The Fenris Wolf in the Nordic Asa creed in the light of palaeoseismics

N.-A. MÖRNER

Fig. 1. Map of Sweden with areas of recorded palaeoseismic activity (black dots 1-26; further discussed in M6rner 2003, 2004, 2005). Nine high-magnitude palaeoseismic events are recorded in the Late Holocene. Their ages in Cl4-years Be are given in black outside the map frames. A few place names referring to noise or fractured rock are given (outside the map frames). 'Svealand' refers to an area from where much of the Asa Creed owes its origin. It seems significant that so many earthquakes and place names are located just within this region.

Abstract: The Nordic Asa Creed talks about a giant wolf, "the Fenris Wolf', that was trapped and chained deep in the mountains. When he howled, the ground trembled violently and fractured. With the discovery of frequent high-magnitude palaeoseismic events in Sweden not only in de-glacial time but also in Late Holocene time, it seems both natural and logical that the Fenris tale refers to frightening earthquake events in the past. Once again tales and sagas have been shown to be rooted in facts.

In ancient times, natural phenomena were usually explained in terms of actions by gods. Phenomena such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions were directly frightening; so too were ordinary phenomena like thunderstorms.

In the Norse mythology or the Nordic Asa creed, there are many examples of this. Thunderstorms were explained by the noise created by the god Thor throwing his hammer. The land uplift was explained by the giant Ymer slowly rising out of the sea. The end of our world--'Ragnarök" in the Asa crede--is described as a most terrible event when the ground fractures and rocks fragments are thrown higgledy-piggledy, like at a violent earthquake. Grant (2003) concludes that recent observations indicate that 'some of the tales were firmly rooted in fact'.

The Asa Creed originates in pre-Viking time. The mythological chronology given suggests that Odin and Thor arrived at Svealand in Late Iron Age and formed a new dynasty 'Ynglingaätten'. However, there is no discontinuity in the cultural evolution to account for this. On the contrary, there is continued cultural evolution back in time, to at least the Bronze Age and possibly even into the late Stone Age. The oldest place names owe their origin in the Bronze Age. The Asa Creed was written down in the thirteenth century AD by people on Iceland in their famous Edda (as recently reviewed by Grant 2003).

The Fenris Wolf

The god Loke had a son with the giantess Angrboda. The child took the form of a giant wolf--the Fenris Wolf--and became a threat even to the gods themselves (e.g. Grant 2003). Finally, the Fenris Wolf threatened to destroy the whole world. By magic, he was captured and chained deep in the mountains. When he howled, the ground and mountains trembled violently and deep fractures formed and rock fragments were thrown around.

Today, one might say; what a perfect description of a high-magnitude earthquake. Until recently, earthquakes above magnitude 5 on the Richter scale were not known from Sweden. Therefore, no one proposed a seismic origin for the story of the Fenris Wolf. It was simply sidelined as something less interesting. However, in recent years the situation has changed (Mörner 1994, 2003).

The new concept of a high palaeoseismic activity

During the last three decades, it has become increasingly clear that Sweden was subjected to strong seismic activity at the time of deglaciation some 9000-11000 radiocarbon years BP. From the notion that 'big earthquakes rather were the rule than the exception' (MiSrner 1985), there is an extensive palaeoseismic database (catalogue) including 54 magnitude 5-8 events (Mörner 2003). This catalogue even includes several magnitude 7 or 6-7 events in Late Holocene time, i.e. at times when they may have influenced not only the Norse mythology but also ancient place names (Mrmer 2003; M6rner & Strandberg 2003).

As Swedish palaeoseismicity has been presented elsewhere (Mörner 2003, 2004, 2005) this paper focuses on the Late Holocene events and their possible influence on place names, mythology and tales. In the last 5000 years, nine high-magnitude palaeoseismic events are recorded (Fig. 1). All these events are likely to have affected human life physically as well as spiritually. Effects such as faulting, fracturing, ground shaking, earth slides, tsunami waves, would have had considerable destructive effects. The 2000 Be event at Hudiksvall (site 9) set up a huge tsunami wave that washed in over land at least 20 m above sea level. The 2900 BP event at Forsmark (site 10) represents another huge tsunami that broke into lakes at least 25 m above sea level. The 3500 BP event at Marviken (site 12) caused a 5 km fracture, nine large slides (including the down-slope movement of a Bronze Age burial mound) and a local lake tsunami.

