Ancestor worship is often assumed by contemporary European audiences to be an outdated and primitive tradition with little relevance to our societies, past and present. This book questions that assumption and seeks to determine whether ancestor ideology was an integral part of religion in Viking Age and early medieval Scandinavia. The concept is examined from a broad socio-anthropological perspective, which is used to structure a set of case studies which analyse the cults of specific individuals in Old Norse literature. The situation of gods in Old Norse religion has been almost exclusively addressed in isolation from these socio-anthropological perspectives. The public grave mound cults of deceased rulers are discussed conventionally as cases of sacral kingship, and, more recently, religious ruler ideology; both are seen as having divine associations in Old Norse scholarship. Building on the anthropological framework, this study introduces the concept of ‘superior ancestors’, employed in social anthropology to denote a form of political ancestor worship used to regulate social structure deliberately. It suggests that Old Norse ruler ideology was based on conventional and widely recognised religious practices revolving around kinship and ancestors and that the gods were perceived as human ancestors belonging to elite families.
Author(s): Triin Laidoner
Series: Studies in Medieval History and Culture
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 194
City: London
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction
Part 1. Theoretical considerations
Chapter 1. Old Norse religion: Approach, sources and method
1.1 Old Norse religion
1.1.1 What is ‘religion’?
1.1.2 What is ‘Old Norse’?
1.1.3 The non-static and heterogenous nature of Old Norse religion
1.1.4 Heterogenous conceptions of the afterlife in Old Norse religion
1.1.5 Gravemounds and ancestors in Old Norse religion
1.1.6 Folk vs. world religion
1.1.7 Paganism and Christianity
1.2 Primary sources
1.3 Method
Notes
Secondary sources
Chapter 2. Research on ancestor worship
2.1 The development of ‘ancestor worship’ as an academic term
2.2 Ancestor worship in Old Norse research
Notes
Secondary sources
Chapter 3. Ancestors in social anthropology: Definition and social use
3.1 ‘Ancestor worship’ – the problem with terminology
3.2 The role of ancestors in folk religions
3.3 Family, kinship and ‘superior ancestors’
3.4 ‘Superior ancestor worship’
Notes
Secondary sources
Chapter 4. Kings and gods in Old Norse religion
4.1 The myth of ‘sacral kingship’
4.2 Euhemerism – medieval propaganda or just history?
Notes
Secondary sources
Part 2. Case studies
Chapter 5. Introduction to the case studies
Note
Secondary sources
Chapter 6. Erik of Birka
Notes
Secondary sources
Chapter 7. The Ynglingar
7.1 Background on the Ynglingar
7.1.1 Sources
7.1.2 The Ynglingar and sacral kingship
7.1.3 Ynglingatal: authorial purpose
7.2 Freyr
7.2.1 Adam’s Templum
7.2.2 Adam’s account of human sacrifice
7.2.3 Icons and processions
7.3 Hálfdanr svarti
7.4 Óláfr Geirstaðaálfr
Notes
Secondary sources
Chapter 8. The Háleygjar
8.1 The Háleygjar and sacral kingship
8.2 Þorgerðr hǫlgabrúðr
Notes
Secondary sources
Chapter 9. The Settlers of Breiðafjǫrðr
9.1 Þórólfr Mostrarskegg
9.2 Auðr djúp(a)úðga
Notes
Secondary sources
Chapter 10. General conclusion
Primary sources
Index
