When we write our blog posts, they are always signed off with “To all my modern Vikings, live long and stay strong!” But what does it mean to be a “modern” Viking?
When we write our blog posts, they are always signed off with “To all my modern Vikings, live long and stay strong!” But what does it mean to be a “modern” Viking?
Historically, we remember
The Men from the North as being fierce warriors, who wouldn’t bat an eye at writhing body falling under his sword or axe. The Victorian era painted them in a new vision though. There was much less emphasis on plunder and pillaging purely out of ungoverned bloodlust, after the Viking era had drawn to a quiet close.
During that time, the Norse were reimagined as wild yet noble creatures, driven by passion, pride, and honor, more than the lust for blood and breeding… to put it delicately. The Victorian era is also when the ‘noble savage’ gained their horns and became the fondly remembered caricatures we see now as football mascots and dopey comic characters in the Sunday paper. But the real question is why? Why do we remember them? Why is it about Vikings that made them so… Viking? It certainly wasn’t the horned helmets, because that shiz wasn’t even real! (for more Viking myths, click here)
Scandinavians hailed from a Germanic origin, or possibly Proto-Germanic, depending on how you like to sequence your histories. However, the archaeological record and recent comparisons of massive banks of DNA samples from Viking graves tell us that national origin had little, if anything to do with actually
being a Viking either. True Viking burials contained women, men, Norse, and non-Scandinavian bodies, and no, this wasn’t by accident.
Being a Viking, back in the day, meant quite literally
being a Viking. If you did what they did, if you lived as they lived, you were a Viking and you were welcomed among the Norse in life and in death. This was no exclusive brotherhood, so you can just go ahead and forget the racist bigotry you may have seen displayed by idiots like QAnon Samon. There is nothing about that ignorant and obtuse rioter that is even remotely reminiscent of the actual open and accepting culture of the Scandinavians of yore.
One of the truest examples of this is in the believe system of the Vikings, which while odd to many onlookers of the day was as flawed only by its perfect acceptance of all gods and beliefs, as equal to their own. But, before you call Shenanigans on that one, let me qualify the aforementioned with a caveat. The Norse gods were to be respected as equal to all other gods as well… and it was this demand for mutual respect that likely infuriated the deities of other nations and cultures, and only worked to exacerbate social tensions.
Honestly though, looking at the woke AF state of the world, how many religions out there can claim to be accepting of all other systems of beliefs as equal to their own? I bet you’d be hard pressed to find one. But it is this tangential line of reasoning that brings us all the way back round to our first question, “How can someone be a modern Viking?”.
Well, we have ruled out genetics. So, you don’t have to be Scandinavian to be a Viking. We have ruled out gender. So, you don’t have to be male to be a Viking. We’ve ruled out horned helmets, so even though they may be fun to wear, you don’t need one to be a Viking. Even murder and theft can be ruled out as a requirement! You may already know this, but most Norse were farmers, and a large part of the need to venture out over the see was to find new grazing and farming lands for their families and flocks. So, unless you really want to, you don’t have to burn any villages down to be considered a real Viking. Truth is, it’s all about how you live your day-to-day and what you believe. Being a Viking is all about your view of the world and how you chose to live in it.
A while ago, I said that you would be hard pressed to find a religion what could be accepting of others, just as its own, but I didn’t say that there weren’t any. There is one that I know of, but it wasn’t until writing this blog that I really took the time to look into it and really learn about it.
Heathenry! It sounds awesome! It sounds like the official religion of bar fights and loose morals, but is it really? No… no, it isn’t. But to be fair, it may be seen that why by others with less tolerant world views, like those taken by many factions of more mainstream western religions (you know who you are). Before we can really get into the belief system of Heathenry though, we should probably get a foundation of terms out of the way, so we aren’t disappointed by the lack of carnal pleasures laid out by some human-skin bible.
Heathenry comes from the term Heathen. Obviously. And by virtue of English morphology, means “acts which heathens do”. But heathen, while causally used to describe people with no table manners, or a lack of reverence for the pope, was never actually meant to describe those things. “Heathen” itself comes from the word Heath, which doesn’t describe people at all. And no, it doesn’t describe Girl Scout cookies either.
Heath wasn’t a description, it was place. The
heath was the area surrounding the walled or incorporated areas of a city. It was the unincorporated land that still belonged to the lord or vassal of the area, but the governor of the area had exactly ZERO obligation to defend the heath… or those heathens living within it. As you may have guessed by now, “heathen” basically means rural person. They were typically farmers and herdsmen, but without a doubt, they were either immigrants, poor, or poor immigrants. And as we mentioned earlier, they had no protection from the lord, which is probably how and why the term “heathen” began to take on the meanings it has associated with it today.
A heathen would have a hard life working the land, as well as a tax obligation with no promise of defense in the case of attack from a neighboring country. As you can imagine, this may in many cases have caused a bit of a rift between the “proper citizens” and the heathen, granting disrespect for casual authority and piety which wouldn’t stoop low enough to help them, yet relied on their taxes. Heathens had to carve out their own lives, protect their own, believe their own beliefs, and live life according to the seasons. They also had to train for combat, incase raiders attacked their farms, though in the case of the Vikings being the ones doing the raiding, they probably had little hope.
Around the late 900’s though, it was the Vikings themselves who became heathen. Granted land in England, they moved in, tilled, shepherded, grew, married, birthed, lived and died, for generations. That is until the St. Brice’s Day massacre, of course… But we’ve written an entire blog on that already, so no need to go into too much detail on the matter now. If you want to know more about the greatest slaughter in Viking history, click here for the full blog! You may be surprised by what you read. Intrigue, conspiracy, bribes! It has it all.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand. In point of fact, the Vikings weren’t strictly always heathen. They only became heathens after settling in the heaths of England, and it was likely their interbreeding with the local farmers and European immigrants who had also settled outside the city walls, that caused all heathens to earn the same disdain that all Danes in England bore. Now that we have reached the final point of intersect between the Vikings and Heathenry, we can finally start looking at Heathenry as a belief system for the modern Viking!
