The Use of Hammers in Historical & Modern Heathen Ritual

April 23, 2022

The Use of Hammers in Historical & Modern Heathen Ritual

Hammers in Modern Practice & Ritual

Today, if you were to go to the house of a practitioner of Nordic & Germanic beliefs, you would likely see upon their altar a hammer. If you are to attend a modern blot, you are also very likely to see a hammer being used in ritual. Typically these hammers are of the size and shape of a small handheld sledge with a short handle that typically weigh between 2 to maybe 5lbs in weight.

In the modern context, the purpose of this hammer is to represent Thor’s mighty hammer Mjolnir and is typically used within ritual to bless food for a feast, consecrate offering, make hallow the space that will be used for blot/ritual, bless ritual items and even to bless a person, property or to consecrate a marriage. This practice is rooted in ancient traditions of invoking Thor's blessings for protection and sanctification. An example of this can be seen in Viking Age runestones that bear the inscription "Thor Bless" or "Thor hallow" (Thor vigi), which serve as historical evidence of the invocation of Thor's power for personal and familial protection. These runestones, scattered across Scandinavia, stand as physical reminders of how Thor’s blessings were sought not only in daily life but also as part of religious and commemorative practices.

Runes × ᚦᚢᚱ ᛬ ᚢᛁᚴᛁ ×, meaning "may Þórr hallow" from the
Velanda Runestone in Sweden.

There are two uses in the Prose Eddas and a third from the older Poetic Edda in which these modern usages are based off of. The first two are both from Gylfaginning in Snorri’s Prose Edda. In the first instance, Thor slaughtered his goats the previous night to feed his companions and their hosts, and in the morning uses Mjolnir to revive the goats and bring them back to life. In the second instance from Gylfaginning, Thor uses his to consecrate Baldr’s funeral pyre. The third instance from Thrymskviða in the Poetic Edda has Mjolnir being stolen by a jötunn and he demands Freya's hand in marriage in exchange for the mighty weapon. Thor goes disguised as Freya to fool the jötunar and after a feast to celebrate the wedding, the jötunn has Mjolnir brought out and set upon Thor's lap to bless the marriage. Spoiler alert; With his hammer back, Thor kills all of them.

Another use of the hammer in modern Asatru/Heathenry is the "Sign of the Hammer". This is also used as something to bless or consecrate things. Either with empty hands, or holding a hammer, the person makes the sign of the hammer by tracing it's form in front of them with their hands. Similar to how certain Christan sects make the "sign of the cross". This is based upon an incident from Chapter 18 of The Saga of Haakon The Good. In the scene, King Haakon, who is a Christian, is attending a feast at the beginning of winter (aka Winter Nights) in Trondheim. When he is passed the cup to drink from he makes the sign of the cross and some of the folks in attendance begin to complain that he is not partaking of the sacrifice. Earl Sigurd placates them by saying he was making the sign of Mjolnir and not that of the cross. There are many different ways that people interpret this incident. Some interpret this as the Christians pulling a fast one of the pagans, and some interpret it as the hammer-sign being a legit thing that was done, hence why it was an accepted explanation. There is no evidence that supports either interpretation of this instance in the sagas.

Outside of the literary sources mentioned above, there is no other evidence that would indicate that hammers were used in a similar fashion in historical blot. That said, the modern uses described above have been in use by modern Asatruar/Heathens since the mid 20th century. Thus are well established traditions that carry with them relevant and valid purpose and meaning for modern followers of the Old Ways.

Hammers in Historical Practice & Ritual

It can be argued that there is a lot we don't know from the Viking Age (and before) as not everything was written down and finding stuff in the archeological evidence doesn't tell us everything. But what we do know is that hammers were used at least in one specific way during blot and this is based upon skeletal remains of sacrificed animals found in various places across Northern Europe.

One of the most documented instances of this is from Hofstadir in Northern Iceland. During excavations of the site there have been 6 cattle skulls and 1 sheep skull that were found. Based upon the location and several characteristics it is believed that these skulls were hung in display on the outside of the main longhouse at the site. Further characteristics such as horns not being removed and weathering on the exterior of the skulls show that they were displayed as opposed to buried, which is usually done when an animal is normally butchered. Another common characteristic amongst the skulls is that five of the cattle skulls and the sheep skull all have depressions on the middle of their foreheads, indicating that they had been struck with a decent size hammer. Further analysis also shows that the neck had been severed by a single blow, slicing through vertebrae. There is some evidence that the blow to the head and the cut to sever the neck occurred almost simultaneously. Indicating that there were at least two individuals that assisted in the ritual slaughter of the animal. One to strike the head with a hammer and the other to several the neck in what must have been precision blows. There doesn’t appear to be any evidence of any of them requiring multiple blows to get the job done.

Two of the skulls from Hofstadir, showing the damage from the blow to the forehead

Using the evidence from Hostadir, I wanted to use the archaeological record to see what tools would have been available to use in the Viking Age to slaughter an animal during blot. To use as a point of reference I decided to research the tools that were used up until fairly recently for slaughtering the animals that were most common during the Viking Age. Those animals are sheep, goat, pig, cattle and horse.

The process to kill the animal is typically one of three ways. The first way is to stun the animal by striking it on the skull. For goats and sheep, this is typically on the back of the skull. For the larger animals, it is on the center of the forehead. Then the animal’s throat is slit, making sure to sever the arteries in the neck so that the animal bleeds out. The second way is to get the animal to lay down, keep it calm and quickly slit its throat. The third way is decapitation, preferably with a single blow.

