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broomsick · 29 days ago

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Amazing post!

Álfablót — a key harvest ritual and the stratigraphy of elves.

"The role of death, cremation and ancestors on the one hand, and fertility, farming and continuity between the agricultural seasons on the other."

"The agricultural year defined the ritual year and the main challenge in winter was to create continuity from one season to the next."

"By putting on masks or cloaks, they became ancestors and played a key role in a series of winter sacrifices linked to the agricultural cycle."

(Kaliff, A & Østigård, T 2021)

Thoughts on writing this.

The end of the year agricultural rituals in rural south Scandinavian cosmology is something I find really interesting in my research and I enjoy finding ways of application in my own practice; complementary stories from archaeological records from the nordic bronze age leading up to today in living, reconstructed and syncretic folklore.

I've read alot of posts talking about Álfablót on here. So many great resources, critical perspectives and thoughtful approaches. I think I'll include a point on the subject of varriety in the text. I initially thought I'd write something just because there wasn't that much discussion about the material we use as base in our practices, but I've included my thoughts on creating ritual too. I kind of also wanna bring up the nuancing differences between the álfar, ancestors and landvættir as in how they are often synonymous or interchangable and sometimes not. I love Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen's recent tongue-in-cheek post saying:

"USM" - an important concept in Nordic Animism meaning: "Unverified Source Material". The point is that something that you find in the Eddic Poem Grímnismál should be taken with a grains of salt, unless it is verified by personal gnosis, direct revelatory experience.

So I just want to add to the larger discussion rather than be advocating for some kind of super strict counter-productive and boring un-eco One Way. Have it your way™. Do not take my word or any text as gospel at any time, if you find it useful, incorporate it into your own stuff. Many heathen organizations have their own interpretations of Álfablót. It's typically organic to shape events to suit the group, I get that! Just like most solo practitioners (👋🏼) have too. For those new to practicing nordic religious systems, it’s helpful to explore the sources that inform these opinions. Not just the Eddas but like.. older weirder archaeological stuff like mesolithic hazelnut frenzy and heads on poles in Motala ström, King-maker's sacrificial NBA tombs in Kivik. To semi-newer ethnographically shitty accounts in "Värend & Virdane" by Hyltén-Cavallius on Småländska peoples and them sharing (non-syncretically) religious buildings in folkloric 1600s etc etc. Err. Yeah. Broaden your reading beyond the viking age.

Most myths were ecologically informed, still unabstracted, yet often metaphoric in language. Tyson Yunkaporta (Sandtalk, 2019) calls metaphors the language of spirit. Some say reject modernity and reject tradition — forget both — embrace rejecting a secret third thing; abstractification that make myths indigestable. Put the myths back into the mud! They weren’t intellectual exercises or purely abstract concepts; they were lived experiences encoded in narrative.

The source material.

While RHR is right in the sense that they are unverified source materials — as far as the little material that we have could prove anything beyond being written about. As álfar are frequently mentioned in the medieval texts, it is suggested, at the very least, that álfar were somewhat prominent figures in some parts of nordic religious systems and how they actually gradually change in our perception of them over time (and in the literature). Whether a holiday (as opposed to any other blót) was kept specifically to honor the álfar or not is hard to say with confidence, since there is so little to go on. However, álfablót is noted in a two primary sources, but it's essentially the same story:

One is chapter 91 of Óláfs Saga Helga in Heimskringla, assumed to have been authored by Snorri Sturluson, ca. 1230. You can read the saga here in Swedish and use any translator application to read it in your native language. You can also find it on Skaldic Project (endless reading material) but it can be a bit harder to navigate and read if you're not used to being on that site.

The part that we're interested in is Austrfararvísur (‘Verses on a Journey to the East’), a poem as composed by Sigvatr Þórðarson some ~200 years before Snorri's Heimskringla in ~1019. Sigvatr was a court poet to norwegian king Olaf Haraldson, sent to Lake Mälaren and (Swedish) king Olof of Svíþjóð. Please read the notes on Skaldic Project to see the differences between the two sources, there is a commentary comparison between the interpretations. The relevance of Álfablót — and really, all we have to go on — is in part quoted below:

Austrfararvísur.

Hugstóra biðk heyra hressfœrs jǫfurs, þessar — þolðak vás — hvé vísur, verðung, of fǫr gerðak. Sendr vask upp af ǫndrum austr (svafk fátt í hausti) til Svíþjóðar (síðan) svanvangs í fǫr langa.

I ask the mighty-hearted retinue of the energetic ruler [Óláfr] to hear how I composed these verses about a journey; I endured hardship. I was sent up from the skis of the swan-plain on a long journey east to Sweden; I slept little after that in the autumn.

