Jacob Grimm on Nordic Religion

It seems to have been instilled by Nature into every people that it should keep itself closed-off and untouched by alien elements. It can only guard its tongue, its ethos, within a closed circle. Only as long as it flows between its own banks does a river keep its waters pure. All pristine strength and the undisturbed expression of its deepest instincts emanate from this center and we see our oldest language, poetry and legend assert this very characteristic. However, a river has not only to accept the streams which bring down fresh water to it from mountain and hill but must ultimately flow out into the wide waters of the ocean. Peoples border upon peoples, peaceful commerce, war and conquest merge their destinies. Such intermingling may bring unexpected results, the advantages of which must be weighed against the loss which suppression of the native elements brought about. Yet the language, poetry and religion of our forefathers were unable everywhere and at all times to guard themselves against the onset of what was foreign, and they have experienced the most shattering transformation through the conversion of the people to Christianity.

HEROES AND WISE WOMEN, ELVES AND GIANTS, THE HIGHEST BEING

Deities form the essence of all mythology. Ours were buried out of sight and had to be unearthed. Their traces were able to be discerned partly in names that stubbornly refused to be rooted out and yet offered only an empty sound and partly with changed shape in the fluid but more complete form of popular legend. Upon closer inspection, all individual deities appear to be emanations and segments of one single deity: the Gods as sky, the Goddesses as earth, the former as fathers, the latter as mothers, the Gods creating, ruling, leading, governing victory and fortune, air, fire and water—the Goddesses nourishing, spinning, cultivating the fields, beautiful, adorned and loving. In all German tongues the Highest Being has always with one accord been called by the general name: God. In curses and exclamations our people, from fear of desecrating God s name, resort to some modification of this, saying potz wetter or kotz wunder instead of "Gottes"—however, I cannot trace this practice back to our ancient speech. Some remarkable uses of the word "God" in our older language and that of the common people may also have a connection with pagan ideas. In Middle High German poems one encounters the expression for a hearty welcome. gote unde mir wilekomen ("Welcome to God and me" ). Upper Germany has retained this form of greeting to the present day. The Highest Being is conceived as omnipresent and is expected like a host to take the newcomer under his protection. In the same way the name of the omniscient emphasizes an affirmation of knowledge or ignorance: das weiz got unde ich = God and I know that. Poems of the Middle Ages attribute human passions to God: especially is He often described as in a condition of placidity and joy or again in the contrary state of wrath and vengeance. The former is favorable for the endowment of distinguished and happy men. It is an equally pagan sentiment that imputes to God a wish to gaze at human beauty or at whatever men do. In the Middle Ages a wicked man was called gote leide, a sorrow to God. There is a parallel formula which substitutes the sun for God and so heightens the pagan complexion. A man so accursed does not deserve to have the sun shine kindly upon him. Such a hostile relationship results now and then in a rebellious spirit in man which breaks forth in Promethean defiance and threats or even takes a practical turn. If the God denied the assistance prayed for, his image was flung into the river by the people, immersed in water or beaten. In the Carolingian romances we repeatedly come upon the incident of Karl (Charlemagne) threatening the deity that if his aid is denied, he will cast down his altars and make the Church with all its priests leave the land of the Franks. The all-governing God is at the same time the all-seeing, all-knowing, all- remembering. Hence it is said of fortunate men that God saw them and of unfortunate ones, that God forgot them. Among appellations are several which God has in common with worldly rulers: the name Father is above all conspicuous. In the Edda the name Alfödr (All Father) is applied to Odin as the father of all Gods, humans and created things. This compound may have sounded pagan. However, the idea of God the Father became more familiar to Christians than to pagans. Most epic formulas are taken from God's dwelling place, his omnipotence, omniscience and truth. Many other expressions are indisputably connected with the pagan way of thinking. Since the Gods are represented as dwelling on high, in the heavens, upon mountain heights, it is natural that individuals should have certain particular mountains and abodes consigned them.

