Lögberg-Heimskringla - 07.03.1980, Page 4

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Lögberg-Heimskringla, föstudagur 7. mars, 1980
Hngbrrg- IfHmflkrtngk
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Haraldur Bessason
Margrét Björgvinsdóttir
T.K. Arnason
Emily Benjaminson
Gordon A. Gislason
MARGT ER LÍKT
Sennilega getur vart ólíkari lönd en Island og Kanada,
ef hafður er í huga heildarsamanburður á þeim. Lands-
lag, veðurfar, gróður, dýralíf, atvinnuvegir, já og mann
lífið sjálft, allt er þetta með ólíku sniði í þessum tveim
löndum. Einkanlega á þetta þó við sé miðbik Kanada
haft til þessa samanburðar .Þar er allt rennislétt. —
Frost og stillur ríkja þar um vetur og stöðugir hitar
á lygnum sumrum. Veðurglöggir menn hafa látið svo
um mælt að á íslandi væri aldrei annað en um stöðug
sýnishorn veðurs að ræða. Hafa þeir skráð um tvo
tugi slíkra tegunda á einum og sama sólarhring. Sól
skín á hlíðar í morgunmund. Um hádegið svífa þéttir
regnskúrir um sömu slóðir, og á síðkvöldum heyr of-
viðrið sinn leik við tind og öxl. Ekkert getur verið frá-
brugðnara staðviðrum kanadísku sléttunnar.
i
Margur myndi æskja að veðurguðum þóknaðist
einhvern daginn að sameina þessar miklu andstæður
og búa til úr þeim þolanlegt veður árið um kring. Vott
slíkrar miðlunar er að finna vestur við Kyrrahaf. Þar
er veðurfar og öll náttúra með slíkum hætti að prófes-
sor Árna heitnum Pálssyni fórust svo orð, að þar hefði
hann fundið „ísland með viðbót”.
Enn má nefna að við austurbrún Kanada eru hin-
ar veðurfarslegu öfgar minni heldur en í innhéruðum
landsins, enda sitja þar sömu sjávarguðirnir að völd-
um og á Islandi og veðurfarsleg mótun Nýfundnalands
manna með svipuðum hætti og á íslandi.
\
Þótt leita þurfi vandlega að beinum náttúruleg-
um hliðstæðum milli fslands og Kanada, er þó margt
líkt með þeim þjóðum sem þessi lönd byggja. Báðar
byggja þær vestrænt menningarsvæði. Báðar eiga þær
aðild að sömu alþjóðlegu bandalögunum, og báðum er
heldur erfitt að stjórna. Hefur hið síðast talda komið
berlega í ljós á nýliðnum ársfjórðungi þegar skamm-
lífi ríkisstjórna beggja landanna varð með hreinum ó-
líkindum. Forráðamönnum beggja landa var fómað til
árs og reynslu, svo að gripið sé til ögn fornlegs orða-
lags.
Þeir Pierre E. Trudeau og Gunnar Thoroddsen
hafa miklum mun lengri stjórnmálaferil að baki en
þeir sem viku úr sæti fyrir þeim. Enginn bregður þeim
heldur um skort vitsmuna eða vígfimi. Er og mála
sannast að báðir hafi nú nokkrá þörf slíkra hæfileika
í þrotlausri viðureign við óðaverðbólgu, þennan merki-
lega draug sem í vestrænum löndum ríður húsum jafnf
nótt sem nýtan dag. Fólk skynjar hann þó aðeins sem'
farg á sál og líkama, því að hann er með öllu ósýnileg-
ur og víkur sér því auðveldlega undan öllum spjóta-
lögum, hvort sem þeim er að honum beint í Ottawa eða
í Reykjavík. H.B.
AT THE TIME OF ÞORRABLÓT
The meaning oi the word:
In view of recent celebrations of
the mid-winter festivals we call
Þorrablot it is only proper to
consider the meaning of the name
of the feast. According to the Old
Icelandic calendar, l*orri is the
mid-winter month which begins
about the middle of January and
extends into the middle of
February. In the early 13th
century Saga of the Earls of
Orkney we are told about a royal
family that once upon a time
occupied the northern-most
regions of Scandinavia and
derived their names from their
inhospitable surroundings. Frosti
was the name of one of the
members of this family. His name
is easy to interpret as the per-
sonification of the frost. Frosti’s
son was Snaer the Old, Snaer
meaning ‘snow’, and Snaer’s son
was Porri. Dictionaries indicate
that the name Þorri is related to
the ver þverra: to wane, disap-
pear, be depleted; perhaps it
originally meant the month of the
waning or ebbing winter. One may
assume that Þorri was a strong
believer in sacrificial feasts, and
that every year he offered
sacrifice at the end of the fourth
winter month. This custom, then
gave rise to the name of the
month, and the sacrificial feast
came to be called Þorrablot, ‘mid-
winter sacrifice’.
It is easy to understand why
sacrificial feasts must have been
important in the minds of our
ancestors who occupied countries
where the severity of winter
weather was a constant threat to
people’s lives. In Iceland this
threat was a very real one until
just a few decades ago. The gods
for whom the sacrifice was in-
tended were often hard of hearing,
it not altogether deaf. Their
deafness had become so persistent
in the last decades of the 19th
century that a number of people
decided to leave Iceland for North
America, or perhaps this was the
gods’ way to direct people to
sparsely inhabited and fertile
territories.
Secret offeríngs:
I realize, of course, that it in-
volves considerable risks even to
write about ‘sacrificial feasts’ in
the 20th century, especially
among Icelanders, who introduced
a special legislation against such
practices almost a 1000 years ago.