Létk til Eiðs, þvít óðumk aptrhvarf, dreginn karfa (vér stiltum svá) valtan vátr (til glœps á báti). Taki hlœgiskip hauga herr; sákat far verra; létk til húms á hrúti hætt; fór betr an vættak.

Wet, I had the unsteady vessel dragged to Eið, because I dreaded turning back; we had managed so badly in the boat. May the host of burial mounds take the laughable ship; I never saw a worse craft; I courted danger on the ram of the sea; it went better than I had expected.

Vasa fý*st, es rannk rastir reiðr of skóg frá Eiðum — menn of veit, at mœttum meini — tolf ok eina. Hykka fót án flekkum — fell sár á il hvára — — hvast gengum þó þingat þann dag — konungsmǫnnum.

It was not my desire when I ran, angry, twelve leagues and one through the forest from Eiðar; people know that we met with harm. I think not a foot of the king’s men was without sores; a wound landed on each sole; still, we travelled keenly there that day.

Réðk til Hofs at hœfa; hurð vas aptr, en spurðumk — inn settak nef nenninn niðrlútt — fyrir útan. Orð gatk fæst af fyrðum, (flǫgð baðk) en þau sǫgðu — hnekkðumk heiðnir rekkar — heilagt (við þau deila).

I resolved to aim for Hof; the door was barred, but I made enquiries from outside; resolute, I stuck my down-bent nose in. I got very little response from the people, but they said [it was] holy; the heathen men drove me off; I bade the ogres bandy words with them.

‘Gakkat inn,’ kvað ekkja, ‘armi drengr, en lengra; hræðumk ek við Óðins — erum heiðin vér — reiði.’ Rýgr kvazk inni eiga óþekk, sús mér hnekkði, alfablót, sem ulfi ótvín, í bœ sínum.

'Do not come any farther in, wretched fellow’, said the woman; ‘I fear the wrath of Óðinn; we are heathen.’ The disagreeable female, who drove me away like a wolf without hesitation, said they were holding a sacrifice to the elves inside her farmhouse.

Nú hafa hnekkt, þeirs hnakka (heinflets) við mér settu, (þeygi bella þollar) þrír samnafnar (tíri). Þó séumk hitt, at hlœðir hafskíðs myni síðan út, hverrs Ǫlvir heitir, alls mest, reka gesti.

Now three namesakes have driven me away, they who turned their backs on me; not at all do the firs of the whetstone-platform display praiseworthiness. However, I fear this above all, that every loader of the ocean-ski who is named Ǫlvir will henceforth chase strangers away.

(translation by Fulk, R. D. (2012). "Austrfararvísur". In Whaley, Diana (ed.). Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols. p. 578.)

Interpreting the material.

"any set body of “Old Norse religious” beliefs, myths and rituals ever having existed over a wide area of space and time (similar to those known in Christianity or Islam) should be abandoned" (Gunnell, T. "Pantheon? What Pantheon?" 2015)

Historic nordic religious systems are not entirely geographically homogenous, which is why I say nordic "religious systems" (DuBois 1999: 7–8). Álfablót in the source material took place in central Scandinavia and may differ in unknown and varrying degrees in other Nordic regions. Further unclear is which sagas that have had key elements swapped, omitted, altered or added, depending on who performed them, where, for whom and for what gain/motif/purpose. Lotte Motz (1984) has a great point:

‘MOST of our knowledge of Germanic myth is derived from the Old Icelandic texts and especially from the Eddas. The Eddic tales center their attention on the trials and triumphs of the male members of the pantheon and tell us little of the female forces. That these wielded powers we learn, however, from votive monuments, from the names of natural and man-made places, from Tacitus’s Germania, and from the traditions of the countryside. From these heterogeneous sources scholars have tried to reconstruct the features of the ancient goddesses, and have drawn figures which are to some degree related to fertility and, sometimes, death. In these attempts the scholars have made little use of the abundant information offered by the long memory of folk-belief. I have turned, in contrast, to folk-customs and folk-legends and I claim that the material has allowed me to discern the clearly defined form of potent female forces.��

Back to the story. The journey took court skald Sigvatr from somewhere around Borg or Oslo through Edaskogen/Eiðaskógr in the Norwegian/Swedish-Värmland borderlands where he was denied hospitality. Again denied twice at a Hof (a temple) but specifically the farmhouse nearby, just north of Skara in western Sweden's Götaland, and a fourth time. He was given the reason of álfablót, a sacrifice to the elves.

I have personally heard an undocumented addition where Sigvatr asks trolls to deal with the heathens for their inhospitality. As in:

"the trolls having replied they would so no such thing as this was an especially important/private night and they feared repercussion too, and could not even be persuaded by payment." (no source/USG)

It might be west Swedish folklore from the same area Sigvatr was first denied. Which is where I heard it.

