Álfablót
The álfablót (or the Elven sacrifice) is a
There is a notable account of the ceremony in Austrfararvísur by the Norwegian skald Sigvatr Þórðarson, where he tried to impose on the privacy of a series of homes during the sacred family holiday, a privacy that he was accordingly asked to respect.[1]
Austrfararvísur
In his skaldic poem Austrfararvísur, the Norwegian skald Sigvatr Þórðarson gave a first hand account of his less than agreeable encounter with the holiday in Sweden. Sigvatr and his companions had been sent on a diplomatic mission to Skara in Västergötland[2] and were to meet jarl Ragnvald Ulfsson, but they had not arrived at the destination yet and had to find night quarters.
After an arduous journey, Sigvatr and his companions arrived at a homestead called
At the following farm, he met a lady who told him to go away and said "Don't go further inside unlucky man! We are afraid of Odin's wrath; we are pagans!"[4] Then, she chased him away as if he were a wolf and said that they were having the elven sacrifice at the homestead.
They tried three more times to find a place to rest, but all the times they were dispatched by men who called themselves Ölvir. Then, they decided to seek out the man who was reputedly the most hospitable man in the district. The last man only scowled at them, and calling the man the "guardian of the pickaxe", Sigvatr stated that if that man was the "best man", the worst man must have been truly evil.
Kormáks saga
In Kormáks saga, there is an account on how sacrifices were done to the elves in order to heal a battle wound. Unlike the sacrifices described by Sigvatr, this one appears to have been a sacrifice that could have been performed at any time of the year:
Hún segir: "Hóll einn er héðan skammt í brott er álfar búa í. Graðung þann er Kormákur drap skaltu fá og rjóða blóð graðungsins á hólinn utan en gera álfum veislu af slátrinu og mun þér batna."[5] |
"A hill there is," answered she, "not far away from here, where elves have their haunt. Now get you the bull that Cormac killed, and redden the outer side of the hill with its blood, and make a feast for the elves with its flesh. Then thou wilt be healed."[6] |
References
- ^ a b c d Larsson 2002, p. 129.
- ^ a b c d Steinsland & Meulengracht 1998:79
- ^ Larsson 2002, p. 128.
- ^ ""Gakkattu inn," kvað ekkja,/"armi drengr, en lengra./Hræðumk ek við Óðins,/erum heiðnir vér, reiði."". Archived from the original on 2007-03-14. Retrieved 2007-06-29.
- ^ Kormáks saga, at Snerpa.
- ^ Chapter 22, What the Witch Did for Them in Their Fights, in an English translation called "The Life and Death of Cormac the Skald" Archived 2007-01-07 at the Wayback Machine.
Bibliography
- Larsson, Mats G. (2002). Götarnas riken: upptäcktsfärder till Sveriges enande (in Swedish). Atlantis. ISBN 978-91-7486-641-4.
- ISBN 978-0-19-983969-8.
- ISBN 91-7324-591-7