SACRIFICIAL BOG OFFERINGS IN GERMANIC AND NORSE TRADITION

Throughout ancient northern Europe, wetlands served as sacred portals between the human world and the divine. Germanic peoples – including those of Scandinavia – often deposited weapons and other valuables in bogs, fens, and lakes as offerings during pre-Christian times. This ritual practice spanned many centuries, from the Bronze Age through the Iron Age and into the Viking Age, evolving in form and frequency over time.

Archaeological finds of swords, spears, armor, jewelry, tools and even animal remains (some human sacrifices too, but only some on that here more on that for a different blog) in waterlogged contexts attest to a widespread custom of votive deposition in wetlands. These bog offerings are richly evocative, hinting at mythic beliefs – perhaps gifts to gods or spirits dwelling in water – even as their exact purpose remains debated. Here, we examine the evidence for weapon and item deposits in bogs by Germanic and Scandinavian heathens, from the aftermath of the Teutoburg Forest battle through the Viking era and consider scholarly interpretations of this striking ritual practice.

War Booty Sacrifices of the Roman Iron Age

In the early centuries C.E., large-scale depositions of war booty in wetlands reached their peak. After battles, victorious Germanic warlords and tribes would ritually destroy captured weapons and equipment and sink them into bogs or lakes as offerings to the gods. Classical writers even recorded this practice. The 5th-century historian Orosius describes how Germanic victors mutilated and discarded all spoils of war in a “ritual of curses” – shredding clothing, chopping up breastplates, and even hanging captives from trees – so that nothing of the defeated would be reused by victor or vanquished. This dramatic account aligns with the archaeological record: at least 20 bog sites in Denmark alone have yielded enormous quantities of Iron Age weapons, often deliberately bent, broken, or burnt prior to deposition. The scale of these sacrifices is astonishing.

For example, at Illerup Ådal in Jutland – one of some 25 known weapon-sacrifice sites in Denmark and southern Sweden – excavations uncovered over 15,000 items (weapons, shields, belts, scabbards, tools, personal effects) deposited in a former lake, apparently the captured equipment of a defeated army thrown in soon after a battle.

Dendrochronology (dating by tree rings/growth) at Illerup dates one major deposit to ca. 205 AD, and coins found there suggest the vanquished force had been active in the Roman Empire just years before. The Illerup cache alone contained hundreds of spears and shield bosses (organized by rank, from 350 iron up to a handful of silver-gilt examples), plus exotic items like imported combs of reindeer antler and even four horses and a cow – all sunk into the peat as a grand oblation. Other famous bog finds echo this pattern: the Thorsberg Moor in northern Germany yielded Roman armor pieces, weapons and even clothing deposited between 100 BC and 500 AD, while Vimose and Ejsbøl bogs in Denmark and Skedemosse in Sweden likewise held piles of sacrificed weapons and gear from the Roman Iron Age. Notably, these armaments were often damaged ritually – swords twisted, spearheads bent – “killing” the objects before offering them. In most cases human remains are sparse or absent, suggesting the rite focused on objects (and perhaps animal sacrifices) rather than live captives.

One exceptional site at Alken Enge in Denmark, however, reveals a more macabre scene: here an entire beaten army’s worth of bones (hundreds of warriors’ remains) were dumped into a small lake around the 1st century AD, mixed with weapons – a mass sacrifice that shocked researchers for its scale. Bite marks on those bones indicate bodies were exposed to scavengers before consignment to the bog, consistent with ancient reports of Teutonic tribes’ “atrocious” post-battle rites. Indeed, Roman authors like Tacitus recount that Germanic tribes (e.g., the Cherusci under Arminius, victor of Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD) left grim battlefields with bleached bones, severed heads nailed to trees, and altars piled with Roman trophies in thanks to their gods. The Teutoburg victory, which annihilated three Roman legions, likely inaugurated such a battlefield sanctuary: later Roman expeditions found that the Germans had regularly revisited the sacred site where the battle took place. In the wake of Teutoburg, and other victories over Rome, the tradition of sacrificing war spoils in bogs only intensified across the Germanic world.

