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A MYSTERY AMONG THE MYSTERIES:
ARE THERE OLD ICELANDIC MYSTERIES?
——~o » —_—_
VILMOS VOIGT
ABSTRACT
In comparative religion, mystery is a rite, revealing a certain kind of knowledge,
and initiating the participants into a hidden, secret world. On old Germanic
religion, we have both intrinsic and extrinsic data available from the time
of Tacitus (1 century AD). Early Scandinavian archaeology of religious sites
is a much cultivated field, with excellent secondary literature. Nevertheless,
in Old Icelandic texts there are no proper reports about mysteries. Leading
scholars of Old Germanic religion, even the partisans of the ritualistic school
(as for instance, Jan de Vries and Otto Hofler) did not classify, for example,
Mdannerbund, “sacred kingdom” (literally, male association) and initiation
as mysteries. It was only Ernst Uhly who considered “Nordisch-Germanische
Mythologie als Mysteriengeschichte” (1984).
In this paper, the striking absence of mysteries in Old Icelandic texts will
be examined. Following on from that, I also want to address the phenomenon
of Euhemerism, expressed in a few Old Icelandic sources, first of all by Snorri
Sturluson, who in his Gylfaginning suggests that the traditional Old Norse
mythology is an “illusion” (ginning). In this regard, I shall also look into
the Gesta Danorum of Saxo Grammaticus, where giants and magicians from
ancient times in possession of “knowledge” were later considered to be gods.
Vexilla regis prodeunt, fulget crucis mysterium
(Venantius Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers)
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