Chapter 3
Usually the cauldron served to cook, i.e., boil, the victim's
flesh; it never was roasted. Thus Herodotus 4, 61 describes a boiling (eyein)
of the sacrifice in the great cauldron of the Scythians. From this seething,
according to my conjecture, the ram was called sauþs [[(boiled) sacrifice]],
and those who took part in the sacrifice suðnautar (partakers of the sodden),
Gutalag p. 108; the boilings, the cauldrons and pots of witches in later times
may be connected with this. (53) The distribution
of the pieces among the people was probably undertaken by a priest; on great
holidays the feast (54) was held there
and then in the assembly, on other occasions each person might doubtless take
his share home with him. That priests and people really ate the food, appears
from a number of passages (conf. above, p. 46). The Capitularies 7, 405 adopt
the statement in Epist. Bonif. cap. 25 (an. 732) of a Christian 'presbyter Jovi
mactans, et immolatitias carnes vescens.' We may suppose that private persons
were allowed to offer small gifts to the gods on particular occasions, and consume
a part of them; this the Christians called 'more gentilium offerre, et ad honorem
daemonum comedere,' Capit. de part. Sax. 20. It is likely also, that certain
nobler parts of the animal were assigned to the gods, the head, liver, heart,
tongue. (55) The head and skin of slaughtered
game were suspended on trees in honour of them (see Suppl.).
Whole burntofferings, where the animal was converted into ashes
on the pile of wood, do not seem to have been in use. The Goth. allbrunsts [[(entirely)
burnt offering]] Mk 12, 33 is made merely to translate the Gk. olokautwma, so
the OHG. albrandopher [[all-burnt offering]], N. ps. 64, 2; and the AS. brynegield
onhreáð rommes blôðe [[burn-yield adorned (or 'reddened'?)
with ram's blood]], Cædm. 175, 6. 177, 18 is meant to express purely a
burntoffering in the Jewish sense. (56)
Neither were incense-offerings used; the sweet incense of the
christians was a new thing to the heathen. Ulphilas retains the Gk. thymiama
Lu. 1, 10. 11; and our weih-rauch (holy-reek), O. Sax. wirôc [[holy-smoke]]
Hel. 3, 22, and the ON. reykelsi [[incense]], Dan. rögelse [[incense]]
are formed according to christian notions (see Suppl.).
While the sacrifice of a slain animal is more sociable, more
universal, and is usually offered by the collective nation or community; fruit
or flowers, milk or honey is what any household, or even an individual may give.
These Fruit-offerings are therefore more solitary and paltry; history scarcely
mentions them, but they have lingered the longer and more steadfastly in popular
customs (see Suppl.).
When the husbandman cuts his corn, he leaves a clump of ears
standing for the god who blessed the harvest, and he adorns it with ribbons.
To this day, at a fruit-gathering in Holstein, five or six apples are left hanging
on each tree, and then the next crop will thrive. More striking examples of
this custom will be given later, in treating of individual gods. But, just as
tame and eatable animals were especially available for sacrifice, so are fruit-trees
(frugiferae arbores, Tac Germ. 10), and grains; and at a formal transfer of
land, boughs covered with leaves, apples or nuts are used as earnest of the
bargain. The MHG. poet (Fundgr. II, 25) describes Cain's sacrifice in the words:
'eine garb er nam, er wolte sie oppheren mit eheren joch mit agemen,' a sheaf
he took, he would offer it with ears and eke with spikes: a formula expressing
at once the upper part or beard (arista), and the whole ear and stalk (spica)
as well. Under this head we also put the crowning of the divine image, of a
sacred tree or a sacrificial animal with foliage or flowers; not the faintest
trace of this appears in the Norse sagas, and as little in our oldest documents.
From later times and surviving folk-tales I can bring forward a few things.
On Ascension day the girls in more than one part of Germany twine garlands of
white and red flowers, and hang them up inthe dwellingroom or over the cattle
in the stable, where they remain till replaced by fresh ones the next year.
