Editing Human sacrifice (section)

====Germanic peoples====
[[File:Germania, 1882 "Sacrificios humanos en la antigua Germania". (4358475665).jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Cimbrian seeresses]] performing human sacrifice, from ''Germania'' by [[Johannes Scherr]].]]
{{Further|Germanic paganism|Old Norse religion|Blót}}
Human [[Blót|sacrifice]] was not particularly common among the [[Germanic peoples]], being resorted to in exceptional situations arising from environmental crises (crop failure, drought, famine) or social crises (war), often thought to derive at least in part from the failure of the king to establish or maintain prosperity and peace ({{lang|non|árs ok friðar}}) in the lands entrusted to him.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Peter Buchholz |last=Buchholz |first=Peter |year=1993 |section=Pagan Scandinavian religion |editor-last=Pulsiano |editor-first=P. |title=Medieval Scandinavia: An encyclopedia |place=New York|publisher=Routledge |pages=521–525}}</ref> In later Scandinavian practice, human sacrifice appears to have become more institutionalised and was repeated periodically as part of a larger sacrifice (according to [[Adam of Bremen]], every nine years).<ref name = "Simek">{{cite book |last=Simek |first=Rudolf |year=2003 |title=Religion und Mythologie der Germanen |publisher=Wissenshaftliche Buchgesellschaft |place=Darmstadt, DE |pages=58–64 |isbn=3-8062-1821-8}}</ref>

Evidence of human sacrifice by [[Germanic paganism|Germanic pagans]] before the [[Viking Age]] depend on archaeology and on a few accounts in [[Greco-Roman ethnography]]. Roman writer [[Tacitus]] reported the [[Suebians]] making human sacrifices to gods he [[interpretatio romana|interpreted]] as [[Germanic Mercury|Mercury]] and [[Isis]]. He also claimed that Germans sacrificed Roman commanders and officers as a thanksgiving for victory in the [[Battle of the Teutoburg Forest]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Hilda Ellis |author-link=Hilda Ellis Davidson |title=Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions |date=1988 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |page=62}}</ref><ref>Tacitus, ''Annals'', [[s:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 1#61|I.61]]</ref> [[Jordanes]] reported the [[Goths]] sacrificing [[Prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] to [[Teiwaz|Mars]], suspending the victims' severed arms from tree branches.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Origin and Deeds of the Goths |url=https://people.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/texts/jordgeti.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304023529/https://people.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/texts/jordgeti.html |archive-date=4 March 2016|access-date=10 July 2021 |website=people.ucalgary.ca}}</ref> Tacitus further refers to those who have transgressed certain societal rules being drowned and placed in [[Wetlands and islands in Germanic paganism|wetlands]]. This potentially explains finds of [[bog bodies]] dating to the Roman Iron Age although none show signs of having died by drowning.<ref name="Simek"/>

By the 10th century, Germanic paganism had become restricted to the [[Norsemen|Norse people]]. One account by [[Ahmad ibn Fadlan]] in 922 claims [[Varangian]] warriors were sometimes buried with enslaved women, in the belief they would become their wives in [[Valhalla]]. He describes [[Norse funeral|the funeral]] of a Varangian chieftain, in which a slave girl volunteered to be buried with him. After ten days of festivities, she was given an intoxicating drink, repeatedly raped by other chiefs, stabbed to death by a priestess, and burnt together with the dead chieftain in his boat (see [[ship burial]]). This practice is evidenced archaeologically, with many male warrior burials (such as the ship burial at [[Balladoole]] on the Isle of Man, or that at [[Oseberg]] in Norway<ref>{{cite magazine |title={{grey|[no title cited]}} |magazine=British Archaeology magazine |volume=59 |date=June 2001 |publisher=Britarch.ac.uk |url=http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba59/feat4.shtml |access-date=3 February 2014 |archive-date=13 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110213170444/http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba59/feat4.shtml }}</ref>) also containing female remains with signs of trauma.
[[File:Tollundmanden DO-10895 original.jpg|thumb|upright|The remains of the [[Tollund Man]] shortly after his discovery in 1950.]]
According to [[Adémar de Chabannes]], just before his death in 932 or 933, [[Rollo]] (founder and first ruler of the Viking [[Duchy of Normandy]]) performed human sacrifices to appease the pagan gods while at the same time giving gifts to the churches in [[Normandy]].<ref>{{cite book |first=François |last=Neveux |title=A brief history of the Normans: the conquests that changed the face of Europe |publisher=Robinson |year=2008}}</ref>

In the 11th century, Adam of Bremen wrote that human and animal sacrifices were made at the [[Temple at Uppsala|Temple]] at [[Gamla Uppsala]] in Sweden. He wrote that every ninth year, nine men and nine of every animal were sacrificed and their bodies hung in a [[Sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology|sacred grove]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Hilda Ellis |author-link=Hilda Ellis Davidson |title=Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions |date=1988 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |page=59}}</ref>

The ''[[Historia Norwegiæ]]'' and ''[[Ynglinga saga]]'' refer to the willing sacrifice of King [[Dómaldi]] after bad harvests.<ref>{{cite book| title = Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia | last = Turville-Petre | first = E.O.G. | year = 1975 | orig-date = 1964 | publisher = Greenwood Press | pages = 253–254}}</ref> The same saga also relates that Dómaldi's descendant king [[Aun]] sacrificed nine of his own sons to [[Odin]] in exchange for longer life, until the Swedes stopped him from sacrificing his last son, [[Ongentheow|Egil]].{{cn|date=July 2024}}

In the ''[[Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks|Saga of Hervor and Heidrek]]'', [[Heidrek]] agrees to the sacrifice of his son in exchange for command over half the army of [[Reidgotaland]]. With this, he seizes the whole kingdom and prevents the sacrifice of his son, dedicating those fallen in his rebellion to Odin instead.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}