Sacrifices to Odin—Human sacrifices resorted to on momentous occasions—Kings sacrificed—Children sacrificed by their fathers—Sacrifice to prolong life—Warriors given to Odin after battle—Sacrificing springs—Sacrifices on Thor’s stone—Sacrificing place at Blomsholm—Sacrificing mound—The blood-eagle sacrifice—Giving oneself to Odin on a sick-bed—The earliest account of human sacrifice in the North—The abandonment of human sacrifices.

Besides the sacrifices already mentioned others were held when the aid of the gods was required; the most important of them were human sacrifices, which were offered in times of great calamity, such as famine, or in order to avoid some great evils, or to obtain victory, or for some other weighty reasons.

“At this time occurred a very bad year in Reidgotaland, and it looked as if the land would become a waste. Lots were then thrown by the wise men, and they threw the sacrificing-chip; the answer came that there never would be a good year in Reidgotaland until the highest-born boy in the land should be sacrificed. A Thing was summoned, and all agreed that AngantÝr, son of Heidrek, was the foremost there, because of his kin, but nobody dared to mention it. Then they resolved to submit this question to the decision of King HÖfund in GloesisvÖll (Heidrek’s father); the most high-born were to be chosen for the journey, but everybody declined. King Harald and many others asked King Heidrek to assist in deciding this question, and he consented. He at once had a ship made ready, on which he went with many renowned men, and sailed to Risaland. When King HÖfund heard of his arrival he at once wanted to have him slain, but Queen HervÖr remonstrated, and so managed that they were quite reconciled. Then Heidrek told his errand and asked for his decision, and HÖfund said that his son was the foremost in the land. At this King Heidrek changed colour and thought the case became difficult; he asked his father to give him advice how to save the life of the boy. HÖfund said: ‘When thou goest home to Reidgotaland, thou must summon the men to a Thing from thy possessions and those of King Harald, and there pronounce thy decision about thy son. Then thou shalt ask how they will reward thee if thou allowest him to be sacrificed. Say that thou art a foreigner, and that thou wilt lose thy land and people if this is to take place. Then thou shalt make it a condition that one-half of the men of King Harald present at the Thing shall become thy men or else thou wilt not give up thy son, and this shall be confirmed by oaths. If thou dost get this I need not give thee advice as to what thou shalt do thereafter.’ Heidrek thereupon took leave of his father and mother, and sailed away from Risaland. When Heidrek returned to Reidgotaland he summoned a Thing, to which he spoke thus: ‘It is the decision of my father, King HÖfund, that my son is the foremost here in the land, and is to be chosen for sacrifice; but in return for this, I want to have power over one-half of those of King Harald’s men who have come to this Thing, and you must pledge me this.’ That was done, and they came into his host; then the boendr asked that he should deliver his son to them, and thus improve their season. But after the hosts had been divided, Heidrek asked his men to take oaths of allegiance. This they did, and swore that they would follow him out of the land and in the land to wherever he wanted. Then he said: ‘I think that Odin gets the value of a boy if, instead of him, he gets King Harald and his son and his entire host.’ He bid them raise his standard to attack King Harald and slay him and all his men. The war horns were sounded and the attack made. The battle soon turned against King Harald and his men, for they had far fewer men and were unprepared. But when they saw there was no escape they fought with great valour, and cut down the men of King Heidrek so fiercely that it seemed uncertain which would be defeated. When Heidrek saw his men fall thus in heaps, he rushed forth with the sword Tyrfing and killed one after the other; at last King Harald and his son and a great part of their men fell there, and Heidrek became the slayer of his father and brother-in-law. This was reckoned to be the second nithings-deed committed with Tyrfing according to the spell of the Dvergar. King Heidrek reddened the temple-altars with the blood of King Harald and Halfdan, and gave Odin all the dead men who had fallen there, in the place of his son AngantÝr, in order to improve the season. When Queen Helga heard of the death of her father she was so affected that she hanged herself in the disar-hall^[257] of the temple” (Hervarar Saga, c. 11 & 12).

Several instances are mentioned in which powerful kings were sacrificed or offered their children on the altars of the gods.

“There was a great crowd of men who left Sweden because of King Ivar’s rule. They heard that Olaf Tretelgja^[258] had good lands in Vermaland, and so many went thither that the country could not support them. There then came a very bad season and a great famine. They attributed this to their king, as the Swedes are wont to hold him accountable for both good and bad seasons. King Olaf was not a zealous sacrificer, and this the Swedes did not like, thinking that therefore arose the bad years. They then gathered a host, went against the king, surrounded his house, and burned him, giving him to Odin as a sacrifice for good years. This was at Voenir (Venern)” (Ynglinga Saga, c. 47).

