University of Iceland

School of Humanities

Medieval Icelandic Studies

Ásatrú

An Enchanting Hybrid of Past and Present

Final paper for MA-degree in Medieval Icelandic Studies

Lotte Dijk

Kt.: 0912924839

Supervisor: Luke John Murphy & Torfi H. Tulinius

August 2017

Abstract

The relatively recent attempt to reconstruct Old Norse religion in Iceland, resulting in the

establishment of an Ásatrú community, could be motivated by the wish of preserving cultural

tradition, but might possibly be an indicator of another kind of wish as well, that is, for the

re-enchantment of the disenchanted modern world through the return to a simple and

“magical” past. To verify this, Old Norse religion and Icelandic Ásatrú have been analysed

and compared using Robert N. Bellah’s theory of religious evolution. This qualitative study

found that these religious systems share a specific primitive/archaic religious configuration.

The correspondence of this configuration with one found in previous research implies the

existence of an ideal religious system concerning the need for re-enchantment. A system

based on pre-Christian pagan religion in conjunction with the mind-set of people in modern

society. This combination of the old and the new creates an interesting dichotomy which,

when analysed in relation to the notions of disenchantment, re-enchantment,

neomedievalism and neopaganism, appears to be a success formula with regard to re -

enchanting modernity’s rational reality. This religious configuration provides an a lternative

enchanting worldview, which is a critique of modernity, yet at the same time it is conditioned

by it; a “religionism” of which Ásatrú is an example as well.

Ágrip

Tiltölulega nýleg tilraun til að endurskapa fornnorræna trú á Íslandi, með tilkomu

Ásatrúarfélagsins, kann að vera tilkomin vegna óskar um varðveislu á menningararfi en má

hugsanlega einnig túlka sem tilraun til að láta óskina rætast um að endurtöfra í töfralausan

nútíma með því að hverfa aftur til einfaldari og „göldróttrar“ fortíðar. Til að sannreyna þessa

tilgátu voru fornorræn trú og íslensk Ásatrú greind og borin saman með hliðsjón af kenningu

Robert N. Bellah um þróun trúarbragða. Niðurstaða hinnar eigindlegu rannsóknar var að

bæði trúarkerfin deila sérstakri frumstæðri trúarafstöðu sem gerir það að verkum að í

ásatrúnni þeirri nýju koma saman bæði hugmyndir og viðhorf úr fornum átrúnaði en einnig

lífsafstaða nútímafólks. Þessi samsetning hins gamla og hins nýja skapar áhugavert misræmi

sem greina má með tilliti til hugtaka eins og aftöfrun, endurtöfrun, nýmiðaldahyggju og

nýheiðni. Henni virðist takast að gæða rökhyggju nútímans nýjum töfrum. Hún býður upp á

nýja heimssýn sem er hlaðin töfrum og felur í senn í sér gagnrýni á nútímann um leið og hún

er mótuð af henni. Um þetta er Ásatrú gott dæmi.

Contents

Introduction .........................................................................................................................1

Methodology & Theory ......................................................................................................3

Qualitative method.........................................................................................................3

Religious Evolution ........................................................................................................6

Chapter I: Old Norse religion ............................................................................................... 12

Problematic sources ......................................................................................................... 14

Old Norse Religion.......................................................................................................... 15

Mythology and Cosmology............................................................................................ 17

Ritual .......................................................................................................................... 20

Afterlife ...................................................................................................................... 22

Magic and Witchcraft ................................................................................................... 24

Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 26

Chapter II: Ásatrú in Iceland ................................................................................................ 27

Ásatrú ............................................................................................................................ 27

Interviews ....................................................................................................................... 29

Mythology and Cosmology............................................................................................ 30

Ritual .......................................................................................................................... 32

Afterlife ...................................................................................................................... 33

Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 35

Chapter III ......................................................................................................................... 36

Comparison and Analysis ................................................................................................. 36

Disenchantment........................................................................................................... 39

Re-enchantment........................................................................................................... 40

Neomedievalism .......................................................................................................... 41

Neopaganism............................................................................................................... 43

Ásatrú, a religionism? ....................................................................................................... 45

Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 48

Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 50

Appendices......................................................................................................................... 56

Interview transcripts ........................................................................................................ 56

Consent forms ................................................................................................................ 69

1

Introduction

Landnámabók1 tells us that Iceland was first settled by Norwegians in the year 874

C.E. These early settlers did not only bring their wish for a new life however, but their cultural

heritage as well, and with it their religion. Multiple “blótmadur mikill”2 are mentioned in

Landnámabók denoting that the first Icelanders adhered to a pagan faith. However, this faith

was not long lived, as over a period of several centuries it disappeared from Icelandic society

again, starting with the Icelandic conversion to Christianity in the year 1000 C.E.3

It was only in the latter half of the previous century, however, that an increased

interest in the old religious ways paved the way for the establishment of the Ásatrú

movement in Iceland, based on Old Norse religion (ONr)4. The time gap between the two

is considerable, but the Icelandic modern-day heathens I have spoken to for this study feel a

strong connection to their spiritual past which, they say, has always retained a presence in

the traditions and the folklore of the country’s culture.