Heathenry has many names, depending on who is talking about it. Sometimes it is called Heathenism, Forn Sed, Theodism, or Odinism, or in potentially more politically correct terms, it is also sometimes addressed as Contemporary Paganism. As with all religions and belief systems thought, there are divisions of thought and many points of diversion. So, as we will see briefly, the broad name of Heathenry really isn’t sufficient to distinguish exactly what is being practiced, or by whom.
Heathenry in its modern form started around the 70’s, which would make you think it was all about free love and living life, but this isn’t where it actually started. In 1910, Heathenist groups began gaining popularity in Europe, as they sought to glorify pre-Christian religious beliefs and world views. So far so good, but there was that whole Nazi thing going on and supremacist views were all the rage. So, of course pre-war Germany was greedy with its myths and folklore, making it the perfect foundation for racial exclusivity…
thanks Hilter… This is why the rest of the world can’t have nice things!
This trend to be culturally and racially exclusive with pre-Christian Germanic paganism does still exist. Odinism is one such sect, being called a “folkish,” due to its emphasis that Germanic lore belongs only to Germanic peoples, but thankfully Odinism is in the minority as far as the rest of Hethenistic beliefs are concerned.
For the rest of the world who aren’t A-holes, the general animist view of the world holds that everything has a spirit and all humans of all nations are one with nature itself, in one sway with the natural order. It really is a beautiful thought when you get down to it. That all of mankind is just one more animal amidst the trees and rocks and seas, with their own spirits in communion with the universe, under a pantheon of gods and goddesses. Just beautiful! But who cares about the grand scheme, when you could learn the in’s and out’s of the historical basis of the religion?
Heathenry in all its forms is a modern reconstruction of ancient forms of Pre-Christian beliefs, primarily originating form German-speaking nations, but other parts of European folklore are included as well. Old Norse texts and archaeological evidence of ancient feasts and festivals are the best evidences used to determine exactly how, when, and where celebrations, rituals, rites, and of course festivals took place.
Among them are first and foremost, Iceland Epics such as Prose Edda and Poetic Edda, the High German Nibelungenlied, and even Beowulf! Each of these tomes describes life and the beliefs practiced in ancient Norse and Proto-Germanic cultures, along with many others. Basically, the details of each text or archaeological site are taken like puzzle pieces from various points in time and from various perspectives and extrapolated into a more or less complete picture of how Heathenry was practiced in times long forgotten.
However, we must keep in mind that at that point in time, the Vikings were not writing their own history. For the most part, the only literate people who wrote about the practices of the early Scandinavians were Christian outsiders who looked at Pagan practices with disgust. And yes, this does mean that many of the records, such as the letters of bishops, are more than a little poisonous regarding their interpretations of the votive acts of such heathens. And no, we cannot know for certain if we have it all correct. But, like any other religion, Heathenry does take just a bit of faith.
Speaking of faith, no belief system would be complete without priests and priestesses telling you what to believe… or would it? Heathenry does have priests call “godhi” (god-man) and priestesses called “gydhja” (god-woman), but they are not necessary to practice Heathenry. Though they do exist, there is no organized form of Heatheny to bring believers together and instruct them on what to believe and how to believe it. So, some enlightened beings act as priests or priestesses for their own small groups, called “kindreds” or “fellowships,” but the majority of Heathens practice their faith in the gods as individuals. That being said, there are rites and rituals what are integral to the religion, whether practiced solo or in a group.
Blót may sound like an inky accident, but it is actually one of the most integral practices of Heathens. In blót ceremonies, Heathens may meet at an unpopulated area and offer food and drink to the gods. This can be done in several ways, depending on how strictly they persons performing the offering focus on ritual. In many ceremonies, a bowl of mead is laid out and bows of evergreens are used to sprinkle idols and participants with the mead in a sign that all present are partaking in the invocation of the gods. After this is done, the gods are intreated for blessings or favors and the remaining mead is offered into Earth or fire, as a final offering.
As I said though, this isn’t the only way to perform blót. Many Heathens practice their beliefs individually and do not partake in communal ritual. As such, blót can be done similar to the soldier’s symbolic toast to the fallen, by pouring a portion of drink into the fire or onto the ground. For some, blót is performed with food offerings as well as mead. And for others it is a daily practice, taken in remembrance of the gods every time a meal is consumed, thanking them for their blessings and protection.
Sumbel is a similar practice of votive offering of drink, but with a different purpose. Just as the ceremonial blót, sumbel is a group ritual wherein the gods and heroes of old are honored with mead, but there is more to it than that. It isn’t necessarily a ritual for the gods as much as it is a ritual performed in front of the gods. Sumbel is about the oaths forged between Heathens and Heathen fellowships, both old and new.
During sumbel, toasts are made to the gods, tales are told of heroes recent and past, and Heathens are honored publicly in front of all who attend. As you might imagine, such rituals have a great social impact. Public bonds, pacts, and oaths are offered in good cheer in the face of the gods and all the heroes. To perform the bonding ritual, typically a drinking horn is filled with mead and passed between the participants, who either drink straight from the horn or pour it into their own drinking vessel, so that they can drink in unison. According to ancient traditions, sharing from a horn offered in the sight of the gods and ancestors forges a vow which can never be broken.
