Scandinavian Paganism

Question 1

Tacitus

Answer 1

‘Germania’ written around 98 AD. Ethnographic work on the Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire.

Question 2

Wulfstan II

Answer 2

‘De falsis Deis’ early 11th century homily.

Question 3

Adam of Bremen

Answer 3

‘Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum’, historical treatise 1073-76.

Question 4

Thietmar of Merseburg

Answer 4

‘Chronicon Thietmari’ Concerning the period 908-1018, written 1012-18.

Question 5

Nordberg

Answer 5

Geographic areas in frequent contact with others would serve as innovative regions.

Question 6

Saga of Halfdan the Black

Answer 6

“His reign was blessed with most prosperous seasons- people thought so much of him that when it became known that he was dead and his body was taken to Hringariki… all asked to take the body with them and bury it in a mound in their district, and it was considered a promise of prosperity for whoever got it.”

Question 7

Sacrifices made to Olafr Guðroðarson and Olafr Haraldsson

Answer 7

‘til ars’

Question 8

Olaf Tretelja

Answer 8

Said to have cleared the forests of Vermaland and the people of Sweden “flocked to it in such numbers that the land could not sustain it. A great dearth and famine set in there. They blamed it on their king, according to the custom of the Sviar.”

Question 9

evidence that Swedish kings ‘gaf jar’

Answer 9

Stentoften and Sparlosa stones

Question 10

Ynglinga saga

Answer 10

“It was (Oðinn’s) custom, if he was sending men into battle or on other missions, that he first laid his heads and gave them bjannak. They believed that then things would turn out well.”

Question 11

McTurk

Answer 11

defines a sacral king as “one who is marked off from his fellow men by an aura of specialness which has its origins in more or less direct associations with the supernatural.”

Question 12

James G. Frazer

Answer 12

suggested the notion of sacral kingship in ‘The Golden Bough’. The theory centred around the joint role of the king as both priest and divinity, entering into a ritual marriage and being sacrificed to ensure the health of the society.

Question 13

J.A.Mazo

Answer 13

Identifies narrative in Rigsþula, Hyndluljoð and Grimnismal where a divinity choses a successor to the throne.

Question 14

Ulltuna, Torstuna

Answer 14

Uppland towns in the districts of Ullerakers Hundare and Torsakers Hundare (taken from þing sites)

Question 15

Place-names

Answer 15

in tuna- salr- husa- in the most central or strategic locations, -tuna names are theophoric.

Question 16

forsa rune ring

Answer 16

for protection of a vi

Question 17

Gro Steinsland

Answer 17

believes that Christianity ‘expanded and strengthened the sacral ideology of kingship’ martyr kings.

Question 18

mounds

Answer 18

found in central parts of settlement districts like gamla Uppsala or on royal farms. Remains of ‘cult’ houses excavated in Sanda, Uppland; Borg, Ostergotland; Jarrestad, Skane (small bones, þorr’s hammers)

Question 19

Vellekla

Answer 19

Einarr Skalaglamm celebrates Hakon’s descent from Oðinn.

Question 20

Saga of Olaf Tryggvason

Answer 20

Praises Jarl Hakon’s reinstatement of temples and rituals

Question 21

Jomsvikinga saga

Answer 21

Patron goddess of Jarl Hakon was þorgerðr Holgabruð- he sacrificed his 7 y/o son to her for victory

Question 22

Hervarar saga

Answer 22

records that Inge I (1070s-1110) refused to perfom pagan rituals and was exiled in Vastergotland (the only 11th century Swedish bishopric). Blot-Sven then ruled for 3 years. A pagan rebellion in the 1080s is confirmed by other sources.

Question 23

Ynglings

Answer 23

trace themselves to Yngvi-freyr, Skjoldungs name Oðinn as an ancestor. Place-name Inglinge in Swedish Uppland. Picard believes that Yngvi was a common noun denoting a religious or political superior.

Question 24

Farmers of Trondelag

Answer 24

Said of Hakon Aethelstein’s fostri at Mærin “that they want the king to sacrifice for prosperity and peace as his father had done.”

