Tracing Old Norse Cosmology: The World Tree, Middle Earth, and the Sun in Archaeological Perspectives

197 Pages·2014·5.76 MB·English

by  Anders Andrén

VÄGAR TILL MIDGÅRD 16
Tracing Old Norse Cosmology
The world tree, middle earth, and the sun
from archaeological perspectives
Anders Andrén
NORDIC ACADEMIC PRESS
VÄGAR TILL MIDGÅRD
1. Myter om det nordiska. Mellan romantik och politik
Catharina Raudvere, Anders Andrén & Kristina Jennbert (eds)
2. Plats och praxis. Studier av nordisk förkristen ritual
Kristina Jennbert, Anders Andrén & Catharina Raudvere (eds)
3. Kunskap och insikt i norrön tradition. Mytologi, ritualer och
trolldomsanklagelser
Catharina Raudvere
4. Ordning mot kaos. Studier av nordisk förkristen kosmologi
Anders Andrén, Kristina Jennbert & Catharina Raudvere (eds)
5. Minne och myt. Konsten att skapa det förflutna
Åsa Berggren, Stefan Arvidsson & Ann-Mari Hållans (eds)
6. Hedendomen i historiens spegel. Bilder av det förkristna Norden
Catharina Raudvere, Anders Andrén & Kristina Jennbert (eds)
7. Att se och tänka med ritual. Kontrakterande ritualer i de isländska
släktsagorna
Peter Habbe
8. Old Norse religion in long-term perspectives. Origins, changes and
interactions
Anders Andrén, Kristina Jennbert & Catharina Raudvere (eds)
9. Föreställd hedendom. Tidigmedeltida skandinaviska kyrkportar i forskning
och historia
Gunnar Nordanskog
10. De odödliga. Förhistoriska individer i vetenskap och media
Nina Nordström
11. Draksjukan. Mytiska fantasier hos Tolkien, Wagner och de Vries
Stefan Arvidsson
12. En grundläggande handling. Byggnadsoffer och dagligt liv i medeltid
Ann-Britt Falk
13. Med kärret som källa. Om begreppen offer och ritual inom arkeologin
Åsa Berggren
14. Animals and Humans. Recurrent symbiosis in archaeology and Old Norse
religion
Kristina Jennbert
15. Fornminnen. Det förflutnas roll i det förkristna och kristna Mälardalen
Ann-Mari Hållans Stenholm
16. Tracing Old Norse Cosmology. The world tree, middle earth, and the sun
from archaeological perspectives
Anders Andrén
The project ‘Roads to Midgard – Old Norse Religion in Long-term
Perspectives’ was financed by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation.
The publication of Tracing Old Norse Cosmology has been made possible with
grants from the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation.
ISSN 1650-5905
Copying or other kinds of reproduction of this work
requires specific permission by the publisher.
Nordic Academic Press
Box 1206
221 05 Lund
[email protected]
www.nordicacademicpress.com
© Nordic Academic Press and Anders Andrén 2014
Jacket design: Jacob Wiberg
Jacket image: ‘Borr’s sons’ © Peter Hupfauf/BUS
Tryckt utgåva ISBN 978-91-85509-38-6
E-bok ISBN 978-91-87675-01-0
Contents
Preface
1. Old Norse cosmology as an archaeological challenge
Cosmological aspects of Old Norse religion
The chronological and spatial horizons of Old Norse cosmology
Archaeology and Old Norse cosmology
Three archaeological studies
2. In the shadow of Yggdrasill
Mythological trees
Real trees
Representations of trees
The archaeology of ‘tree settings’
The semiotics of the ‘tree settings’
The world from the view-point of ‘tree settings’
The tree in Old Norse religion
3. A world of stone
A biography of Ismantorp
Ölandic comparisons
Scandinavian forts
Outlines of an early Scandinavian martial culture
War as ritualized action
War and cosmology
Models and parallels
Back to Ismantorp
Ismantorp and Old Norse cosmology
4. Whirls, horses, and ships
Early picture stones on Gotland
New contexts
An initial pictorial analysis
A return trip to Bronze Age iconography
Bridging the gap between Eskelhem and Sanda
Bronze Age perspectives on early Gotlandic picture stones
Metalwork in the Iron Age
A special case: the gold bracteates
Iron Age perspectives on early Gotlandic picture stones
The sun in later mythological contexts
Tracing sun rituals
The disappearance of solar symbols and sun rituals in the sixth century
Solar traditions through time
5. Placing Old Norse cosmology in time and space
Different trajectories
The Migration Period as a cluster of changes
The Huns
The dust veil
The disappearance of the sun-oriented traditions in the sixth century
A golden age
Outlines of a new context
References
Primary Old Norse sources
Other primary sources and secondary literature
Preface
This book has been on its way for a long time, too long actually. My interest in
studying cosmology from archaeological perspectives started in the 1990s. First
I published investigations of Christian cosmology in urban and rural settings
(Andrén 1998b, 1999, 2000b), although I conducted parallel fieldwork at the
Iron Age ringfort of Ismantorp on Öland in 1997–2001. My interests in pre-
Christian aspects of cosmology were more pronounced during 2000–2007, when
I co-directed the interdisciplinary project Roads to Midgard – Old Norse
