Barbarian Rites

August 15, 2011
First published in Germany in 1992, this study by Hasenfratz (professor emeritus of the history of religion at Ruhr University and author of German texts on ancient cultures and religion) offers a surprisingly dark picture of the practices of Germanic pagan tribes. During the Roman Empire, the term "German" broadly referred to tribes living outside the boundaries of the empire, including Vikings and Celts. In his examination of historical sources that illuminate this culture, Hasenfratz includes Icelandic sagas and Arabic texts. For example, an Arabic text from 921 A.D. describes a tribe of Viking merchants as "the filthiest of God's creatures," because of their practice of urinating, defecating, and mating in public, and their lack of hygiene. These pre-Christian Germanic tribes lived by marauding, capturing booty (including slaves), and practicing human sacrificesâincluding a practice called "carving the blood eagle," in which a sacrificial victim was hacked to pieces while still alive. Despite their barbarism, Hasenfratz situates the Vikings within Indo-European culture, and suggests that their view of the end of this world and the coming of a new age will resonate with today's new age philosophy.