Weapons in Legal Rituals: Between Myth and Reality

This article seeks to explore the significance of weapons in legal rituals mentioned in sources, such as sagas and laws. Similarities in the phrasing of various types of sources give reason to believe that it is possible to determine certain uses of weapons in Viking Age legal rituals. Such rituals, which shared essential features with legal procedure, consisted of sequences of activities involving phrasing, objects, and gestures to mark a transition from one legal status to another, and they could also convey, and act as preservers of, legal meaning. Examples show that oaths were sworn on weapons, and that they conferred legal validity at the assembly (vápnatak). Old Norse mythology explained and legitimised key values in society, and through it everyday people found a template for how to use weapons in legal rituals. Rituals are however dynamic, and hence the ritual objects may change over time. In the Viking Age weapons were objects laden with meaning, and it was probably the introduction of Christianity that led to them being banned from further use in legal ritual.

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Old Norse Mythology as Sacred Narrative

10.1093/oso/9780190852252.003.0003 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 65-102

Author(s):

John Lindow

Keyword(s):

Thirteenth Century ◽

Deep Sea ◽

Old Norse ◽

Viking Age ◽

Chronological Order ◽

Simple Fact ◽

The Earth ◽

The World ◽

Norse Mythology

This chapter presents a case study of one myth that we have from pictorial sources in the Viking Age, from poems almost certainly composed in the Viking Age, and from thirteenth-century sources, namely the encounter between the god Þórr (Thor) and his cosmic enemy, the World serpent, a beast that encircles the earth, in the deep sea. In this myth, Þórr fishes up the serpent, and depending on the variant, Þórr may or may not kill the serpent. I present and analyze the texts in more or less chronological order, from the older skalds through the Eddic poem Hymiskviða, through Snorri Sturluson in Edda, and compare the texts to the rock carvings that portray the myth. I argue that the issue of the death or survival of the serpent is less important than the simple fact that Þórr had the serpent on his hook.

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Introduction

10.1093/oso/9780190852252.003.0001 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-17

Author(s):

John Lindow

Keyword(s):

Middle Ages ◽

Thirteenth Century ◽

Literary Tradition ◽

Old Norse ◽

Viking Age ◽

Norse Mythology ◽

Poetic Edda ◽

The Middle Ages

The title, Old Norse Mythology recognizes the fact that the mythology in question is recorded almost exclusively in the manuscripts of Old Norse literary tradition—that is, in manuscripts primarily from thirteenth-century Iceland. Since Iceland had converted to Christianity in the year 1000CE, the scribes who recorded the myths were Christians, and the myths can hardly have been sacred in their eyes. Nevertheless, there were mythographers such as Snorri Sturluson, who composed Edda, a handbook of poetics that includes a synopsis of the mythology, and such as the anonymous redactor of what we now call the Poetic Edda, a collection of mythic and heroic poems, and myths are displaced into history in the Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus. This chapter discusses the progression from the oral mythology of the Viking Age (c. 800-1100) to the written mythology of the Middle Ages.

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Gender and language change in Old Norse sentential negatives

Language Variation and Change ◽

10.1017/s0954394515000125 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 27 (3) ◽

pp. 349-375 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Tam Blaxter

Keyword(s):

Language Change ◽

Old Norse ◽

Prose Fiction ◽

Female Characters ◽

Change Over Time ◽

Consistent Finding ◽

Historical Societies ◽

Sentential Negation ◽

Over Time

AbstractOne consistent finding across sociolinguistic studies is the tendency for female speakers to lead in ongoing change. Different explanations have been proposed for this and a key method of testing these explanations is to identify whether the pattern occurs in the languages of a wider range of societies than have been studied thus far. Historical societies are relatively understudied in this regard, but undertaking variationist research into gender in historical varieties presents many challenges. One way to overcome these is to examine variation internal to fiction data. This paper presents an analysis of the effect of gender on the adverb selected for sentential negation in Old Norse prose fiction. It finds that female characters lead consistently in this change over time. In doing so, it demonstrates the feasibility of using fiction data when examining the effect of gender in historical varieties such as Old Norse.

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Odins viden - dens funktion og betydning

Religionsvidenskabeligt Tidsskrift ◽

10.7146/rt.v0i44.1887 ◽

2004 ◽

Author(s):

Jens Peter Schjødt

Keyword(s):

The Other ◽

Old Norse ◽

Viking Age ◽

Other Hand ◽

The World ◽

Norse Mythology ◽

The Many ◽

Intellectual Power

it is the purpose of this article to discuss how to interpret Odin's wisdom. Many scholars have argued over the last ten years that Odin's wisdom should be compared to the abilities of the shaman as this figure is known from many circumpolar religions and that Odin should accordingly be viewed as a prototypical shaman. There are, however, some arguments against this theoy. First and foremost, it is obvious that Odin has certain functions in old Norse mythology that do not fit in with the "shamanic" interpretation. If we take a closer view of the role of Odin, it is obvious that he is not primarily linked to the magicians but rather to warriors and kings. This is due to the fact that shamans are normally practicing in societies very different from those of Scandinavia during the Viking age. The results of two analyses of mythical cores, that of Mimer, primarily known from the Eddas, and that of Hadding, known from Saxo's Gesta Danorum, show that a religious phenomenon explaining more adequately the many roles of Odin is that of initiation. The Mimer myth shows how Odin acquires intellectual power by confronting an object (the head of Mimer) which has been in the under world where is has been given numious poser. This myth is compared to the phenomenon of initiation and it is maintained that the myth, containing death and intellectual rebirth, must be seen as parallel in its structure as well as its symbolism to the initiation rituals which we see all over the world. Odin has thus gained knowledge as all initiates do during their initiation. On the other hand, the Hadding myth shows us Odin in a different role which is known equally well in the context of the mythology, namely that as an initator giving advice and skills to the young hero of the myth. Here we find the same symbolism as that of the initiation.Eventually, it is concluded that even if many of Odin's skills may be compared to those of the shaman, the phenomenon of initiation is able to account for the whole spectrum of functions that can be seen in Odin. Odin, then, must be seen first and foremost as the god of initiation.

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