Gripla - 2023, Síða 10

8 GRIPLA
Norse gods such as Óðinn and Freyja as well?3 And, if so, what implica-
tions might the co-occurrence of “religion” and “morality” have? As far as
I am aware, only Olof Sundqvist (2005, 274–75) has properly considered
these dimensions of the word before and even then is restricted, by con-
siderations of space, to two short paragraphs on morality and warrior eth-
ics in the entry on siðr in the encyclopaedia Reallexikon der Germanischen
Altertumskunde. The other major study of the word focuses on its religious
dimension (Nordberg 2018).
Caveats
Before turning to the two research questions above, it is necessary to
consider the sources in which siðr is recorded (and the accompanying chal-
lenges for investigators) and the direction taken by previous studies of the
word.
Beginning with the latter, siðr has gained currency as an emic replace-
ment for (or, more typically, a way of problematizing) the concept of
religion in writing on Old Norse traditions (e.g. Andrén 2005, 106, 125;
Blomkvist 2016; Jennbert 2011, 23–24, 164; Raudvere 2005, 196). Annette
Lindberg (2009) and Andreas Nordberg (2012, 2018) have rejected this
approach and make the following arguments:
• Scholars problematize the term religion but rarely apply the
same scrutiny to siðr, and in fact usage of siðr is inevitably based
on modern research goals, cultural values, and understandings
of early medieval thought, which twists an ostensibly emic
concept into an etic one.
• A distinction is usually drawn between non-Christian or popu-
lar Christian siðr and (more institutional) Christian religion
that does not reflect how religious traditions before or after the
Conversion were conceptualized by their adherents.4
3 The label Viking Age is used throughout this article, following the traditional (Anglocentric)
conception of a period that begins in 793 CE with an attack in Northumbria and ends in
1066 CE with a battle near York. These dates are potentially misleading, given the cultural,
economic, and political continuity before and after (see Brink 2008a, 5). The label is used
here simply to set practical research boundaries.
4 Religion is a loan word in several Nordic languages but only came into general use in the early
modern period (see Nordberg 2018, 129). The conversions of different regions of the North