Pagan Priests, called hofgothi, are the ministers of the Norse gods. A hofgothi denotes specifically someone who takes care of the temples of the gods, while a regular gothi simply denotes a person who leads religious ceremonies. This would usually be the chief, earl, or king. In the sacrifices at Uppsala, King Horik leads the sacrifice with the assistance of the local priests.
Appearance[]
The priests have shaved heads with ritual scars. They also paint their lips, eyes, and upper ears black. The Seer wears similar make-up.
In Vikings[]
The pagan priests first appears in Sacrifice, administering the religious feast. The high Priest of Uppsala questions Athelstan and asks him to deny the Christian god three times. The high priest is suspicious and discovers that Athelstan carries a crucifix. The priests seem to have knowledge enough of Christianity to know their iconography, which many Norsemen seemed to be somewhat unfamiliar with at the time. The priests then sacrifice various animals and offers their blood to the gods. Later they hang the sacrificed animals and men in the sacred grove around the temple. In Brother's War, a priest prepares and feeds Rollo and Jarl Borg psychedelic mushrooms. In Yol, priests leads the celebration of the midwinter sacrifices.
In History[]
There is no evidence of a professional priesthood among the Norse. Instead, religious activities were carried out by members of the community who also had other social functions and positions. In Old Norse society, religious authority was harnessed to secular authority. In medieval Iceland, the goði was a social role that combined religious, political, and judicial functions.[1]
The sacrifices at Uppsala were a very rare event. While they did happen every nine years, for a people who on average lived to the age of thirty, that kind of time span between ceremonies was a lot. Going to Uppsala was somewhat similar to going to Rome on a pilgrimage, before the age of cars and airplanes. The religious practices of the Norse were incredibly varied. Thus, those in Norway, Denmark, and Iceland would have had different practices and rituals than those of Uppsala in Sweden.[2]
The Vikings did not have strangely dressed priests or oracles with no eyes. They looked like their fellow Vikings, they simply had a connection to the gods and could read the signs better than others. Also, as much as can be known, the Norse gods did not need constant offerings or attention. Services were held to ask for the gods' favor or to signify important times of the year like the harvest.[2]
Trivia[]
- In some sources, it was considered unmanly for men to take part in magic, or seidr. This was touched upon in the original script of the first episode, where the priests where specified as homosexuals. Possibly it was meant to show how outsiders were handled in Viking-Scandinavia.
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