Why the Archaeology Cannot Settle It

Rings of silver and gold are among the most abundant finds from Viking Age Scandinavia. Arm rings, neck rings and finger rings turn up in hoards, in graves and in single deposits, and they served as ornament, as portable wealth cut into pieces for payment, and as gifts that bound a follower to a lord. That abundance is exactly why the archaeology cannot confirm the cult ring. An arm ring recovered from the ground carries no information about what was sworn on it. Unless a ring is found in a context that is unambiguously a place of assembly or sacrifice, and unless that context can be distinguished from a hall or a farm, the object is silent on the question.

The wider debate it sits inside is about whether the Norse had dedicated temple buildings at all. Excavation at several Scandinavian sites has produced structures interpreted as cult buildings, and the interpretations are argued over case by case. The sagas describe a hof with a platform, a ring and a bowl; sceptical historians have long held that this is a Christian author imagining a pagan church. The oath ring survives that scepticism better than most of the furniture, because of the Chronicle entry, which is one reason to keep it as a separate record rather than folding it into a general description of Norse sacrifice.