WORSHIP AND SACRIFICE

Because the Gods show favor more often than wrath and men are happily disposed rather than oppressed by their own sins and faults, thanksgiving sacrifices were the earliest and most frequent, sacrifices out of expiation rarer, more poignant. What can be offered to the Gods from the plant realm is serene, innocent, but also less significant than animal sacrifice. The flowing blood, the life shed, seems to assert stronger binding and appeasing power. Animal sacrifices are natural to the warrior, hunter and shepherd, while the farmer will give grain and flowers. The great yearly festivals of the pagans allude to folk gatherings and popular courts. Human sacrifices absolve according to their nature and origin. A great misfortune, a serious crime, can only be conjured away and expunged through human blood. Sacrifices were made by all peoples of antiquity, there is undoubted evidence of this in Germany. As a rule, victims to be sacrificed were captive foes, purchased serfs or extreme criminals. On the other hand, the death penalty was rare or unheard of among the ancient peoples. In folk legends there are still traces of the sacrificing of children. Rare cases could even demand the death of a king's son and daughters, indeed of a king himself. Animal sacrifices were chiefly made as thanksgiving, but also as expiation and as such they often represent moderation in place of older human sacrifices. Only such animals were suitable whose flesh was fit for human consumption. It would have been inappropriate to offer the God a food which the sacrificers had themselves scorned. At the same time these sacrifices also appear as feasts. An allotted portion of the slaughtered animal was brought to the sacrifice, and the remainder cut in pieces, shared out and consumed by the assembly. The people entered as a result into fellowship with the holy sacrifice, just as the Gods were held to be joint feasters at their meal. It was commanded of kings that at great sacrifices they taste all foods. Superstitious people later still placed food at one side for the house spirits and dwarfs. In the oldest times chiefly horses seem to have been sacrificed, undoubtedly their flesh was universally eaten before the introduction of Christianity. Missionaries found nothing so repellent about the pagans, as the latter would not abandon the killing of horses and enjoying of their flesh. The cutting-off of the horse's head which was not eaten but dedicated to the God must not be overlooked in this connection. I believe that among all known sacrifices only those of the horse were celebrated at the nine year festivals. Among all animal sacrifices that of the horse was the most noble and the most solemn. Our forefathers had it in common with several Slavic and Finnish peoples, with Persians and Indians. The horse was held by them all to be a particularly sacred animal. Along with cattle, sacrifices of boars, pigs and rams were not rare; we are uncertain about other sacrificial animals. The dove was a Jewish and Christian animal sacrifice, cocks were offered by the Greeks to Aesculapius to heal an infected finger, and it was the custom in the Touraine to sacrifice a wild cock to Saint Christopher. Among game only edible beasts were sacrificial: deer, roes, wild pigs, but never wolves or foxes to whom even a ghostly nature is attributed. In paganism, wild animals seem to have been preferred for sacrifice. The animals dependent upon man, his house animals, have to suffer upon his death, with his sacrifice and punishment. Besides the sex, weight was certainly laid upon the color of the animal and white was favored most of all. One can imagine that the beast was decorated and embellished for sacrifice. Some details suggest that before sacrifice the animals were led around in the midst of the popular assembly. While the animal lost its life on the sacrificial stone, all the flowing blood was caught either in a specially arranged trench or in vessels. The holy tables and vessels and the participants were sprinkled with the sacrificial blood. Prophecies were probably made from the blood, and it is possible that a portion of it was mixed with beer or mead and drunk. The distribution of the pieces among the people was probably carried out by a priest. On great feast days the banquet was held directly during the popular assembly. Several reports reveal that the animal was transformed to ashes on the wood pile. Also no importance was attached to smoke offerings. The sweet incense of Christians was something new to the pagans. An animal blood sacrifice is more social, more universal; it was customary that the entire people of the community brought this. Fruit or flowers, milk or honey every household and even an individual could offer. These fruit offerings are therefore more isolated, more impoverished. History scarcely mentions this, but they have lasted all the longer and more firmly in folk custom. The farmer, when he cuts his corn, leaves a heap of ears standing to the God who blessed the corn, and decorates them with ribbons. Even now during the fruit harvest in Holstein, five or six apples are left hanging untouched on every tree, then the next crop prospers. At the solemn handing over of landed properties, branches with leaves, apples or nuts serve as signs of trade. To this also belongs the hanging of the image of the God with garlands, of a sacred tree or a sacrificial animal with leaves and flowers. In the Scandinavian sagas not the slightest trace of the latter is revealed. On Ascension day in more than one district of Germany the girls wind garlands of white and red flowers and hang them up in the kitchen or the stables over the cattle, until they are replaced the next year by fresh ones. Here pagan custom appears to have been transferred to Christian festivals: Just as it was a very ancient and widespread custom to leave back at a feast a portion of the food for the household Gods and in fact a dish with broth was placed for Berchta and Holda, the Gods were allowed to enjoy a festive drink. The drinker, before he enjoyed it himself, was accustomed to pour out something for the God or household spirits. Connected with this are Norwegian legends about Thor, who appears at weddings and accepts or empties enormous barrels of beer. It was the custom to honor an absent or dead person by mentioning them at the assembly and feast and downing a cup to their memory. In like manner as by observing this drinking custom which was continued into later time, research into pagan mythology will find it advantageous to study the designs used in baking which either still imitated the old idol's shape or retained the prescriptions of an offering. Thus, much which would not really be applicable in the offerings and customs of the people—the color of the animal, the leading around of the boar, the flowers, the drinking of toasts, even the shape of cakes, is still a memory of the offerings of paganism. Besides the prayers and offerings, an essential part of the pagan cult must still be emphasized: the solemn carrying or leading around of the images of the Gods. The deity was not to stay in only one place but show its presence through the entire circumference of the land. Thus Frau Nerthus drove around, thus Fro [Freya] moved from place to place in the Spring, thus the sacred ship, the sacred plough, were led about. Holda, Berchta, and all similar beings held their walk at appointed times of the year, to the joy of pagans, to the horror of Christians. Even Wodan's wild hunt can be so interpreted. A comparison can be made of customs of public law, the riding around of newly crowned kings through the streets of the land, the solemn recording of paths, the beating of the bounds, at which priests and images of the Gods will have been present in ancient times. After the conversion to Christianity, the Church also allowed such processions, except that an image of Mary or other sacred images were carried, namely when drought, crop failure, sickness or war had broken out, in order to cause rain, fertility of the fields, recovery from illness and gaining of victory. Even at the outbreak of fire sacred images were applied against this.

