Let It Always Be Known That I Was Who I Am

- in Norwegian/Scandinavian tradition, prompted by this post.

Helpers aren’t to be thanked expressly, because then they will assume their job is done and finished with, and go away. That is, they will take an uttered “thank-you” as payment for their work, and leave (or even assume that you now owe them a favour in return, which binds you to them - but this is more a continental idea).

So, instead of thanking them, you work on creating an ongoing relationship with them of give and take, of exchanging favours. They get attention - food offerings mostly - on specific holidays, particularly those connected to the equinoxes and solstices and in connection to bigger events, and this is in exchange for whatever they do for you. Deals can be struck months ahead. If the spirit does such and such - or don’t do such and such, as the case can be with some of them! - it gets to receive such and such (food and/or drink, usually) at such and such time (a feast day, usually). Here is an example of how such an exchange can happen.

The dead often get praises along with their offerings, but they are never expressly thanked either. Instead of saying something like, “Thank you, auntie, for helping me out with such and such,” you say “Here’s to auntie who was such a helpful person.” And then you present the offering or pour the drink.

A Norwegian survey some years back showed that 350.000 adult Norwegians put out porridge for the nisse every jul. That’s quite an amount for such a small population. An additional 75.000 put out porridge every other jul. I assume these latter are divorced parents who do it when it is their turn to have the children over for the holidays - the tradition is strongest among families with kids. People in Northern Norway are best at thinking of their nisse, and 25% of them put out porridge. In Oslo, “only” 11% do - one in ten. The survey did not ask about other occasions when offerings are made, as it was specifically about jul and porridge (usually rice porridge), which in Norway go hand in hand.

The 13th of january is the last day of jul many places here up north. Some places in Norway it is called julevippen - the “jul-tilting”, the tilting or throwing out of jul. On this day the jul is ritually chased or swiped out using birch brooms or whisks of birch twigs made for the purpose.

Since at least the Early Middle Ages in Norway it was some places called gisladag - the “hostage” or “pledge” day. Who or what was bound as hostage or a pledge during jul? Odin as Jolnir, the lord of jul? Is it him we are releasing and chasing out with our whisks and brooms? Hm…

In the old church calendar it was called the “Octave of the Three Holy Kings”. Since the day also was called attundidag (the “eighth day” - first attested in 1328) back in the Middle Ages in Norway, I am guessing the “octave” in question means the eight days after the Thirteenth Day’s Eve or Eve of the Three Holy Kings.

Another much used name is avfaredag - day of departure. This was the day the jul guests were supposed to pack up and leave. Sometimes they were ritually swept out together with jul.

An 85-year-old in Dalby, Värmland (Sweden), told Ragnar Nilsson in 1936 that one shouldn’t tie the jul whisk with more than two bands, because a third “would let in the invisible ones”. In Norway in the 1890s, however, one were supposed to make three cuts in one of the twigs of the broom to “keep the witches from using them to fly on”.

Some of the around 150 recorded primstav symbols for this day.

As I was writing the second-half of the Into to Heathenry module, I started writing about altars, and as I was working on it, I realized I needed to write a post on how to build and maintain one...so here it is! How to build an altar!

The article features a gallery of altar photos submitted by people here on Tumblr (there's still a few from a long time ago that I still need to upload, so bear with me! I haven't forgotten!). However, I'd like to add more representation of Scandinavian altars if possible, so if you're from the Nordic countries and want to submit pictures of your altar, you can make a post including...

Your altar photo(s)

The country you're from, and

A little bit about your altar!

...and then tag me in it! I'll put it up!

I'm also happy to receive more altar photos from places outside the US.

(Let me know if you want to submit your photos a different way if you're not comfortable putting them on Tumblr for one reason or another.)

I reblogged a post with a charming sketch of Loke earlier and said, “In later tradition the fire in the hearth is seen as Loke - confined and carefully guarded, but also appreciated and respected as a helpful friend.” And, then it struck me that I might not have written anything about this before, so I thought I’d mention how the ritual where the housewife throws flour on the hearth fire when making the morning meal, because “Loke shall have his share”, is found both in Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Faroe Islands. And how finding the same ritual in regions that have not had continuous contact over the last millennium suggests that Loke indeed has been widely venerated. That we’re not dealing with cultural “borrowings” (like e.g. the modern Swedish Lucia in Norway).

But, he has clearly also been venerated in ways that have not left traces the way the veneration of the other gods have. A hearth doesn’t leave many traces of cult the way place names, amulets and statues do. Besides, hearth rites are mostly women’s rites, and women and their work were sort of dismissed already in Snorri’s time.