What I would first like to study is the extent to which these religious systems are

indeed related and what this convergence of the old and the new might imply for modern

society, for this combination of past and present is of key importance to this thesis.

As such I will be analysing both ONr and the Icelandic Ásatrú community –

information on the latter will mostly be attained through interviews with members of the

Ásatrúarfélagið in Iceland – after which a comparison of the two will be made to ascertain

their differences and similarities. These can provide insight into the worldview behind

Ásatrú, that is, they will show how much modern day people have assimilated the old forms

of the Nordic religious practises and beliefs according to their own needs and ways of

understanding the world. This in turn creates an understanding of how a religious system like

Ásatrú is created and, when analysed in conjunction with various concepts of importance to

the study of contemporary religious movements, why it is created.

The first of these is a sentiment which Weber called “disenchantment.” The term

denotes a feeling of disillusionment people often have with modernity’s rational character,

making everything scientifically explainable, thus draining society from all that was once

1 Landnámabók, ed. Jakób Benediktsson, Ch. 8 2 Þorsteinn rauðnefur in ch. 92, Þórólfur mostrarskegg in Ch. 33 and Geir (végeir) in Ch. 50 3 Jenny Jochens, “Late and Peaceful: Iceland’s Conversion Through Arbitration in 1000,” Speculum 74 (1999): 621 4 Michael Strmiska, “Ásatrú in Iceland: The Rebirth of Nordic Paganism?,” Nova Religio: The Journal of

Alternative and Emergent Religions 4 (2000): 112

2

“magical.”5 The revival of traditional spiritual beliefs, providing alternative explanatory

systems or worldviews like Ásatrú is, however, one way of reversing the effects of

disenchantment.6 Among others, these modern religious movements, consequently, are

attempts to “re-enchant” modern reality. Re-enchantment has its origin in the 18 th and 19th

century Romanticism and is a reaction to the disenchantment caused by the Enlightenment.7

Such new religious systems, furthermore, often have their origin in an older pagan religious

tradition, to which they claim close ties and they are therefore often called neo-pagan or

modern pagan religious movements.8 How these religious systems provide re-enchantment

can be explained by the concept of neomedievalism, which designates a desire for and the

subsequent creation of a more simple, authentic and irrational past within the context of an

idealised vision of the Middle Ages.9 Modern pagan religions often cater to such desires in a

similar way to neomedievalism due to their archaic origins in combination with modern

interpretations and adaptions of both the original religion and the age wherein it existed.10

It is my final goal then, to determine whether the Icelandic branch of Ásatrú could

possibly be an example of a way in which people re-enchant their reality by adopting a new

worldview which brings a little “magic” back into their life, for this would partly reveal the

reason behind the existence of Ásatrú.

If so, I furthermore want to ascertain if it would then fit into a specific religious

configuration I tentatively suggested exists in a previous study which yielded a surprising

religious uniformity in relation to re-enchantment possibly suggesting a religious idealtype.11

Akin to neomedievalism I named this specific configuration a “religionism”.

To this end Robert N. Bellah’s framework12 for religious evolution described in

Religious Evolution13 will be used to analyse, categorise and compare both ONr and the

Icelandic Ásatrú movement. This will hopefully reveal a common evolutionary stage, which

can then be discussed using the above mentioned concepts, resulting in an answer as to

5 Max Weber, From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, ed. H. H. Gerth and C Wright Mills. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1946), 155 6 Richard Jenkins, “Disenchantment, Enchantment and Re-Enchantment: Max Weber at the Millennium,” Max Weber Studies 1 (2000): 12. 7 Christopher Partridge, “The Disenchantment and Re-enchantment of the West: The Religio-Cultural

Context of Contemporary Western Christianity,” Evangelical Quarterly 74 (2002): 242. 8 Michael F. Strmiska, “Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative perspectives,” in Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative perspectives, ed. Michael F. Strmiska. (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2005), 1 9 Amy S. Kaufman, “Medieval Unmoored,” Studies in Medievalism 14 (2010): 2 10 Strmiska, “Modern paganism in World Cultures,” 8, 10 11 Lotte Dijk, “Religion in The Elder Scrolls: An utopian Reflection”(BA thesis, Universiteit Leiden, 2015). 12 This theory will be thoroughly discussed in the subchapter on theory and methodology below 13 Robert N. Bellah, “Religious Evolution,” American Sociological Review 29 (1946): 358-374

3

whether Ásatrú in Iceland has re-enchanting properties, whether it conforms to my proposed

religionism and how this reflects on modern society.

