Yule Celebrations in Viking Times - Fewmet Online

Yule Celebrations in Viking Times by Fridrikr

“Here Comes the Sun-King” ---- the Beatles, Abbey Road To the Viking religious belief, there was no single action more important than the sacrifice (blot). In Zoega’s Concise Dictionary, there are at least two words for the mid-winter rite, miðvetrar-blot, Midwinter sacrifice, and hoku-nott-blot, with the identical meaning. (Zoega: 296, 225) In the Ynglinga Saga from the Heimskringla, Odin decrees, “þa skydi blota I moti vetri, til ars, onn at mðjum vetri blota til groðrar, it briðja at sumri, þat var sigrblot” < “On winter day there should be blood sacrifice for a good year, and in the middle of winter for a good crop, and the third sacrifice should be on summer day for victory in battle.”> (Wodening) There are numerous references to the value of sacrifices, both in appeasing the gods and in binding men together. For example, in the Fjolsviðmal, there is a question & answer exchange concerning blot :

	Tell me, Flosvith, for I wish to know Answer as I do ask Do they help award their worshippers If need of help they have? Ay they help award to their worshippers In hallowed stead if they stand There is never a need that neareth a man But they lend a helping hand (Fjolsviðmal, Hollander translation verses 39 & 40, quoted in Wodening)

In the Havamal, there is a reference to the bonding of men in sacrificial brotherhood:

	Not great things alone must one give to another, Praise oft is earned for nought; With half a loaf and a tilted bowl I have found many a friend (Havamal 53, Bray translation, quoted in Wodening) Hast thou a friend whom thou trustest well, From whom thou cravest good? Share thy mind with him, gifts exchange with him, Far to find him oft. (Havamal 44, Bray translation, quoted in Wodening)

In the Norse pantheon, the god of fertility is Freyr. The Norse sacrificed to Freyr in hopes of warmth, rain, & good growing & good crops. There are also references to women sacrificing to “appease the elves” (elfblot) (DuBois:51) Although it may seem strange, apparently the Norse did their primary sacrifice to Freyr at the Mid-Winter. “Fall or midwinter sacrifices to female household spirits (drisir) or the god Freyr figure frequently in saga accounts and appear particularly associated with women’s religious expression.” (DuBois: 51). I believe that the purpose of the fertility sacrifice at Mid-Winter was to entice Freyr to return the sun to the sky & bring back the warmth needed to grow the crops. Apparently, these sacrifices were held in the home and were kept very private, to the household only. In Njal’s saga, the character þiðrandi dies because he violates a taboo by opening a door, making the ceremony public. (Asmundarson: 228-229). These rituals seem to have involved animal sacrifice and feasting among the participants. (DuBois: 51) The animal most favored for sacrifice to Freyr was the pig, which may have come down to us today in the form of the Christmas ham. (Wikipedia 1) Sacrifices appear to have taken place in specials halls, or parts of halls, called hov. Outdoor locales could also be used. Four terms appear to have been used: Horgr or Haug (cairn), Lundr (sacred grove), Ve (sacred place, temple, sanctuary) (Wikipedia 1; Zoega: 186, 279, 476). In Eiriks saga rauða, we read of a sacrificial event (though not a miðvetrar-blot), conducted by a wise woman named Þorbjorg in a special hov within the hall of Þorkell, a powerful landholder:

	Þat var hattr Þorbjargar un vetrum, at hon for at veizlum, ok buðu Þeir menn henni mest heim, er forvitni var a at vita forlog sin eða arferð; ok með Þvi at Þorkell var Þar mestr bondi, Þa Þotti til hans koma at vita nær letta mundi oarnai Þessu, sem yfir stoð. Byðr Þorkell spakonunni heim, or er henni Þar vel fagnat sem siðr var til, Þa er við Þess hattr konum skyldi taka It was Þorbjorg’s practice of a winter to attend feasts, and those men in particular invited her to their homes who were curious to know their fate or the seasons propects. Because Þorkell was the leading householder there it was thought to be his responsibility to find out when these hard times which now troubled them would cease, so he invited her to his home, and a good reception was prepared for her, as was the custom when a woman of this kind should be received. (DuBois: 123, quoting Gwyn Jones, Eirik the Red and Other Icelandic Sagas, 135)

One more example of the sacrifice will suffice. The blot was a blood-sacrifice. Some sources refer to the “nine-year blot”, a rituaal held every nine-years, as the name suggests. At this ritual, nine days of sacrifices were mde, ranging up to include human sacrifice. In his Holme trilogy, Jan Fridegard presents a fictionalized account of the life of a freed thrall in Norse society at the time of the coming of Christianity. In volume two, The People of the Dawn, he presents the following description of a mid-winter ritual:

	Ausi (the female protagonist) walked through the streets… The Christians’ door stood ajar and it was lighted inside; in the heathen temple, a fire was burning and there was a smell of burned meat. Some people entered and Ausi hesitated a moment between the house of Christ and the shrine of the wooden god. … Sporadic shouts and murmurs came through the smoke vent and Ausi realized that the main sacrifice had begun across the yard. Once they heard a scornful laugh, and many of the Christians stopped listening to what the monk was saying and turned in terror to the door… {After the Christian service} From the church door the monk watched his little congregation disperse and disappear. They were nothing compared to the remaining mob of heathens. Everywhere, pillars of smoke from the sacrificial feast jutted into the golden sky. The sun would soon rise and the pagans would take this as a sign of the wooden god’s victory over Christ. Here Nature itself was against Him. (Fridegard, v. 2:32-35)

As time passed, the inevitable victory of the Christian church over the pagan religion came to pass. However, many customs of the pagan midwinter blot remain today, such as the traditional Christmas ham, which is likely a reminder that the Norse sacrificed the pig to Freyr at mid-winter.



Works cited: Njal’s Saga, Ed. Valdemarr Asmundarson. Reykjavik: 1894. DuBois, Thomas. Nordic Religions in the Viking Age. Universuty of Pennsylvania Press: 1999 Fridegard, Jan. Land of the Wooden Gods, the Holme trilogy, v. 1. University of Nebraska Press: 1989. -----People of the Dawn, the Holme trilogy, v. 2. University of Nebraska Press: 1990. -----Sacrificial Smoke, the Holme trilogy, v. 3. University of Nebraska Press: 1991. Wikipedia. Last viewed, 12/4/2006 Wodening, Swain. “Blot in a Historical Context.” Zoega, Geir T. A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic. Dover: 2004.

Cover | Contents | Notables | Baron(ess) | Chronicler | Meetings | Yule | Tidbits | Book Review | Events | Activities | Misc
main index