Sunday, June 21, 2009
Midsummer Blót
Today is midsummer, and I celebrated it in quite an unusual way.
The original plan for the day was for E, Ö (one of the fencers) and myself to do the tour of the north. Yesterday, though, Ö arrived and invited us to join him at the midsummer blót this evening with other local Ásatrúar in the woods at Kjarnaskogur.
Ásatrú is the modern interpretation of the Norse religion and is a recognised and respected religion here in Iceland. The focus is, Ö tells me, upon living in a manner in accordance with the sayings of Hávamál as well as revering the spirits and the old gods.
We met at one of the car parks in the woods and then went in search of the great wooden sundial somewhere up on the high ground. It turned out that, of course, we'd parked in the furthest car park from the site, and that there was one almost directly next to it, although that required taking a different turning. Mind you, now that I know that the turning is there I'll probably go up there again myself to get some photos and then bore you all with a more detailed description and musings upon the astronomical alignments of this place (which made me think of Woodhenge rather than Stonehenge, but more of that in a later post once I've been back with a compass to check the alignments).
There were about 15 people at the blót including the goði and gyða, who'd come up from Reykjavík; they apologised for the lack of activity up north recently but suggested the group's FaceBook group as an excellent way of keeping in touch. Ah, how the Internet pervades everything... :)
The ceremony itself was short - about 10 minutes - and began with the lighting of a fire (in a barbecue brought along for the purpose) followed by an invocation to the sun and and the blessing of the contents of a drinking horn with a rather nice twisted iron oath-ring. Then came the offerings to Oðin, Þór, Freyr, Freyja and the Earth Mother, each of which was poured onto the ground before the fire. Finally the horn was passed around all present to drink to the gods or to individual deities of their choice.
The three of us then celebrated further with ice-cream at the Big Bridge Burger Bar. Other folk from the blót arrived shortly after and celebrated with burgers. :) It was definitely an interesting thing to attend, the more so that it was held in Old Norse, spoken slowly and clearly, and surprisingly easier to understand than modern Icelandic. I actually managed to follow much of what the goði was saying, which added to the sense of the event.
It was a very interesting experience, even for an atheist like me. I found myself remembering Gytha, and the passing round of the mead-horn at Brighthelm events. But it was a remembrance of happiness, which was good.
The original plan for the day was for E, Ö (one of the fencers) and myself to do the tour of the north. Yesterday, though, Ö arrived and invited us to join him at the midsummer blót this evening with other local Ásatrúar in the woods at Kjarnaskogur.
Ásatrú is the modern interpretation of the Norse religion and is a recognised and respected religion here in Iceland. The focus is, Ö tells me, upon living in a manner in accordance with the sayings of Hávamál as well as revering the spirits and the old gods.
We met at one of the car parks in the woods and then went in search of the great wooden sundial somewhere up on the high ground. It turned out that, of course, we'd parked in the furthest car park from the site, and that there was one almost directly next to it, although that required taking a different turning. Mind you, now that I know that the turning is there I'll probably go up there again myself to get some photos and then bore you all with a more detailed description and musings upon the astronomical alignments of this place (which made me think of Woodhenge rather than Stonehenge, but more of that in a later post once I've been back with a compass to check the alignments).
There were about 15 people at the blót including the goði and gyða, who'd come up from Reykjavík; they apologised for the lack of activity up north recently but suggested the group's FaceBook group as an excellent way of keeping in touch. Ah, how the Internet pervades everything... :)
The ceremony itself was short - about 10 minutes - and began with the lighting of a fire (in a barbecue brought along for the purpose) followed by an invocation to the sun and and the blessing of the contents of a drinking horn with a rather nice twisted iron oath-ring. Then came the offerings to Oðin, Þór, Freyr, Freyja and the Earth Mother, each of which was poured onto the ground before the fire. Finally the horn was passed around all present to drink to the gods or to individual deities of their choice.
The three of us then celebrated further with ice-cream at the Big Bridge Burger Bar. Other folk from the blót arrived shortly after and celebrated with burgers. :) It was definitely an interesting thing to attend, the more so that it was held in Old Norse, spoken slowly and clearly, and surprisingly easier to understand than modern Icelandic. I actually managed to follow much of what the goði was saying, which added to the sense of the event.
It was a very interesting experience, even for an atheist like me. I found myself remembering Gytha, and the passing round of the mead-horn at Brighthelm events. But it was a remembrance of happiness, which was good.