Chapter I of this thesis deals shortly with the notion of religion in pre-Christian times

and the problematic situation concerning the reliability and interpretability of the source

material that is available on pre-Christian Scandinavia and Iceland. Then an introduction to

ONr will be given after which a thorough analysis of its beliefs and practices will be

conducted, using Bellah’s theory of religious evolution to assess which stage(s) of religious

evolution these fall into. This will be done using a set of four general religious themes I have

chosen to correspond with both Ásatrú and ONr, in order to come to a thorough

understanding of both religious systems in an ordered and effective way. These are Mythology

and Cosmology, Ritual, Afterlife and Magic and Witchcraft14. Chapter II will do the same for Ásatrú

using data collected through interviews with members of the Icelandic Ásatrúarfélagið.

Chapter III finally, will compare the results of the previous two chapters to uncover the

similarities and differences between Ásatrú and ONr; their categorisation into one or more

of Bellah’s stages of religious evolution and their implementation of the four religious

themes. An attempt at explaining the findings will then be done using concepts which are

prevalent in the study of modern religious movements: disenchantment, re-enchantment,

neomedievalism and neopaganism. First however, a subchapter on methodology and theory

used for this thesis is needed.

Methodology & Theory

Qualitative method

For a more in-depth understanding of the Ásatrú movement in Iceland and the

religious experience of its members a qualitative research approach was needed in the form

of one-on-one interviews with some of the members of the Ásatrúarfélagið in Reykjavík. This

deeper understanding is needed to get an insight into the mind-set, experiences and thoughts

these people have concerning their religion, in order to be able to come to a well-informed

image of Ásatrú, its members and their beliefs. Without such information the intended

comparison with ONr would provide incomplete results, ignoring part of the motive behind

this religion, that is, the specific make-up which makes it so attractive to people in modern

society.

14 A discussion of these themes follows below.

4

Qualitative research, therefore, is relevant because it is concerned with meanings people

attach to the things in their lives and to come to an understanding of how people experience

reality from their own reference frame; to see what they see.15 Ted Palys gives a short but

very compelling definition of the term: “(to) engage a phenomenon of interest on its own

terms and to let theory emerge from the data.”16

This approach provides material which through other methods cannot be attained,

though naturally it also has its weaknesses. Qualitative research, for example, does not

commonly cover as much ground as quantitative research does and is consequently not

always applicable to the bigger picture; the skill level of the researcher and their personal

biases can influence the quality of the research; consistence is more difficult to demonstrate

and maintain and it is a very time consuming process. All these disadvantages to the approach

are however, largely overshadowed by the fact that qualitative research is dependent on

human experience, to be evaluated in depth and detail, which is more powerful and

compelling than any quantitative data can ever be. The most important stumbling block here,

however, has to do with human dignity. In short, any research involving human participants

should guarantee their dignity, whether it be concerned with social experiments, medical ones

or simply interviews. The ethical or moral execution of research is a difficult and therefore a

much contended subject.

That it is of paramount importance to uphold ethical conduct towards human

participants during research is unquestionable, but how one precisely goes about doing that

is of a more complex nature. Will C. van den Hoonaard writes about this topic in his paper

Fostering Human Dignity: Some Inherent Ethical Dimensions of Qualitative Research. 17 He describes

human dignity in research-ethics codes as a “moral imperative” and discusses four elements

contributing to the preservation of human dignity. The first of these is the practice of

formulating the research question after the research has begun, as the researcher can never

know the complete set of data they will collect and therefore cannot presume which topics

are important to the study beforehand.18 It furthermore does injustice to the research

participants. Therefore, questions are generally left fairly open-ended to give the participant

15 Stephen J. Taylor and Robert Bogdan, Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods: A Guidebook and Resource (New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc., 1998), 7 16Ted Palys, Research decisions: Quantitative and Qualitative Perspectives (Toronto: Harcourt Brace,

1997), 47 17 Will C. van den Hoonaard, “Fostering Human Dignity: Some Inherent Ethical Dimensions of Qualitative Research,” in Qualitative Research, ed. Jurij Fikfak, Frane Adam and Detlef garz. (Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, 2004) 18 Hoonaard, “Fostering Human Dignity,” 269

5

the opportunity to direct the course the interview takes.19 Lastly, researchers try to avoid

gaining any prior knowledge on the topic, so as not to be influenced by said knowledge in

the execution of the qualitative research, foregoing accurate data.20 The second step towards

maintaining human dignity in research regards to the level of risk the research participant is

exposed to, whether it be physical in relation to medical studies for example or mental in

regards to social experiments. Interviews do not generally hold much of a risk and have often

proven to have more of therapeutic effect when emotional subjects are discussed rather than

being upsetting or otherwise mentally disruptive. 21 Thirdly, Hoonaard emphasizes the

importance of keeping the research participants informed about the research. This can be

done either by providing participants with their own transcribed interview or by presenting

the participants with the results of the research once it is finished, uncovering their role in

the larger whole.22 Hoonaard, furthermore, touches upon the issues surrounding

pseudonyms and consent forms, which he deems only truly necessary when the research

participant has a wish for them.23 Of more relevance here is the notion of “voice”, or the

struggles concerned with it. As Hoonaard puts it: “For qualitative researchers, there is a

growing recognition of the struggle to find the right place between the autobiography of the

researcher and the biography of the research participants”24 In short, it is important that the

researcher portrays ethically and accurately the words of their participants, and not their own;

undermining everything the research participant has contributed and therewith undermining

their dignity.

