Hello my dear friends, how are you?
My name is Arith Härger and today I'm going to talk about Totemism and Animal Totems in the Norse culture
This video is part of the Viking Religious Symbols video, but I thought it would be better to make a video solely focused on totemism in the Norse culture
because this subject has more tribal, primitive and shamanic understandings than the religious symbolisms I've presented on the previous video
I will divide this video into 2 parts
First I will give you a more historical and archaeological approach to animal symbolism in the ancient Nordic cultures
and then I will speak about totemism in the Norse culture
So my dear friends, let's get start
at first glance the most predominant animals represented in the Norse culture are the bear, raven and wolf
These 3 animals are the most mentioned in the literary sources and all of them connected to the god Odin
As this perfectly good example of a 9th century figure found in Denmak, in Lejre
Odin in his throne, Hlidskjalf, with his two ravens, Hugin and Munin, and his wolves in the back, Geri and Freki
The wolf and the dog are usually the companions in soul journeys to the other world in votive rituals
rituals dedicated to specific deities, most often Odin, to call upon the deity and offer as sacrifice such animals
because they accompanied the victims of human sacrifice into their journey to the afterlife
Dogs and wolves are connected with the warrior ideology, especially for the berserkir groups
a group of young, unmarried men who specialize in the art of warfare
Several generations of warriors combined the name of battle terms with elements related to dogs and wolves
also referring to the initiation of young people into the martial world
Although the berserkir were warriors much more connected to bear cults
but the very first warrior cults were connected to dogs and wolves, ancient Indo-European wolf rites
I have a video precisely about that
In northern Europe these wolf rites and wolf-warriors continued to exist
although at a certain point in Scandinavian history there was a clear division between warrior bear cults and warrior wolf cults
The bear cults started to be the official elite warriors of the Norse society while the wolf cults started to be exclusive of outcasts
I do believe that the Ulfhednar, wolf warriors, progressively stopped being elite trained warriors and became unofficial troops, mercenaries
There is this possibility that outlaws, murderers, criminals of all sorts who were casted out from the society, started to form their own groups of warriors
precisely doing the same thing the original wolf warrior cults did
young warriors who abandoned society an adopted the characteristics of dogs and wolves and became wild in nature
The Ulfhednar might have been wild groups of warriors, and later became elite warriors accepted by the society
only to be put aside once again and offer their services as mercenaries when they became outlaws
More or less like what happened to the medieval religious-military orders
They were accepted and had great power when it suited the nobility
and were outlawed and forbidden to exercise their duties when they became an inconvenience to the nobility
Birds - birds of prey such as hawks and falcons are traditionally symbols of aristocracy - while the eagle is an emblem of power
And ravens of course, not just related to wisdom but as birds related to death, carrying the dead into the afterlife
For instance, we have this example of a pendant demonstrating two ravens metamorphosing into the horn-tips of a bearded figure
which demonstrates the continuity of ancient pre-viking cults in the Nordic area
You see, in prehistoric times birds of prey were often related to death and the journey into the afterlife
but this sort of believes are much more evident in pre-celtic cultures of western Europe, along the Atlantic
We have many representations of warriors dressed as birds and with bird heads
representing the fusion between warrior cults and death rituals and the entire afterlife perspectives of warriors being carried into the afterlife by birds
It was common to leave dead warriors on high places to be taken by birds of prey
their bodies destroyed and carried by birds into the heavens
This sort of Western European traditions were later adopted by Scandinavians
which is why I do believe the so called Blood Eagle isn't what we think it is
I've also done a video about that one year ago
It's quite possible that the description of the Blood Eagle being a gruesome way of punishment and execution
was in fact an exaggeration made by Christians
to amplify the fear people had of those terrible heathen Norsemen coming down the frozen wastes to devour poor innocent Christians
It's possible that the Blood Eagle was actually a ceremony invoking the ancient early Bronze Age traditions of Western Europe
giving deceased warriors to birds
Or, it could have been a form of punishment, to be eaten by eagles,
much like in the Greek myth of Prometheus being tied to a rock and every day an eagle would eat his liver
That might be what the Blood Eagle actually meant
Either a ceremonial punishment reserved for special warriors, or a death ritual for deceased warriors
The use of an eagle is curious because to the Greeks it was the personification of Zeus
so maybe at a certain point to the Scandinavians it was linked to Odin, as a warrior and death deity
and warriors of great renown weren't carried by crows or ravens or other carrion birds, but by the noble eagle of Odin