PLACES OF WORSHIP

A temple is simultaneously a wood. What we think of as a walled building, merges, the farther back we go, into a sacred place untouched by human hands, in a grove and enclosed by dense trees. There the God dwells, veiling his form in the rustling foliage of the boughs. There is the place at which the hunter has to present him with the game he has killed and the herdsman his horses, oxen and rams. I am not maintaining that this forest worship exhausts all the conceptions which our ancestors had formed of the deity and its dwelling-place. It was only the principle. Here and there a God may haunt a mountain top, a cave in the rocks, a river. But the solemn general worship by the people had its seat in the grove. And nowhere could it have found a better one: it was customary with many peoples. At a time when crude beginnings were all that existed of the builder's art, the human mind must have been aroused to a higher devotion by the sight of lofty trees under an open sky than it could ever feel inside the stunted structures reared by unskilled hands. When, long afterwards, the architecture peculiar to the Germans reached its perfection, did it not in its boldest creations aim at reproducing the soaring trees of the forest? Would not the childlike imaginative power of primeval times have felt itself estranged by the disproportion of poorly carved or painted images of the God which it imagined as enthroned on the leafy top of a sacred tree? In the blowing of the wind, under the shade of primeval forests the soul of man felt itself filled by the presence of the ruling deities. What a deep influence forest life had from of old on all circumstances of our people is shown by the preservation of the Guilds of the Marches (Markgenossenschaften). Marka, the word from which they bear their name, first signified forest and then also boundary. In the course of centuries and until the introduction of Christianity the custom was served of worshipping the deity in the sacred forests and trees. Among the Saxons and Frisians the worship in the groves lasted far longer. In various parts of Lower Saxony and Westphalia traces of sacred oaks have been preserved until recent times, to which the people showed a half-pagan, half-Christian reverence. I am inclined to trace back the naming of sacred forests, which appears almost everywhere in Germany, to paganism. One would hardly have called the forests sacred after Christian churches which were built in them and usually no such church is found in the forests. Even less can the naming be explained from the prohibited royal forests of the Middle Ages. Conversely these forest preserves seem themselves to have emanated from pagan groves and in place of the cult appears the law of the king who withdrew the sacred forest from the use and common ownership of the people. Such forests were also, in many places, a refuge for malefactors. In the course of centuries this ancient forest worship became displaced -- more with some peoples, less with others -- in favor of the erection of temples. We see all Christian missionaries eagerly lay the axe to the sacred trees of the pagans and set their temples on fire. It would almost seem as if the unfortunate people were not even asked for their agreement and only the rising smoke announced to them the broken power of their Gods. But with closer study of the circumstances it is revealed from the less boastful accounts that neither the pagans were so cowardly and simple nor Christians so thoughtless. Boniface resolved to cut down the thunder oaks only after careful consultation with the already converted Hessians and in their presence. The Thuringian king's daughter would never have halted her horse and given the command to set fire to the Frankish temple, if her followers had not been numerous enough to oppose the pagans. It is expressly remarked in most reports that in place of the pagan tree or temple a church was erected. In this way the customs of the people were spared and it was made credible that the ancient sacredness of the place had departed but henceforth was dependent on the presence of the true God. At the same time one discovers from this the cause of the almost total lack of remains of pagan monuments. They were either leveled to the ground in order to build a Christian church over them or their walls and halls were even used for the latter. One may restrain oneself from having a high opinion of the architecture of the pagan Germans, but they must have understood how to arrange appreciable masses of stone and to cement them firmly. Evidence of this is provided by the burial mounds and places of sacrifice preserved in Scandinavia and partly still in Friesland and Saxony, from which some important conclusions can be drawn about the old pagan worship of God. On many German mountains traces of Gods and heroes are found which allude to ancient places of worship: on the Taunus of Brunnhilde, on the Harz of Gibich and Dietrich.