In my own approach to preparing and conducting the interviews needed for this

research I have tried to adhere to Hoonaards stipulations regarding qualitative research. As

such I refrained from doing much research on Ásatrú in general and the Ásatrúarfélagið in

specific. I did, however, due to time constraints and the relative small scope of the research,

have to commit myself to a research objective, otherwise risking completely altering my

inquiry. For the same reason my interview questions are more structured and perhaps

steering, rather than completely open ended, though I found that rephrasing some of the

questions during the actual interviews, making them more flexible, helped in obtaining the

most elaborate and useful answers from the correspondents. Concerning consent and

19 Hoonaard, “Fostering Human Dignity,” 269 20 Ibidem 21 Hoonaard, “Fostering Human Dignity,” 270 22 Hoonaard, “Fostering Human Dignity,” 271 23 Hoonaard, “Fostering Human Dignity,” 271-275 24 Hoonaard, “Fostering Human Dignity,” 175

6

anonymity I presented each participant a simple and concise consent form detailing the use

of the data to be collected and asking for their preference on anonymity,25 after which they

had to sign it with the date and their signature. As for keeping in touch with the

correspondents, I have agreed to send a finished copy of this thesis to the Ásatrúarfélagið, so

that those who are interested can read it. The concept of “voice” is most important to me as

respecting it does not only protect the participants dignity but also that of the researcher.

Therefore, literal transcriptions from the conducted interviews, copied from voice

recordings, are included in the appendices to support the integrity of my arguments.

I contacted the Ásatrúarfélagið at the end of May through e-mail explaining my main

research question and asking if the félagið would be willing to help me find some of their

members who might be interested in doing an interview. I was told I could come by on one

of their open-hour Saturdays. This I did on the 27 th of May. Upon arrival I introduced myself

and my purpose after which Jóhannes immediately sat down with me for the first interview.

Before I left I spoke to Teresa and asked her if she was willing to do an interview, which she

did and we met up on the 29 th of May at Háskolatorg, which is located on the Háskoli Íslands

campus. Next Saturday on June the 3th I visited the félagið again and was introduced to Óttar

who would gladly be interviewed. I also asked Teresa if she knew any people (members of

the félagið) at campus who might be interested in doing an interview. She emailed me some

days later with Kári’s contact information saying that he was willing to be interviewed. I

emailed him and we met up at Háskolatorg on the 9 th of June. All interviews were audio

recorded as well as by hand.

Religious Evolution

When Robert N. Bellah had his famous, though much discussed, work Religion in

Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age published in 2011, he had been working

on the notion of religious evolution for many years. His initial work on the subject, Religious

Evolution was published in 1964, expounding roughly the same theory albeit in a more concise

and focused manner.26 With it, Bellah caters to modernity’s need for self-interpretation, going

back to the fundamental questions of the sociological study of religion pertaining to our

nature and origin. He comes to the conclusion that human nature contains an inherent

dualism, that is, the development humanity undergoes from a world affirming view to a world

rejecting view, as on the one hand people participate in everyday life, while on the other, they

25 None of the four correspondents opted for anonymity. 26 Hence I will be using the 1964 article for this thesis instead of the 2011 book publication.

7

do so too in the alternative realities they create themselves. 27 In short, he chronicles the

evolution, not only of religion itself, but also the worldview that accompanies it; how it

changes from understanding the sacral and the profane as being in harmony (world affirming

view) to seeing the two as opposites (dualism) whereby the profane human world develops

a negative connotation as opposed to the sacral world of the divine (alternative reality), hence

creating a world rejecting view.

It is the freedom of play which these alternative realities – be it within a monistic or

dualistic world – provide, that allows for the creation of culture and narrative which will

eventually provide people with the ability to critically reflect upon their social context from

a distance.28

This closely overlaps with Bellah’s understanding of evolution for he argues that

evolutionary development creates a conscious distinction in the human mind, between the

self and the context wherein one exists.29 This effectively creates the ability to think beyond

the self and one’s context; beyond reality.

It is Bellah’s aim then, to come to an understanding of and help explain the uniquely

human phenomenon of religion, through showing the emergence of a human ability to think

in theoretical terms.