Let's not forget that Yggdrasil itself, with all its animals, there is a great eagle on the very top of the Cosmic Tree
A very widespread type of amulet in the Viking Age, both in the Finland area and in the British Isles,
was the use of bears' teeth - both bronze imitations and original pieces
It was supposed to contain magical properties related to the capture of the spirit of the bear
there is a good example of that in the Finnish culture, this word right here (karhunpeijaiset),
which I won't try to pronounce, it's Finnish
and roughly translated it means "bear hunting feast"
Prehistoric connections to the bear hunt and acquiring the bear spirit to absorb the bear qualities
Another example, in the Hrólfs saga kraka
the character Bodvarr has his soul transformed into a bear
a reference to the ancient pre-Christian rituals still preserved in medieval literature
To our prehistoric ancestors the bear was seen as a sort of wild brother, our wild selves
For centuries the bear was considered to be a symbol of nobility and power
and for millennia the bear was the king of the forests
thus his connection to royalty, before the lion was introduced by political and religious powers which came much later into the European background
Anyway, in the Scandinavian case, and with great prominence during the Viking Age
the bear cult was still alive as we understand in the figures of the berserkir
Ferocity, strength, endurance, were the qualities sought by these warriors
But as I've said, there is always this idea of this bear cult being linked to Odin
but the bear is one of the very few animals in the Scandinavian religious context that wasn't actually linked to Odin for a very long time in the history of Scandinavia
only when Odin became the god of Kings
Sure the bear was also a symbol of royalty but that was much more in pre-Celtic and Celtic backgrounds
not much in Scandinavia
It's quite possible that the bear cult is linked to the god Ullr, and not Odin
because Ullr before Odin, was seen as the actual god ruling the Aesir, sitting on the throne
and that mythological past can still be remembered in the tale when Odin was expelled from Asgard and it was Ullr who was called by the gods to sit on the throne
This is a tale invoking a Scandinavian past when a god and a goddess of Winter and Hunting were the divine pair of the natives of Scandinavia
before the introduction of the warrior cult of Odin
I highly doubt that the Berserkir were into an Odinic cult
It's much more plausible that they embraced a prehistoric bear cult still alive during the Viking age
much more tribal and totemic in nature
and that same cult became linked to Ullr. While the wolf, raven, eagle and the serpent were totemic symbols of Odin
The Serpent, it wasn't just a symbol of wisdom and protection, but also of the preservation of the natural order and stability of the universe
therefore also a symbol of chaos because without chaos there is no need for order
Chaos is the ever changing force in the universe that forces the inevitable change and evolution of everything
The serpent is linked to many Chthonic deities, underworld spirits
precisely for being an animal that lives in the earth, comes out of the very soil, from darkness, coming to the surface to give the knowledge of hidden secrets
An animal associated with Loki, Hel, Gullveig and her forms as Heidr, Aurboda, Hyrrokin etc
but the serpent is also connected to Odin
Odin metamorphosed into a snake to get to the mead of poetry, for instance
This metamorphosis is exactly what happened to Odin in religious terms
He took many forms and many names because when he was introduced in Scandinavia many local deities were syncretized, combined in the figure of Odin
Odin absorbed the attributes of other deities
But the serpent continued to be linked to Odin because he absorbed some of the underworld Scandinavian gods
The earliest Scandinavian god similar to Odin, that we know of, was the Bronze Age spear god engraved on stone
With huge proportions when compared to the other elements around
The importance of this deity is clear, he was depicted as being very big, occupying a large area of the rock surface
as you can see with those people there for scale
This spear god, was a nature god as well as a chthonic god, chaotic in nature
The Scandinavian "Odin" before the cult of the Germanic Odin was introduced in Scandianvia
Some of his prehistoric myths remained in the poems about Odin becoming a serpent
Now talking about Totemism in the Norse culture
Totemism in its spiritual essence is the term to refer to the relationship of spiritual bound between a human, or group of humans, with specific animals and plants
The animal totem is generally understood to be an ancestor, a guardian, a spiritual entity
who provides something positive to the human or humans it's bound to
And in the Norse culture the animal Totem is intimately linked to the spiritual self
meaning that it's not just an entity we can call upon like a god or a goddess
but a spiritual entity that it's part of us, directly connected to us due to also being an ancestor
To the pre-Christian Norse and certain Germanic groups
totemism is manifested in both animal helping-spirits, and animals of military groups incorporating shamanic practices and trance techniques
such as we have seen before in the berserkir and ulfhdnar
Let's start by addressing the Fylgjur
I'm sure you are familiar with the term
Fylgja meaning follower, or also fjylgjukona, something that fetches