The 900 BP event on the Swedish west-coast includes a 1.0 m fault-scarp, rock shattering and liquefaction (with two Viking ships buried in sand by a possible tsunami). Our oldest place names are said to have originated in the Bronze Age. There are many names in Sweden that refer to sounds, noise or fractured rock. The Lake 'Marviken' name seems to refer to fractured rock which fits well with the effects of the 3500 BP event there. Lake 'Dunkern' refers to deep noise (an earthquake just at the spot is dated 8000 BP which seems too old to have affected the place name, but younger events may have followed in the same zone). Lake 'Hjälmaren' refers to 'the noisy' and it seems significant that the area is traversed by faults active in postglacial time (Mörner & Strandberg 2003). 'Päirve' in the far north is a Lapish name referring to noise from the underground. This area was struck by a violent seismotectonic even about 9000 BP (Lagerbäck 1979). This seems far too early for an imprint in the place name. However, there may have been subsequent activities on the fault. Much of the Nordic Asa creed seems to have originated in the region of 'Svealand' (termed 'Svenonian' by Tacitus, 79 AD, and 'Svitjod" in the Icelandic sagas), where the gods Thor and Odin were said to have emigrated and formed a new dynasty. Thus, it is interesting that we have so many traces of earthquakes just here (Fig. 1). All these facts make it highly likely that the tale of the Fenris Wolf owes its origin to actual natural phenomena; that is high-magnitude earthquakes in the Late Holocene (Fig. 1) and their associated effects (faulting, fracturing, shaking, liquefaction, tsunamis).

Conclusions

Until a few decades ago, we had no idea of the high frequency of de-amplitude earthquakes that struck Sweden in deglacial time. Therefore, no one had thought of the possibility that the tale of the Fenris Wolf could refer to actual earthquake events. With the novel findings of a high magnitude palaeoseismic activity in postglacial time including several high-magnitude events in the Late Holocene, it seems likely that the tale of the Fenris Wolf, in fact, provides a good description of palaeoseismic events in the past. This is further supported by a number of place names referring to sounds and fractured rock.

References

GRANT, J. 2003. An introduction to Viking Mythology. Quantum Publishing, Ltd.

LAGERBÄCK, R. 1979. Neotectonic structures in northern Sweden. Geologiska Frreningens i Stockhohn

Förhandlingar, 100, 263-269.

MÖRNER, N.-A. 1985. Paleoseismicity and geodynamics in Sweden. Tectonophysics, 117, 139-153.

MÖRNER, N.-A. 1994. The Fenris wolf and Swedish paleoseismicity. Bulletin of the INQUA Neotectonics

Commission, 17, 47.

MÖRNER, N.-A. 2003. Paleoseismicit)'of Sweden---a novel paradigm. A contribution to INQUA from its sub-commission on Palaeoseismology, ISBN-91-631-4072-1,320 pp., the P&G unit, Stockholm University.

MÖRNER, N.-A. 2004. Active faults in Fennoscandia, especially Sweden: primary structures and secondary effects. Tectonophysics, 380, 139-157.

MÖRNER, N.-A. 2005. An interpretation and catalogue for paleoseismicity in Sweden. Tectonophysics,

408, 265-307.

MÖRNER, N.-A. & STRANDBERG, S. 2003. Sjrnamnet Hjälmaren i geologisk belysning. Ortnamnssiillskapets i Uppsala Arsskrift, 79-82.

Oppidum of Bibracte

 

 

Plan of the fortifications of the oppidum of Bibracte. The grey area represents land over 700 m in elevation.

