Circular flow of tradition in Old Norse religion

This paper discusses processes that drove the ability of pre-Christian religion in Scandinavia to vary and adapt to shifting conditions and contexts in society. They also helped to keep religion cohesive over both social and geographical boundaries and hierarchies. Based on a substantially reduced and contextually modified variant of McKim Marriott's description of the changeability of religious traditions as a constantly on-going circular flow, I tentatively exemplify the dynamism of religion in the Late Iron Age through three case studies. The first of these concerns the relationship between local, regional and supra-regional deities; the second addresses the axis mundi complex and the relationship between private and public worship; and the third examines the exchange of mortuary practices and eschatological religious traditions across social boundaries. All these cases also illustrate the ability of religious elements to spread geographically, and in doing so adapt to varying sociocultural contexts. Such processes took place in all contexts where people interacted. The sociocultural foundations of religion can in this sense be compared to a multitude of overlapping, interacting, changeable networks of social and cultural relationships. The characteristics that kept religion dynamic and alive were flexibility and an ability to adapt to this sociocultural patchwork. Religion was part of culture, and just like culture, it was shaped by the constant circular flow of tradition.