Death in Norse paganism

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Swedish Museum of National Antiquities in Stockholm
.

Death in Norse paganism was associated with diverse customs and beliefs that varied with time, location and social group, and did not form a structured, uniform system. After the

votive offerings, and knowledge, either willingly or after coercion. Many of these beliefs and practices continued in altered forms after the Christianisation of the Germanic peoples in folk belief
.

The self

The concept of the self in pre-Christian Nordic religion was diverse and is not presented as rigid or consistent in surviving Old Norse texts, nor is there a strict dualism of body and soul as in Christianity. Despite this, components have been identified that could together comprise the individual:

It has been proposed that when the body had been broken down, through decay or immolation, the non-physical component of the individual could start the journey to a realm of the dead;

draugs.[7]

Funeral

The Oseberg ship (Viking Ship Museum, Norway)
Main article: Norse funeral

Prior to Christianisation, the North Germanic peoples practiced a variety of burial customs, such as cremation and

inhumation, that varied in popularity over time. Remains were buried, such as in howes, and were typically accompanied by grave goods.[8]

Germanic

Scyld in Beowulf and Baldr in the Prose Edda.[9]

Afterlives and rebirth

Hel

Main articles:
Hel (being) and Hel (location)

Christian Hell, wyrmsele (snake hall).[10][11] Hel's realm is separated from the world of the living by the river Gjöll, spanned by the bridge Gjallarbrú. The gates are heavy, and close behind those who pass it, preventing them from returning to the realm of the living. Scholars believe that these ideas of Hel are influenced by Early Medieval Christianity, which taught of a realm of punishment in contrast to paradise. The word Helviti, which still is the name of Hell in modern North Germanic languages, means "Hel's punishment".[12]

Hel was not necessarily conceived of as dark and dreary to heathen Scandinavians; the poem Baldrs draumar describes in Hel a hall, decorated with gold and a lavish feasting table ready for the celebration of Baldr's arrival to the realm after his coming death.[13] Still, it was probably less desired than Valhalla to some individuals, with sagas telling of warriors who cut themselves with spears before dying in order to trick Hel into thinking that they had died heroic deaths in battle.[12]

In the story of Hadingus, in Gesta Danorum, Saxo describes a land of the dead that may be Hel. In this account, Hadding is led by an old woman through a sunny land that could grow herbs even in winter, with a great wall that Hadding couldn't pass. The woman then cut the head of a cockerel and threw it over the wall, whereupon it came back to life and could be heard crowing on the other side.[14]

Valhalla

Main article: Valhalla

Gisla saga, 'hel-shoes' are put on men's feet to allow them to walk to Valhalla.[15]

In

thralls.[16]

Some who die in battle are described as going to Hel rather than Valhalla.

Gautrek's Saga members of a household believe they will go to Valhalla after sacrificing themselves to Odin by jumping off a precipice named Ætternisstapa (Family Cliff). The accuracy of this as a historic practice has been questioned; however, it is also referenced in Kristni saga, and Bede describes a similar or shared tradition in England.[18] [19]

Grímnismál describes how Valhalla's roof is made of spears and shields, similar to the hall of the howe-dweller Geirröðr in Þorsteins þáttr bæjarmagns.[20][21]

It has been proposed that Valhalla developed and gained importance around 500 CE, when Odin gained prominence relative to female

gods associated with death, amid other changes in religious practice, such as a shift in focus from bodies of water to halls and cult buildings, and the development of an aristocratic warrior elite in southern Scandinavia seeking territorial expansion.[22]

Fólkvangr

Main article: Fólkvangr

Fólkvangr is an afterlife field ruled over by Freyja, who chooses half of those who die in battle to reside with her there, attested solely in the Poetic Edda poem Grímnismál:

In

Þorgerðr Egilsdóttir after the death of her brother proclaims that she will not eat again until she dines with Freyja. In this section, Fólkvangr is not explicitly mentioned and the precise afterlife in which she believes she will meet Freyja is unclear.[15]

