Scandinavian belief in fate

Authors

• Åke Ström

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67008

Keywords:

Fate and fatalism -- Religious aspects -- Christianity, Scandinavia, Christianity, Astrology, Norse religion, Civilization, Germanic, Christianity and paganism, Icelandic and Old Norse literature, Horoscopes, Predestination, Folklore, Scandinavian

Abstract

In point of principle, Christianity does not give room for any belief in fate. Astrology, horoscopes, divination, etc., are strictly rejected. Belief in fate never disappeared in Christian countries, nor did it in Scandinavia in Christian times. Especially in folklore we can find it at any period:  People believed in an implacable fate. All folklore is filled up with this belief in destiny. Nobody can escape his fate. The future lies in the hands of fate, and the time to come takes its form according to inscrutable laws. The pre-Christian period in Scandinavia, dominated by pagan Norse religion, and the secularized epoch of the 20th century, however, show more distinctive and more widespread beliefs in fate than does the Christian period. The present paper makes a comparison between these forms of belief.