PRIESTHOOD

The German priests were active as guardians of divine and worldly law, together with religious worship and popular courts. In campaigns by the army they alone controlled discipline, not the generals, since the entire war was conducted as if in the presence of the deity. From the sacred grove they took with them the images and insignia into the field. If the future were to be predicted from the neighing of the publicly maintained white horse, priests accompanied the sacred wagon and authorized the proceedings. Only the priests might touch the wagon of the deity; the latter's approaching presence was recognized by him, he accompanied it respectfully and ultimately led it back into the sacred abode. The rareness of records which mention the priests were a reason why their office was long overlooked. Undoubtedly, they were also responsible for the uttering of solemn prayers, the killing of sacrificial animals, the consecration of the dead, perhaps also of marriages and the administering of oaths. The Nordic priest's office reached deeply into the practice and guardianship of the law. Gestures and postures necessary for certain legal transactions are reminiscent of many priestly rituals during offerings and prayers. In such a capacity the priests seem to have had an important influence on the people while there is little mention of their political influence on the kings' courts. Even after the introduction of Christianity the Icelandic judges retained the name and many powers of the pagan priests. I have not come across any references to the clothing worn by the Northern priests. Among many Aryan peoples the priest's robe was of white color. Was the office of a poet connected with the latter? Even by Christian poets, after the conversion, one or other thing is still related which has been passed on to us by pagan Skalds. History has not preserved the name of any vates, a singer and soothsayer at the same time, although soothsaying was the office of the priest, and the names of several prophetesses are known. Tacitus mentions the Veleda as prisoners in the triumphant march of Vespasian. The Nordic sources stress the priestly office of women less than their gift of prophecy. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Languages at the Time of Jesus

by Deanna Gallo

Various languages were spoken in Roman-occupied Palestine during the first century AD, which was the world and time of Jesus. The most prominent of these languages were Aramaic, Hebrew and Koine Greek. The Latin spoken by the occupying Romans held only a minor place in comparison with these three languages.

ARAMAIC

Aramaic is a Semitic language, related to both Hebrew and Arabic. This was the language spoken originally in Mesopotamia, and as empires rose and fell in the millennium before the birth of Jesus, the Aramaic language was used as the vehicle of communication among people of different nations, eventually spreading as far west as Egypt and becoming the lingua franca of the entire area.

Many scholars believe that the Jewish people first acquired Aramaic during the years of the Babylonian captivity, and that centuries later, their descendants brought Aramaic with them into Israel. Parts of the Old Testament, in fact, are written in Aramaic rather than Hebrew.
In the third century BC, when Greek began overtaking Aramaic as the dominant language in much of the region, Aramaic was still extensively spoken in Palestine. By the first century, it had diverged into an array of dialects, which some historical linguists prefer to consider separate Aramaic-based languages.

Aramaic is thought to have been the native language of Jesus.

HEBREW

Like Aramaic, Hebrew is a Semitic language, and one with writings that date back to the tenth century BC. Hebrew is the traditional language of the Jewish people, and has always been the language of prayer and worship.
There is some debate among language historians over the precise status of Hebrew during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Some scholars claim that Aramaic was the day-to-day language of the Jewish people during this time, and that Hebrew was used mainly for religious study and liturgical purposes. Other scholars disagree, and point to newer evidence suggesting that Hebrew functioned as a living language alongside Aramaic until the end of the Roman period.
It is not known for certain whether or not Jesus spoke Hebrew. Many religious scholars claim that he did, and they support this claim by citing his knowledge of Hebrew scripture and theology.

KOINE GREEK

Koine refers to the common dialect of Greek, which, beginning in the third century BC, became the lingua franca for the entire region conquered by Alexander the Great. Koine Greek remained the common trade language of the region during Jesus' time; it was widely spoken in Palestine, and even the Romans made use of it in their administration of the province. It is thought likely that Jesus would have had some familiarity with this language.
A few decades after the crucifixion, the books of the New Testament were composed in Koine Greek, which made them accessible to people of many nations.

LATIN

Latin was the language of the occupying Roman army. However, in Palestine the status of Latin was different from its status in the Romanized provinces of Western Europe, where Latin came to displace the native languages altogether. In the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, Latin did not have great influence over the populace and never held the role of a dominant language. Most of the people who lived in the Roman province of Palestine during the life of Jesus did not speak Latin.