Bellah’s theoretical framework consists of five stages of religious evolution : primitive,

archaic, historic, pre-modern and modern. Each of these stages is discussed according to a

specific set of socio-cultural elements, being the religious symbol system, actions,

organisation and the social implications these have. I have, however, chosen to replace these

with the four religious themes mentioned in the introduction as I feel these are more

approachable, practical and better suited for the analysis of both ONr and Ásatrú, providing

an image of the two more relevant to this thesis. Even so I took care not so stray too far

from those so as not to damage the integrity of Bellah’s framework, rendering this whole

exercise futile.

Mythology and Cosmology were chosen because peoples understanding of the

universe is inherently related to and based on religion, both of which are heavily informed

by myth. Mythology then, is here understood as a corpus of myths, narratives with social

functions in that they legitimise a way of life, though with an explanatory function as well for

27 Bellah, “Religious Evolution,” 359-360 28 Dijk, “Religion in The Elder Scrolls,” 29 Bellah, “Religious Evolution,” 358

8

they provide answers to the questions the human condition tends to bring up. 30 Cosmology

refers to the way in which the universe is shaped according to mythology. Ritual is of

importance because it is closely related to myth, either being its product or producing myth

itself, thus being firmly connected to the way in which people view the world.31 Ritual,

furthermore, reflects the bulk, if not all of religious practice, permeating both big life events

as well as everyday life.32 In this sense it is inherently relevant to the other themes. The

afterlife is of interest because it generally is an important part of a peoples religious worldview

and one’s understanding of the topic can greatly influence the way life is lived. This topic is

furthermore interesting because of its ambivalent and unknown nature in relation to ONr

and studies thereof.33 Magic and witchcraft are inherent to primitive and archaic religions,

often being synonymous with religion itself, encompassing every aspect of life, and therefore

indispensable.34 The notion of a “magical worldview” further emphasises this view.35 Magic

is here understood as an all-pervading force in itself and witchcraft as its practical application.

It could be argued that Bellah’s theoretical set-up is somewhat essentialist and

limiting, with its use of distinct stages in the evolution of religion, each representing a shift

in the cognitive abilities of humans to reflect upon their worldview, thus ushering in a new

(st)age of religion. He does not, however, believe these to be finite nor exclusive, but rather

emphasizes the fact that these five stages are merely ideal-types, derived from the most

commonly observed historical regularities. Consequently, they are not indisputable and may

very well need to compose a “compromise formula” wherein elements from two stages are

involved.

He furthermore argues that no stage is ever completely discarded during the process

of evolution as all earlier stages continue to coexist with and within following ones, creating

never fully distinct categories.36

Categorisation as a whole often seems to have a negative connotation in the social

sciences, as this would limit the understanding and scope of the subjects being categorised.

30 Heather O’Donoghue, From Asgard to Valhalla: The Remarkable History of the Norse Myths (London: I.B. Tauris, 2007), 3 31 O’Donoghue, From Asgard to Valhalla, 2. 32Nancy Ammerman, “Finding Religion in Everyday Life,” Sociology of Religion 75 (2014): 191 33 Neil Price, “Passing into Poetry: Viking-Age Mortuary Drama and the origins of Norse Mythology,” Medieval Archaeology 54 (2010): 138 34 Neil Price, “Sorcery and Circumpolar Traditions in Old Norse belief,” in The Viking World, ed. Stefan Brink and Neil Price (London: Routledge, 2012), 244 35 Rosalie Wax and Murray Wax. “The Magical World View,” The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 1 (1962): 183 36 Bellah, “Religious Evolution,” 361

9

To a certain extent this is true, for the full breadth of complexities, subtle nuances and detail

of a subject cannot be properly presented with an approach like this. Jens Peter Schjødt states

as much when he says that if using categories or models as part of a larger attempt to describe

something one will never cover reality as it is, but only certain elements of a demarcated part

of reality.37 This does not take away the fact that in order to research a phenomenon,

especially when studying the historical development of something with the cultural scope of

religion, using categories is of paramount importance to acquire adequate insights precisely

of its most significant elements. As such the method of categorisation can also be seen as

the starting point of a study, on which can be elaborated in later stages. For while a scholar

will have to contend with the idea that a true image of reality is not attainable, Schjødt argues

that it is the quality of the model or category which determines the quality of the research.38

For Bellah, his categories or typologies are the very tools by which he presents the core tenet

of his theory: the notion of religious evolution.

For the scope of this research a description of just the primitive and archaic stages

of religion are sufficient, as neither ONr nor Ásatrú are expected to have characteristics of

later stages of religious evolution.

