The case of Iceland, as mentioned by Meg Cormack, certainly is interesting,
both because of the closely dated settlement and because there must have
been a number of potentially 'holy' springs and wells (geysirs etc.) there.
I became interested in the question of possible sacred wells and springs in
Scandinavia as a result of using farm names (among other criteria) to
identify pagan religious and social centres, many of which went on to become
medieval church farms after the arrival of Christianity. Among the medieval
church farms are also some called 'Saudr', i.e. spring, and although these
are not normally regarded as cult names in Scandinavia, I have questioned
this because of the strong religious connotations of springs elsewhere in
Europe in the first millennium AD, and because of the many St. Olav's wells
which testify to the concept being well known in medieval times at least.
According to generally accepted farm name chronology, a name like 'Saudr'
would probably go back at least to the first half of the first millennium
AD, which probably takes it back to the time of the famous Nerthus story
from Denmark, as told by Tacitus in the 2nd C AD, where the goddess is
washed in a secluded and sacred lake by slaves who are then killed, i.e.
sacrificed.
On the other hand there is the story from Old Uppsala in Sweden, told by
Adam of Bremen in 1075, about the temple and its holy sacrificial spring,
which certainly indicates that such a belief was still alive in the Viking
Age.
I don't know the Icelandic material well enough to say whether holy wells
and springs were a purely Christian 'invention' there, but I find it
unlikely that the settlers arriving there were unaware of the concept.
Another question is how to recognize a pagan spring, especially if it was
renamed by the church.
And then there is the intriguing question of holy wells or springs near or
even in/under churches, as referred to by Thomas Izbicki and James Mills. I
read somewhere recently that there is also one underneath Southwark
cathedral in London, so maybe these are examples of Christianizing important
pagan symbols by incorporating them in Christian structures? It certainly
seems an interesting project trying to sort these things out!
Ingegerd Holand
Dr. Ingegerd Holand
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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