Archaeologists surmise these war-booty offerings were “peace offerings” to the gods, thanking them for victory and ensuring divine favor. By discarding all plunder – even precious swords or iron mail shirts – the victors demonstrated piety and perhaps prevented the defeated spirits from reclaiming their arms. As one recent discovery illustrates, such sacrifices were dramatic gestures of power: a rare iron chainmail coat found in a Danish wetland (one of only 14 known) must have belonged to an elite warrior, yet it was cast away as an offering, an “enormous show of wealth and devotion” by whoever commanded its sacrifice. Bogs, with their misty waters and preservative peat, thus became time capsules of these Iron Age rituals – preserving for us the weapons Germanic heathens consigned to the gods over 1,500 years ago.

The Tribe visited Teutoburg, and the Museum located there. Arminius' victory against Rome would make him a great Germanic Heathen Chieftain. Rome tried a few military expeditions into Germania after that, but the Battle of Teutoburg Forest marked the end of any permanent Roman plans for the conquest of Central and Northern Germania.

We have honored our Germanic blood ancestors (for some of us) and ancestors of our heathen faith for all of us who follow the Old Gods and Old Ways by performing Blots in their honor.

Shifting Practices in the Migration Era (5th–7th Centuries)

Around the 5th century AD, the nature of wetland depositions began to change. The great weapon sacrifices waned after the end of the Roman era conflicts. Scholars note a sharp reduction in large war-booty offerings by the late 400s, likely tied to broader social shifts. As Germanic societies transitioned into the Migration Period, tribal armies gave way to more settled kingdoms, and the new warrior aristocracy celebrated victory in feasting halls rather than bogs. The rise of powerful chieftains and centralized cult sites may have drawn ritual activity away from liminal wetlands and into built environments. Terry Gunnell, for example, theorizes that water goddesses and bog rituals lost prominence as Odinic warrior cults (emphasizing hall-glory and Valhalla) ascended in this period. With fewer large inter-tribal wars or a preference to keep spoils as symbols of status, fewer caches of destroyed weapons were offered to the lakes. Wetland offerings did not disappear entirely, however. In the 5th and 6th centuries, people instead deposited personal valuables at water’s edge: notably ornamental brooches (fibulae) and gold bracteate medallions have been found in Scandinavian bogs from this time.

These delicate objects – often associated with elite fashion or amulets – suggest a more individual or small-scale form of devotion, perhaps asking for prosperity or protection. At the famous site of Skedemosse on Öland, which spans the late pre-Roman into Migration era, archaeologists found horse and cattle skeletons as well as weapons offered in the bog, indicating that animal sacrifice accompanied the deposition of high-status items around the 3rd–5th centuries. Meanwhile, on the continent, certain sacred lakes continued to be used: the Oberdorla bog in Thuringia (central Germany) shows an unbroken ritual tradition from the Iron Age into the Merovingian era (7th–8th c. AD). In such places, despite the upheavals of the Volkerwanderung, the old habit of “feeding” wetlands with offerings endured, even as the treasure types deposited evolved. By the late 6th–7th century, with much of Europe officially Christian, authorities began to condemn any remaining pagan water-worship. Laws like the Frankish Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae (772 AD) and later Anglo-Saxon canons specifically banned sacrifices at “trees, groves, and waters”, implying that clandestine bog offerings or well offerings were still occurring and had to be stamped out. This suppression pushed the practice underground for a time. Yet, as we shall see, the lure of the mystic mire resurged with new vigor in the Viking Age.

Viking Age Revival of Wetland Offerings (8th–11th Centuries)

With the dawn of the Viking Age (late 8th century), Scandinavians not only raided across Europe but also revived certain rituals, including the casting of weapons and wealth into water. Archaeological evidence shows that from c. 700s until the 10th century, depositions of weapons, coins, jewelry, and tools in wetlands became frequent again. Unlike the Roman Iron Age caches, these Viking Age deposits were smaller in scale, often single weapons, or a handful of items at a time, and they occurred at various locations – frequently near bridges, fords, and river crossings rather than in remote bogs. This pattern suggests the offerings may have been tied to travel, trade routes, or local cult sites accessible to communities. For instance, many Viking-era swords have been recovered from English rivers – presumably left by Norse settlers or Anglo-Saxon heathens continuing the custom. Notable finds include a finely decorated 10th-century sword from the River Witham in Lincolnshire and the inscribed Seax of Beagnoth (9th c.) from the River Thames, both likely ritual deposits In Scandinavia, a rich example is Lake Tissø in Denmark: a Viking chief’s residence stood by this lake, and a wooden bridge led to a small island. Around the bridge and crossing point, numerous weapons were found in the water, along with two unusual graves – indicating the locale’s sacred character in the late Viking period. Wetland offerings accompanied the Vikings abroad as well. The Norse who settled in Ireland, Francia, and Rus carried their rites with them.