Religion in Long-term Perspectives at Lund University. My professional move
to a position at Stockholm University in 2005 meant a lot of new work and
responsibilities, but also an important broadening of my chronological horizons.
I have been increasingly engaged in the international scene of Scandinavian
studies as well. From colleagues in folklore studies, the history of religion,
literary studies, and philology I have deepened my interdisciplinary
understanding of ancient Scandinavia.
Other projects (Andrén 2010, 2011a, 2011b) have interrupted this book, but
now that it is finally finished, I owe many people my sincere thanks. Although
the project Roads to Midgard no longer formally exists as an active network, the
book is published in the series of the project, since many of the ideas and
preliminary investigations were formed within this inspiring environment.
Therefore my first and warmest thanks go to my co-directors Kristina Jennbert
and Catharina Raudvere and to the participants, Stefan Arvidsson, Åsa Berggren,
Maria Domeij, Ann-Britt Falk, Peter Habbe, Ann-Mari Hållans Stenholm, Ann-
Lili Nielsen (who sadly died in 2008), Gunnar Nordanskog, Nina Nordström,
Heike Peter, Jörn Staecker, and Louise Ströbeck.
During my fieldwork at Ismantorp, Mats Blomhé was my closest
collaborator, who cheered up the working days with his knowledge and quiet
humour. Other indispensable participants during the fieldwork were David
Andrén, Henke Fallgren, Lotta Fernstål, Roberto Grassi, Bent Gregersen, Peter
Pedersen, Magnus Pettersson, Jack Simonsen, and Klaus Thorsen. In Stockholm,
I have encountered a large and very inspiring scholarly environment. In this
context, I would like to single out for my warmest thanks Kerstin Cassel and
Susanne Thedéen, who have read and commented some of the chapters, and
Torun Zachrisson, who has read the whole book, and has given many comments
from her immense knowledge of Iron Age Scandinavia. I started looking at the
Bronze Age following a kind invitation to Copenhagen from Klavs Randsborg to
be the examiner for Flemming Kaul’s doctoral thesis. In further studies of
cosmology in the Bronze Age and Iron Age, I have had rewarding discussions
with Kristian Kristiansen and Lotte Hedeager as well.
In the international world of Scandinavian studies, I have met many
colleagues with a passion for and profound knowledge of the ancient Nordic
world. I am deeply indebted to Terry Gunnell who has read the whole book, and
commented on the content as well as the language. My profound thanks go to
Margaret Clunies Ross as well. She was a very considerate host during a
sabbatical in Sydney in the spring of 2006, and has read the whole book with a
critical – but friendly – eye. In Sydney, I also had interesting discussions with
Peter Hupfauf concerning possible ways of using Old Norse traditions in art.
Finally, Olle Sundqvist has been kind enough to read the whole book, and to
share his insights on the issue of religion.
During three other sabbaticals, my scholarly horizons have been broadened in
other directions. In 2009–10 at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in
Uppsala, the daily discussions, above all with Philipp Lepenies and Björn
Wittrock, gave me new insights into different areas of humanities and social
sciences, with clear relevance for this study. During the winter term in 2010–11
in Heidelberg, Thomas Meier and Roland Prien introduced me to Late Antiquity
and the early Middle Ages in central Europe. During excursions and ongoing
discussions, I had to revise several of my preconceived ideas about these
periods. During a second period at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study
in Uppsala in 2013, I had the pleasure of working with John Lindow, Steve
in Uppsala in 2013, I had the pleasure of working with John Lindow, Steve
Mitchell, and Jens Peter Schjødt. They have not read my text, but daily
discussions with them have helped me reconsider some important aspects of my
ideas.
As always, Alan Crozier has patiently followed my attempts to write English.
I warmly thank him for recasting one chapter from Swedish to English, and for
revising the whole book in the final stages. My editor Annika Olsson has been
an invaluable collaborator throughout the production of this book. Not least her
humour and firm deadlines finally brought this book to an end.
I am not sure that my family will be really interested in this book. My
children, Rasmus and Sara, having two archaeologists as parents, have chosen to
follow their own pursuits. But I hope that this book in a tangible way will show
my passion to them. Sanne, for reasons of principle, is not interested in my
‘northern barbarians’, but it is a privilege to have her as a colleague and partner.
Above all, I appreciate her humour and strange interest in writing archaeological
texts during summer vacations.
Anders Andrén