CHAPTER SIXTEEN ( 2 )

CULT LEADERS, RULERS

AND RELIGION

Olof Sundqvist

A

n important aspect of religious and social life was the public sacrifices, where some
rituals were probably complicated and needed experts. There has been debate
regarding whether Viking Scandinavians had some kind of priesthood (see Sundqvist
2003 a). Some scholars state that they had (e.g. Andersson 1992 ): they have observed
terms and names which seem to indicate such a specialised office (see below). Other
scholars argue that there were no priests (e.g. Ström 1985 ). According to them the ruler,
the king or earl, made contact with the deities on behalf of the people at the sacrificial
feasts and in other rituals. Recently it has been argued that the term ‘priest’ is not
appropriate as a cross-cultural concept since it is strongly influenced by Christian and
western thinking. When examining traditional societies, such as ancient Scandinavia,
more neutral analytical categories should be applied, such as ‘cult leader’ (Sundqvist
2003 b). The problem still remains, however. Were there ever exclusive religious special-
ists who took care of the rituals at the public cult?

NAMES AND DESIGNATIONS INDICATING

CULT LEADERS

It has been suggested that some composite personal names and designations including
ON -vé(r), -vi(r), -væ(r) (< wı ̄ha-) (cf. Goth weiha ‘priest’) indicate a ‘differentiated
hierarchical priesthood’ (Kousgård Sørensen 1989 ). Sometimes these composites have
guð ‘god’ as the first element, for example in Guðir. In other cases the first element is a
name of a deity, as for instance in Þóri(r). The first element may also refer to a denomin-
ation of a cult place, such as Al-, Sal-, Vi-, Hargh- (Ho ̨rgr). The name Qlvir belongs
to this group, which has been interpreted as alu-wı ̄haz ‘Priester eines “alu- (alh-)”
Heiligtums’ (de Vries 1956 – 7 ). Hence, the composites with the element wı ̄ha- prob-
ably refer to an office including religious functions. When analysing historical and
narrative sources, however, the interpretation ‘priest’ (or ‘religious specialist’) fits badly
in this context. In most cases this designation refers to a kind of multi-functional leader
(see e.g. Sundqvist 2003 a, b).
Also the denomination ON goði, attested in medieval Icelandic prose (cf. Goth gudja,
OHG goto), refers to a leader who performed with many roles (e.g. Sundqvist 2003 a, b).