Let's start with just some background information. The Wheel of the Year turns in December and I
can add notes on that later if someone would like...
The meaning of Norseman was "people from the North" and was applied primarily to Nordic people originating from southern and central Scandinavia. They established states and settlements in areas which today are part of the Faroe Islands, England, Scotland, Wales, Iceland, Finland, Ireland, Russia, Canada, Greenland, France, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Germany.
Norse and Norsemen are
applied to the Scandinavian population of the period from the late 8th
century to the 11th century. The Old Frankish Nortmann
"Northman" was Latinized as Normanni, famously in the prayer A
furore normannorum libera nos domine ("From the fury of the North men
release us, O Lord!"), attributed to monks of the English monasteries plundered by Viking raids
in the 8th and 9th centuries and entered Old French as Normand's, whence
the name of the Normans and of Normandy, which was settled by
Norsemen in the 10th century.
The Vikings were the Norse
explorers, warriors, merchants and pirates who raided, traded, explored and
settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the
late 8th to the mid-11th century.
These Norsemen used their famed long ships to travel as far east as Constantinople and the Volga River in Russia, and as far west as Iceland,
Greenland, and Newfoundland, and as far south as Nekor.
This period of Viking expansion – known as the Viking Age – forms a major part of the medieval history of Scandinavia, Great Britain, Ireland and the rest of
Medieval Europe.
Popular
conceptions of the Vikings often differ from the complex picture that emerges
from archaeology and written sources. A romanticized picture of Vikings as Germanic noble savages began to take root in the 18th
century, and this developed and became widely propagated during the 19th-century
Viking revival. The received views of the Vikings as
violent brutes or intrepid adventurers owe much to the modern Viking myth which
had taken shape by the early 20th century. Current popular
representations are typically highly clichéd, presenting the Vikings as
familiar caricatures.
The most important primary sources for information on the
Vikings are different sorts of contemporary evidence from Scandinavia and the
various regions in which the Vikings were active. Writing in Latin letters was introduced to Scandinavia with
Christianity, so there are few native documentary sources from Scandinavia
before the late 11th and early 12th centuries. The
Scandinavians did write inscriptions in runes, but these are usually very short and formulaic. Runes were characters consisting of mostly
straight lines arranged singly or in combinations of two or more. Good-quality written historical sources for
Scandinavia during the Viking Period are scarce, but the archaeological record
is rich.
Vikings lived in either farms or villages with a king or
chief to rule each community. Each
Viking community had a council, made up of the nobles and freeman, called a
'Thing'. The council made laws, decided
whether the community would go to war and held trials. The decisions reached by the council were
even more important than the rulings of the chief or king.
The merchants imported glass, spices, silk, wool and
more. They also exported slaves, furs,
beeswax, walrus ivory and more. Their
food included barley, milk, bread, mead, pork, beans, onions, beef and
herbs. The Vikings also grew apples,
plums and gathered mushrooms and berries.
Fish was an important part of the diet including cod and herring.
Vikings lived in collective or extended families including
children, parents, grandparents, workers or slaves. A Viking home often consisted one large room
framed by wood or stone. In the centre
was the hearth for cooking, heat and light.
Most people slept on the benches with wool or fur for a blanket. They ate from wooden bowls with spoon made of
horn or metal. Only the wealthy Viking
could afford beds, furniture or rugs.
Viking women spun and wove cloth at home. Women generally wore a dress made of linen or
wool. In colder weather they wore cloaks
or shawls held in place by brooches.
Viking men often wore trousers with linen shirts. Both sexes wore jewelry and leather shoes.
Women in Viking Society had both standard and non-standard
roles. The division between a woman and
a man domain was established at the door step.
The outside work belonged to the man and the inside work belonged to the
woman. She ran the house, made butter,
smoked fish, make medicine and was the leader in private religious rites inside
the house. However, some women could
take on the cloth of a warrior called skjoldmo, 'shieldgirl', or female warrior. Another difference was the woman's
belongings. If her husband treated her
or the children badly or was too lazy to run the farm, she could divorce
him. All the goods the woman brought
with her into the marriage continued to be her personal belongings.