Land

Burial mounds

In Old Norse sources, the deceased can become animate after burial as a

Old Norse: haugbúi (howe-dweller)). Draugs are frequently hostile, especially when the person was unpleasant in life, becoming inhumanly strong and large, and causing destruction and killing in the local area; they commonly damage roofs by riding on them and in Flóamanna saga cause plague. This typically lasts until the body is exhumed and burned, or decapitated – practices continued after the conversion to Christianity.[25] Due to the dangers posed by the ash, it is typically buried away from the settlement.[26] In Eyrbyggja saga, the ash is licked by a cow which gives birth to a calf that later kills the man who burnt the body.[27]

Individuals who become harmful

Njal's saga
:

Now those two, Skarphedinn and Hogni, were out of doors one evening by Gunnar's cairn on the south side. The moon and stars were shining clear and bright, but every now and then the clouds drove over them. Then all at once they thought they saw the cairn standing open, and lo! Gunnar had turned himself in the cairn and looked at the moon. They thought they saw four lights burning in the cairn, and none of them threw a shadow. They saw that Gunnar was merry, and he wore a joyful face. He sang a song, and so loud, that it might have been heard though they had been farther off.[29]

Fires in inhabited howes are also seen in

jötnar in Skírnismál.[33]

In addition to the ambiguity between Hel and the grave, the deceased can also return to their howe from Valhalla, as in Helgakviða Hundingsbana II, where the hero Helgi physically travels from there by night to his open burial mound where he lies with wife Sigrún. Here, Helgi is described as being bloody, with ice-cold hands and frost in his hair, and tells her that her weeping over him causes him pain, similar to in Laxdæla saga.[34]

Fells, hills and mountains

Helgafell in western Iceland

The entry of the dead into hills is described in Eyrbyggja saga where the worshipper of Thor, Þórólfr Mostrarskegg holds Helgafell ("Holyfell"), a hill or mountain near his home, sacred. Þórólfr's son Þorsteinn Þorskabítr later dies, along with his crew, on a fishing expedition:

Landnámabók supports this, stating that Þórólfr's kinsmen believed they would enter into the fell when they died. Njáls saga also gives an account of Svanr, a wizard, who was welcomed into the mountain Kaldbak after he drowned at sea. The belief in entering into hills, such as Þorisbjorg and Melifell, upon death is referenced elsewhere in Landnámabók. A similar belief among Sámi continued into the modern period. It has been suggested that belief in the dead living in howes and mountains are connected, with both being presented as halls on the inside.[37]

It has been noted that those who are associated with this belief in saga literature and Landnámabók are related to one another. This had led to the proposal that the belief was part of a local, or family practice that was brought to Iceland early in the 10th century.[38]

Other afterlives

Friðþjófs saga and Sonatorrek.[39] In Skáldskaparmál, she is described as catching the drowned in her net.[40] Nonetheless, Rán's halls are not the sole afterlife for those who die at sea, such as in Eyrbyggja saga when Þorsteinn Þorskabítr and his crew die on a fishing trip but are seen entering into Helgafell.[41] Ejybyggja saga also describes Þorod and his men being killed when their ship is driven ashore, whereupon their bodies are lost. At the funeral feast, the men enter dripping wet and are welcomed because of the belief that attending one's own funeral after drowning was a sign that one was well received by Rán.[42][43]

Gimlé is a golden hall attested in Völuspá that will be the residence of mankind after Ragnarök. Snorri Sturluson adds to this description in Gylfaginning, stating that it is reserved for those who acted virtuously in life and is located in the third heaven,

Judgement Day for one's actions. Belief in these afterlives thus do not likely represent a pre-Christian worldview.[46]

The

Gefjun is attended by women who die unmarried according to Gylfaginning.[47] This is not attested elsewhere and may be an invention by Snorri although it has been noted that the association between the god and chastity is also seen in Völsa þáttr, when she is invoked by a girl who opposes the religious practice involving an embalmed phallus.[15]

Rebirth

Main article: Rebirth in Germanic paganism

Surviving texts indicate that there was a belief in

Starkaðr and Olaf Geirstad-Alf, the latter case of which is directly associated with entry into the deceased's burial mound.[50] Scholars have also explored the potential association with the naming newborns after the dead, often through the family line.[51]

Scholars have proposed that

cyclic time was the original format for the mythology.[52] Most notably, the destruction of the world in Ragnarök and its subsequent rebirth, as described in Völuspá and Gylfaginning, could be seen as a cycle, although it is never explicitly stated to occur more than once.[53]

Cultic importance

The three large "royal mounds" at Gamla Uppsala.

