Norse paganism

All you want to know about Norse paganism

The so-called valknut symbol appears on various objects during the Norse pagan period.

Mjolnir pendants were worn by Norse pagans during the 9th to 10th centuries. This Mjolnir pendant was found at Bredsätra in Öland, Sweden. Mjolnir, in Norse mythology, was the war hammer wielded by the god Thor.

Norse paganism refers to the religious traditions of the Germanic tribes living in the Nordic countries of Northern Europe prior to and during Christianization.

Norse paganism is, like Anglo-Saxon paganism and Continental Germanic paganism, a subset of Germanic paganism, which was practiced in the lands inhabited by the Germanic tribes across most of Northern and Central Europe in the Viking Age.

Norse paganism was a polytheistic religion, revolving around a pantheon centered on the god Odin. It is for this reason that the Christian Church labeled it to be a form of "paganism".

Our knowledge of Norse paganism is largely drawn from Christian literary sources^{[citation needed]} as well as archaeological sources. Despite this, enough knowledge has been gleaned for Norse paganism to be resurrected in the 20th century through the Neopagan religions of Asatru and Odinism.

Some scholars, such as Georges Dumézil, have suggested that some structural and thematic elements within the attested Norse religious ideas place Norse paganism within the framework of the pan-Indo-European expression of spiritual ideas as a whole.

Core Concepts

A depiction of Odin entering Valhalla riding on Sleipnir from the Tjängvide image stone.

Theology

Main article : List of Norse gods and goddesses

Norse paganism revolved around polytheism; a belief that there were many different gods and goddesses. There was a hierarchy of gods, with Odin, the chief of the gods, being at the top. Each of these deities was generally responsible for a specific aspect of nature, for instance, the god Thor ruled over the sky and lightning. Several, though not all, of the male gods, were associated with war or battle in some way.

The gods were neither immortal nor all powerful, and their deaths had already been prophecised to occur at Ragnarok, the end of the world. Despite this, they still had great power, and could protect humans from other supernatural beings, and so were worshiped.

A depiction of Odin and Frigg (1895) by Lorenz Frølich.

There were two tribes of deities in Norse paganism; the Aesir, and the Vanir. The majority had been members of the Aesir, whereas the smaller group of the Vanir were largely comprised of deities associated with fertility. In mythology, a war was fought between the Aesir and the Vanir, which ended with their unification into a single tribe.

The Aesir lived in the realm of Asgard, whilst the Vanir lived in the realm of Vanaheimr.

The chief of the gods was Odin. He was the god of wisdom and war. Odin's consort was Frigg, the goddess of marriage and motherhood. Odin's son was Thor, the god of thunder and the sky, who wielded the mighty war hammer known as Mjolnir. Thor's consort was Sif, the most beautiful of women. Týr was the god of single combat and heroic glory, Forseti was the god of peace and justice, and Heimdall was the guardian of Asgard.

Among the gods who were of the Vanir, Freyr and Freyja were most notable. They were a brother and sister, Freyr ruling over agriculture, weather and fertility, and Freyja ruling over love, beauty and fertility. Their father, Njord, was the god of the sea.

Afterlife

The Norse believed that there were various afterlives, and a person would go to a certain one depending on who they were and how they died. Warriors who had died on the battlefield would go either to the hall of Valhalla, ruled over by Odin, or to the hall of Fólkvangr, ruled by Freyja.

People who had died in their sleep would go to Hel, which was ruled over by a goddess also called Hel. People who had been cruel in life, such as oath-breakers and rapists, would go to Niflhel.

This illustration shows a 19th century attempt to visualize the world view of the Prose Edda.

Cosmology

The Norse saw the whole universe as being a part of a giant ash tree called Yggdrasil. Upon this tree was situated nine realms. Scholars are not entirely certain what these nine specifically were, but it is commonly held that they comprised of:

Ásgarðr, world of the Æsir
Vanaheimr, world of the Vanir
Miðgarðr, world of humans
Muspellheim, world of the primordial element of fire
Niflheimr, world of the primordial element of ice
Svartálfaheim, world of the Svartálfar (black elves)
Álfheimr, world of the Álfar (elves)
Svartalfheim or Nidavellir, world of the Dvergar (Norse dwarves)
Jötunheimr, world of the jötnar

Mythology

Main article : Norse Mythology

"Idun and the Apples" (1890) by J. Doyle Penrose, which depicts a scene from Norse mythology.

Norse religion had a large mythology of stories, many of which were about the gods. Only a small number of these myths have survived in their entirety, but it is still more than that which has survived from other forms of Germanic paganism.

Notable tales included the Battle of Brávellir, the forging of Brísingamen, the theft of Thor's Mjolnir by Þrymr, and the murder of the god Baldr by Loki.

Norse mythology featured many different mythical creatures, such as the Valkyries who carried the dead to Valhalla, the Alfar, (or Elves) who were half way between men and gods, and the Svartálfar (or dark elves), who were possibly the same as the Dvergar (or Dwarves). However the most notable were the Jötunn (or Giants), who were the enemies of the gods.

