File:Blót- Norse Sacrifices-Festivals in the Modern Day

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Blót (Old Norse) and blōt or geblōt (Old English) are terms for "blood sacrifice" in Norse paganism and Anglo-Saxon paganism respectively. A comparanda can also be reconstructed for wider Germanic paganism. A blót could be dedicated to any of the Germanic gods, the spirits of the land, and to ancestors. The sacrifice involved aspects of a sacramental meal or feast. The verb blóta meant "to worship with blood sacrifice", or "to strengthen". The written sources and the archaeological record indicate that in Old Norse religious practice the sacrifice of animals, particularly pigs and horses, played a significant part in the blót. More than just a simple sacrifice, the blót was central to all the ritual activities that took place in Norse sacral structures. Closer in conception to a gift, the blót usually involved killing animals, and sometimes humans, in ritual fashion with their blood being poured into bowls or onto stones. Twigs were dipped into the liquid and shaken, throwing a spray onto the onlookers and the buildings. At the temple-hall of Hofstaðir in northern Iceland, oxen were decapitated in seasonal rituals for many years. Osteological analysis of the bones shows that the animals were killed with blows to the neck by axe or sword. This method was intended to produce the spectacle of a shower of arterial blood.

The ritual killing of animals was followed by feasts on the meat, as described in the Eddic and Scaldic poetry, the Icelandic sagas, and on rune stones.The meat was boiled in large cooking pits with heated stones, either indoors or outdoors, and ale or mead (mjöð) was drunk in the ceremony.

In Hákonar saga Góða, (Saga of Hákon the Good) in Snorri Sturlason's Heimskringla, Earl Sigurđr of Hlađir (Earl Hákon's father) is said to have given a great sacrificial feast at Hlađir, and to have borne its entire expense. The passage states that it was the duty of the chieftain who provided the feast to consecrate the ale and all the sacrificial meat.Such feasts are usually called by the Old Norse blótzveizla in the texts.

Snorri describes the farmers of Thrándheimr bringing provisions to the temple and sacrificing there. The blood of the slaughtered animals was considered to have special powers and it was sprinkled on the altars, on the walls and on the participants themselves. The chieftain passed a sacrificial cup over the fire and consecrated it along with the food. Beer was drunk and toasts to Óðinn were made for victory in battle, and to Njǫrðr and Freyre for a bountiful harvest and for peace.[9] A similar toast was raised at the celebration of Jól: til árs ok friðar, "for a good harvest, fertility, and peace" (frith).[10]

Sacrificial feasts (blótveizlur, blótdrykkjur) had a prominent place in the ancient religious practices of the Scandinavians, and were part of the seasonal festivals attended by large numbers of people. Family rituals. such as the álfablót in western Sweden mentioned by the Norwegian skald Sigvatr Þórðarson in an early 11th-century poem, were usually performed on farm homesteads.[11]

The written sources speak of sacrifices made of prisoners of war; Roman descriptions of Germanic tribes sacrificing their defeated enemies to Mars or Mercury have a similarity with customs related to the cult of Óðinn in Old Norse religion. The Icelandic skáld Helgi Trausti mentions his killing an enemy as a sacrifice to Óðinn; Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana and Orkneyinga saga describe the sacrificing of captive enemies to Óðinn. In depositions of remains found near Uppland, most of the human bodies are of young males with healed bone trauma, a possible congruence with the sacrificed captives of war mentioned in the written corpus. In almost all instances, human sacrifices occurring in the context of the Old Norse texts are related to Óðinn.