Looking at the more recent documentation around how to slaughter an animal, there aren't any instances where an animal is struck to be stunned and decapitated at the same time. Making the historical examples from Hofstadir even more impressive.

For stunning an animal, a hammer is the obvious tool that would have been utilized. For smaller animals such as goats and sheep, a lighter hammer is typically sufficient and easy enough to wield with one hand. In the modern context, only one person does it, holding the hammer with one hand and steadying the animal with the other. So you would want a hammer that is short handled and light enough to wield with one hand. Based upon details from the Mastermyr find from Viking Age Gotland, there are a couple of hammers that could easily have been used. Most of these are taken to be blacksmith tools, weighing between 2 to 5 pounds. While the handles did not survive, they would have been short handled, similar to modern blacksmith hammers.

Drawings of several of the hammers from the Mastermyr find. #70 is 4.1lbs, #71 is 3.5lbs and #65 is 1.6lbs

For the larger animals like pigs, cattle and horses, a larger hammer would be used. In more modern times a long handled sledge hammer weighing around 8lbs (and possibly up to 12lbs) would have been used. Later period hammers were also developed that had a “bolt” on the end of the hammer that would have gone into the brain, instantly killing the animal. This was the precursor to the modern boltgun that is used today. There is a sledge hammer from the Mastermyr find that also fits the needs for this. The largest head in the find weighs just about 7.5 pounds.

The largest hammer from the Mastermyr find is #69 and weighs 7.43lb

Not all finds are very well documented, so I have yet to locate other sources that might fit either category.

So now what about the implements that would be used to cut the throat or decapitate the animal. First, for cutting the throat, you would want a decent sized knife with a very sharp blade. If the blade is too small, it will take more effort to cut the throat sufficiently to sever the arteries. Obviously we have plenty of examples of knives from the Viking Age that are capable of doing such a task. For decapitation of the smaller animals a seax of decent length, a sword or an ax with a broad blade would easily do the trick.

A seax was a common tool and weapon during the Viking Age and could range in length from about 3 inches all the way up to sword lengths. With a thick back edge, it would have been well suited to cutting or chopping.

Based upon the research done at Hofstadir, the scholars involved in that agree that it was likely an axe with a broad blade that was used to sever the necks of the cattle and sheep examples that they found. While the very popular Dane Axe comes to mind, there are probably several other larger axes that could have done the job as well.

Left - cutting edges of early Viking Age axes were 3-6 inch long. Right - in the later period, broad axes begin to show up in the archaeological record and could have cutting edges from 9-15 inches long.

In the examples found at Hofstadir, scholars theorize that both wielders were right handed. The person with the hammer would have been standing on the animal's right side, slightly ahead of the animal. The one holding the axe would have been standing on the animals left side level with the animals shoulder/neck. Both being positioned perfectly to execute their tasks with the correct angle and force needed to dispatch the animal with dual simultaneous blows.

Summary

While in both historical and modern times it is clear that hammers are an important tool in the Heathen ritual, it is also clear that the use and purpose of the hammer is different in the historical versus the modern context.

While in the modern sense, it is used to represent Mjolnir and to bless or consecrate, in the historical it is clearly a tool that is utilized for the specific purpose of slaughtering the animal that is sacrificed in blot. Even then, we don’t have evidence to suggest that a hammer was always used. Depending on the tools available to the group of people conducting the blot, it is quite possible that only an axe or knife was used to slaughter the animal. We really have no way of telling.

One observation worth mentioning is the difference in which these types of ritual items are treated in the modern versus historical contexts. In the modern practice any blades and hammers that are used in ritual are usually consecrated and then stored on an altar or with other ritual items and never get used outside of ritual. On the other hand, in the historical context, iron was a very limited resource and the hammers and weapons used to conduct blot, were likely the same ones that were used for many other tasks. This is due to the fact that we don’t see duplicates of tools in the archaeological record. They didn’t have a hammer or sledge for blacksmithing and then one for slaughter/blot, they had just one hammer that was used for all of them. The same goes for any knife, seax, sword or axe that may have been used to kill an animal. You used the one that you had.

This also brings up the subject of whether these items were consecrated or blessed each time they were used. Personally I don’t feel that would have been needed or necessary. The animal being slaughtered in blot, was the offering and the blood of that animal was used to consecrate and to bless things in the historical context. So, perhaps, in using the items to slaughter the animal, the items were consecrated. Although that is just my own thoughts on the subject and there are others that will likely disagree.

References

Bloody Slaughter: Ritual Decapitation and Display at the Viking Settlement of Hofstadir, Iceland

https://www.nabohome.org/publications/Bloody%20Slaughter%2008.pdf

Report of Cattle and Sheep Skulls Recovered from Hofstaðir, Mývatnssveit N Iceland

https://www.nabohome.org/publications/labreports/Norsec5Hofstadircattleskulls.pdf

Pagan Religious Practices of the Viking Age

http://hurstwic.org/history/articles/mythology/religion/text/practices.htm

The Heimskringla by Snorri Sturluson

Hakon the Goods Saga, Chapter 18. King Hakon Offers Sacrifices - King Hakon makes the sign of the cross

https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/heim/05hakon.htm

The Prose Edda by Snorri Struluson

Gylfaginning, Part XLIV - Thor uses his hammer to hallow his dead goats and bring them back to life.