Blót

Blót (Old Norse neuter) was a Norse pagan sacrifice to the Norse gods, the spirits of the land, and maybe even someone's ancestors. The sacrifice often took the form of a sacramental meal or feast. Related religious practices were performed by other Germanic peoples, such as the pagan Anglo-Saxons. The blót element of horse sacrifice is found throughout Indo-European traditions, including the Indian, Celtic and Latin traditions.

The word blót (Icelandic and Faroese: blót) is the Old Norse and Old English representative of the Proto-Germanic noun *blōtą "sacrifice, worship". Connected to this is the Proto-Germanic strong verb **blōtaną with descendants in Gothic blōtan, Old Norse blóta, Old English blōtan and Old High German bluozan, all of which mean "to sacrifice, offer, worship". The word also appears in the compound *ƀlōta-hūsan (attested in Old Norse blót-hús "house of worship" and Old High German bluoz-hūz "temple"). With a different nominative affix, the same stem is found in the Proto-Germanic noun *blōstrą "sacrifice" (attested in Gothic *blostr in guþ-blostreis "worshipper of God" and Old High German bluostar "offering, sacrifice"). This stem is thought to be connected to the Proto-Germanic verb *ƀlōanan "to blow, bloom, blossom", as are the words for "blood" (Proto-Germanic *ƀlōđan) and "bloom" (Proto-Germanic *ƀlōmōn). Sophus Bugge was the first to suggest a connection between blót and the Latin flamen (< *flădmen), and both words can be traced back to the Proto-Indo-European stem *bhlād- "to bubble forth; to mumble, murmur, blather".

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