Historical Pre-christian Heathenry: Fire and the taking of Land

A study of the historical sources of Germanic religion, especially the Norse Sagas, show fire as having an important ritual element in creating ritualistic sacred space (for Heathen temples) as well as the claiming of land. Landnámabók is a major source on the heathen practices of those who settled Iceland. There are five different manuscripts of Landnámabók with the Melabók manuscript being the only one not emphasizing christianity. [Aðalsteinsson, Jón Hnefill (1999). Jónsson, Jakob S. (ed.). Under the Cloak: A Pagan Ritual Turning Point in the Conversion of Iceland (2nd, extended ed.). University of Iceland Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-9979-54-380-0.]

Claiming of Land with Fire

When a person bought a new home or land, they used fire to mark off the land.  While the sources do not state if this rite was religious, the context of these passages imply that this was a spiritual rite, especially since it was done when Heathens built temples.

Eyrbyggja Saga: "Thereafter Thorolf fared with fire through his land out from Staff-river in the west, and east to that river which is now called Thors-river, and settled his shipmates there."

 Landnámabók: “There he called it Svertingsstöðum. He built a temple there …. On that land, Jörundr, carried fire around where he later laid his temple.”

Was Fire used to “create sacred space” as a part of pre-christian Heathen Ritual?

Old Saxon Heliand Fitt 2 (circa 830 CE): "The wise old man then brought holy smoke from the temple and walking around the altar with his censer, powerfully serving, devoutly carried out his task; performing God's Ritual very eagerly with a clear mind."

The Heliand is a christian Gospel.  Therefore, one must debate here, is this passage showing a Heathen ritual, that is christianized in the Heliand?  Or is this passage in the Heliand showing a Christian Mass (service), where a priest walks around the altar with incense. Priests in every Catholic Mass today, still walk fire around the churches altar before the Communion rite is blessed/performed.  Therefore, one can argue, the Heliand is showing a Heathen Ritual of creating sacred space.  But one can also counter-argue, that this is a Christian gospel showing the Heathen Saxons that part of Christian Mass includes walking fire around the church’s altar.  I personally believe that BOTH are true here.

Notice the Heliand passage above says “holy smoke”. Saxon Heathens created sacred space by walking around an area with fire, or by sprinkling blood from a blod (animal blot). In this Heliand passage Zachariah is burning holy smoke (fire) creating sacred space in the Saxon Heathen manner at an outdoor altar. Saxon altars were outdoors in a sacred grove. Here is an example of “blooding” (sprinkling of blood from blot) to make and area sacred (i.e. sacred space).

Hakon the Good Saga chapter 16: "It was an old custom, that when there was to be blot, all the bondes should come to the spot where the temple stood and bring with them all that they required while the festival of the blot lasted. To this festival all the men brought ale with them; and all kinds of cattle, as well as horses, were slaughtered, and all the blood that came from them was called "hlaut", and the vessels in which it was collected were called hlaut-vessels (or Blot-bowls). Hlaut-staves (Hlaut-teins) were made, like sprinkling brushes, with which the whole of the altars and the temple walls, both outside and inside, were sprinkled over, and also the people were sprinkled with the blood; but the flesh was boiled into savory meat for those present."

This passage in Hakon the Good, does not show fire being used to make space holy.  Blood is used.  Does this imply that in historical pre-christian Heathenry fire and blood could be used to make a space (and people) in a sense “holy” ?  (The Saga of Hakon the Good does not explain why blood was sprinkled, what the Heathen thought was behind this act.) The Hebrew bible (Old Testament) has concepts of sacred and profane, especially when it comes to ritual purity, i.e. clean and unclean food (kosher food) for example, of which when one eats say unclean (un-kosher) pig meat, they are considered “tameh” (ritually impure.)  I do not see in our Sagas ritual states of purity and impurity in historical pre-christian Heathenry.  There are no explanations in the Sagas and sources on the purpose or meaning of sprinkling walls in the halls, and people with blood. The Hebrew bible has sacrifices of animals, however the Germanic sources imply that the blood was the offering to the Gods and Goddesses.

Here are examples in the Sagas showing that Blood was the offering, not the rest of the animal):

In the Poetic Edda poem Hyndluljóð “He made a high altar of heaped-up stones*: the gathered rocks have grown all bloody, and he reddened them again with the fresh blood of cows.”* An Altar or Haerg: Hörgr (Norse) or Haerg in Old English.

