Modern Asatru Compared to Historical Heathenry

By Robert Sass

A look at the teachings of the four major Asatru organizations in the United States, and comparing their published beliefs to that of the Heathen Lore: The Sagas, the Eddas, the three historical Heathen Calendars that survived from Heathen times, and other historical source material. The differences between modern Asatru and Historical Heathenry are explained. The Lore (historical sources) is quoted and listed. The focus is mainly on the differences between the calendars and rites of modern Asatru vs. Historical Heathenry. I leave it up to my readers to chose which path is best for them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jun 11, 2017
• ISBN: 9781387032846

Book preview

Modern Asatru Compared to Historical Heathenry

Modern Asatru vs. Historical Heathenry

by Robert Sass

Introduction

What makes a good Heathen?  Opinions on this question vary.  The large Facebook Heathenry groups will all have different ideas on who a good Heathen is, and what makes a good Heathen.  Even the larger Heathen organizations, some of which have in-person groups also will have different opinions.

Most Heathens today are familiar with the term Asatru.  Asatru means true to the Aesir. The Aesir are the primary deities in the Germanic Hall of Gods and Goddesses.  Asatru is not a word in the Old Norse, Old English, or Old Saxon languages; but was a term invented in modern times.  The question I will often ask in this book is: Are modern Heathens and Asatruar true to the Aesir and their Heathen Ancestors?

Let’s define some terms and get some basics out of the way. Most would state that a Heathen is an individual who is not an adherent of the major three religions: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.  But that is too broad a definition when it comes to Heathenry.  We must look to the peoples who at one time held the Aesir as Gods and Goddesses.  The Europeans who held the Aesir as deities were known as the Germanic Tribes.  The Germanic Tribes were the tribes that the Romans never conquered.  These were the peoples who spoke languages classified Germanic languages.  In 9 CE (AD), Arminius, a Cheruskan warlord, defeated 22,000 Roman troops, completely annihilating them; causing Augustus Caesar to abandon his dream of conquering what the Romans called Magna Germania.  This ensured that the Germanic Tribes in Northern Europe would never be conquered by the Romans.  Therefore, the Germanic peoples were outside of the Roman language of Latin and outside of the Roman Catholic religion for almost 800 years until the Christian armies of the Franks under Charlemagne began a crusade of forced Christianization in the late 8th and early 9th centuries.

For our purposes, a Heathen is an individual who honors the Aesir deities.  There are other forms of Heathenry or Paganism, but throughout this book, the word Heathen refers to people or peoples who venerate(d) the Aesir.

Pictured below are the lands where the Germanic tribes lived.  These are the lands that the Aesir were venerated in historical Heathen times.  The only land left out of the picture is England, where Angles and Saxons left the lands of modern Denmark/Germany and brought their Germanic Heathenry with them. We will discuss in more detail later, the differences between the Heathenry of the Angles, Saxons, Frisians, and Jutes; and that of the Scandinavian peoples in blue below.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Germanic_dialects_ca._AD_1.png/300px-Germanic_dialects_ca._AD_1.png

There are two types of Heathens today.  I am not talking about the Folkish vs. Universalist debate.  But I will discuss this debate here briefly, as this debate has widened the gap considerably between historical Heathenry and modern Asatru.  Being Folkish or Universalist in my opinion, doesn’t make anyone a great Heathen.  A friend of mine, Eric Wodening, says We are our deeds.  He has even written a book with that title.  It is what a Heathen does that matters.  In 1974, Steven McNallen, left the Wiccan faith and founded an organization called The Viking Brotherhood.  Eventually this organization would become known as the AFA or the Asatru Folk Assembly. Steven McNallen, who left Wicca; is the founder of Asatru in the United States. Later, a group of Heathens would break away from McNallen’s AFA, founding a group known as The Troth.  The issue that divided the AFA and the Troth was Ancestry: Does one have to be genetically Germanic to be a Heathen?  The AFA would say yes and The Troth would say no.  A Folkish Heathen holds that Ancestry does matter in an Ancestral religion such as Heathenry.  The Troth believes anyone can be a Heathen even if they do not have any Germanic Ancestry in their past. This is the Universalist view. Today, Heathens discuss this issue like mad, and that of many Third Reich style White Supremacist heathen groups.  While I am certainly against racism, and while I am on the folkish side of the fence, to me, this is not the two types of Heathens I am discussing.  I am discussing modern Heathens (also called neo-Pagans or neo-Heathens) vs. those trying to as authentically as possible to reconstruct the Heathen faith of a Germanic tribe in our world.  These are the two types of Heathens in which this book will focus on.

The Universalist view, is most responsible for the main differences between historical Heathenry and Modern Asatru.  The Universalist view has brought a great amount of blending and syncretism into Heathenry. Please keep in mind though, since the Asatru Folk Assembly was born out of Wicca, the Wiccan Wheel of the Year was chosen as the modern Asatru Calendar. Even Folkish Heathens have brought non-Germanic rites and holy days into Modern Heathenry.  The modern Asatru Calendar completely ignores the three historical Heathen calendars to survive from the years 725 CE (AD), circa 830 CE (AD), and 930 CE (AD).  The Universalists have brought many non-Germanic elements into Heathenry. One great example is Diana Paxon, who wrote a book called The Way of the Oracle, a book I purchased and read.  I was expecting this to be about Norse Sooth-saying.  While Norse Seidr was certainly covered, Delphi (Greek sooth-saying) and Indian Shamanism were given a huge amount of attention.  Please understand that the word sooth-saying comes from the Old Saxon language, the word soth. Soth is related to the Old Norse word seith. Shaman is not a Germanic word. Please

Reviews for Modern Asatru Compared to Historical Heathenry

[Kayla · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Poorly researched garbage. The author presents his unsubstantiated theories as fact.