Bibracte was a Gaulish oppidum which, according to Julius Caesar’s De Bello Gallico (‘Gallic War’) 1.23, was the capital of the Gaulish tribe known as the Aedui. It is located on Mont-Beuvray near Autun in Burgundy (south-east France). The oppidum covers 2 km2 and extends over three summits which overlook the central part of the Morvan mountains. Its prominent position dominating its landscape must have been even more impressive in antiquity since the mountain top would have been bare and enclosed by massive ramparts.

Many of the gates of Bibracte were constructed primarily for processional purposes, in which function was subordinate to appearance. For example, the northeastern gate, now called porte du rebout (gate of the limb), is the largest example of a gate in any Celtic oppidum yet excavated.

Bibracte was subdivided into several areas or quarters given over to specific activities and social classes. The quarters in the north-east and south-west were reserved for artisans and commerce respectively. The central residential quarter contained many elaborate houses partly imitating the Roman urban house-type with a central open area (atrium) and a garden enclosed by a small colonnade (peristyle; the so-called parc aux chevaux). Each quarter seems to have had a cult site or a temple (see map).

The artisans’ quarters show evidence of elaborate metallurgy, including gold, bronze, and iron working, as well as enamel production. The internal street-plan was comparatively regular in so far as the lay of the land allowed. It was dominated by a south-to-west axis, centred on a convex basin, whose orientation towards the summer and winter solstice implies a cult significance.

The ritual precincts were located in the south (la terrasse, the terrace), the north-west (le teureau de la roche, hill of the rock) and the north-east (le teureau de la wivre, hill of the serpent; these are dialect words: teureau, as theurot, from Gaulish *turra ‘hill’, and wivre, as vouivre, from Latin vipera, Old French vuivre ‘serpent’, cf. Welsh gwiber). In these locations the ritual area have been sited by prominent rocks, which seem to have played a part in the cult. At the site of the terasse a small chapel was built in the Middle Ages.

Three wells were located within the fortified perimeter of Bibracte, and there is evidence for ritual depositions in them, which implies the presence of the commonly occurring Celtic cult of spring deities. Pre-Roman coinage was found inside the walls. Bibracte was a mint, and a coin mould for casting 25 blanks was found on the site (Allen, Coins of the Ancient Celts 34). The name DUMNORIX, which is mentioned in Caesar’s De Bello Gallico, and possibly his portrait, has been found on one of the coins from Bibracte. In Roman times, the population of Bibracte relocated to the newly founded town of Augustodūnum, present-day Autun. The name Bibracte has been explained as a Celtic collective in –axtā based on the root bibr- ‘beaver’, hence ‘place of beavers’ (Lambert, La langue gauloise 59, 188– 9). Modern Mont-Beuvray continues the ancient name.

Aberffraw

 

 

Aberffraw was the royal site of the kings of Gwynedd from the 7th century (or perhaps earlier) until 1282. It is situated in the south-west of the island of Anglesey (Môn) on the estuary of the river Ffraw. Aber ‘river-mouth’ (< Celtic *ad-ber-) is common in place-names in Brittany (Breizh) and Scotland (Alba)—in what used to be the country of the Picts— as well as elsewhere in Wales (Cymru). Today, the name (locally pronounced Berffro) designates a village, the bay onto which the estuary opens, and the bay’s protected ‘heritage coastline’. The population of the community of Aberffraw according to the 2001 Census was 1293, of which 876 inhabitants over the age of 3 could speak Welsh (69.2%).  

Archaeology and History

Excavations carried out in 1973 and 1974 were interpreted as a Roman fort of the later 1st century, with refortification in the 5th or 6th century. Anglesey was first invaded by the Romans under Paulinus in ad 60, as described by Tacitus. However, it could not be immediately garrisoned, owing to the military disaster of the revolt of Boud¼ca. Therefore, the Roman fort probably dates to the subsequent activities of Agricola, who was Roman Britain’s governor in the period c. ad 78–85. The post-Roman re-defence may reflect the arrival at the site of the court of Gwynedd’s first dynasty, who claimed descent from the 5th-century hero Cunedda (Wledig) fab Edern. These early strata were heavily overlain by remains of medieval occupation attributable to the court of Gwynedd. That the site was already a royal centre in the 7th century is further indicated by the Latin commemorative inscription to king Cadfan (who died c. 625) at the nearby church at Llangadwaladr: CATAMANUS REX SAPIENTISIMUS OPINATISIMUS OMNIUM REGUM ‘Cadfan wisest and most renowned of all kings’. The church itself bears the name of Cadfan’s grandson Cadwaladr (†664), who also succeeded as king of Gwynedd.

