The Religion of the Northmen
Chapter XIX
The Northmen, like most other heathen nations, had images of their Gods. The object of these images was originally to make manifest to the senses the attributes of the Gods, and thus secure the devotion of the less enlightened classes. But in course of time, at least with the great mass, the image became confounded with the Divinity by whom it was thought to be animated, and thus became an object of that worship properly due to the superior beings, of which it was only the representative. Thus arose Image-Worship among the Northmen as amon so many other nations, and became a productive source of the grossest superstition.
However rude we may consider the Plastic Art to have been among our heathen forefathers, in comparison with what it was among the Greeks and Romans, and what it now is among the enlightened nations of Europe, still it was sufficiently cultivated at an early period, for the purpose of making, out of such material as could be obtained, a likeness of the bodily form under which they conceived of the various Gods. These images it appears, were usually of wood, sometimes of metal, and but very seldom of stone. They were called gođ (Gods) or skurđgođ (carved Gods); although the latter term may possibly be from the Christian times, when the effort was made to cast all possible odium on the worship of idols. No images have been preserved which may be reguarded with certainty as relics of the Asa worship. This is to be attributed partly to the zeal of the first propagators of Christianity in destroying all idols, partly to the perishable material of which they were mostly made, and partly, no doubt, to the lack of real beauty in them, for when the belief in their sacredness was departed, they could no longer inspire as mere works of Art. It is therefore from the old written accounts alone, and especially from our Sagas, that we are able to draw any information of the precise nature of the idols of our heathen forefathers.
Whenever these are mentioned they are described as being in human likeness, sometimes full-sized and sometimes smaller, having the appearance and the attributes corresponding to the presumed essence and qualities of the God whom they were intended to represent. The large statues which had their place in the temples, were often hung with drapery and costly ornaments, and generally stood upon an elevation or pedestal (stallr or hjallr), which appears at the same time to have served as an altar. Sometimes also they had images of the Gods on the prow of their war-ships, perhaps as a kind of figure-head. Smaller images were carried about their persons as amulets.
In the ancient temple at Upsala, according to the testimony of Adam of Bremen, there were statues erected to Thor, Odin (Wodan), and Frey (Fricco). The statue of Thor had the most conspicuous place in the middle; the two others stood one upon each side. Thor was represented with a sceptre (the Hammer, no doubt) in his hand; Odin, as the God of War, was in armor; and Frey, in the character of the God of Fruitfulness, was delineated as a Priapus. (1) In general, Odin's statues are not distinctly mentioned in the Sagas, but Thor's very often. In the chief-temple of Mćri in Inner Throndheim, Thor's statue had the principal place. The statue was large and richly adorned with gold and silver. The God was represented sitting in a splendid car, to which were attached two goats, ingeniously wrought of wood. Both the car and the bucks stood upon wheels, and about the horns of the bucks was slung a silver chain, by which the whole group was drawn. It was all so well made that it awakened the astonishment of King Olaf Tryggvason when he entered the temple. (2)
In a temple at Hundsthorp in Gudbrandsdal stood a large, much-honored statue of Thor. It was of wood, hollow within, and in the likeness of a man. It was adorned with gold and silver, held a hammer in its hands, and stood upon an elevation (hjallr). The peasants led this statue forth with great solemnity to meet Olaf the Saint when he came into Gudbrandsdal to convert them to Christianity; but St. Olaf caused one of his men to break it in pieces. (3) A wooden statue of Thor stood among several idols, all upon elevations (stallar), in a temple in Throndheim owned by a rich landsman, Finn. (4) In the temple in Gudbrandsdal, which Hákon Jarl and Dala-Gudbrand owned together, Thor was represented upon a car and adorned with gold rings. At the same place was also the statue of Hákon's tutelary Goddess, Thorgerd Hörgabrúđ, in a sitting posture, as large as a full grown person, with a falld (a kind of head-dress) upon her head and a gold ring upon her arm. The statue of Yrp was also there