STONE ‘SHIP’ MAY BE VIKING BURIAL MOUND

The Ancient American, Volume 1, Issue 6
By Carol Bass

An unusual mound of stones in the shape of a ship which could date back to Viking settlements in the New World has been discovered in an area forest. History experts who have visited the site suspect the 65-foot stone structure may be a large “cairn,” an ancient European burial site constructed for the dead by the Viking and Celtic cultures. The exact location of site, which is in Windham County, is being kept under wraps to avoid the possibility of vandalism.
When first sighted through undergrowth, the ‘cairn’ appears to be just another short stretch of old New England stone wall, but on closer inspection, the boat shape of the stone pile becomes immediately apparent. The ‘cairn’ is close to 50 feet long and at its widest point measures 30-40 feet wide, and is four feet high. It is a near exact stone replica of a New England dory, a narrow at the bow and stern, with a very wide-mid-section. It is in fairly good shape and is only slightly damaged on one side where a growing tree has caused part of it crumble.
The structure was discovered by photographers Virginia and William Welch of Hampton. The couple saved it from near demolition by officials who have been planning to reforest the area. The state Department of Environmental Protection has now flagged the site to protect it for further observation and study.
The site has been viewed by several regional historical societies, including the Early Sites Research Society of Rowley, Mass., and the Gungywump Society of Noank. Officials from the societies agree that the site is ‘Nordic’ in nature, although no definitive conclusion has been reached about the origin of the artifact.
All who have viewed the site, however, agree with David Barron, president of the Gungywump Society, the structure is ‘very definitely not just a pile of stones. It was deliberately laid, deliberately set out, and has a deliberate plan to it.”
The Gungywump Society is a group of avocational archaeologists and historians who study historical phenomena throughout the state.
The mounds origins remain unknown now, although it is known that Vikings were in Canada. Barron said he wouldn’t suggest the mound is Viking in origin, because he said, “There is no evidence yet beyond the fact that it is unique and in the shape of a boat.”
Welch noted that the centerpiece of the structure, which he described as a ‘a slab that appears to have been standing,” resembles European burial places, or ‘cairns’.
This particular cairn, if that is what the structure is, is unusually large, according to Barron.
The presence of Viking in the New World before Columbus has been a debatable topic for years. It is agreed that the Vikings visited ancient Russia, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, Iceland and Greenland.
Experts who have visited the Windham Country site are cautious to theorize about its origins. They all agree with Welch, however, that it is ‘something that appears to be very old. It’s an artifact that goes far beyond the English-Colonial period,” he said.
“Our main objective right now is to keep it low key Riggio said, “One of the problems we have today is that field, stone is in such high demand there pillaging of old stone walls and their stones get robbed every day.” Welch thinks the structure has at least ‘superficial similarities’ to European cairns which commemorate burial sits.”

America's Viking Heritage

Frank Joseph
(The Ancient American, Volume 1, Issue 6)

Through the ominous visor of the helmet feature on this month’s cover once peered the eyes of a Norse warrior. Found at a Swedish site belonging to the 7th century A.D., it predates the generally accepted beginning of the so-called “Viking Age,” 200 years later. For unknown millennia before, culturally related Germanic peoples inhabited the lands of the Baltic and Scandinavia, steadily growing in the number of settlements, until the relationship between burgeoning population and shrinking living space made the Norse look beyond Northern Europe, around the turn of the 9th Century . It was then that they began referring to th4emselves as “Vikings”, or “Bay-raiders”, after their early sorties among the fjords of their own homelands. And, while the title persisted for the duration of the Viking Age, the Norse very quickly expanded their activities far beyond local bays and inlets. Their great courage and incomparable long-ships took them throughout Russia to North Africa, as far as Ireland, Greenland, Iceland and . . . America.
Most salaried historians have long demonstrated a knee-jerk rejection of any notion that Vikings actually landed here, dismissing such embarrassing suggestions as many tall tales. Even after the critics were forced to acknowledge 40 years ago that a northern Newfoundland site, L’Anse aux Meadows, yielded physical evidence of an 11th Century Norse settlement, they continue to deny the Vikings any farther. Clearly, Establishment academics are clinging to a deteriorating position. The two widely this issue are certainly authentic artifacts which confirm Viking impact on America. The very text of the Kensington Runestone establishes its authenticity, even down the smallest detail. For example, the runic author describes his Minnesota location as an “island”. Nowhere in the broad vicinity of its discovery does the area remotely resemble anything like an island. Yet, at the same time of the date inscribed on the Stone, 1362, the present location of Kensington was an island surrounded by a shallow lake that has long since vanished, a fact not recognized until long after the deaths of all persons who found the Stone in the late 19th Century. Moreover, modern stone-carvers have affirmed that the Runestone was inscribed by an expert mason, while the artifact’s discoverers were only simple farmers, with no such skills.
A contrary view is taken by rune-researcher, Jane Sibley. Kensington SAtone is not authentically Viking. But unlike other critics, Jane makes a provocative presentation of new evidence and challenges the defenders of the runestone to find convincing responses. Whatever we may think of her assessment, her advocacy of new testing for the controversial artifacts points future research in the right direction.