In the Hervarar saga, the daughter of King Álfr of Álfheim, who “reddens the hörgr (stone altar) with blots (sacrifices).” Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks: "A horse was then brought into the assembly and hewn in pieces and cut up for eating, and the sacred tree was smeared with blood."

I can quote other passages, that imply that Heathens wasted animals, like biblical sacrifice does.  Animal sacrifice in the old testament book of Leviticus shows that animals had parts burnt on an altar, with blood poured out at the bass of the altar.  The burning of certain animal organs “gave a sweet aroma going up to (the Hebrew) god”.  The Hebrew word for sacrifice is “olah” which means “going up.”  The other Hebrew word for sacrifice was “qarov” meaning “to bring near”, as if sacrificing an animal brought one near to the Hebrew god.  The rest of the animal parts were thrown outside the camp at an unclean place. (See the book of Leviticus chapters 3-5, especially chapters 4-5).  I bring all this up, because some Christian sources claim Heathen sacrifice was like biblical sacrifice.  I DOUBT that this was the case with historical pre-christian heathenry. 

Have you noticed that the Sagas and more "pro-Heathen" sources, show that only the blood was given to the Gods, and the animal meat was eaten at the Sumble banquet?  The most descriptive source passages on a Heathen Blot show blood being splattered on a sacred tree at Upsala, or on Hargr (altars made of stone), in sacred groves (Old Saxon "uuih", Old Icelandic/Norse "ve.")  Adam of Bremen for example, recorded the nine-year Uppsala Blot in 1073, stating the Heathens hung whole animals on trees, and did not just give the blood. Adam of Bremen flat out states, he heard this from a seventy-two-year-old Christian, who somehow witnessed it. The archaeological evidence from Upsala has not proven (and in fairness, not disproven) that animals and humans were hung in full on trees.  The muslims and christians writing about what Heathens did, not only have bias, but misunderstanding due to their monotheistic mindset and Abrhamic concepts of sacrifice.  Their understanding of Blot comes from their holy scriptures, and therefore, when they hear second hand (as Adam of Bremen did) what Heathens were doing in Upsala, they heard this with their own pre-conceived Christian bias, thus probably contributing to this difference in the written record.  This is seen in how we translate the word today, as the word blot is always translated as "sacrifice." (I will NOT translate it that way.) But was blot really a "sacrifice" in the Abrahamic sense?  I believe that there was a completely different culture in Germanic/Scandinavian lands, with a completely different religion than Christianity or Islam or Judaism, that had a very different thought process.  Our modern translations bend our thought process to this Abrahamic meaning of biblical words.  This is why I prefer the term "blot" to "sacrifice" as I see this as a mis-translation. Today, our Germanic languages (English is a Germanic language) are filled with christian word meanings we must "decolonize" in order to fully understand, a very different Heathen culture than our world today.

Are there any other Saga passages that will help us not make assumptions about the use of fire and blood in ritual and in connection to space?

Saga passages showing Fire and Blood in Ritual

Chapter 2 of Kjalnesinga saga contains an extended description of Thorgrim Helgason's Temple and blót process. "He had a large temple built in his hayfield, a hundred feet long and sixty wide. Everybody had to pay a temple fee. Thor was the god most honoured there. It was rounded on the inside, like a vault, and there were windows and wall-hangings everywhere. The image of Thor stood in the center, with other gods on both sides. In front of them was an altar made with great skill and covered with iron on the top. On this there was to be a fire which would never go out, they called it sacred fire. On the altar was to lie a great armband, made of silver. The temple godi was to wear it on his arm at all gatherings, and everyone was to swear oaths on it whenever a suit was brought. A great copper bowl was to stand on the altar, and into it was to go all the blood which came from animals or men given to Thor. They called this sacrificial blood and the sacrificial blood bowl. This blood was to be sprinkled over men and animals, and the animals that were given in sacrifice were to be used for feasting when sacrificial banquets were held."

