TEMPLES AND IMAGES
In common with other peoples, the ancient Scandinavians erected special
buildings in which to worship their gods, and in which their images
were placed. These temples (called _hof_, _goða-hof_, _goða-hús_, and
_blót-hús_) must not be thought of as in any way comparable to those
erected by the more cultured Aryan races, such as the Greeks and
Romans. It is true that Adam of Bremen describes that at Upsala in
Sweden, which he calls _nobilissimum templum_, as being 'all of gold,'
while a note to the passage says that it was surrounded by 'a golden
chain hanging on the pinnacles of the building, and seen glittering
afar by those who approach the place'; but it is very doubtful how far
this description is trustworthy. In any case the Upsala temple would
naturally be much superior to those in less central localities; from
other indications it appears to have been specially well endowed with
landed and other property. Unfortunately there is no evidence from
which any general idea of the heathen temples in Sweden and Denmark
can be obtained. In Norway they were, like the ordinary houses,
constructed of timber, and in many cases were probably of small size
and insignificant appearance. Mention has already been made of the
temple of Thor in the island of Mostr, which Thorolf took down and
carried off to Iceland when he went to settle there. The same thing is
told of Thorhadd, who was priest at Mærin in Thrandheim; he also took
down the temple, and carried with him the temple-mould and the chief
pillars. Some of the buildings, no doubt, may have been more imposing,
and even to some extent furnished with costly ornaments. When Olaf
Tryggvason gave orders to burn down Earl Hákon's temple at Hladir, 'he
made them take all the treasure and ornaments out of the temple and
off the images of the gods.' A large gold ring was also removed from
the temple door, but it afterwards proved to be only brass internally.
It may also be noted that various accounts of temples speak of them as
being lighted by glass windows 'so that there was no shadow anywhere
in them.' Beside the great temple at Upsala there was a sacred grove,
and the evidence of place-names shows that similar groves existed
elsewhere in Sweden and Denmark: as regards Norway and Iceland there is
no positive information on this head.
Of the temple which Thorolf erected at his Icelandic home on Thorsness
an interesting description is given in _Eyrbyggja Saga_, which is
thus the chief source for what knowledge we have on the subject. It
is described as a great house, with doors on the side-walls, nearer
to one end of it than the other. In from these doors stood the chief
pillars, and in these there were nails, which were known by the name
of _regin_-nails (_regin_ was one of the names for the gods, but its
precise meaning here is not certain). The part of the building lying
inward from these pillars was a great sanctuary. At the inner end there
was a smaller building 'of the same form as the choir in churches is
now'; and here, in the middle of the floor, stood a pedestal of the
nature of an altar. On this lay a ring weighing two ounces, on which
all oaths had to be sworn. It was the duty of the temple-priest to
wear this ring on his hand at all assemblies. On the pedestal stood
also the sacrificial bowl (_hlaut-bolli_), and in this were placed the
sacrificial twigs (_hlaut-teinar_), by means of which the blood of
the sacrifice (_hlaut-blóð_) was sprinkled upon those present at the
ceremony. 'This was the blood from those animals that were offered to
the gods.' Round about this altar the images of the gods were arranged.
All those living in the district had to pay toll to the temple, and
were bound to attend the temple-priest on all expeditions, 'as thingmen
are now bound to attend their chiefs.' On the other hand, the priest
had to keep up the temple and not allow it to fall into decay, and to
hold in it the sacrificial feasts.
In the late and fictitious _Kjalnesinga Saga_ there is given a similar
description of a temple, which may possibly have some basis in local
tradition. It is described as having been a hundred and twenty feet
long, and sixty broad. At the inner end was a circular annex, the shape
of which suggested a cap or hood; this had windows, and was hung with
tapestry. Thor was the chief god there, and stood in the middle, with
the other gods on each side of him. In front of them was an altar with
an iron plate on the top, on which a fire was kept constantly burning:
'they called that hallowed fire.' The silver ring on which oaths were
sworn, and the bowl for the sacrificial blood, are also mentioned, but
the account of them may be derived from the passage in _Eyrbyggja
Saga_ already quoted.
In a much more reliable source, _Landnámabók_, there occurs the
following passage relating to the ring and its use. 'A ring of two
ounces or more in weight had to lie on the altar in each chief temple.
