Chapter 3

As the expressions for asking and for obtaining, pp. 30, 31, are identical, a prayer was thought to be the more effectual, the more people it was uttered by:

got enwolde so manegem munde

sîn genâde niht versagen. Wigal. 4458.

[[god would not want that

   so many mouths refuse his mercy.]]

die juncvrouwen bâten alle got,

nu ist er sô gnædec unt sô guot

unt sô reine gemuot,

daz er niemer kunde

sô manegem süezen munde

betelichiu dinc versagen. Iw. 5351.

 [[the maidens all prayed god,

    now he is so merciful and so good

    and so purely disposed,

    that he never knew

     so many sweet mouths

     to promise prayerful things.]]

in (to the nuns) wâren de mûnde sô royt,

so wes si god bâden,

of syt mit vlîze dâden,

he id in nummer inkûnde

dem rôsenrôten mûnde

bedelicher dinge versagen.

 [[their (the nuns') mouths were so red,

    so were they praying to god (?),

    which they did with diligence,

    that he never knew the rose-red mouths

    to promise more prayerful things.]]

Ged. von der vrouwen sperwere, Cod. berol. 184, 54. Hence: helfen singen [[to help sing]], MS. 1, 57. 2, 42. Conf. cento novelle 61. (12)

SACRIFICE---The word opfer, a sacrifice, was introduced into German by christianity, being derived from the Lat. offero, offerre. (13) The AS. very properly has only the verb offrian [[to offer, sacrifice]] and its derivative offrung [[offering, sacrifice]] (oblatio). In OHG., from opfarðn, opforðn [[to offer, sacrifice]] there proceeded also a subst. opfar [[sacrifice]], MHG. ophern [[to sacrifice]] and opher [[sacrifice]]; (14) and from Germany the expression seems to have spread to neighbouring nations, ON. offr [[offering]], Swed. Dan. offer [[sacrifice]], Lith. appiera, Lett. uppuris, Esth. ohwer, Fin. uhri, Boh. ofera, Pol. ofiara, Sloven. ofer. Everywhere the original heathen terms disappeared (see Suppl.).

The oldest term, and one universally spread, for the notion 'to worship (God) by sacrifice,' was blôtan [[to worship, revere]] (we do not know if the Goth. pret. was báiblôt or blôtáida); I incline to attach to it the full sense of the Gk. quein (15) (see Suppl.). Ulphilas saw as yet no objection to translating by it sebesqai and latreuein, Mk 7, 7. Lu. 2, 37; he construes it with an acc. of the person: blôtan fráujan [[to worship the lord]] is to him simply Deum colere, with apparently no thought of a bloody sacrifice. For latreia Rom. 12, 1, he puts blótinassus [[service, worship]], and for qeosebhj John 9, 31 guðblôstreis [[worshipper of god]]. The latter presupposes a subst. blôstr [[worship]] (cultus, oblatio), of which the S is explained in Gramm. 2, 208. Usblôteins [[imploring]] (paraklhsij) 2 Cor. 8, 4 implies a verb usblôtjan to implore. Cædmon uses the AS. blôtan pret. blêot [[to sacrifice]], onblôtan pret. onbléot [[to sacrifice, kill a victim]], of the Jewish sacrifice, and follows them up with acc. of thing and dat. of person: blôtan sunu [[to sacrifice a son]] (filium sacrificare) 173, 5. onblêot þæt lâc Gode [[sacrificed the gift to god]] (obtulit hostiam Deo) 177, 21. In Ælfred's Orosius we have the same blôtan pret. blôtte. I derive from it blêtsian, later blessian, to bless. The OHG. pluozan [[to sacrifice]], pret. pliez and pluozta, appears only in glosses, and renders libare, litare, victimare, immolare, Gl. Hrab. 959 960 966 968. Diut. 1, 245, 258. No case-construction is found, but an acc. of the thing may be inferred from partic. kaplôzaniu [[sacrificed]] immolata. A subst. pluostar [[sacrifice]] sacrificium, bluostar, Is. 382. Gl. emm. 411. Gl. jun. 209. T. 56, 4. 95, 102 (16); pluostarhûs [[sacrifice-house, temple]] idolium, Gl. emm. 402. ploazhûs [[blot-house, temple]] fanum, pluostrari [[sacrificer]] sacrificator, ibid. 405. It is plain that here the word has more of a heathen look, and was not at that time used of christian worship; with the thing, the words for it soon die out. But its universal use in Norse heathendom leaves no doubt remaining, that it was equally in vogue among Goths, Alamanni, Saxons, before their conversion to christianity. The ON. verb blôta [[to sacrifice, worship]], pret. blêt and blôtaði, takes, like the Gothic, an acc. of the object worshipped; thus, Grâgâs 2, 170, in the formula of the trygdamâl: svâ viða sem (as widely as) kristnir menn kirkior sækia, heiðnir menn hof blôta (fana colunt); and in the Edda: Thôr blôta, blôtaði Oðin. Sæm. 111, 113, 141, 165 (17); always the meaning is sacrificio venerari. So that in Goth. and ON. the verb brings out more the idea of the person, in OHG. and AS. more that of the thing. But even the O. Dan. version of the OT. uses blothe [[to sacrifice]] immolare, blodhmadh [[blot-man, sacrificer]] libarmina, blotesä [[large sacrifice, burnt offering]] holocaustum, Molbech's ed. pp. 171. 182. 215. 249. Also the O. Swed. Uplandslag, at the very beginning of the churchbalkr has: ængin skal affguðum blotæ [[no-one shall sacrifice to false gods]], with dat. of person, implying an acc. of the thing---The true derivation of the word I do not know. (18) At all events it is not to be looked for in blôð [[blood]] sanguis, as the disagreeing consonants of the two Gothic words plainly show; equally divergent are the OHG. pluozan [[to sacrifice]] and pluot [[blood]] from one another; besides, the worship so designated was not necessarily bloody. A remarkable passage in the Livonian rhyming chronicle 4683 tells of the Sameits (Schamaits, Samogits):