and had likewise gold rings upon its arms. (5) In another temple owned by Hákon Jarl, the statue of Thorgerd stood upon a stallr; it was splendidly adorned and had a gold ring upon its arm. (6) In the temple at Baldur's-haug in Sokn, there is said to have been many idols, among which the statue of Baldur is expressly mentioned. (7) Many idols are also mentioned as being in a temple at Ölvusvatn in Iceland. (8) In another temple on the island belonging to a certain Bersi, sat Frey and Thor in the High-Seat, and directly opposite them Friga and Freyja; these statues were arrayed in drapery and ornaments of gold and silver. (9) Eirik Hákonsson Jarl, at the beginning of the battle of Svöldr, had Thor's statue on the prow of his ship, but he had it taken down afterwards and a crucifix set up in its stead. (10) The Foster-brothers' Saga mentions a chair, which had carved upon its arms or side-posts the image of Thor with his Hammer. (11) A highly-valued wooden statue of Frey was found in a temple in Throndheim, which King Olaf Tryggvason hewed in pieces in the presence of the people. (12) Kjötvi the ich, King of Agđir, who fought against Harald Hárfagri, had a weight upon which the God Frey was sculptured in silver. This treasure, which he held in great veneration, fell after the battle into the hands of King Harald, and he presented it to his friend, the chieftain Ingemund Thorsteinsson, who afterwards carried the image in a purse and held it in very high esteem. (13) This last-mentioned image was probably borne as an amulet, as was often the case, no doubt, with the gold bracteates which are found in the burial mounds and in the earth, having upon them the images of men and animals, whose signification it is now impossible to decide, and which are furnished with a clasp for fastening to a necklace.
Images of clay or dough in human form are also spoken of, which were privately worshiped even after the introduction of Christianity. (14)
How great the superstition of many of the Northmen was in regard to the idols, is attested by many passages in the Sagas, although it must be confessed that the superstition and blind zeal of the first Christian teachers gave rise to divers extravagances in these accounts. The peasants placed food every day before a statue of Thor in Gudbrandsdal, and believed that the God consumed it. (15) Of Thorgerd Hörgabrúđ's statue it is related that it made known to Hákon Jarl the Goddess's delight in his offerings, by bending down its arm so that he was enabled to draw off the only gold ring which adorned it. (16) A statue of Thor at Rauđsey in Naumdal, is described as being so strengthened (magnat) by offerings, that it could speak with its worshiper Rauđ, and accompany him about the island, that it could call forth storms by blowing in its beard, and could even play at the game of drawing hooks over a fire with King Olaf Tryggvason. In this sport, however, it came off a loser, fell into the fire and was destroyed. (17) When Dala-Gudbrand saw his temple burned down and the statues of his Gods lying out upon the ground unharmed, he cried out, "Great power is given unto our Gods, that they of themselves have gone out of the fire!" But Hákon Jarl, who was less blinded said, "The Gods have not done this; some person has burned the temple and carried out the Gods. But" he continued, "the Gods do not avenge themselves suddenly. May the man who has done this be driven away from Valhalla and never come thither!" The outrage had been committed by Hrapp, an Icelander, who had been for a time a guest with Gudbrand. (18) It is related of the Icelander Grimkel that he saw the statues of the Gods in his temple preparing to move away from their seats, out of displeasure at his son Hörđ. (19) Of a statue of Frey, in Sweden, the peasants had the belief that it had connubial intercourse with a woman who attended it. (20)
Besides the proper idols there was a kind of sacred images, which was found in heathen times in the house of every Northman, namely, the so-called Öndvegis-súlur, or Pillars of the High-Seat, sometimes also called Setstokkar. These were two high wooden posts fashioned by hewing, which stood one upon each side of the High-Seat of the Master of the house, and had the lower end set in the ground. (21) These Öndvegis-súlur were looked upon as peculiarly sacred, it might almost be said as a kind of Household Gods. It was a universal custom among the Northmen who left their native land to settle in Iceland to take with them the Sacred Columns from their old homes, and cast them overboard when they first came in sight of Iceland; then they would select their place of residence on the spot where the columns were found drifted to land.
