blot godi, history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bl%C3%B3thttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bl%C3%B3t

Blót is the term for "sacrifice" in Norse paganism. A blót could be dedicated to any of the Norse gods, the spirits of the land, and to ancestors. The sacrifice involved aspects of a sacramental meal or feast.

The cognate term blōt or geblōt in Old English would have referred to comparable traditions in Anglo-Saxon paganism

The verb blóta meant "to worship with sacrifice",[2] or "to strengthen".[3] The sacrifice usually consisted of animals, in particular pigs and horses. The meat was boiled in large cooking pits with heated stones, either indoors or outdoors. The blood was considered to contain special powers and it was sprinkled on the statues of the gods, on the walls and on the participants themselves.

It was a sacred moment when the people gathered around the steaming cauldrons to have a meal together with the gods or the Elves. The drink that was passed around was blessed and sacred as well and it was passed from participant to participant. The drink was usually beer or mead but among the nobility it could be imported wine.

The old prayer was til árs ok friðar, "for a good year and frith (peace)" They asked for fertility, good health, a good life and peace and harmony between the people and the powers.

The Gutasaga relates of the blót on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea:

"Firi þan tima oc lengi eptir siþan. Troþu menn a hult. oc a hauga. wi. oc. stafgarþa. oc a haiþin guþ. blotaþu þair synnum oc dydrum sinum Oc fileþi. miþ matj oc mundgati. þet gierþu þair eptir wantro sinnj. land alt. hafþi sir hoystu blotan miþ fulki. ellar hafþi huer þriþiungr. sir. En smeri þing hafþu mindri blotan meþ fileþi. matj. Oc mungati. sum haita suþnautar. þi et þair suþu allir saman."


Before this time, and a long time thereafter, they believed in groves and barrows, sanctuaries, and sacred enclosures and in the pagan gods. This they did due to their superstition. The whole country

(the althing) had the largest blót with sacrifice of people, otherwise every trithing had its blót and smaller things had smaller blót with cattle, food and drinks.

They were called food-, or cooking-brethren
__________________________

"A goði or gothi (plural goðar) is the Old Norse term for a priest and chieftain. Gyðja signifies a priestess.

During the Viking Age, the goði was originally a heathen priest. After the Settlement in Iceland, the hofgoði was a temple priest; this was usually a wealthy and respected man in his district, for he had to maintain the communal hall or hof in which community religious observances and feasts were held. The area over which a goði had leadership was termed a goðorð. Over time, and especially after 1000, when the Christian conversion occurred in Iceland, the term goði lost its sacred connotations and came to mean simply "chieftain"

________________

"The Álfablót or the Elven sacrifice is a pagan Scandinavian sacrifice to the elves towards the end of autumn, when the crops had been harvested and the animals were most fat.[1] Unlike the great blóts at Uppsala and Mære, the álfablót was a local celebration at the homesteads and they were mainly administered by the lady of the household.[2]

 Nothing is known about the particular rites because they were surrounded by secrecy and strangers were not welcome to the homesteads during the celebrations.[2]

However, since the elves were collective powers with a close connection to ancestors and fertility, it is possible that the álfablót concerned ancestor worship and the life force of the family.[2] It also appears that Odin was implied and that the master of the household was called Ölvir when administering the rites.[1

] The first element of Ölvir means "beer", which was an important element in Norse pagan sacrifices generally.[