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Return of the Vikings
Return
of the Vikings
Return of
the Vikings
Why Now?
By Jon B.
Butler
In 1982,
“demonstrators gathered at the NATO base in
Iceland to
protest that elves were being harassed and endangered by U.S.
Phantom and AWACS reconnaissance planes. (Americans prone to
snigger at this point might want to recall a recent National Science
Foundation survey that found that nearly half of the U.S. populace
believes that we are being visited by UFOs carrying space aliens).”
This may, on the face of it, seem to be trivial, but, according to a
study by the psychology department at the University of Iceland, 55
percent of the population believes in elves. Membership in one
ancient Icelandic cult, Asatru, grew from 24 in 1973, to 77 in 1986,
to 872 in 2004, the last year for which numbers are available. In a
country whose total population is less than 300,000 this is a
significant trend, especially if one takes into account those who
are informally associated with or support Asatru.
Yet, according to Tommi Albertsson, the Seidgodi
of Iceland, the demonstration at the airbase was not specifically
about the elves. “There are many demonstrations against the Air-base
at Keflavik but they are political and against the army, they do not
have anything to do with Asatru or elves (hidden people). Someone
was pulling the nose of a foreign newspaper man.”
Nevertheless, the newspaper reports reflect a continuing interest in
the ancient beliefs of Iceland.
How can this
curious phenomenon, the return of groups of Scandinavians to the
ancient faith of the Vikings, be explained? First, the
eleventh-century conversion to Christianity was never complete;
individuals continued practicing in secret, in remote Scandinavian
outposts such as Iceland.
Second, Christian scholars of the Middle Ages wrote down the ancient
sagas, or Eddas, which could thus provide a link with the
ancient beliefs. Third, some also continued, down through the
centuries, to revere the land spirits (elves, dwarves, tree spirits,
etc.) as they had done before. Fourth, the lack of doctrinal
continuity from the Great East-West Schism of 1054 led to changes of
faith and doctrine every few generations. Fifth, religious diversity
resulted from the relaxation of Christian vigilance in the twentieth
century. The influx of “Jesus Children”
in that atmosphere of tolerance led some Icelanders to the realization
that there were still other alternatives to the state church. These
factors allowed the ancient religion of Asatru
to come out of the shadows as a phoenix reborn from its ashes.
The Scandinavian
countries began their conversion to Christianity as early as the ninth
century, not entirely or all at one time, but the conversion proceeded
even as pagan Norsemen sacked monasteries and pillaged Christian
kingdoms. Iceland
converted in the year 1000 C. E. But Sweden received reports of
continued pagan practice in its outer provinces as late as 1177 C. E.
Reverence of old religious sites and of the land spirits continued on
into the late Middle Ages and were often incorporated into folk
superstitions and practice. Of the factors that led to the resurgence
of Asatru, it was the Christian church’s failure to suppress the
heathen religion completely that allowed it to survive.
Literature was the primary link in this chain of belief and practice,
and assisted those who worked for the continuation of those beliefs
and practices. The ancient sagas and other Scaldic poetry provided
the major source of information to those who sought to keep the old
faith alive. Amazingly, it was Christian scholars who recorded the
ancient literature which was to provide a link to the past. The fact
that the body of literature was recorded by Christians led some to
question the historical accuracy of this literature and to speculate
that it may have been corrupted by the Christian bias of those who
recorded it. Dr. Jon Adalsteinsson, however, has shown that, while
all of the stories of the old religion were written down by
Christians, many of them were done with an eye for honesty.
The chief source
on the acceptance of Christianity in Iceland is the
Islendingbok,
written by Ari the Wise 1122-33 and preserved in its original
version. Ari based his accounts of events on the evidence supplied by
many picked informants whom he mentions by name; many of them born
before the middle of the 11th century ….. Ari desired to be
as factual as he could but both he and his informants were closely
related to some of the chief figures connected with the Conversion and
may have in some way affected Ari’s proportions..
Other sources
for ancient lore are the Poetic Edda, Scaldic Poetry, and
Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda. According to Adalsteinsson,
there is little disagreement that the main mythological poems of the
Edda come from pre-Christian era ….
