I compared two prayers in works by Poul Anderson.
As Anderson's "Star Of the Sea" ends with a prayer for a safe return home from across the sea, the opening paragraph of COMING TO AMERICA 813 AD in Neil Gaiman's American Gods (London, 2001), pp. 58-60, ends with the same prayer but addressed to a different deity:
"They navigated the green sea by the stars and by the shore, and when the shore was only a memory and the night sky was overcast and dark they navigated by faith, and they called on the all-father to bring them safely to land once more." (p. 58)
Prayers for safety are probably the oldest.
9 comments:
Actually, they'd probably have called on Njord, the god of the sea and ships, not Odin. The All-Father was lord of battle and you called on him in war, or for poetic inspiration.
Excellent thinking.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I dunno, it would seem more natural for Scandinavian pagans to call on the boss god, Odin, rather than Njord. In Anderson's Scandinavian stories, people mostly invoked either Odin or Thor. Yes, there were exceptions! Such as the devotion Haakon Jarl the Great had for a minor goddess, a Valkyrie, in Anderson's MOTHER OF KINGS.
Sean
Mr Stirling,
Or Aegir, the sea giant? (Drowned sailors went to his hall as dead warriors went to Valhalla.)
Paul.
In a novel about Vikings, some Vikings stole a bell from a Cathedral of St John. The tolling of the bell kept their fleet together in a fog so they made offerings to Odin, Aegir and St John.
Sean,
Polytheism was/is departmental.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
That was amusing, the story which you read in which Viking pirates made offerings to St. John, because the bell stolen from his cathedral helped to keep their ships from scattering in a fog.
Yes, I do realize how "departmental" paganism is or was. No argument there.
Sean
Generally in Norse heathendom you offered to the gods at set occasions, invoking their attributes, and to specific deities for specific things.
Thor protected humanity from hostile magic and supernatural creatures, for instance: if you thought that elves or trolls were sending you ill-luck, you invoked him. He also brought the rain; he and his wife Sif were patrons of farmers; Njord governed weather-luck at sea. Several of the Vanir governed fertility and sexuality.
Tyr (originally the supreme deity before Odhin took over that role) was god of laws and lawful kingship.
Odhin was a chancy god to call on; he was the patron of warlords and fighting kings, of vikings, warriors and poets and also of sorcerers, and was known to eventually turn on his favorites, reaping them for his hall of heroes.
Likewise, there were several afterlives -- Hela's kingdom, Valhalla, etc.
If you had a special relationship with a god, you could call on them for help, and also for things like witnessing oaths. A 'Thing' would have an oath-ring, which might be sacred to several deities, for swearing public oaths at trials, and for composing feuds or sealing agreements.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree, pagan pantheons tended to be "departmental," with different gods being invoked for different things. Most of what you described can be found in Anderson's HROLF KRAKI'S SAGA, with the author warning in a preface that Scandinavian paganism was bloody and obscene. As you said, the gods got formal prayers and sacrifices at set intervals, with the sacrifices "appropriate" to them. Odin, for example, got men.
Yes, Odin was a tricky and often treacherous god, as we see in HROLF KRAKI'S SAGA and THE BROKEN SWORD. Odin the god of sorcery? That reminds me of how some of Danish Hjoldung kings and Swedish Yngling kings were said to be addicted into peering into things best left alone via sorcery.
Sean
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