A striking account comes from the Byzantine Emperor and observer Constantine Porphyrogenitus, who wrote that the Rus’ (Swedish Viking traders in 10th-century Ukraine) would sacrifice at a river-island shrine, casting offerings into the Dnieper’s waters. Indeed, a number of Scandinavian swords found in Eastern Europe may correspond to this practice. Even more bizarre is the report of the 10th-century Muslim diplomat Ibrahim ibn Yaqub al Tartushi that the Norse in Hedeby would dispose of unwanted infants by drowning them at sea – a dubious claim, but one that underscores how water rituals loomed large in the medieval imagination. Back in England, the convergence of Norse and Anglo-Saxon traditions saw continued offerings in rivers. It is possible that famous legendary motifs, like the Lady of the Lake receiving King Arthur’s sword, echo a real custom of casting blades into water as a final dedication. One well-documented case is the Skerne Bridge deposit near Driffield, Yorkshire: excavations in the River Hull beneath an old wooden bridge uncovered a Viking sword (ca. tenth century) still in its scabbard, accompanied by four knives, a woodworking adze, a drill bit, and complete skeletons of a horse, cow, sheep and dog. The assemblage suggests a deliberate offering rather than an accident; a prestigious sword of this quality would hardly be “lost” casually, and the inclusion of domestic animal remains hints at a ritual slaughter and deposit at the site. Scholars think the sword was ceremonially thrown from the jetty into the river as a gift to the gods, perhaps to sanctify the bridge or thank divine powers for safe passage. The Skerne find is not isolated – similar Viking-era deposits of weapons in water have been noted across the British Isles and Scandinavia. In fact, this resurgence of wetland offerings in the Viking Age is so marked that some speak of a “revival” of Bronze and Iron Age rites.

By the 10th–11th centuries, however, the encroachment of Christianity finally brought these traditions to an end. Laws by kings like Cnut the Great explicitly forbade “heathen worship at springs, stones or trees” (Cap. Anglo-Sax. 1020). As conversion progressed, the mystical significance of bogs and lakes dimmed, or was reinterpreted – holy wells were re-dedicated to saints, and church baptisms sanctified water in a new way. Yet, tellingly, even in medieval Christian poetry, wetlands remained eerie, liminal spaces haunted by supernatural beings (as in the Old English Beowulf, where the monster Grendel’s mother dwells in a sinister mere). Such imagery may be a cultural memory of the ancient bog sacrifices, recast as demonic in a Christian world.

Mythic Meaning and Interpretations

Why did Germanic and Nordic heathens consign precious weapons, treasure, and lives to the murky depths? The precise purposes of these wetland depositions remain partly mysterious since the people who performed them left no written explanation. Nevertheless, historians and archaeologists have advanced several interpretations. The most prevalent view is that these were religious offerings – sacrifices to gods or spirits, made in hopes of securing favor or giving thanks. Wet places evoked the presence of divine powers: the earth-mother Nerthus, for example, was worshipped in a sacred grove by a lake, and after her rites the attending slaves were drowned in the waters as a sacrifice. Tacitus, who recounts this Nerthus ritual, illustrates how water and sacrifice were intimately linked in Germanic cosmology. It is conceivable that weapons thrown into bogs were meant for deities such as Týr or Odin, divine patrons of war.

