Yule - A Pagan Tradition

Hey there friends! This is a video about the pagan roots of the Christmas season, focused on the Northern European Pagan traditions only. I hope you enjoy this video. Please subscribe to keep the videos coming; your support and feedback is greatly appreciated.

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Introduction to: The God Freyr

I leave you here with a video I’ve done a year ago, speaking about the Norse/Germanic deity – the god Freyr.

You can read about this deity here at my blog, of course. But for those of you who prefer to listen rather than reading, I recomend my own video on the subject 😛 hehe.

If you want more videos about such subjects, please subscribe to my channel; your support and feedback keep the videos coming. I hope you enjoy this one and any suggestions you can always speak to me freely.

Enjoy the video friends! 😀

The Oracle of Delphi

One of the things that has always fascinated me the most, were the tales of oracles, prophetesses of the ancient world, sorcerers and so on. When I turn my studies to ancient Greece, I cannot help but to go and delve a little bit more into the knowledge of the oracle of Delphi. So let us leave the north of Europe for a time and go south into the ancient world of heroes and strange myths.

Situated south-west of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis, Delphi was a Greek city associated with the god Apollo. According to the legends, the hill was guarded by a giant serpent called Python, who was a follower of the cult of Gaia (the goddess or the personification of Earth). After killing Python, the god Apollo claimed Delphi as his own sanctuary. 

Every myth has its own truths; metaphores protecting the culture and tradition of a people. So this mythological account might well be based on actual events. Historically and archaeologicaly speaking, during the Mycenaean period (14 th-11th centuries B.C.) there were small settlements in Delphi dedicated to the Earth-Mother as a deity. However, the worshipping of Apollo was established between the 11th and the 9th centuries B.C. By the 8th century B.C. the city of Delphi was already renowned amongst the peoples of the ancient world as a place of prophetic powers held by the Pythia.

"Pythia" was the name given to any priestess throughout the history of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. The priestess, apparently, was a woman over fifty years of age, lived apart from her husband and dressed in a maiden’s clothes. It's described to us that the ritual of the Pythia during the call of her prophecies required her to first enter the inner chamber of the temple, then she would sit on a tripod and inhale the light hydrocarbon gasses that escape from a chasm in which the temple was build. After falling into a trance, she would mutter words impossible to understand (at least to mere mortals). These words were thereafter interpreted by the priests of the sanctuary in a common language and delivered to those who had requested the prophecies of the Pythia. But of course, these prophecies were always open to interpretation and often signified dual and opposing meanings.

Some interpretations of the prophecies were just what people needed to hear to convince themselves to go to war or fight a specific battle; and as you might imagine, sometimes it went terribly wrong. Nevertheless, some prophecies were accurate and things did happen the way the prophecies had been translated and interpreted. Coincidence? Perhaps, but there were major events that were just too great to be mere coincidence. Nowadays our society has deprived us all of the magic and mystery of the world and what lies beyond conciousness. So I will just leave this post here and you decide what to make of prophecies, although I must say, sometimes there are forces at work greater than our desires and certain paths must be taken before we reach our true goals with success.

Denmark’s new stash of Viking gold

It was found in Denmark, in a fiel near Vejen, a stash composed of seven wonderfully crafted bracelets, six of which are made out of gold, and one of silver.

The bracelets were handed over to the Sønderskov museum, and I must point out that this treasure was found by amateurs, and just like any responsable adult, the people in question delivered the treasure to their rightful place. Anyway - a little bit of personal thoughts on the matter - the bracelets date back to 900AD, and are decorated in a style typical to Viking jewelry weared by nobility or with high-status in society.

It is important to take in mind that the so called Viking Age is actually the "silver age" when it comes to hoards. The vast majority of them contain only silver. If there is gold, it is always a small part, which isn't the case in this specific finding, since objects made out of gold are the majority of this hoard.

