The Religion of the Northmen
THE POPULAR LIFE AND CUSTOMS
OF THE NORTHMEN.
CHAPTER XVI
MINISTERS OF RELIGION
The belief in Superior Beings who control the powers of Nature and the destiny of mankind, must always create in man an effort to make these beings propitious, and thus give rise to Divine Worship. The more humanlike the Gods have been conceived to be, the more sensual has their worship been; and it happened with the votaries of the Asa-faith as with so many other heathens, that sacrifices, gifts, vows, and ceremonies were regarded by the multitude to be fully acceptable to the Gods as an upright life. These sacred performances were always more or less symbolical, as they were intended to express and harmonize with the presumed essence and attributes of the Deity invoked. They should, therefore, take place according to certain regulations, but the transgression of these rules, it was believed, might offend the Divinity, and thus produce an effect contrary to what was desired. But it was not always convenient for the common people to become thoroughly acquainted with these rules; the more exact knowledge of them became a concern of certain individuals better initiated in the religion, who were to guide the rest of the people, or rather, on their behalf to perform the sacred offices belonging to divine worship. Thus was established a class of servants of the Gods, or priests, who were thought to be nearer the Gods than other people, and in a manner to be mediators between the two.
But the influence of the priests varied according as the religion under which they ministered was more or less mysterious in its character.
In many of the heathen religions of antiquity there were but a few maxims generally known, while the greater part of them were most carefully veiled in mystery by the priests, who formed a peculiar order, distinctly separated from the rest of the people. In those religions the priests themselves figured as supernatural, mysterious beings, who were believed to hold the fate of other people in their hands; and the more this was the case, so much the greater was their influence over the rude, uncultivated masses. This kind of arrangement shows conclusively that the mythological doctrines were originally foreign to the people. It denotes in spiritual affairs what noble rank, or a strict feudal system indicates in temporal, namely, the subjugation of the aboriginal inhabitants of the country by in-wandering strangers.
There were other heathen religions in which no such pre-established mysteriousness found a place; the order of priesthood was not distinctly set apart from the people, and the difference between the priest and layman was in reality only the usual difference between the more and the less enlightened. This relative condition generally gives evidence of a spiritual independence united with temporal freedom among the whole people.
To the latter case of religions the Asa-faith unquestionably belonged. Every religion has its mysteries, which, in reality, could never become universally comprehensible; and this was in some degree the case with the one now under consideration. But these mysteries, it is certain, were not many, and therefore no great mysteriousness nor consequent distinct separation of the Asa priests was recognized. Kings and chieftains were at the same time priests of the Gods, and they universally performed the rites of divine worship in large popular assemblies, in the most public manner;---one proof among many that the Asa-faith was not, as many have supposed, introduced among the Northmen or forced upon them by a colony of foreign priests long after the people had separated from kindred races as an independent nation, but that in its germs it was carried along with the people themselves from former places of abode, and was afterward freely developed among them in their new home.
Snorri's account, in the first thirteen chapters of the Ynglinga Saga, of the arrival of Odin and his followers in the North, cannot be regarded otherwise than as a very erroneous interpretation of the old Eddaic myths, but which is in accordance with the view of his age. His account of the twelve Díar or Drótnar, who presided both at the sacrifices and at the judicial proceedings in ancient Ásgard, and who afterward accompanied Odin to the North (1), doubtless rests on the same foundation. The name Díar is evidently the same as Tívar, which, as above-mentioned, (2) was an appellation of the Gods. Then, even as Snorri's own account intimates, the twelve Díar were no other than the twelve Æsir who were specially worshipped. As a council of priests they exist only in Snorri's interpretation of the myths, and as this term, applied to the priests of the Æsir, does not occur either with the same author afterwards or in any other reliable poems or ancient Sagas of the Northmen, it becomes very doubtful whether it was used in this sense at all.
It is otherwise with the term Drótnar. The word drótinn (plur. dróttnar) is much used in the Old Norse in the sense of Lord or Master. In the earliest ages this name was peculiar to the highest rulers of the people, who at the same time presided at the courts of justice and were high-priests; but it gave way at an early period to konungr (3) (king), the title of honor which has been customary since---a change which some suppose to indicate that thenceforth the temporal dignity became of most importance with the rulers of the country, whereas the spiritual dignity had the ascendency before, or that the Warrior in them began to crowd out the Priest. (4) Thus the term Dróttnar appears at one time to have been applied to the priests of the Asa-faith, although it was only in so far as they were also the supreme rulers of the people; and it went out of use long before the time when history first sheds any clear light upon the heathen state of the Northmen, which was not, as is well known, until near its conclusion.
