by Doug Freyburger

Doug Freyburger was one of the most prolific theological voices in alt.religion.asatru's first decade. Known to readers of the group as both a practitioner and a systematizer — the compiler of the Hávamál commentary that became a touchstone of American Heathenry — he posted this essay in April 2005 in response to a thread asking what settings in nature connected practitioners to their religion. But the essay is older: it preserves a document he wrote in 1997, during a year he spent studying under Ull.

Ull (also Ullr, Old English Wuldor) is one of the lesser-documented Norse deities — son of Sif, stepson of Thor, master archer and skier, patron of oaths and sacred single combat. He sat the High Seat for ten years while Odin was exiled for shape-shifting into a woman. His name appears as a kenning for "shield." Beyond these scraps, the Lore falls silent. Ull is, in Freyburger's phrase, the Silent Hunter.

The essay is a record of what Freyburger drew from that silence: a theology of presence, attention, and urban ecology. The silent god of the wilderness becomes, for a Chicago practitioner, a reminder that wildness persists inside cities — in the coyotes no one hears, in the sage growing in ecological niches, in the geese that honk at night. Ull teaches by not speaking. The lesson cannot be put into a book. It takes a year to absorb.

The sounds at night. Doesn't matter where. In the mountains at night I've listened to the bats and the branches. Here in Chicago I've listened to the geese and the coyotes (lot's of folks don't think there are any coyotes here, I guess they don't know what one sounds like).

In this I explicitly include the sounds of human animals. Highway rumble, train horns in the distance, the rush of jets far above.

Back in 1997 when I still lived in Los Angeles I wrote about what I'd learned when I spent a year listening to Ull. May as well paste it here:

Hailsa good Folk and True!

Several folk have asked me to write up the lessons I learned when I studied under Ull.

One of the Gods I studied under for a year in my first decade in Asatru was Ull. Unlike Odhinn and Loki, what I learned does not fill books. After all, the Silent Hunter would hardly lead to such. After focusing on ethics and the NNV studying under Odhinn, Tyr, and Thor, I was in need of a different topic. Ull supplied it well.

The Lore of Ull in "the usual suspects" is scant. Below is a summary of the Lore with a couple of my own additions to it.

Among the Aesir, Ull is the son of Sif, and a step-son of Thor. His name means "shining" or "glorious." His one surviving story, according to Saxo, was to sit Hjaldstafr, the High Seat, for ten years when Odhinn was cast out temporarily for becoming a woman to bear a child to avenge Balder. Ull's annual duty, according to MY own lore, is that, being the most recent holder of the High Seat other than Odhinn, he is kept on reserve status for that duty, and is called on to sit the duty during the twelve days of Yule when Odhinn is out on the Wild Hunt. I have a song from the 1996 CE Yule sumbel that claims he isn't really interested in the task and is glad when it is over every year.

On Midgard, Ull's favored environment is the mountains and the forests. He is often reported to be in the company of Skadhi there, and it is not known whether they are a couple, or just like to hang out in the same neighborhoods. He is the ultimate archer, skier, and skater. His name is used as a kenning for shield, which I will discuss below. He is known as a sorcerer because he carves runes into bones to fashion them into his skates, with which he can skate over ice or over water like a self-propelled water-skier.

Among us humans, Ull has two main duties and a corollary of those two. He administers oaths. This is not a unique duty among the Gods since Var, Thor and some others do this as well. He also witnesses duels and judges and determines the outcome of sacred single combat duels. The specific oaths Ull administers are civic or official ones, as evidenced that when it was proposed that officers of the Ring of Troth should swear an oath of loyalty to the organization, it was phrased as an oath to Wuldor, a version of the name Ull. The corollary of these two duties, adding in Ull's status as the greatest of all hunters, is to hunt down and kill those who lie in court, or as witnesses at Thing trials. This corollary is MY OWN idea, and not to be found in the Lore.

So much for the Lore, which took up the first couple of days of my studies for the year, and on to my own work and conclusions.

On a practical note, why would the name of a SKIER be a kenning for a SHIELD? Broaden your meaning of skiing, and think of shields at the same time. Then think of kids. Sure enough, I believe that the use of Ull's name as a kenning for shield is from sleds and toboggans. Anyone for starting to call those "flying saucer" sleds "Ull's gifts"?

When it comes to ethics, Ull has a blessedly simple approach. He watches over sacred single combat duels, judges as to which combatant is in the right, and grants them victory. The rules he leaves to Tyr, and long-term issues he leaves to Odhinn.

Ull's most important lesson to me is his silence and his love of the woods, though. We claim that Asatru is an earth-oriented pagan religion, but I live in the big city and rarely venture from my urban haunts. I can hear sirens and traffic as I sit here typing, and Ull's presence in the wilds is vital to have an experiential knowledge of Asatru as an earth-oriented religion. Ull is the silent spokesman for the Landvaettir and for environmentalism in Asatru. As a city dweller, I need to keep Ull in my heart.

In the woods with my father when I was a kid, when we were out of sight of any of the signs of humanity, he would remark "THIS is God's country," and sit on a stump to enjoy the experience. We would sit and enjoy listening to the wind in the trees, and he would point out any animals that would come by. That is the gist of Ull's lesson, neither complex nor verbal.

Shut up and listen. Be mindful of all that happens around you. Take that mindfulness back with you when you return to the city. Ull's critters are there as well, but it takes extra attention to find them. Where I live, we have possums, raccoons, skunks, coyotes, lizards, and an assortment of wild birds that are Ull's charges from the wild that have found ecological niches in this city. We have sage and assorted herbs; aloe, cactus and assorted succulents; manzanita, live-oak, and assorted trees that are Ull's charges from the wild that have found ecological niches in this city.

Ull's wild ones are there in our cities if we pay close enough attention. So too is Ull's silence in our hearts if we pay close enough attention, as it is in the woods. Ull's arrows fly quietly to the heart of his prey, and he carries that silence at the core of our hearts. Ull's skis carry him quietly across the snow, ice, and water, and he does it quietly and mindfully. This is what Ull taught me, and what took the full year to learn.

Hail Asgard!

Colophon

Written by Doug Freyburger, originally in 1997 and posted to alt.religion.asatru on April 1, 2005. Freyburger was a longtime practitioner and community figure in American Asatru; his Hávamál commentary and theological writings were among the most widely read original works in the newsgroup's first decade. This essay preserves his year of study under Ull — a record of how a modern Heathen deepens knowledge of a little-documented deity through deliberate devotional practice and direct observation of the natural world.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: <[email protected]>.

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