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How Iceland recreated a Viking-age religion

bbc.com

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Re: How Iceland recreated a Viking-age religion

#11

Post by 0x5002 »

bluntfang wrote: post #3

Unfortunately a lot of the pagan and related spiritual movements are being coopted by white supremecists. I find this stuff fairly attractive as someone with Scandinavian heritage, but it seems like I've been overtaken in the space by racists and fascists.

It is, to a degree. However, given the intentionally lose definition of it, the interpretation of this topic is up to the individual and the group.

The BBC piece explicitly mentions this - with almost no ties to politics and an open door policy for all people - but I am aware that other groups are not as open. This cannot, however, be generalized.

Some folks do hold the believe that people with a different heritage should follow their own culture's roots, which often results in a very similar line of thoughts an beliefs, yet differs in customs, names, rituals ..., but ultimately leads to the same guiding principles. I personally don't agree, given our modern societies, but it can be regarded as a valid thought that is not driven by racism, but merely by the guiding idea of remembering the old ways, regardless of where those might be rooted.

Jesse Byock's translation of Snorri's Edda touches on the historical aspect of this in the prologue as well as his annotations. It's a great read if you are interested.

Re: How Iceland recreated a Viking-age religion

#12

Post by ashleyn »

bluntfang wrote: post #3

Unfortunately a lot of the pagan and related spiritual movements are being coopted by white supremecists. I find this stuff fairly attractive as someone with Scandinavian heritage, but it seems like I've been overtaken in the space by racists and fascists.

If you read some old posts on textfiles.com or google groups you'll find this problem extends back at least twenty years.

Re: How Iceland recreated a Viking-age religion

#13

Post by nkrisc »

ryanmercer wrote: post #6
bluntfang wrote: post #3

Unfortunately a lot of the pagan and related spiritual movements are being coopted by white supremecists. I find this stuff fairly attractive as someone with Scandinavian heritage, but it seems like I've been overtaken in the space by racists and fascists.

Came here to say this. Asatru is 1 of 2 type of people: - Racial purity hate group types - Reconstructionist pagans (that often have only loose genealogical ties to the peoples they claim their religion is based on)

What both groups have in common is an unfulfilled need for a group identity and sense of belonging. One group just deals with it in a healthier way than the other.

Re: How Iceland recreated a Viking-age religion

#14

Post by brodo »

geofft wrote: post #4
inflatableDodo wrote: post #2

> The Ásatrú faith also celebrates Old Norse mythology and its pantheon of morally ambiguous deities – gods such as Odin, Thor and Loki – that came to Iceland during the Viking Age, when the island was settled by Norwegian famers looking for new pastures. These deities were worshipped across this ‘land of fire and ice’ until the year 1000, when, under pressure from the influential Norwegian crown, the country abandon…

But those gods are morally ambiguous: they're not everything-I-do-is-right like the God of Abraham (in any of the religions that worship him). It's an accurate part of the news and implying that Loki is a paragon of virtue would be misleading people about the subject. And "Heathenry" is a term used by practitioners of this faith. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathenry_(new_religious_movem... If it's got a negative c…

The god of the old testament is morally ambiguous too. The christians defined the evil aspects away and made humanity responsible for all evil in the world.

Re: How Iceland recreated a Viking-age religion

#15

Post by turk73 »

bluntfang wrote: post #3

Unfortunately a lot of the pagan and related spiritual movements are being coopted by white supremecists. I find this stuff fairly attractive as someone with Scandinavian heritage, but it seems like I've been overtaken in the space by racists and fascists.

I adore how every other race on the planet is allowed to have an ethnic identity except for white people. White people can no longer do anything without being accused of racism. It's okay for blacks to be racist against whites, which happens constantly every day and the media gives them a free pass because certain kinds of violence are somehow fashionable.