Sites of worship

Old Norse: blothaugar (sacrificial howes).[54]

In some accounts the recipient of worship are deceased rulers such as King Guðmund in the

Ólafs saga Tryggvasonar give a euhemerisitic description of Freyr as a king of Sweden who was buried in a howe when he died and was subsequently worshipped and called a god.[56]

The tradition of putting out gifts such as food and beer on mounds has survived into modern times throughout

haugbui (howe-dweller),[57][58] at Wayland's Smithy in England,[59] and to elves in Sweden.[60]

Sitting on mounds

A recurring motif in

Northern European cultures, such as the Welsh and Irish, in which howes are also a place to encounter and receive knowledge from the otherworld.[64]

Sitting on a howe is also associated with rulership. In literary sources, sitting on mounds is linked to holding power and accordingly, King Hrollaugr descends from his seat upon a howe when he is

form of a crow that allowed his wife to conceive Völsung.[67][68] Again, these practices show similarities with those of Medieval Welsh culture.[69]

Raising the dead

image stone on Gotland

To obtain knowledge

In Hávamál, Odin when speaking of the spells he knows states:

This skill is used after the death of

völva to reveal why his son Baldr is having bad dreams, and so finds out that the god will soon die.[72]

In

galdrar to protect him from danger, including the curse of a dead Christian woman, similar to the waking of Sigrdrífa in Sigrdrífumál[73][74]

For battle

In

draugs, who are stronger than they were in life.[75]

In some cases, both sides of the conflict are continuously revived, leading to a nearly everlasting battle. This can take place in the afterlife, most famously in Valhalla when the einherjar train for the coming conflict at Ragnarök. It is also seen in the journey of Hading to the land of the dead in Gesta Danorum between those who died in battle, and in the story of Thorstein Uxafotr from the Flateyjarbók, where the fight takes place in the grave.[76]

In the telling of

Saint Olaf.[40][77]

Connection with sexual rites

The phallic Stora Hammars I stone.

Early sources have an additional complex of beliefs which is connected with the afterlife: death could be described as an erotic embrace between the dead man and a lady who represents the afterlife. This lady was often

Rán's nine daughters are also depicted as erotic partners in death. There is good reason to believe that such erotic elements are not just skaldic playfulness, but authentic pagan notions, since they appear in the oldest known skaldic poems. In the 9th century poem Ynglingatal, the kings are said in several stanzas to be in "Hel's embrace". Several skaldic poems and sagas describe death in battle or on the sea with erotic terminology. The skald praises the brave sea warrior who fights in vain against the natural forces, but who finally has to give up, and then he enters Rán's bed or is embraced by her nine daughters.[78]

Several of

image stones, raised in remembrance of the dead, show scenes alluding to death and eroticism. The stones have richly decorated surfaces and they often in the upper field depict a welcoming scene in the realm of the dead between a man and a lady. The lady offers a drinking horn to the man who arrives on Sleipnir. It is the man's phallic shape, among other things, which has led scholars to connect the images to the literary sources. The scene could depict the deceased who is united with Hel or with Rán. It is primarily kings and chieftains who are portrayed with an erotic death, but also the death of a hero can be portrayed in the same way.[78]

The connection between death and eroticism is probably ancient in Scandinavia, and to this testify numerous "white stones", great phallic stones that were raised on the barrows. The tradition goes back to the 5th century, and in total 40 such stones have been discovered, mostly on Norway's southwestern coast. It is possible that death required an extra portion of fertility and eroticism, but also that the living received life force from the dead. The thought might have been that life and death have the same origin, and if an individual died, the fertility and the future life of the

ætt would be ensured.[78]

Oseberg ship burial, suggesting that companionship was their main function; assumptions regarding gender roles complicate these interpretations where the rationale for the rites are not explicitly described.[81]

