By James Burkhalter

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In the July 2008 issue of Geographical, David Keys writes about the worldwide anthropomorphisation of stones and rocks, or the belief that souls are transported from the body to the natural world after death. According to Keys, this belief “imbued the natural world with spirituality—and forced humanity to respect it in spiritual terms” (Keys 51). The concept of anthropomorphism was popular in Iceland during the Viking Age. The inhabitants practiced the Pagan religion and believed in the spiritual power of standing stones, caves, and burial mounds.

According to Eyrbyggja Saga, Thorolf erected this new temple out of wood, carved images of Thor into high-seat pillars, and created a statue of Thor on a pedestal (Schach 4). Eyrbyggja Saga describes the interior of the first temple in some detail:
Around the pedestal in this side room were arranged the images of the gods. Everyone was to pay a contribution to the temple, and they also had to accompany the temple priest to all assemblies, just as thingmen now must accompany their chieftains. On his part, the priest (godi) had to maintain the temple at his own expense, so that it did not deteriorate and hold the sacrificial banquets in it. (6)

The pagan priest, or godi, was personally responsible for making sure that the temple did not diminish in quality over the years. In his book, Nordic Religions in the Viking Age, Thomas DuBois explains the important role that the godi played in society as “chieftain in his district, maintaining order among his following of Thingmenn, and negotiating the settlement of legal disputes through tact, diplomacy, and force” (DuBois 66). Thus, in Eyrbyggja Saga, it is the godi’s responsibility to resolve all conflicts between the Thorsness clan and the Kjallekings.

When Christianity came to Iceland, Helgafell remained a place of worship, but Christian churches replaced pagan temples. Swayed by the gospel of Gizur the White and his son-in-law Hjalti, Snorri (then-godi of Helgafell) did the most to have Christianity adopted, most notably by building a church at Helgafell. According to the saga, a great incentive for building these churches was that “the priests promised that a person would provide room in the Kingdom of Heaven for as many as could find standing room in the church he built” (Schach 104). This provided a new savior for people who refused to continue worshipping Thor.

Even after the mass conversion to Christianity, the Landnamabok reveals a return to holy-mountain worship, after the death of Christian Icelandic settler, Audr Djupudga. Following her death, “her kinsmen worshipped these hills, then when sacrifices began, a pagan temple was built there. They believed they would go into the hills when they died” (DuBois 76). Instead of referring to the pearly gates of Heaven, the Landnamabok employs the image of the sacred hill as the gateway to the afterlife. Dubois remarks that this tradition was restricted to “Thor worship, since the Odinnic cult would place the dead in Odin’s Valhalla” (76). Thor’s followers expected their souls to be transported to Helgafell, whereas Odin’s warriors expected to go to Valhalla after dying in battle. One woman whose spirit is believed to dwell in Helgafell is Gudrun Osvifrsdottir, Iceland’s first hermit nun. Gudurun appears in Laxdaela Saga, in which she planned of the death of her lover, Kjartan, and feuded with his vengeful mother, Thorgerd (Byock 304). According to the saga record, her body was buried on the island surrounding Helgafell.
As is customary for the practitioners of many religions, the Vikings performed rituals designed to appease the Gods. Eyrbyggja Saga outlines several Pagan customs. For instance, when 25-year-old Thorstein’s wife, Thora, gave birth to a son, he sprinkled him with water (Schach 14). This custom may have been the Pagan version of the Christian baptism ritual. At the beginning of the saga, when Thorolf establishes Helgafell as sacred ground, he outlines the layout of the main temple and the rituals that the temple priest was required to perform; the saga describes this structure and enumerates these duties clearly:

Here on the floor in the middle of the room stood a pedestal like an altar; and on it lay a ring open in one place, twenty ounces in weight, on which all men were to swear oaths. This ring the temple priest was supposed to wear on his arm at all meetings. On the pedestal also was the place for the sacrificial bowl and in it a sacrificial twig, which was like an aspergill. With this they sprinkled the blood from the bowl which was called sacrificial blood, that is, the blood of those animals which were killed as an offering to the gods. (5)

Thorolf carefully constructed these specific rituals and specified where they were to be performed. In addition, the “sacrificial blood” would not have come from animals slaughtered on the holy hill. Given the sanctity of Helgafell, one of Thorolf’s first decrees was that, “Nothing was to be killed on this mountain, neither cattle nor human beings, except those cattle which left there of their own accord” (6). In addition to forbidding bloodshed on the mountain, Thorolf also decreed that, “No man should look upon it unwashed” (Davidson 158). He believes so strongly in the purity of Helgafell that for a dirty person to even gaze upon it would dishonor his patron god, Thor. One of Thorolf’s other decrees was that Helgafell must not be defiled in any way whatsoever, neither through bloodshed nor human excrement. If someone had to relieve themselves, “a skerry was set aside which was called Dirtskerry” (Schach 6) This decree became especially important when it led to a bloody war between the Thorsness clan and the Kjalleklings. After some time had passed, two Kjallekings decided to relieve themselves on the holy grass:

