álfablót
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álfablót
The álfablót (or the Elven sacrifice) is a pagan Scandinavian sacrifice to the elves towards the end of autumn, when the crops had been harvested and the animals were most fat. Unlike the great blóts at Uppsala and Mære, the álfablót was a local celebration at the homesteads that was mainly administered by the woman of the household. Nothing is known about the particular rites because they were surrounded by secrecy and strangers were not welcome to the homesteads during the celebrations.Steinsland & Meulengracht 1998:79 However, since the elves were collective powers with a close connection to ancestors and fertility, it is possible that the álfablót concerned ancestor worship and the life force of the family. It also appears that Odin was implied and that the master of the household was called ''Ǫlvir'' when administering the rites. The first element of ''Ǫlvir'' means "beer", which was an important element in Norse pagan sacrifices generally. There is a notable account ...
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Blót
(Old Norse and Old English) or (Old English) are religious ceremonies in Germanic paganism that centred on the killing and offering of an animal to a particular being, typically followed by the communal cooking and eating of its meat. Old Norse sources present it as a central ritual in Old Nordic religion that was intimately connected with many wider aspects of life. Large are often described as taking place in halls, organised by the rulers of the region who were expected to carry out the practice on behalf of the people. were central to the legitimacy of rulers and Christian rulers refusing to hold them were at times replaced by more willing alternatives and driven out of the land. Smaller, household were sometimes recorded as being led by women. Beyond strengthening legitimacy for the ruling elites, the performance of was often in order to ensure the fertility of the land, a good harvest and peace, although they are also recorded as being performed for divination or to ac ...
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Elves
An elf (: elves) is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology, being mentioned in the Icelandic ''Poetic Edda'' and the ''Prose Edda''. In medieval Germanic-speaking cultures, elves were thought of as beings with magical powers and supernatural beauty, ambivalent towards everyday people and capable of either helping or hindering them. Beliefs varied considerably over time and space and flourished in both pre-Christian and Christian cultures. The word ''elf'' is found throughout the Germanic languages. It seems originally to have meant 'white being'. However, reconstructing the early concept depends largely on texts written by Christians, in Old and Middle English, medieval German, and Old Norse. These associate elves variously with the gods of Norse mythology, with causing illness, with magic, and with beauty and seduction. After the medieval period, the word ''elf'' became less common throughout t ...
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Earl
Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the Peerages in the United Kingdom, peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. A feminine form of ''earl'' never developed; instead, ''countess'' is used. The title originates in the Old English word , meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Old Norse, Scandinavian form ''jarl''. After the Norman Conquest, it became the equivalent of the continental count. In Scotland, it assimilated the concept of mormaer. Since the 1960s, earldoms have typically been created only for members of the British royal family, royal family. The last non-royal earldom, Earl of Stockton, was created in 1984 for Harold Macmillan, prime minister from 1957 to 1963. Alternative names for the rank equivalent to "earl" or "count" in the nobility structure are used in other countries, such as the ''hakushaku'' (伯爵) of the post-restoration Japanese Imperial era. Et ...
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Magical Terms In Germanic Mysticism
Magical is the adjective for magic. It may also refer to: * Magical (horse) (foaled 2015), Irish Thoroughbred racehorse * "Magical" (song), released in 1985 by John Parr * '' Magical: Disney's New Nighttime Spectacular of Magical Celebrations'', a 2009–2014 summer fireworks show at Disneyland * Magical Company , also known as Mahō, is a Japanese entertainment company. History Established in Kobe in 1983 to design and develop video games, the company was incorporated on May 29, 1985 as Home Data. During the 80s they developed and published various ..., a Japanese entertainment company * "Magical", a 2004 song by Shifty Shellshock from '' Happy Love Sick'' * "Magical", a 2009 song by Sean Kingston from '' Tomorrow'' {{Disambig ...
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Ceremonies
A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin . Religious and civil (secular) ceremonies According to Dally Messenger and Alain de Botton, in most Western countries the values and ideals articulated in both church and civil ceremonies are generally similar. The difference is in what Messenger calls the "supernatural infrastructure" or de Botton the "implausible supernatural element".Messenger, Dally; ''Murphy's Law and the Pursuit of Happiness: a History of the Civil Celebrant Movement'', Spectrum Publications, Melbourne (Australia), 2012 Most religions claim some extra advantage conferred by the deity, e.g., Roman Catholics believe that through the words of consecration in the mass ceremony, God himself becomes actually present on the altar. Both religious and civil ceremonies share the powerful psychological, social ...
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Germanic Animal Sacrifice
Germanic may refer to: * Germanic peoples, an ethno-linguistic group identified by their use of the Germanic languages ** List of ancient Germanic peoples and tribes * Germanic languages :* Proto-Germanic language, a reconstructed proto-language of all the Germanic languages * Germanic name * Germanic mythology, myths associated with Germanic paganism * Germanic religion (other) * SS ''Germanic'' (1874), a White Star Line steamship See also * Germania (other) * Germanus (other) * German (other) German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ... * Germanicia Caesarea * * {{disambiguation Language and nationality disambiguation pages ...