Aberffraw remained a principal seat or the principal seat for Gwynedd’s ‘second dynasty’, which came to power with the accession of Merfyn Frych in 825.

Balbridie, Kincardineshire

A timber hall was built at Balbridie sometime around 3,600 BC. Of similar construction to buildings found on the Continent, Balbridie was around 26m long by 13m and may have accommodated upwards of thirty people. The reconstruction gives some idea of how the timber hall may have appeared. Located by the banks of the River Dee, the site was near to a variety of natural resources and on good arable soil. Such sites are rarely found in Scotland and represent a self-supporting farmstead. Balbridie was destroyed by fire sometime before 3,250 BC.

MINING, QUARRYING, AND SALT MAKING IN EUROPE

Eneolithic mines shafts with access platforms on Rudna Glava mine.

Early Neolithic mine on a hill top near Majdanpek dating to about 5000 BCE and one of the earliest known copper mines. It was researched between 1968 and 1989. It was excavated as part of the "Old Mining and Metallurgy of the Central Balkan" project, led by Borislav Jovanovic (Archeological Institute SANU) and Ilija Jankovic (Museum of Mining and Metallurgy in Bor). The ore was pulled out during spring or summer months, and prepared for processing and taken away toward surrounding villages and beyond.

BY MICHAEL J. O’NEAL

The extraction of stone, ores, and minerals was an important complement to the farming economy of ancient European peoples. Early farmers mined flint for their tools at sites like Grimes Graves in England, Spiennes in Belgium, and Kremenets in what is now Ukraine, where the high quality flint was extracted from veins several feet below the surface. They also quarried outcrops of stone like amphibolite to grind into stone axes. The best-quality flint and stone would be traded over long distances. When the early farmers of northern and western Europe began to build large stone tombs and monuments called megaliths, either they used stones that were lying about the landscape, or they quarried stones and transported them over substantial distances. The bluestones that form the innermost circles of standing stones at Stonehenge came from the Preseli Mountains in Wales, 155 miles away.

Beginning around 5000 b.c.e. metals began to be used first for the manufacture of ornaments and then for tools. The earliest metal to be mined and used extensively in the production of tools, household implements, and other goods was copper. Early copper mines from the fifth and fourth millennia b.c.e. are found at places such as Aibunar in Bulgaria and Rudna Glava in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Subsequently, copper sources were located in other parts of Europe, such as in Liguria in northwestern Italy and at Mount Gabriel in southwestern Ireland.

Copper tools were better than the stone tools of the earlier Stone Age because copper can be hammered and molded into many different shapes. Copper, however, is a relatively soft metal with limited usefulness. Early in the fourth millennium b.c.e. metalworkers discovered that they could toughen copper by mixing it with tin. The resulting alloy, bronze, gave its name to the Bronze Age, which extended roughly between 2500 and 800 b.c.e. Settlements where bronze played a prominent role in the culture and technology of the community have been found in islands of the Aegean Sea, home to the earliest European civilizations, the Minoans and Mycenaeans, as well as in central Europe, Spain, Britain, and Scandinavia.

While bronze was an advance on copper, it still was less durable and more expensive to make than the metal that supplanted it, iron. While iron came to be used extensively in the Near East, it was not until about 1100 b.c.e. that it found its way to Europe. In discussing European Iron Age cultures, historians and archaeologists refer to two primary periods. The first was the Halstatt Period, named after a town near Salzburg, Austria, where extensive salt-mining operations were conducted beginning about 1000 b.c.e. About 500 years later the La Tène culture developed in modern-day Switzerland. This culture produced an enormous amount of iron, and archaeologists have discovered numerous Iron Age artifacts from this region.

