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Furthermore, some findings from the Viking Age can be interpreted as evidence of human sacrifice, including children as young as four years old. [51] Sagas occasionally mention human sacrifice at temples, as does Adam of Bremen. Also, the written sources tell that a commander could consecrate the enemy warriors to Odin using his spear.
In almost all instances, human sacrifices occurring in the context of the Old Norse texts are related to Óðinn. [14] Criminals and slaves are the humans being sacrificed in the majority of cases which has been compared to modern executions. [15] Scholars doubt the reliability of some claims of human sacrifice.
The funeral ritual could be drawn out for days, in order to accommodate the time needed to complete the grave. These practices could include prolonged episodes of feasting and drinking, music, songs and chants, visionary experiences, human and animal sacrifice. [13]
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, public or jurisdictional demands for justice by capital punishment, an authoritative/priestly figure, spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein a monarch's servants are killed in order for them to continue to serve their master in ...
The texts frequently allude to human sacrifice. Temple wells in which people were sacrificially drowned are mentioned in Adam of Bremen's account of Uppsala [192] and in Icelandic sagas, where they are called blótkelda or blótgrǫf, [193] and Adam of Bremen also states that human victims were included among those hanging in the trees at ...
1024: Human sacrifice by volkhvy reported in Suzdal in Russia. [24] 1066: John Scotus (bishop of Mecklenburg) was sacrificed to Radegast, the god of hospitality. [25] 1071: Human sacrifice of women by volkhvy was reported in a Rostov village in Rus. [26] 11th century: Al-Bakri mentions sacrifice of servants during royal burial in Ghana. [20]
There is archaeological evidence for an increase in human sacrifices in the late Viking Age [15] though among the Norse gods human sacrifice is most often linked to Odin. Another reference to Frø and sacrifices is found earlier in the work, where the beginning of an annual blót to him is related.
Human body parts such as skulls are deposited in the same period and as late as 1100 CE. [416] Regularly occurring human sacrifices among the Norse are mentioned by authors such as Thietmar of Merseburg and Adam of Bremen as well as the Gutasaga. [417] An image on the picture stone Stora Hammars I is usually interpreted as depicting a human ...