There was a cosmogony myth that stated that initially there was two realms; Muspelheim the realm of fire and Niflheim the realm of ice. These clashed in the void of Ginnungagap, igniting the creation of a Jötun named Ymir and a cow called Audhumla. Audhumla later licked away the ice to reveal another Jötun, this time called Búri, who's son was Bor. Bor later fathered the god Odin, from whence all other gods came.

The Norse also had a myth about the end of the world, which they called Ragnarok (meaning, Final Resting Place of the Gods). It will comprise of a final battle between the gods and the Jötunn, and will lead to huge casualties on both sides, for instance, Odin will be killed by the wolf Fenrir, and his son Thor shall be slain by the serpent Jörmungandr. All but two members of the human species will be wiped out, and from those two the whole world shall be repopulated again.

Norse mythology survived Christianisation as fragments of folklore, though in the 18th century and the rise of the Romanticist movement, the myths again became popular in northern European nations as symbols of national pride. They were often depicted in art.

Worship

Places of Worship

Map showing regional differences in worship c. 900, as determined by place-names and archaeological data. Blue denotes areas primarily worshipping the Vanir, red areas are where worship of Thor, Odin and other Aesir predominate. Purple indicates areas where both cults coexisted.

Gamla Uppsala, the centre of worship in Sweden until the temple was destroyed the late 11th century.

The Germanic tribes rarely or never had temples in a modern sense. The blót, the form of worship practiced by the ancient Germanic and Scandinavian people, resembled that of the Celts and Balts: it could occur in sacred groves. It could also take place at home and/or at a simple altar of piled stones known as a hörgr.

However, there seems to have been a few more important centres, such as Skiringsal, Lejre and Uppsala. Adam of Bremen claims that there was a temple in Uppsala (see Temple at Uppsala) with three wooden statues of Thor, Odin and Freyr, although no archaeological evidence to date has been able to verify this.

Remains of what may be cultic buildings have been excavated in Slöinge (Halland), Uppåkra (Skåne), and Borg (Östergötland).

Priests

"Midvinterblot" (1915) by Carl Larsson.

Some kind of shamanistic priesthood seems to have existed, focussing especially on magical women known as völur. There seem also to have been secular chieftain-priests called goðar who arranged religious festivals at their own estates for their followers^[1].

It is often said that the Germanic kingship evolved out of a priestly office. This priestly role of the king was in line with the general role of goði, who was the head of a kindred group of families (for this social structure, see norse clans), and who administered the sacrifices.

Human sacrifice

Sacrifice could comprise inanimate objects, animals or people. It is best to distinguish human sacrifice to the gods at religious festivals from 'retainer sacrifice' at a funeral. A vivid eye-witness account of retainer sacrifice survives in Ibn Fadlan's account of a Rus ship burial, where a slave-girl had volunteered to accompany her lord to the next world. Reports of religious sacrifice are given by Tacitus, Saxo Grammaticus and Adam of Bremen.

Preserved full length corpse of the Tollund Man, with noose around neck

The Heimskringla tells of Swedish King Aun who sacrificed nine of his sons in an effort to prolong his life until his subjects stopped him from killing his last son Egil. According to Adam of Bremen, the Swedish kings sacrificed male slaves every ninth year during the Yule sacrifices at the Temple at Uppsala. The Swedes had the right not only to elect kings but also to depose them, and both king Domalde and king Olof Trätälja are said to have been sacrificed after years of famine.

Odin was associated with death by hanging, and a possible practice of Odinic sacrifice by strangling has some archeological support in the existence of bodies perfectly preserved by the acid of the Jutland (later taken over by the Daner people) peatbogs, into which they were cast after having been strangled. An example is Tollund Man. However, we possess no written accounts that explicitly interpret the cause of these stranglings, which could obviously have other explanations.

Morality

The Norse were tolerant of homosexuality among men, though they mocked whomever took the submissive role, considering them to be ergi, or effeminate.

History

Origins

The origins of the Norse religion lie south of Scandinavia, in central Europe. It was here that the prototypical Germanic religion evolved, before spreading north to Scandinavia and west to England.

One form of execution occurred during the Christianization of Norway. King Olaf Tryggvason had male völvas (sejdmen) tied and left on a skerry at ebb to drown in the sea when the tide came in. (1897 illustration by Halfdan Egedius)

Christianisation

Christian missionaries first arrived in Scandinavia in the 8th century when they reached the lands that make up modern Denmark. By the 12th century, most of Scandinavia was nominally Christian, though much of the general populace still largely followed the old practises of paganism.

Whilst some of the pagan populace converted out of choice, others were forcibly converted with threats of violence. For instance, King Olaf Tryggvason had male völvas tied and left on a skerry at ebb to drown in the sea when the tide came in.

Many Christian writers of the time, such as Snorri and Saxo, claimed that the old pagan gods were in fact humans who had lived many centuries before.