Havamal (The Words of
the High One) also comes, for the most part, from the Old Norse
religion and the wisdom and knowledge imparted by this poem is said to
have sprung partly from the giants and partly from the god Odinn. The
same can be said about the didactic poems
Vafthrudnismal (The
Words of Vafthrudnir) and
Grimnismal (The Words of Grimnir) …. The serious nature of
these … poems implies that they must have been composed at a time when
the ancient religion was still in force …. Scaldic poetry involves the
works of named poets, many of whom lived in pre-Christian times.
Bearing in mind the probability that these poems have been preserved
almost intact in the form that their poets left them, it is obvious
that they also represent a very valuable source of information about
beliefs and ways of thought at the time of the Old Norse religion.
Snorri
Sturluson’s Prose Edda was written in the early part of the 13th
century. Sturluson was more interested in presenting a style of
writing than in rendering accurate accounts of the stories that he was
writing. The Prose Edda contains a great deal of material that has
been drawn from the world of folk belief that existed during the first
centuries after the Conversion, material that Sturluson often dresses
up so artistically that on the surface it has the appearance of being
ancient and original. Snorri often misleads his readers by writing as
if he is knowledgeable about everything that he discusses. However,
those things that he is not so sure about, he does not mention or
deftly by-passes. One therefore has to view the Prose Edda
with caution when thinking of it as a source of material on the
relationship between the gods and giants, and particularly with regard
to the giants.
Taken all
together, and considering that the works were written by Christians,
the majority of sources for interpreting Norse religion are amazingly
accurate. The ready availability of ancient literature served as a
constant reminder of past beliefs held by the Icelandic people. This
reminder--coupled with the conditions associated with the Conversion,
which was in effect a political decision as opposed to a “Leap of
Faith”-- precluded a firm belief in Christian principles. To
understand the effect of the conversion on religious practice, first,
one must consider the conditions under which the conversion took
place. Icelandic society had become divided over religion; the
heathens had left the old country partly to get away from growing
numbers of Christians and a more powerful monarchy. Christians,
however, were among the first settlers as well. To the pagan settlers
of the time, Christianity was reckoned to be a matter of kin shame,
while the staunchly Christian members were refusing to live in a pagan
society.
Both sides had
extremists who were ready to battle over the matter. Between these
two groups was a majority to whom the rule of law in their society was
more important than what religion would be practiced. Thorgeir the
Lawspeaker was the one to whom everyone looked to for a decision.
Even though he was a pagan, the Christians respected his authority and
his fairness, while the pagans thought that he would uphold his faith
against the Christians. Thorgeir pondered his decision on which
religion that the people should follow. He lay “under his cloak”
for 24 hours without saying a word to anyone. According to
Adalsteinsson, nor is it clear where Thorgeir got his decisive power
of jurisdiction that he could proclaim that the pagans accept
Christianity so convincingly that nobody spoke against him. This
Thorgeir did when he emerged from under the cloak. It is beyond doubt
that many were surprised by his decision, but they all respected the
rule of law regardless of their religious beliefs.
The essence of
his decision was such that all the people would be baptized and
worship as Christians, but they could continue their pagan practices
in private, public worship or sacrifice being strictly forbidden.
This policy continued for many years before the Christian church in
Iceland
became powerful enough to completely abrogate this agreement.
Initially there was not a complete break in the pagan organizational
structure because many of the Godi, or priests, served as Christian
priests until they were replaced by church-trained priests. The
function of the pagan priests was as much legal as religious, so it
was not difficult for them to transition into the new religion. This
also helped them to maintain the people’s right to practice their
pagan faith in private for many years.
There was no
unbroken chain of religious leadership from the time of the conversion
to modern times that is known of; the faith became a practice of
random individuals. From the time of the conversion until 1260, as
the Christians grew in power, they gradually changed the laws until
all pagan priests were forbidden to function and to inherit their
positions and property. Initially, there were not enough church
trained priests to minister to an entire nation of converts, so the
heathen priests were the ones to whom the people turned of necessity.
Because there were so few trained priests available, it took the
church the better part of 300 years to grow strong enough to forbid
private practice of the ancient religious form that had been agreed to
by Thorgeir’s decision at the Althing in 1000 CE.
