Blót

(Old Norse and Old English) or (Old English) are religious ceremonies in Germanic paganism that centred on the killing and offering of an animal to a particular being, typically followed by the communal cooking and eating of its meat. Old Norse sources present it as a central ritual in Old Nordic religion that was intimately connected with many wider aspects of life.
Large are often described as taking place in halls, organised by the rulers of the region who were expected to carry out the practice on behalf of the people. were central to the legitimacy of rulers and Christian rulers refusing to hold them were at times replaced by more willing alternatives and driven out of the land. Smaller, household were sometimes recorded as being led by women. Beyond strengthening legitimacy for the ruling elites, the performance of was often in order to ensure the fertility of the land, a good harvest and peace, although they are also recorded as being performed for divination or to achieve desired results in legal matters.

After the establishment of Christianity, were routinely made punishable offences, as seen in early Germanic legal codes, with the recipients of the worship and sacrifice often equated with demons. Despite this, some aspects of the practice were likely incorporated into local Christian culture and continued into the modern period. The conscious performing of has also been revived in the modern period as part of the practice of modern heathens.

Etymology and meaning

Etymology

The verb form is seen in ("to worship; to sacrifice"), ("to serve (God); to worship"; to honour (through sacrifice)"), ("to sacrifice") and . The Proto-Germanic form of the verb can be reconstructed as the strong verb , or meaning "to sacrifice".

The noun form is seen in and ("sacrifice"), and ("sacrifice; worship"). A Proto-Germanic form of the noun can be similarly reconstructed as . A similar and related form can be reconstructed as from ("sacrifice") and , a component of ("worshipper of God"). can also be used to mean "idol-worship" in general, an "idol" (often in the form ) or metaphorically to mean "cursing" or "swearing" in Christian times due to the negative view of heathenry.

The shared Germanic root has been proposed to be related to ("to blow; to bloom; to blossom"), which is further connected to ("blood"). A connection has been further proposed to ("priest"), although it has been argued that the validity of this is dependent on the exact root of which cannot be determined with certainty.

Usage

In the context of "to worship" or "to worship with sacrifice", the Old Norse verb 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 , for example ("for peace, victory, long life, good season, fair wind").

In compounds

is found in many compound words relating to worship or sacrifice. These include adjectives such as ("rich in sacrifices") and terms for individuals also include it is a prefix such as , , or ("heathen priest"), ("heathen chief"). Other compounds include recipients of worship such as ("heathen god") and ("calf worshipped with sacrifices"). Items with religious function can also include it as a prefix such as ("sacrificial bowl") and ("garments worn at sacrifices"), and it can refer to religious concepts such as or ("idolatry"), and which is used to mean both "sacrificing to heathen gods" and "idolatry".

Components of the practice

Location

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 , , , .

Sources do still record Viking Age taking place a diverse range of sites, with groves, hofs and waterfalls being described as the recipients of , along with beings such as gods, elves and heathen vættir. Some nouns for places include as a prefix, suggesting them as sites where these ceremonies took place, such as ("sacrificial mound or cairn") and ("heathen house of worship"). Kjalnesinga saga describes how there was a site near a large hof called ("sacrificial fen/bog/well/spring" or "fen near the heathen temple") into which sacrifices were thrown during sacrifical feasts. This idea is also reflected in Icelandic placenames such as at Möðrudalur and ("fen/spring of the gods") at Mývatn.

Killing of humans and other animals

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 . Closer in conception to a gift, it usually involved killing animals, and sometimes humans, in ritual fashion.

Adam of Bremen's account of the temple at Uppsala notes that only the heads were offered. 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. 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.

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; '' Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana'' and '' Orkneyinga saga'' describe the sacrificing of captive enemies to Óðinn. In depositions of remains found near Uppland, most of the human bodies are of young males with healed bone trauma, a possible congruence with the sacrificed captives of war mentioned in the written corpus. In almost all instances, human sacrifices occurring in the context of the Old Norse texts are related to Óðinn. Criminals and slaves are the humans being sacrificed in the majority of cases which has been compared to modern executions. Scholars doubt the reliability of some claims of human sacrifice. In the case of Adam of Bremen's account of the sacrifices at Uppsala, for example, the author likely exaggerated about the sacrifices of humans in order to demonise Germanic religion. Similarly, the accuracy of the account of human sacrifice in Kjalnesinga saga has been doubted by some scholars.

