(painting above is from John Bauer).
In the imaginary world of the old Scandinavian peasant society the landscape was infused with the otherworld and the supernatural. Elves and trolls lived in the roots of trees, inside rocks or mountains, in rivers, lakes and under the floorboards of the homestead. It was understood that the crops and cattle would be happier and healthier when the spirits were given gifts and people would offer drink and food to the elves at auspicious times of the year in order to establish good relations throughout the seasons, especially during the winter months. This was called a “Blot” practice.
Traditionally the first being to turn to when times were hard in the homestead was the “tomte,” his name also translates as "land.” A tomte is described as being short, often with a white beard and he wears a red beanie hat, his looks are similar to that of the garden gnome. According to one local Swedish tradition he would never be taller than 60 cm (23 inches) in height. A tomte could live for thousands of years and had knowledge of all the ancestors that had lived in the area. He is sometimes referred to as a “nisse”which is a word that may be spring from the Old Norse “niðsi,” meaning "dear little relative.” He is the embodiment of the Animus Loci (the local spirit). Living well with the landscape was to create a braid of relations between the homestead and the tomte.
A blot (blessing) is a religious and spiritual ceremony and celebration that is Scandinavian and pre-Christian in form and shape, we read about blots in many of the sagas. Apart from doing a blot outside once house, there could be a building where the "blot" takes place called a "Hov." Other "sacred place names" are also named, Hörgr, Vé, Lund and Haug. A “lund” is similar to the "Sacred Grove" of Ancient Greece. Haug means "a barrow" and is directly linked to the chthonic powers, the elves and ancestors, living within the earthen element.
Christian laws forbade blot-rituals in barrows and grave locations. Therefore, we know that blots (and Seidr) were practiced in those places - it's paradoxical and unintended, but the laws against the Heathen practices by Christians lawmakers are today important academic sources to understand more of the old Heathen culture. Academics work, by definition, to reflect knowledge of these matters from credible sources, but here I am taking a step further and exposing a more practical side of ceremony, which leads inevitable to a more subjective thinking, a kind of dream physics.
But I will try and answer a small part to the big question: how do we construct old ceremonies today to benefit ourselves, our families and the community where we live?
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