alt.religion.asatru

Pages

  • A Year Under Ull — On the Silent Hunter and the LandvaettirDoug Freyburger's account of a year spent studying Ull — the silent Norse deity of hunting, winter, and oaths — and the theological lessons learned about mindfulness, ecology, and Heathen practice in the modern city.
  • Anglo-Saxon Heathendom and Icelandic Asatru — A Comparison and ContrastA scholarly essay comparing the gods, wights, festivals, and governance of Anglo-Saxon Heathendom and Icelandic Asatru, tracing shared roots and divergences across two branches of Germanic religion.
  • Celestial Vanir — The Genealogies of the GodsWilliam P. Reaves presents the Icelandic Asatruar Hrafn Áttarsson's 'Genealogies of the Gods,' distinguishing Terrestrial Vanir (Njord, Freyr, Freyja) from Celestial Vanir (Sol, Mani, Heimdall, Elves as stars), with Reaves' extended commentary identifying Heimdall with Dag and the Elves with the starry host.
  • Heathen Elements in BeowulfA scholarly essay by William P. Reaves identifying Norse mythological parallels in the Old English poem Beowulf, arguing for the primacy of heathen narrative themes beneath its Christian veneer.
  • Humanistic Heathenry — A Secular Framework for Northern European PracticeThe founding position paper of the Association of Secular Humanistic Heathenry (ASHH), proposing a naturalistic, non-theistic engagement with Norse and Germanic ancestral practice.
  • Introduction to alt.religion.asatruA scholarly introduction to the alt.religion.asatru Usenet newsgroup (2003–2014), one of the principal English-language online gathering places for practitioners of Asatru and Norse heathenry during the formative decades of the modern movement.
  • Kennings in the Plot of BeowulfDoug Freyburger's reading of Beowulf's monster fights as extended kennings for armies and political strategy — an argument that the epic encodes historical military reality, and that the dragon symbolizes aging.
  • Mythic Chronology — On the Temporal Structure of Norse MythologyScholarly essay by Norse mythology researcher William P. Reaves arguing that the Eddic poems contain temporal clues enabling reconstruction of a coherent chronological sequence of mythic events, from the creation of Draupnir to the chaining of Loki.
  • Rites in Sod and StoneDoug Freyburger's meditation on how a weekend of manual stonework became an unplanned blót — the moment a Heathen stops performing the tales and starts living them.
  • The Hávamál — A Heathen CommentaryDoug Freyburger's stanza-by-stanza commentary on the Hávamál, written to alt.religion.asatru from September 2005 to May 2006, interpreting the Norse wisdom poem through the lens of a living Ásatrú practitioner.
  • The Sleeping Castle of Germanic LegendScholarly essay tracing the Norse myth of sleeping heroes — Mimir's sons, the sons of Nidi in Sólarljóð, and Sindri-Dvalinn — through Völuspá, Saxo Grammaticus, Adam of Bremen, and Scandinavian folk tradition.
  • The Sons of Borr — Odin-Vidrir, Lodur-Vili, and Hoenir-VeA scholarly essay by William P. Reaves arguing that Vili and Ve, the brothers of Odin, are identical with Hoenir and Lodur of the Völuspá, applying comparative mythological analysis to Eddic sources.
  • Thor and the Elves — The Way-Station on the Road to JotunheimA scholarly essay by William P. Reaves tracing the relationship between Thor and the elf-prince Egil through Hymiskviða, Völundarkviða, and Skáldskaparmál, arguing that Egil's home served as Thor's way-station on the road to Jotunheim.
  • To L’anse aux Meadows — A Heathen PilgrimageA Heathen woman's pilgrimage across Canada to L'anse aux Meadows — the site of Leif Erikson's Viking settlement — in June 2005, written to alt.religion.asatru as a first-hand spiritual account.
  • Völuspá 36 — The Giant BrimirScholarly investigation tracing 'Brimir' as a kenning-name for Mimir across multiple Eddic sources — Völuspá, Sigrdrífumál, Grímnismál, and the Prose Edda.
  • Winter Nights at Ormswald — A Blot in the Sacred WoodlandFirst-hand account of a Winter Nights Blot at Ormswald, a private sacred woodland north of London, by Dirk Bruere of the NeoPax Asatru community, October 2003.