Blót

In the context of "to worship" or "to worship with sacrifice", the Old Norse verb blóta is typically used with that being worshipped in the accusative case, and rarely with it in the dative case. The dative case is more typically used for the object being sacrificed. The verb is often followed by the aim of the blót, for example til friðar, sigrs, langlífis, árs, byrjar ("for peace, victory, long life, good season, fair wind").^[5]

In compounds

It has been proposed that during the Migration Period, religious organisation drastically changed, with rulers gaining enough power to centralise sacrifices and ceremonies to their own homes rather than in outdoor spaces such as bogs and lakes, as had been done before. These indoor cultic buildings are referred to in Old Norse soures variously as hof, hǫrgar, goðahús, blóthús.^[9]

Sources do still record

The written sources and the archaeological record indicate that in Old Norse religious practice, the sacrifice of animals, particularly pigs and horses, played a significant part in the blót. Closer in conception to a gift, it usually involved killing animals, and sometimes humans, in ritual fashion.^[11]

Adam of Bremen's account of the temple at Uppsala notes that only the heads were offered.^[12] This practice is possibly supported by the archaeological record. At the temple-hall of Hofstaðir in northern Iceland, oxen were decapitated in seasonal rituals for many years and the heads displayed at the hall. Osteological analysis of the bones shows that the animals were killed with blows to the neck by axe or sword. This method was perhaps intended to produce the spectacle of a shower of arterial blood.^[11] Similar observations have been made at other sites such as the Viking Age birch stump found underneath the church at Frösön ("Freyr's island") in Jämtland, and a site of a possible cult-house in Borg in Östergötland. Both of these sites had a significant enrichment of skulls relative to other bones. It has been proposed that there was a widespread practice to offer the heads to the gods, whilst cooking the meat for the feast that followed. It has also been suggested that the number of skulls that a hall displayed would act as a status signal, indicating the size of the feast that could be hosted within.^[13]

The written sources speak of sacrifices made of prisoners of war; Roman descriptions of Germanic tribes sacrificing their defeated enemies to Mars or Mercury have a similarity with customs related to the cult of Óðinn in Old Norse religion. The Icelandic skáld Helgi Trausti mentions his killing an enemy as a sacrifice to Óðinn;

Role of blood and stallar

In

Eddic poems.^[18] Olof Sundqvist supports the idea that hlaut formerly had the meaning of "lot" in the context of divination.^[19]

While

Jewish burnt offerings.^[20]

Along with having a role in divination, other suggestions for the importance of blood in blót have been put forward by scholars. It has been put forward that the violence used to kill the animals found at Hofstaðir may have acted as a way to remove tensions in the community. Olof Sundqvist instead proposes that the blood was used in a performative setting, creating a feeling of spectacle and that the event was strongly separate from usual daily life. If true, those participating in the ceremony would likely have become emotionally engaged in the ritual drama. He further suggests, consistent with ideas by Bruce Lincoln, that there may have been a perceived connection between the killing during the blót and the killing of Ymir during the creation account told in Gylfaginning, which acted as its mythic counterpart. In this context, the bloodshed may have signalled a renewal of the world, in which conditions would improve for those who performed the blót. ^[21]

Feasting and drinking

See also: Symbel

Swedish Museum of National Antiquities, Stockholm

.

Sacrificial feasts (

Valhǫll in Hákonarmál.^[23]

Horses are often recorded as being eaten in blótveizlur and the

establishment of Christianity but was later repealed. ^[24]

The ritual killing of animals was followed by feasts on the meat, as described in the Eddic and Scaldic poetry, the Icelandic sagas, and on rune stones.^[25] The meat was boiled in large cooking pits with heated stones, either indoors or outdoors, and ale or mead was drunk in the ceremony.^[26]

Sites suggesting religious feasting have been found in Scandinavia such as in

Guta saga, which describes those who partook in blót together as suþnautar ("boiling companions") as they cooked their meals made from sacrificed animals together. Seyðir and suþ- are likely both related to Gothic

: sauþs ("sacrifice"). [27]

Function

More than just a simple sacrifice, blót was central to all the ritual activities that took place in Norse sacral structures.^[11]

Help from the gods

Bulls have been noted to have been often sacrificed when seeking help from the gods in legal matters.

Hákon Sigurðarson restored the holy sites that had been damaged by Christians and made more blót than before and soon a period of prosperity followed, with a greater grain harvest and abundance of herring. This has been argued to show an ideology that a legitimate ruler must protect holy places and uphold blót so as to maintain a good relationship with the gods, in turn leading to the good fortunes of the people.^[29]

Divination

Divination is suggested to have occurred at some blót and is recorded in Ynglinga saga in connection to a sonarblót ("boar sacrifice"). This is not accepted universally by scholars, with Düwel arguing the link is only seen in Snorri's works. The link has been proposed to be seen elsewhere though, such as the compound word blótspánn ("chip used in divination").^[19][30]

According to Eyrbyggja saga, Þórólf Mostrarskeggi made preparations for his settlement of Iceland by performing a blót before he left Norway:

