Why a hanging victim needs a hood…
In Norse religion the god Odin was the god of the hanged. In myth the god himself was hanged to
become wise.
( Runattal thattr Othins (Str. 140-147) http://www.northvegr.org/the eddas/the_poetic_eddabellows/
004a.html )
Hanging was a sacrifice to Odin and an initiation ritual for warriors of Odin. Only traitors and cowards
were hanged in the Viking world and this remained so in the Anglo-Saxon and Norse/Germanic world
until the Christian church changed the beliefs. Odin was a warrior god but also a deceitful and a
trickster god, and protector of poetry, magic potency and sexual powers. Traces of old beliefs
remained and remains. The following is a quote from an explanation why victims were blindfolded or
hooded.
“A custom that has not been bound to any particular form of execution, but that from time immemorial
and right up to our own day has been a constant feature of executions in general, is the binding of the
delinquent’s eyes, or covering of his head. The Frisian Hunsigoer law uses the expression thene suarta
doc as a term in the formulation of the death penalty. That this ritual feature has been intended to
protect the bystanders against the criminal’s evil eye, is a generally held and well-founded explanation
that can be confirmed with ancient evidence that cannot be misinterpreted. The Icelandic sagas give
direct proof of the existence of this notion, precisely in connection with executions. Particularly
dangerous was the look from persons versed in magic. According to a wide spread popular belief it
was of importance, vis-á vis such persons, to see them first, i.e. before they had an opportunity to use
the dangerous power in their look. Also ghosts were considered to possess a terrible and dangerous
power in their look, a power that might have fatal consequences for one who happened to cross its
focus.
But if the looks of evil-doers possessed a magical dangerousness already under normal conditions,
this power was still further increased in the moment of death. The measure is thus a ritual feature that
recurs with remarkable consistency.
The magical power of the dying was, however, not restricted to the emanation from his eyes. In olden
times it was a wide-spread belief that the power of the human personality grew as death approached,
to culminate in magical force in the moment of dying. The latent magical power of a human being was
released, actualized and rendered active in the moment of death.
In a penetrating analysis of the myth of Odin’s suicide by hanging, van Hamel plausibly suggest that it
is based upon the belief that a martyrdom that takes the subject into a state between life and death, is
calculated to bring about an increase in personal magical potency, an increase that in the case of a
god must provoke an extraordinarily high potential of creative force. In this connection van Hamel
assumes that the idea of a person’s own force and strength (megin, máttr) that we meet within the
sources of the transition period is not a product of the scepticism of this period, but has its roots in an
ancient pre-deistic belief in the magical power of the individual. Odin’s hanging is thus according to
van Hamel not a sacrifice, although sacral elements from the cult of Odin have been combined therewith, it is a martyrdom intended to actualize all the potential magical power of the god in order to overcome a resistance.”
I have allways been interested in why hanging has so great power of intrest in some guys.... Guys like me for example... ;-)
/Norslad
In Norse religion the god Odin was the god of the hanged. In myth the god himself was hanged to
become wise.
( Runattal thattr Othins (Str. 140-147) http://www.northvegr.org/the eddas/the_poetic_eddabellows/
004a.html )
Hanging was a sacrifice to Odin and an initiation ritual for warriors of Odin. Only traitors and cowards
were hanged in the Viking world and this remained so in the Anglo-Saxon and Norse/Germanic world
until the Christian church changed the beliefs. Odin was a warrior god but also a deceitful and a
trickster god, and protector of poetry, magic potency and sexual powers. Traces of old beliefs
remained and remains. The following is a quote from an explanation why victims were blindfolded or
hooded.
“A custom that has not been bound to any particular form of execution, but that from time immemorial
and right up to our own day has been a constant feature of executions in general, is the binding of the
delinquent’s eyes, or covering of his head. The Frisian Hunsigoer law uses the expression thene suarta
doc as a term in the formulation of the death penalty. That this ritual feature has been intended to
protect the bystanders against the criminal’s evil eye, is a generally held and well-founded explanation
that can be confirmed with ancient evidence that cannot be misinterpreted. The Icelandic sagas give
direct proof of the existence of this notion, precisely in connection with executions. Particularly
dangerous was the look from persons versed in magic. According to a wide spread popular belief it
was of importance, vis-á vis such persons, to see them first, i.e. before they had an opportunity to use
the dangerous power in their look. Also ghosts were considered to possess a terrible and dangerous
power in their look, a power that might have fatal consequences for one who happened to cross its
focus.
But if the looks of evil-doers possessed a magical dangerousness already under normal conditions,
this power was still further increased in the moment of death. The measure is thus a ritual feature that
recurs with remarkable consistency.
The magical power of the dying was, however, not restricted to the emanation from his eyes. In olden
times it was a wide-spread belief that the power of the human personality grew as death approached,
to culminate in magical force in the moment of dying. The latent magical power of a human being was
released, actualized and rendered active in the moment of death.
In a penetrating analysis of the myth of Odin’s suicide by hanging, van Hamel plausibly suggest that it
is based upon the belief that a martyrdom that takes the subject into a state between life and death, is
calculated to bring about an increase in personal magical potency, an increase that in the case of a
god must provoke an extraordinarily high potential of creative force. In this connection van Hamel
assumes that the idea of a person’s own force and strength (megin, máttr) that we meet within the
sources of the transition period is not a product of the scepticism of this period, but has its roots in an
ancient pre-deistic belief in the magical power of the individual. Odin’s hanging is thus according to
van Hamel not a sacrifice, although sacral elements from the cult of Odin have been combined therewith, it is a martyrdom intended to actualize all the potential magical power of the god in order to overcome a resistance.”
I have allways been interested in why hanging has so great power of intrest in some guys.... Guys like me for example... ;-)
/Norslad
