Horses in Germanic paganism

They featured in a number of diverse and interrelated religious practices, being one of the most common animals sacrificed in blóts and found in graves, notably in examples such as at Sutton Hoo and the Oseberg ship.

During the establishment of the church in Northern Europe, horsemeat shifted from being holy to taboo, with the eating of it being made a punishable offence and a recurring identifier of "savages" in saga literature.

The role of horses in religious practice is mirrored in extant Germanic mythology and legend, with the actions of both heroes and gods reflecting historical and archaeological records.

[7] It has been further noted that the name of the world tree, Yggdrasill translates to "Ygg's (Odin's) steed", making the horse symbolism central to the understanding of the cosmos.

In Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða, the eponymous goði was a friend of Frey and shared half his possessions with the god, including twelve mares and a stallion named Freyfaxi.

[10][11] A similar prohibition is seen in Bede's account of the Anglo-Saxon heathen priest Coifi, who was not permitted to ride, except on mares, or bear arms while pagan, but during his conversion rode to the temple on a stallion, with a spear and declared the renunciation of his earlier faith.

[11] Horse burial was practised in Scandinavia during the Late Roman Iron Age, consistent with Tactitus' account of it taking place among the Germanic Rhineland tribes in the 1st century CE.

[12][13] The practice is also well attested from the 5th to 7th centuries CE among continental Germanic peoples such as the Alamanni, Bavarians, Lombards, Franks, Saxons and Thuringians, including at the funeral of the Frankish king Childeric I.

[22] A horse-ship funeral among the Rus' is described by Ahmad ibn Fadlan in which two horses are made to run until they sweated before being killed, cut up and put on a ship that had been drawn out of the water, upon which the dead chieftain lay.

Horse burials and eating of the meat may have been interrelated practices in this period, similar to in Scandinavian communities, with examples in which only the head is placed in the grave potentially corresponding to cases in which the body was eaten.

[26] Finds such as the 6th-7th century site at Melton in Yorkshire and Cresswell Field in Oxfordshire show close association between feasting on horses and religious practice, such as the deposition at the edge of a lake and proximity to possible cultic structures.

[28] A major reason for the decline has been proposed to be the increased desire by Christian officials from the 8th century CE onwards to construct an orthodoxy in the region, standardising religious practice and choosing to incorporate some aspects of culture originating in heathenry, while eradicating others that were deemed incompatible with the stance of the church, including consumption of horse meat.

Notably, he also did not prohibit it, however this has been suggested to be because the text was written it was less than a hundred years since the first missions began to convert the Anglo-Saxons and his stance was taken as a form of political accommodation of the practice.

[31] Horsemeat eating continued to decline into the Late Anglo-Saxon period, with most archaeological evidence being found in urban centres, and the majority of sites being located in areas with largest Scandinavian settlement such as York.

[25] Horses are one of the most common animals described as being sacrificed in blót, second only to cattle, being listed in notable accounts such as those of Adam of Bremen, Thietmar of Merseburg and the Stentoften Runestone.

[33] Here, the text describes how, prior to the establishment of the Church in Norway, an old custom was observed in the area around Trondheim in which people sacrificed horses and cattle in blót at a hof that stood there.

[note 2][44] Islendingabók and Kristni saga list eating of horsemeat along with other explicitly heathen practices that were decided to be permitted in secret for a short time, before being fully made illegal, after the decision at the Althing in 1000 CE that Icelanders should all become Christian: Þá var þat mælt í lögum, at allir menn skyldi kristnir vera ok skírn taka, þeir er áðr váru óskírðir á landi hér.

Njáls saga gives a very similar account of how it was proclaimed that all Icelanders would have to be Christian by law, along with the prohibition of public blót, exposing of children and eating of horsemeat.

[47][48] This is consistent with the Grágás and Gulathing law codes from Iceland and Norway respectively that specifically list eating of horsemeat as an offence punishable by confiscation of property and outlawry, making it the most strictly prohibited food in Scandinavia after the Christianisation.

[49][50] It has been suggested, however, that associating horse meat and the feeling of disgust, as seen in the account in Hákon the Good, formed part of a wider effort by the church authorities to promote their ideas of morality and enforce a stricter religious orthodoxy.

In Late Anglo-Saxon England similar practices seem to have been carried out given that they are criticised by Ælfric in his Lives of Saints who writes that '...he who trusteth in auguries, either from birds, or from sneezings, either from horses, or from dogs, he is no Christian, but is an infamous apostate'.

[16] In the Indiculus superstitionum et paganiarum, a list of condemned practices deemed pagan or superstitions from around Saxony, is a reference to divination by the dung of birds, horses and cattle.

In a similar account in Njáls saga, Gunnar's horse slips while he is faring to a ship to sail from Iceland, causing him to see his homestead and change his mind about leaving.

[60] The role of the horse penis has been debated, with some scholars suggesting it formed part of the cult of Frey, or of another god, with Vǫlsi acting as their physical presence.

[18][64] The practice continued in England after Christianisation with Bede describing that around 688 CE, St. John of Beverly healed a man named Herebald after he fell from a horse during a race.

He supports this proposal by referring to a 16th-century prohibition in Iceland, recorded in the Historia ecclesiasstica Islandiæ, that forbade priests from attending activities deemed to be relics of heathen customs, including horse fights.

[67] Similarly, Svale Solheim has argued, based on Norwegian folk traditions that the fights were originally part of larger festivals with the aim of ensuring good harvests.

[67] The gifting of high-quality and decorated horses by kings, as with rings, has been suggested to have been a key component of pre-Christian elite Germanic society, due to their perceived high importance and value.

[69] This act is similarly seen in mythological narratives such as Ríg offering horses to all his people in Rígsþula, and Thor giving Gullfaxi to his son Magni after fighting Hrungnir in Skáldskaparmál.