Heathenry may have gotten its start in the early 1900’s, but its reemergence in the 1970’s was a welcome addition to the world stage. With the exception of a few A-holes, Heathenry sought to revive the inclusive world view that all life was equal in the grand scheme, and that the gods made us all and created a world for us all. Largely practicing animism (the belief that all things have their own spirits), Heathens seek to honor the land and the spirits which dwell within it. They see the rocks, the trees, the sand, and the seas as being living things with as much right to move and breath as the animals and every other living thing in the world.
As you can imagine though, there are various revisions to the fundamental beliefs of Heathenry that are practiced individually or in groups all throughout the world. And each group has its own way of worshiping and honoring the gods, the heroes, and all that lives and breaths. Some have adopted more devout practices of shamanistic trance, called “seiðr” while others have revived the practices of communal singing and chanting, called “galdr”. As strange as it may sound,
seiðr does have its roots pulled straight from Eiriks Saga, from the Icelandic epics, so if you were about to call Shenanigans over Viking shamans… don’t. It really happened.
Galdr, unlike seiðr, doesn’t use rhythmic drumming do induce trance. It actually uses the chanting of runic inscriptions, or “rune poems” to send the entire group into an altered state! During such events, mortals may speak with the gods, visit the nine realms, or practice runic divination to peer into the future. One of the runic poems sometimes used in incantation is the “Nine Herbs Charm”.
Old English:
Gemyne ðu mugƿyrt hƿæt þu ameldodest
Una þu hattest yldost ƿyrta
| Modern English: You, mugwyrt, remember Una you are called, eldest of worts,
|
Now that we’ve seen the freaky, let’s take a moment to remember that the Vikings had their share of fun as well, even when honoring the gods and fallen heroes. As such, festivals are a huge part of Heathenry, just as they were back in the Viking age. Among the most popular are of course Yule, but there may be a few others you might not be so familiar with, such as Winter Nights and Sigrblót. If you want to know more about Yule traditions, thankfully we already have a full blog devoted to just that!
Click here to visit it and learn more about the festive traditions, rituals, and even decorations use by the Vikings to celebrate Yule!
Winters were hard for the Vikings, in their inhospitable environment. Winter was a time when the vail between worlds was thinnest and when they needed the protection of the gods the most. As such, all of these festivals are related to winter in some form or another. Winter nights marked the beginning of winter and the last of fertile soils and green grasses for grazing. It was a time with the curtain of frost was drawing quickly closed around them. Yule, of course, marks the mid-point of winter, the shortest day, and the longest darkest night of the year. Celebrations kept spirits high as they kept ever watchful for rogue spirits and the 1st signs of spring. Sigrblót, as you may be able to guess from “blót” in the holiday’s title, is one of offerings and feasting, and it is this celebration that marks the beginning of summer!
In keeping with the Viking traditions of old, various games are played along with performances and feats of skill and strength to honor the gods. Food is liberally consumed and certainly, mead flows freely! This is because, if you didn’t already know, the Norse gods love a party. Seriously though. It was thought long ago that feasting, drinking, and general merriment actually attracted the gods, and if the gods were present, you had nothing to fear. Therefore, the more difficult the times were, the more there was to be afraid of, the more the Vikings would celebrate, exchanging their fear for mirth, and drawing the gods closer to their sides. Clever guys…
While there was a lot to learn about Heathenry, and while there is still a lot more to learn about it, we covered a lot of ground in this blog. From the origins to the modern day, from the mundane to the fantastic, and from the not-so-nice to the pure and beautiful, we have looked at the spectrum of Heathenry and what it means to Heathens all over the world. Should you go out and join a fellowship in your area? Heck, I don’t know. That’s for you to decide, but as for us, we shall honor all the fallen and all the living, and the rocks and the trees in our own way.
To all my modern Vikings, live long and stay strong!
Cody Dees, Ph.D.
“Resident Viking”
Norse Tradesman
The guess of the wise is truth. -Grettir Saga, c.31
Historically, we remember
The Men from the North as being fierce warriors, who wouldn’t bat an eye at writhing body falling under his sword or axe. The Victorian era painted them in a new vision though. There was much less emphasis on plunder and pillaging purely out of ungoverned bloodlust, after the Viking era had drawn to a quiet close.
During that time, the Norse were reimagined as wild yet noble creatures, driven by passion, pride, and honor, more than the lust for blood and breeding… to put it delicately. The Victorian era is also when the ‘noble savage’ gained their horns and became the fondly remembered caricatures we see now as football mascots and dopey comic characters in the Sunday paper. But the real question is why? Why do we remember them? Why is it about Vikings that made them so… Viking? It certainly wasn’t the horned helmets, because that shiz wasn’t even real! (for more Viking myths, click here)
Scandinavians hailed from a Germanic origin, or possibly Proto-Germanic, depending on how you like to sequence your histories. However, the archaeological record and recent comparisons of massive banks of DNA samples from Viking graves tell us that national origin had little, if anything to do with actually
being a Viking either. True Viking burials contained women, men, Norse, and non-Scandinavian bodies, and no, this wasn’t by accident.
Being a Viking, back in the day, meant quite literally
being a Viking. If you did what they did, if you lived as they lived, you were a Viking and you were welcomed among the Norse in life and in death. This was no exclusive brotherhood, so you can just go ahead and forget the racist bigotry you may have seen displayed by idiots like QAnon Samon. There is nothing about that ignorant and obtuse rioter that is even remotely reminiscent of the actual open and accepting culture of the Scandinavians of yore.