The custom of sacrificing a beloved child of a chief was considered, as it well might be, the highest atonement that could be offered, and is one of such antiquity that its birth is lost in the dim light of past ages. We have remarkable instances of this custom mentioned in the Bible; the story of Abraham and Isaac, and of Jephthah’s vow show the existence of the practice in very early times. In Lev. xx. 2–4, the practice is mentioned as taking place among the heathen; and we see that, as in the North, the father had absolute power over the life of his child, otherwise he could not sacrifice him.

The most thrilling accounts of sacrifice of children are those of the sacrifice by Hakon Jarl of his own son, and by King Aun of nine sons.^[259]

In the beginning of the battle of the Jomsvikings against Hakon Jarl and his sons luck was against him, and the Jarl called his sons ashore, where he and they met and took counsel.

“Hakon Jarl said: ‘I think I see that the battle begins to turn against us; and I dislike to fight against these men; for I believe that none are their equals, and I see that it will fare ill, unless we hit upon some plan; you must stay here with the host, for it is imprudent for all the chiefs to leave it, if the Jomsvikings attack, as we may at any moment expect. I will go ashore with some men and see what can be done.’ The Jarl went ashore north to the island. He entered a glade in the forest, sank down on both his knees and prayed; he looked northwards and spoke what he thought was most to the purpose; and in his prayers he called upon his fully trusted Thorgerd HÓrdatrÓll; but she turned a deaf ear to his prayer, and he thought that she must have become angry with him. He offered to sacrifice several things, but she would not accept them, and it seemed to him the case was hopeless. At last he offered human sacrifices, but she would not accept them. The Jarl considered his case most hopeless if he could not please her; he began to increase the offer, and at last included all his men except himself and his sons Eirik and Svein. He had a son Erling, who was seven winters old, and a very promising youth. Thorgerd accepted his offer, and chose Erling, his son. When the Jarl found that his prayers and vows were heard, he thought matters were better, and thereupon gave the boy to Skopti Kark, his thrall, who put him to death in Hakon’s usual way as taught by him”^[260] (Fornmanna SÖgur, xi. 134).

Human sacrifices were resorted to by kings in order to lengthen their own life.

“When King Aun was sixty he made a great sacrifice in order to secure long life; he sacrificed his son to Odin. King Aun got answer from Odin that he should live another sixty winters. Thereupon he was king for twenty-five winters at Uppsalir. Then Áli the Bold, son of King Fridleif (in Denmark), came with his host to Sweden against King Aun; they fought, and Áli always gained the victory. King Aun left his realm a second time and went to the western Gautland. Áli was king at Uppsalir for twenty-five winters, till Starkad the Old slew him. After his death Aun came back to Uppsalir and ruled the realm for twenty-five winters. He again made a great sacrifice for long life and offered up another son. Odin told him that he should live for ever if he gave him a son every tenth year, and would call a herad^[261] (district) in the land after the number of every son whom he thus sacrificed. During ten winters after he had sacrificed seven of his sons he was unable to walk, and was carried on a stool. He sacrificed his eighth son and lived ten winters more in bed. He sacrificed his ninth son and lived ten winters more, and drank from a horn like a young child. He had one son left and wanted to sacrifice him, and thereupon to give Uppsalir with the herads belonging to it to Odin, and call it TÍundaland.^[262] The Swedes stopped him; then he died and was mound-laid at Uppsalir” (Ynglinga, c. 29).

Men, particularly the slain after a battle, were sometimes given to Odin for victory, the largest number ever given being those who fell at the famous battle of Bravalla. It seems to have been customary to redden the altars with the blood of the fallen chiefs.^[263]

Prisoners of war, no matter what their rank, were called thralls, and were sacrificed; sometimes they were slaughtered like animals, their blood put into bowls, and their bodies thrown into bogs or a spring outside the door of the temple called blÓt-kelda (sacrificing spring), or their backs broken on sharp stones; sometimes they were thrown from high cliffs.^[264]

