Gods and Religion

- What did People Believe in?

At the time of the Tollund Man cremation was usual. Extra large picture. More illustrations. © Niels Bach

Family burial place close to Buskelund, Silkeborg. Big picture

The burial sites show that the people of the Iron Age clearly believed in a life after death but that you had to to on a journey to get there. In order to make the journey easier food and drink were placed in the grave with the dead. If there wasn't enough room in the grave itself an earthenware vessel filled with food was placed next to it.

Other parts of Denmark had different burial customs but they all had one thing in common - the use of cremation was universal at the time of the Tollund Man - except for the small group of people who were sacrificed and placed in the bogs without being cremated.

Livestock was also sacrificed to the gods. Big picture © Lejre Experimental Centre

However, a likely explanation is probably that since these people were given as a sacrifice to the god of the bog, it would be impolite to offer him a pot of burnt bones - no, the god was to have a complete human being as his servant.

Who this god or gods were, we cannot say for certain, but the existence of bog bodies in Denmark shows that they appear in the areas where people used to dig for peat in the Iron age. Therefore it is not unreasonable to imagine that these sacrifices are actual sacrifices of thanks to the god made in return for the peat that was dug from the god's bog.

Maybe rituals were carried out to honour the gods. Big picture © Lejre Experimental Centre

We have many other pieces of evidence of the bog being a sacred place - we have found carriages, ships, earthenware vessels, and even immensely valuable silver vats such as Gundestrupkarret, which have been placed in or given to the bog.

It was a very common practice to sacrifice earthenware vessels containing food to the gods. But they also sacrificed livestock or certain parts of the animals. Maybe they held parties and carried out specific rituals to honour the gods during which the others parts of the animals were eaten.

Iconic figures found south of the border between Denmark and Germany. Big picture

A couple of wood figures might be able to tell us what the gods looked like. Next to some heaps of stone a couple of human looking figures from the time of the Tollund Man were discovered.

In other places similar wood figures, roughly cut to look like humans, have been discovered. They had been placed on low rockeries. On and along the rockery earthenware vessels, probably containing food, had been sacrificed.

In Broddenbjerg Bog located close to Viborg in Central Jutland, a wood figure, which reveals that the gods could also be used as symbols of fertility, has been discovered under similar circumstances.

If you were at war, then all the objects you captured were thrown into a bog where you believed that the god of war lived. In this bog everything was sacrificed - including weapons, ships, personal equipment, yes, even the horses which had carried you. If the gods weren't given what you had captured, then you ran the risk of losing the next war.