Our
knowledge about arms and armor of the Viking age is based on relatively sparse
archaeological finds, pictorial representation, and to some extent on the
accounts in the Norse sagas and Norse laws recorded in the 13th century. According to custom, all free Norse men were
required to own weapons, as well as permitted to carry them all the time. These
arms were also indicative of a Viking's social status: a wealthy Viking would
have a complete ensemble of a helmet, shield, chainmail shirt, and sword. A typical bóndi (freeman)
was more likely to fight with a spear and shield, and most also carried a seax as a utility knife and side-arm. Bows were
used in the opening stages of land battles, and at sea, but tended to be
considered less "honorable" than a hand weapon. Vikings were
relatively unusual for the time in their use of axes as a main battle weapon.
The Húscarls, the elite guard of King, were armed with
two-handed axes which could split shields or metal helmets with ease.
There seems
to be no one unified conception of the afterlife. Some may have believed that the fallen
warriors would go to Valhalla to live with Odin until Ragnarok, but some debate
that this belief was widespread. Vikings
who died of old age or illness went to the realm of Helheim. Others believe that there was no afterlife concept.
Devotion to
deceased relatives was a mainstay in Norse religion. Ancestors constituted one
of the most ancient and widespread types of deity worshipped in the Nordic
region. Although most scholarship focuses on the larger community's dedication
to more fantastic gods and myths of the Vikings, it is understood that some sort of ancestor
worship was probably an element of the private religious practices of the
farmstead and village. Often times in addition to showing adoration to the
standard Nordic gods, warriors would toast to “their kinsmen who lay in
barrows”.
There are numerous burial sites associated with Vikings
throughout Europe—in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany and other North Germanic
regions. As well as providing information on Viking religion, burial sites also
provide information on social structure. The items buried with the deceased
give some indication as to what was considered important to possess in the
afterlife
.
The discovery of two particular buried vessels at Gokstad and Oseberg in Norway provided
information about the Viking ships. There were two distinct classes of Viking
ships: the 'long ship' (sometimes erroneously
called "drakkar", a corruption of "dragon" in Norse) and
the 'knarr'. The long ship, intended
for warfare and exploration, was designed for speed and agility, and was
equipped with oars to complement the sail as well as making it able to navigate
independently of the wind. The long ship had a long and narrow hull, as well as
a shallow draft, in order to facilitate landings and troop deployments in
shallow water. The knarr was a dedicated merchant vessel designed to carry
cargo. It was designed with a broader hull, deeper draft and limited number of oars
(used primarily to maneuver in harbors and similar situations). One Viking
innovation was the 'beitass', a spar mounted to the
sail that allowed their ships to sail effectively against the wind.
By the
middle of the eleventh century, Norse expansion had ended. Colonization in
Greenland declined. The Irish expelled the Norsemen in 1014. In 1042 the Saxons regained the English
throne. The formation of professional armies in Europe made raiding more
dangerous and less profitable.
Norsemen
frequently intermarried with the local population and adopted the languages and
customs of the people that they conquered. Thus, little evidence of Norse
influence in cultures outside of Scandinavia and Iceland remains.
Studies of genetic diversity provide some indication of
the origin and expansion of the Viking population. The Haplogroup
I1 (Y-chromosome) is sometimes referred to as the
"Viking haplogroup".
Norse religion refers to the religious
traditions of the Norsemen prior to the Christianization
of Scandinavia, specifically during the Viking Age. Viking society was permeated by their
religion, although they had no word for 'religion'. Instead they used "sidr", which
means custom or practice. A collection
of poems and legend about their mythology is noted in the Eddas. However, knowledge of Norse religion is
mostly drawn from the results of archaeological field work, etymology and early
written materials.
They seemed to be polytheists. Father of the Gods was Odin, God of
Wisdom. His wife was Frigg, Goddess of
Love. Another important God was Thor,
God of Thunder.
Sacrifices were known as blót, seasonal celebrations
where gifts were offered to appropriate gods, and attempts were made to predict
the coming season. Similar events were sometimes arranged in times of crisis,
for much the same reasons. Today many
sacrifices include mead or beer to the Gods.
