Dísablót
The Dísablót was the
The Dísablót appears to have been held during
This suggests that the rite was performed by women, especially in light of what is generally believed to be their nearly exclusive role as priestesses of the pagan Germanic religion.
King Adils was at a Disa sacrifice; and as he rode around the Disa hall his horse Raven stumbled and fell, and the king was thrown forward upon his head, and his skull was split, and his brains dashed out against a stone. Adils died at Upsal, and was buried there in a mound. The Swedes called him a great king.[6]
In Sweden, the Dísablót was of central political and social importance. The festivities were held at the end of February or early March at Gamla Uppsala.[7] It was held in conjunction with the great fair Disting and the great popular assembly called the Thing of all Swedes.[8]
The
In Svithjod[10] it was the old custom, as long as heathenism prevailed, that the chief sacrifice took place in Goe month[11] at Upsala. Then sacrifice was offered for peace, and victory to the king; and thither came people from all parts of Svithjod. All the Things of the Swedes, also, were held there, and markets, and meetings for buying, which continued for a week: and after Christianity was introduced into Svithjod, the Things and fairs were held there as before.[12]
The shrine where the Dísir were worshiped was called dísarsalr and this building is mentioned in the
The Scandinavian dísablót is associated with the Anglo-Saxon
The number of references to the Disir ranging from the
See also
References and notes
- ^ a b c d "The Religious Practices of the Pre-Christian and Viking Age North at Northvegr". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2006-11-30.
- ^ The article Diser in Nationalencyklopedin (1991).
- ^ "Disablot", Nationalencyklopedin.
- ^ The article Distingen, in the encyclopedia Nationalencyklopedin.
- ^ Hervarar saga in Old Norse, N. M. Petersen's edition Archived 2007-05-19 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Sturluson, Snorri; Laing, Samuel (1930). Heimskringla: The Norse King Sagas. p. 30.
- ^ The article Landsting, at the official site of the Museum of National Antiquities, Sweden Archived 2006-09-30 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ The article Disablot, in the encyclopedia Nordisk familjebok.
- ^ [http://www.foteviken.se/historia/ynglinga/yng_start.htm The article Snorres Ynglingasaga at the site of the Foteviken Museum, Sweden
- ^ An obsolete name for Sweden, more specifically what today is named Svealand. Literally: "the Swedish people".
- ^ The month of February.
- ^ Saga of Olaf Haraldson, part II.
- ^ Myth and Religion of the North (1964), 224-227.