Blood brother


Blood brother can refer to two or more people not related by birth who have sworn loyalty to each other. This is in modern times usually done in a ceremony, known as a blood oath, where each person makes a small cut, usually on a finger, hand, or the forearm, and then the two cuts are pressed together and bound, the symbolism being that each person's blood now flows in the other participant's veins.
The act carries a risk due to blood-borne diseases. The process usually provides a participant with a heightened symbolic sense of attachment with the other participant.

Cultures

Germanic

The Norsemen entering the pact of foster brotherhood involved a rite in which they let their blood flow while they ducked underneath an arch formed by a strip of turf propped up by a spear or spears. An example is described in Gísla saga. In Fóstbræðra saga, the bond of Thorgeir Havarsson and Thormod Bersason is sealed by such ritual as well, the ritual being called a leikr.
Örvar-Oddr's saga contains another notable account of blood brotherhood. Örvar-Oddr, after fighting the renowned Swedish warrior Hjalmar to a draw, entered a foster brotherhood with him by the turf-raising ritual. Afterwards, the strand of turf was put back during oaths and incantations.
In the mythology of Northern Europe, Gunther and Högni became the blood brothers of Sigurd when he married their sister Gudrun. In Wagner's opera Götterdämmerung, the concluding part of his Ring Cycle, the same occurs between Gunther and Wagner's version of Sigurd, Siegfried, which is marked by the "Blood Brotherhood Leitmotiv". Additionally, it is briefly stated in Lokasenna that Odin and Loki are blood brothers.

Scythia

Among the Scythians, the covenantors would allow their blood to drip into a cup; the blood was subsequently mixed with wine and drunk by both participants. Every man was limited to having three blood brotherhoods at any time lest his loyalties be distrusted. As a consequence, blood brotherhood was highly sought after and often preceded by a lengthy period of affiliation and friendship. The
4th-century BC depictions of two Scythian warriors drinking from a single drinking horn have been associated with the Scythian oath of blood brotherhood.
The Hungarian hajduks had a similar ceremony, but the wine was often replaced with milk so that the blood would be more visible.

East Asia

In Asian cultures, the act and the ceremony of becoming blood brothers is generally seen as a tribal relationship for bringing about alliance between tribes. It was practiced for that reason most notably by the Mongols, Turkic and early Chinese.
In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the Chinese classical literature, the three main characters took an oath of blood brother, the Oath of the Peach Garden, by sacrificing a black ox and a white horse and by swearing faith. Other blood oaths involving animal sacrifice were characteristic of rebel groups, such as the uprising led by Deng Maoqi in the 1440s, of criminal organizations, such as the triads or the pirates of Lin Daoqian, and other East Asians such as the Mongols and the Manchu. Genghis Khan had an anda called Jamukha. The term also exist in Old Turkic: ant ičmek, derived from the "ancient test by poison". The Turkic term, if it's not a loanword in Middle Mongol, is related to Mongol anda.

Philippines

In the Philippines, blood compacts were ancient rituals that were intended to seal a friendship or treaty or to validate an agreement. They were described in the records of the early Spanish and Portuguese explorers to the islands. The most well-known version of the ritual from the Visayan people involves mixing a drop of blood from both parties into a single cup of wine that is then drunk. Other versions also exist, like in Palawan which describes a ritual involving making a cut on the chest and then daubing the blood on the tongue and forehead.

Sub-Saharan Africa

The blood oath was used in much the same fashion as has already been described in much of Sub-Saharan Africa. The British colonial administrator Lord Lugard is famous for having become blood brothers with numerous African chiefs as part of his political policy in Africa. A powerful blood brother was the Kikuyu chieftain Waiyaki Wa Hinga. David Livingstone wrote of a similar practice called 'Kasendi'.

Eastern Europe

Blood brothers among larger groups were common in ancient Eastern Europe, where, for example, whole companies of soldiers would become one family through the ceremony. It was perhaps most prevalent in the Balkans during the Ottoman era, as it helped the oppressed people to fight the enemy more effectively. Blood brotherhoods were common in what is today Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Slovakia, and Czech Republic. Christianity also recognized sworn brotherhood in a ceremony, which was known as, in the Eastern Orthodox Churches and as in the Catholic Church. The tradition of intertwining arms and drinking wine is also believed to be a representation of becoming blood brothers.

Famous blood brothers

Historical