Swedish King's Grave of the Bronze Age

The entrance to the tomb - [Photo Credits]

Kungagraven, translating - The King's Grave - is the name given to the Nordic Bronze Age tomb located in southeastern Sweden, in the province of Skåne near Kivik. A double burial architecture with more or less 3000 years old. A magnificent structure of an unusual size; it is the largest known burial mound in Sweden.

Unfortunately the site was used as a quarry for construction materials until 1748 when two farmers quarrying in the old mound uncovered a 3.25 meters (11 ft) stone tomb, constructed with ten slabs of stone measuring 0.65 meters (2.1 ft.) wide and 1.2 meters (3.9 ft.).

The stones within the cairn represent various symbols, including sun wheels and possibly Bronze Age mortuary rituals held before, during and after the burial. There is also the representation of grave goods. The mound contained two cists which are adorned with petroglyphs which show people and ships, weapons, lurs being played, symbols, animals (including birds and fish), and a chariot drawn by two horses and having four-spoked wheels.

Archaeological investigations of the tomb were carried out during the 30's of the past century. Within this large mound it was found another burial chamber which was called "Prinskammaren" meaning: The Prince’s Chamber (smaller compared to the first one).

Inside the tomb - [Photo Credits]

A Celtic Chieftain's Grave

To this day the celts are still a strong subject which awakens the interest of many. Although with each passing year we are coming to the conclusion that the celts were not a people but merely a culture withdly spread, and that in fact the "celts" are thousands of different peoples who have adopted "celtic" cultural, political and religious similarities, it's still a fascinating subject. The more we dig the past, the better we can understand how our ancestors lived, and when it comes to study a culture which left nothing writen behind, and the only records are from outsiders or from people who lived long after the culture they are trying to discribe was already the stuff of legend, it's always difficult to comprehend the true nature of bygone population who shared a certain traditional background. Fortunately, archaeology has given us new insights on how the "celts" conducted their lives, what were their traditions, political and religious consciousness and, of course, their daily activities.

At the end of the 70's of the last century, a celtic burial chamber was found near Hochdorf an der Enz, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. A richly furnished chieftain's burial mound dating back to, more or less, year 530 BC. The interred subject in this grave, laid out upon a lavishly decorated 9 ft (275 cm) bronze couch on wheels, was about 40 years old and unusually tall for a person of the Iron Age (being a bit over 6ft tall (182 cm)). Judging by the objects found in the grave, this man had probably been a chieftain.

I've said this before, and here it goes again, we archaeologists spend a lot of time with the dead, it's true. The dead (well, their resting places) provide us with a lot of information about the societies of the past especially the votive objects which are, most of the time, what people gave much importance to. The graves of people who were highly respected and revered by the community of their time, are always the ones with a lot of artefacts, and these give us a lot of clues in how the societies of the time functioned.

The well-preserved funerary objects of this grave provided a lot of knowledge into the world of the rulers of these societies during the late Iron Age. This chieftain had been buried with a gold-plated torc on his neck which is clearly a symbol of power and strength; amber jewelry which have always been a "must-have" material, due to its rarety, since the Paleolithic; a gold-plated dagger made of bronze and iron, that we must not forget that this was the age of metals and such weapons had no use in war but were merely symbols of power and prestige; a bracelet on his right arm, a nail clipper, a comb, fishing hooks, a flat cone-shaped hat made of birch bark adorned with circle patterns and punched decorations, arrows, a razor knife, and thin embossed gold plaques were on his now-disintegrated shoes. At this man's feet was a large bronze cauldron, filled with honeyed-mead. The entrance to the burial mound was facing north, and the mound itself was surrounded by a stone ring and oak posts. The east side of the tomb contained an iron-plated, wooden, four-wheeled wagon holding a set of bronze dishes – along with the drinking horns found on the walls, enough to serve nine people. The one reserved for the host was delicately decorated with gold, the tip being adorned with beads made of bones. 