The effect of
the conversion on individual practice of the pagan religion was that
it led the practice of individuals to change over time. The people
started to forget the old gods, but they continued to revere the land
spirits or elves. “Under a Norwegian law of the late thirteenth
century, it was forbidden to believe that
landvettir lived in
groves, mounds and waterfalls.”
This belief has persisted for centuries. For example, when midwives
attend the birth of children, they call upon the elves and fairies for
assistance in the birthing process.
The record of old traditions in the sagas, Eddas and Scaldic poetry
kept the memory of the land spirits, elves, and reverence for nature
alive in the peoples minds, this fostered a breadth of perspective
that allowed for acceptance of newly derived expressions of old
thought patterns.
Mr. Albertsson
said that in many cases the Catholic Church incorporated such beliefs
into its practice to ensure that the newly converted peoples were
comfortable with their new faiths. He said, “I love Catholics, it’s
so easy to wind customs back from their time.”
On the subject of continuous practice over the centuries, Mr.
Albertson said, “You find them in the customs.”
There are few references to document the secret practice, and they are
generally negative indices such as the Catholic ban on dancing in the
forests during the twelfth century in Saxony and
Anhalt in Germany. These kinds of beliefs are a common thread
throughout the histories of the Germanic-Scandinavian peoples, from
the ancient past to the present. The historian Turville-Petre noted
that, the Roman historian Tacitus stated that Germans did not confine
their gods within walls, and did not make images of them, but rather
consecrated forests and groves, calling by the names of gods that
hidden power (secretum) which they beheld only with the
reverence of their own eyes. In another passage Tacitus speaks of the
holy forest of the Semnones, believed to be the abode of the
regnator omnium deus.
While Mr.
Albertsson explains that over time it (Trees-Faith) has been a common
thread, during the time of the Reformation in Europe,
the Lutheran king of Denmark had also
become the king of Norway and of Iceland as well. Here in Iceland,
the last remains were terminated in 1550 when the Lutheranism came.
The King’s (Denmark)
army came here to cut down certain trees north of Akureyri (town here
in Iceland) …. Tree worship is and was a part of Asatru. There was a
tree in Spain which the home people believed deeply in, the Catholics
came and did a chapel into the tree, placed a statue of Marie into it
and transferred the belief onto the statue. Trees-faith that was a
common belief before 1850 in Europe.
Another factor
affecting the cultural thought pattern of Iceland is the lack of a
continuous religious doctrine. Iceland was converted in the year 1000
C.E. prior to the Great East-West Schism of the Christian church. Mr.
Albertsson pointed out that Icelandic scholars point to possible
Orthodox ideas among the initial settlers. It is difficult to make
that connection due to geography, but there were differing doctrinal
opinions prior to 1054. As noted earlier, the Roman Catholic Church
did not achieve sufficient power to quash other outward manifestations
of religious expression until the year 1260 C.E. This consolidation
of Catholic dominance was followed by the Reformation, which arrived
in
Iceland
in 1550 under the rule of the King of Denmark. After the Constitution
of 1874 allowed religious freedom, other Christian faiths began to
take hold in Iceland,
followed by Christian spiritualism in the 1920’s and finally multiple
beliefs in the 1970’s. The continual doctrinal changes combined with
folk traditions (such as Trees-faith and belief in elves) prohibited
the establishment of an enduring religious tradition that would have
ended all possibility of a pagan revival. This acceptance of older
beliefs manifested occasionally, in the 18th and 19th
centuries, as noted by Dr. Arna Bjornsson, in
a letter from Minister Jon Halldorsson (born 1655) at Hitardal to Arna
Magnusson in
Kaupmannahöfn, Denmark
Sept 30, 1728,
Jon does not know if the custom to invite the winter is old or new,
but the farmers do that. And he tells Arna that he does not wish to
refer to such heathen customs in that letter. In
Sweden there are similar customs 1723.
The first blots in
Iceland were done in secret 1861-1874 in
Reykjavik,
and the first public one was performed on January 24, 1873. Other
public blots were performed by Icelanders in the town of Kaupmannahöfn,
and again on
January 23, 1874
at the town of
Akureyri, Iceland. These blots were held by Christian people but with
many Icelandic customs (play, poems and dance) along with drinks to
Thor and Thorri and some others gods of old.
These ceremonies cannot be construed as evidence of continuous
practice of the Asatru faith of old, but they are good indicators of
the continuing interest in the past history and culture of the
Icelandic people.
