VAGAR TILL MIDGARD I 6

Tracing Old Norse Cosmology

The world tree, middle earth, and the sun from archaeological perspectives

Anders Andren

UNIVERSITATSBIBLIOTHEK KIEL -ZENTRALBIBLIOTHEK-

Nordic Academic Press

NORDIC ACADEMIC PRESS Contents

Preface 7

1 Old Norse cosmology as an archaeological challenge 11 Cosmological aspects of Old Norse religion 14 The chronological and spatial horizons of Old Norse cosmology 17 Archaeology and Old Norse cosmology 19 Three archaeological studies 2 5

2 In the shadow of Yggdrasill 27 Mythological trees 28 Real trees 36 Representations of trees 41 The archaeology of 'tree settings' 49 The semiotics of the 'tree settings' 5 6 The world from the view-point of'tree settings' 59 The tree in Old Norse religion 63

3 A world of stone 69 A biography of Ismantorp 7i Olandic comparisons 77 Scandinavian forts 84 Outlines of an early Scandinavian martial culture 90 War as ritualized action 98 War and cosmology 102 Models and parallels 105 Back to Ismantorp 109 Ismantorp and Old Norse cosmology "5 4 Whirls, horses, and ships 117 Early picture stones on Gotland 117 New contexts 119 An initial pictorial analysis 123 A return trip to Bronze Age iconography 126 Bridging the gap between Eskelhem and Sanda 133 Bronze Age perspectives on early Gotlandic picture stones 136 Metalwork in the Iron Age 139 A special case: the gold bracteates 142 Iron Age perspectives on early Gotlandic picture stones 148 The sun in later mythological contexts 151 Tracing sun rituals 157 The disappearance of solar symbols and sun rituals in the sixth century 161 Solar traditions through time 164

5 Placing Old Norse cosmology in time and space 169 Different trajectories 170 The Migration Period as a cluster of changes 172 The Huns 173 The dust veil 178 The disappearance of the sun-oriented traditions in the sixth century 183 A golden age 186 Outlines of a new context 187

References 193 Primary Old Norse sources 193 Other primary sources and secondary literature 193

Index 231