ir bluotekirl der warf zuo hant

sin lôz nâch ir alden site,

zuo hant er bluotete alles mite

ein quek.

 [[their 'bloutkirl' he threw to his hand

    his lot according to their old custom,

    to the hand he sacrificed all with a living animal]]



ENDNOTES:

13. Not from operari, which in that sense was unknown to the church, the Romance languages likewise using It. offerire, Sp. ofrecer, Fr. offrir, never operare, obrar, ouvrer; the same technical sense adheres to offerta, ofrenda, offrande. From oblata come the Sp. oblea, Fr. oublie, and perhaps the MHG. oblei, unless it is from eulogia, oblagia. From offre and offerta are formed the Wel. offryd, Ir. oifrion, aifrion, offrail. Lastly, the derivation from ferre, offerre, is confirmed by the German phrase 'ein opfer bringen, darbringen.'  (back)

14. Ophar, opfer could hardly be the Goth. áibr dwron, in which neither the vowel nor the consonant agrees. The Wel. abert, Gael. iobairt, Ir. iodbairt, (sacrificium) probably belong also to offerta.  (back)

15. When Sozomen hist. eccl. 6, 37 in a narrative of Athanaric uses proskunein kai quein, the Gothic would be inveitan jah blôtan.  (back)

16. The Gl. Hrab. 954: bacha, plôstar, is incomplete; in Gl. Ker. 45. Diut. 1, 166 it stands: bacha sacrificat, ploastar ploazit, or zepar plôzit; so that it is meant to translate only the Lat. verb, not the subst. bacha (bakch). Or perhaps a better reading is 'bachat' for bacchatur, and the meaning is 'non sacrificat'.  (back)

17. Landn. 1, 2: blôtaði hrafna þria, worshipped three ravens, who were going to show him the road; so, in Sæm. 141, a bird demands that cows be sacrificed to him; the victim itself is ON. blôt [[sacrifice, sacrificial feast]], and we are told occasionally: feck at blôti, ak blôti miklu, offered a sacrifice, a great sacrifice, Landn. 2, 29.  (back)

18. Letter for letter it agrees with floidow I light up, burn, which is also expressed in qnw and the Lat. suffio; but, if the idea of burnt-offering was originally contained in blôtan, it must have got obscured very early.  (back)