Álfablót, the Elf-Sacrifice

The álfablót is named in Austrfararvísur, a poem by the Icelandic skald Sigvatr Þórðarson about a journey east into Västergötland around 1019. Sigvatr and his men seek lodging at several farms and are turned away. At one a woman tells them not to come further in, because the household fears Odin’s anger and they are heathens. At another, a woman says that they are holding an elf-sacrifice.

The poem is the main source, and it is one traveller’s complaint rather than a description of the rite. Kormáks saga also mentions a sacrifice to the elves, but there it is done to heal a wound and not in autumn. The sources do not say it was a visit to Álfheimr.

Álfablót means “sacrifice to the elves”. According to Wikipedia’s summary it was a local household celebration, not one of the great public sacrifices, and was held toward the end of autumn. The woman of the house is said to have led it, and the master was called Ölvir, a name that may imply Odin, although this is tentative.

Nothing is known of the rites themselves, which strangers were not welcome to see, and links to the dead or to a household’s luck are suggestions only. Sigvatr was a Christian court poet describing an unfriendly reception, so his account is one-sided. The entry for the light and dark elves covers what Snorri says about elves.