Myth and Religion of the North The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia E. O. G. TURVILLE-PETRE GREENWOOD PRESS, PUBLISHERS WESTPORT, CONNECTICUT ( —— CONTENTS Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Turville -Petrs, Edward Oswald Gabriel. Myth and religion of the North. Reprint of the ed. published by Holt, Rinehart and PREFACE ix Winston, New York. Bibliography: p. Includes index. I THE SOURCES I -Religion. 1. Mythology, Norse. 2. Scandinavia- Introductory—Old Norse Poetry—Histories and Sagas I. Title. Snorri Sturluson—Saxo Grammaticus [BL860.T8 1975] 293' -0948 75-5003 ISBN 0-8371-7420-1 II OBINN 35 God of Poetry—Lord of the Gallows—God of War—Father of Gods and Men— 5dinn and his Animals—Odinn’s Names Odinn’s Eye—The Cult of Odinn—Woden-Wotan / III VxV‘~W'- \ THOR 75 Thdr and the Serpent—Thdr and the Giants—Thdr’s Ham- mer and his Goats—The Worship of Thor—Thdr in the Viking Colonies—Thdr-Thunor—Conclusion IV BALDR 106 The West Norse Sources—Saxo—The Character of Baldr and his Cult Continental and English Tradition * 2551069268 * — Filozoficka fakulta V LOKI 126 Univerzity Karlovy v Praze VI HEIMDALL 147 VII THE VANIR 156 The War of the JSsir and Vanir—Njord—Freyr-Frddi-Ner- thus-Ing—Freyja Winston, New York Originally published in 1964 by Holt, Rinehart and VIII LESSER-KNOWN DEITIES 180 1964 by E.O.G. Turville-Petre Copyright © Tyr—UI1—Bragi—Idunn—Gefjun—Frigg and others permission of Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. Reprinted with the IX THE DIVINE KINGS 190 Reprinted in 1975 by Greenwood Press X THE DIVINE HEROES 196 A division of Congressional Information Service, Inc., Ermanaric, Sigurd and the Burgundians Starkad—Harald 88 Post Road West, Westport, Connecticut 06881 — Wartooth—Hadding Printed in the United States of America XI GUARDIAN SPIRITS 221 10 9 8 7 6 5 The Disir—Fylgja and Hamingja—Elves, Earth-Spirits, Dwarfs v CONTENTS XII TEMPLES AND OBJECTS OF WORSHIP 236 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS XIII SACRIFICE 2 5 i XIV GODLESS MEN s63 1 Scene from Rogaland Photo : University Museum Oslo XV DEATH s69 , 2 Helgafell Photo : Gudmund Hannesson, Iceland XVI THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD AND ITS END 275 Iceland 3 Thdrsmork Photo : Gudmund Hannesson, ABBREVIATIONS 286 4 Thingvellir Photo : Gudmund Hannesson, Iceland 287 NOTES 5 Burial mounds at Uppsala Photo: ATA BIBLIOGRAPHY 321 6 Church of Borgund Photo : University Museum, Oslo 7 Carved head of man Photo : University Museum, Oslo INDEX 33 1 8-1 1 Animal heads from the Oseberg ship-burial Photos : University Museum, Oslo 12 Image of female figure Photo : National Museum, Denmark 13 Image of a man from Rallinge Photo : ATA 14 Miniature figure from Iceland Photo : National Museum, Iceland 15 Bronze image probably of Th6r Photo: National Museum, Iceland |! 16 Image, supposedly of Thor’s hammer Photo : National Museum, Iceland II 1 7 Thdr’s hammer Photo : A TA 18 Crucifix from Birka Photo : ATA Gokstad Photo: University Museum, 1 g Bedpost from ship-grave of Oslo 20 Animal head from the Scheldt Photo : British Museum 21 Rune stone from Altuna Photo: ATA 22 Carved stone from Hunnestad Photo : ATA AUTHORS NOTE 23 Rune stone from Sonder-Kirkeby Photo : National Museum, Denmark 24-7 Picture stones from Gotland Photos : A TA unvoiced 6 has that of In Old Norse Ip has the value of th ; 28 Rune stone from Eggjum Photo : University Museum, Bergen sound between a and 0. th voiced. Q expresses a 29 Rune stone from Ledberg Photo : A TA of the word is The asterisk is used to show that the form 30 Rune stone from Rok Photo : A TA hypothetical or reconstructed. vn vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS University Museum Oslo from the Oseberg grave Photo : , 31 Tapestry PREFACE Ramsundsberget Photo : ATA 32 Rune stone from Museum, church of Hylestad Photos : University 33-4 Wood-carvings from Oslo experience as a teacher have shown me how strong is Museum, Oslo Many years of Wood-carving from Austad Photo: University 35 the interest in the pagan religion of the north, although no survey of Museum, Oslo grave Photo : University it has been published in English for many years. The literature of this 36 Panel or cart from Oseberg subject in other languages is enormous and consists, for the most part, University Museum, Oslo cart from Oseberg grave Photo : 37 Panel on of monographs, often published in learned journals. I have had to and National Trust Photo : Manx Museum content myself with mentioning only a small part of this literature, and 38 Cross slab from Isle of Man indebted. Outstanding modern works are University Museum Oslo that to which I am especially Wood-carving from churches of Umes Photo : , 39 those ofJ de Vries and of G. Dumezil, to which reference will