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Gro Steinsland
Gro Steinsland (born 1945) is a Norwegian scholar of medieval studies and history of religion and since August 2009 has been the Scientific Director of the Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Steinsland has most recently been a professor in the Institute for Linguistic and Nordic Studies at the University of Oslo, where she was also a member of the international interdepartmental Centre for Studies in the Viking Age and Nordic Middle Agesprofile
at forskning.no
Aslaug Veum
"Gro Steinsland: Veit ho nok, eller kva?"
, Portrait, ''Apollon'', University of Oslo research magazine, 1 April 1998. Retrieved 17 January 2011.
from its founding in 199 ...
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Kormáks Saga
''Kormáks saga'' ( Old Norse pronunciation: , ) is one of the Icelanders' sagas. The saga was probably written during the first part of the 13th century. Though the saga is believed to have been among the earliest sagas composed, it is well preserved. The unknown author clearly relies on oral tradition and seems unwilling to add much of his own or even to fully integrate the different accounts he knew of Kormákr. Often, he does little more than briefly set the scenes for Kormákr's stanzas, with the declarations of love often contrasting with the skald's antagonizing actions.Alexander Wilson. 2021.Let the Right Skald In: Unwanted Guests in Sagas of Poets. ''In: Andreas Schmidt and Daniela Hahn (eds.). Unwanted: Neglected Approaches, Characters, and Texts in Old Norse–Icelandic Saga Studies''. Munich: Utz Verlag: 28–56. The only complete version of the saga is found in the Icelandic manuscript Möðruvallabókbr>AM 132 fol
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Troll
A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human beings. In later Scandinavian folklore, trolls became beings in their own right, where they live far from human habitation, are not Christianized, and are considered dangerous to human beings. Depending on the source, their appearance varies greatly; trolls may be ugly and slow-witted, or look and behave exactly like human beings, with no particularly grotesque characteristic about them. In Scandinavian folklore, trolls are sometimes associated with particular landmarks (sometimes said to have been formed by a troll having been exposed to sunlight). Trolls are depicted in a variety of media in modern popular culture. Etymology The Old Norse nouns ''troll'' and ''trǫll'' (variously meaning "fiend, demon, werewolf, jötunn") and Middle High ...
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Heathen Hofs
A heathen hof or Germanic pagan temple is a temple building of Germanic religion. The term ''hof'' is taken from Old Norse. Background Etymologically, the Old Norse word ''hof'' is the same as the Dutch and German word ''hof'', which originally meant a hall and later came to refer to a court (originally in the meaning of a royal or aristocratic court) and then also to a farm. In medieval Scandinavian sources, it occurs once as a hall, in the Eddic poem ''Hymiskviða'', and beginning in the fourteenth century, in the "court" meaning. Otherwise, it occurs only as a word for a temple. ''Hof'' also occasionally occurs with the meaning "temple" in Old High German and is cognate with the Old English . In Scandinavia during the Viking Age, it appears to have displaced older terms for a sacred place, '' vé'', '' hörgr'', ''lundr'', ''vangr'', and ''vin'', particularly in the West Norse linguistic area, namely Norway and Iceland. It is the dominant word for a temple in the Icelandic s ...
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Ragnvald Ulfsson
Ragnvald Ulfsson the Old () was a jarl of Västergötland or Östergötland and was married to a sister of King Olav Tryggvason.Winroth 1995–1997:616 Biography According to Snorri, Ragnvald was the son of jarl Ulf Tostesson. He was also the foster-son of Þorgnýr the Lawspeaker. Through his aunt Sigrid the Haughty, he was the cousin of Swedish King Olof Skötkonung. He was married to Ingeborg Tryggvasdotter, daughter of Tryggve Olavsson, son of Olaf Haraldsson Geirstadalf and grandson of King Harald Fairhair. When Olaf Haraldsson became king of Norway in 1015, a war erupted with Sweden and Norwegians forces had pillaged in Västergötland. But then Norwegian King Olaf proposed to the Swedish princess Ingigerd Olofsdotter, the daughter of Sweden's King Olof Skötkonung. This would result in peace and a royal alliance which would favor Ragnvald who was related to both parties. However, at the Thing at Gamla Uppsala, Ragnvald and his foster-father Þorgn ...
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Norse Paganism
Old Norse religion, also known as Norse paganism, is a branch of Germanic paganism, Germanic religion which developed during the Proto-Norse language, Proto-Norse period, when the North Germanic peoples separated into Germanic peoples, distinct branches. It was replaced by Christianity and forgotten during the Christianisation of Scandinavia. Scholars reconstruct aspects of North Germanic Religion by historical linguistics, archaeology, toponymy, and records left by North Germanic peoples, such as runic alphabet, runic inscriptions in the Younger Futhark, a distinctly North Germanic extension of the runic alphabet. Numerous Old Norse works dated to the 13th-century record Norse mythology, a component of North Germanic religion. Old Norse religion was polytheistic, entailing a belief in Pantheon (religion), various gods and goddesses. These deities in Norse mythology were divided into two groups, the Æsir and the Vanir, who in some sources were said to have engaged in war until ...
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