(57) At the village of Questenberg in the Harz, on the third
day in Whitsuntide, the lads carry an oak up the castle-hill which overlooks
the whole district, and, when they have set it upright, fasten to it a large
garland of branches of trees plaited together, and as big as a cartwheel. They
all shout 'the queste (i.e. garland) hangs,' and then they dance round the tree
on the hill top; both trees and garland are renewed every
year.(58) Not far from the Meisner mountain in Hesse stands
a high precipice with a cavern opening under it, which goes by the name of the
Hollow Stone. Into this cavern every Easter Monday the youths and maidens of
the neighbouring villages carry nosegays, and then draw some cooling water.
No one will venture down, unless he has flowers with him.
(59) The lands in some Hessian townships have to pay a bunch
of mayflowers (lilies of the valley) every year for rent.
(60) In all these examples, which can easily be
multiplied, a heathen practice seems to have been transferred to christian festivals
and offerings. (61).
As it was a primitive and widespread custom at a banquet to set
aside a part of the food for the household gods, and particularly to place a
dish of broth before Berhta and Hulda, the gods were also invited to share the
festive drink. The drinker, before taking any himself, would pour some out of
his vessel for the god or housesprite, as the Lithuanians, when they drank beer,
spilt some of it on the ground for their earth-goddess
Zemynele. (62) Compare with this the Norwegian sagas of Thor,
who appears at weddings when invited, and takes up and empties huge casks of
ale.---I will now turn once more to that account of the Suevic ale-tub (cupa)
in Jonas (see p. 56), and use it to explain the heathen practice of minne-drinking,
which is far from being extinct under christianity. Here also both name and
custom appear common to all the Teutonic races.
The Gothic man (pl. munum. pret. munda) signified I think; gaman
(pl. gamunum, pret. gamunda) I bethink me, I remember. From the same verb is
derived the OHG. minna = minia [[love]] amor, minnôn = miniôn [[to
love]] amare, to remember a loved one. In the ON. language we have the same
man [[aux. verb, shall, will]], munum [[mind or love (dat.)]], and also minni
[[memory]] memoria, minna [[to remember]] recordari, but the secondary meaning
of amor was never developed.
It was customary to honour an absent or deceased one by making
mention of him at the assembly or the banquet and draining a goblet to his memory:
this goblet, this draught was called in ON. erfi dryckja [[funeral feast drink]],
or again minni [[memory]] (erfi = funeral feast).
ENDNOTES:
53. The trolds too, a kind of elves, have a copper kettle in the Norw. saga, Faye 11; the christians long believed in a Saturni dolium, and in a large cauldron in hell (chaudière, Méon 3, 284-5). (back)
54. They also ate the strong broth and the fat swimming at the top. The heathen offer their king Hâkon, on his refusing the flesh, drecka soðit and eta flotit; Saga Hâkonar gôða cap. 18. conf. Fornm. sög. 10, 381. (back)
55. glwssa kai koilia (tongue and entrails) iereiou diapepragmenou, Plutarch, Phoc. 1. glwssaj tamnein and en puri ballein, Od. 3, 332. 341. conf. De linguæ usu in sacrificiis, Nitzsch ad Hom. Od. I, 207. In the folk-tales, whoever has to kill a man or beast, is told to bring in proof the tongue or heart, apparently as being eminent portions. (back)
56. Slav. pàliti obièt, to kindle an offering, Königinh. hs. 98. (back)
58. Otmars vokssagen, pp. 128-9. What is told of the origin of the custom seems to be fiction. (back)
59. Wigands archiv 6, 317. (back)
60. Wigands archiv 6, 318. Casselsches wochenbl. 1815, p. 928. (back)
61. Beside cattle and grain, other valuables were offered to particular gods and in special cases, as even in christian times voyagers at sea e.g., would vow a silver ship to their church as a votive gift; in Swedish folk-songs, offra en gryta af malm ([[to offer a]] vessel of metal). Arvidss. 2, 116; en gryta af blankaste malm [[a ship of whitest metal ]] (of silver) Ahlqvists Öland II. 1, 214; also articles of clothing, e.g. red shoes. (back)
62. In the Teut. languages I know of no technical term like
the Gk. spendw, leibw. Lat.
libo, for drink-offerings (see Suppl.). (back)
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