frequently Iceland : National Museum, following pages. Many have disputed the revolutionary 40 Reconstructed grave Photo be made in the of Dumezil, but the significance of his keen observations National Museum, Iceland conclusions Grave objects from Ketilsstadir Photo : 41 cannot be questioned. It is not too much to say that this scholar has Museum from Oseberg grave Photo: University confidence in the validity of Norse tradition as it is ex- 42 Handle-seating of bucket restored our quite Oslo pressed in the literary records of Iceland. In another way the studies of the late Magnus Olsen, who has investigated Scandinavian University Museum, Bergen foil from Rogaland Photo : 43 Gold place-names in the light of ancient literature, have been no less im- Denmark bowl Photo : National Museum, portant. 44 Gundestrup I am indebted to scholars, not only for their published works, but University Museum, Oslo Oseberg ship Photo : 45 The also for advice and for the long discussions which I have had with them. Oslo Photo : University Museum, particularly like to name Einar <5l. Sveinsson, 46 Gokstad burial chamber Among many, I would and Dag Stromback of Uppsala, both of whom have Museum, Oslo of Reykjavik Oseberg cart Photo : University 47 The listened patiently and criticised my views. National Museum, Denmark helped untiringly and made many sug- 48 The Dejbjerg cart Photo : Joan Turville-Petre has me of the Museum, Oslo gestions which have influenced my work, and David Wilson Bucket from the Oseberg grave Photo : University 49 British Museum has helped me with the illustrations, and so has my friend Dr. Kristjdn Eldjarn. I can hardly say how much I owe to Pro- fessor E. O. James, General Editor of this Series, for his encouragement and criticism. I am indebted also to Miss G. Feith for the care with which she has made the index. I would like finally to thank the Pub- lishers and Printers for the work which they have done on a book which is in many ways difficult. Oxford E. O. G. Turville-Petre 1 1 . I IX viii | CHAPTER ONE THE SOURCES Introductory—Old Norse Poetry—Histones and Sagas—Snorri Sturlason— Saxo Grammaticus Introductory The religion of the ancient Norsemen is one of the most difficult to describe, indeed far more so than are the older religions of Rome, Greece, Egypt, Israel, Persia or India. Reasons for this are not hard to appreciate. The followers of these southern religions could express their own thoughts in writing, and left hymns, myths and legends, but the pagan Norsemen knew little of writing. In its obscurity, the Norse religion has much in common with that of the neighbouring Celts. Both of them have to be studied chiefly from poems and traditions written down generations after the pagan religion had been abandoned. The Celtic traditions were enshrined largely in the literature of medieval Ireland, and the Norse ones mainly in texts written in Iceland in the twelfth and especially in the thirteenth cen- tury. As Ireland was the storehouse of Celtic tradition, Iceland pre- served that of the north. In other words, tradition survived longest on the periphery. The history of Iceland is thus of some importance for the present study, and an extraordinary history it is. The first permanent settle- ment on that barren island was made late in the ninth century. The settlers came partly from the mixed Norse-Celtic colonies in Ireland and the western isles, but mainly from western Norway. Their chieftains left their homes, not for conquest, but rather, as medieval writers per- sistently tell, for political reasons. They wished to preserve their tradi- tional, patriarchal way of life, rather than submit to the centralized form of government introduced by Harald Finehair (c. 885), for this' was alien to them. 1 This may partly explain why the Icelanders pre- served northern tradition as no other nation did. The Icelanders adopted Christianity in the year 1000, so that paga- nism flourished among them for little more than a century. They began 1 0 MYTH AND RELIGION OF THE NORTH THE SOURCES . -/ place-names are difficult to interpret, but to write history early in the twelfth century and, in the course of the Philologically many of the Middle Ages, they put down in writing, not only the traditions of their one of their chief values is that they show something about gods and the Age, when Iceland was peopled and our own people, but also those of other Scandinavian lands. The proven- their cults before Viking also show how eminent were ance and reliability of their work will be the subject of the following oldest poetic records took shape. They goddesses, such as Ull (Ullinn), 11 Horn (identified sections. For the present it must suffice to say that without the Icelandic some of the gods and who, for us, are only shadowy figures.