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Posted by on in Paths Blogs

Heathens were known for high grooming standards, in comparison to other European peoples. They even had a day of the week set aside for ritual bathing, Laugrdagr, which later became Saturday. How much this custom was influenced by Rome and Byzantium is an open question, but the question that intrigues me right now is: what did they use for fragrances? Or did they not use them?

My new fascination with perfumes and my lifelong study of heathen history intersect here. I didn't recall ever seeing any mention of what perfumes the ancient heathens made or wore, either in the Viking Age or before. But I thought that possibly it was because I was not seeking that information when I read about those times.

When Germanic mercenaries served the Emperor of Byzantium, they lived among his courtiers in Constantinople, and were seen at his palace enough for historical accounts of their doings to have been written by Emperors and Imperial courtiers. They were effectively a mercenary royal guard, not front line troops. They would surely have had access to the same grooming and luxury items as other senior servants and hired courtiers.
 
The court of the Byzantine Empire, also called the Eastern Roman Empire, had access to an amazing variety of luxury goods. They had perfumes from Cypress, Egypt, and India. We don't know if the Germanic people at the Byzantine court used them or not. 
 
The later Viking obsession with wearing silk may have started with an association between being a successful mercenary and wearing Byzantine luxuries. By the Viking Age, cloth was the major export of the northern countries. Yet, wearing cloth of obvious foreign make was a status item.
 
And of course the Vikings raided all over Europe and traded much farther. Silk Road type items appeared in the far north. I'm familiar with the cloth and jewelry finds, because I studied that intentionally. 
 
Were there perfumes found? Either of foreign manufacture or local? No, it appears that none have been found. They did have ritualized bathing and could have used soap or locally sourced materials, possibly even fragrant herbs, but if they did, we don't know what it was. Since grooming objects such as combs are common finds, it seems likely that if they did regularly use something for bathing that needed to be manufactured and stored in containers, some would have been found.
 
Perhaps they were minimalist about their ritual bathing. They may have used local materials that dissolved such as salt or clay, but it's possible they used nothing at all. The goal of a ritual bath is to be both physically and spiritually clean. They may have considered adding things to be bath to be counter to the goal of becoming as pure and clean as possible. 
 
It's an interesting question. Like so many other questions, it is something we can only speculate about. The written materials we have on historical heathenry was largely about the concerns of the writers' patrons, who were kings. So we have tales about great deeds of arms. Stories about adventures, and conquering heroes. The small details of everyday life like bathing were things no one bothered to record because everyone knew. 
 
I have one final thought on this subject. One of the great attractions in the capitol of Iceland is a natural hot springs which feeds a large pool. It was undoubtedly one of the things that attracted people to settle there. When supplied with such a wonderful natural hot bath, perhaps historical heathens felt they did not need to add anything to the experience. Just go right in the way it came from nature. Using perfumes or bath products may have seemed unnecessary when supplied with such perfection.
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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Erin Lale
    Erin Lale says #
    Steven, there is a sauna tradition across northern Europe, from Norway to Russia, centering on Finland, which may have been its or
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    Erin, can you think of any references to the sauna/sweat-bath in the Norse lore? I've always thought it a circumpolar tradition ge

Posted by on in Paths Blogs

When I perceive the gods' presence in nature, sometimes I feel that it is a sign as in an omen and sometimes it's just a sign of their presence as in a way that one detects them. When we talk about whether something is a sign, I think a lot of us talk past each other because someone will call something a sign and mean it as in the signs and symptoms of the presence of x thing, and other people will think they are talking about being the chosen one of a novel.

I've heard people say not every thunderstorm is Thor, but to me, every thunderstorm is definitely Thor. Sometimes he's showing up for me and sometimes he's just doing his thing. And either way, thunder is a sign-- of his presence. It's how we detect him. It doesn't necessarily mean anything else, unless there is some context in which his presence would be the answer to a question, but that would be highly unusual to the point of nearly unheard-of. Which is why I think people misunderstand when I say he's in every thunder roll. They misunderstand when I say he will sometimes show up for me. And sometimes he would show up for my mom, even though she was an atheist. 

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs

I like science metaphors when talking about heathen concepts that differ from the ideas common in our current modern American culture. In the Fireverse, my fictional universe based on heathen mythology (see previous entries on that topic), the main human character is an author stand-in who gets a guided tour to the worlds and time, like the main human character in Dante's Bible fan fiction. Like me, she likes science and especially physics as spiritual and religious metaphors, so, the Hel-Boat looks like a Viking longship but behaves like a spaceship, landing and taking off from the Nine Worlds as if they were planet type worlds rather than the dimensions the main character knows them to be. Metaphors for the multipartite soul didn't come up in Some Say Fire because the main character is already in her afterlife after the opening scene, but I'm thinking about them now.

Reading Heathen Soul Lore Foundations to review it (review coming soon), I encountered a metaphor for the various parts of the human soul based on alchemy, especially the idea of refining salts to transform substances into other things. This metaphor just doesn't work for me because I'm not into alchemy. During my daily morning coffee ritual I had a conversation in my mind with Odin about metaphors for the soul.

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs

I don't do New Year's Resolutions. There is an undercurrent of cynicism about them that implies that giving one's word, even to oneself, is really not a big deal. I don't want to follow that way of thinking. Promises to myself or to the universe can never be a joke to me, because as a heathen my word and my honor are real things that affect real life. Nonetheless, I find myself making new starts in several areas of my life anyway.

It's only a few days into 2022 and I've found myself making a change in what I (and my housemate) give to the landwight, after discussing it with the gnome. I also am going to do some garden tasks to arrange things properly. For example, recently there was a killing frost so the morning glories are dead for the season, and I will be able to clear out the planting bed where Margaret temporarily buried her pet snake Narcissa, because her family had not yet gotten a house at that time, and I made plans to clear the planting bed tomorrow and have her family come move Narcissa this weekend.That was always part of the plan since it was supposed to be temporary in the first place, but I am now motivated to actually get the clearing work done while I do the other garden things I need to do tomorrow.

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs
Heathen Visibility Project How To

 

What is the Project?

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs

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Title: Loki's Wager (Vikingverse Book Two)

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs
Asatru FAQ: Hospitality

A question that comes up periodically in the heathen community is how to apply the virtue of hospitality in the modern world. Many heathens try too hard to make the square peg of ancient stories about kings fit into the round hole of an average modern city dweller's life.

The modern list of religious virtues called the Nine Noble Virtues that some heathen groups preach dates to the 1970s, but was based on historical literature. This literature was largely stories of interest to the patrons of poets, and those patrons were kings. In attempting to live how these stories say is an honorable way to live, many heathens are unintentionally trying to replicate a lifestyle that only applied to those at the very top of the social hierarchy in historical heathen times.

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