Skaldi Worship

The Skaldi worship a whole pantheon of Gods, from Perkuna, the god of storms, to the Goddess of fire, Vella to the Moon mother, Niamh. A small, scarcely organized, priesthood leads the worship of these gods. Few of these priests, however, have any sort of mystical power. They are primarily educated peasants, praised more for their storytelling than their abilities to bring divine favor. There’s something stoic and worldly about Skaldi belief practices. As one Skaldi joke has it: we made a deal with the Gods. They leave us alone, if we leave them alone.

The exceptions to this are the Seidheri; they are highly educated and they do command some mystical abilities. But these abilities are due more to intense magical training and learning than any sign of divine favor. The Seidheri don’t make a big issue of this fact, nor do they keep it a secret. Seidheri are necessary for civic functions, not merely interceding with divine forces, or leading temples. The ancestors of the Skaldi tribes were animists and ancestor worshippers. The Skaldi never abandoned their ideas about the afterlife.

The Skaldi priests do not talk of an eternity in the presence of the gods. The Skaldi tribes speak of an afterlife where all a soul’s loved ones wait to greet them, or a place of gentle breezes and easy hunting. Skaldi visions of the afterlife are heavily influenced by the realities of their lives. The Skaldi afterlife is like a Skaldi man’s time on earth, only easier and better. What brings joy and ease in this life is the stuff of the Skaldi afterlife.

#4300 Cyradon, page 102