What is Reddit's opinion of Lady with a Mead Cup: Ritual, prophecy and lordship in the European warband from La Tene to the Viking Age?

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It seems the Germans may have borrowed the concept of the warband (comitatus, in Latin) from the Celts.

There is also a theory that the Cult of Wodan is a Germanic reworking of the cult of Mercuy-Lug from Romanzied Celtic areas.

For details, see: https://www.amazon.com/Lady-Mead-Cup-prophecy-lordship/dp/1846824281

In antiquity the water supply was in some places risky to drink because of parasites and harmful bacteria. Alcoholic beverages by their nature kill off most parasites so it was healthier to drink than water. Or they just preferred the taste over the water.
So you have to also understand drink in that culture was perceived of very differently then ours, in part due to necessity of alcoholic beverages.

The Havamal teaches moderation.

I've escorted people out of the hall/circle who drank too much during our sacred gatherings, and I've seen others do the same. Drink is tied very much to some of our sacred iconography and rituals, and we see in the law codes, there were requirements for mead or other alcoholic beverage to be on hand for certain rites.
When we drink from the ritual cup/horn in ritual the drink ties back to not only the mead of poetry, but also to when Odin drinks from Mimir's well, and thus the world tree. We also see with Idunn's heiti/kennings ties to drink. When we drink in ritual we drink from the well of memory, that ties to the tree, all 9 worlds and thus the gods and other powers and even our dead. You don;t drink to drink, and people failing to comprehend that are missing the point. Like a catholic doesn't take the eucharist (communion wine and wafer) without understanding the meaning in their religion.

Media has a tendency to show the vikings as pillaging marauders, in part this is a holdover from prejudices against them from the days of the Roman Empire and how those attitudes permeated 'classical' studies, that held up Greco-Roman society as extra special and Germanic people as barbarians. Classical studies that influenced Shakespeare and every great scholar unto more modern times.

One of the better portrayals is in Lord of the Rings trilogy, one of the scenes that shows a gathering at Edoras. We see Eowyn, as the lady with a mead cup (modeled off Wealtheow in Beowulf) gives the cup to King Theoden, who in turn addresses the hall. Everyone has a drink, but they're still serious. Then business dealt with it becomes social hour, and while folks are having a good time, you don't see drunken buffonery. There's some jokes made at the expense of the non human races (legolas can barely feel any affect from the drink, Gimli belches, and hobbits sing about the green dragon while dancing on the table), but while the Rohirrim are merry during the social hour they're not buffoons. Tolkien very much modeled them off of the Germanic tribes.

One of Idunn's heiti/kennings is ásu leikum, which points to her role as hostess, and hints at her connection to entertainers. We see in the archaeological record some rites were accompanied by dancing and probably acrobatics, and were accompanied by music too from Kivik's King Grave, to the Oseberg Ship Burial to discoveries in Grevensvænge. So there would of been some level of joyful noise, of entertainment at some point. It's probably why Idunn's husband is a poet (Bragi), tied to inspired speech during ritual and with it music too. Idunn has names of öl-Gefnar (ale goddess) and veiga selja (server of drinks). A further tease that helps echo the connection between Idunna and Bragi that finally in turn ties to customs embodied within the apple tree wassail. (Explored in an interesting blog I stumbled across here).

Heimskringla, Gulaþing Law tells us it was a component requirement for at least some rites to have the drink available. We know mead was a legal code requirement for weddings in some areas too.
The drink was sacred, assholish behavior from the drink isn't to be tolerated.

BUT, I'd say it's more important for you to connect with the gods and goddesses, then overly worry about drink. I've seen rites where kindreds adapted their services so that while alcohol was given to the gods, to support sobriety of a member everyone in the group drank something non alcoholic instead (though in the later case you definitely don't want a communal cup/horn, as the alcohol helps to sterilize some items from a shared drink).

Also Valhalla is but one of numerous places where the dead go. Freya gets some of the battle slain, Thor plays host to some in his hall, Gefion, and Ran play host to others, and there's more places the dead may go, or be hosted by. Generally speaking Hollywood promotes the barbarian savage ungentlemanly caricature and doesn't bother to learn nuance or multiplicity but goes with the most well known tropes.

> Lady with a Mead cup

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