See also

References

  1. ^ Kovárová 2011, pp. 130–131, 140.
  2. ^ Kovárová 2011, pp. 131, 138.
  3. ^ Simek 2008, p. 96.
  4. ^ Simek 2008, p. 129.
  5. ^ Davidson 1968, p. 132.
  6. ^ Gräslund 2000:11
  7. ^ Simek 2008, pp. 57–58.
  8. ^ Davidson 1968, pp. 7–16.
  9. ^ Davidson 1968, pp. 16–25, 39, 41–42.
  10. ^ Tolkien 1936.
  11. ^ sele.
  12. ^ a b c Steinsland 1998, p. 91.
  13. ^ Orchard 2011, p. 248.
  14. ^ Davidson 1968, p. 85.
  15. ^ a b c Davidson 1968, p. 75.
  16. ^ Davidson 1968, pp. 66–67.
  17. ^ Crawford 2017, Chapter 37.
  18. ^ Davidson 1968, pp. 73–74.
  19. ^ Davidson 1968, p. 74.
  20. ^ Simek 2008, p. 346.
  21. ^ Davidson 1968, pp. 82–83.
  22. ^ Gunnell 2015, p. 59.
  23. ^ Grímnismál, Stanza 14.
  24. ^ Thorpe (1907:21).
  25. ^ Davidson 1968, pp. 38, 93–94.
  26. ^ Simek 2008, p. 65.
  27. ^ Morris & Magnusson 2019, Chapter 63.
  28. ^ Davidson 1968, p. 93.
  29. ^ Dasent 2018, Chapter 77.
  30. ^ Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks, Chapter 4.
  31. ^ Davidson 1968, p. 175.
  32. ^ Crawford 2021, Chapter 4.
  33. ^ Davidson 1968, pp. 174–175, 178.
  34. ^ Davidson 1968, p. 95.
  35. ^ Eyrbyggja saga, Chapter 11.
  36. ^ Morris & Magnusson 2019, p. 19.
  37. ^ Davidson 1968, pp. 88–90.
  38. ^ Davidson 1968, p. 90.
  39. ^ Simek 2008, p. 260.
  40. ^ a b Sturluson 1995.
  41. ^ Davidson 1968, pp. 87–88.
  42. ^ Morris & Magnusson 2019, pp. 148–149.
  43. ^ Davidson 1968, p. 76.
  44. ^ Sturluson 2012, p. 91.
  45. ^ Larrington 1999.
  46. ^ Simek 2008, pp. 15, 109, 360.
  47. ^ Sturluson 2012, p. 59.
  48. ^ Orchard 1997, p. 131.
  49. ^ Davidson 1968, p. 139.
  50. ^ Davidson 1968, pp. 138–141.
  51. ^ Davidson 1968, pp. 141–147.
  52. ^ Lindow (2002), pp. 42–43.
  53. ^ Lindow (2002), pp. 1–2, 40, 254–258.
  54. ^ Davidson 1968, pp. 100–103.
  55. ^ Crawford 2021, p. 138.
  56. ^ Davidson 1968, pp. 100–101.
  57. ^ shag-boy.
  58. ^ Muir 2014, pp. 52–54.
  59. ^ Davidson 1958.
  60. ^ Davidson 1968, p. 114.
  61. ^ Orchard 2011, p. 43.
  62. ^ a b Davidson 1968, p. 106.
  63. ^ Orchard 1997, p. 35.
  64. ^ Davidson 1968, p. 109.
  65. ^ Davidson 1968, pp. 105–111.
  66. ^ Davidson 1968, pp. 106–107.
  67. ^ Crawford 2017, pp. 2–3.
  68. ^ Davidson 1968, p. 107.
  69. ^ Davidson 1968, pp. 107–108.
  70. ^ Hávamál, Stanza 157.
  71. ^ Orchard 2011, p. 38.
  72. ^ Davidson 1968, pp. 152, 156–157.
  73. ^ Bellows 2007, Gróagaldr.
  74. ^ Davidson 1968, p. 152–155.
  75. ^ Davidson 1968, p. 78.
  76. ^ Davidson 1968, pp. 66–68, 81.
  77. ^ Davidson 1968, pp. 79–82.
  78. ^ a b c Steinsland 1998, p. 92.
  79. ^ Harrison 2007, p. 79.
  80. ^ Steinsland 1998, p. 89.
  81. ^ Jarman 2021, pp. 246–247.

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  • "Hávamál". Retrieved 24 July 2022.
  • "Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks". heimskringla.no. Retrieved 13 July 2022.

Secondary

External links

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