This term can be better understood if we remember that in Seidr the practitioner of seidr is capable of sending forth its mind in the form of an animal
to do something, to catch, fetch, bring back, the embodiment of the will of the practitioner of seidr to physically do and attract things
And most often this embodiment of the will comes in the form of a cat, also ravens
in general we are talking about familiar spirits which later came to be understood as the pets of witches
In the Norse tradition the Fylgjur are spiritual entities capable of being controlled or helping someone because they are attached to the self
being part of ourselves but at the same time spiritual entities with life of their own, their own individual existence
The Norse concept of the soul is complex and divided into many parts and certain parts are influenced by our ancestors and other spiritual entities
which is why the Fylgjur are part of our spiritual self
In Old Norse literature the Fylgjur are only seen in dreams or by people capable of seeing them with supernatural powers
They appear in the shapes of women or animals, but are a sort of doppelganger of the person and can act on behalf of the person
or appear instead of the person
Upon a person's death, the Fylgja leaves the person and becomes an independent being
so it's not like the concept of soul in the Christian perspective
it's just part of the soul of the individual, a sort of individual spiritual being residing in and with us
However, it's possible that the Fylgja can be transferred to other family members if a certain relationship is maintained
and so the Fylgja, or the Fylgjur will continue to help future generations
this is because these spiritual entities are also associated to the personified luck of a person
which is the hamingja, but I'll do a video just about the parts of the self in the near future
So the Fylgjur is understood as animal totems
For instance, a person of noble birth would have a fylgja in the form of a bear or a boar
a savage person, very violent in nature would have a wolf
a sorcerer probably a raven or a serpent, etc.
a helping spirit taking the characteristics of the person and vs versa
the person lives by her or his totem. Learning from them, acting like them, interiorising their characteristics
The gods themselves have their own fylgjur, their own animal totems
Freyr the boar and horse, Odin has wolves, ravens, serpents and also horses
Freyja the cat and the boar, Thor the goats
Angrboda the wolf and serpent and cave bear, Hel also has the serpent, dragon, etc
Then we have military societies and warrior groups who adopted a totemic view of the world
and to the Norse the wolf and the bear were usually the totemic animals of these warrior groups, much praised for their ferocity and strength
The Initiation rites of young warriors usually involved spending a period of time alone in the wilderness
They would have to survive by adopting the behaviour of wild animals such as the wolf and the bear,
obtaining food by hunting, gathering, and also stealing provisions from other packs
meaning, villages, towns and even other groups of warriors, constantly risking their lives
The savage world and the life beyond the limits of the civilized life, was the training ground of these warriors
On this case it's not about the individual's totem, but about the totem adopted by the group
so each warrior adopted the animal spirit of their group and acted like so during and after their training
The warrior achieved a state of spiritual unification with the animal totem, which could be enhanced with shamanic and trance techniques
or even with the consumption of psychotropic substances
The warriors would also dress themselves in a ritual costume made from the hide of the animal
So to these warriors embracing the animal totem had to be a complete process of transformation, both in and out, becoming the animal themselves
It was more than a mere symbolic transformation
The Fylgja in this case is not just a helping spirit
the person was possessed by the fylgja, which leads us to the spiritual level of shapeshifting
The shamanistic activities within such warrior groups was precisely to reach out to the Fylgja and make a sort of pact with it
becoming one, the shapeshifting of the spiritual self
Before I say goodbye, I want to leave a little message:
Each one of us has a beast within
Some have it in deep slumber and others have it on a lethargic state
Once in a while the beast stirs and is aware of its condition and wants to get out
And it's a great pain to see it cannot break its chains
In our civilized world we have built cages to keep our wildest desires-
away from this illusion of a sophisticated and enlightened existence brought about by the evolution of societies
It's an irony, really
All the effort to domesticate nature and we ended up domesticating ourselves
So once in a while . . .
howl . . .
Just give it a try, you won't be disappointed
At first it will seem totally silly, until you understand the sense of freedom it gives you
Howl once in a while, unleash the call of the wilds from deep inside and let the winds carry it
Show the world that the beast is still very much alive and all the efforts of the society to contain it, weren't enough to silence it
Let them know and let them hear that the old gods are still around
Alright my dear friends, thank you so much for watching and see you on the next video
Tack för idag! (Thank you for today!)
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