“Thorgrim Godi was a great sacrificer; he had a large temple raised in his grass-plot,^[265] one hundred feet in length and sixty in breadth, and every man was to pay temple-tax to it. Thor was most worshipped there; the inmost part of it was made round as if it were a dome; it was all covered with hangings, and had windows; Thor stood in the middle, and other gods on both sides. There was an altar in front made with great skill and covered above with iron; on it there was to be a fire which should never die out, which they called holy fire. On the altar was to lie a large ring of silver, which the temple priest was to wear on his arm at all meetings. Upon it all oaths were to be taken in cases of circumstantial evidence. On the altar was to stand a large bowl of copper, in which was to be put the blood which came from the cattle or men given to Thor; these they called hlaut (sacrifice-blood), and hlaut-bolli (sacrifice-bowl). The hlaut was to be sprinkled on men and cattle, and the cattle were to be used for the people (to eat) when the sacrificing feasts were held. The men whom they sacrificed were to be thrown down into the spring which was outside near the doors, which they called blÓt-kelda. The cross-beams which had been in the temple were in the hall at Hof, when Olaf JÓnsson had it built; he had them all split asunder, and yet they were still very thick” (Kjalnesinga, c. 2).

“On Thorsness, where ThÓrÓlf Mostrarskegg landed, there was a very holy place (helgi-stad); and there still stands Thor’s stone, on which they broke^[266] those men whom they sacrificed, and near by is that dom-ring where they were sentenced to be sacrificed” (Landnama ii., c. 12).

This passage shows that the dom-ring where men were sacrificed was different from the dom-ring where the people met to judge; the former seems to have been always made with stones, while the latter, as we have seen from Egil’s Saga, were made with hazel poles. It is probable that many of the dom-rings which are now seen were used as sacrificing places.

Not far from the large ship-form grave of Blomsholm, in a silent pine forest, stands a magnificent Dom-ring (see next page 370), a witness of the great past. What unwritten records are stamped upon its stones! what unrevealed histories lie for ever buried from our sight! how much they would tell if they could speak! The ring is about 100 feet in diameter, and is composed of ten standing stones. Near by is the eleventh. In the centre is a huge boulder, overlooking the rest; its uncovered part stands about 5 feet above the ground; it is 9 feet long by 7 feet wide.

“When ThÓrd gellir established the fjordungathing (quarter Things) he let the Thing of the Vestfirdingar be there (on Thorsness); thither men from all the Vestfjords were to come. There may still be seen the dom-ring within which men were doomed to be sacrificed. Within the ring stands Thor’s stone, on which those were broken who were used for sacrifice, and the blood-stains can still be seen on the stone” (Eyrbyggja, c. 10).

Many dom-rings^[267] are seen in the country without the sacrificing stone in the centre; these may have been used as enclosures for duelling, while others similar to the above engraving may have been horg or sacred altars.

Sacrificing mounds, and apparently mounds in which offerings were deposited, are mentioned, but unfortunately we have no description of them.

“King Olaf^[268] had there (KarlsÁ) broken the sacrificial mound of the heathens; it was so called because usually, when they had great sacrifices for a good season, or for peace, all were to go to this mound, and there sacrifice prescribed animals; they carried thither much property, and put it into the mound before they went away. King Olaf got very much property there” (Fornmanna SÖgur v. 164.)

“A mound composed of earth and pure pfennings; for thither must be carried a handful of silver and a handful of mould for every one who dies, and also for every one who is born. Odd said: ‘Then kinsman Gudmund you shall go ashore with your men to the mound this night, according to this man’s direction; and I will take care of the ships with my men.’ They did this, and went to the mound, where they collected as much money as they could carry, and with their burden returned to the ships. Odd was well satisfied with the results, and delivered the man into their keeping. ‘Keep good watch over him,’ he said, ‘for his eyes are all the time turned towards the shore, so that he could not have found it as disagreeable there as he says.’ Odd with his men then went ashore, and up to the mound. Gudmund and Sigurd, meanwhile watching the ships, put the man between them, and began to sift away the mould from the silver; but when they least expected it he jumped up and overboard, and swam towards the land. Gudmund snatched a harpoon and shot after him; it pierced the calf of his leg, but he reached the shore and disappeared in the forest. When Odd with his companions arrived at the mound, they each decided to take burdens according to their strength, but on no account heavier than could be easily carried”^[269] (Orvar Odd’s Saga, c. 9 & 10).

