Written by distinguished scholars from multiple perspectives, this account widens the interpretative scope on religious life among the pre-Christian Scandinavian people. The religion of the Viking Age is conventionally identified through its mythology: the ambiguous character Odin, the forceful Thor, and the end of the world approaching in Ragnarök. However, pre-Christian religion consisted of so much more than mythic imagery and legends and has long lingered in folk tradition. Exploring the religion of the North through an interdisciplinary approach, the book sheds new light on a number of topics, including rituals, gender relations, social hierarchies, and interregional contacts between the Nordic tradition and the Sami and Finnish regions.

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• CHAPTER 1 - The Study of Pre-Christian Scandinavian Religions
  • Notes
• CHAPTER 2 - Mythic Acts: Material Narratives of the Dead in Viking Age Scandinavia
  • Where Does a Mythology Come From?
  • Five Dead at Kaupang
  • Half a Million Graves
  • Death on the Volga
  • Dramas of the Dead
  • Half a Million Stories?
  • Evidence and Interpretation in the Origins of Norse Mythology
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
• CHAPTER 3 - The Merits and Limits of Comparative Philology
  • From Old Norse to Germanic and Indo-European
  • More than Dumézil?
  • Probing the Germanic Religious Vocabulary
  • Name and Epithet
  • Fame and Afterlife
  • Concluding Remarks
  • Notes
• CHAPTER 4 - Diet and Deities
  • Symbols vs. Realities
  • Cattle
  • Horses
  • Pigs
  • Goats and Sheep
  • Reindeer
  • Fish
  • Bears
  • Notes
• CHAPTER 5 - Fictive Rituals in Völuspá
  • Religion–More than Mythology, and More in Mythology
  • Fictive Rituals in Völuspá
  • The Wider Content of the Concept Religion
  • The Representation of Reality
  • Between the Literary and the Religious. To Speak by Means of Rituals
  • Notes
• CHAPTER 6 - Continuity, Change and Regional Variation in Old Norse Religion
  • Religion–Old Norse Religion
  • The Background and Meaning of the Category of Old Norse Religion
  • Aspects of Continuity, Change, and Regional Variation within the Concept of Old Norse Religion
  • Attempts to Study Variation and Change in Old Norse Religion
  • Regional Religions or Variations within Old Norse Religion?
  • Shifts in Religion or Diachronic Religious Changes?
  • Alternative Ways of Approaching the Questions of Continuity, Change and Local Variation
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
• CHAPTER 7 - Gender, Sexuality and the Supranormal
  • Väki and Luonto
  • Female Väki Used to Protect the Household
  • Negative Effects of Female Väki
  • Notes
• CHAPTER 8 - Literary Representation of Oral Religion
  • Mikael Agricola as a Historiographer and Poet
  • Possible Models for Agricola’s List of Mythological Agents
  • Mikael Agricola as a ‘Listenwissenschaftler’
  • Principles in Contextualizing the Deities
  • Deities of Tavastia and Interpretations of Them
  • The Organizing Principle of Listing the Karelian Names
  • The Riddle of Rauni
  • When was the Calendar of Saints Received in Karelia?
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
• CHAPTER 9 - ‘Religious Ruler Ideology’ in Pre-Christian Scandinavia
  • Methodological Problems and Theoretical Issues in the Previous Debate
  • Global Comparisons Based on Secondary Sources and Looking for Similarities Only
  • The Static and Abstract Character, and the Method of Using Texts Only
  • The Decontextualized Perspective
  • A Biased Focus on Male Leaders
  • Definition Problems
  • The Concept as a Communicative Obstacle
  • Religious Ruler Ideology
  • The Religious Ruler Ideologies of the ‘Ynglingar’, the Hlaðir Earls and the Þórsnesingar
  • The ‘Ynglingar’
  • The Hlaðir Earls
  • The Þórsnesingar
  • A Contextual Interpretation
  • Conclusions
  • Author’s note:
  • Notes
• CHAPTER 10 - Reflections on Aims and Methods in the Study of Old Norse Religion
  • The Source Situation
  • Syncretism and Diversity
  • The Research Situation in the Study of Old Norse Religion
  • Model
  • Discourse
  • Comparativism
  • Conclusion
  • Notes