King Aun Sacrifices Nine Sons to Odin
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An early 20th-century painting depicting the mid-winter festival at the Gamla Uppsala temple. Artist: Carl Larsson[/caption]Sweden
King Aun returned to Uppsala when he was sixty years of age. He made a great sacrifice, and in it offered up his son to Odin. Aun got an answer from Odin, that he should live sixty years longer; and he was afterwards king in Uppsala for twenty-five years.
Now came Ale the Bold, a son of King Fridleif, with his army to Svithiod against King Aun....
Then Aun fled a second time to West Gautland; and for twenty-five years Ale reigned in Uppsala, until he was killed by Starkad the Old.
After Ale's fall, Aun returned to Uppsala and ruled the kingdom for twenty-five years. Then he made a great sacrifice again for long life, in which he sacrificed his second son, and received the answer from Odin, that he should live as long as he gave him one of his sons every tenth year, and also that he should name one of the districts of his country after the number of sons he should offer to Odin. When he had sacrificed the seventh of his sons he continued to live for ten years; but so that he could not walk, but was carried on a chair. Then he sacrificed his eighth son, and lived thereafter ten years, lying in his bed. Now he sacrificed his ninth son, and lived ten years more; but so that he drank out of horn like an infant.
He had now only one son remaining, whom he also wanted to sacrifice, and to give Odin Uppsala and the domains thereunto belonging, under the name of the Tenth Land, but the Swedes would not allow it; so there was no sacrifice, and King Aun died, and was buried in a mound at Uppsala. Since that time it is called Aun's sickness when a man dies, without pain, of extreme old age.
Thiodolf tells of this:
In Uppsala town the cruel king
Slaughtered his sons at Odin's shrine --
Slaughtered his sons with cruel knife,
To get from Odin length of life
He lived until he had to turn
His toothless mouth to the deer's horn;
And he who shed his children's blood
Sucked through the ox's horn his food,
At length fell Death has tracked him down,
Slowly, but sure, in Uppsala town.
Source: Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla; or, The Sagas of the Norse Kings, translated from the Icelandic by Samuel Laing; 2nd edition, revised, with notes by Rasmus B. Anderson, vol. 1 (London: John C. Nimmo, 1889), pp. 301-302.
Human Sacrifice among the Gauls
The nation of all the Gauls is extremely devoted to superstitious rites; and on that account they who are troubled with unusually severe diseases and they who are engaged in battles and dangers, either sacrifice men as victims, or vow that they will sacrifice them, and employ the Druids as the performers of those sacrifices; because they think that unless the life of a man be offered for the life of a man, the mind of the immortal gods cannot be rendered propitious, and they have sacrifices of that kind ordained for national purposes. Others have figures of vast size, the limbs of which formed of osiers they fill with living men, which being set on fire, the men perish enveloped in the flames. They consider that the oblation of such as have been taken in theft, or in robbery, or any other offence, is more acceptable to the immortal gods; but when a supply of that class is wanting, they have recourse to the oblation of even the innocent.
Source: Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War, translated by Edward Brooks, Jr. (Chicago: Farquhar and Albrecht, 1896) ch. 16, pp. 202-203
Buried Alive
Sweden
Many years ago an epidemic swept over Dalland, to which thousands of persons fell victims. Many people fled to the forests, or to other regions. The churches were deserted, and those remaining were not enough to bury the dead. At this stage an old Finlander came along, who informed the few survivors that they need not hope for cessation of the scourge until they had buried some living thing.
The advice was followed. First a cock was buried alive, but the plague continued as violent as ever. Next, a goat, but this also proved ineffectual. At last a poor boy, who frequented the neighborhood, begging, was lured to a wood-covered hill at the point where the river Daleborg empties into Lake Venem. Here a deep hole was dug, the boy meantime sitting near, enjoying a piece of bread and butter that had been given him.
When the grave was deep enough, the boy was dropped into it and the diggers began hurriedly to shovel the dirt upon him. The lad begged and prayed them not to throw dirt upon his bread and butter, but the spades flew faster, and in a few minutes, still alive, he was entirely covered and left to his fate.
Whether this stayed the plague is not know, but many who after night pass the hill, hear, it is said, a voice as if from a dying child, crying, "Buried alive! Buried Alive!"
Source: Herman Hofberg, Swedish Fairy Tales, translated by W. H. Myers (Chicago, Belford-Clarke Company, 1890), p. 140.
Of the Pestilence in Jutland
Denmark
On the east side of the churchyard of Fur no one is buried, because when the Black Death raged in the country, a living child was buried there, in order to stay the contagion.
Other instances are given of this method of staying the pestilence.
Source: Benjamin Thorpe, Northern Mythology, Comprising the Principal Popular Traditions and Superstitions of Scandinavia, North Germany, and the Netherlands, vol. 2 (London: Edward Lumley, 1851), p. 219.
The Höxter Ghost
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Höxter[/caption]Germany
When Höxter was being fortified, a small child was entombed in the wall near the Ovenhausen Gate in order to make the town invincible. Even today the child can be heard crying every seven years.
Source: Unpublished papers of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Staatsbibliothek, Berlin.
** D. L. Ashliman (born 1 January 1938) is an American folklorist and writer. He is Professor Emeritus of German at the University of Pittsburgh, and is considered to be a leading expert on folklore and fairytales. He has published a number of works on the topic.
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