The Religion of the Northmen
Chapter XXII
It was not merely the Æsir and the spiritual beings allied to them that the heathen Northmen made the object of their worship; we find they also placed confidence in departed human beings as well as animate or inanimate natural objects, and even worshiped them.
A few noble and virtuous men, who, during life, had effected much good in their circle, were sometimes worshiped after death as guardian spirits of the country or the region in which they had lived and labored for good. Thus King Olaf Guðröðsson of Vestfold, who dwelt at Gierstad, was worshiped after his death by his former subjects; the sacrificed upon his burial-mound and called him Geirstaða-álfr, or Geirstad's Spirit. (1) Of another Northman, Grim Kamban, the first settler who made a permanent residence on the Faroe Islands, it is likewise related that "after his death they sacrificed to him on account of the favor in which he stood." (2) It is related of the Swedes that at the time when Ansgarius proclaimed Christianity in Sweden, they increased the number of their Gods by admitting among them---in consequence, it was said, of a revelation from above---one of their departed Kings, Eirik, to whom they dedicated a temple and in whose service special priests were appointed. (3) These deified spirits of the Dead were doubtless mostly regarded as a kind of Land-guardians (Landvættir).
An idolatry far more gross, according to our ideas, was practiced by a few, who worshiped and put their faith in natural objects, sometimes animate and sometimes inanimate.
We find it mentioned in a few places that living men were worshiped, an idolatry which the Crhistians considered the most abominable of all, but which was certainly of very rare occurrence.
Many traces, however, of the worship of animals are to be found.
The faith which some placed in horses, has been already alluded to. (4) This may be understood when we remember that the horse was beyond all doubt an animal sacred to Frey, and therefore may have been worshiped as the symbol of that God.
The worship of oxen and cows is likewise mentioned. The Norse chieftain Hárek, who lived in Olaf Tryggvason's time, and dwelt at Rein, was accused of secretly sacrificing to an unusually large and strong ox that he owned. (5) A certain King Eystein of Upsala, who lived about the time of Ragnar Lóðbrók and his sons, appears to have had great faith in a cow which was called Sibilia (the ever-bellowing?). To this cow, says the account, they sacrificed greatly, and no one could endure to hear her bellowing. Therefore, the King was accustomed to let her go in advance of his army, when he marched forth against his enemies. (6) It is related of the Norwegian Fylki-King Augvald, that he made special sacrifices to a cow which he took with him whithersoever he went, by sea or by land, and whose milk he esteemed as a medicine. When he died the cow was laid in a mound near his own. (7) Perhaps sacred cows were symbols of the mythic cow Auðhumla, although there are no traces of her worship to be found.
Small metallic images of both horses and oxen are found in the heathen burial-mounds in Norway, and may without doubt be regarded as relics of the worship of these animals.
When the Norse chieftain Flóki Vilgerðarson was preparing to set out from Rógaland in search of Iceland, he set up a great sacrifice at Smörsund, and sacrificed to three ravens, or consecrated them by sacrifices, in order that they might show him the way. By their direction, it seems, he found the land he was seeking for. (8) Flóki's offering, it may be presumed, was actually to Odin, and for this the birds of Odin were to show him the way.
With regard to animal-worship among the heathen Northmen, it is by no means clear what significance they attached to it---whether they imagined a Deity in any manner incarnated in the animal---or whether they regarded it merely as sacred to a certain Deity---or finally, whether they imagined it by any magic spells to be endowed with supernatural powers. Without doubt, the worship of animals was most frequently regarded from one of the two last mentioned points of view, and was usually in the nearest connection with the belief in sorcery.
Of inanimate things we find Mounds, Stones, Groves, and Waterfalls mentioned as objects of worship with some individuals.
Sacrifices to Mounds cannot have been of very rare occurance; for in the Christian Code of the "Older Gula-Thing Laws" they expressly forbidden, along with sacrifices to heathen Gods and altars. In the somewhat fabulous Saga of Ketil Hæng, a mound of Good Seasons (Árhaugr, i.e., Mound of Fruitfulness) is mentioned, to which the inhabitants of Gestrekaland (in Sweden) sacrificed, in order to obtain favorable seasons, and upon which the snow never lay. (9) No doubt such sacred mounds were the graves of men who had been deified after death, or else they were thought to be the dwellingplaces of the Elves. (10)
The Icelandic settler Eyvind, son of Loðin Aungul of Halogaland, is said to have sacrificed to some stones, called Gunnsteinar, which marked the boundaries of his estate in Flateyjardal, in the north Fjórðung of Iceland. (11) The Icelander Thorstein Gullknapp had a stone in his sacrificial house, to which he sacrificed and before which he cast himself down upon the earth when he worshiped it. (12) Finally, it is stated that on the estate Giljá in Vatnsdal, in North-Iceland, a large stone was standing, to which the owner of the estate, Koðrán Eilífsson and his kinsfolk, offered up sacrifices; for they said that in it dwelt their Ár-maðr (Year-Man, the bestower of prosperous seasons or fruitfulness). Concerning this stone, the legend farther says, that it split asunder when it was sprinkled with holy-water by Bishop Friðrek, who had accompanied Koðrán's son, Thorvald Viðförla, from Germany to his native island, in order to preach Christianity there. (13) Some such Elf or Guardian Spirit as the one last named was always imagined to dwell in the adored stones.
The Northmen Thorir Snepil, who settled in Fnjoskadal in the North-Fjórðung of Iceland, sacrificed to a grove in the vicinity, from which his estate was named. (14)
Of the Icelander Thorstein Rauðnef, who was a great sacrificer and was also far-sighted or clairvoyant, it is related, that he sacrificed to a waterfall (fós) near his house, into which he caused all remnants to be thrown. On the night of his death, it is further related, his whole flock of sheep, consisting of more than two thousand, leaped over the waterfall and were destroyed. (15) In many parts of Norway the belief is still prevalent that a being, which is universally called Fosse-Grim, has its abode in the waterfalls. This superstition is evidently a relic of the old heathen belief in a similar being, in which the worship of waterfalls may have originated.
From all that is above quoted on the worship of inanimate objects among the heathen Northmen, we have every reason to presume that this idolatry was most intimately connected with the belief in Elves, and really originated in it.
Endnotes
1. Þáttr af Olafi Geirstaða-álfi. [Back]
2. Landnmb. I. 14. [Back]
3. Rimbertus: Vita Ansgarii, cap. 23. [Back]
4. Chap. XVII. [Back]
5. Þáttr þórst. Uxafóts, 13, in Fornm. S. III., p. 132. [Back]
6. Ragnar Lóðbr. S. 8. [Back]
7. Snor.: Ol. Tr. S. 71; Ol. Tr. S. 197 in Fornm. S. II., p. 138. [Back]
8. Landnmb. I. 2. [Back]
9. Ketil Hængs S. 5 in Fornald. S. II. [Back]
10. See Chap. XVIII. [Back]
11. Landnmb. III., 17. [Back]
12. Hörðs S. 37. [Back]
13. Kristni S. 2; compare with Ol. Tr. S. 131 in Fornm. S. I. [Back]
14. Landnmb. III. 17. [Back]
15. Landnmb. V. 5. [Back]
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