Role of blood and

In Hákonar saga góða, Snorri Sturluson describes ("sacrificial twigs") being used like sprinklers to spread blood over the ("altars" or "platforms"), the walls of the hof (both inside and outside) and the people who were present there. It is possible that this description was influenced by the ecclesiastical ceremonies of the medieval church in which holy water was sprinkled over the congregation, or the account in the Old Testament, in which Moses sprinkles blood on his people. Snorri in his description explicitly notes the similarity between and (" aspergillum"). Building on this, it has been proposed that the use of terms such as , and to mean "sacrificial blood", "sacrificial twig" and "sacrificial bowl" respectively does not accurately reflect their use in pre-Christian times. This is partly based on the absence of the terms from Skaldic poetry and Eddic poems. Olof Sundqvist supports the idea that formerly had the meaning of "lot" in the context of divination.

While Klaus Düwel has taken this argument further, arguing that the sprinkling of sacrificial blood had no influence from heathen Germanic culture and was derived wholly from other sources such as the Old Testament, this has been challenged. The word (corresponding to one of the places sprinkled with blood in Snorri's account), likely did have a meaning related to sacrifice in pre-Christian Scandinavian contexts. The phrase ("sacred stand") is found in Skaldic poetry and there are attestations of blood being smeared on holy objects elsewhere in Western Scandinavia. In Hyndluljóð, Freyja says about how one of her worshippers has made a ("altar") for her, faced with stone that was turned to glass and reddened with ox blood. Similarly, the U-version of Hervarar saga tells how a holy tree, referred to as a , is reddened with blood from a sacrificial horse. It is unclear if this is meant to be interpreted as a literal tree or as a platform or altar (, or ). In Ynglinga saga, the king Dómaldi is sacrificed in order to make their crops grow and they redden the with his blood; Ynglingatal, the poem upon which this narrative is built, does not reference but it does emphasise that the ground was reddened with blood. It has been suggested that the pouring of blood on the ground below may be related to the taking of soil from below the by Þórólfr from Norway to Iceland during the settlement of the island, as described in Eyrbyggja saga. Religious objects are recorded as being reddened with blood during , like oath-rings according to the Hauksbók version of Landnámabók. The practice of collecting sacrificial blood and pouring it on altars is well attested in other cultures such as in Ancient Greek and religion and in Jewish burnt offerings.

Along with having a role in divination, other suggestions for the importance of blood in 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 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 .

Feasting and drinking

Sacrificial feasts ( or ) had a prominent place in the ancient religious practices of the Scandinavians, and were part of the seasonal festivals attended by large numbers of people. Family rituals such as the '' álfablót'' in western Sweden mentioned by the Norwegian skald Sigvatr Þórðarson in an early 11th-century poem, were usually performed on farm homesteads. Feasts and ritual drinking at are also mirrored in a mythological context in the depictions of Valhǫll in Hákonarmál.

Horses are often recorded as being eaten in and the eating of horsemeat was made an offence punishable by fines and outlawry by a number of medieval Scandinavian laws made after the adoption of Christianity, such as the Borgarthings-Lov, Den ældre Gulathings-Lov and the Frostathings-Lov. In Iceland, an exception was made for eating horsemeat in private for a short time after the establishment of Christianity but was later repealed.

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. The meat was boiled in large cooking pits with heated stones, either indoors or outdoors, and ale or mead was drunk in the ceremony.

Sites suggesting religious feasting have been found in Scandinavia such as in Melhus where many cooking pits, mainly dating to between 900 and 1300 CE, were found containing bones of domesticated animals. The hearths in hall-room C at Borg in Lofoten has also been suggested to have been the site of ritual cooking of meat from sacrificed animals. One large pit measuring around 6 m by 3 m has been interpreted as a (a cooking pit intended for ritual preparation of meat). The Old Gutnish cognate term is found as a prefix in Guta saga, which describes those who partook in together as ("boiling companions") as they cooked their meals made from sacrificed animals together. and are likely both related to ("sacrifice").

