Spatial Dimensions of the Blót

Where were rituals conducted and what times were deemed appropriate? As in all other matters we are limited in our knowledge due to the spotty nature of the historical record and it is impossible to reconstruct with 100% accuracy an overall picture of Heathen worship. In part this is because religion is not static; it changes over time, and what might have been true in the Migration Era is not applicable by the time of the Viking Age The fact that Heathenism was very regional in nature only adds to the woes of modern reconstructionists.[1]

hörgr

The hörgr is representative of “organic” Heathen worship: a harrow built of stone out of doors. Originally, the word denoted a pile of stones used as an altar, as shown in Hynluljóð (str. 10) where Freyja says,

he raised a hörgr for me,
piled with stones;
now all that rock
has turned to glass;
he reddened it anew
with blood of oxen;
always Óttar put faith
in goddesses (ásynjur)

This was common practice in ancient times, before outside influences began to be felt in Scandinavia. The hörgr is in every respect similar to early Hellenic worship. The worshiper would simply place the food at a place the god or goddess was present to receive it. Consecration of this sort is known technically as “deposition” as it differs from other sorts of consecration, such as burning the offering.

The Hellenes knew these stones as hermai, which “dotted the countryside and in which a deity, later called Hermes after the stone piles, was thought o be embodied.” It is possible that this was “originally perhaps no more than a good-luck gesture inspired by the feeling that the place itself was somehow holy.” The offerings left by the Hellenes were generally cakes, fruit, bread, libations and other common foodstuffs.[2]

Ellis-Davidson says of this early stage of worship,

Among the Celts and Germans there seem originally to have been few permanent and elaborate temples used as meeting places for worship and sacrifice. In spite of the rigors of the climate, the place where men sought contact with the supernatural powers was for the most part in the open air. The resorting to holy places was something which could be witnessed by outside observers, often arousing interest and curiosity. This in the works of Greek and Latin writers we hear repeatedly of sacred woods and groves, sanctuaries in forest clearings and on hilltops, beside springs and lakes and on islands, and of places set apart for the burial of the noble dead.[3]

Just as among the Hellenes, collections of stones became actual buildings, and over time, a hörgr came to denote an actual stone structure. Although used now in Heathenism in its original sense, this development is shown both by descriptions in the Eddic lays and in Norwegian law, which proclaimed that anyone raising a structure (hús) and called it a hörgr, forfeited all his wealth. Turville-Petre says that,

excavations, place-names, even allusions in literature and law, suggest that in later times the hörgr was a small temple or shrine, perhaps used chiefly for private or family worship. The cult of the dísir and of other female divinities was generally on a smaller scale and more private than that of the gods and it may, therefore, have been conducted in simple shrines, and in unpretentious buildings.[4]

Hof

The hof was a temple. As noted above, originally, all worship seems to have been conducted outdoors, and open air settings likely remained the major venue even through the Viking Age. It is important to note that a hof was typically enclosed within an area of land that was considered inviolable.[5]

These “Heathen temples” were also called goðahús (House of the Gods) or blóthús (House of Sacrifice). This name for a temple came about late in the Heathen era. This is suggested by its infrequent appearance in place names in Sweden in Denmark as opposed to Iceland and parts of Norway.

In pre-Viking age times and even during the Viking age, it was more common for a typical longhouse (langhús) to serve as a place of worship.

In 1908 a building was excavated at Hofstaðir in north-eastern Iceland; the ground plan was thought to be an example of a large temple, and is shown as such in many books on the Viking Age. It seems however more probable that this was the hall of a farmhouse used for communal religious feasts, perhaps that of the goði or leading man of the district who would preside over such gatherings, and there was no indication that it was erected purely for religious purposes.[6]

In time, it seems, actual structures to be used solely as a place of worship became more common. The fact that such temples did exist both in Norway and in Iceland is shown in the Eyrbyggjasaga in the account of Thórólf Mostrarskegg, who was a chieftan, or hersir, in southwest Norway who fled, with so many others, the tyranny of Harald Finehair.

Rolf was a mighty chief, and a man of the greatest largesse; he had the ward of Thor’s temple there in the island, and was a great friend of Thor. And therefore he was called Thorolf. He was a big man and a strong, fair to look on, and had a great beard; therefore was he called Most-beard, and he was the noblest man in the island. (Eyrbyggjasaga, III)

Then King Harald discovered that Thorolf had harboured an outlaw, Biorn Ketilson and “sent he men to see him and bade him begone from his lands, and fare as an outlaw even as Biorn his friend, but if he come and meet the king and lay the whole matter in his hand.”

Thorolf Most-Beard made a great sacrifice, and asked of Thor his well-beloved friend whether he should make peace with the king, or get him gone from out the land and seek other fortunes. But the Word showed Thorolf to Iceland; and thereafter he got for himself a great ship meet for the main, and trimmed it for the Iceland-faring, and had with him his kindred and his household goods; and many friends of his betook themselves to faring with him. He pulled down the temple, and had with him most of the timbers which had been therein, and mould moreover from under the stall whereon Thor had sat. (Eyrbyggjasaga, IV)

When he arrived off the south coast of Iceland, he threw the pillars (öndvegissúlur) overboard, including that with the image of Þórr, and settled where they drifted ashore. As the saga tells us, “Thereafter they espied the land and found on the outermost point of a ness north of the bay that Thor was come a-land with the pillars. That was afterwards called Thorsness (Þórsnes).”