This reverence
of nature has been a constant thread throughout all of the
Germanic-Scandinavian peoples from ancient times up until the
present. This belief in nature and its land spirits, elves,
landvettir, dwarves and fairies in conjunction with the Christian
recordings of the ancient stories, poems and sagas is what kept the
basic ideas of Asatru alive for a thousand years. At times, and
indeed for centuries, Asatru lurked in the shadows, on the fringes, or
in the hearts and minds of the people, perhaps unconsciously, but it
never completely died out even if not consciously and/or openly
acknowledged, with a few exceptions. As the ancient tales were read
or more properly sung in the long nights of winter, the people were
reminded of old times and older beliefs. In addition, the changing of
religious doctrines every few generations prohibited the development
of a strong Christian tradition which would be able to counteract the
continuance of older traditions.
This continuing
cultural thought pattern led to the development of a society where
Jörmundur Ingi Hansen
notes, “Icelanders in general are so pagan in thought that in Iceland
being Christian and believing in paganism are two very similar
concepts.”
Michael Strmiska supports the way Hansen describes the cultural
thought pattern as it manifests in everyday society, the everyday,
pagan-derived nomenclature of streets and persons in Iceland is a
mundane but significant indicator of how the lore of the ancient gods
remains a living part of the Icelandic cultural memory as well as a
source of national pride. The widespread use of the names of pagan
gods does not mean that the Icelanders “believe in” these gods, only
that they revere and enjoy their past tradition, including the bygone
pagan deities and religion. Such reverence may reach a higher level of
intensity and self-consciousness among Asatruarmenn than many other
Icelanders, but the root emotions and attitudes are very much the
same, with the difference more of degree than of essence. A number of
distinguished Icelandic scholars and intellectuals whom I interviewed
at the national university in Reykjavik
expressed a barely muffled contempt for Asatru, but it was clear that
they did in fact share Asatru’s strong devotion to the Icelandic past,
especially its ancient literature.
When the
Icelandic constitution was changed in 1874, allowing people to leave
the State
Church and join in others, people were already prepared to follow
other religious paths. For example, the
Pentecostal Movement gained a stronghold in the fishing community of
the Westman Islands (Vestmannaeyjar) in the beginning of the 1920s as
a result of the activities of Swedish missionaries. Since the 1940s
the movement has been established in Reykjavík and several smaller
congregations are active throughout the country. In the 1970s, partly
as a result of the advent of the Charismatic Renewal, which mainly
originated from the USA, conflicts within the leadership of the
movement in Iceland resulted in new groups. Two of them have developed
into independent churches, Vegurinn and Krossinn.
Along
with the pentecostal movement, the Catholic Church, the Mormons, and
other religious groups were allowed back into Iceland. In response to
the growth of these religious movements gaining a foothold in Iceland,
Sveinbjorn Beinteinsson and others who were interested in the old gods
came together and, as he related in an interview, about the winter of
1971-1972, at that time we were getting a lot of Jesus Children into
Iceland, and I said to myself, ‘Wait a minute, we have older beliefs
in Iceland. Why should we not bring them back to life? How come
we’re bringing in all these other sects? I gathered up a group of
people (we were 12 of us at the time) and soon we had a few more. The
idea quickly began to sound real good to us.
The
reason that he gives for the continuation of Asatru is that it never
went away, was practiced privately for a thousand years, and only came
out into the open in his time because they were prohibited by law, the
old religion was practiced only in secret because the Church was
feared as the strongest force in the country. Iceland was Catholic
until 1550. Then came the Reformation and with it came the
Evangelical Church of the State. Not until 1874 did we get religious
freedom of choice and only then could one leave the Church. After
that, all we needed to do was a little time to let the dust settle
before starting our move.
These
constitutional changes allowed for the formation and incorporation of
the Asatruarfelag, which officially applied for legal recognition as a
religious society on May 3, 1973. In Iceland, all religious faiths
have to register with the Ministry of Justice and Ecclesiastical
Affairs, because all such societies are funded by the state based on
their membership in proportion to society. Article 63 of the
Constitution of Iceland states, “All persons have the right to form
religious associations and to practice their religion in conformity
with their individual convictions. Nothing may however be preached or
practiced which is prejudicial to good morals or public order.”
