Lotte Hedeager - Scandinavian ‘Central Places’ in a Cosmological Setting.pdf - Runy i Mitologia Nordycka [Runes and Norse mythology] - chomikagnieszka75

Central Places in the Migration and the Merovingian Periods, s. 3-18.

Scandinavian ‘Central Places’ in a Cosmological Setting

Lotte Hedeager

Abstract

The South Scandinavian settlement structure in late Iron Age was hierarchical with respect to size and function.

New excavations have revealed magnificent places as Gudme and Tissø, classified as multi-functional ’central

places’. Traditionally we focus on concepts such as long-distance trade, economy, political control, production,

richness and sacredness to explain their functions. Although these concepts are relevant, they are never brougt

together in a coherent explanation. In this paper I wish to employ Northern mythology and the world af the

sagas to present a hyphotesis of ’central places’ as a reconstruction of the pre-Christian universe, contextualizing

the archaeological and the written record as different expressions of a single cosmological model.

Lotte Hedeager, IAKK/Deparment of archaeology, University of Oslo, Pb. 1019, Blindern, N-0315 Oslo,

Norway

Introduction 1

The concept ‘central places’ has been deve-

loped in Scandinavian archaeology during

the last decades to classify rich settlement

sites from the late Iron Age. These sites have

mainly been understood in terms of ‘long-

distance trade’, ‘economy’, ‘control’, ‘produc-

tion’, ‘gold’, ‘hall’, ‘richness’, ‘gods’, ‘sacred’,

and ‘power’ in different variations and

combinations. Although these keywords are

significant, they have never been included in

a coherent model of explanation.

The most spectacular of these central

places hitherto found in Scandinavia is

Gudme/Lundeborg on the Danish island of

Funen (Fig.1) It was excavated during the

1980s and early 1990s, and has been inter-

preted as a unique trading and production

site that flourished from the third to the

sixth/seventh centuries (Thrane 1987, 1998,

1999; Nielsen et al. 1994; Sørensen 1994 b).

In some respects, Gudme/Lundeborg fits the

general model of a ‘central place’, but in

others, it diverges. First, Gudme is among

the earliest of these places, and may even be

the earliest, for it already gained its central

position during Late Roman Period. Second,

Gudme is bigger and the settlement area more

extended than that of any of the other central

places hitherto found in South Scandinavia

(Jørgensen 1995 b); its great hall, situated in

the centre, is unique because of its size and its

construction (Sørensen 1994a, 1994b). Third,

the sheer amount of archaeological finds from

the area is overwhelming; this goes especially

for the number of gold finds and superb jewellery

produced by skilled craftsmen. Fourth, the evi-

SCANDINAVIAN ’CENTRAL PLACES’ IN A COSMOLOGICAL SETTING

Fig.1. The research area of Gudme. The cultural landscape is reconstructed on the basis of the

topographical maps c.1800. (After Thrane 1987: 36). 1. Gudme I–II, 2. Settlement (indicated

by Sehested as ‘Måltidsplads’), 3. Møllegårdsmarken, 4. Broholm gold hoard, 5. Langå

cemetery, 6. Lundeborg . settlement, bronze statue, hoard, + graves, † church, x stray

finds. Heights are in meters above sea level. (After H.Thrane, ”Das Gudmeproblem und die

Gudme-untersuchungen, Frühmitteralterliche Studien 21 (1987), p. 36.

dence of place names connected with the sacred

is more persuasive in Gudme than anywhere.

This paper deals with Gudme/Lundeborg

as a place that has been constructed, maintained

and transformed over centuries, for purposes

other than strictly economic and political ones.

Gudme was a ceremonial centre, where ancient

beliefs were articulated in rituals and perfor-

mances. In this paper, I will discuss Gudme as

a place where foreign objects from the outside

world were acquired (‘trade’) and transformed

into ‘prestige objects’ (‘production’) embedded

in the cosmological order [religion/mythology].

Using data from anthropological research as

an explanatory framework, I will pay special

attention to the importance of skilled crafting

- and skilled metal work - as an activity

fundamental to the process of transforma-

tion. To broaden the context, I will also look

at the role of smiths and the significance of

LOTTE HEDEAGER

gold in Old Norse sources. All this will reveal

that metallurgy, skilled metal work and gold

were crucial concepts in northern cosmology.

Finally, I will focus on Gudme and the

surrounding landscape as a sacred place - a

representation of the ‘centre of the world’

along the lines of northern mythology.

Such an approach is not unproblematic.

The Old Norse sources originate from early

Christian times, that is, the early thirteenth

century, and are therefore not to be treated as

a reflection of ‘genuine paganism’. It would

go too far to discard all written texts, however.