One of the truest examples of this is in the believe system of the Vikings, which while odd to many onlookers of the day was as flawed only by its perfect acceptance of all gods and beliefs, as equal to their own. But, before you call Shenanigans on that one, let me qualify the aforementioned with a caveat. The Norse gods were to be respected as equal to all other gods as well… and it was this demand for mutual respect that likely infuriated the deities of other nations and cultures, and only worked to exacerbate social tensions.
Honestly though, looking at the woke AF state of the world, how many religions out there can claim to be accepting of all other systems of beliefs as equal to their own? I bet you’d be hard pressed to find one. But it is this tangential line of reasoning that brings us all the way back round to our first question, “How can someone be a modern Viking?”.
Well, we have ruled out genetics. So, you don’t have to be Scandinavian to be a Viking. We have ruled out gender. So, you don’t have to be male to be a Viking. We’ve ruled out horned helmets, so even though they may be fun to wear, you don’t need one to be a Viking. Even murder and theft can be ruled out as a requirement! You may already know this, but most Norse were farmers, and a large part of the need to venture out over the see was to find new grazing and farming lands for their families and flocks. So, unless you really want to, you don’t have to burn any villages down to be considered a real Viking. Truth is, it’s all about how you live your day-to-day and what you believe. Being a Viking is all about your view of the world and how you chose to live in it.
A while ago, I said that you would be hard pressed to find a religion what could be accepting of others, just as its own, but I didn’t say that there weren’t any. There is one that I know of, but it wasn’t until writing this blog that I really took the time to look into it and really learn about it.
Heathenry! It sounds awesome! It sounds like the official religion of bar fights and loose morals, but is it really? No… no, it isn’t. But to be fair, it may be seen that why by others with less tolerant world views, like those taken by many factions of more mainstream western religions (you know who you are). Before we can really get into the belief system of Heathenry though, we should probably get a foundation of terms out of the way, so we aren’t disappointed by the lack of carnal pleasures laid out by some human-skin bible.
Heathenry comes from the term Heathen. Obviously. And by virtue of English morphology, means “acts which heathens do”. But heathen, while causally used to describe people with no table manners, or a lack of reverence for the pope, was never actually meant to describe those things. “Heathen” itself comes from the word Heath, which doesn’t describe people at all. And no, it doesn’t describe Girl Scout cookies either.
Heath wasn’t a description, it was place. The
heath was the area surrounding the walled or incorporated areas of a city. It was the unincorporated land that still belonged to the lord or vassal of the area, but the governor of the area had exactly ZERO obligation to defend the heath… or those heathens living within it. As you may have guessed by now, “heathen” basically means rural person. They were typically farmers and herdsmen, but without a doubt, they were either immigrants, poor, or poor immigrants. And as we mentioned earlier, they had no protection from the lord, which is probably how and why the term “heathen” began to take on the meanings it has associated with it today.
A heathen would have a hard life working the land, as well as a tax obligation with no promise of defense in the case of attack from a neighboring country. As you can imagine, this may in many cases have caused a bit of a rift between the “proper citizens” and the heathen, granting disrespect for casual authority and piety which wouldn’t stoop low enough to help them, yet relied on their taxes. Heathens had to carve out their own lives, protect their own, believe their own beliefs, and live life according to the seasons. They also had to train for combat, incase raiders attacked their farms, though in the case of the Vikings being the ones doing the raiding, they probably had little hope.
Around the late 900’s though, it was the Vikings themselves who became heathen. Granted land in England, they moved in, tilled, shepherded, grew, married, birthed, lived and died, for generations. That is until the St. Brice’s Day massacre, of course… But we’ve written an entire blog on that already, so no need to go into too much detail on the matter now. If you want to know more about the greatest slaughter in Viking history, click here for the full blog! You may be surprised by what you read. Intrigue, conspiracy, bribes! It has it all.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand. In point of fact, the Vikings weren’t strictly always heathen. They only became heathens after settling in the heaths of England, and it was likely their interbreeding with the local farmers and European immigrants who had also settled outside the city walls, that caused all heathens to earn the same disdain that all Danes in England bore. Now that we have reached the final point of intersect between the Vikings and Heathenry, we can finally start looking at Heathenry as a belief system for the modern Viking!
Heathenry has many names, depending on who is talking about it. Sometimes it is called Heathenism, Forn Sed, Theodism, or Odinism, or in potentially more politically correct terms, it is also sometimes addressed as Contemporary Paganism. As with all religions and belief systems thought, there are divisions of thought and many points of diversion. So, as we will see briefly, the broad name of Heathenry really isn’t sufficient to distinguish exactly what is being practiced, or by whom.
Heathenry in its modern form started around the 70’s, which would make you think it was all about free love and living life, but this isn’t where it actually started. In 1910, Heathenist groups began gaining popularity in Europe, as they sought to glorify pre-Christian religious beliefs and world views. So far so good, but there was that whole Nazi thing going on and supremacist views were all the rage. So, of course pre-war Germany was greedy with its myths and folklore, making it the perfect foundation for racial exclusivity…
thanks Hilter… This is why the rest of the world can’t have nice things!
This trend to be culturally and racially exclusive with pre-Christian Germanic paganism does still exist. Odinism is one such sect, being called a “folkish,” due to its emphasis that Germanic lore belongs only to Germanic peoples, but thankfully Odinism is in the minority as far as the rest of Hethenistic beliefs are concerned.
For the rest of the world who aren’t A-holes, the general animist view of the world holds that everything has a spirit and all humans of all nations are one with nature itself, in one sway with the natural order. It really is a beautiful thought when you get down to it. That all of mankind is just one more animal amidst the trees and rocks and seas, with their own spirits in communion with the universe, under a pantheon of gods and goddesses. Just beautiful! But who cares about the grand scheme, when you could learn the in’s and out’s of the historical basis of the religion?
