Talk:Blót

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I would like to remove the text "The word is related to the English word bless and they are derived from blood, an important component in the rites." from the article. I have looked it up and the word seems to derive from "worship", but it may also derive from the latin flamen. It may be related to bless, but I have found nothing to indicate it's related to blood. // Liftarn

It was taken from the book referenced on the bottom of the page. Since you may not have the book, I will help you out with a book that is easier to access. You can consult the American Heritage Dictionary, one of the standard works of reference in these cases: [1]. Regards, --Wiglaf 14:33, 8 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Ok, my sources was Svenska akademiens ordbok [2] and Svensk etymologisk ordbok [3]. None of them mentions "blood". // Liftarn

Thanks for the links! Interesting. I think the Swedish sources don't go that far back in tracing the word, whereas the AHD usually tries to go as far back as possible.--Wiglaf 17:41, 8 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I have a problem with the way this article seems to present the blót as a dead historical practice. It seems to me that the modern Asatruar practice blót and sumble as a regular part of their belief system, and this should be mentioned (not being Asatru, I can't write it myself). Nae'blis 18:43:16, 2005-08-26 (UTC)

Contents 1 Inconsistency in seasons 2 Adam of Bremen 2.1 first version 2.2 most recent version 3 Spelling 4 Elven blót all just made up stuff?

[edit] Inconsistency in seasons

Under "Rites and beliefs" the article mentions spring, autumn and summer blót. (not sure how to pluralise the word). However, in "Dates for the blóts", the article mentions autumn, midwinter and summer. Are the 'spring' and 'midwinter' ones the same thing, since they're the odd ones in each? —Morven 01:07, 5 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Adam of Bremen

The inset passage appears to be a quotation, but ends with a sentence that appears to comment on the quotation rather than be part of it. It also shifts rather oddly betwen the present tense and the past tense. Also contributors have added material to the inset text, even though it presumably a quotation. Here's the first version and the most recent version:

[edit] first version

The German chronicler Adam of Bremen has described how it was done at the Temple at Uppsala at Old Uppsala in Sweden, ca 1070:

Thor was the most powerful god and ruled over thunder and lightning, wind and rain, sunshine and crops. He sat in the centre with a sceptre (Mjolnir) in his hand, and on each side were Odin, the god of war, in full armour and Frey, the god of peace and love, attributed with an enormous erected phallos. All the pagan gods have their priests who offer them the people's sacrifices. If there is desease or famine, they sacrifice to Thor, if war to Odin and if weddings to Frey.

Every ninth year there is a blót of nine days, a common feast for everyone in Sweden. Then they sacrifice nine males of each species, even men, and the bodies are hanged from the branches of a grove near the temple. No one is excempt from this blót and everyone sends gifts to the shrine, even the kings. Those who are Christian have to pay a fee not to take part in the blót, something that Adam of Bremen considered to be a very harsh.

[edit] most recent version

Thor was the most powerful god and ruled over thunder and lightning, wind and rain, sunshine and crops. He sat in the centre with a sceptre (Mjolnir) in his hand, and on each side were Odin, the god of war, in full armour and Frey, the god of peace and love, attributed with an enormous erected phallus. All the pagan gods had their priests who offered them the people's sacrifices. If there was disease or famine, they sacrificed to Thor, if war to Odin and if weddings to Frey.

Every ninth year, there was a nine-day blót, a common feast for everyone in Sweden. Then, they sacrificed nine males of each species, even men (totalling 72 corpses), and the bodies were hanged from the branches of a sacred grove near the temple. No one was excempt from this blót and everyone sent gifts to the shrine, even the kings. Those who were Christian had to pay a fee not to take part in the blót, something that Adam of Bremen considered to be a very harsh punishment.

I have removed the additional text from within the quotation and have separated out the last sentence, but I'm still not sure whether the past-tense opening section up to 'phallus' is part of a quotatiob from Adam or not. Paul B 18:34, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Spelling

What language is blót - Icelandic? The "ó" is alien to all other Scandianvian languages - it looks very strange to me. Maybe we could move the page to blot (Norse religion) or something similar? / Habj 04:47, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

I suspect Old Norse, but the article should really say. —Matthew Brown (T:C) 05:30, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Yes, this is an Old Norse word. I would prefer to keep the page where it is. - Haukur Þorgeirsson 08:01, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

How was Old Norse written? Did they have "ó"? This kind of characters looks very modern to me. / Habj 08:53, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Yes, they did have 'ó' - though it was not consistently used. It denotes a phoneme that is a long version of the one denoted by 'o'. In IPA terms 'o' denoted [o] and 'ó' denoted [o:] (roughly). There were long and short versions of every vowel. Thus there was both 'a' and 'á' - and the latter developed into Swedish/Danish/Norwegian 'å'. Here's a good introduction to Old Norse written by a Swede: [4]- Haukur Þorgeirsson 09:12, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Elven blót all just made up stuff?

"We don't know much about the rites...we can assume that it had to do with"

This stuff is just made up, pure fiction on the part of the wikipedian contributor? or is this derived from sources? References please folks.