--- Piya Tan <libris@...> skrev:

> Ah, Visby: it brings back fond childhood memories,
> when I pasted a large pictures stamp of the walled
> city of Visby in my picture book.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visby !

> I read that Visby comes from the Viking "vi" meaning
> sacrifice

Old Norse "vi" means "place of sacrifice"; "by" meant
"town" (so still in Gotlandic, Danish and Norwegian;
in modern Swedish, however, "by" means "village" and
"stad" means "town").

> what did they sacrifice, Gunnar?

I think the ancient Scandinavian "blót" was quite
similar to the Vedic yajña (Pali yañña), although
there was no priestly caste; se also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bl%C3%B3t ! (The picture,
however, is a romantic vision of doubtful historical
validity).

The cult definitively wasn't Buddhistic, but the
details may have varied from place to place. Anything
we know about it is fragmentarian, and concerns only
the public worship; the private cult was strictly
secret.

The Gotlandic Saga says: "blotaþu þair synnum oc
dydrum sinum Oc fileþi. miþ matj oc mundgati", which I
think means that "they sacrificed their sons and
daughters, and cattle, with food and drink". This
text, however, is written by Christians some centuries
later, so it's doubtful whether children were actually
sacrificed.

Ethical considerations apart, I'm not certain they
could have afforded it.

Gunnar