Heathenry in all its forms is a modern reconstruction of ancient forms of Pre-Christian beliefs, primarily originating form German-speaking nations, but other parts of European folklore are included as well. Old Norse texts and archaeological evidence of ancient feasts and festivals are the best evidences used to determine exactly how, when, and where celebrations, rituals, rites, and of course festivals took place.
Among them are first and foremost, Iceland Epics such as Prose Edda and Poetic Edda, the High German Nibelungenlied, and even Beowulf! Each of these tomes describes life and the beliefs practiced in ancient Norse and Proto-Germanic cultures, along with many others. Basically, the details of each text or archaeological site are taken like puzzle pieces from various points in time and from various perspectives and extrapolated into a more or less complete picture of how Heathenry was practiced in times long forgotten.
However, we must keep in mind that at that point in time, the Vikings were not writing their own history. For the most part, the only literate people who wrote about the practices of the early Scandinavians were Christian outsiders who looked at Pagan practices with disgust. And yes, this does mean that many of the records, such as the letters of bishops, are more than a little poisonous regarding their interpretations of the votive acts of such heathens. And no, we cannot know for certain if we have it all correct. But, like any other religion, Heathenry does take just a bit of faith.
Speaking of faith, no belief system would be complete without priests and priestesses telling you what to believe… or would it? Heathenry does have priests call “godhi” (god-man) and priestesses called “gydhja” (god-woman), but they are not necessary to practice Heathenry. Though they do exist, there is no organized form of Heatheny to bring believers together and instruct them on what to believe and how to believe it. So, some enlightened beings act as priests or priestesses for their own small groups, called “kindreds” or “fellowships,” but the majority of Heathens practice their faith in the gods as individuals. That being said, there are rites and rituals what are integral to the religion, whether practiced solo or in a group.
Blót may sound like an inky accident, but it is actually one of the most integral practices of Heathens. In blót ceremonies, Heathens may meet at an unpopulated area and offer food and drink to the gods. This can be done in several ways, depending on how strictly they persons performing the offering focus on ritual. In many ceremonies, a bowl of mead is laid out and bows of evergreens are used to sprinkle idols and participants with the mead in a sign that all present are partaking in the invocation of the gods. After this is done, the gods are intreated for blessings or favors and the remaining mead is offered into Earth or fire, as a final offering.
As I said though, this isn’t the only way to perform blót. Many Heathens practice their beliefs individually and do not partake in communal ritual. As such, blót can be done similar to the soldier’s symbolic toast to the fallen, by pouring a portion of drink into the fire or onto the ground. For some, blót is performed with food offerings as well as mead. And for others it is a daily practice, taken in remembrance of the gods every time a meal is consumed, thanking them for their blessings and protection.
Sumbel is a similar practice of votive offering of drink, but with a different purpose. Just as the ceremonial blót, sumbel is a group ritual wherein the gods and heroes of old are honored with mead, but there is more to it than that. It isn’t necessarily a ritual for the gods as much as it is a ritual performed in front of the gods. Sumbel is about the oaths forged between Heathens and Heathen fellowships, both old and new.
During sumbel, toasts are made to the gods, tales are told of heroes recent and past, and Heathens are honored publicly in front of all who attend. As you might imagine, such rituals have a great social impact. Public bonds, pacts, and oaths are offered in good cheer in the face of the gods and all the heroes. To perform the bonding ritual, typically a drinking horn is filled with mead and passed between the participants, who either drink straight from the horn or pour it into their own drinking vessel, so that they can drink in unison. According to ancient traditions, sharing from a horn offered in the sight of the gods and ancestors forges a vow which can never be broken.
Heathenry may have gotten its start in the early 1900’s, but its reemergence in the 1970’s was a welcome addition to the world stage. With the exception of a few A-holes, Heathenry sought to revive the inclusive world view that all life was equal in the grand scheme, and that the gods made us all and created a world for us all. Largely practicing animism (the belief that all things have their own spirits), Heathens seek to honor the land and the spirits which dwell within it. They see the rocks, the trees, the sand, and the seas as being living things with as much right to move and breath as the animals and every other living thing in the world.
As you can imagine though, there are various revisions to the fundamental beliefs of Heathenry that are practiced individually or in groups all throughout the world. And each group has its own way of worshiping and honoring the gods, the heroes, and all that lives and breaths. Some have adopted more devout practices of shamanistic trance, called “seiðr” while others have revived the practices of communal singing and chanting, called “galdr”. As strange as it may sound,
seiðr does have its roots pulled straight from Eiriks Saga, from the Icelandic epics, so if you were about to call Shenanigans over Viking shamans… don’t. It really happened.
Galdr, unlike seiðr, doesn’t use rhythmic drumming do induce trance. It actually uses the chanting of runic inscriptions, or “rune poems” to send the entire group into an altered state! During such events, mortals may speak with the gods, visit the nine realms, or practice runic divination to peer into the future. One of the runic poems sometimes used in incantation is the “Nine Herbs Charm”.
Old English:
Gemyne ðu mugƿyrt hƿæt þu ameldodest
Una þu hattest yldost ƿyrta
| Modern English: You, mugwyrt, remember Una you are called, eldest of worts,
|
Now that we’ve seen the freaky, let’s take a moment to remember that the Vikings had their share of fun as well, even when honoring the gods and fallen heroes. As such, festivals are a huge part of Heathenry, just as they were back in the Viking age. Among the most popular are of course Yule, but there may be a few others you might not be so familiar with, such as Winter Nights and Sigrblót. If you want to know more about Yule traditions, thankfully we already have a full blog devoted to just that!
