Pre-Christian Religions, Rituals, and Beliefs in Central and Northern Europe

Before Christianity came to the societies and communities of Central and Northern Europe between the sixth and thirteenth centuries, there were numerous different ‘pagan’ religions and beliefs. Little is known about some of these, particularly with regard to details such as ritual practices, human-animal relations, conversion, ideas of the afterlife, or the place of religion in the landscape, largely due to a lack of archaeological and historical evidence. To gain new information, it is essential to draw on sources and methodologies from different disciplines.

This volume brings together a collection of case-studies that apply interdisciplinary approaches to various aspects of traditional religion. Together, they shine a new light on the multi-faceted variety of expressions of belief in Central and Northern Europe, from sacrifice and burial customs to sacred objects and iconography, and to the changes and continuations in the face of coming Christianity. Arranged in four categories — space and landscape, death and burial, objects and images, and people and violence — these twelve chapters by international researchers combine archaeological studies with the input of history and literature, cultural anthropology, history of religion, and archaeozoology, to offer a valuable resource to all those interested in pre-Christian religion, and in prehistoric and early medieval spiritual culture in Europe.

List of Illustrations

1. Introduction. Artefacts, Landscapes, and Images: Pre-Christian Religions in Central and Northern Europe
Dirk H. Steinforth, Paweł Szczepanik, and Olof Sundqvist

2. The Cross and the Hammer: Evidence for the Continuance of Paganism in Christianized Iceland
Rachel Cartwright

3.‘Five Foolish Virgins’: A Persistent Monument at the Gateway to Avaldsnes
Håkon Reiersen

4. Defining the Sacred: Pre-Christian Belief in Early-Medieval Pictland
Gordon Noble and Nicholas Evans

5. In the Embrace of Old Gods: Preliminary Reflections on Excavations at Sorte Muld on Bornholm 
Karolina Czonstke-Świątkowska and Bartosz Świątkowski

6. The Vikings, the Bones, and the Afterlife: The Burial Custom of the Boat-Grave at Balladoole, Isle of Man
Dirk H. Steinforth

7. Finding Evidence of Plural Beliefs in Early-Medieval Inhumation Graves: A Donarkeule Case Study
Abigail Górkiewicz Downer

8. The Journey of the Soul to Sessrúmnir: Reinterpreting the Meaning of the Viking-Age Chair Pendant
Angie Padilla

9. Material Culture as Marker of Public and Private Beliefs in Viking-Age Scandinavia: ‘Pocket Deities’ and Iconic Images
Nancy L. Wicker

10. ...oc láti svá Óðinn flein fliúga... The ‘Spear of Death’ in the Iconography of the Gotland Picture Stones: New Considerations Based on Digital Imaging Techniques
Sigmund Oehrl
 
11. From Obligation and Oblation to Sublimated Violence? Transformation of Human Sacrifice in the Prehistory of Northern Europe
Matthew J. Walsh, Marianne Moen, Sean O’Neill, Svein H. Gullbekk, and Rane Willerslev

12. Tracing Ritual Killings: Using Archaeological Material as Sources for the Study of Human Sacrifices in Old Norse Religion
Klas Wikström af Edholm

13. Rates of Conversion: Traces of Pre-Christian Beliefs in Animal Remains from Medieval Hungary
László Bartosiewicz