Among the human sacrifices were those called blÓdÖrn (blood eagle), so called on account of the skin or flesh being cut down the whole back to the ribs, from both sides of the spine, in the shape of an eagle, and of the lungs being drawn through the wound. This special mode of sacrifice seems to have been practised on the slayer of a man’s father.^[270]

“After King Harald Fairhair’s sons had grown up they became very unruly, and fought within the country. The sons of Snoefrid, Halfdan HÁleg (high leg) and GudrÖd LjÓmi, slew RÖgnvalld Moera Jarl. This made Harald very angry, and Halfdan fled westward over the sea, but GudrÖd got reconciled to his father. Halfdan went to the Orkneys, and Einar Jarl fled from the isles to Scotland, while Halfdan made himself king of the Orkneys. Einar Jarl returned the same year, and when they met a great battle took place, in which Einar was victorious, and Halfdan jumped overboard. The following morning they found Halfdan on Rinar’s hill. The Jarl had a blood eagle (blodÖrn) cut on his back with a sword, and gave him to Odin for victory. After that he had a mound thrown up over Halfdan. When the news of this reached Norway his brothers were very angry, and threatened to go to the islands and avenge him; but this Harald prevented. Somewhat later Harald went westward across the sea to the isles; Einar went away from the islands, and over to Caithness (Katanes). After this men intervened and they became reconciled. Harald laid a tribute on the islands, and ordered them to pay sixty marks of gold. Einar Jarl offered to pay the tribute, and in return possess all the odals (allodial rights). This the boendr agreed to, for the rich thought they would buy them back, and the poor had not property enough to pay the tribute. Einar paid it, and for long after the jarls possessed all the odals, until Sigurd Jarl gave them up to the men of the Orkneys. Einar Jarl ruled long over the Orkneys, and died on a sick bed” (FlateyjarbÓk, p. 224, vol. i.).

The custom of a man giving himself to Odin on a sick bed by marking himself or being marked with the point of a spear, probably arose from the disgrace which was supposed to attach to a man who died unwounded in his bed, and not in battle. Odin himself^[271] followed this practice, which enabled a man to come to Valhalla.... When tired of life, or of old age, men gave themselves to Odin by throwing themselves from the rocks.

Eirik the victorious, who fought against StyrbjÖrn, gave himself to Odin in order to get the victory; and Harald HilditÖnn was killed by Odin himself, because he had become so old.

The earliest account given of a human sacrifice in the North is that of Domaldi, which, if we may trust the genealogies, took place about the beginning of the Christian era.

“Domaldi inherited and ruled the land after his father Visbur. In his days there was in Sweden great hunger and famine; then the Swedes made large sacrifices at Uppsalir. The first autumn they sacrificed oxen, but the season did not improve; the second autumn they sacrificed men, but the season was the same or worse; the third autumn the Swedes came in crowds to Uppsalir when the sacrifice was to take place. The chiefs held their consultations, and agreed that the hard years were owing to their king, and that they must sacrifice him for good years, and should attack and slay him, and redden the altars with his blood. And thus they did” (Ynglinga Saga, ch. 18).

“Before the holding of the Althing (in the year 1000) in Iceland the heathens held a meeting, and resolved to sacrifice two men from every district of the land (Iceland was divided into four quarters), and to invoke their gods that they should not let Christianity spread over the country. Hjalti and Gizur had another meeting with the Christians, and said they would have human sacrifices as many as the heathens, adding: ‘They sacrifice the worst men and cast them dawn from rocks and cliffs, but we will choose them for their virtues, and call it a victory-gift to our Lord Jesus Christ; we shall live the better, and more warily against sin than before. Gizur and I will give ourselves as a victory-gift on the behalf of our district’” (Biskupa SÖgur i.).

From the following passage it will be seen that when Christianity gained a footing in Iceland, human sacrifices were abandoned:—

“ThorÓlf Heljarskegg (Hel-beard) settled in Forsoeludal (Iceland); he was a very overbearing man and unpopular, and caused many a quarrel and uproar in the district. He made himself a stronghold (virki) south at FridmundarÁ, a short way from VatnsdalsÁ, in a ravine; a ness was between the ravine and the river, and a large rock in front of it. He was suspected of sacrificing men, and there was not one in the whole valley that was more hated than he” (Vatnsdoela, ch. 16).

Hallstein, an Icelandic chief, son of the Norwegian chief, ThorÓlf Mostrarskegg,

“Dwelt at Hallsteinsnes. There Hallstein sacrificed his son, in order that Thor might send him high-seat-pillars (126 feet); thereafter a tree came on his land, sixty-three ells in length and two fathoms (6 ells = 12 feet) thick; this was used for his high-seat-pillars, and of it are made the high-seat-pillars of nearly every farm in the Thverfjords” (Landnama ii., c. 23).^[272]