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08.02.2020

The relationship between the gods and humans

The Norse conception of their gods was decidedly anthropomorphic, meaning that their gods closely resembled humans but on a grander scale. Even in their spiritual nature, the gods were not entirely separate from humans or the physical world. Rather, the gods, despite being spiritual beings, manifested themselves through various physical phenomena. In the realm of philosophy of religion, this is referred to as a "theophany" (the manifestation of a god) or a "hierophany" (the manifestation of the sacred).

For instance, Thor, whose name meant "Thunder," wasn't merely the "god of thunder"; he was essentially the embodiment of thunder itself, and the Vikings perceived his presence in thunderstorms. His wife, the goddess Sif, was renowned for her long, golden hair, symbolizing fields of ripe grain. Consequently, Sif could be considered the goddess of grain, and the storms fertilizing the vegetation were seen as a symbolic enactment of the union between Thor and Sif.

This belief didn't precisely amount to pantheism, which asserts that the entire natural or physical world is divine. There's no evidence that the Norse believed the entire physical world embodied the gods. However, specific aspects or parts of the physical world were indeed thought to encapsulate divine manifestations. The Norse likely didn't have a rigid list of which parts did so; instead, they seemed to approach it more as a matter of recognizing it when they encountered it.

Given that the gods possessed human-like characteristics and regularly intervened in the world's affairs, interactions between humans and gods were not uncommon and were a fundamental aspect of Norse religiosity.

These interactions took various forms, with one of the most intimate being the belief that gods and humans would sometimes come together to establish royal and heroic lineages through copulation.

The most prevalent form of interaction between gods and humans transpired through ritual sacrifice, which served as the cornerstone of Norse religious practice. The pragmatic Norse didn't worship their gods solely out of wonder or love; they often sought something specific from the gods. In human relationships, when you want something from someone, maintaining a healthy relationship typically involves giving something in return. Given the gods' human-like qualities, when humans desired something from the gods, they reciprocated by offering something valuable to the gods. This was the underlying logic of sacrifice: by piously presenting a gift to the gods, human worshipers hoped to receive divine gifts in return.

The relationship between the gods and humans

This reciprocity between the gifts of the gods and humans mirrored the more strictly human reciprocity between a Viking warrior and his chieftain. The warrior who fought bravely and loyally for his chieftain would be rewarded with his share of whatever spoils were taken in the battle or raid. Despite the unequal status between the warrior and his chieftain, and the unequal status between humans and gods, both parties in these transactions had obligations to the other that they were expected to fulfill. The warrior had obligations to his chieftain, who in turn had obligations to him; and humans had obligations to the gods, but the gods in turn had obligations to them. When human worshipers performed the appropriate sacrifices, they could legitimately expect the gods to bless them with victory in battle, bountiful harvests, sexual fertility, or whatever it was they sought.

There was an element of unconditional fealty present in the chieftain-warrior relationship as well, exemplified by the expectation that an honorable warrior would sooner die by his chieftain’s side than flee and live. But this was largely subsumed by the sense of mutual obligation; a Viking warrior could choose to whom he offered his mortal loyalty, and leave one chieftain for another if he thought that another would treat him with more generosity.

As chieftains became kings and Christianity triumphed in the later part of the Viking Age, the emphasis was reversed. The relationship between the king and his fighters – which had necessarily become much more impersonal with the great increase in the number of fighters each king commanded – was spoken of in terms borrowed from Christian language. No longer did humans and gods have reciprocal obligations to one another, in which both parties participated more or less voluntarily and held a dignified position despite their immense inequality. In the same way that medieval Christians were supposed to serve God unconditionally as his “slaves and thralls,” so, too, were a king’s men supposed to serve him. What had previously been a contract or a bargain was replaced with decree, fiat, commandment.

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