Thus did Ingólf, the first Northman who settled permanently upon the island. (22) It is related of Björn Ketilsson from Sokn, one of the first settlers, that when on his arrival he found his sacred pillars drifted into a bay, he believed that a home was shown him there. (23) Similar directions were followed by his sister Auđ in choosing her abode. (24) The settler Thord Hrappsson had been living for ten or fifteen years upon the eastern side of Iceland when he learned that his sacred columns had been cast upon the western coast of the island; thereupon he straightway sold his estate, in order to remove thither. (25) So also did another of the first settlers, Lomund the Old, from Vors. (26) When Eirik the Red, who went from Jađar to Iceland, had loaned his Setstokkar (Posts of Honor) to another Icelander named Thorgest, and could not get them back again, it gave occasion for a quarrel, which cost the lives of many of the adherents of both parties, and at last was the cause of Eirik's banishment and settlement in Greenland. (27) Halstein Thorolfsson, who settled in the western part of Iceland, offered up his son, and gave him to Thor (perhaps devoted him to his service), in order that the God should furnish him with sacred colemns of the High-Seat; whereupon, so the account goes, there shot up on his ground a tree sixty-three ells high, and two fathoms thick, from which not only he, but the whole surrounding neighborhood was supplied with Öndvegis-súlur. (28)
It is probable that the image of some one of the Gods was often carved upon these pillars, and that this contributed something to the veneration in which they were held. It appears, at least, that this was the case with the sacred columns which were sometimes to be found in the temples. Thus we are told that Thor's image was carved upon one of the Öndvegis-súlur, which had stood in a temple of Thor, on the island Moster in Norway, and which guided the Icelandic settler Thorolf Mostrarskegg to a place of abode. (29)
Endnotes
1. Ad. Brem.: de situ Daniæ, cap. 233 [Back]
2. Ol. Tr. S. Skalh. II., 24. [Back]
3. Snor.: Ol. Hel. S. 118, 119; Ol. Hel. S. in Fornm. S. IV., 107, 108. [Back]
4. Ol. Tr. S. in Fornm. S. 202, 203. [Back]
5. Niáls. S. 89. [Back]
6. Fareyinga S. 23; Ol. Tr. S. in Fornm. S. 184. [Back]
7. Friðþ. S. 9. [Back]
8. Hörðs S. 18. [Back]
9. Droplauga Sonar S. 26. [Back]
10. Ol. Tr. S. in Fornm. S. 252, 253. [Back]
11. Fostbræðra S. 38. [Back]
12. Ol. Tr. S. Skalh. II., 49, 50. [Back]
13. Vatnsd. S. 9, 10. [Back]
14. "Matblót eða leirblót gort i mannslíki af leiri eða af deigi." Anc. Laws of Norw. I., p. 383. [Back]
15. Snor.; Ol. Hel. S. 118. [Back]
16. Fareying. S. 23; Ol. Tr. S. in Fornm. S. 184. [Back]
17. Ol. Tr. S. in Fornm. S. 145, 150. [Back]
18. Þá tók Guðbrandr til orða: "Mikill máttr er gefinn goðum vorum, er þau hafa gengit sjálf úr elldinum!" "Eigi munu goðin þessu vallda," segir Jarl; "maðr mun brent hafa hofit, en borit út goðin. En goð hefna eigi allz þegar. Mun sá maðr braut rekinn úr Vallhöllu ok þar alldri koma, er þetta hefir gert." Niáls S. 89. [Back]
19. Hörðs S. 18 [Back].
20. Ol. Tr. S. in Fornm. S. 173. [Back]
21. Vatnsd. S. 15. [Back]
22. Landnámabók I, 8. [Back]
23. Laxd. S. 3. [Back]
24. Ib. 5; Kormaks S. 2. [Back]
25. Landnmb. I., 10. [Back]
26. Ib. IV., 5. [Back]
27. Ib. II., 14. [Back]
28. Landnmb. II., 23. [Back]
29. Eyrbyggja S. 4. [Back]
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