He called his steading Hofstaðir (Temple-steads) and rebuilt the temple beside it. This is described in detail in the saga:

There he let build a temple, and a mighty house it was. There was a door in the side-wall and nearer to one end thereof. Within the door stood the pillars of the high-seat (öndvegissúlur), and nails were therein; they were called the Gods’ nails (reginnsaglar). Therewithin was there a great frith-place. But off the inmost house was there another house, of that fashion whereof now is the choir of a church, and there stood a stall in the midst of the floor in the fashion of an altar, and thereon lay a ring without a join that weighed twenty ounces, and on that must men swear all oaths; and that ring must the chief have on his arm at all man-motes.
On the stall should also stand the blood-bowl (hlautbolli), and therein the blood-rod was, like unto a sprinkler (stökkull), and therewith should be sprinkled from the bowl that blood which is called “Hlaut”, which was that kind of blood which flowed when those beasts were smitten who were sacrificed to the Gods. But round about the stall were the Gods arrayed in the Holy Place. (Eyrbyggjasaga, IV)

The Landnámabók tells us more of the oath ring and its function:

A ring weighing two ounces or more should lie on the stall in every chief Temple, and this ring should every chief or godi have upon his arm at all public law-motes (logthing) at which he should be at the head of affairs, having first reddened it in the blood of a neat which he himself had sacrificed there. Every man who was there to transact any business, as by law provided by the Court, should first take an oath upon that ring and name for the purpose two or more witness in evidence, he was to say, that I take oath upon the ring, a lawful one (lögeid) so help me Frey and Niord and the Almighty God, to this end that I shall in this case prosecute or defend or bear witness or give award or pronounce doom according to what I know to be most right and most true and most lawful, and that I will deal lawfully with all such matters in law as I have to deal with while I am at this Thing.” (Landnámabók, 4:VII)

A temple was, of course, sacred space and it was forbidden to go armed into one, though we see from the following example that some men were careless of custom; we are not told if the offender in this case was a follower of the White Christ or simply a nonbeliever:

After that was Hrafn the Norwegian with Ingimund, he had a good sword which he took with him into a temple, wherefore Ingimund took the sword from him, as it was forbidden to go with weapons into the hallowed edifice. (Landnamabók, 3:III)

It has been suggested more than once that in form, the Heiðinn hof was a stave church. As Turville-Petre says,

In fact, the description given in the Eyrbyggja and the ruins at Hofstðir suggest that, in the tenth century, the hof resembled a Christian church, and its form was probably modelled on that of western European churches of the period. The hof, in its turn, is believed by some to have influenced the form of stave churches of the Middle Ages, culminating in such fantastic beauty as the church of Borgund of the twelfth century.[7]

Ellis Davidson:

As many as thirty-one stave churches survive… and they are strikingly different in appearance and construction from early churches of brick or stone in England and Germany. … The earliest stave churches have rich and often fantastic carvings on doors and walls, and grim, sinister heads set at points where the pillars touch the roof, recalling ancient gods and monsters rather than Christian symbols and markedly different from fantastic heads of Anglo-Norman churches. Outside dragon shapes protrude from the gables like figure-heads from a ship.[8]

Many Heathen sacrifices were situational. They might take place while an army or a raiding party was on the move, or when merchants were abroad. There were no temples to be used and sacrifices would of necessity take place out of doors. This would also be true of most of the major festivals, as well as those taking place at the Thing.

In all, it is likely that most Heathen sacrifices took place out of doors or in private homes, and not in some community structure. Evidence for this can be seen in even a bustling Norse community such as Hedeby, where “Travelers’ accounts of the Viking city of Hedeby indicated the display of slaughtered animal carcasses outside of houses as testimonies to household rituals within.”[9] If ever there was a religion that was as comfortable at home as on the road, or as free of need for an organized priesthood, it was Heathenism. That said, the goði (priest) was, in DuBois’ words, än empowered and revered figure, one who inherited his office from a father or other kinsman and who performed rituals for the benefit of the entire vicinity.”[10]

Notes:

[1] Thomas A. DuBois, Nordic Religions of the Viking Age (Philadelphia 1999), 42. H.R. Ellis Davidson, Gods and Myths of Northern Europe (1964), 14

[2] David Gill, “A Neglected Aspect of Greek Sacrifice,” HTR 67 (1974), 118-119.

[3] H.R. Ellis-Davidson, Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe (Syracuse, 1988) , 13

[4] E.O.G. Turville-Petre, Myth and Religion of the North (New York, 1964), 239.

[5] DuBois, 208.

[6] Ellis-Davidson (1988), 32

[7] Turville-Petre, 242

[8] Ellis-Davidson (1988), 34

[9] DuBois, 51.

[10] DuBois, 65. Rather than doctrine, men of knowledge were urged to pass on myths of the heroic past to the youth.