Revival

In the 20th century, with the birth of the Neopagan movement, Germanic neopaganism was formed. Several specific forms of this arose, such as Asatru and Odinism, which emphasised reconstruction of Norse paganism.

Several far right and white power movements have adopted the imagery and beliefs of Norse paganism out of a belief that it is the true religion of the Aryan race.

Sources

Archaeological

A detail from a rune- and image stone from Gotland, in the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities in Stockholm. The three men are interpreted as Odin, Thor and Freyr, due to the objects they hold in their hands: a spear, a hammer-like object and a scythe.

Many sites in Scandinavia have yielded valuable information about early Scandinavian culture. The oldest extant cultural examples are petroglyphs or helleristninger [1]. These are usually divided into two categories according to age: "hunting-glyphs" and "agricultural-glyphs". The hunting glyphs are the oldest (ca. 9,000 – 6,000 BCE) and are predominantly found in Northern Scandinavia (Jämtland, Nord-Trøndelag and Nordland). These finds seem to indicate an existence primarily based on hunting and fishing. These motifs were gradually subsumed (ca. 4,000 – 2,000 BCE) by glyphs with more zoomorphic, or perhaps religious, themes.

The glyphs from the region of Bohuslän are later complemented with younger agricultural glyphs (ca. 2,300 – 500 BCE), which seem to depict an existence based more heavily on agriculture. These later motifs primarily depict ships, solar and lunar motifs, geometrical spirals and anthropomorphic beings, which seem to ideographically indicate the beginning of Norse religion.

Other noteworthy archaeological finds which may depict early Norse religion are the Iron Age bog bodies such as the Tollund Man, who may have been ritually sacrificed in a seemingly religious context.

Later, in the Pre-Viking and Viking age, there is material evidence which seems to indicate a growing sophistication in Norse religion, such as artifacts portraying the gripdjur (gripping-beast) motifs, interlacing art and jewelry, Mjolnir pendants and numerous weapons and bracteates with runic characters scratched or cast into them. The runes seem to have evolved from the earlier helleristninger, since they initially seemed to have a wholly ideographic usage. Runes later evolved into a script which was perhaps derived from a combination of Proto-Germanic language and Etruscan or Gothic writing. However, this origin has not been proven, and many runic origin theories have been advocated.

Many other ideographic and iconographic motifs which may portray the religious beliefs of the Pre-Viking and Viking Norse are depicted on runestones, which were usually erected as markers or memorial stones. These memorial stones usually were not placed in proximity to a body, and many times there is an epitaph written in runes to memorialize a deceased relative. This practice continued well into the process of Christianization.

An 18th century illustrated manuscript of the Prose Edda, one of the key literary sources for Norse paganism.

Like most ancient and medieval peoples, Norse society was divided into several classes and the early Norse practiced slavery in earnest. The majority of interments from the pagan period seem to derive primarily from the upper classes, however many recent excavations in medieval church yards have given a broader glimpse into the life of the common people.

Literary

Most, if not all, of the written material about the Norse religion is derived from accounts written long after the religion was widely practiced, and well into the Christian period. This is when the lines blurred between Norse pre-Christian religion and a demonized or romanticized Norse mythology. Norse religion was a cultural phenomenon, and like most pre-literate folk beliefs, the practitioners probably did not have a name for their religion, until they came into contact with outsiders or competitors. Therefore, the only titles bestowed upon Norse religion are the ones which were used to describe the religion in a competitive manner, usually in a very antagonistic context. Some of these terms were hedendom (Scandinavian), Heidentum (German), Heathenry (English) or Pagan (Latin). A more romanticized name for Norse religion is the medieval Icelandic term Forn Siðr or "Old Custom".

Whatever the Norse religion was called by its adherents, we mostly know it from the works of medieval historians, most notably Snorri Sturluson, who wrote the Prose Edda, and Saxo Grammaticus, who wrote the Gesta Danorum.

Influence

Norse paganism has had a lasting influence upon the culture of the Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Denmark and Norway), and those countries that the Norse colonised, like Iceland and northern England.

The days of the week are named after the Norse deities. Similarly, the days of the week in the English language are named after the gods of Anglo-Saxon paganism.

Day	Origin
Mánadagr	Mona's Day
Týsdagr	Tyr's Day
Óðinsdagr	Odin's Day
Þórsdagr	Thor's Day
Frjádagr	Freyja's Day
Laugardagr	Washing's Day - not a Norse deity, but an activity
Sunnudagr	Sun's Day

Midsummer (summer solstice) is an Old Norse practice mostly celebrated in Sweden but also in Finland, Estonia and Latvia and to some extent Norway and Denmark.

The Christian festival of Christmas in Scandinavia and elsewhere still has traces of Old Norse traditions that would have been practised at the pagan Midwinter festival of Yule, such as the Yule log, holly, mistletoe, and the exchange of gifts.

Notes

^ Gods and Worshippers in the Viking and Germanic world Tempus Publishing 2008.

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