It's interesting to note that Sigvatr supposedly (atleast to me it seems as if he) traveled all the way from Norway to Skara in a single night. It seems unlikely. Commentary (on Skaldic) suggest there were in fact two journeys, one for ~1017 and one for ~1018. It isn’t even clear in which stanza Sigvatr was present himself.

I don't treat it as a full day event — not just talking about it taking place in the evening and into the night, but because I don't believe that Álfablót was held on multiple nights in a row; rather, it seems to me to be a rhetorical device used to emphasize a narrating style: Denied! Also denied! Again? Denied immediately again! ..

Álfar, ancestors and landvættir.

"it seems clear that the extant early Nordic sources point to a range of different understandings of alfar which varied over time and in accordance with the worldviews of the writers. This is, of course, not surprising when the heart of belief in the original alfar seems to have centred in Sweden rather than in England or Iceland (where most written sources originated). The sources also indicate quite clearly a gradual development (largely under the influence of the Church and thirteenth- and fourteenth- century translations of French romances such as Tristrams saga" and Möttuls saga) in which the álfar gradually began to be blended with the early landvattir (nature spirits) that appear to have been deeply rooted in the popular consciousness of those living in the Nordic countries from an early point" (Gunnell, T "How Elvish Were The Álfar?" 2007)

In the earliest texts mentioning Álfar, they are placed in the the same figurative room as the Æsir - "ása ok álfa/Æsr and Álfar" (Hávamál, stanza 159; Grímnismál, stanza 4; Skírnismál, stanza 7; and Lokasenna, stanzas 2, 13, and 30). At this time, before later medieval folklore, it contextually separates them from the underground landvættir/land spirits. Hávamál 159 lists álfar as tivar/gods, and several scholars and authors note the álfar as synonymous with the Vanir. The Vanir and the álfar are also connected in Grímnismál stanza 5, where Freyr gets Álfheimr. There’s also the link between Freyr - Skírnir/Shining, and the sun Álfröðull/The Elf Wheel in Vafprúðnismál stanza 47 and Skírnismál stanza 4. The Vanir are often associated with a whiteness too (it sounds like a weird term to use tbh, but I'm taking about cosmological brightness and the color of white earth minerals), like how Heimdallr is described in Prymskviða stanza 15. Plus, there’s that parallel between king Freyr’s grave mound worship and ancestors. Same thing with Ólafr Geirstaðaálfr, a name ge gained post-humously. The two, adding a Birka king, all three became subjected to worship and offering rituals in the air of ancestry and ancestral reincarnation. This is part of the process of becoming a beneficial ancestor where patrons give blessings (gifts) for ones of equal worth in return. A gift-based economic cycle of reciprocity between the living and the dead. It wasn't really until Arthurian legends like Tristan & Isolde and when they came into translation where the álfar were associated with the landvættir. Landvættir were previously different from álfar and meant a number of different hidden/secretive magic people that lived underground, such as Huldufólk, Berg/moldbúar, trolls and Dwarves. But seing as álfar were already inhabiting grave mounds, and how both álfar and landvættir had a gift-based reciprocity repetoire of blessings, it is easy to see how they became synonymous. Please read "How Elvish Were The Álfar? by Terry Gunnell (2007) for the full detailed transitional phase of álfar to landvættir.

A brief note on Ljóssálfar vs Dókkálfar. John Lindow (2002) suggests Dókkálfar are indistinguishable from dwarves. And since we've worked out the existence of a álfar-to-landvættir chronology, Dwarves-to-landvættir is just a different car going in the same direction.

I'm also not getting the vibe that Óðinn was or would be present in any shape during an álfablót, I am getting the vibe that either Freyja or Freyr were substituted by the scarier Óðinn, as invoked in name, to ward off Christian strangers, again, for narrating style. I can't prove my vibe — other than examples like, did Freyr or Óðinn own Skíðblaðnir? (Snorri Sturluson 2005: 36 [Gylfaginning ch. 43]; cf. Snorri Sturluson 1941–51: I, 18) — but seeing as we have (I have) already landed about knee-deep in a puddle of álfar-synonymous-vanir I find it unnecessary to call for old Báleygr, let him sit lol.

The hosts of the event were referred to as Ólvir, commonly translated into Öl + verr = ale-men, as in ale-host, as in just host but there will be ale. You could also spin that thread further and consider them as potential event-conduits for the Álfar — ancestors — or the proclamation of ancestry in the sense of reincarnation of the Álfar.

Álfar in stratigraphy.

Let's get weird about it again. Remember the part about whiteness? Alv isn't just swedish for Elf, it's also the word for a white, mineral-rich layer of earth. It comes from the Old Norse word Álfr, which in Proto-Germanic was Albiz, meaning white, and from the Proto-Indo-European albʰós, which also means white. So, I’m talking about this earth layer called Alv. In English, you call it subsoil (B-horizon). The stratigraphy goes like this: organic matter, topsoil, Alv, then the C-horizon. Alv is the white, mineral-rich upper part of the subsoil.

