Álfablót

The álfablót (or the Elven sacrifice) is a pagan Scandinavian sacrifice to the elves towards the end of autumn, when the crops had been harvested and the animals were most fat. Unlike the great blóts at Uppsala and Mære, the álfablót was a local celebration at the homesteads that was mainly administered by the woman of the household. Nothing is known about the particular rites because they were surrounded by secrecy and strangers were not welcome to the homesteads during the celebrations. However, since the elves were collective powers with a close connection to ancestors and fertility, it is possible that the álfablót concerned ancestor worship and the life force of the family. It also appears that Odin was implied and that the master of the household was called Ǫlvir when administering the rites. The first element of Ǫlvir means "beer", which was an important element in Norse pagan sacrifices generally.

There is a notable account of the ceremony in Austrfararvísur by the Norwegian skald Sigvatr Þórðarson, where he tried to impose on the privacy of a series of homes during the sacred family holiday, a privacy that he was accordingly asked to respect.

Austrfararvísur

In his skaldic poem Austrfararvísur, the Christian Norwegian skald Sigvatr Þórðarson gave a first hand account of his less than agreeable encounter with the holiday in Sweden. Sigvatr and his companions had been sent on a diplomatic mission to Skara in Västergötland and were to meet jarl Ragnvald Ulfsson, but they had not arrived at the destination yet and had to find night quarters.

After an arduous journey, Sigvatr and his companions arrived at a homestead called Hof, which probably is modern Stora Hov, near Edsvära in Västergötland.