest in all farings e-

ven as now are the thingmen of chiefs. But the

chief must uphold the temple at his own charges,

so that it should not go to waste, and hold therein

feasts of sacrifice."

Hofs were often constructed either close by or ma-

de to include natural sacred landmarks. These

could be sacred groves and/or sacred trees or

springs or standing stones to name a few. (18) In

Hörd's Saga Thorstein Gullnapr has a "sacrificing

house" in which is a stone which he venerates. In

the Saga Thorstein sings this song to the stone:

Thou hast hither Before the sun shines,

For the last time The hard Indridj

With death-fated feet Will justly reward

theeTrodden the ground; For thy evil

doings.

It was also common for smaller individual shrines

or personal hofs to be built. The Old Norse word

for this was stalli or stallr, meaning altar or support

for an idol. (19) One example of one is the

"temple" that Thorolf of Helgafell built next to the

holy mountain. In this hof or stalli was kept the

sacred ring of the god and the hlautr bowl used to

catch the sacrificial blood. (20) The stalli was con-

sidered as distinct from the hörg. (21) It is also

possible that the larger hofs were specifically for

larger gatherings, such as a district who, when

they came together would have need of a larger

hall and that the smaller hofs were personal hofs

or no more than a covering for personal stalli. (22)

The hofs were built in such a way that they could

be disassembled and moved if need be. There are

examples of this in the lore such as Landmánabók

and Eyrbyggja Saga. In Landnámabók Thorhad

who was an old hofgothi (temple priest) in Thrand-

heim in Mœri, decided to move to Iceland. He car-

ried with him the temple mould (dirt) and the al-

tars and settled in a place called Stödvarfjord. He

rebuilt his temple there and the whole fjord was

considered holy from that time on. (23) The brin-

ging of dirt from the foundation of the temple to

the new location seems to have been a common

practice as we find it done in what is probably the

most well known example of a temple being mo-

ved, in Eyrbyggja Saga. Here Thórólf Mostrar-

skegg ("Moster-beard") sets out for Iceland after

disassembling and bringing most of the his temple

with him, including the two high seat posts. (24)

The mould brought was said to be specifically from

under where Thorr had sat. (25) When Thórólfr

neared Iceland he took the two high seat posts,

one of which had the likeness of Thorr carved on

it, and threw them overboard. He said that he

would land and make that place his home where

the pillars came to land. It was said that the pillars

immediately began to drift toward a ness much

faster than most thought was normal and it was at

that ness that Thórólf landed and named Thors-

ness. (26)

The post holes mentioned so often most likely ha-

ve a more practical purpose. This practical purpose

could have very well been put to ritual and/or sac-

red use as well, as in the case of Thórólf who car-

ved the likeness of Thorr into one of his high seat

pillars. To understand the practical use of the

posts in hofs you must know a little about how

hofs and Stave Churches were built. Although the-

re is no proof that hofs were built in the same fa-

shion as Stave Churches, I would postulate that to

be the case. H. R. Ellis Davidson discusses this me-

thod of building in her excellent book "Myths and

Hörd's Saga chapter 37

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