THE SCENE: Enthusiasts of pagan rituals will appreciate the passage below, which provides a vivid picture of a pre-Christian ceremony that bonded its practitioners as blood brothers.
THE TEXT: Gisli answered, “We four will make our bond of friendship even stronger than before by pledging our sworn brotherhood.”
This seemed good counsel to them, so they walked out to Eyrarhvolsoddi and scoured out a long strip of turf, making sure that both ends were still attacked to the ground. Then they propped up the arch of raised turf with a damascened spear so long-shafted that a man could stretch out his arm and touch the rivets. All four of them had to go under it, Thorgrim, Gisli, Thorkel and Vestein. Then they drew blood and let it drip down on to the soil beneath the turf strip and stirred it together – the soil and the blood. Then they all fell to their knees and swore an oath that each would avenge the other as if they were brothers, and they called on all the gods as their witnesses.
– Gisli Sursson’s Saga, 13th Century AD
[Image Credit: The Ash Yggdrasil by Friedrich Wilhelm Heine]