Primitive religion exists in a mythical world. Bellah emphasizes both the high degree

to which the mythical world is related to the actual world, as everything is explained in terms

of the actions of mythical beings, and the fact that primitive myth is highly fluid and easily

changed according to the needs of the community. Primitive religion is, furthermore, neither

characterized by worship nor sacrifice but by the acting-out of myth and the identification

with the mythical beings this acting-out engenders. Within the primitive symbol system myths

are dream-like, occurring “out of time”. Mythical beings can both be human and ancestral

figures. They are considered heroic beings, but are not gods for they do not control the world

and are not worshipped as such. The worldview is a holistic one in which there exists no

breach between the ideal and reality: there is only “one world.” Actions or ritual practice in

primitive religion consist of participation in the mythical narratives, during which the already

slight distance between humans and the gods becomes non-existent, as participants of the

ritual become one with the myth and its inhabitants. The social implications lie in the fact that

ritual reinforces the social solidarity of the clan, relating to the idea of social cohesion,

37 Jens Peter Schjødt, “Reflections on Aims and Methods in the Study of Old Norse Religion,” in More Than Mythology: Narratives, Ritual Practices and Regional Distribution in Pre-Christian Scandinavian Religions, ed. Jens Peter Schjødt. (Lund:Nordic Academic press, 2012), 270 38 Ibidem.

10

discussed by Emile Durkheim in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life39 (1912), in which he

argues that it is increased by public or communal ritual, and allots the members of society

their place in the group. The organisation in primitive culture makes religion an attribute of the

kinship system. There are no separate religious organisations and the few religious specialists

present in primitive culture are one.40

Archaic religion heralds the emergence of a cultic form of religion, complete with

a complex of gods, worship, sacrifice, priests and, in some cases, divine or priestly kingship.

The mythical and ritualistic elements of primitive religion continue to exist within the

structure of archaic religion, but they are elaborated and systematized from the newly

developed archaic perspective.41 The symbol system evolves and the mythical beings, rather

than being ancestral figures, become clearly defined gods having much more agency in their

now wilful control of both the human and the natural world. Consequently they are to be

worshipped in a prescribed manner according to their newfound roles and distinct character.

Just as the monistic worldview is slowly crumbling, with ideas of a more differentiated and

hierarchical world/cosmology developing – regarding the place of all things natural and

divine therein – there too is established a hierarchy among the gods. As for religious action:

men have now become subjects of the gods, which, to provide in the need for

communication between them and humans are to be worshipped. Sacrifice forms the

principle means of communication with the gods and is presided over by specialists or priests

as mediators between the gods and their subjects. Thus a cultic tradition has developed.

Within archaic religious organisation the newly introduced structure of hierarchically

differentiated groups of people makes for a multitude of local cults, as every society tends to

have its own cultic element. There emerges a two-class system, in which the higher status

people, already in control of political and military power, also tend to monopolise the

superior religious functions. As priests they preside over these cults, though congregations

do not yet exist. Even so, different social groups focus on different cults. Religious

organization is only still partly merged with social structure at the top of society, where

military, political and religious leadership very rarely combine in the person of a divine king.

The social implications lie with the sacralisation of society. There is little conflict between

religion and social conformity. Political changes are rationalized in terms of re ligious change

39 Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Foms of Religious Life, trans. Joseph Swain (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1912) 40 Bellah, “Religious Evolution,” 361 - 364 41 Bellah, “Religious Evolution,” 364

11

and tolerance associated with early pantheism slowly erodes, as religion is used to support

political movements.42

A further addition to Bellah’s theory of religious evolution can be found in an article

written by Simon Nygaard on sacral kingship in pre-Christian Nordic society. In it he

tentatively argues for the addition of a 6th religious typology to Bellah’s framework, namely

´chiefdom religion´. He argues that the primitive and archaic religious typologies are not

completely fitting to pre-Christian Scandinavian and Icelandic religion and society, as neither

were wholly egalitarian nor completely structured and stratified like primitive and archaic

religion and society respectively were. Therefore Nygaard proposes his stage of religion to

be placed in between the two as a transition-period.43

To support his claim Nygaard uses Bellah’s theory as a comparative and analytical

tool to reconstruct the particular history of pre-Christian religion, by comparing it to a

contemporary example of sacral rulership: Hawaiian religion.44

He argues that it is quite plausible that a certain degree of sacrality was held by the

ruler figure in pre-Christian Scandinavia, probably bestowed upon him by the gods. This

gave him the role of mediator between humans and the gods, thus creating a key religious

figure.45

Chiefdom religion, whether it truly existed or not, cannot have been inclusive of all

Scandinavian and Icelandic religion however. This means that, within the scope of this thesis,

it will have to be partly laid aside in favour of Bellah’s earlier mentioned “compromise

formula” whereby two or more evolutionary stages of religion might be mixed within one

culture. This, in combination with his mention of rare but possible archaic divine kingship

should be enough to explain any such phenomena when found. Therefore Nygaard’s theory

will only be applied, when relevant, in the analysis of ONr in Chapter I.