Click here to visit it and learn more about the festive traditions, rituals, and even decorations use by the Vikings to celebrate Yule!
Winters were hard for the Vikings, in their inhospitable environment. Winter was a time when the vail between worlds was thinnest and when they needed the protection of the gods the most. As such, all of these festivals are related to winter in some form or another. Winter nights marked the beginning of winter and the last of fertile soils and green grasses for grazing. It was a time with the curtain of frost was drawing quickly closed around them. Yule, of course, marks the mid-point of winter, the shortest day, and the longest darkest night of the year. Celebrations kept spirits high as they kept ever watchful for rogue spirits and the 1st signs of spring. Sigrblót, as you may be able to guess from “blót” in the holiday’s title, is one of offerings and feasting, and it is this celebration that marks the beginning of summer!
In keeping with the Viking traditions of old, various games are played along with performances and feats of skill and strength to honor the gods. Food is liberally consumed and certainly, mead flows freely! This is because, if you didn’t already know, the Norse gods love a party. Seriously though. It was thought long ago that feasting, drinking, and general merriment actually attracted the gods, and if the gods were present, you had nothing to fear. Therefore, the more difficult the times were, the more there was to be afraid of, the more the Vikings would celebrate, exchanging their fear for mirth, and drawing the gods closer to their sides. Clever guys…
While there was a lot to learn about Heathenry, and while there is still a lot more to learn about it, we covered a lot of ground in this blog. From the origins to the modern day, from the mundane to the fantastic, and from the not-so-nice to the pure and beautiful, we have looked at the spectrum of Heathenry and what it means to Heathens all over the world. Should you go out and join a fellowship in your area? Heck, I don’t know. That’s for you to decide, but as for us, we shall honor all the fallen and all the living, and the rocks and the trees in our own way.
To all my modern Vikings, live long and stay strong!
Cody Dees, Ph.D.
“Resident Viking”
Norse Tradesman
The guess of the wise is truth. -Grettir Saga, c.31
Historically, we remember The Men from the North as being fierce warriors, who wouldn’t bat an eye at writhing body falling under his sword or axe. The Victorian era painted them in a new vision though. There was much less emphasis on plunder and pillaging purely out of ungoverned bloodlust, after the Viking era had drawn to a quiet close.
During that time, the Norse were reimagined as wild yet noble creatures, driven by passion, pride, and honor, more than the lust for blood and breeding… to put it delicately. The Victorian era is also when the ‘noble savage’ gained their horns and became the fondly remembered caricatures we see now as football mascots and dopey comic characters in the Sunday paper. But the real question is why? Why do we remember them? Why is it about Vikings that made them so… Viking? It certainly wasn’t the horned helmets, because that shiz wasn’t even real! (for more Viking myths, click here)
Scandinavians hailed from a Germanic origin, or possibly Proto-Germanic, depending on how you like to sequence your histories. However, the archaeological record and recent comparisons of massive banks of DNA samples from Viking graves tell us that national origin had little, if anything to do with actually being a Viking either. True Viking burials contained women, men, Norse, and non-Scandinavian bodies, and no, this wasn’t by accident.
Being a Viking, back in the day, meant quite literally being a Viking. If you did what they did, if you lived as they lived, you were a Viking and you were welcomed among the Norse in life and in death. This was no exclusive brotherhood, so you can just go ahead and forget the racist bigotry you may have seen displayed by idiots like QAnon Samon. There is nothing about that ignorant and obtuse rioter that is even remotely reminiscent of the actual open and accepting culture of the Scandinavians of yore.
One of the truest examples of this is in the believe system of the Vikings, which while odd to many onlookers of the day was as flawed only by its perfect acceptance of all gods and beliefs, as equal to their own. But, before you call Shenanigans on that one, let me qualify the aforementioned with a caveat. The Norse gods were to be respected as equal to all other gods as well… and it was this demand for mutual respect that likely infuriated the deities of other nations and cultures, and only worked to exacerbate social tensions.
Honestly though, looking at the woke AF state of the world, how many religions out there can claim to be accepting of all other systems of beliefs as equal to their own? I bet you’d be hard pressed to find one. But it is this tangential line of reasoning that brings us all the way back round to our first question, “How can someone be a modern Viking?”.
Well, we have ruled out genetics. So, you don’t have to be Scandinavian to be a Viking. We have ruled out gender. So, you don’t have to be male to be a Viking. We’ve ruled out horned helmets, so even though they may be fun to wear, you don’t need one to be a Viking. Even murder and theft can be ruled out as a requirement! You may already know this, but most Norse were farmers, and a large part of the need to venture out over the see was to find new grazing and farming lands for their families and flocks. So, unless you really want to, you don’t have to burn any villages down to be considered a real Viking. Truth is, it’s all about how you live your day-to-day and what you believe. Being a Viking is all about your view of the world and how you chose to live in it.
A while ago, I said that you would be hard pressed to find a religion what could be accepting of others, just as its own, but I didn’t say that there weren’t any. There is one that I know of, but it wasn’t until writing this blog that I really took the time to look into it and really learn about it.
Heathenry! It sounds awesome! It sounds like the official religion of bar fights and loose morals, but is it really? No… no, it isn’t. But to be fair, it may be seen that why by others with less tolerant world views, like those taken by many factions of more mainstream western religions (you know who you are). Before we can really get into the belief system of Heathenry though, we should probably get a foundation of terms out of the way, so we aren’t disappointed by the lack of carnal pleasures laid out by some human-skin bible.
