VIKING GODS AND THE GODDESSES OF FATE

New research suggests that Vikings didn't look to their pantheon of gods for moral enlightenment, nor did they expect the gods to punish wrongdoers.

Thor, Odin, Freyja and the other Norse gods are well-known names even today, but figuring out what the Vikings actually believed about them is a tricky business. Prior to the arrival of Christian missionaries and travelers starting around A.D. 800, the people of Scandinavia didn't write much of anything down. The sagas, poems and ballads that record the tales of the Norse pantheon were all written down relatively late, between the 12th and 14th centuries. When the tales were written down, Christians or people whould come in contact with Christians were the ones doing the writing — meaning it is hard to say whether Christian values had colored the tales. Still, the sagas and poems do reveal some information about pre-Christian Scandinavian belief, particularly when combined with archaeological evidence.

The Vikings were an intriguing case study for the question of whether a god or gods can help facilitate the development of a complex society, because they went through major changes between around A.D. 750 and A.D. 1050. At the beginning of this period (which corresponds to the period in which Sri Aurobindo's Play Eric was set), Scandinavia was peopled by small tribes. By the end, it was a hierarchical society of kingdoms, politics and laws that was capable of launching seafaring expeditions all the way to North America.

The sagas, poems and artifacts of the old Norse people do indicate that Vikings believed that supernatural beings were watching them. They swore oaths by the gods and sometimes wore oath rings dedicated to the god Ullr. Some war helmets bore a gold-and-garnet eye representing the eye of the god Odin. Scandinavian contracts mentioned gods, and characters in sagas who failed to make sacrifices to the gods often died in awkward ways.

But the Viking’s gods did not seem to be "big" gods. They weren't supremely powerful — in fact, Norse mythology holds that they weren't even immortal, but were fated to die in a cataclysm called Ragnarök — and they were not omnipotent. They were not even the first beings: according to the Prose Edda, Odin and his brothers were born of the first man (licked out of a salty ice block by a cow) and the daughter of a frost giant.

These findings indicate that big, omnipotent gods weren't necessary for a society to become more complex. They also point to a system of belief quite unlike most of the major world religions today. The Vikings also believed in a number of nondeity supernatural forces. These included elves, dwarfs, ogres, trolls and giants, any of whom could meddle in human affairs.
Greek and Roman gods were similarly capricious, but both of those societies were extremely complex. Perhaps any sort of god could prompt widespread cooperation.

In fact, the Vikings may not have viewed the gods as the most important factor in their success or failure at all. Perhaps more important was the concept of fate, as pointed out in the Dramatic Romance written by Sri Aurobindo. One group of spirits, the disir, was said to determine a person's fate by favoring or neglecting him; some cast lots or wove cloth to determine the events of a person's life.

Often the term Dís is believed to be closely related to idisi mentioned in the Merseburg Spells as it is thought to be related to ides, an Anglo-Saxon synonym for "woman". Probably, it is etymologically related to the dhiṣaṇā, a group of female deities in the Ṛgveda, VIII.102.13.

Dís was perhaps used as a title of lady or goddess. Freyja is called Vanadís (Dís of the Vanir) and Álfhildr is called Dís of the Sun.
Some Scandinavian places have names with some reference to the word dísir, such as Disen in Norway (near Oslo) or Diseberg and Disevi in Sweden.

The dísir appear briefly in the poetic Edda, in some scaldic poems and in numerous kenning.

In Hamðismál, the hero Hamðir after killing his friend Erpr blames his sudden anger on hvöttumk at dísir (the incitement of the dísir).
Often the term Dís is believed to be closely related to idisi mentioned in the Merseburg Spells as it is thought to be related to ides, an Anglo-Saxon synonym for "woman". Probably, it is etymologically related to the dhiṣaṇā, a group of female deities in the Rgveda, VIII.102.13.

Dís was perhaps used as a title of lady or goddess. Freyja is called Vanadís (dís of the Vanir) and Álfhildr is called dís of the sun.
Some Scandinavian places have names with some reference to the word dísir, such as Diseberg and Disevi in Sweden or Disen in Norway.

The dísir appear briefly in the poetic Edda, in some scaldic poems and in numerous kenning.

In Hamðismál, the hero Hamðir after killing his friend Erpr blames his sudden anger on hvöttumk at dísir (the incitement of the dísir).