Question 25

Haleygjatal

Answer 25

c.985. ancestry of Hakon Jarl Sigurðsson traced to Oðinn, other early descended from Freyr or Yngvi. Haleygjatal does not consider itself a divine genealogy as a result of its typological approach

Question 26

Danish rune stones

Answer 26

titles ‘gode’ ‘thul’

Question 27

Pagan burial at Fyrkat

Answer 27

woman with a staff, bag of hemp seeds, and box brooch of white lead.

Question 28

850 Horik

Answer 28

permitted Anskar to build a church at Ribe but did not convert. A pagan uprising in 854 killed Horik.

Question 29

Heimskringla

Answer 29

Eirikr Bloðox burned his brother Rognvaldr in his home because he was a magician.

Question 30

Birka

Answer 30

1100 graved yielded 27 þorr´s hammers

Question 31

Eidsiraþing´s law

Answer 31

Norway- prohibits idols made of dough or clay. In Friþjolfs saga women sit by the fire ‘baking gods’

Question 32

Chamber graves

Answer 32

unknown in Denmark before the 9th century, perhaps a heathen manifestation in response to Christianity, disappear under Harald Bluetooth.

Question 33

Kristni saga

Answer 33

Before the bell’s keeper (bonds
destroyed the beach’s falcon)
the slayer of giantess-son
broke the ox of seagull’s place.
Christ was not watching, when
the wave-raven drank at the prows.
Small guard I think God held
—if any—over Gylfi’s reindeer

Question 34

Helgi the lean

Answer 34

worshipped Christ on land and Thor at sea

Question 35

Halsinge law

Answer 35

no-one shall sacrifice to idols, no-one shall believe in groves or stones

Question 36

Agrip

Answer 36

(1190) Hakon den gode built churches and installed priests, but the people of More in Norway burnt the churches and killed the priests. The people of Trondelag forced him to make sacrifice.

Question 37

stone crosses

Answer 37

93 on the west coast of Norway (Rogaland to Sogn og fjordane) interpreted by Birkeli as a sign of gradual Christianisation. Correspond to Hakon den Gode’s sphere of influence (c.950-c.1030). Resemble British and Irish examples.

Question 38

Thorwald’s cross

Answer 38

Kirk Andreas, Orkney (10th cent). Depicts Oðinn with raven and spear being consumed by Fenrir. Next to it Christ triumphs over Satan.

Question 39

Pope Gregory

Answer 39

“The temples should by no means be destroyed”

Question 40

Olav Haraldsson

Answer 40

built a residence and church at Borg in the early 11th Century. No traces of pagan symbols or graves contemporary with the urban settlement.

Question 41

Buddha

Answer 41

statue in 8th century grave on Helgo.

Question 42

Olav Tryggvasson

Answer 42

called ‘Horg-Breaker’

Question 43

Eketorp

Answer 43

Fortified village near a wetland, ritual deposits of hazel rods and animal bones (mostly 7th century)

Question 44

Lunda

Answer 44

Settlement with 40m longhouse 4th-7th century. Two figurines in a small attached building. On a hill close to the house were a number of stone settings and evidence of fires, fragments of bone, small pieces of burnt clay, drops of resin- peaking 7th-9th cents.

Question 45

Froso

Answer 45

Highest point on the island there is a Viking-Age sacrificial grove directly under the site of the medieval altar. The remains of a large birch tree are surrounded by animal remains.

Question 46

Larbro stora hammars

Answer 46

Picture stone from Gotland showing sacrifice

Question 47

Gudme

Answer 47

Large manor and smaller farms and workshops. Activity mostly 4th-6th cents. Continuous settlement to the present day. Three surrounding hills have sacral place names.

Question 48

Hedeby

Answer 48

Felt animal masks. Al-Tartushi 965 describes animal sacrifice. Oseberg tapestry might show a woman in the skin of a pig.

Question 49

Dejberg

Answer 49

Jutland. Early Iron Age deposits of weapons etc. In a nearby bog. Around AD 400 a hall was built at the edge of the hill and activity moved inside. Later church was built on the same site.

Question 50

Tisso

Answer 50

site of a large aristocratic residence abandoned in the late 11th century. The last of the structures is cross-shaped so possibly a Christian chapel.

Question 51

AElfgyfu

Answer 51

Agrip: “AElfgyfu’s time/ long will the young man remember,/ when they at home ate ox’s food, / and like goats scraped rind;/ different it was when Olafr the warrior ruled the land,/ then everyone could boast stacks of dry corn.”