Influences from the Huns on Scandinavian Sacrificial Customs during 300-500 AD

Authors

• Marianne Görman

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67216

Keywords:

Norse religion, Huns, Scandinavia, Sacrifice, Iron Age, Votive offerings, Archaeology, Excavations, Ritual, Burial, Grave goods, Funeral rites and ceremonies

Abstract

Votive offerings may be our main source of knowledge concerning the religion of the Iron Age before the Vikings. An important question is the connection between two kinds of sacrificial finds, i.e. horse sacrifices and burial offerings. They are contemporary and they share the same background. They can both be traced back to the Huns. This means that in all probability religious ideas occurred in southern Scandinavia during the fourth to the sixth century which were strongly influenced by the Huns, who were powerful in Central Europe at that time. The explanation of this is probably that some Scandinavians, for instance by serving as mercenaries, had come in contact with the Huns and, at least to some extent, assimilated their ways of thinking and their religious ideas.