In the Norse sagas, warriors would sometimes dedicate a battle to Odin by hurling a spear towards the enemy – symbolically over the enemy host – symbolically “giving” the foes to the god. The mass deposition of captured spears and swords after victory may have been a grand extension of this idea: the spoils of war delivered into the gods’ realm. Rivers and bogs could be seen as gateways to the otherworld, where offerings might reach divine recipients. Indeed, in Norse mythology, certain rivers are explicitly named for weapons – for example, Geirvimul (“spear-flood”) and Slíðr (“dangerously sharp”) are said to run with spears and swords in their currents, imagery that uncannily recalls real-world bog deposits. Such mythic echoes suggest the practice of water offerings had deep symbolic resonance. Another angle is socio-political: sacrificing war booty was a statement of power and piety. By destroying enemy weapons instead of keeping them, chieftains demonstrated that their victory was total and that they relied on divine providence, not just material gain. The ritual also served to neutralize the weapons – both physically and spiritually. Bent and sunk in a bog, a sword could never arm a foe again; it was “given back” to the earth. This might have been important in an age where weapons carried not just physical might but also symbolic mana. Many wetlands with offerings lie at border zones between tribes, perhaps functioning as neutral sacred ground. For example, the concentration of bog finds in southern Jutland (modern Denmark/Germany border) might reflect that frontier’s contested, sacred character in the Iron Age.

The “battlefield sanctuary” at Teutoburg Forest similarly became a site of pilgrimage and remembrance for Germanic confederates, reinforcing unity through ritual in a liminal space marked by victory. Finally, we must consider the psychological-spiritual dimension. Wetlands are neither land nor water, but something in-between – liminal places that naturally invite a sense of the uncanny. Plunging treasured items into a bottomless bog could signify sending gifts to the ancestral spirits or local landvættir (land spirits), believed to reside in the waters. The great longevity of this practice – from the Bronze Age sun-chariot found in a Danish peat bog to Viking swords in English rivers – speaks to a continuity of sacred imagination. Even as particular gods and societal structures changed, the intuition endured that “the water’s edge” is a numinous threshold. Some objects found in bogs might also relate to funerary or cultic retirements: for instance, an old sword cast into a fen as its owner died, or a cult image disposed of during conversion. At the site of Lunda (“grove”) in Sweden, though on dry land, archaeologists found a hilltop where from the 2nd century BC to the Viking Age people repeatedly deposited beads, knives, arrowheads and other items in the soil – perhaps the remains of rituals in a sacred grove. Such practices hint that offerings need not always be in bogs, but wetlands were particularly favored because of their preservative and hidden nature, literally submerging the gift in the earth’s womb. In sum, the mythic touch of these bog deposits lies in viewing them as a dialogue with the unseen. Whether it was the Allfather Odin receiving the gleaming swords of slain enemies, or the mother Earth and watery spirits accepting tribute for continued fertility and peace, the act of deposition was richly symbolic.

An old Norse poem names a marshy river “Óðinn’s joy,” perhaps alluding to the fallen weapons and warriors that such a god of war might receive in sacrifice. And at Frösö in Sweden, the very last temple site yielded a ring of animal bones around a birch tree – an image straight from myth, evoking the world-tree and sacrifices to ensure cosmic renewal. Though the Germanic heathens are long gone, the offerings they sunk in their misty bogs allow us a glimpse into their spiritual world: one where iron and gold, fire and blood were given over to mud and water, in hopes that the gods would bless them in return.

Conclusion

The practice of placing weapons and other items in bogs and wetlands was a deep-rooted ritual in Germanic and Scandinavian pre-Christian religion, persisting in various forms for over a millennium. From the aftermath of Rome’s defeat in the Teutoburg Forest, through the tribal wars of the Iron Age, to the far-flung Viking raids, warriors paid homage to their gods by relinquishing the fruits of victory back to nature. Wetland sacrifices encompassed not only weapons and armor, but also tools, ornaments, coins, animal remains, and occasionally human lives – all consigned to the sacred dark waters. These bog deposits, preserved by the unique chemistry of peat, speak to us across ages. They tell of a worldview in which no triumph was complete without an act of ritual generosity to the divine, and in which the boundary between the mundane and the supernatural was often drawn at the water’s edge. While much about this practice remains enigmatic – the precise rites, the prayers uttered as swords sank beneath the marsh – archaeology and surviving texts allow us to piece together a narrative. The Germanic heathens saw wetlands as holy places to appease, thank, and commune with their gods. As Christianity spread and “heathen” customs were outlawed, the tradition gradually died out, leaving only legends and scattered hints in medieval literature. Yet the bog finds are undeniable in their testimony. In their eerie silence, rows of spears and shattered shields buried in boggy graves still speak of Odin’s ancient sacrifices and a people’s devotion.