42 Bellah, “Religious Evolution,” 364 - 366 43 Simon Nygaard, “Sacral Rulers in pre-Christian Scandinavia: The possibilities of typological comparisons within the paradigm of cultural evolution,” Temenos 52 (2016): 11-12 44 Nygaard, “Sacral Rulers,” 10 45 Nygaard, “Sacral Rulers,” 14

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Chapter I: Old Norse religion

This chapter will give a short overview of ONr, after which a more detailed

discussion of the subject will be held, divided into four subchapters covering the themes

discussed in the introduction: mythology and cosmology, ritual, the afterlife and magic and

witchcraft. Bellah’s religious evolutionary “primitive” and “archaic” stages will be applied to

each of these to gain a sense of to what extent either the primitive, the archaic or both of

these evolutionary stages of religion coincide with the practices and beliefs of the Nordic

people in the late Iron Age.

Before an account of the ONr can be given, a few practical matters need first be

addressed, that is, in regard to the notion of religion itself and its varied nature in the pre -

Christian North and the sources available for research on the subject.

Nordic “religion”

The term “religion” can be problematic when it is studied within a temporal context

far removed from our own as it cannot automatically be assumed that such a notion had an

existence among the people of the late Iron Age46 (500-1050 C.E). The term ‘religion’ as we

understand it today is a modern, western construct and to apply it directly to the beliefs and

practices of people who lived more than two millennia ago causes for some discrepancies. 47

Our understanding of religion as a way in which humans relate to a divine and transcendent

sphere48 often creates a dichotomy between the sacred and the profane, which excludes any

practices and beliefs which are not explicitly part of the former, such as everyday ritual and

habitual behaviours, otherwise known as “lived religion.”49 A notion which is of much

importance in any study on religion, especially when a sharply defined doctrine and/or

religious institution does not exist. The idea of lived religion in relation to ONr is further

validated by the fact that the sources do not mention a specific term denoting something

alike to ‘religion’ but rather, when the need for such a phrase was needed at all, they speak

46 Andreas Nordberg, “Continuity, Change and Regional Variation in Old Norse religion,” in More Than

Mythology: Narratives, Ritual Practices and Regional Distribution in Pre-Christian Scandinavian Religions, ed. Jens Peter Schjødt. (Lund:Nordic Academic press, 2012), 119 47 Anders Andrén, Kristina Jennbert and Catharina Raudvere, “Old Norse religion: Some problems and prospects,” in Old Norse religion in long-term perspectives: Origins, changes, and interactions, ed.

Anders Andrén, Kristina Jennbert and Catharina Raudvere (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2006), 12 48 Andrén. Kristina and Raudvere, “Old Norse Religion,” 12 49 A term popularised in the late 20th century by scholars of religion Robert Orsi and David D. Hall, denoting that part of practices and beliefs which people perform and hold outside official doctrine in

their everyday lives. Source: Nancy Ammerman, “Finding Religion in Everyday Life,” 190, 194

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of forn siðr50 “old custom”.51 There was thus not much of a clear distinction between

“religious” beliefs and practices, and other everyday actions and behaviours. The “old

customs” signified something which extended beyond a purely religious sphere. Therefore it

would be more appropriate to speak of a ‘belief system’ rather than something as sharply

outlined as religion, for this system of beliefs can be better understood simply as another

aspect of daily life rather than being located in a separate sphere.52 The term religion as it is

commonly understood in the scientific field is therefore not really applicable, but due to lack

of an appropriate alternative it will nevertheless have to be used to effectively define the

study’s framework.53

It should furthermore be made clear that the concept of a pan-Nordic set of beliefs

and practices should be dismissed from the outset, as not one element of Nordic religion

was completely the same over the whole of Scandinavia and Iceland, whether it concerns

ritual, mythology, funerary practices or the use of magic. 54 Nevertheless, an image of late

Iron Age culture in the North is evident in most of its aspects according to Neil Price, who

argues that regionalities promoting their own individuality through their cultural practises

and traditions were still part of a larger more or less consistent framework as the two do not

necessarily exclude each other.55 Similarly Andreas Nordberg argues that no religion is ever

truly uniform, but that they can indeed be studied within the context of academically

constructed categories. These might not be identical with the heterogeneous and dynamic

reality, but they provide frames of thought by which said reality van be understood and

studied.56 However, a single coherent worldview did not exist in pre-Christian reality57 which

still causes a lack of a proper understanding of all and any regional and/or local differences

in religious practices and beliefs. As such, only a fairly general overview can be given when

discussing ONr.