Function

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

Help from the gods

Bulls have been noted to have been often sacrificed when seeking help from the gods in legal matters. are also often described as being performed in order to achieve good harvests, with some texts explicitly recording that they are held ("for a good harvest and peace"). The rituals are suggested to be effective by some sources such as Fagrskinna, which notes that Hákon Sigurðarson restored the holy sites that had been damaged by Christians and made more 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 so as to maintain a good relationship with the gods, in turn leading to the good fortunes of the people.

Divination

Divination is suggested to have occurred at some and is recorded in Ynglinga saga in connection to a ("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 ("chip used in divination").

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

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 in a similar way to Þórólf:

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.

Legitimisation of rulers

The holding of 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 Sigurðardrápa. Giving of gifts at feasts, such as rings, is well attested in Germanic texts such as Egils saga and Beowulf and has been proposed to have been a central practice in building loyalty to the king and strengthening authority. 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.

Religious and cultic leaders

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 by elites is well attested in Old Norse texts.

Certain elites are highlighted for their participation in such as Sigurðr Hlaðajarl who is called ("the most ardent heathen worshipper") and is described as having maintained all the sacrificial feasts in Trøndelag on behalf of the king. This concept is also attested on the Stentoften stone which records that a man named HaþuwulfR, likely a local ruler, held a to give a good harvest. In Iceland, ("chieftains") are often recorded as leading public religious activities including .

Sources further describe how in both Norway and Svetjud, taking part in public was required for the ruler to be accepted by their subjects. tells how the Christian King Hákon came to Trøndelag and did not want to take part in the , upsetting the local farmers and chieftains. At the Frostaþing he was asked to partake in them as his father had done and he was later strongly pressured to eat horse liver at a ("sacrificial feast") in Mære. Similarly, the heathen king Blótsveinn took part in a horse sacrifice and ate horsemeat when becoming king of the Svear according to . The U-version of this saga further tells how Blótsveinn became king after his brother-in-law, Ingi, refused to uphold the old customs due to him being Christian and was thus driven away by the Svear to Västergötland. This closely resembles Adam of Bremen's description of king Anunder who was also driven out for refusing to uphold the performing of .

There is evidence of being led by women such as the ("housewife") in Vǫlsa þáttr and possibly the who is also mentioned as holding álfablót in Austrfararvísur. Whilst absent from detailed accounts such as those in , this is consistent with a wider Germanic context of some women playing central roles in ceremonies, the holding of feasts and running of the farm. This is attestedin written sources such as Beowulf, Egils saga and the Hassmyra Runestone and is potentially also represented in the archaeological record in high status female burials.

Calendrical

Yearly

Beginning of winter

taking place at the beginning of winter in Norway and Iceland to celebrate ("winter-nights") are recorded in multiple sources, such as Gísla saga Súrssonar, in which the goði Þorgrímr Þorsteinsson sacrifices to Freyr during the feast. This time has been suggested to have marked the beginning of the new year and may be the same as the dísablót, named for the disir, which is recorded in Ynglinga saga as having taken place in Uppsala. Two further are attested as having taken place in Scandinavia, each in a single source. Völsa þáttr, preserved in Flateyjarbók, describes a family in Northern Norway at the beginning of the 11th century CE in which are performed each night in the autumn to the preserved penis of a horse that had been previously killed. An álfablót is recorded as having taken place in autumn in Svetjud in Austrfaravísur, written around 1020 CE.

In Anglo-Saxon contexts, are recorded as occurring in Blōtmōnaþ, a month in the Old English calendar which roughly corresponds to the Gregorian month of November.

Later in winter

Other are also recorded as having taken place in winter, such as the in Trøndelag recorded in Heimskringla. Yule was celebrated in the middle of winter and had a diversity of religious components such as the performing of and heitstrengingar. The Þorrablót was held at midwinter in the month of Þorri. The Orkneyinga saga tells in an aetiological story that the got its name from the son of King Snær who held a every year at this time but it is more likely it got its name from the month.

Summer

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

Other

Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Danorum tells how Hadding, after having his fleet destroyed in a storm began sacrificing dark-coloured victims to Frey to regain his favourof the gods. The sacrifice was repeated yearly, being called by the Swedes the Frøblot

Every nine years

Lejre

Thietmar of Merseburg wrote in his chronicle, dated to the early 11th century CE, that the Danes had their main cult centre on Zealand at Lejre and gathered there every nine years and held a large sacrifice:

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 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.