Each priest had to wear the ring on his arm at all assemblies over
which he himself presided, having previously reddened it in the blood
of the animal which he himself had sacrificed there. Every man who
required to do legal business at a law court had first to take an oath
on that ring, and name two or more witnesses. "I name [M. and N.]
witnesses herein," he had to say, "that I take an oath on the ring,
a lawful oath,--so help me Frey and Njörd and the Almighty God, as I
shall pursue (or defend) this suit, or bear witness, or give verdict
or judgment, according to what I know to be most right and true and
in accordance with the law."' In general agreement with this is the
account given in _Víga-Glúms Saga_: 'That man who was to take a
temple-oath took in his hand a silver ring which was reddened in the
blood of the sacrificed ox, and which had to weigh not less than three
ounces.' In taking the oath, Glúm is represented as using the words, 'I
take a temple-oath on the ring, and I say to the god,' etc.; here the
names of Frey and Njörd are omitted.[4]
While Iceland was being colonised from Norway, the place and number
of the temples would depend on the religious zeal of the settlers in
the various districts, but when a fixed constitution was adopted in
the year 930 special regulations were made with reference to this.
'The land was divided into quarters, and there were to be three
places of assembly in each quarter, and three chief temples in each
assembly-district. Men who were noted for intelligence and just dealing
were selected to have charge of the temples; these had to appoint the
law-courts at the assemblies, and to superintend the legal proceedings
there. Each man had to give toll to the temple, as they now give
toll to the church.' References to the payment of this tax are not
infrequent in the sagas, and one of the results of the preaching of
Christianity by Thorvald and Bishop Frederic in 981-985 was that in the
north of Iceland 'many men abandoned sacrifices and broke their idols,
and some would not pay the temple-tax.' We also meet with such remarks
as, 'the men of Geitland had to maintain half of the temple along
with Tungu-Odd.' The chief temples were thus legally endowed religious
buildings, but it would appear that there were others which were the
private property of individuals, and no doubt many of those which
were entitled to legal support were originally erected by the more
prominent of the settlers. An interesting case of temple endowment is
that recorded of Grím Geitskor, who travelled over all Iceland to find
the most suitable spot for holding the yearly assembly. For his trouble
he received a 'penny' from every man in the island, and this money he
gave to the temples. One of the early settlers in the east of Iceland
is recorded as having taken formal possession of an unoccupied piece of
land for the behoof of a temple which he had built there.
As has already been mentioned, the inner part of the temple was more
particularly the sacred place, where stood the altar and the images of
the gods. The main part of the building served as a kind of hall, in
which were held the entertainments which followed upon the sacrifices,
and at which the flesh of the slain animals was eaten. As in the
ordinary halls, there were fires in the middle of the floor and seats
down each side. In some of the sagas dealing with prehistoric times in
Sweden mention is made of a _dísar-sal_ (in connection with the worship
of the _dísir_: see p. 33). What relation this had to the usual temple
is not clear: it has been supposed to be no more than another name for
the temple-hall, but this is not at all certain.
The temple being a holy place, there were naturally certain
restrictions attached to it, of which a prominent one was that no
weapons were to be taken inside it. This is clearly illustrated by an
incident in _Vatnsdæla Saga_, where Ingimund enters the temple first,
and Hrafn the Norwegian follows him, wearing his sword. Then Ingimund
turned to him, and said, 'It is not the custom to carry weapons in the
temple, and you will come under the wrath of the gods unless you make
amends for it.' When Olaf Tryggvason entered the temple of Mærin in
Thrandheim, he carried a gold-mounted staff, but his own men and those
belonging to the district were weaponless.
Another offence which is frequently mentioned is that of slaying a
man in a holy place; in this connection, however, the regular word
used is not _hof_ but _vé_, which has a more general meaning. One who
committed this offence incurred the penalty of outlawry, and was
designated by the name of _vargr í véum_, 'wolf in holy places.' The
same view of bloodshed as a crime against the sanctity of a holy place
is illustrated in the cases of Thorsness and Stödvar-firth in Iceland,
where the killing of anything was forbidden. In the case of Thorsness
it was decided, after a battle had taken place there, that it was
defiled by the blood that had fallen on it, and 'was now no more holy
than other places.'
Along with the timber-buildings known as _hof_, there is frequent
mention, both in the historical and legendary sources, of other sacred
places called _hörgar_. In its simplest form the _hörg_ was evidently a
kind of stone-altar or sacrificial cairn standing in the open air; in
modern Norwegian and Icelandic the word is applied to a mountain-top.
