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Andreas Nordberg

Publications

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

  • Old Customs

    2018. Andreas Nordberg. Temenos 54 (2), 125-147

    Article

    Although they highlight the Norse (religious) term sior 'custom' and its cognates, some researchers of pre-Christian Scandinavia suggest that the concept of religion involves a Christocentric discourse and should be used cautiously, or even only for Christianity. Some scholars there-fore recommend a categorical distinction between pre-Christian (religious) sior and Christian religion. This paper contributes to this ongoing discussion. I argue that while it is meaningful to highlight the term sior and its cognates, the distinction between pre-Christian sior and medieval Christian religion is problematic. 1) While sior had various meanings in vernacular language, the current debate emphasises only its religious aspect, thus turning the indigenous term into an implicit etic concept. 2) The word sior and its cognates were also used in medieval Scandinavian languages as designations for Christianity, and hence, the categorisation of pre-Christian sior and medieval Christian religion is misleading. 3) The distinction between popular sior and formal religion is fundamentally based on the two-tier model of popular/folk religion-religion. 4) The vernacular (religious) word sior in the sense of 'religious customs, the religious aspects of the conventional way of life' and the heuristic category of (lived) religion are in fact complementary in the study of religion in both Viking and medieval Scandinavia.

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  • Fornmordisk religionsforskning mellan teori och empiri

    2013. Andreas Nordberg.

    Book

    I boken diskuteras förhållandet mellan teori och empiri vid utforskandet av förkristen religion i Skandinavien samt hur dessa faktorer kan variera mellan olika discipliner. I centrum står frågorna om soldyrkan, anfäderskult och rituella skördebruk. Studien följer dessa frågors idéhistoria från mitten av 1800-talet till dagens forskningsläge. Det argumenteras för att andra delen av 1800-talet och första delen av 1900-talet var formativ för studiet av förkristen religion och att de landvinningar och misstag som gjordes då har stort inflytande på dagens forskning.

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  • Krigarna i Odins sal

    2003. Andreas Nordberg.

    Thesis (Doc)

    The crucial question in this study concerns the relationship between the motifs of Valhall and Othin in the epically worked out myths, and the more vague and intuitive religious beliefs. Archaeological remains as well as Old Norse literature constitute the source material.

    The warriors’ aristocracy was the social and religious centre of the cult of Othin and the belief in the warriors’ paradise Valhall. This class was the hub of the pre-Christian society, socially and economically, as well as politically. Fundamental to the power of the class were the bands of warriors, which the chieftains gathered around them in their halls. Here warlike ideals were exposed, and war was believed to be given from the gods and to offer a way to join them after death. Among these warrior groups we find the prototype of the mythical motif of Valhall, as well as the model of the description of the relation between Othin and his warriors. However, these mythical motifs are epically formed, and probably, they were not believed as such, i.e. in a literal sense. Instead, they might, metaphorically, convey such religious truths, which in their real forms are beyond human understanding. The motif of the warriors’ hall could be used as a symbol of the religiously “true” Valhall, because it was in the warrior cult in the hall that the insights into Othin’s paradise could be experienced.

    In the cosmological myths there is a fundamental difference between Valhall in the realm of the gods and Hel, the abode of the dead in the nether world. In the more vague religious beliefs the differences seem not to have been expressed with the same clarity. These circumstances were discussed by studying funeral cults. The rites of passage intended to bring the dead to the other world and incorporate them in the afterlife. But most rites were carried out independent of the deceased’s cosmological destination after death. This shows that the structuring explanations of the myths concerning men’s fate after death were not identical with the more vague and intuitive religious belief.

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