The Development of the Germanic Languages

Deanna Gallo


First, let us define the Germanic languages. The Germanic languages are a sub-family of languages which descend from the large Indo-European language family. The Germanic languages are subdivided into three groups. The Western Germanic family includes English, Dutch, German, Afrikaans and the lesser-known Frisian. The North Germanic languages are Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic. A third group, East Germanic, which included Gothic, is now extinct.
The Proto-Germanic dialect of Indo-European that would in time give rise to the various Germanic languages probably emerged in a small area of Northern Europe around 2500 BC. Proto-Germanic retained much of the grammar characteristic of Indo-European; for example, grammatical gender and the inflectional system of nouns and adjectives.
At the same time, however, Proto-Germanic differs from the other Indo-European languages in specific and regular ways. Grimm's Law describes the sound-shift of several Indo-European consonants into their Germanic forms. The Indo-European p-sound, for example, becomes the sound f in all Germanic languages. Among other notable changes, k becomes the Germanic h, and d becomes t.
The Germanic languages are also characterized by their dual system of verbs, which is preserved in English today. So-called weak verbs form their past tense by the addition of a d or t sound, as in the English walked and helped. Strong verbs form their past tense by changing the verb internally, as in sang and brought.
By 500 BC, Germanic speakers had spread through much of Northern Europe, and the language had by this time diverged into western, northern and eastern dialects. It is believed that at this time these dialects were mutually intelligible. Runic inscriptions made around this time allow linguists to study the Germanic dialects. It is around this time, also, that the first written records of the Germanic peoples appear; the Roman historian Tacitus wrote an account of Germanic customs and catalogued the geographical location of several tribes.
What is known as the Migration Period occurred between 300 and 700 AD, and the Germanic dialects were taken into new lands. In many of these places, such as Ireland, France and Spain, Germanic eventually gave way to other, more dominant languages. But in other places, Germanic established itself as the predominant language. The Vikings, speaking a Germanic dialect known as Old Norse, brought their language into Iceland, where it is spoken today in a form not much different from the original Old Norse. In England, three Germanic-speaking tribes brought their dialects, which would soon merge to become Anglo-Saxon, or Old English.
By the tenth century AD, the various Germanic languages had evolved to a point where they were no longer mutually intelligible. Around this time, the Eastern Germanic languages were assimilated and soon disappeared. The principal northern dialect, Old Norse, gave rise to the earliest recognizable forms of Icelandic, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian. And the main western dialects were now Old English, Old High German, and Old Franconian, which would later emerge as Dutch.

These now fully divergent languages would continue their separate development throughout the Middle Ages and the early modern period, and would finally become the modern Germanic languages.

Vikings in Greenland

Norse colonization of the Americas began as early as the 10th century, when Norse sailors (often referred to as Vikings) explored and settled areas of the North Atlantic, including the northeastern fringes of North America.
While the Norse colony in Greenland lasted for almost 500 years, the continental North American settlements were small and did not develop into permanent colonies. While voyages, for example to fetch timber, are likely to have occurred for some time, there is no evidence of enduring Norse settlements in North America.[1]
Main article: History of Greenland
According to the Sagas of Icelanders, Norsemen from Iceland first settled Greenland in the 980s. Erik the Red (Old Norse: Eiríkr rauði), having been banished from Iceland for manslaughter, explored the uninhabited southwestern coast of Greenland during the three years of his banishment.[2][3] He made plans to entice settlers to the area, even purposefully choosing the name Greenland to attract potential colonists, saying "that people would be more eager to go there because the land had a good name".[4] The inner reaches of one long fjord, named Eiriksfjord after him, was where he eventually established his estate Brattahlid. He issued tracts of land to his followers.[5]


Map of the Eastern Settlement, covering approximately the modern municipalities of Qaqortoq, Narssaq and Nanortalik. Eiriksfjord (Erik's fjord) and his farm Brattahlid are shown, as is the location of the bishopric at Gardar.
At its peak, the colony consisted of two settlements, the Eastern and the Western Settlement, with a total population of between 3000 and 5000; at least 400 farms have been identified by archaeologists.[5] Norse Greenland had a bishopric (at Garðar) and exported walrus ivory, furs, rope, sheep, whale or seal blubber, live animals such as polar bears, and cattle hides. In 1261, the population accepted the overlordship of the Norwegian King although it continued to have its own law. In 1380, the Norwegian Kingdom entered into a personal union with the Kingdom of Denmark.
The colony began to decline in the 1300s. The Western Settlement was abandoned around 1350 and by 1378 there was no longer a bishop at Garðar. After a marriage was recorded in 1408, no written records mention the settlers. It is probable that the Eastern Settlement was defunct by the late 1400s, although no exact date has been established. The most recent radiocarbon date found in Norse settlements as of 2002 was 1430 A.D. (+/- 15 years). Several theories have been advanced to explain the decline. The Little Ice Age of this period would have made it harder to travel between Greenland and Europe, as well as making it more difficult for the Greenlanders to farm; in addition, Greenlandic ivory may have been supplanted in European markets by cheaper ivory from Africa. Despite the loss of contact with the Greenlanders, the Norwegian-Danish crown continued to consider Greenland a possession and the existence of the island was not forgotten by European geographers. It is also possible that the lands west of Greenland were remembered.
Not knowing whether the old Norse civilization remained in Greenland or not—and worried that if it did, it would still be Catholic 200 years after the Scandinavian homelands had experienced the Reformation—a joint merchant-clerical expedition led by the Norwegian missionary Hans Egede was sent to Greenland in 1721. Though this expedition found no surviving Europeans, it marked the beginning of Denmark's assertion of sovereignty over the island; see Danish colonization of the Americas.