Nearby the burial mound, a museum dedicated to the grave was built, and fortunately enough during the construction of museum the foundations of an ancient Celtic village were found - probably the one to which the chieftain belonged to.

The Viking Priests and Priestesses of Sandvika

In the year of 1963, a burial ground with 24 graves inside the bay of Sandvika on the eastern side of the island of Jøa, in Central Norway, were discovered. The bodies were buried in a sitting position, and after a close analyses the dating  of the remains go back to the years 650 to 1000 AD. The unusual burial caracteristics showned that these northmen belonged to a specific group of people within the Viking society.

Unlike other graves from the Viking Age, this graveyard was unknown to the human sight, because the bodies were not placed inside a burial mound that is could be clearly visible in the terrain, or marked in any other way but rune stones or anything of that kind. These Vikings were lowered into funnel-shaped shell sand holes. This burial ground is unique in Scandinavia, and these people are the only ones to have ever been found like this - in a  sitting position. So why were they placed like this?

Lets make a quick analyses of the bodies. The people in question must have been dead for at least twenty-four hours so that rigor mortis has made it possible to shape the body into a sitting position. Also, it must have been very difficult to dig out chairs in the porous shell sand, so to go into all this trouble these people were not common folk amongst their community. There is another aspect which must be taken into consideration. In 14 of the 24 graves there were found skeletons and skeletal remains; the other 10 graves were simply empty. The remains were identify has belonging to 7 women and 4 men. Analysis shows that the women in question reached an average age of 47 years. (It has only been possible to determine the age of one of the men, and he died at the age of 40.)

The women had an average height of 157.2 centimeters (5ft 2in), and the men 162.6 centimeters (5ft 4in), which is much lower than the normal height for this period. The men were as much as 10 centimeters (3.9in) lower than the average for the Viking Age (172.6 cm / 5ft 8in).

The dating of the artifacts found here, shows that these Vikings were buried fully clothed in the period between 650 and 1000 AD, (from the Merovingian period to the end of the Viking Age), and it seems like the burial custom ended when Christianity was forced with swords upon the Norse society.

Today, on the other side of the small river Hovselva (the Hof River) is the Hov (Hof) farm located in the northeast – indicating that there was a pagan temple located close to the burial ground. In all of the 24 graves there were found remnants of bonfires, so it is natural to assume that there must have been some kind of ritual that includes bonfire in connection with the funeral.

Another peculiarity is that about half of the bodies were facing north-northeast (facing the Hof itself) and half to the south-southeast. No one was facing directly east and only one body was facing directly to the west. As many as ten knifes were found in 9 different graves. They vary in length, but none of them has a blade more than 20 centimeters and consequently have not been used as Viking combat weapons. The individuals they belonged to must have used these knives for a very specific purpose. There were no other weapons found inside the graves, which is unusual for the Viking Age. However, there were also found beads, brooches, finger rings and keys, but there is no repeating pattern.

Summarizing: these people were buried in a small area close to a heathen Hof, and the dead were put down in a sitting position. There was no marking of the graves but they may have been marked with ornamental shrubs or flowers; almost all of the graves contain remnants of bonfire, and there are no traces of weapons. However, there were found many “regular” cut knives; the bodies were facing north-northeast and south-southeast. No one was facing directly towards the east.

So who were these Vikings? They might have been “hovgydjer” - pagan priests and priestesses. The knives might have been used for sacrifice, or were the tools of these priests and priestesses. If thise is the case, it is very important for the understandment of the people who practiced the magical arts. It was common in Viking Age society that the only ones to practice sorcery, witchcraft, spell-work, divination and so on, were only women. But in this community it might have been different; it's quite plausable that men also did this kind of work.

We also have to take into consideration that these specific men were very small, and possibly very fragile. So it may have been that the community found a way to give them a purpose, a trade, a way to help the community since they might have been to fragile for other harduous works. Or maybe we are in the presence of an old Shamanic custome, where men who had certain feminine qualities were revered and worked as spiritual guides. Well, this remains a mystery.