Heathenry comes from the term Heathen. Obviously. And by virtue of English morphology, means “acts which heathens do”. But heathen, while causally used to describe people with no table manners, or a lack of reverence for the pope, was never actually meant to describe those things. “Heathen” itself comes from the word Heath, which doesn’t describe people at all. And no, it doesn’t describe Girl Scout cookies either.
Heath wasn’t a description, it was place. The heath was the area surrounding the walled or incorporated areas of a city. It was the unincorporated land that still belonged to the lord or vassal of the area, but the governor of the area had exactly ZERO obligation to defend the heath… or those heathens living within it. As you may have guessed by now, “heathen” basically means rural person. They were typically farmers and herdsmen, but without a doubt, they were either immigrants, poor, or poor immigrants. And as we mentioned earlier, they had no protection from the lord, which is probably how and why the term “heathen” began to take on the meanings it has associated with it today.
A heathen would have a hard life working the land, as well as a tax obligation with no promise of defense in the case of attack from a neighboring country. As you can imagine, this may in many cases have caused a bit of a rift between the “proper citizens” and the heathen, granting disrespect for casual authority and piety which wouldn’t stoop low enough to help them, yet relied on their taxes. Heathens had to carve out their own lives, protect their own, believe their own beliefs, and live life according to the seasons. They also had to train for combat, incase raiders attacked their farms, though in the case of the Vikings being the ones doing the raiding, they probably had little hope.
Around the late 900’s though, it was the Vikings themselves who became heathen. Granted land in England, they moved in, tilled, shepherded, grew, married, birthed, lived and died, for generations. That is until the St. Brice’s Day massacre, of course… But we’ve written an entire blog on that already, so no need to go into too much detail on the matter now. If you want to know more about the greatest slaughter in Viking history, click here for the full blog! You may be surprised by what you read. Intrigue, conspiracy, bribes! It has it all.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand. In point of fact, the Vikings weren’t strictly always heathen. They only became heathens after settling in the heaths of England, and it was likely their interbreeding with the local farmers and European immigrants who had also settled outside the city walls, that caused all heathens to earn the same disdain that all Danes in England bore. Now that we have reached the final point of intersect between the Vikings and Heathenry, we can finally start looking at Heathenry as a belief system for the modern Viking!
Heathenry has many names, depending on who is talking about it. Sometimes it is called Heathenism, Forn Sed, Theodism, or Odinism, or in potentially more politically correct terms, it is also sometimes addressed as Contemporary Paganism. As with all religions and belief systems thought, there are divisions of thought and many points of diversion. So, as we will see briefly, the broad name of Heathenry really isn’t sufficient to distinguish exactly what is being practiced, or by whom.
Heathenry in its modern form started around the 70’s, which would make you think it was all about free love and living life, but this isn’t where it actually started. In 1910, Heathenist groups began gaining popularity in Europe, as they sought to glorify pre-Christian religious beliefs and world views. So far so good, but there was that whole Nazi thing going on and supremacist views were all the rage. So, of course pre-war Germany was greedy with its myths and folklore, making it the perfect foundation for racial exclusivity… thanks Hilter… This is why the rest of the world can’t have nice things!
This trend to be culturally and racially exclusive with pre-Christian Germanic paganism does still exist. Odinism is one such sect, being called a “folkish,” due to its emphasis that Germanic lore belongs only to Germanic peoples, but thankfully Odinism is in the minority as far as the rest of Hethenistic beliefs are concerned.
For the rest of the world who aren’t A-holes, the general animist view of the world holds that everything has a spirit and all humans of all nations are one with nature itself, in one sway with the natural order. It really is a beautiful thought when you get down to it. That all of mankind is just one more animal amidst the trees and rocks and seas, with their own spirits in communion with the universe, under a pantheon of gods and goddesses. Just beautiful! But who cares about the grand scheme, when you could learn the in’s and out’s of the historical basis of the religion?
Heathenry in all its forms is a modern reconstruction of ancient forms of Pre-Christian beliefs, primarily originating form German-speaking nations, but other parts of European folklore are included as well. Old Norse texts and archaeological evidence of ancient feasts and festivals are the best evidences used to determine exactly how, when, and where celebrations, rituals, rites, and of course festivals took place.
Among them are first and foremost, Iceland Epics such as Prose Edda and Poetic Edda, the High German Nibelungenlied, and even Beowulf! Each of these tomes describes life and the beliefs practiced in ancient Norse and Proto-Germanic cultures, along with many others. Basically, the details of each text or archaeological site are taken like puzzle pieces from various points in time and from various perspectives and extrapolated into a more or less complete picture of how Heathenry was practiced in times long forgotten.
However, we must keep in mind that at that point in time, the Vikings were not writing their own history. For the most part, the only literate people who wrote about the practices of the early Scandinavians were Christian outsiders who looked at Pagan practices with disgust. And yes, this does mean that many of the records, such as the letters of bishops, are more than a little poisonous regarding their interpretations of the votive acts of such heathens. And no, we cannot know for certain if we have it all correct. But, like any other religion, Heathenry does take just a bit of faith.
Speaking of faith, no belief system would be complete without priests and priestesses telling you what to believe… or would it? Heathenry does have priests call “godhi” (god-man) and priestesses called “gydhja” (god-woman), but they are not necessary to practice Heathenry. Though they do exist, there is no organized form of Heatheny to bring believers together and instruct them on what to believe and how to believe it. So, some enlightened beings act as priests or priestesses for their own small groups, called “kindreds” or “fellowships,” but the majority of Heathens practice their faith in the gods as individuals. That being said, there are rites and rituals what are integral to the religion, whether practiced solo or in a group.
