Salehrung
Salehrung is the ritual act of spirit worship among the Jolnir peoples. It is the act of honoring and communing with those spirits the Jolnir hold in high esteem and depend upon to some degree. The Jolnir are unique among the people of Torvalen in that they worship spirits of all three origins, Elanic, Exotic and Telluric. These spirits are the Aetir, Gottir and Vultir, respectively.
Aetir SalehrungThe aetir are the spirits of the ancestors. Generally the Jolnir worship the ancestors of their departed immediate relatives, particularly parents and grandparents, as well as the spirits of heroes of their tribes or clans.
Worship of the family spirits is performed in the home, at the family altar, where small wooden carvings of the ancestors are kept. There they are given drink and food, placed in their offering bowls.
These offerings are consumed by the spirits during the late night, particularly when they are not long deceased. Over years, offerings begin to be left unconsumed more often as the spirits of the dead become less attached to the world and eventually leave completely for parts unknown.
Usually this occurs after the loved ones of the deceased also pass away, particularly children and grandchildren. After seven days without a dedicated offering being accepted, the wooden image is burned in a parting ceremony and given to the wind.
Gottir SalehrungThe worship of the gottir is similar to that of the aetir and involves a altar with images and offering bowl. However, the gottir home altar is kept in a separate alcove of the home, with partitions to separate it, if only woven reeds or sheets if it is a poor home.
Offerings are made on days devoted to the particular gottun or gottyan. Great offerings are made communally at special times, such as harvests, plantings, hunts and the commencements of wars or other perilous or difficult projects. Which gottir are regularly offered Salehrung depends on the tribe and circumstances, though it is not uncommon for multiple gottir to be offered salehrung during the same ceremony.
Offerings to the gottir consist of mead, beer, dyrmolk or blood. They are usually readily taken up, gone within an hour. It is considered bad luck for an offering to take longer than a few hours to be consumed and very bad luck for it to be rejected. In such cases, Jolnir would consult a servant of the gottir to find out what their transgression was and how to make atonement.
Vultir SalehrungVultir are the telluric spirits of the land, air and sea. They are not great spirits, like Kad or Ehuatlaltipac, but small, local spirits. Offerings are made to them by Jolnir with whom they share a relationship of long association.
Salehrung of the vultir happens in the dwelling place of the particular vulting shown reverence. Vultir are not made offerings however. Jolnir perform salehrung for them by protecting and maintaining the place that is their being (river, field, cave, spring, seasonal wind, etc.) as well as entering a communion trance with them, saldraum. This allows the vultir to view themselves and their surroundings from the perspective of the worshipper, an experience most vultir crave.
Vultir who are abandoned by mortals or long denied saldraum will sometimes take it for themselves, possessing sleeping travelers who are too foolish to have created a salgjerd around their campsite to guard against such intrusions.
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