PABLO ALEJO LOPEZ NUÑEZ

We arrive now in a field of religions who primarily can be regarded as shaman- istic according to traditional estimations. That the cult of Óðinn belongs to these is considered a general truth. I beleive there is reason also to regard the cult of the presumed god Gaut to this group. It is however an assumption founded on only very few indications. There is no real confirmation of shamanism in the cult of Gaut since the cult in fact is only presumed, but the Gothic halirunnae remind of the seeresses within the fertility cult, who rather dealt with the religion of the common people in contrary to the cults of the chieftains and warriors. The reason to treat this presumed cult under this rubrication is rather because of the fact, that there are reasons to assume the existence of cultic men’s leagues and warrior’s leagues of shamanistic character due to the known fact that later Óðinn appears with the double name Óðinn-gaut, and hence the two gods seem to have merged with each other into one god.

According to experiences from all over the world from so called primitive cul- tures, the male members of the tribe, after trials to prove their manhood, are ini- tiated in different kind of men’s or warrior’s leagues, and in this way getting a social position strongly differing them from women and children. The strongest aim for this behaviour is normally an ancestral cult. The initiation often includes some kind of ritual symbolic killing of the initiand and a resurrection into a state of a living dead, and so the young warrior may have a close and living contact with the ancestral spirits carrying their work further. In critical situations those spirits also may give him valuable help. Such a league rests on a cultic community and therefore it is in reality a cultic league.

Also there are possibilities that such leagues can be connected with a strong chieftain in a later stage of the development of a realm, or later a state, which is shown e.g. during the Middle Ages when Knights Orders of a more profane nature were erected. Even then one claimed religious motivations for the estab- lishment of the orders.

In different ways people try to embody spiritual beings and already dead per- sons. It might be done through disguising as an animal—teriomorph masking— or as kind of humanoid personifying a deity, an ancestor or another dead person—antropomorph masking. Initially there is no physical difference between ‘the other side’ and this one—between the world of the dead and of the living— but the dead are supposed to walk around among the living in the same world. Through their masking, their guise or hamre, they indeed really beleive they are the person whose features they have applied, disposing this persons or deitys

properties and strenght. They are indeed dead even if they live—they belong to the living dead—and so they can not in reality be killed even if their bodies should be destroyed.(Cf. Einhärjar and Hadjings who are resurrected all the time after having fallen in a battle.) Because not differing on the world of the dead and of the living—life continued mainly in the same way as before after death—those initiated naturally were part of their society, but later, when these worlds were regarded as different, they were seen as a more genuine death-army. This is the way they are regarded in later carnival follows. The understanding of the realm of the death was, besides, depending of the belonging to a social group. In the war- rior’s cult, where you were initiated to Óðinn, you ended up in Valhall—but only the bravest and only men. The other unceremoniously landed in the realm of the dead and its geography is very vague.

The permanent settled farmers had another wiew. In Eyrbyggjasaga is told that Þorolf settled at Þórrsnéss and had a temple built beside his farm. Close by was a mountain that he called the Holy Mountain, and that Þorolf regarded as so holy that nobody, not having washed oneself, was even allowed to watch it, and it was strictly forbidden to slay somebody there. Into this mountain he and his family were bound to go after death. He is later followed by his son Þorstein into the mountain where they are greeted by dead relatives. There fires are burning and horns are blown. Þorstein is allowed to sit in the high-seat right opposite his father. This is evidently a private realm of the dead just for the family, and it includes both men and women.

Accordingly there is a clear contrast between the cult and beliefs of the war- riors and of the farmers.

A parallel to these cultic leagues during Roman time is the cult of Mithras, which within the Roman army exhibits similar traits as the men’s leagues. There are seven degrees: The Ravens, the Veiled or Masced, the Soldiers, the Lions, the Persians, the Sun-runners and the Fathers. The Ravens is the lowest grade and they are regarded as the messengers of Mithras.(Cf. The ravens of Óðinn as mes- sengers.) It can be no coincidence that ravens and crows often appear as brands within (secret) men’s leagues. These birds are death- and carcass- birds and they live in great swarms. The Veiled have a position reminding of the Spartan Krypteia, closer commented in Mysterier by Johanssons. The most aged members, at last, compose the Fathers.(Johanssons 1986)

The aims with such a league may be various:

1. In a shamanistic religion it is important to fight the destructive chaos-forces. This calls for a strong army of heroes from all ages of time, helping the good gods to fight the destructive forces at occa- sions like Ragnar@k. Here both the Einhärjar of Óðinn and the Hadjings of Freja fit very well.

2. It is, however, not only on the divine level these forces are needed Mean demonic forces make everything possible to destroy the grow- ing power of the fields. If the tribe shall survive, these must be chased away and the growing power must be reconquered. (Cf. e.g. the werewolves in Livonia above)

3. The tribe, besides, needs protection also against human enemies. Also for this aim it is very useful to have ancestral and spiritual help.

4. Such a league might with time gradually change it’s function and eventually getting tied to kings or chieftains claiming a divine ances- try, or in another way representing the god of the league. These con- ditions are idealic for a ruler of a wandering tribe in the Migration Period Europe and a good precondition for the establishment of the later, more permanent Gefolgschaft-kingdoms.

(See further concerning these matters e.g. Höfler 1934, p.247; Johanssons 1986, p.10 ff.)

Below I will closer scrutinize different shapes of such men’s leagues or cultic leagues in connection with the cult of Óðinn. I presume, as earlier stated, that they also might be actual in connection with the Goths. As already mentioned there is a difficulty to define a borderline between Óðinn and Freja in a shaman- istic sense, but since the cult of Óðin seemingly also uses teriomorph characters these occurences probably should be connected with Óðinn more directly. In those cases I am hesitating I will state that in the commentaries. I start with a gen- eral survey of the cult of Óðinn in a broad sense. Later I look closer on the differ- ent stories about teriomorph warrior’s leagues and hero-sagas. The Helgikviðae will be examined and also the magical shamanism—the one aiming for contact

with the divine level. I will also examine the cult as documented on runic stones and in the iconographic representations of the gold-bracteates et c. Everything from cultic organizations and initiations—personally to a god or collectively to a league—to possible confirmation of cultic rituals.