Blót may sound like an inky accident, but it is actually one of the most integral practices of Heathens. In blót ceremonies, Heathens may meet at an unpopulated area and offer food and drink to the gods. This can be done in several ways, depending on how strictly they persons performing the offering focus on ritual. In many ceremonies, a bowl of mead is laid out and bows of evergreens are used to sprinkle idols and participants with the mead in a sign that all present are partaking in the invocation of the gods. After this is done, the gods are intreated for blessings or favors and the remaining mead is offered into Earth or fire, as a final offering.
As I said though, this isn’t the only way to perform blót. Many Heathens practice their beliefs individually and do not partake in communal ritual. As such, blót can be done similar to the soldier’s symbolic toast to the fallen, by pouring a portion of drink into the fire or onto the ground. For some, blót is performed with food offerings as well as mead. And for others it is a daily practice, taken in remembrance of the gods every time a meal is consumed, thanking them for their blessings and protection.
Sumbel is a similar practice of votive offering of drink, but with a different purpose. Just as the ceremonial blót, sumbel is a group ritual wherein the gods and heroes of old are honored with mead, but there is more to it than that. It isn’t necessarily a ritual for the gods as much as it is a ritual performed in front of the gods. Sumbel is about the oaths forged between Heathens and Heathen fellowships, both old and new.
During sumbel, toasts are made to the gods, tales are told of heroes recent and past, and Heathens are honored publicly in front of all who attend. As you might imagine, such rituals have a great social impact. Public bonds, pacts, and oaths are offered in good cheer in the face of the gods and all the heroes. To perform the bonding ritual, typically a drinking horn is filled with mead and passed between the participants, who either drink straight from the horn or pour it into their own drinking vessel, so that they can drink in unison. According to ancient traditions, sharing from a horn offered in the sight of the gods and ancestors forges a vow which can never be broken.
Heathenry may have gotten its start in the early 1900’s, but its reemergence in the 1970’s was a welcome addition to the world stage. With the exception of a few A-holes, Heathenry sought to revive the inclusive world view that all life was equal in the grand scheme, and that the gods made us all and created a world for us all. Largely practicing animism (the belief that all things have their own spirits), Heathens seek to honor the land and the spirits which dwell within it. They see the rocks, the trees, the sand, and the seas as being living things with as much right to move and breath as the animals and every other living thing in the world.
As you can imagine though, there are various revisions to the fundamental beliefs of Heathenry that are practiced individually or in groups all throughout the world. And each group has its own way of worshiping and honoring the gods, the heroes, and all that lives and breaths. Some have adopted more devout practices of shamanistic trance, called “seiðr” while others have revived the practices of communal singing and chanting, called “galdr”. As strange as it may sound, seiðr does have its roots pulled straight from Eiriks Saga, from the Icelandic epics, so if you were about to call Shenanigans over Viking shamans… don’t. It really happened.
Galdr, unlike seiðr, doesn’t use rhythmic drumming do induce trance. It actually uses the chanting of runic inscriptions, or “rune poems” to send the entire group into an altered state! During such events, mortals may speak with the gods, visit the nine realms, or practice runic divination to peer into the future. One of the runic poems sometimes used in incantation is the “Nine Herbs Charm”.
Old English: Old English: Old English: Old English:þu renadest æt Regenmelde
Una þu hattest yldost ƿyrta | Modern English: You, mugwyrt, remember Una you are called, eldest of worts, |
Now that we’ve seen the freaky, let’s take a moment to remember that the Vikings had their share of fun as well, even when honoring the gods and fallen heroes. As such, festivals are a huge part of Heathenry, just as they were back in the Viking age. Among the most popular are of course Yule, but there may be a few others you might not be so familiar with, such as Winter Nights and Sigrblót. If you want to know more about Yule traditions, thankfully we already have a full blog devoted to just that! Click here to visit it and learn more about the festive traditions, rituals, and even decorations use by the Vikings to celebrate Yule!
Winters were hard for the Vikings, in their inhospitable environment. Winter was a time when the vail between worlds was thinnest and when they needed the protection of the gods the most. As such, all of these festivals are related to winter in some form or another. Winter nights marked the beginning of winter and the last of fertile soils and green grasses for grazing. It was a time with the curtain of frost was drawing quickly closed around them. Yule, of course, marks the mid-point of winter, the shortest day, and the longest darkest night of the year. Celebrations kept spirits high as they kept ever watchful for rogue spirits and the 1st signs of spring. Sigrblót, as you may be able to guess from “blót” in the holiday’s title, is one of offerings and feasting, and it is this celebration that marks the beginning of summer!
In keeping with the Viking traditions of old, various games are played along with performances and feats of skill and strength to honor the gods. Food is liberally consumed and certainly, mead flows freely! This is because, if you didn’t already know, the Norse gods love a party. Seriously though. It was thought long ago that feasting, drinking, and general merriment actually attracted the gods, and if the gods were present, you had nothing to fear. Therefore, the more difficult the times were, the more there was to be afraid of, the more the Vikings would celebrate, exchanging their fear for mirth, and drawing the gods closer to their sides. Clever guys…
While there was a lot to learn about Heathenry, and while there is still a lot more to learn about it, we covered a lot of ground in this blog. From the origins to the modern day, from the mundane to the fantastic, and from the not-so-nice to the pure and beautiful, we have looked at the spectrum of Heathenry and what it means to Heathens all over the world. Should you go out and join a fellowship in your area? Heck, I don’t know. That’s for you to decide, but as for us, we shall honor all the fallen and all the living, and the rocks and the trees in our own way.
To all my modern Vikings, live long and stay strong!
Cody Dees, Ph.D.
“Resident Viking”
Norse Tradesman
The guess of the wise is truth. -Grettir Saga, c.31