He might also have been venerated in the forge - as suggested by the Snaptun stone, but forging cannot really be compared to cooking, which even today is mostly done in the privacy of the own home, and mostly by women, even in the egalitarian Nordic countries. Which is why the little ritual I mentioned above has been passed on so many places all over the region well into the 20th century.

:: Fire-saving-day ::

Yesterday was the fourteenth day of jul and the traditional “fire-saving day” - eldbjørgdagen - sometimes also called the “fire-day’s jul”. It’s the day when you make the yearly offering to the fire to save your house and home and yourself from fires and other incidents involving fire - like burning yourself when cooking or baking. But, of course also to save the fire through winter for warmth. To many heathens - and also to many Christians in the old farming society - fire equals Loke (Loki), often perceived as female when dealt with in this shape.

Us Norwegians have never cared much for big words and lots of ceremonies, so the rituals are very simple and basically consist of a short prayer and a libation. For instance, in Telemark they make a toast in beer, and after passing the drinking bowl around, the mistress of the house throws the remaining beer onto the fire and says:

This high, my fire, but not higher nor hotter!

Guri Lykkjen in Valdres used this simple prayer as she threw a spoonfull of beer into the fire:

I drink to you (meaning “in your honour”).

Guri became very old and would have turned 107 this year had she lived. She is one of my adopted ancestors.

It is the 14th day of jul, and fire-saving day - eldbjørgdagen - or eldsdagr jóla as it also was called back in pre-Christian times. That is, “the fire-day-jul”.

Death cult…?

© Trollkatt; photo credit: DigitaltMuseum.org

If you recall, not long ago I posted about Norwegian house- and crop gods, a post that I originally wrote for a blog project I participated in a few years ago. Since then, I have found a few other such gods, among them a rather curiously shaped one that is carved in birch, and used to be called simply “the house-god”.

It is rather small, only 27 cm tall, and has the year 1768 carved on the front together with what is believed to be initials, and 1814 on the back (which is otherwise plain). 1814 is the year we got our constitution, by the way. The top part is shaped as a horse’s head with ears and forelock, and with a circular hole cut through it, and the lower part has a hole cut like a keyhole through it.

The museum that is hosting him (Fyresdal bygdemuseum, a part of Vest-Telemark Museum) says that the horse-like shape of the upper part might indicate that it is tied to religious beliefs (as if being called house-god wasn’t enough…). Which I agree with (and would have agreed with even had it not been called house-god…), since horses symbolise fertility - a popular subject on farms… - but also power and strength. Not to mention it symbolises travel. A horse takes you places.

Keys and keyholes have important roles in both the pre- and non-Christian religion in Scandinavia and in our magical medicine, as well as in our witchcraft. A key gives power to lock and unlock stuff, it gives or denies access to chests, doors, gates - and I’d say a keyhole is pretty indispensable in these kinds of operations.

I think this curious piece of carved wood is much more than a house-god. I think it is a tool that takes you places. Here we have a steed that is known to take you places, and a keyhole which is part of opening the doors to such places, rolled into one.

Interestingly, at the museum, this house-god is classified as belonging to both “Craft and design” and “Death cult”. Yeh. It would be interesting to learn what else the museum has on this house-god, that is not mentioned on the web site.

Gregar O. Nordbø brewing beer, 1910s

Christmas beer and beer brewing is one of the oldest continuous Yule / Christmas traditions in Norway. Beer have been very important for the celebrations since before the Christianization, and for awhile beer brewing was mandatory by law. Before Christianity it honored the gods, after; the saints and Christ. Gulatingsloven (The Gula Thing Law) from around 900 says:

“ Enno ei ølgjerd har me lov å gjera, husbond og husfru like mykje malt kvar, etter vekt, og signe det jolenatti til takk frå Krist og Sankta Maria, til godt år og fred. Um so ikkje vert gjort, skal det bøtast tre merker til biskopen. Men um nokon sit soleis tre vintrar at han ikkje gjer ølgjerdene eller greider dei bøtene som me har lagt på for kristendomen vår, og han vert sannskyldig i det, då har han forbrote kvar penning av godset sitt. Det eig kongen vår halvt, men halvt biskopen. Um han ikkje vil det skal han fara ut or riket åt kongen vår”

Roughly translated:

