4^B Liceo Scientifico: novembre 2010

Inserisco il mio pezzo da studiare per la verifica di inglese (la religione dei vichinghi)

RELIGION

The Scandinavian legends and myths about ancient heroes, gods and about the creation and destruction of the universe developed out of the original common mythology of the Germanic peoples. Most information about Scandinavian mythology is preserved in the old Norse literature (Icelandic, Swedish, and Norwegian Literature), in the Eddas and later sagas.

RELIGIUOS RITUAL

The Scandinavian gods were served by a class of priest called “godar”. Worship was originally conducted outdoors, under guardian trees, near sacred wells, or within sacred arrangements of stones. Later, wooden temples were used, with altars and with carved representations of the gods. The most important temple was at Old Uppsala, Sweden, where animals and even human beings were sacrificed.

GODS AND HEROES

For Vikings the gods lived in a parallel world at Asgard. Access to Asgard was possible only by crossing the bridge Bifrost (the rainbow). Odin was the chief of gods. He have got two black ravens, Huginn (Thought) and Muninn (Memory), that flew during the day to gather to get news from over the world. As god of war, Odin held court in Valhalla, where all brave warriors went after death in battle. His greatest treasures were his eight-footed horse, Sleipner, his spear, Gungnir, and his ring, Draupner. Odin was also the god of wisdom, poetry, and magic, and he sacrificed an eye for the privilege of drinking from Mimir, the fountain of wisdom.

Besides Odin, the major deities of Scandinavian mythology were his son, Thor, the god of thunder. Thor was the strongest of the gods, whom he helped protect from their enemies, the giants. Thor wielded an hammer, called Mjollnir, which represented a powerful thunderbolt. If thrown, the hammer would return to him like a boomerang. Vikings belived that the thunder was the sound of Thor’s chariot. Also, thursday is named for Thor (Thor's day).

Another god was Loki the handsome god who represented evil and was possessed of great knowledge and cunning. He was responsible for the death of Balder, god of light and joy. According to legend Loki and Hel, the goddess of the dead, will lead the forces of evil against the Aesir, or gods, in the titanic struggle of Ragnarok, the end of the world.

After there was Sif, the goddess of the grain, who is a prophetess, and the beautiful golden-haired wife of Thor. She was a swan-maiden, like the Valkyries, were warrior maidens who helped Odin, and can take that form.

The Valkyries rode through the air in brilliant armor, directed battles, distributed death lots among the warriors, and conducted the souls of slain heroes to Valhalla, the great hall of Odin.

THE GIANTS

The great enemies of the gods were the giants, and there were often conflicts between the two races. Among the gods, only Thor can defeat the giants in strength, so the gods usually had to rely on cunning to outwit the giants. Odin himself was capable of clever tricks, but whenever the gods needed a really cunning plan, they turned to Loki. Despite the tension between gods and giants, there was a fair amount of contact on an individual basis, and a number of the gods had relationships with giantesses. One of these was Loki, who had three monstrous children by his giantess wife. His daughter Hel became ruler of the underworld. One son, Jormunagund, was a serpent who grew so large that he stretched all the way around the earth. The other son was Fenris, a wolf so powerful that he terrified the gods until they tricked him into allowing himself to be tied up with a magical chain which bound him until the end of time.