Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1981, Blaðsíða 255

A pair of Hide Shoes
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find may be described as the earliest shoes found in Norway to date.
It is a well-known fact that many peoples, not least the Germanic
tribes, assigned a certain role to shoes in connection with the cults
of death and fertility.46) Already in prehistory, the custom of bury-
ing the deceased with shoes, sometimes with shoes specially made
for the occasion, was commonly practised.47) One is tempted to agree
with ALFRED WIBERG in that the practice of equipping the
deceased with »helsko«, mentioned in the saga of Gisle Sursson
(chap. 14), may be explained in this way. In this context »helsko«
must be literally translated as »shoes for the underworld, grave
shoes«,48) and the very expression used in the saga, »to tie helsko«
may suggest that originally, at least, these shoes were hide-shoes of
the simplest kind, which the living tied around the feet of the dead,
in the same way as they gave him clothes and other equipment for
which he would find use in the life to come.
It is possible that in pagan days, people thought that such shoes
were necessary for the journey which many thought must be under-
taken after death. But even if this is so — and it can hardly be
proved — the shoes are in no way more important than any of the
other equipment required by the deceased. (HELGE ROSfiN, who
has undertaken a detailed study of the wealth of material available
on this subject, has arrived at the conclusion that the shoes form a
natural part of the complete equipment required for life in the next
world.)52) It does not seem likely that death rites and burial cult
attached particular significance to shoes, and that there should have
been special ideas associated with shoes, of a kind to provide a
reasonable explanation for the deposit of the Leksvik shoes. Accord-
ing to the reports of how they were found, there can be no doubt
that the shoes were deposited alone, and that thy did not accompany
a dead body which had been put down in the bog for some reason
or other.
We know that popular belief had a multitude of customs connec-
ted with feet and shoes as the site of magic powers, some of them
promoting vital, life-giving forces, others concerned with protection
against evil spirits.49) Could it be possible that the shoes were depo-
sited in the bog as a sacrifice to supernatural powers?