Start spreading the Runes,
I’m Heathen today.
I’m gonna make a brand new start of it,
The old New Norse

Forgive me for beginning this thread with a joke, but I was just reading the Introductions thread and just as I noticed that many new members are Heathen the song popped into my head and the words kind of morphed without any effort.

Of course this led me to a bout of self questioning: Am I being clever or ignorant? Am I making fun of a group of people I admittedly don’t know much about or just being funny? I don’t want to insult anyone by making light of their religious practice; in writing those lyrics I profess both an ignorance about and desire to learn about Heathenry.

At home, I have an old bargain bin hardcover book of Mythology covering Norse, Celt and Greek myths: I could accurately say that other than what I’ve learned online this past year here, on barbelith, and the Somefera thread, that book contains all I know about the Norse Gods. (Unless you count Thor comic books…)

I have been fortunate in my online interactions to have met people patient enough to dispel my many myths, illusions, and misunderstanding about magic and Religion: Writing back and forth with someone like Gypsy Lantern about Voudoo is much better than forming ones opinions based on a mishmash of “Live & Let Die”, “The Serpent & the Rainbow”, “The Invisibles” and some Maya Deren. (Even if it was noticeably painful for GL at times…)

And now I realize how much I really don’t know about Heathenry and am entirely certain to put my foot deep in my mouth at some point in my interactions here.

Hence the thread: I’m sure I’m not the only one who isn’t sure if there’s a difference between Odin and Wodan. What Sagas form the Canon of Heathenry? How and when and why does one contact an Ancestor, Wight, Hero or God? What duties do the Gods have? How does one begin their practice? How important are Runes?

I am full of teh ignorance and hope that this thread can shed some light onto a subject that is increasingly present on the board.

So the actual writing down of Norse mythology around 1200 is therefore roughly contemporary (plus/minus 100 years) with the writing down of Irish mythology and Welsh (British) mythology?


I am interested in the historical aspects. In AD 902, native Irish briefly expelled the Norse from their settlement at Dublin. This led to a wave of Norse settlement around the Irish Sea - for example Ingimundr occupied the area around Chester in north west England. There was further settlement in Cumbria and in Galloway/ south west Scotland where I live. There is lots of place-name evidence for Hiberno-Norse - Gaelic speaking Norse folk - settlement in Galloway. Between about 1120 and 1234 Galloway was ruled as an independent kingdom by a Hiberno-Norse dynasty.

A rather mysterious artefact from the Norse period is the Kilmorie Cross which is now in Kirkcolm churchyard in the Rhinns of Galloway (Wigtownshire). It is is dated to the 9th/10th century. There is a crude crucifixion scene on one side and a Norse pagan scene on the other (see below) showing a figure flanked by birds and pincers which may be a scene from the Sigurd legend/ Volsunga saga. [But that is just guess by an expert on Galloway's pre-Norman sculptured stones]


 

freektemple:Am I making fun of a group of people I admittedly don’t know much about or just being funny? I don’t want to insult anyone by making light of their religious practice; in writing those lyrics I profess both an ignorance about and desire to learn about Heathenry.

Neither we nor our gods are that thin-skinned.

that book contains all I know about the Norse Gods. (Unless you count Thor comic books…)

Please don't.

Hence the thread: I’m sure I’m not the only one who isn’t sure if there’s a difference between Odin and Wodan.

Well, in addition to the points already raised about history and ethnicity, I'll give you a religious one. Some heathens try to see one or the other as the "real" god, and the other as a corruption. Others (the majority I believe), see Woden and Odhinn more as both the same and different. I believe the Catholics have a term for this: hypostasis, right? Different aspects of the same god, as it were. The share a minni (memory, instincts, subconscious nature) but their hugrs (minds, egos, conscious natures) are a little different.

Along these lines, many heathens feel that Odin is an hypostasis that is modern, and distinct from both Woden and Odhinn. The face the god largely wears today.

What Sagas form the Canon of Heathenry?

The answer depends on your philosphy. If you're some kind of strict recon, then you'll often limit your sources to one particular place and time. If you're an adaptive recon, you'll tend to think that even if you pool all that every culture and time had, we still have next to nothing, so getting a mishmash of that sort will likely get you closer to _a_ heathen faith than the strict recon approach will. While strict recons tend to make more public noise, I believe that adaptive recons are actually more numerous.