Going a bit tangential on you, but hear me out: our dead return to the earth, and we understand álfr are thought to live underground in some capacity. Even when likened to the sun or the ground, they'r pale. Why are the vanir even described like that, and as álfar? I guess the common denominator of things like Álfröðull the elf wheel = shining sun + white mineral ground = fertility? A wheel was and is still sometimes set on fire and sent downhill in order to torch the agrarian sun. There are other parallels for the álfar and Alv (ground) as landvættirs, both as biotic (living) and (non-living) abiotic. Abiotic?? Like this: think of Älvdans (elf-dance), the mist that dances over meadows — that’s an abiotic álfar/landvættir exercising atmospheric agency.

Dating the event.

It is reasonable to turn to Andreas Norberg for calendar work, for he has done some of the most extensive research on it. Álfablót is at the begining of the winter half-year, during harvest season. Harvest rituals were intimately related to animal husbandry, crops, the agricultural year as a whole and it's annual growth. Processes which were always vulnerable to and at the mercy of climate and weather. Farm duties were carried out sequentially leading to the winter nights held 28 days after the fall equinox. The fall equinox of 2024 was September 22, followed by Winter Nights on October 20. We know that a lunar reckoning was observed. Also per the vast amount of known runic calendars. Scholars place Álfablót two moons after the fall equinox: first full moon after Autumn month/Höstmånad/Haustmánaður during Slaughter month/Slaktmånad/Górmanaður. This tells us Álfablót can be performed on friday November 15, for 2024. This goes for northern hemisphere observers. (Norberg, A "Jul, disting och förkyrklig tideräkning". 2006)

Creating ritual.

Álfablót focuses on the human to land and spirit relationships, with special privacy. It is logistically hard to perform a public blót in a larger village or town when the focus is much more local by design. Austrfararvísur were all rural events. You honor those you can remember. Those with whom you have stories and memories. While álfar, landspirits and ancestors were typically associated with roaming burial mounds, cairns and grounds. Your connection doesn't have to be as palpable as hunched over a burial mound. But you can visit them if you have that access.

Perhaps the most striking example of this connection comes from The Saga of Olaf the Holy, one of the first Christian kings of Norway. In this saga, Olaf and a servant ride past the burial mound of the king’s ancestor and namesake, who is now called by the name of Ólaf Geirstaðaálfr – literally “Olaf, the Elf of Geirstad,” a title that clearly implies the currently elfin state of the king’s forefather. The same passage also insinuates that King Olaf is the reincarnation of the deceased Olaf, presumably through the hamingja. Part of the elder Olaf seems to have become an elf, while another part has been passed on to Olaf the younger. (x)

You can asume whatever shape you want and make the blót fit your locale, and you should. If you want historical inspiration for appearing in the shape of such ancestors; in depicted scenes of the nordic bronze age and throughout the iron age, masks and or helmets have been present for rituals, often scenes relating to initiation, shapeshifting and transition.

"Wherever there are mask cults, these are ancestor cults; the masks transform the wearer into an ancestor" (Kershaw, 2000)

In its inherent liminality.

Lifecycle rituals define social roles and identities but also the transition between them, with masks seen as the most effective means of transformation. (Saetersdal, 1995)

During Jul/Yule:

"in rural Norway, legends directly linked the masked youngsters to the ancestors and wights. In fact, the ancestors as wights and the masked youngsters behaved identically: they ate and drank the same, and dwelt in the same places on the farm." (Kaliff, A & Østigård, T 2021)

— Light it up! Bring them into the warmth and light! Fireplace, small campfire, huge courtyard blazing bonfire or Yankee candles doesn't matter. Use what you have access to.

— Cook and bake for them. Use seasonal produce to keep somewhat true to being a harvest ritual. Badass if you're really doing the work on a farm in accordance with lunar reckoning. I've done part time veg farm work for 3 years, it's not badass, it's yelling at micro-plastics in the soil. If you are co-hosting it, a meal is best shared anyway!

— Tell their stories, as many as you can. Write them down. But remember them by memory too!

That may or may not appear basic, but you are free to express your love any way you see fit. I advice strongly against animal sacrifice.

You are free to perform Álfablót in whatever way feels right for you. Respectfully syncretize, mix thoughtfully, and take the opportunity to learn and grow. There aren’t strict rule, we don't actually know shit about the real Álfablót, yet I still wrote the above lol. Use it to create a ritual that works for you. Explore the sources I've given, and remember that rabbit holes are always you-sized and run as deep as they go. Seek out critiques and reviews of any sources you consult.

You really read this far? nerd! Hope whatever you do brings you closer to your practice. ✌🏼

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