Until very recent times a birth was dangerous to the mother
as well as the child. Thus rites of birth were common in many pre-modern
societies. In the Viking Age, people would pray to the goddesses Frigg and Freyja, and sing ritual galdr-songs to protect the mother and the child. Fate
played a huge role in Norse culture and was determined at the moment of birth
by the Norns. Nine nights after birth,
the child had to be recognized by the father of the household. He placed the
child on his knee while sitting in the high seat. Water was sprinkled on the
child, it was named and thus admitted into the family.
Similar too many other societies the pre-Christian Viking
religions also took interest in the eventual resting
place of the dead. The Norse held so much dedication that went into
making sure that the dead were cared for properly so that they could enjoy
their resting place after death.
Ancestor worship was an element in
pre-Christian Scandinavian culture. The ancestors were of great importance for
the self-image of the family and people believed that they were still able to
influence the life of their descendants from the land of the dead. Contact with
them was seen as crucial to the well-being of the family. If they were treated
in the ritually correct way, they could give their blessings to the living and
secure their happiness and prosperity. Conversely, the dead could haunt the
living and bring bad fortune if the rituals were not followed.
Wicca is a modern
pagan religion that draws upon a diverse
set of ancient pagan religious motifs for its
theological structure and ritual practice. The religion usually incorporates
the practice of witchcraft. Developed in England in
the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was later popularized in
the 1950s and early 1960s by Gerald
Gardner. At the time Gardner called it the "witch
cult" and "witchcraft", and referred to its adherents as
"the Wica". From the 1960s
onward, the name of the religion was normalized to "Wicca". The majority of Wiccans today are eclectic,
meaning they follow no specific tradition and are free to borrow from whatever
tradition they prefer.
Wiccans frequently subscribe to a broad code of morality known as the Wiccan Rede, although this is not taken literally or even adhered to by all Wiccans. Another characteristic of Wiccan religion is the ritual celebration of the lunar and solar cycles. Lunar rites, known as esbats are usually held around the time of the full moon; but they may also be held at the new moon, or the waxing or waning moon. The solar or seasonal festivals, known as sabbats take place eight times a year, in regular intervals known as the Wheel of the Year. While both the God and the Goddess are usually honored at both kinds of rituals, the Goddess is mainly associated with the Moon, and the God is mainly associated with the Sun.
Many traditions hold a belief in the five classical
elements, although they are seen as symbolic as
representations of the phases of matter. These five elements are
invoked during many magical rituals, notably when consecrating a magic circle. The five elements are air, fire, water and earth, plus aether (or spirit), which unites
the other four.
Wiccans celebrate several seasonal festivals of the year,
commonly known as Sabbats. Collectively, these
occasions are termed the Wheel of the Year. Most Wiccans celebrate a set of
eight of these Sabbats. The names of
these holidays that are commonly used today are often taken from Germanic pagan and Celtic polytheistic holidays.
Belief in the afterlife varies among Wiccans, although reincarnation is a traditional Wiccan
teaching dating back to the New Forest coven in the 1930s. Wiccans who believe in reincarnation believe
that the soul rests between lives in the Otherworld or Summerland, known in Gardner's
writings as the "ecstasy of the Goddess". Many Wiccans believe in the
ability to contact the spirits of the dead who reside in the Otherworld through
spirit mediums and ouija boards, particularly on the Sabbat
of Samhain.
The deities are metaphysical aspects of the primary Goddess
and God. Simply sources of energy and
transitional personas from which to perform with and produce different
effects. Instead of believing that we
were created to serve the deities, most believe that the relationship between
humanity and the deities function in a mutually reciprocal manner.
In
December, the wheel turns to the element Earth.
Earth is Home and focuses on the principles of Justice and Truth with
the Winter Solstice and Imbolc. I can
do notes on just those two days or weekly notes on different elements and
beings within this season...
We give thanks to the
Elements,
the gift of life and their
sacifice.
We pray that they shall
always be powerful
and balanced, plentiful and
giving.
Elements of the world give
our spirit blessings
and strength.
Blessed Be.
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