“Yet another beer brewing we have promised to do, husband and wife both the same amount each, and bless it Yule Eve to Christ and St. Mary to thank for good years and peace. Is it not done so, three marks have to be fined to the bishop. But if someone goes three winters where he does not brew the beer or pay the fines we have imposed for our Christianity, and he is truely guilty, then he has violate all value of his estate. The king owns half, and the other half the bishop. If he does not agree, he will have to leave the realm of our king”

[click images for captions]

Here is an updated list of all of the books and papers I recommend for the study of seiðr

The Viking Way - Neil Price

Shamanism in Norse Myth and Magic - Clive Tolley

The Archeology of Seiðr: Circumpolar Traditions in Viking Pre-Christian Religion - Neil Price 

Old Norse Religion in Long Term Perspectives: Spinning Seiðr - Eldar Heide

A Biography of Seiðr-staffs - Leszek Gardela

Shamanism in the Old Norse Tradition: A Theory Between Ideological Camps - Stefanie v. Schnurbein

A Sourcebook of Seið - Stephen Flowers (there are a lot of problems with this guy but its just a collection of every mention of seiðr in the sagas and Eddas)

The Hunting of the Vétt: in Search of the Old Norse Shamanic Drum - Clive Tolley

Remnants of Seiðr: Charms and Incantations in the German Diasporas - Nóel Braucher

The Image of Seiðr in Old Icelandic Literature: Consistency or Variation- Lyonel D. Perabo

Seiðr & Shamans: Defining the Myth of Ritual Specialists in pre-Christian Scandinavia - Sebastian Klein

The Chicanery of Seiðr 

Out of the Waters Beneath the Tree - Catherine Heath

On Shamanic Traditions

SHAMAN An International Journal  for Shamanistic Research

ECSTATIC RELIGION A Study of Shamanism and Spirit Possession 

SHAMANISM Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy - Mircea Eliade

On Spirits

Spirits Through Respiratory Passages -Eldar Heide

The heroized dead. People, animals, and materiality in Scandinavian death rituals, AD 200-1000 - Kristina Jennbert

Vorðr and Gandr: Helping Spirits in Norse Magic - Clive Tolley

On Shapeshifting and Soul-parts

Shapeshifting in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature - Lyonel D. Perabo

Road to Hel- H R Ellis Davidson

Initiation Rituals in Old Norse Texts and their Relationship to Finno Karelian Bear Cult Rituals

Related Topics

ETHICAL WORLD CONCEPTION OF THE NORSE PEOPLE - ANDREW PETER FORS

The Religious Roles in pre-Christian Scandinavia

BALDR’S DRAUMAR (BALDUR’S DREAMS) 

Viking Worlds Things, Spaces and Movement

Its almost December 13th and yall know what that means. Christmas is just around the corner. But you know who else you should be getting ready for? Lussi!

Lussi langnatt is a figure from Scandinavian (Primarily Sweden and Norway) folklore who visits on the 12th to 13th of December to make sure everyone is doing their job in getting ready for Christmas. If yore slacking she will DRAG YOU DOWN UNDERNEATH THE EARTH AS YOU DISAPPEAR INTO THE NIGHT. So to make sure everyone makes it through this time of the year unscathed, I have made list of tings to keep in mind.

NEVER go outside on the night from the 12th to 13th of December. Its the time its easiest for her to grab you. (and for most trolls and malevolent creatures for that matter).

Lussi's prefered way of getting inside your house is through the chimney so make sure you lock the fireplace door or close the chimney valve. She is also known to just rip the entire chimney of the side of your house so hopefully that doesent happen.

Carve crosses into your every door and window in your house.

This is not necessarily something thats an immediate danger, but she likes to put her face up to the windows. And if she sees you not working she will sing creepy songs about how lazy you are so maybe keep the curtains closed.

Now that you've taken proper measures to keep you and your family safe, reward yourself by making some lussekatter. Heres a recipe

Gledeli Jul to those who celebrate and happy holidays and enjoy your time off to those who dont!

The Yule Goat was a Nordic tradition where a guy dressed as a goat would barge into people’s houses during the Christmas feast and be as unpleasant as possible. Sometimes he’d just make a lot of noise, sometimes he’d tell raunchy stories with a lot of faul language, but he’d also tell unpleasant truths about the people in the house.

To make him stop people had to give him food or other treats and it was believed he’d take all the bad things with him when he left the house so people could enter the new year free of last year’s burdens, almost as a sort of scapegoat except he WANTED your sins/food.

Today the only Yule Goats you’re likely to see are ones made of straw.

I couldn't begin to tell you. It also appears in relation to the rune Laguz (ᛚ).