Modern excavations continue to unearth new examples – sometimes even in unexpected contexts – reminding us how integral this practice was to Germanic and Norse spiritual life. In balancing historical, archaeological, and mythological perspectives, we gain a fuller appreciation of these sacrificial wetland deposits. They were at once religious offerings, political statements, and mythic performances. Ultimately, the weapons in the bog embody the union of violence and veneration in Germanic/Norse culture: what was won by the sword could be made sacred by the swamp. And in those dark waters, the legacy of the heathen forebears lies waiting, half-buried and half-remembered, for us to discover anew.

In the Early and Middle Neolithic, funnel beakers, such as those depicted here, were deposited in Scandinavian wetlands.

Sun Wheel Chariot– an incredible piece that may have been offered do the water.  The Sun Chariot was discovered in September 1902 when the former Trundholm Mose bog in northwestern Zealand was plowed for the first time. Dating back to the Early Bronze Age, around 1400 BC, this remarkable artifact reflects Nordic craftsmanship, evident in the intricate spiral ornamentation adorning the golden sun disc. The Sun Chariot embodies the ancient belief that the sun was carried across the sky by a divine horse. To emphasize the concept of motion, both the sun disk and the horse were mounted on wheels, symbolizing the sun’s perpetual journey through the heavens.

The Gundestrup Cauldron is a prominent example of a deposit from the Pre-Roman Iron Age.  The Gundestrup cauldron is made in a Celtic style and constructed of silver.  In 1891, it was discovered in pieces in a peat bog near Gundestrup, Denmark.  It dates to the period roughly 200 BC to 300 AD and is the largest known silver piece from the Iron Age in Europe.  The silver Gundestrup cauldron is in Copenhagen and displayed at the National Museum of Denmark. 

Footnotes (Sources):

Paul Orosius, Historiarum Adversum Paganos (c. 417 AD), cited in National Museum of Denmark, “Weapon deposits in the Iron Age.”

Old Norse Religion – Wikipedia (section “Deposition”), summarizing research by Anders Andrén and Julie Lund on wetland offerings in Scandinavia

Wetlands and Islands in Germanic Paganism – Wikipedia (2023) which compiles scholarly findings on ritual depositions from the Nordic Bronze Age through Viking Age.

Roman Iron Age Weapon Deposits – Wikipedia, detailing bog finds like Illerup Ådal, Hjortspring, Nydam, Thorsberg, etc., with context on war-booty sacrifices (200–500 AD).

Forte, Oram, & Pedersen (2005), Viking Empires, p. 18 (via Illerup Ådal page)– noting 15,000+ items at Illerup and interpretation as enemy gear offered to the gods.

ScienceNordic – I. B. Petersen, “An entire army sacrificed in a bog” (Aug 22, 2012). Report on the Alken Enge excavations in Denmark, which uncovered remains of 1st-century “Teutonic” warriors and weapons in a bog, confirming ancient accounts of mass sacrifice.

The History Blog, “Huge Iron Age weapons sacrifice found in Denmark” (Dec 3, 2024). Describes a 5th-century weapons deposit (119 spears, swords, chainmail, etc.) at Løsning, and notes most large Iron Age weapon sacrifices are found in bogs.

Hull Museums, Skerne Sword (object description. Provides details of a Viking-era sword and associated animal bones retrieved from the River Hull, interpreted as a ritual offering.

Tacitus, Annals I.61 (trans. A. Church) – Germanicus’s account of Teutoburg Forest (quoted in The Guardian, 29 Jan 2024). Vivid description of the battlefield with sacrificial scenes (heads nailed to trees, etc.).

H.R. Ellis Davidson, Gods and Myths of Northern Europe (Penguin, 1964), pp. 96–101. (Background reference on sacrificial sites and offerings to Odin and Tyr, not directly quoted above, but foundational to interpretation of bog finds in mythic context.)