A third name conferred upon the priests is goðar or hofgoðar. The name goði can be derived from goð, God, and signifies a servant of God, a priest; hofgoði (hof, a temple) signifies priest or superintendent of a temple. The term goði was universal in Iceland. That island was divided into four Fjórðúngar or fourths; in each Fjórðúng there were originally three Thíngsóknar or judicial districts, and in each of these again, three chief temples (höfuð-hof). He who presided over such a temple was called Goði, and was at the same time chieftain and judge in the district, (5) and in the former character he was as influential as in that of priest. His official dignity, with the influence depending on it, was called in Iceland Goðorð, (6) and was entered upon with a solemn ceremonial in which the future Goði slaughtered a ram and dipped his hands in its blood (at rjóða sik i goða blóði, to sprinkle himself with good blood). (7) It remained as a temporal dignity, after the introduction of Christianity upon the island, until it was subjected to the kings of Norway. That the office and the name, like most of the religious and judicial institutions of Iceland, were transported thither from Norway, cannot be doubted, although the name Goði is very rarely mentioned in the Sagas as being in use in the latter country. One of the original settlers of Iceland, Thorhad the Old, had been hofgoði in the temple of Mæri in Throndheim; (8) but in general, when those who conducted the sacred rites of heathendom in Norway are mentioned, it is only said of them that they "attended to the temples" (varðveíttu hof); (9) that they "counseled the most for the sacrifices" (réðu mest fyrir blótum); (10) that they "supported the sacrifices" (héldu upp blótum); (11) without any name of dignity being given them as priests. This was, no doubt, because in Norway the Hersir (a baron or ruler of a herað or district) was always a Goði at the same time, but was universally designated by the first-name title, as the most distinguished. But in Iceland the name hersir was not used, wherefore goði took its place, denoting the ruler of a herað, both in his priestly and temporal calling. As the dignity of Hersir was properly hereditary in Norway, so was the Goðorð in Iceland to be regarded as the possession of certain families.
Although the barons in Norway were thus, as Goði, the actual priests of the Asa-faith, there were also other secular rulers who conducted the public worship of the Gods. Kings or Jarls often directed the great sacrificial festivals which were attended by all the inhabitants of greater or smaller portions of the country, and they had the chief seats at the sacrificial banquets connected with them. (12) It was believed that the zeal of the kings in the worship of the Gods brought prosperity to the people, while negligence in this respect on their part brought ruin upon the whole country, caused unpropitious seasons and famine. For a neglect of this kind king Olaf Trételgia of Vermaland had to atone with his life; (13) while on the other hand, to Hákon Jarl's zeal in the worship of the Æsir was attributed the fruitfulness which, after many years of scarcity, returned to Norway when he became the ruler of the country. (14) Moreover, every one could worship at his home the Deities which he adored the most therefore it was not unusual for the rich landsmen to have near his house a temple in which he performed the priestly rites for himself. (15)
Women also sometimes conducted the sacrifices and performed other sacred rites belonging to the Asa worship, (16) and we even find that in Iceland they sometimes presided at the temples. Such a priestess was called Gyðia or Hofgyðia.
The Goðar, or priests, had charge of the continuation and propagation of the religious doctrines, which in those times took place by oral delivery from generation to generation. It is probable that they delivered the religious tenets publicly at the solemn festivals, and most generally in poetry. The name Thulr, a speaker, (17) which occurs in many places in the poems of the Older Edda, was the appellation of such a teacher, who during his discourse was accustomed to sit upon a seat of distinction (Þularstóll). The religious tenets themselves are often called, in the ancient poems, rúnar or stafir. The former denotes originally speech, the latter, written characters; which latter signification the word rúnar also obtained afterwards. In ancient times, however, both terms appear to have been used synonymously of the doctrines which were orally delivered and retained in the memory. Many of the mythological poems of the Older Edda are evidently didactic poems which were delivered before the assembled multitude at the sacrificial festivals, as well as in the instruction of the intended ministers of religion. The continual employment in the Skaldic minstrelsy of the myths of the Asa mythology to form its poetic figures, proves that a knowledge of its doctrines were diffused among the people; and therefore these embellishments, borrowed from the religious doctrines, could not be preserved in poetry alone, but must have been intelligible to the common people for many centuries after the downfall of the religion from which they were borrowed.
Endnotes
1. Snorri: Ynglinga Saga, 2, 6. [Back]
2. Chap. 11. [Back]
3. According to Snorri, twenty ages before Harald Hárfagri, or about the third century. [Back]
4. Geijer: Svea-Rikes Häfder. Vol. I., 495. [Back]
5. Landnámabók IV., 7 (Íslendinga Sögur, Vol. I., 1843). [Back]
6. Literally: God-word---orð, word, authority. [Back]
7. Ljósvetninga saga (Ísl. S., Vol. II., 1830). [Back]
8. Landnb. IV., 6. [Back]
9. Ib. V. 8; Eyrb. s, 3. [Back]
10. Snorri: Saga Hákonar Góða., 19. [Back]
11. Snor.: S. Olafs Tryggvasonar, 75. [Back]
12. Friðþjófs S., 9; Snor.: Sag. Hák. Góða, 16, 18. [Back]
13. Snor.: Yngl. S., 47. [Back]
14. Ib.: Sag. Ol. Tryggv., 16. [Back]
15. Olaf Tryggv. S. in Fornmanna Sögur, 145, 201; Droplauga sonar S. 26. [Back]
16. Friðþ. S. 9; Kristni. S. 2. [Back]
17. From þylia, to recite, speak extempore. [Back]
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