Vinland and L'Anse aux Meadows
Main articles: Vinland and L'Anse aux Meadows
According to the Icelandic sagas ("Eirik the Red's Saga" and the "Saga of the Greenlanders"—chapters of the Hauksbók and the Flatey Book), the Norse started to explore lands to the west of Greenland only a few years after the Greenland settlements were established. In 985 while sailing from Iceland to Greenland with a migration fleet consisting of 400-700 settlers[5][6] and 25 other ships (14 of which completed the journey), a merchant named Bjarni Herjólfsson was blown off course and after three days sailing he sighted land west of the fleet. Bjarni was only interested in finding his father's farm, but he described his discovery to Leif Ericson who explored the area in more detail and planted a small settlement fifteen years later.[5]
The sagas describe three separate areas discovered during this exploration: Helluland, which means "land of the flat stones"; Markland, "the land of forests", definitely of interest to settlers in Greenland where there were few trees; and Vinland, "the land of wine" (or as suggested by modern linguists "the land of meadows"), found somewhere south of Markland. It was in Vinland that the settlement described in the sagas was planted.
All four of Erik the Red's children were to visit the North American continent, his sons Leif, Thorvald and Thorstein and their sister Freydis. One of the sons, Thorvald, died there.

Leif's winter camp
Using the routes, landmarks, currents, rocks, and winds that Bjarni had described to him, Leif sailed some 1,800 miles to the New World with a crew of 35—sailing the same knarr Bjarni had used to make the voyage. He described Helluland as "level and wooded, with broad white beaches wherever they went and a gently sloping shoreline."[5] Leif and others had wanted his father, Erik the Red, to lead this expedition and talked him into it. However as Erik attempted to join his son Leif on the voyage towards the continent of North America, his horse slipped on the wet rocks near the shoreline and he was injured and thus stayed behind.[5]
Leif wintered in 1001, probably at Cape Bauld on the northern tip of Newfoundland, and his German foster father Tyrkir (de) was there found drunk of what the saga describes as "wine". Squashberries, gooseberries, and cranberries all grew wild in the area. There are varying explanations for Leif apparently describing fermented berries as "wine". In Old Norse, there could be two different meanings for the word "vin" depending on whether a short i or long í is used. A long í in the word "vin" could mean "wine", while a short i could mean "pasture", and linguistic research indicates that the pasture or meadow argument is probably the most logical in the name Vinland. Interestingly, in modern Icelandic, "vin" with a short 'i' means "oasis". Leif spent another winter at "Leifsbodarna" without conflict, and sailed back to Brattahlid in Greenland to assume filial duties for his father.

Thorvald's voyage
In 1004, Leif's brother Thorvald Ericson sailed with a crew of 30 men to Newfoundland and spent the following winter at Leif's camp. In the spring, Thorvald attacked nine of the local people, who were sleeping under three skin-covered canoes. The ninth victim escaped and soon came back to the Norse camp with a force. Thorvald himself was killed by an arrow that succeeded in passing through the barricade. Although brief hostilities ensued, the Norse explorers stayed another winter and left the following spring. Subsequently another of Leif's brothers, Thorstein, sailed to the New World to retrieve his dead brother's body, but he only stayed for one summer.[5]

Karlsefni's expedition
It was in 1009 that Thorfinn Karlsefni, also known as "Thorfinn the Valiant", supplied three ships with livestock and 160 men and women[6] (although another source sets the number of settlers at 250). After a cruel winter, he headed south and landed at Straumfjord, but later moved to Straumsöy, possibly because the current was stronger there. A sign of peaceful relations between the indigenous peoples and the Norsemen is noted here; the two sides bartered with furs and gray squirrel skins for milk and red cloth, which the natives tied around their heads as a sort of headdress.
There are conflicting stories but one account states that a bull belonging to Karlsefni came storming out of the wood, so frightening the natives that they ran to their skin-boats and rowed away. They returned three days later, in force. The natives used catapults, hoisting "a large sphere on a pole; it was dark blue in color" and about the size of a sheep's belly,[7] which flew over the heads of the men and made an ugly din.[7] The Norsemen retreated. Leif Ericson's half-sister Freydís Eiríksdóttir was pregnant and unable to keep up with the retreating Norsemen. She called out to them to stop fleeing from "such pitiful wretches", adding that if she had weapons, she could do better than that. Freydís seized the sword belonging to a man who had been killed by the natives. She pulled one of her breasts out of her bodice and struck it with the sword, frightening the natives, who fled.[7]
No permanent colonies