This is most clearly indicated by the words of _Hyndlu-ljóð_, where
Freyja says of Ottar, 'He made me a _hörg_, piled up with stones; now
these stones are turned to glass. He reddened it in the fresh blood
of oxen. Ottar always believed in the goddesses.' In contrast to the
burning of temples, the usual expression for the destroying of _hörgar_
is 'breaking,' which also indicates a structure of stones. In some
cases, however, the name of _hörg_ seems to be applied to something
more approaching the nature of the _hof_; this not only appears to be
implied in the use of 'timbered,' which occurs in at least two poetic
passages, but is also suggested by the wording of the old Norwegian
law, 'if a man raises a mound (_haug_), or makes a house, and calls
it a _hörg_,' etc. The stone altars or cairns would naturally be more
primitive places of worship than the temples, but they continued in use
along with these down to the disappearance of the old religion. The
altar in the temple, indeed, was no doubt the representative of the
earlier and ruder one in the open air, for both are spoken of as being
'reddened' with the blood of the sacrifice.
It has been already made clear that the gods worshipped were
represented in the temples by images, which in the historical accounts
are called by the names of _líkneski_ ('likeness') and _skurð-goð_
('carved gods,' probably an epithet applied by Christians). The
description given by Adam of Bremen of those which stood in the temple
at Upsala has already been quoted (p. 4); here it is only necessary to
add that in no other writing of historical value is there any mention
of an image of Odin. With Thor the case is very different. Another
image of this deity is mentioned by Adam himself, who relates that
about the year 1030 an English missionary in Sweden found it standing
in the assembly-place of the heathens. In his religious zeal he smashed
it with an axe, and was at once put to death by the angry worshippers.
Images of Thor are also frequently referred to in the Icelandic sagas.
In the year 998, when King Olaf Tryggvason was christianising Norway,
he entered the temple at Mærin in Thrandheim, 'and when the king came
where the gods were, there sat Thor, adorned with gold and silver, and
was most honoured of all the gods.' In the fullest account of this
incident it is stated that the image was seated in a splendid chariot,
to which were harnessed two goats beautifully carved out of wood; both
chariot and goats were on wheels, and the cords attached to the goats'
horns were of silver. Thor in his chariot is also mentioned as one of
the images in the temple belonging to Earl Hákon and Gudbrand in the
Dales, which is described in _Njál's Saga_. There is no mention of the
chariot, however, in the account of this image given in connection
with King Olaf's visit to the Dales in 1021. There it is said to have
been 'of great stature, and hollow inside, with the hammer in his
hand; under him there is a kind of pedestal or platform, on which he
stands when he is outside; and on him there is no lack of gold and
silver.' This image was carried out to the place where the people of
the district held their meeting with Olaf, and those already assembled
there paid homage to it. It was set down in the middle of the ground,
and on one side of it sat the heathens, and on the other the king and
his followers. It is also related that at the battle of Svöldr in the
year 1000, Earl Eirík had an image of Thor in the prow of his ship,
but threw it aside and put a cross in its place when he found his men
unable to board Olaf Tryggvason's vessel.
Mention has already been made (pp. 7-8) of the likeness of Thor carved
on the chief pillars of the temple in Mostr, and no doubt similar
representations of the god were not uncommon. In that part of the story
of Thormod the poet which takes place in Greenland, about 1027, a large
chair is described as having on its back an image of Thor with his
hammer.
That some at least of the other gods were similarly represented in the
temples may be assumed as beyond doubt, but the evidence on this point
is very scanty. It seems likely that there was an image of Frey at
Thrandheim, and it is highly probable that this god would be largely
figured in Sweden, although the texts in which there is mention of
this are of a very legendary character. It is doubtful, also, whether
any reliance can be placed on the passage in _Droplaugarsona Saga_,
which describes Frey and Thor as sitting on the lower bench in a
temple, while Frigg and Freyja occupied the higher. More historical,
perhaps, is the image of Frey which ornamented the talisman given by
King Harald to Ingimund (p. 25).
In the traditions connected with Earl Hákon there are several
references to an image of Thorgerd. The earl is related to have taken
Sigmund Brestisson to a secluded building in the forest, in which
there were 'a number of gods.' At the inner end of the house was the
image of a woman splendidly dressed. What follows is of a legendary
character, but the building and image appear again in the story of Olaf
Tryggvason, who not only stripped Thorgerd of all her 'gold and silver
and good clothes,' but dragged the image at a horse's tail, knocked
it to pieces with a club, and finally burned it along with that of
Frey. In _Njál's Saga_, Earl Hákon and Gudbrand are said to have had
a great temple in the Dales in which there were images of Thorgerd
and Irpa; the former was as tall as a full-grown man, and had a large
gold ring on her arm and a hood on her head. These accounts may have
a foundation in fact, but that given in _Harðar Saga_ of a temple in
Iceland with an image of Thorgerd is probably mere invention, perhaps
an echo of the passage in _Njál's Saga_.