It happened one spring at the Thorsness Assembly that Thorgrim Kjallaksson and his brother-in-law Asgeir of Eyr declared they would no longer put up with the arrogance of the Thorsness people. They said, furthermore, that they would ease themselves on the grass there as anywhere else at meeting even though those people were so haughty that they considered their lands more sacred than other farms in Broad Firth. (Schach 11)

Outraged by their blatant disrespect, Thorolf’s son, Thorstein, and his men attack the Kjalleklings until “the field had become all bloody” (12). Ironically, the Thorsness clan punished the Kjalleklings for breaking the “no excrement” rule by breaking an even bigger rule: No human nor animal should be killed on that holy hill. In response to the bloody quarrel, Thord Yeller, the greatest chieftain around the Broad Firth, “declared that the field had been defiled by the bloodshed which had occurred there, so that the ground there was no more sacred than anywhere else, and that they were the cause of it who started the fight” (13). Defiled by human blood and excrement, areas of Helgafell outside of the temple are no longer sacred. The judge’s order now gave the island’s inhabitants the opportunity to do things on Helgafell that would normally do anywhere else, including human sacrifice. Following this episode, the saga talks about the new judgment circle, where men’s backs were broken on a large stone. The narrator concludes the chapter by noting that even in his own time, “There is still to be seen there that judgment circle in which men were condemned to be sacrificed. In this circle stands the stone of Thor, on which the backs of men selected for the sacrifice were broken; and the color of blood can still be seen on the stone” (14). Compared to the strict restrictions originally outlined by Thorolf Mostrarkegg, the rituals performed on Helgafell had become more violent and bloody.

Associated with a particular mystique, Helgafell has a mythology heavily associated with the Norse God Thor and the Otherworld. This “familial mountain” was reserved for its founder, Thorolf Mostrarkegg, and his descendants (Dubois 76). Thorolf believed that he would enter the mountain when he died, and so would all the kinsmen on Thorsness. In the Eyrbyggja Saga, before anyone has heard news of Thorstein Thorskabit’s death at sea, a shepherd saw Thorstein’s entire ghost party entering Helgafell:
He saw the northern slope of the mountain open, and inside he could see great fires, and he could hear noisy merriment and the blaring of horns coming there. And when he listened to hear what was said, he heard Thorstein Thorskabit and his shipmates being welcomed, and Thorstein being invited to sit in the high seat opposite his father. (Schach 15)

In death, Thorstein was reunited with his deceased father, Helgafell’s founder. Although this episode does not talk explicitly about Thor’s presence at Helgafell, author H.R. Ellis Davidson discusses the Thunder God’s role. In Gods and Myths of the Viking Age, according to Davidson, “Evidently those who dwelled on the Ness and who were under Thor’s protection were to pass into this holy hill after death” (Davidson 159). Only those who were devout followers of Thor were granted his protection after death and allowed to enter Helgafell. Godi Snorri supports the mass conversion to Christianity, because it guarantees salvation to anyone who attends church, not just Thor’s followers. The discovery of religious artifacts, moreover, dictates that Thor was believed to have had a strong connection with the dead. Davidson explains that, “…the mark of the swastika or hammer on cremation urns and memorial stones suggests that he afforded his protection to his worshippers in the realm of death as in life” (Davidson 158). According to Norse mythology, if people were faithful followers of Thor, then their souls would reside in the Holy Mountain for eternity.

Because of his strong devotion to his patron god, Hrolf Mostrarkegg changed his own name, traveled to Iceland, built a pagan temple honoring Thor, and decreed that his descendants carry out certain rituals in order to appease the Thunder God. Helgafell had great religious significance to the inhabitants of Thorsness. It housed the Pagan temple and was believed to be a mythical gateway to the Otherworld, reserved for Thor’s devoted followers. By the thirteenth century, Helgafell evolved into a thriving monastic center and scriptorium (Byock 77). And if one believes in anthropomorphism, then he might be interested in the amount of spiritual energy that Helgafell is rumored to possess.

Works Cited

Byock, Jesse. Viking Age Iceland. Penguin Books, 2001.

Clover, C.J. and J. Lindow. Old Norse-Icelandic literature: A Critical Guide. Ithaca: Cornell, 1985.

Davidson, H.R. Ellis. Gods and Myths of the Viking Age. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1996.

Dubois, Thomas. Nordic Religions in the Viking Age. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.

Hall, Richard. Viking Age Archaelogy in Britain and Ireland. Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire: Shire Publications, 1995.

Johnson, Jay and Marsha McGee. How different religions view death and afterlife. Philadelphia: Charles Press, 1991.

Jones, Gwyn. A History of the Vikings. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.

Lindow, John. Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Page, R.I. Norse Myths. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001.

Schach, Paul and Lee M. Hollander. Eyrbyggja Saga. University of Nebraska Press, 1959.

Turville-Petre E.O.G. Myth and religion of the North: The religion of ancient Scandinavia. London, 1964.

Young, Jean and Sigurdur Nordal. The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson: Tales from Norse Mythology. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966.

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