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The Stentoften Stone, bearing a runic inscription that likely describes a blót of nine he-goats and nine male horses bringing fertility to the land. [1]Blót (Old Norse and Old English) or geblōt (Old English) are religious ceremonies in Germanic paganism that centred on the killing and offering of an animal to a particular being, typically followed by the communal cooking and eating of its ...
The first element of Ǫlvir means "beer", which was an important element in Norse pagan sacrifices generally. [ 1 ] There is a notable account of the ceremony in Austrfararvísur by the Norwegian skald Sigvatr Þórðarson , where he tried to impose on the privacy of a series of homes during the sacred family holiday, a privacy that he was ...
The modern Icelandic festival of Þorrablót is sometimes considered a "pagan holiday" due to folk etymology with the name of the god Thor. [5] The name, while historically attested, is derived from Þorri which is not explicitly linked to Thor, instead being the name of a month in the historic Icelandic calendar and a legendary Finnish king.
As highlighted by scholar Leszek Gardeła (National Museum of Denmark), "surviving sagas and poems reveal that certain numbers held special significance among Norse societies. This was certainly the case with the numbers three and nine which are frequently mentioned in connection with the sphere of religion and/or ritual practice." [9]
The pagan Germanic peoples referred to holy places by a variety of terms and many of these terms variously referred to stones, groves, and temple structures. From Proto-Germanic *harugaz, a masculine noun, developed Old Norse hǫrgr meaning 'altar', Old English hearg 'altar', and Old High German harug meaning 'holy grove
Norse religious worship is the traditional religious rituals practiced by Norse pagans in Scandinavia in pre-Christian times. Norse religion was a folk religion (as opposed to an organized religion), and its main purpose was the survival and regeneration of society. Therefore, the faith was decentralized and tied to the village and the family ...
Each year the festival begins with a blót ritual as a way for festival goers to come together. The ritual acknowledges old Norse gods, but not necessarily in a religious way. It is a way for people to get in touch with their past, connect to one another and the natural world. Individuals put their own meaning on the ceremony as they choose.
The Þorrablót is an evening with dinner where participants hold speeches and recite poems, originally to honour the Norse god Thor (Þórr), whose name is taken to be associated with Þorri. Calling the feast a blót (a sacramental feast held in honor of a god in Norse mythology ) makes clear the reference to pre-Christian times, which many ...