The first Icelandic historian, Ari
Porgilsson, in his Book of the
Icelanders, from about 1122, says
that when Christianity was
legislated in Iceland, in the year
1000 (999?), “it was made law that
people might sacrifice to the
heathen gods secretly, but under
the penalty of lesser outlawry, if
this was proven by witnesses.”
The author adds, however, that a
few years later this heathen
practice was “forbidden as were
other practices.”
Ari Pvjí:; ilsson has enjoyed
unbleipisbpd reputation to this
•day for* his reliability as a
historian. However, being a
priest, he may have been rather
unsuspecting. Despite the
legislation from 1000 and the
subsequent tightening of it,
Icelanders have continued to
sacrifice in secret to this day as is
clearly evidenced by recent
celebrations in various North
American - Icelandic communities.
I don’t know whether the penalties
for such practices have been
relaxed, but I suspect we still
must have our Þorrablot at the
risk of lesser outlawry, which, in
the olden days, meant three years
of exile from Iceland. In the
present case of Icelandic com-
munities in North America this
legislation would be difficult to
enforce.
Pagan Practices:
One of the heathen customs
associated with sacrificial
ceremonies was the eating of
horse flesh. In pre-Christian
Scandinavia the horse was a very
sacred animal, and Christian
people felt that serving horse
meat to people was a heathen
ritual. Unfortunately, this
religious taboo remained so strong
that for centuries Icelandic people
would rather starve than even
taste this kind of food which,
nevertheless was easily available
to them. This is undoubtedly one
of the reasons why so many people
of Icelandic descent arc now living
in America.
While we are on the topic of
sacrifice, it is only appropriate to
consider the kind of sacrifice that
was most commonly offered.
Ordinarily, sacred observances at
temples required that a male beast
be sacrificed; human sacrifices, on
the other hand, were not offered
except at highly critical moments.
At these ceremonies the blood of
the sacrificial beast was of par-
ticular importance. A somewhat
inaccurate reference in Heim-
skringla maintains that the
sacrificial blood was sprinkled not
only on the temple altar, but on
the inside and the outside of the
temple-walls, as well as on those
attending the ceremony.
Godless Men:
When Iceland was being
colonized in the late 9th and the
early lOth century, the veneration
of the heathen gods was already
on the wane. This decline resulted
from the increased exposure of
Scandinavians, both home and
abroad, to Christians and
Christian cultural traiditons. One
of the earliest settlers of Iceland
was called Hallr the Godless, the
son of Helgi the Godless. Scholars
have been inclined to believe that
the descriptive words added to the
names of these two men reflected
their unwillingness to offer
sacrifices to the heathen gods and
that they chose instead to believe
in their own ‘might and main’. The
Old Icelandic Book of Settlements
also tells a very interesting story
about Hjorleif Hrodmarsson who
came to Iceland with his blood-
brother Ingolf Arnarson, the first
permanent settler in the country.
The two men had stopped in
Ireland on their way to Iceland
and taken captive a few people
that they wished to use as slaves
in Iceland. As they came to
Iceland, Hjorleif had two houses
built there. In the spring he
wanted to sow. He had only one ox
and told his slaves to pull the
plough. One day when Hjorleif and
his men were at the houses, one of
the slaves suggested to his fellow
sufferers that they shóuld
slaughter the ox and say a brown
bear had killed it, then they could
attack Hjorleif and his men,
should they go looking for the
bear. So they went along and told
Hjorleif and when he and his men
spread out in the woods looking
for the bear, the slaves set on
them, and killed them all, one
after another, just as many men as
there were slaves. Ingolf,
Hjorleifs bloodbrother, took his
friend’s death badly and said that
is was a sad end for a warrior to be
killed by slaves; “but in my ex-
perience”, he said, “this is what
always happens to people who
won’t hold sacrifices.” In addition
there are several stories about
men who, having declined to offer
sacrifices, were claimed them-
selves by the divine powers.
Ancient Superstitions:
Old customs die hard, they say,
and this applies in particular to the
Icelanders. Vestiges of ancient
sacrificial ceremonies have
lingered on in Iceland to this day,
even though most people are
unaware of it. Although the
majority of the first settlers of
Iceland were heathen, their
religious beliefs were of two
different kinds. On the one hand
there was the belief in the
guardian spirits of the country
called landvaettir; on the other,
there was the faith in the gods.
The belief in the guardian spirits
seems to have been quite strong.
These spirits were from the world
of the supernatural and capable of
manifesting themselves in the
likeness of either a human being or
some kind of animal. It was
considered more expedient to
propitiate them than to frighten
them away. They were believed to
inhabit waterfalls, rocks, groves
or other beautiful and unusual
places, which were therefore
venerated. People would leave
offerings of food by the waterfalls
and other sacred spots, believing
that the spirits would receive
them. Belief in the sanctity of
certain places, although in greatly
altered form, has lingered on in
Iceland to the present day. Those
who have lived in Iceland for any
length of time are no doubt
familiar with places that cannot be
touched except at the risk of
disaster. The guardian spirits
have of course long since become
elves or hidden folk. In fairly
recent times stories about food
being served to the hidden folk
were still in circulation in Iceland.
It is easy to relegate sacrifices
to gods and guardian spirits to the
realm of superstition. But among
Icelanders the matter is not that
simple. Despite its hostile en-
vironment and its exacting
demands for human sacrifice,
Iceland has given her people
unique defences. In times of crises
the country itself has summoned
hosts of guardian spirits for the
protection of the people. A famous
example of this is recorded in
Snorri Sturluson’s early 13th-
century work, Heimskringla,
where it is told that about two
centuries earlier Harald Gorm-