Sveinbjorn Beinteinsson
As
Sveinbjorn Beinteinsson related the foundation of the Asatruarfelagid,
We didn’t have
to demonstrate or have a revolution. We just founded a collective of
people who believed in the
Aesir. In the law, its forbidden to go out and do missionary work.
No one should be able to force his beliefs on another. They come on
their own when they are minded to do so .... At first they were
skeptical. I had to go to the Minister of Justice who happens to be
pro-religious freedom and explain our goals. Anybody can start his
own religion, but to get the same recognition as the state church
requires permission from the the Minister of Justice .... I knew the
Minister of Justice. Earlier he had been a law professor at the
university in Reykjavik. I reminded him about old pertinent law cases
where he had interpreted the law pertaining to religions in particular
way, because it was easy for me to read through them, that it was
legal what we were doing. The
Registered Religious Societies Act, is the law that Sveinbjorn
Beinteinsson was referring to; it states in Chapter II article 2 that,
religious societies outside the National Church of Iceland may be
registered. When they are registered, the societies shall receive the
rights, and undertake the obligations, prescribed in law. The
Ministry of Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs shall be responsible
for the registration of religious societies. When a religious society
has been registered, the ministry shall issue it a certificate of
registration and advertise the registration in the Official Gazette. The
legal effects of registration shall be considered as being operative
from the date of publication of the advertisement in the Official
Gazette.
The State Church
of Iceland was not particularly happy with the formation of the
Asatruarfelag and its quest for official recognition by the Ministry.
In all fairness, I can only relate the Church’s reaction as told by
Sveinbjorn Beinteinsson, because it has not responded to repeated
inquiries for its side of the story. Sveinbjorn Beinteinsson says of
the Church’s reactions to the legal recognition, during the hearing
the Minister of Justice called the Bishop to the witness stand.
Naturally, he was against it. The Bishop also gave an official ruling
against the legalization of the collective. But the Ministry struck
it from the record. Then he wrote a lengthy article in the newspaper,
but the publisher of the paper had reacted rather favourably to our
bringing the old religion back.
by the State
Church from an article in the Morgenbladid newspaper from the summer
of 2000. There is one which I should have mentioned but the article is
written in Icelandic by the former bishop Sigurbjörn Einarsson, in the
Morgunblaðið the summer 2000. It is my meaning that some of his
(S.E.) writings should never been published, he writes also heavily
against to Mormons. We at the Asatruarfelag did notice a lot of
people signing into our Felag that summer and especially after his
writings. I know that some people at the Biskupstofa
were not happy with these writings of the former bishop. (Some whisper
that his pen was taken from him after that article).
In relation to
this, the number of officially registered members in the Asatruarfelag
at the beginning of 2000 was 348, and by the end of the year they had
grown to 512, a significant increase. According to Mr. Albertsson,
“the more they complain, the more we get. I usually say that the Biskupstofa is our propaganda manager.”
This sort of reaction is not being made in Iceland alone.
In an article dealing primarily with atheism, Rev. Gerald McDermott an
Episcopal priest and professor of religion at Roanoke College in
Salem, Virginia, “observing a similar phenomenon in the United States,
McDermott stated that the ‘rise in all sorts of paganism is creating a
false spirituality that proves to be a more dangerous rival to
Christian faith than atheism.’”
The causes of
the rejection of Christianity by growing numbers of people were
complex and varied. The conversion was not complete, as evidenced by
the continued reverence for the land spirits.
Christian writers wrote
down the ancient sagas or Eddas which have become a ready reference of
knowledge of the past. The continual change of religious doctrine
precluded the establishment of an enduring Christian religious
tradition. The relaxation of Christian vigilance was fed by a sense
of security that the status quo could not change, even though the
Church had gone through major changes over time from the Conversion
until the amendment of the constitution in 1874 which allowed people
to join other faiths. These events prompted a reaction to the waves of
Evangelical faiths that began in the early twentieth century and
finally led to the realization that Iceland had
older faiths that it could follow aside from those of the state church
or these evangelicals. In no way do any of these factors prove a
continuity of religious practice from the days of the Conversion to
the present. These factors, on the other hand, do establish the
cultural climate that refused to allow the pagan belief to pass away
quietly into the night, and permitted its resurgence when conditions
allowed it. This is why the Vikings have returned to the here and
now.
