Did the Vikings commemorate Halloween? The Norse warriors (and their children) certainly did not go trick or treating on the 31st of October, but this was still a crucial day in the Norse calendar.
The end of October marks completion of the harvest season and the start of winter, which implies long, dark days, particularly in northern nations such as Scandinavia. Lots of cultures mark this date with special routines, including the Vikings. In the Norse world, it was called Alfablot, or the celebration of the elves.
Who are the Elves?
The word “blot” is the name for essential spiritual festivals in the Viking world, while the word “Alf” refers to the fairies of Norse mythology.
When you check out summaries of Norse folklore, you will often see the various races burglarized discrete groups. There are the Aesir gods, the giants, the light fairies, and the dark elves, also called dwarves. However the truth is that the lines in between these different groups were far from clear.
The Aesir gods and the giants intermarried regularly. Odin himself was half-giant considering that his mom was the giantess Bestla. He had Thor with the giantess Jord, making him more giant than god. Along with the Aesir gods, there were the Vanir gods, a parallel race of gods that included some of the most crucial Norse deities, consisting of the goddess of love, Freyja, and the god of fertility, Freyr.
However the lines in between the Vanir and the light elves were also blurred, with both being thought about almost like nature spirits, and Freyr was the ruler of Alfheim, the land of the elves. And when we describe the Alfar, it is not entirely clear whether the recommendation is to the Ljosalfar, the light elves that seem to have resembled Tolkien’s elves, or the Dokkalfar, which were more like Tolkien’s dwarves and the master artisans of Norse mythology. The gods and fairies were typically described side by side as “Aesir ok Alfar”, which suggests Aesir and elves.
However more than this, the fairies were also often conflated with the honored dead and are described as living around burial mounds. Some crucial people were referred to as elves after they passed away. King Olaf of Geirstad became referred to as Olaf Geirstad-Alf when he was honored as a forefather.
And the lines between the gods and the honored dead were likewise not clear. Fallen warriors were required to live in Asgard, in the hall of Valhalla. A few of the entities thought about among the gods, such as Bragi the Bard of Asgard, might have when been males.
What is the point of saying all this? Simply to highlight that it is not constantly useful to attempt and draw clear lines between the various supernatural beings in Norse folklore or create tidy definitions and typologies.
What Occurred During Alfablot? Alfablot appears to have been a private festival carried out inside the house, probably led by the leading female of the household. The routine probably involved honoring the dead ancestors of the specific household, and outsiders were not welcome. This is exposed in the Skaldic poem Austrfararvisur by Sigvatr Thordarson. An Icelandic Christian, he explains himself and a little party taking a trip for diplomatic reasons. But for a few nights around completion of October, they struggle to discover the hospitality that they are accustomed to getting
, with homestead after homestead refusing to open their doors. The residents say that they can not open their doors due to the fact that their spaces have actually been sanctified for the duration and that to open their doors to complete strangers would invite the rage of Odin. What sort of sacrifices might have been carried out to the fairies at this time is shown by an account in Kormaks Saga, which explains a routine to invoke the assistance of the elves in healing a wound. They are informed to go to the mound (most likely a burial mound) and make a blood sacrifice for the fairies to feast, and they will be healed. Day of the Dead Along with being a day to honor the dead, it might likewise have actually signified the start of a season when the dead were considered more likely to be”abroad”. While some dead found themselves in locations such as Valhalla or Helheim, others were thought to occupy a world just behind a veil. During the night, this veil was sometimes satisfactory.
In the Eddic poem Helgaknitha Hundingsbana II, the killed hero Helgi leaves Valhalla to visit his burial mound on one particular wonderful night. He has a physical body, which still bleeds from his battle wounds. His widow Sigrun encounters him there and he spends the night holding her in his arms before going back to Valhalla. Sigrun then goes back to
the burial mound every night looking for him. After a time, when he is no longer present, she passes away of a broken heart. While this story has an unhappy ending, it is still the story of a humane dead spirit pushing into the living world, but not all the dead were kindhearted. Draugr or Aptrganga (after walkers)were destructive ghosts in Norse mythology, typically born from dead guys who were evil in life. These dead had monstrous features consisting of blue skin and eyes so horrible that they could freeze a guy in worry. They have transcendent strength and can scare neighboring communities. They are understood to have done things such as eliminating livestock, collapsing houses, and killing shepherds and servants by breaking all of the bones in their bodies. The Grettirs Legend, the antihero Grettir eliminates a Draugr early in his life and takes the short sword that the dead man was buried with as a reward. Years later, he deals with another Draugr called Glam. He ultimately decapitates him, but not before he positions a terrible curse on the male that leaves him permanently afraid of the dark. The only method to eliminate these beings was to behead them, and then bury them with their heads below their pelvis. There are numerous Viking age burials that show this practice. Others show dead individuals weighed down by rocks, presumably to prevent them from rising. It is most likely that the routines at the end of October were developed to honor the ancestors, and likewise calm them and avoid them from triggering trouble over the coming dark months when they would have more freedom to attack the world of the living. Viking Halloween What do you think of Norse rituals and practices surrounding the 31 st of October? Are any of them reflected in contemporary Halloween practices?
In the Eddic poem Helgaknitha Hundingsbana II, the killed hero Helgi leaves Valhalla to visit his burial mound on one particular wonderful night. He has a physical body, which still bleeds from his battle wounds. His widow Sigrun encounters him there and he spends the night holding her in his arms before going back to Valhalla. Sigrun then goes back to
the burial mound every night looking for him. After a time, when he is no longer present, she passes away of a broken heart. While this story has an unhappy ending, it is still the story of a humane dead spirit pushing into the living world, but not all the dead were kindhearted. Draugr or Aptrganga (after walkers)were destructive ghosts in Norse mythology, typically born from dead guys who were evil in life. These dead had monstrous features consisting of blue skin and eyes so horrible that they could freeze a guy in worry. They have transcendent strength and can scare neighboring communities. They are understood to have done things such as eliminating livestock, collapsing houses, and killing shepherds and servants by breaking all of the bones in their bodies. The Grettirs Legend, the antihero Grettir eliminates a Draugr early in his life and takes the short sword that the dead man was buried with as a reward. Years later, he deals with another Draugr called Glam. He ultimately decapitates him, but not before he positions a terrible curse on the male that leaves him permanently afraid of the dark. The only method to eliminate these beings was to behead them, and then bury them with their heads below their pelvis. There are numerous Viking age burials that show this practice. Others show dead individuals weighed down by rocks, presumably to prevent them from rising. It is most likely that the routines at the end of October were developed to honor the ancestors, and likewise calm them and avoid them from triggering trouble over the coming dark months when they would have more freedom to attack the world of the living. Viking Halloween What do you think of Norse rituals and practices surrounding the 31 st of October? Are any of them reflected in contemporary Halloween practices?