If used carefully, the Old Norse texts yield

valuable information. Similarly, an anthro-

pological approach based on non-western, pre-

industrial societies, furnishes archaeologists

with a general theoretical framework, enabling

them to get beyond the archaeological and

textual evidence. Lacking the modern separa-

tion of economic, political and symbolic insti-

tutions, pre-Christian Scandinavia can be

compared to traditional communities; in both

cases the world view of a given society tends

to fuse these separate domains into a coherent

whole. Since much cosmological information

is thought to be contained in myths (Weiner

1999:591), special attention will be paid to

the myths of Old Norse literature.

If one focuses on Gudme as a symbolically

constructed place which represents notions

of the cosmological order in connection with

social power, the spatial organisation of the

place can no longer be interpreted as a mere

expression of the practicalities of power, or as

a simple reflection of economic activities,

including production and/or trade. Instead,

such activities are to be included in a coherent

model of explanation, which should also

become part of a more general discussion of

other central places in the North.

Gudme’s sacred features

Apart from being an important archaeological

site, the Gudme area also contains a significant

number of place-names with allusions to pre-

Christian religion. Many of these place-names

are ‘holy’, and on the basis of such toponymic

evidence the conclusion can be drawn that

this region also had religious significance.

Gudme itself means ‘the home of the gods’,

i.e. the place where the ancient god/gods were

thought to live. At a distance of 1.5 to 2.5

kilometers to the north, west and south of

Gudme, there are three hills with significant

names: Gudbjerg to the west means ‘the hill of

the god/gods’, Albjerg to the south means ‘the

hill of the shrine’ and Galbjerg to the north

has a less clear meaning, but may has been

interpreted as ‘the hill of sacrifice’ (Sørensen

1985:131 p.), although an explanation of the

word ‘gal’ as ‘galdr’ may be more plausible.

Gudme’s great wealth suggests that this

site was not just a central place for trade and

production, but one with sacred connotations;

a place where master artisans transformed bars,

ingots, and coins of gold into symbolic objects

like bracteates and ornamented scabbard

mounts. Against this background, and also

with the sacred toponomy in mind, Karl

Hauck has argued that the iconography of

the gold bracteates points to the establishment

of an Odin cult in Gudme, connected with

sacred kingship (Hauck 1987:147 pp., 1994:

78 pp.). A motif resembling the archetypal

representation of a shaman - presumably

Odin’s journey to the Other World - is the

most common one on these bracteates (i.e.

Hedeager 1997, 1999 b).

If Gudme was indeed the main home of

the the Odin cult, as has been maintained,

the central area framed by the sacred hills

would have been a place of display and

SCANDINAVIAN ’CENTRAL PLACES’ IN A COSMOLOGICAL SETTING

communication, at the social level as well as

with the supernatural world. In this place the

representation of world was given a concrete

form by specialists in control of the production

process by which metal was transformed from

one shape (scrap metal, ingots, coins etc.)

into another (bracteates, fittings for swords etc.).

Apparently ’sal’ means the king’s and earls’

assembly hall, cult hall or moot hall: the place

in which the functions of ‘theatre, court, and

church’ were united 2 . The ’sal’ or the hall was

the centre of the human microcosmos, the

symbol of stability and good leadership. The

hall was also the location where communal

drinking took place, which had the purpose

of creating bonds of loyalty and fictive kinship;

liquor was the medium through which one

achieved ecstasy, and thus communion with

the supernatural (Enright 1996:17). The high

seat, that is, the seat with the high-seat posts,

served as the channel of communication with

the supernatural world. Since the hall with

the high seat served as the geographical and

ideological centre of leadership, it is under-

standable why the earls and kings, as the lite-

rature tells us, could suppress and ruin each

other by simply destroying their opponent’s

hall (Herschend 1995:221 pp., 1997 b).

The multifunctional role of the hall thus

extended beyond the site itself. The hall was

at the centre of a group of principal farmsteads;

it was the heart of the central places from the

later part of the Iron Age, 3 which existed all

over Scandinavia, as is now increasingly

recognized. Apart from Gudme/Lundeborg

one might mention Sorte Muld on Born-

holm, Lejre, Boeslunde, Jørlunde, Kalmar-

gård, Nørre Snede, Stentinget, Drengsted and

Ribe in Denmark; Trondheim, Borre, Kaupang

and Hamar in Norway; Slöinge, Helgö, Birka,

Uppåkra, Vä, Gamla Uppsala, Högum, Vendel

and Valsgärde in Sweden (Jørgensen 1995b;

Brink 1996; Larsson & Hårdh 1998). Charac-

teristicially, many of these sites are located a

few kilometres inland, relying on one or more

landing places or ports situated on the coast

(Fabech 1999). Although this is still a matter

of debate, I believe that such central places

served as a basis for some form of politcal or

Composite sites and central places

For the Nordic realm before 800 there is no

textual evidence of any specific locations of

religious or political power, such as monasteries

or other sacred sites, cities, or royal palaces, so

the archaeological sources and the toponymic

evidence provide the only basis for analysing

the concept of ‘places of power’ in this area.