Territories and voyages of the Vikings
Settlements in continental North America aimed to exploit natural resources such as furs and in particular lumber, which was in short supply in Greenland due to deforestation.[8] It is unclear why the short-term settlements did not become permanent, though it was in part due to hostile relations with the indigenous peoples, referred to as Skrælings by the Norse. Nevertheless, it appears that sporadic voyages to Markland for forages, timber, and trade with the locals could have lasted as long as 400 years.[9][10]
Evidence of continuing trips includes the Maine Penny, a Norwegian coin from King Olaf Kyrre's reign (1066-80) found in a Native American archaeological site in the U.S. state of Maine, suggesting an exchange between the Norse and the Native Americans late in or after the 11th century; and an entry in the Icelandic Annals from 1347 which refers to a small Greenlandic vessel with a crew of eighteen that arrived in Iceland while attempting to return to Greenland from Markland with a load of timber.[11] In addition, Norse materials have been excavated in several Inuit communities.

Aftermath
For some centuries after Christopher Columbus' voyages opened the Americas to large-scale colonization by Europeans, it was unclear whether these stories represented real voyages by the Norse to North America. The sagas were first taken seriously when in 1837 the Danish antiquarian Carl Christian Rafn pointed out the possibility for a Norse settlement in or voyages to North America.


The Skálholt-map
North America, by the name Winland, was first mentioned in written sources in a work by Adam of Bremen from approximately 1075. It was not until the 13th and 14th centuries that the most important works about North America and the early Norse activities there, namely the Sagas of Icelanders, were put into writing.
The question was definitively settled in the 1960s when a Norse settlement was excavated at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland by the archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad and her husband, outdoorsman and author Helge Ingstad. The location of the various lands described in the sagas is still unclear however. Many historians identify Helluland with Baffin Island and Markland with Labrador. The location of Vinland is a thornier question. Most believe that the L'Anse aux Meadows settlement is the Vinland settlement described in the sagas; others argue that the sagas depict Vinland as being warmer than Newfoundland and that it therefore lay farther south.


Hare Indian dogs, as illustrated in ''Fauna Boreali-americana, Or, The Zoology of the Northern Parts of British America, 1829
Purported runestones have been found in North America, most famously the Kensington Runestone, that are thought by some to be artifacts from further Norse exploration, although they are typically considered to be hoaxes. There are two maps depicting North America, "The Vinland map", that some believe is related to Norse exploration, although it is considered to be a modern forgery, and the Skálholt Map, made by an Icelandic teacher in the year 1570.
The Hare Indian dog of the banks of the Mackenzie River and Great Bear Lake are thought by some to have originated from crossbreedings between native Tahltan Bear Dogs and Icelandic breeds brought by the viking explorers.[12]

The Jesus Cup

Professor Craig Evans
New Testament Studies,
Acadia Divinity College, Nova Scotia

On Discovery Channel in the fall of 2008 French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio, co-founder of the Oxford Centre of Maritime Archaeology, announced the discovery of a ceramic cup during underwater exploration of the ancient city of Alexandria, Egypt. Goddio and his team found a cup on which are inscribed the words dia crhstou o goistais, which may mean “the magician by Christ,” perhaps in the sense that “the magician (possesses his power) by (or through) Christ.” (goistais would be understood as a variant of gohth/j or go/hj [“enchanter”].) Goddio and Egyptologist David Fabre date the cup sometime between late second century BC and early first century AD. If the reference is to Jesus Christ, then it would indeed be the earliest inscriptional reference to the founder of Christianity.

However, there are several problems with this suggestion. Although the spelling Xrhsto/j (instead of Xristo/j) is attested in reference to Jesus Christ (e.g., see no. 10 below), the early date of the cup is problematic. Of course, the inscription itself may not be as old as the cup. Another problem has to do with the odd spelling o goistais. Is this really a variant for o9 goh/thj, or some other form of magician? Klaus Hallof, of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy, and Bert Smith, professor of classical archaeology and art at Oxford, have suggested that the inscription should be read ogoistais, in reference to the god Ogoa, mentioned by Pausanias (c. 160 AD), whose followers may have been called Ogoistai. Ogoa, or Osogoa, is another name for Zeus. For references, see Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.10.3 (“the sanctuary of the god [i.e., Zeus], called in the native tongue Osogoa; Strabo, Geography 14.

Although the possibility that the inscription may have referred to Jesus, whose power was invoked by a magician, cannot be ruled out, in my view it is more likely that the reference is to someone named Chrestus (a common enough name), who was either a magician and/or was among the Ogoistai.