Mining for metals was a backbreaking business. While some metals such as gold could be found in nuggets in sandy soil or in water, the mining of copper and iron was more difficult, because the ore had to be dug out of the earth. First, a deposit had to be found. Ancient mining engineers were oft en able to locate a vein of metal by looking for stains in rock formations, riverbeds, and even in the water itself. Copper oxidizes (combines with oxygen) to form a greenish hue, while iron oxidizes to form brownish-red rust. Once a site had been located, workers dug shaft s with picks and shovels. The shafts were generally not very deep, perhaps about 30 feet, but deeper mines—some as deep as 300 feet—have been found.

Bronze Age miners then used stone hammers to break up the rock, but they also used picks and levers made from hardwood or antler. Archaeologists have discovered many hundreds of broken stone hammers at ancient mining sites, and the large number of such tools suggests that a separate group of men were on hand to make and repair tools; otherwise, the miners would not have been able to carry on their work. Another technique that ancient miners used was to heat the rock by building large fires against it. The heating and cooling cracked the rock, oft en to a thickness of a foot, making it easier to break it into pieces and haul it to the surface.

Iron Age mining was not radically different. Again, shafts were dug using picks and shovels. The ore was broken up with hammers and then carried in sacks up ladders to the surface, where it was further broken down, washed (that is, the ore separated from smaller bits of rock and sand), and made ready for smelting. Large cisterns of water were kept on hand for the washing process.

An important activity in ancient Europe was the mining of salt. Salt was a valuable commodity, for it was used in the preservation of food; it was so valuable that ancient Roman soldiers were oft en paid with salt, the origin of the modern word salary, and the ancient Greeks readily traded slaves for salt (giving rise to the modern expression that people “are not worth their salt”). A major center of salt production in ancient Europe was the area around Salzburg, Austria and the lakes to the east in a region called Salzkammergut (note the syllable Salz-, the German word for “salt”). Also, many German and Austrian place names contain the syllable hall, the ancient Celtic word for “salt.” This salt was left behind by ancient seawaters that covered the continent before they receded.

When salt occurs in large concentrations and is easily accessible, it can be mined just like any other mineral and carried out of the mine in large blocks, as at Hallstatt, where the miners had special leather backpacks for bringing out the salt. Where it is less concentrated or where groundwater flows through the salt deposits, it can be extracted by an evaporation process. Salt is highly soluble in water, so it can be extracted easily from the ground by dissolving it. Some ancient European salt mines consist of deep shaft s dug into the earth, oft en into mountainsides. After the shafts were dug, ancient salt miners let groundwater do much of the work. Large chambers were opened and then allowed to slowly fill with water, a process that could take up to 15 years. When the chamber was filled with brine, or salty water, it would be pumped out of the mine. At that point, the salty water was placed in large, shallow containers so that the water could evaporate. The salt left behind was fashioned into cakes for transporting. Over the centuries, numerous road systems were built principally for the transportation of salt. The Via Salaria in Italy is a good example.

Aerial photography

An aerial photograph of the Iron Age hill fort at Yarnbury, Wiltshire in England. The remains of an earlier structure show up inside the main ramparts.

The remains of human activity can sometimes be seen from the air, even when they are buried underground. In dry weather crops may grow poorly on thin soil lying over buried buildings and roads. Or crops may grow unusually well in the deep soil that is the result of long-forgotten pits and ditches being filled in over the years. Either of these effects can reveal signs of ancient settlements when they are photographed from the air.

Restoration?

Conservators don't usually restore objects unless it is essential. Some objects, however, do need to be repaired or restored, particularly if they are to go on display in a museum. Pots are sometimes rebuilt and holes in damaged cloth may be repaired. But any restoration should be visible - at least to the trained eye - and it should also be reversible. The importance of this became apparent with the remains of a helmet recovered from the excavation of an Anglo-Saxon burial mound at Sutton Hoo, England. The helmet was originally reconstructed a decade after its discovery in 1939. However, ideas about what the helmet originally looked like changed over the years, and in 1968 the helmet was taken apart and reconstructed again - but this time it looked quite different!