TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

48 WORSHIP.
of the mysterious meaning of a suspended horse s head. 1 But on
horse-sacrifices among the heathen Norse we have further informa
tion of peculiar value. The St. Olaf s saga, cap. 113 (ed. holm. 2,
181), says : J?at fylgSi ok ]?eirri sogn, at ]?ar vasri drepit naut ok
hross til arbotar (followed the saying that there were slain neat and
horse for harvest-boot). A tail-piece at the very end of the
Hervararsaga mentions a similar sacrifice offered by the apostate
Swedes at the election of king Svein (second half of llth century):
var ]?a framleidt hross eitt a ]?ingit, ok hoggvit i sundr, ok skipt til
dts, en rio)?uSu bloolnu llottrd; kostucSu ]?a allir Sviar kristni ok
hofust blot ;
then was led forward a horse into the Thing, and hewed
in sunder, and divided for eating, and they reddened with the blood
the blot- tree, &c. Fornald. sog. 1, 512. Dietmar of Merseburg s
description of the great Norse (strictly Danish) sacrificial rite,
which however was extinct a hundred years before his time,
evidently contains circumstances exaggerated legendwise and dis
torted ; he says 1, 9 : Sed quia ego de hostiis (Northmannorum)
mira audivi, haec indiscussa praeterire nolo. est unus in his
partibus locus, caput istius regni, Lederun nomine, in pago qui
Selon 2 dicitur, ubi post novcm annos mense Januario, post hoc
tempus quo nos theophaniam domini celebramus, omnes con-
venerunt, et ibi diis suismet Ixxxx. et ix. homines, et totidem equos,
cum canibus et gallis pro accipitribus oblatis, immolant, pro certo,
ut praedixi, putantes hos eisdem erga inferos servituros, et commissa
crimina apud eosdem placaturos. quam bene rex noster (Heinrich 1.
an. 931) fecit, qui eos a tarn execrando ritu prohibuit ! A grand
festive sacrifice, coming once in nine years, and costing a consider
able number of animals in this there is nothing incredible. Just
as the name hecatomb lived on, when there was nothing like that
number sacrificed, so here the legend was likely to keep to a high-
sounding number; the horror of the human victims perhaps it
threw in bodily. But the reason alleged for the animal sacrifice
is evidently wide of the mark ; it mixes up what was done
1
Gregory the Great cautions with her Franks,
exhibeant.
fepist. 7, 5) admonishes Brunichild to take pre
ut de animalium capitibus sacrificia sacrilega non
2 Selon for Seloncl, ON. Stelundr, afterwards Sioland, Seeland, i.e., Zea
land. Lederun, the Sax. dat. of Ledera, ON. HleiSra, afterwards Lethra,
Leire ; conf. Goth. hlei]?ra tabernaculum.