Þórólfr Mostrarskegg fekk at blóti miklu ok gekk til fréttar við Þór, ástvin sinn, hvárt hann skyldi sættast við konung eða fara af landi brott ok leita sér annarra forlaga, en fréttin vísaði Þórólfi til Íslandi.[31]

Þórólfr Mostrarskeggi prepared a great sacrifice and enquired of Thór, his beloved friend, whether he should be reconciled with the king or leave the country to seek a new destiny for himself; and the answer directed Þórólfr to Iceland.[32]

According to the Sturlubók and Hauksbók versions of Landnámabók, a man named Ingólf prepared to settle in Iceland with his brother Hjörleif by performing a blót in a similar way to Þórólf:

Þenna vetr fekk Ingólfr at blóti miklu ok leitaði sér heilla um forlög sín, en Hjörleifr vildi aldri blóta. Fréttin vísaði Ingólfi til Íslands.[33]

That winter Ingólfr prepared a great sacrifice and sought omens for his destiny, but Hjorleifr would never sacrifice. The answer directed Ingólfr to Iceland. [32]

Hjörleif was later killed by his thralls which Ingólf attributed to his refusal to uphold heathen customs. The book later states that no one dared live where Hjörleif had settled for fear of the landvættir.^[34]

Legitimisation of rulers

The holding of blót and associated feasts were an opportunity for rulers to demonstrate their wealth and generosity and praise of these traits is recorded in sources such as the skaldic poem

Egils saga and Beowulf and has been proposed to have been a central practice in building loyalty to the king and strengthening authority.^[35] Displaying of heads of eaten animals may have created a degree of competition between communities and played into the wider strategy of rulership in Viking Age Iceland.^[24]

Religious and cultic leaders

J. L. Lund

.

Scholars have debated the concept of religious leaders in Late Iron Age Scandinavia, with some such as Folke Ström supporting the idea that there was no professional priesthood and that rulers instead held this role. While this remains debated by scholars, there is no strong evidence for formal training into religious role whilst the organisation of sanctuaries and blót by elites is well attested in Old Norse texts.^[36]

Certain elites are highlighted for their participation in blót such as

Blót taking place at the beginning of winter in Norway and Iceland to celebrate vetrnætr ("winter-nights") are recorded in multiple sources, such as

Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar mentions a miðsumarsblót ("midsummer sacrifice") at Mære.^[47][51] Furthermore, Ynglinga saga describes how Odin instituted three festivals in Sweden, one of which was the sigrblót ("sacrifice for victory"), which was to take place at the start of summer.^[52][53]

Other

It has been noted that at the time of Thietmar's writing, Denmark had been nominally Christian for nearly 50 years and it is unlikely that large scale blót were still being performed at the end of the 10th century in Lejre. It has been further noted that Thietmar was determined to show the heathen Danes as being as ferocious and backwards as possible, using large numbers to show their barbarity. He further potentially based his description on existing literature available to him, which formed part of a long tradition of supposing that heathens in general commonly sacrificed humans. Such sources would have allowed him to further dehumanise the Danish heathen population and depict them as evil.^[58]

Uppsala

The chronicler Adam of Bremen has described a blót being performed every 9 years at Temple at Uppsala in Sweden in Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, written in the mid 11th century CE:^[59]

Rudolf Simek has argued that Adam of Bremen had a strong motive in his work to present both that a Christian mission to Scandinavia would be successful, while also emphasising the urgency as the heathens were still supposedly performing what he perceived as evil practices, such as performing blood sacrifices to idols. He proposes that he likely drew on accounts such as Thietmar of Merseburg's chronicle and this could have been the source of certain details such as it recurring every nine years, although the possibility does remain that similar sacrifices were held at both religious sites. Despite this, he argues there that the account is still informed by reliable sources and notable details are not found in sources that he would have had access to, such as the hanging of the sacrificed in trees.^[62]

Reception by medieval Christians

Blót strengthening evil spirits

The conversion þáttr Óláfs þáttr Geirstaðaálfs gives an account of Óláfr digrbeinn, a king who the author says predicted his own death and warned his people not to perform blót to him after he dies, claiming that doing so turns the dead into trolls. Following this, Óláfr explains that these demons can bring good harvests but are also harmful. After his death, bad harvests occur and the people ignore his requests and worship him, calling him "Geirstaðaálfr" ("the elf of Geirstad"). Shortly after this, the harvests improve though when they stop their blót, the evil spirits that were receiving the gifts become angered. It has been proposed that this tale is the result of the author imperfectly trying to combine the ideas of Christian demonology and "the noble heathen", who is meant to maintain his dignity after death.^[65]

Similarly in another conversion þáttr,

Reconstructionist adherents of contemporary Germanic paganism have developed traditions of blót rituals celebrated in a contemporary context since the 1970s.^[80] In these practices, animal sacrifice is usually replaced with offerings of food or drink, although there remains a large focus on sharing food and strengthening relationships.^[81]

See also

• Eucharist, a Christian rite involving eating and drinking
• Lác
  , an Old English word derived from a term for ritual
• Shechita, ritual slaughter in Judaism
• Qurban (Islamic ritual sacrifice)

Notes

References