Uppsala

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

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.

Reception by medieval Christians

strengthening evil spirits

Several conversion þættir, short stories concerned with reconciling Christian doctrine and heathen beliefs, present as harmful practices that, whilst effective in bringing benefits to the community that performs them, function by empowering evil spirits that pose as the helpful beings in which the heathens believe.

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 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 , 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.

Similarly in another conversion þáttr, Ögmundar þáttr dytts, the author equates Freyr and the devil and explains that the constant offerings to the carving of Freyr have given the devil the ability to speak through it so as to strengthen their belief in Freyr. Later in the tale, Óláfr Tryggvason spiritually helps a Norwegian named Gunnar in defeating the devil, driving it out of the wooden carving. Gunnar then pretends to be Freyr, putting on the clothes of the cult image and accepting offerings of valuable gifts from the worshippers of the god, who stop sacrificing animals from then on.

Banning and suppression

The Anglo-Saxon Penitential of Theodore imposes 1–10 years of penance for those ("who sacrifice to demons"). In this context, "demons" would likely have been used to refer to heathen gods and other beings connected to the cult, given that these were commonly equated in Christian thought. The penitential further prohibits the eating of food offered in sacrifices to the recipient being. Similar prohibitions are seen throughout later law codes in England such as the laws of King Wihtred of Kent. In Norðhymbra preosta lagu, are explicitly forbidden along with other practices deemed heathen such as idol-worship, with those caught performing them being made to pay 5 half-marks to the Church and 5 to the king.

Early Norwegian law codes explicitly forbid performing of , making it a punishable offence. The Older Gulaþing Law, dating to around the mid 11th century CE, bans performing of to heathen gods, howes or hǫrgar, listing it an offence for which the punishment is a fine, penance and if this is not followed, expulsion from the land. This is built upon in the ecclesiastical Law of Sverrir Sigurðarson, which further forbids to heathen vættir, and is consistent with the Frostaþing law which likewise bans . When Christianity was adopted as the main religion of Iceland, were allowed for a short time, as long as they were performed in private, with the punishment being lesser outlawry if they were observed publicly. This exception was soon repealed and the practice was fully banned.

The section of Gutalagen, the legal code for Gotland, imposes fines for those who perform , along with those who follow heathen customs more widely. It further specifies that it is forbidden to make invocations with food or drink if they are not following Christian customs. In Sweden, the Upplandslagen forbade veneration of groves and stones, and sacrificing to ("idols").

Incorporation into Christian culture

Upon adoption of Christianity by the elite, ritual drinking at was sometimes blended with the incoming traditions, as recorded in the late 12th-century history of the kings of Norway '' Ágrip'' when King Óláfr Tryggvason:

This process of incorporating pre-existing heathen traditions into Christian traditions is likely also seen with the ritual formula ("for good harvest and peace"). In Hákonar saga góða it is used as part of Njörðr's and Freyr's toast, while other sources record it being used in a Christian context. Den ældre Gulathings-Lov, for example, states that the beer drunk during All Saint's Day and Christmas should be consecrated to thank Christ and Mary ("For property and peace").

Modern period

After the banning of by church officials, the giving of food and drink to beings believed to inhabit the landscape continued as part of local folk practices. This includes the offering to house spirits such as tomter in Sweden which is recorded throughout history such as in medieval criticisms by individuals such as heliga Birgitta and Olaus Magnus and folktales as late as the 20th century. Further, the at Yule may be the origin of the practice in Orkney recorded in the 18th century by which each family in Sandwick that rears pigs would slaughter one sow on the 17th of December which was known as Sow Day. A similar practice is recorded in the 19th century in which each household on North Ronaldsay slaughtered a sheep known as the Yule sheep on Christmas Eve.

Reconstructionist adherents of contemporary Germanic paganism have developed traditions of ''blót'' rituals celebrated in a contemporary context since the 1970s. 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.

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

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Blot
Anglo-Saxon paganism
Germanic animal sacrifice
Ceremonies
Viking practices
Spiritual practice