Just to correct a misapprehension: geysers etc. were NOT considered
holy. icelandic holy springs (a better term than wells, though i
used the latter myself) were always fresh water, primarily for drinking.
there is no question of holy geysirs. as I mentioned, the first sign of
any holy bodies of water is connected with the activity of the peripatetic
bishop Gudmundr. other places associated with christian associations are
not bodies of water, but hills etc.
in iceland,
there seems to be no specific connection of wells with churches. with regard to
St. Olaf and his wells, the direction most people look for influence on
Norway at this time is England, where his bishop is supposed to have
been from. The stories that develop in connection with his cult and form
the basis of his legend (including, as I recall,
springs that arise on the spot where
he was slain, and the spot where his body was buried) are paralleled in
the hagiography of Anglo-Saxon royal saints.
with regard to tacitus - it is a secluded lake, not a spring from
which drinking water was taken. it occurs to me off the top of my head
that a spring so sacred that slaves involved in the ritual had to be
killed might be considered too holy for use as mere drinking water.
it seems that in this context
one should be considering things like deposits of weapons etc.
in bodies of water, and/or bog bodies, rather than springs for
everyday use.
do you happen to know the etymology of the word "saudr" that you mention
as a farm name? is it related to modern Icelandic "sjoda" meaning "to boil"
?
> 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]
Margaret Cormack [log in to unmask]
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion fax: 843-953-6388
College of Charleston tel: 843-953-8033
Charleston, SC 29424-0001
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