Works Cited Books
Adalsteinsson, Jon Hnefill, A piece of horse liver, Myth, Ritual
and folklore in Old
Icelandic Sources,
Haskolautgafan Felagsvisindastofnun,
Reykjavik, 1998.
Adalsteinsson, Jon Hnefill, Under the cloak, a ritual pagan turning
point in the conversion of
Iceland,
Trickeri AB, Motala, 1978.
Bjornsson, Arna, Thorrablot a Islandi, Orn og Orlygur,
Reykjavik,
1986.
Turville, E.O.G, Myth and religion of the north; the religion of
ancient
Scandinavia,
Oxford, 1964.
Newspaper Articles
Bachmann, Thordis, Pagan Congress in the Year 2000, Iceland
News, pp 8, November, 1994
Suplee, Curt,
The Intro to
Iceland;
In the Land of the Near-Summit, Safe Streets, Ferocious Savages,
VCR-And Cold Weather,
Washington Post, October 10, 1986, C1.
Documents
Beinteinsson, Sveinbjorn, letter to the Ministry of Justice and
Ecclesiastical Affairs, dated
May 3, 1973.
(Request for official recognition as a Religious Society).
Constitution of the Republic of Iceland,
No. 33,
June 17, 1944,
as amended
June 24, 1999.
Registered Religious Societies Act (No 108/1999).
Zophoniasson, Hjalti, Letter dated,
February 2, 2005,
Ministry of Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs.
Internet Sources
Graichen, Gisela, Die Neuen Hexen, Hoffman und Campe, Hamburg,
1986.
(Excerpt), translated by Seidman, http:www.angelfire.com/nm/seidhman/beinweb.html.
4/01/05,
11:44 PM.
Nordal, K. and
Kristinsson, V., editors,
Iceland - The Republic, Handbook,
Central Bank of Iceland, Reykjavik 1996.
http://www.iceland.is/people-and-society/Religion//nr/112, March 22,
2005, 10:37 p.m.
Siemon-Netto,
Uwe, God is not so dead: Atheism is in decline worldwide, dtd.
March 3, 2005, Word Tribune.com,
http://216.26.163.62/2005/cs_atheism_03_03.html, April 1, 2005
Interviews Electronic and Telephonic
Albertsson,
Tomas Vilhj., Seidgodi, from email dated: Feb.10, 2005 in reply to a
request for information from the Asatruarfelag, in Iceland
Albertsson,
Tomas Vilhj., April 3, 2005
Albertsson, Tomas Vilhj., telephonic interview on
March 3, 2005
at
12:00 pm EST.
Albertsson, Tomas Vilhj., instant message conversations on March 1-April
3, 2005.
References Books
Arbman, Holger, The Vikings,
Praeger, New York, NY, 1961.
Connery, Donald S., The Scandinavians, Simon and
Schuster, New York, NY, 1966.
Loyn, H. R., The Vikings in Britain, St. Martins Press, New
York, NY, 1977.
Magnusson, Magnus, Viking Hammer of the North, Orbis
Publishing Ltd,
London, 1979.
Oakley, Stewart, A Short History of
Sweden,
Praeger, New York, NY, 1966.
Tacitus,
Agricola and the Germania, Translated with an Introduction by
Mattingly, H., and revised by Handford, S. A., Penguin, Suffolk, U.K.,
1970.
Internet Sources
Hansen,
Jörmundur Ingi, Paganism or the Rediscovery of Identity,
Antwerp, 7th March 1999.
http://www.wcer.org/members/europe/Belgium/jormundur.htm
Odinsson,
Magnus, Online article on Asatru. August, 2004 received as an email
from
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/warriorsofasatru/
Strmiska,
Michael, Asatru in
Iceland:
‘Our Custom’, Sacred Heritage,
http://marklander.ravenbanner.com/asatru%20in%20ice%20ms.html
Bakken, William,
English Influences in the Church in
Scandinavia
Before1066,
2000.
http://members.aol.com/bakken1/angsax/scanchrch.htm
http://www.fornsidr.dk/
http://www.inisfail.com/~ancients/history/heimskringla15.html
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