How and when and why does one contact an Ancestor, Wight, Hero or God?

Winternights and Yule are appropriate for all of the above. Any time you need help or guidance is good. Any time of thanksgiving is good.

How? A blot and sumbel are traditional. A blot is a ritual blessing by being sprinkled with blood, though modern heathens tend to use wine as a substitute. Having a farmer friend, I have done it with blood when slaughtering time was at hand (done for food, but ritually blessed), and with wine also. I tend to cut myself and let my own blood mix with wine, as a sort of "best compromise". A sumbel is the basic core of any heathen ritual. It involves sitting or standing in a circle, often around a fire, and passing a horn of mead, wine, beer, or something like that. With each quaff a god or ancestor or somesuch is hailed. The community effort towards religious awe and respect combined with the socializing effects of alcohol and its lowering of mental barriers puts one into a receptive state where real religious contact can more easily occur. Alcohol is the traditional entheogen of the vikings.

What duties do the Gods have?

Each one has different duties. Thor is a protector. Odin tends to teach. The whole list is FAR too large to get into here.

How does one begin their practice?

Get to know them first. Read. Talk to their people. Pray, or at least meditate. You'll start getting a sense of it, and of what you can/should do.

How important are Runes?

Depends. As a divinitory aid? That's not really a stricly religious practice, though it had some place in some rituals. But they seem likely to have also been a teaching tool, a path of spiritual development. As such they capture, in part, the ancient heathen soul, and can be a VERY valuable tool for personal development. Though hardly a mandatory one.

Hope this helped.

I'm not going to do the hand-you-a-reading-list thing, though ultimately if you do go down this road it comes with a long FUCKTON of homework. Don't worry, if you get into heathenry in a big way you'll get all geeky about it and want to read 'em anyway. I will tell you though that it's a good idea to get into the primary sources first, and start reading So-And-So's Guide To Modern Heathenry after you've done that. Start with the Eddas, then get a couple of sagas under your belt, then go on to Saxo.

I'd also recommend approaching your ancestors before you really bother too much with the Gods, unless Someone out there is poking you specifically. People often neglect that part, or get into it in a very superficial way, when in fact the ancestors and the land-spirits should be at the heart of heathen life.

A couple of net resources I like:

Sacred Texts' Icelandic section has some good reading to get you started.

Northvegr.org has more in-depth stuff, including texts in PDF format and language resources if you're feelin adventurous.

What I would say is though that this gear is very much experiential. Nobody can teach you how to be a "proper" heathen. You have to find your own way. You have to study the lore, sure, you have to get immersed in the culture that gave birth to those Gods and those faiths. But every heathen needs to build their own heathenry, appropriate to the time, place and circumstances that they find themselves in. You won't really find Thor in the Eddas so much as you will find Him in a hard day's work, in the protection of someone less strong than yourself. You won't find Odin between the pages of a devotional text so much as you will find Him in the act of going outside the garth and taking risks for wisdom, in training yourself in sorcery and divination for the good of the tribe.

BBC has an interesting little thing on an academic conference that just happened in Scotland.

Of special interest are a couple mentions of Norse concepts of gods... and concepts of the act of reconstruction:

The University of Aberdeen's Centre for Scandinavian Studies is hosting the two-day event from Thursday.

It is thought it could change the understanding of gods, including Thor the god of thunder, and goddesses.

Prof Stefan Brink, chair in Scandinavian Studies at Aberdeen, said:
...
"It is mainly thanks to archaeology, new information and especially new ideas have arisen, such as Viking burial rituals which suggests the Vikings had no defined religion, but instead made up a set of spiritual beliefs, which were then acted out at the grave."

He explained: "All these new evidences and reinterpretations taken together forces us to rewrite our history of this past. "

It depends on which culture, honestly. In Iceland? There is definitely plenty still there, and Asatru is strong in Iceland for this reason.

In the other cases... it depends on how you *define* culture. It's very easy to see how Germanic, Scandinavian, and Anglo-Saxon culture then begat the cultures we have today. The question is, what still applies, what would apply if revived, and what is best left resting.

--Ember--