There is a similar passage in Eyrbyggja saga about Thorolf Mostrarskegg's temple at Hofstaðir, which gives more information about the layout of the temple and blót process. "There he had a temple built, and it was a sizeable building, with a door on the side-wall near the gable. The high-seat pillars were placed inside the door, and nails, that were called holy nails , were driven into them. Beyond that point, the temple was a sanctuary. At the inner end there was a structure similar to the choir in churches nowadays and there was a raised platform in the middle of the floor like an altar, where a ring weighing twenty ounces and fashioned without a join was placed, and all oaths had to be sworn on this ring. It also had to be worn by the temple priest at all public gatherings. A sacrificial bowl was placed on the platform and in it a sacrificial twig, like a priest's aspergillum, which was used to sprinkle blood from the bowl. This blood, which was called sacrificial blood , was the blood of live animals offered to the gods. The gods were placed around the platform in the choir-like structure within the temple."

"In Haustmanuthr King Olav was told these tidings from Inner Trondheim that the bonders had a crowded feast on Winter Nights. There was great drinking and it was told the king that they blessed all the bowls to the gods, after the old custom; tales also followed while cows and horses were slaughtered for blot and the stalls were dyed with blood, and that a blood offering was made. And there followed also such talk that the offering was made for better seasons." (Saga of St. Olav, ch 107).

"As long as heathendom lasted he was wont to hold three blood offerings: one on Winter Nights, a second at mid-Winter, and the third at the start of summer. But when he became a Christian he kept up in the same way with the feasts: In the autumn he had a great feast of friends, then in winter a Yule Feast, when he bade many men come to him again, and the third he had at Paska, when he had also a great crowd of guests." (Saga of St. Olav, ch 117).

9 Year blot Passages: Are these historically accurate about Heathens?

Here are two famous passages on the 9 Year Blots. These contradict Saga passages implying Blot was giving Blood to the Gods and Goddesses. These passages imply Heathens sacrifices the whole animal, even though meat and animal skins had value in the cold Nordic world.  I doubt the validity of these passages in regards to the sacrifices. (I accept Thietmar on the timing of Yule for sure.

The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg Chapter 17 (circa 1000 AD): "As I have heard odd stories concerning their ancient mid-winter sacrifices, I will not allow this custom to be ignored. The middle of that kingdom is called Lederun (Lejre Denmark), in the region of Sjælland, all the people gathered every nine years in January, that is after we have celebrated the birth of the Lord [Christmas], and there they offered to their gods blots; Ninety-nine people and just as many horses, dogs and hens or hawks, for these should serve them in the kingdom of the dead and atone for their evil deeds." *--- This passage is "odd." This blot is for atonement from evil deeds", a statement clearly incorrect, as heathenry did not have "sin", though it did have wrong doing. Christianity and Judaism are about Sin Sacrifices (like the human sacrifice of Christ and animals in the Old Testament Temple of Jerusalem and Tabernacle in the desert.)

Adam of Bremen, Deeds of the Bishops of Hamburg, 1073 AD.

“For the Saxons worshiped those who were not gods. Among them they venerated Woden, who they were to venerate on holy days, even with human sacrifice. They did not think it was appropriate to confine their Gods in Roman temples or mold them in any likeness of human form. They consecrated groves and they venerated ancestral spirits there with reverence. They valued with reverence leafy trees and springs. They worshiped also a stock of wood of no small size, set up in the open. In the native language, it was called “Irminsul” (strong pillar) which in Latin means “universal column,” as it sustains everything. The excerpts about the beginning, the customs, and the religious observances of the Saxons (the Slavs and Swedes still observe their Heathen rites) we have taken from the writings of Einhard.

Conclusion on Fire and Blood, for taking land, and ritual use in Blot

It is hard to come to solid conclusions here.  The best I can come to are these:

1. Fire was used to take land.  To me, I believe this was both a spiritual act, and an act of legal claim to land.  Landnamabok does not give details explaining why fire was used to take land, nor does it state how ritualistic vs legal in thought this was.

2. Blot and Sumble (as well as sacred grove veneration) are the most important rituals in the sources.  Though, one can argue that Sumble was just a meal after blot.  Nonetheless, it is such an important ritual in pre-christian Heathenry to sprinkle altars (hargr) with blood, as well as blood smeared on temples, sacred trees, wine hall walls, and even people.  Our sources do not explain why these practices were considered holy to the Gods and Goddesses, nor the thought processes behind them.

3. More Heathen friendly sources (like the Sagas) imply Heathens just gave the blood to the Gods and Goddesses, and did not waste the animal like biblical sacrifice.  I do not believe “sacrifice” is a good translation of the word “blot.”  I believe blot and biblical sacrifices have some similarities, but they have a number of differences to.

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