Still, the Old Norse literature does throw

some light on certain essential components of

places of power in Scandinavia. For example,

the hall assumes great importance in the

ideological universe represented in these texts

(Enright 1996; Herschend 1997a, 1997b,

1998, 1999:414 pp.). Given the prominent

role of the hall in Old Norse literature, it is

remarkable that the word ‘hall’ hardly ever

turns up in Scandinavian place-names. The

reason may be that the Scandinavian language

of the time used another word, such as ‘sal’, as

in Uppsala, Onsala, Odensala or just Sal (a):

the god whose name is compounded with

‘sal’ is always Odin, the king of the gods

(Brink 1996:235 pp.). The word ’sal’ is often

linked with ’zulr’ (thyle), the term for a

particular type of leader or priest. The ’thyle’

is regarded as a poet, i.e. a skald or storyteller:

in other words, the person who preserves the

treasure hoards of mystical and magical

knowledge that was essential to understand

the eddic poems. He was the cult leader who

understood the cult activities and uttered the

proper magical words.

LOTTE HEDEAGER

religious control excercised over a larger area;

the radius of their influence went well beyond

the site itself.

In his innovative analysis of the toponymic

evidence Stefan Brink (1996) 4 has argued

that rather than being a precisely defined site,

such central places should be understood as a

somewhat larger area encompassing a number

of different but equally important functions

and activities. Both toponymic evidence and

archaeological finds suggest that this was a

recurrent pattern. This means that it is

inadequate to refer to these sites as ‘trading

sites’, ‘cult sites’, ‘meeting or thing places’,

emphasizing only one of their many functions.

Instead, these locations should be perceived

as multifunctional and composite sites. In

addition to their ‘official’ function as trading-

and market sites, and as centres where laws

were made and cults were established, these

central places were probably also associated

with special functions such as the skilled

crafting of jewellery, weapons, clothing, and,

furthermore, with special cultic activities per-

formed by religious specialists. These places

were also the residicence of particularly privi-

leged warriors or housecarls.

Archaeological research has revealed a whole

range of activities in Gudme/Lundeborg that

fit the general model of a ’composite place’

with the presence of military units, the most

prominent smiths, trading activities, etc. In

addition, the place names demonstrate the

presence of a pagan priesthood. Gudme/

Lundeborg is outstanding by incorporating

most of the significant characteristics of a

’central place’. Therefore, we have to consider

the possibility that Gudme may have been a

unique place in the cosmology of the Nordic

realm during the middle of the Iron Age,

being perceived as the prime ‘residence’ of the

pre-Christian god(s) 5 .

Artisan smiths and skilled metal

work

One of Gudme’s most striking characteristics

is the overwhelming evidence of intensive

crafting activities, especially those of jewellers

and blacksmiths. Metal production and

craftmanship in Scandinavia during the Iron

Age are usually regarded as a neutral or even

secondary affair, but to my mind, metallurgy

and skilled crafting were in fact closely

connected to what in these societies was

conceived of as the quality of power. The role

of metal-workers – especially blacksmiths and

jewellers – deserves special attention, 6 for the

technicalities of metallurgy and metalwork

included a symbolic and ritual element (i.e.

Eliade 1978; Herbert 1993; Rowlands 1999;

Haaland et.al. 2002), which gave the prac-

ticioners as special status. Mastering metal-

lurgy meant controlling a transformation:

from iron ingots to the tools for agricultural

production and the weapons on which

production, fertility, and protection or agg-

ression depended; from ingots, bars, and items

of gold and silver into ritual objects central to

the symbolic universe of a given society. 7

To be a specialist of this kind demands not

only superb skills, but often also the possession

of magical power (i.e. Herbert 1984, 1993;

Haaland et.al. 2002). The smith’s work

requires the esoteric kind of knowledge ena-

bling him to manipulate the dangerous forces

unleashed in the process of transforming

shapeless metal into a finished product; this

especially holds true when sacred objects are

cast, or specific types of jewellery associated

with status and/or ceremonial use. Because of

the secret knowledge inherent to such acti-

vities, smiths were specialists who were both

powerful and feared (Eliade 1978).

In order to get a hold of the metal, the

SCANDINAVIAN ’CENTRAL PLACES’ IN A COSMOLOGICAL SETTING

Lotte Hedeager - Scandinavian ‘Central Places’ in a Cosmological Setting.pdf

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