368 RELIGION. HUMAN SACRIFICES. 



mark), came with, his host to Sweden against King Aim; 

 they fought, and Ali always gained the victory. King Aim 

 left his realm a second time and went to the western Gautland. 

 Ali was king at Uppsalir for twenty-five winters, till Starkad 

 the Old slew him. After his death Aim came back to Uppsalir 

 and ruled the realm for twenty-five winters. He again made 

 a great sacrifice for long life and offered up another son. Odin 

 told him that he should live for ever if he gave him a son 

 every tenth year, and would call a herad 1 (district) in the 

 land after the number of every son whom he thus sacrificed. 

 During ten winters after he had sacrificed seven of his sons he 

 was unable to walk, and was carried on a stool. He sacrificed 

 his eighth son and lived ten winters more in bed. He 

 sacrificed his ninth son and lived ten winters more, and drank 

 from a horn like a young child. He had one son left and 

 wanted to sacrifice him, and thereupon to give Uppsalir with 

 the herads belonging to it to Odin, and call it Tiimdaland. 2 

 The Swedes stopped him ; then he died and was mound-laid at 

 Uppsalir " (Ynglinga, c. 29). 



Men, particularly the slain after a battle, were sometimes 

 given to Odin for victory, the largest number ever given 

 being those who fell at the famous battle of Bravalla. It 

 seems to have been customary to redden the altars with the 

 blood of the fallen chiefs. 3 



Prisoners of war, no matter what their rank, were called 

 thralls, and were sacrificed ; sometimes they were slaughtered 

 like animals, their blood put into bowls, and their bodies 

 thrown into bogs or a spring outside the door of the temple 

 called Uot-kelda (sacrificing spring), or their backs broken on 

 sharp stones ; sometimes they were thrown from high cliffs. 4 



" Thorgrim Godi was a great sacrificer ; he had a large 

 temple raised in his grass-plot, 5 one hundred feet in length and 

 sixty in breadth, and every man was to pay temple-tax to it. 

 Thor was most worshipped there ; the inmost part of it was 

 made round as if it were a dome ; it was all covered with 

 hangings, and had windows ; Thor stood in the middle, and 

 other gods on both sides. There was an altar in front made 

 with great skill and covered above with iron; on it there was 

 to be a fire which should never die out, which they called holy 



1 See p. 478. 4 Kristnisaga, Fornmanna Siigur ii., 



2 Tiundaland = land of the tenth. I 228. 



3 Hervarar Saga, 9, 10, 11, 12. 5 I.e. Tun or open space. 



