Odin Rituals in the 19th century - Solstice special

A Survive the Jive Solstice special. In keeping with the tradition of telling ghostly stories at Yule, here is a special about Odinic sacrifices in Sweden and England during the 19th century. Edited by Wodenwyrd.

Sources:

 
 Higgens, T. W. E. “A Survival of Odin-Worship in Kent.” Folklore, vol. 7, no. 3, 1896, pp. 298–99. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1253238.
 GUNNAR OLOF HYLTÉN-CAVALLIUS - 1863 Wärend and Wirdarne. An attempt in Swedish Ethnology.

Music:

 Wodenwyrd, Deep Gnome, Baerdcyn

Burying animals under foundations: An Indo-European pagan folk custom

 

The custom of burying an animal under the foundations of a house is not only very widespread, found in Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia, Finland and beyond, but is also very old, dating back to the Indo-Europeans of the Bronze Age Europe. It even spread as far away as America and India! In this video I trace the customs origins and dispersal and explain the magical function of the animal and human sacrifices underneath the home.

 

Sources

• Eliade, Mircea - Zalmoxis - The Vanishing God-The University of Chicago Press (1972)
• Hukantaival, Sonja. (2009). Horse Skulls and "Alder-Horse": The Horse as a Depositional "Sacrifice" in Buildings. Archaeologia Baltica. 11. 350-356. 
• Kuzmina, The Origins of Indo-Iranians, 2007
• Manning, M. Chris. “The Material Culture of Ritual Concealments in the United States.” Historical Archaeology, vol. 48, no. 3, 2014, pp. 52–83. JSTOR
• O’Reilly, Barry. “Hearth and Home: The Vernacular House in Ireland from c. 1800.” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature, vol. 111C, 2011, pp. 193–215. JSTOR
• Ó Súilleabháin, Seán. “Foundation Sacrifices.” The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, vol. 75, no. 1, 1945, pp. 45–52.
• Søvsø, M., et al. 'Om hugorme, dyrekranier og tordensten– bygningsofre og andre skikke med rødder i folketroen'

SCYTHIAN GODS: The Religion of the Steppe Barbarians

Historical full length documentary on genetic origins of the nomadic steppe conquerors the SCYTHIANS - Learn about the ancient Scythian gods of Eurasia, and how the first nomadic horselords of the Ponto-Caspian Steppe practiced shamanism and offered animal sacrifices to their god of war! 

 Sources:

•  Albuquerque, C., ‘On the Scythian Pantheon’ 2018, Medium. 
• Bokovenko, Nikolay. (2015). The Emergence of the Tagar Culture. Antiquity. 80. 860-879. 10.1017/S0003598X00094473. 
• Cunliffe, B., ‘The Scythians: Nomad Warriors of the Steppe’ Oxford:2019. 
• Gershkovich, Y., Romashko, O., ‘Scythian sanctuaries of Ares: archaeological date and Herodotus' testimonies’ (in English) | - Academia.edu. 
• Herodotus. The Persian Wars, Volume II: Books 3-4. Translated by A. D. Godley. Loeb Classical Library 118. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1921. 
• Juras, A., Krzewińska, M., Nikitin, A. et al. Diverse origin of mitochondrial lineages in Iron Age Black Sea Scythians. Sci Rep 7, 43950 (2017). 
• Kuz’Mina, E.E., & Mallory, J.P. (2007). "Chapter Three. Classification of sites and the primary features of Andronovo unity". In The Origin of the Indo-Iranians. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. doi: 
• Sharkey, B. Predators and Prey: Cosmological Perspectivism in Scythian Animal Style Art. Arts 2022, 11, 120. 
• Stetsyuk, V., ‘Scythian Mythology’ (for alleged Chuvash etymology only)
• Iranic encyclopedia  
• Musaeum Scythia Blog 

The Royal Indo-European Horse Sacrifice

The most important sacrificial animal in the original Indo-European religion was the horse - The very power of their kings depended on an elaborate ritual horse sacrifice. In this video we will look at the rite of horse sacrifice in various Indo-European traditions in order to get an idea of why the Proto-Indo-Europeans considered it such an important royal ritual and what it looked like. Beginning with the enormous Ashvamedha in India, and moving on to Rome's October Horse rite and ending on old Norse written sources combined with archaeological evidence from the Nordic Bronze age through to the Viking age - we get a pretty clear picture of the gruesome and often sexual rituals associated with the inauguration of kings and the necessary solar horse sacrifice. This video is mainly based on the recent book on the same subject by Kaliff & Oestigaard.

Sources:

Dumézil, G. 1970. ‘Archaic Roman Religion. Volume One.’ The John Hopkins University Press. Baltimore and London. Eliade, M. 1993. ‘Patterns in Comparative Religion.’ Sheed and Ward. New York. Eliade, M., ed., ‘Encyclopedia of Religion’ (NY: Collier Macmillan, 1987), VI:463; Kaliff, A., & Oestigaard, T., ‘The Great Indo-European Horse Sacrifice: 4000 Years of Cosmological Continuity from Sintashta and the Steppe to Scandinavian Skeid’ (2020) Outram, A., et al. ‘Horses for the dead: funerary foodways in Bronze Age Kazakhstan’ - (March 2011) Puhvel, J., ‘Comparative Mythology’ 1987 Rowsell, T., Riding To The Afterlife: The Role Of Horses In Early Medieval North-Western Europe. (2012) Sikora, M., ‘Diversity in Viking Age horse burial’ in The Journal of Irish Archaeology(Belfast: 2003-4). P.87. Solheim, S. 1956. Horse-fight and horse-race in Norse tradition. Studia Norvegica No. 8. H. Aschehoug & Co. (W. Nyaard). Oslo. Veil, Stephan & Breest, Klaus & Grootes, P. & Nadeau, Marie-Josée & Huels, Matthias. (2012). A 14 000-year-old amber elk and the origins of northern European art. Antiquity. 86. 660-673.

The Sacred Cow in Indo-European Religion