A Traveller Turned Away: The Elf-Sacrifice

Poetic account: a skaldic poem describes a traveller being turned away from a heathen household in the middle of an elf-sacrifice.

Sigvatr Þórðarson, an Icelandic poet who served King Óláfr Haraldsson of Norway, travelled east into Sweden as the king’s envoy. His poem Austrfararvísur, “verses of an eastern journey”, tells of the trip in a wry, complaining tone. Seeking lodging in Västergötland, Sigvatr found barred doors. At one farm, called Hof, the household would not open up. At another, a woman told him not to come further in, saying they feared Odin’s anger because they were heathens. She drove him off as if he were a wolf, and said that an álfablót, a sacrifice to the elves, was being held there.

What is recorded: a Christian poet was refused entry; a woman named the elf-sacrifice as the reason; she also spoke of fear of Odin’s wrath. The account is one traveller’s complaint, told from outside the household and from a Christian point of view.

What is not recorded: any ceremony in detail, who the elves were taken to be, a journey to Álfheimr, or what the household itself believed. Wikipedia says nothing is known about the particular rites, and that ancestor worship is possible. Wellendorf rejects the usual explanation that the refusals came from the private nature of the rite, and reads them as a sign of a religion changing under the pressure of the Christian mission. The existing entry on the álfablót covers the rite in brief.