Re: How Iceland recreated a Viking-age religion

#16

Post by Fjolsvith »

Accacin wrote: post #8
inflatableDodo wrote: post #2

> The Ásatrú faith also celebrates Old Norse mythology and its pantheon of morally ambiguous deities – gods such as Odin, Thor and Loki – that came to Iceland during the Viking Age, when the island was settled by Norwegian famers looking for new pastures. These deities were worshipped across this ‘land of fire and ice’ until the year 1000, when, under pressure from the influential Norwegian crown, the country abandon…

I understand what you're saying but one of the things I found attractive about the Norse gods was that they're not perfect. They are uncivilised at times! For me at least, I found I could relate to them better because of their faults.

Exactly! And they are living gods. I never knew until well into my adulthood that Odhinn and Thor had been calling to me all my life.

Re: How Iceland recreated a Viking-age religion

#17

Post by Fjolsvith »

0x5002 wrote: post #11
bluntfang wrote: post #3

Unfortunately a lot of the pagan and related spiritual movements are being coopted by white supremecists. I find this stuff fairly attractive as someone with Scandinavian heritage, but it seems like I've been overtaken in the space by racists and fascists.

It is, to a degree. However, given the intentionally lose definition of it, the interpretation of this topic is up to the individual and the group. The BBC piece explicitly mentions this - with almost no ties to politics and an open door policy for all people - but I am aware that other groups are not as open. This cannot, however, be generalized. Some folks do hold the believe that people with a different heritage s…

> I personally don't agree, given our modern societies, but it can be regarded as a valid thought that is not driven by racism, but merely by the guiding idea of remembering the old ways, regardless of where those might be rooted.

A friend once explained this to me thus: "A person should have the religion he or she needs."

Re: How Iceland recreated a Viking-age religion

#18

Post by ZanyProgrammer »

bluntfang wrote: post #3

Unfortunately a lot of the pagan and related spiritual movements are being coopted by white supremecists. I find this stuff fairly attractive as someone with Scandinavian heritage, but it seems like I've been overtaken in the space by racists and fascists.

I think its much more common with the ethnic based reconstruction movements in general-so alas, Germanic neopaganism/Heathenry isn't alone in that, though for obvious reasons it's the most notorious.

Re: How Iceland recreated a Viking-age religion

#19

Post by ryanmercer »

nkrisc wrote: post #13
ryanmercer wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Came here to say this. Asatru is 1 of 2 type of people: - Racial purity hate group types - Reconstructionist pagans (that often have only loose genealogical ties to the peoples they claim their religion is based on)

What both groups have in common is an unfulfilled need for a group identity and sense of belonging. One group just deals with it in a healthier way than the other.

>unfulfilled need for a group identity and sense of belonging.

To some extent perhaps, the non-hate group types are very very guarded and closed to outsiders in my experience, they are generally private to those outside of kin (blood relation) and kindred (like a coven, church, clan, group) which are often pretty small groups of people.

For those remotely interested just go randomly browse /r/asatru and /r/heathenry for the non-racist types and make your own observation.

Personally I find them to be an interesting lot, there are quite a few that still do blood sacrifices and from their self-reports on ritual it seems to largely just be a lot of getting together, getting drunk, and dancing around in a field/woods/someone's yard with the occasional mention of some practice or ritual that may or may not have a basis in historical reality, usually based largely off of a modern book or a combination of archaeological discoveries and surviving myth/poetry.

Re: How Iceland recreated a Viking-age religion

#20

Post by ycgeu »

bluntfang wrote: post #3

Unfortunately a lot of the pagan and related spiritual movements are being coopted by white supremecists. I find this stuff fairly attractive as someone with Scandinavian heritage, but it seems like I've been overtaken in the space by racists and fascists.

True white supremacists who are proud of their culture are Christian. Only edgelords (the "Jesus was a kike on a stick" type) are pagan. Nobody cares about edgelords.

Anyway the fact that you're posting here leads me to think you should be old enough not to care what others think of your beliefs.

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