[Regia-NA] Re:_[Regia-NA]_goši

[Matthew Tarplee]

Thanks for the feedback folks.
Matt
--- Hrolf Douglasson <Hrolf@btinternet.com> wrote:
> Not easy to tell. Because we are nowadays used to
> thinking in terms of
> Organised Religion (even the neo-pagans have their
> societies etc, I know
> 'cos I was in one or two), the apparent situation in
> mainland Scandinavia is
> difficult to get one's head around. Plus of course,
> nothing was <reliably>
> written down (Adam of Bremen's descriptions of
> Uppsala don't count, because
> he never went there to look!), so it is guesswork.
> Icelandic referrals to
> gothar (plural of gothi, excuse the spelling, but
> I've lost the character on
> the keyboard again) are likewise suspect, since they
> date as a rule to
> around the thirteenth century-when Adam was writing,
> strangely.
>     The position seems to have been that religion
> was local,
> household-centric and thus, to a missionary's eyes,
> disorganised and of no
> real account. I suspect that the same was true in
> the early days of
> Icelandic settlement, too. Rich and powerful men in
> any given area would, as
> part of maintaining that status, have thrown their
> houses open for feasts
> and celebrations, and probably took the opportunity
> to promote their own
> favoured dieties. This may explain why, throughout
> Scandinavia and nortthern
> England, one finds clusters of similar god-names in
> place-names. Norway has
> a lot of Thors, Denmark is good for Odins (or
> variations thereon), and
> Cumbria (UK) has a fine crop of Ullr's, not
> duplicated anywhere else.
>     This extension of localised influence into the
> religious areas of life
> (to get back on track again) is probably the origin
> of the later concepts of
> what a gothi was. Hazel is quite correct in that a
> number of them continued
> their influence into the Christian era in Iceland,
> thereby suggesting that
> the religious side of things was only one minor area
> of the greater role,
> and that their secular activities (and, indeed their
> religious duties) went
> on largely unchanged by the adoption of the new
> doctrine.
>     Not an exact answer to your question I know, but
> hard information is
> scarce. It is easier to pick up impressions from
> further reading than to get
> an answer!
>     You might want to try "The Vikings and their
> origins" by David M. Wilson
> (Thames and Hudson, ISBN 0-500-27542-4), or "The
> Viking Achievement" by
> Foote and Wilson (no details here, it's out on
> loan). Johannes Brondsted,
> Else Rosedahl and Gwyn Jones all go into it in a
> greater or lesser degree in
> their various books; "Gods and Myths of Northern
> Europe" by Hilda
> Ellis-Davidson (Pelican, ISBN 0-14-020670-1) is
> getting old, but looks at
> the makeup and implementation of the indigienous
> faith.
> 
>     Good Hunting,
> 
>     Hrolf (Gothi According To Some-another story)
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Matthew Tarplee" <jacknotname@yahoo.com>
> To: <list-regia-na@lig.net>
> Sent: Friday, March 21, 2003 11:27 PM
> Subject: [Regia-NA] goši
> 
> 
> > Forgiveme if I'm wrong here; from whay I've read
> the
> > term goši is an exclusively icelandic term
> refuring to
> > a sort of priest/cheiftain overseeing the both the
> > religious and secular needs of an area. Of course
> a
> > goši's infulance gradually shifted to the wholy
> > secular after the conversion to christainity.
> >
> > I was wondering if anyone knows weather there was
> an
> > equivalent social position in viking scandinavia?
> >
> > Thanks folks
> >
> > Matt
> >
> > =====
> >
> >
> > __________________________________________________
> > Do you Yahoo!?
> > Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness,
> live on your desktop!
> > http://platinum.yahoo.com
> > _______________________________________________
> > list-regia-na mailing list
> > list-regia-na@lig.net
> > http://www.lig.net/mailman/listinfo/list-regia-na
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> list-regia-na mailing list
> list-regia-na@lig.net
> http://www.lig.net/mailman/listinfo/list-regia-na


=====


__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop!
http://platinum.yahoo.com