50 Norna-Gests Þáttur, ed. Sveinbjörn Egilsson, verse 4 51 Andrén, Kristina & Raudvere, “Old Norse Religion,” 12 52 Price, The Viking Way: Religion and War in Late Iron Age Scandinavia. (Uppsala: Uppsala University,

2002), 26 53 Price, The Viking Way. 13 54 Neil Price, “Dying and the Dead: Viking Age mortuary Behaviour,” in The Viking World ed. Stefan Brink and Neil Price (London: Routledge, 2012), 259 55 Ibidem 56 Nordberg, “Continuity, Change,” 122 57 Schjødt, “Reflections on Aims,” 280

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Problematic sources

The sources available for the study of ONr form another obstacle towards

uncovering pre-Christian religious reality. Jens Peter Schjødt argues that there are two main

categories; one pertaining to contemporary sources like archaeological finds, some skaldic

poems, runic inscriptions, and writings from foreign authors who had dealings with

Scandinavian and Germanic society, the other pertaining to medieval sources, which were

predominantly written by anonymous Icelandic authors. 58

Concerning the second category there are some complications, for these sources are

relatively small in number when it comes to the subject of religious beliefs and practises, and

are steeped in problems which question their reliability as well. Firstly, there is the issue of

these sources having mostly been written a couple of centuries after the actual taking place

of the events they relate. Therefore it is very hard to distinguish between what is truly

authentic information and what has been altered through time. These texts have furthermore

been influenced by the worldview and mind-set of the predominantly Christian individuals

who recorded them onto parchment. This asks for caution when scholars study the Nordic

pre-Christian times, for one can never be completely sure to what extent the textual sources

provide the truth, and where Christian influences play a role. Consequently, it could be

argued that they can only provide information on the ideas and thoughts of the time they

were written in, or even more extreme, only the ideas and thought of the individuals who

wrote them down, because no certain claims about Nordic religion could be derived from

them. This is certainly a legitimate point, but it should not be taken as far as this, for it would

mean the effective cessation of any inquiry into the pre-Christian Nordic world and no one

would gain from that. As such one has to be very thorough in one’s research of this topic,

to be able to extrapolate, from the textual sources a sense of what reality was like then.

The first category of sources is therefore of great help in the attempt to come to an

accurate idea of how life and religion were lived in the late Iron Age. Archaeology especially

is of much worth to this endeavour, because with finds related to ONr, its accounts in the

textual sources can be corroborated with empirical evidence, establishing factual data on the

subject.

Surprisingly the use of archaeological material in the study of Nordic Paganism has a

fairly short history; only truly being introduced from the 1980s onward, for it seems that

critics had a hard time seeing archaeology and textual studies combined in a joint effort to

58 Schjødt, “Reflections on Aims,” 263

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study the Nordic late Iron Age59. But as for most cases of interdisciplinary research this

combination has proven most fruitful. An excellent example of this is Neil Price’s work The

Viking Way,60 wherein he uses a multitude of archaeological data to support the textual

accounts on ONr.

An archaeological approach, however, has some problems of its own, in that it is

largely dependent on interpretation. That is, once an archaeological artefact has been found,

it immediately starts accruing layers of meaning through the analysis and interpretation of

the archaeologist, both of which are culturally conditioned. 61 Therefore, a material

perspective too, calls for caution as one individual’s interpretation does not inherently equal

the truth. Price argues as much in his article What’s in a Name?62 in which he challenges the

attribution of divine identity to archaeological finds of pre-Christian figurines, saying that

these are simplistic, limiting and preclude a whole field of possibilities by assuming the

obvious rather than looking at what is actually there. 63

Despite the methodological flaws and problematic sources, these categories together

form a formidable tool by which an insight can be provided into the belief system(s) of the

peoples in late Iron Age Scandinavia and Iceland.

Old Norse Religion

Coming to a good understanding of the practises and beliefs of the Scandinavian and

Icelandic peoples in the late Iron Age is a difficult task. As mentioned above, the sources

upon which researchers have to depend are, more often than not, unreliable or subject to the

possibility of inaccurate interpretation. Nevertheless, a general outline of what people

believed in and practised during this time can be given with some certainty.

Aside from Bellah’s theory of religious evolution, ONr can be categorised as a

polytheistic, non-dogmatic, ethnic religion as opposed to a monistic dogmatic, universal

religion like Christianity .64 Pre-Christian Nordic religion was thus not governed by a set of

principles concerning faith, behaviour and morals; it was limited to its own ethnic group of

59 Price, The Viking Way. 28 60 Price, The Viking Way. 61 Patricia Galloway, “Material Culture and Text: Exploring the spaces Within and Between,” i n Historical Archaeology, ed. Martin Hall and Steven Sil l iman (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006), 48-49 62 Neil Price, “What’s in a Name: An archaeological identity crisis for the Norse gods ( and some of their

friends),” in Old Norse religion in long-term perspectives: Origins, changes, and interactions, ed. Anders Andrén, Kristina Jennbert and Catharina Raudvere (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2006) 63 Price, “What’s in a Name,” 179-182 64 Anders Hultgård, “The religion of the Vikings,” in The Viking World ed. Stefan Brink and Neil Price

(London: Routledge, 2012), 212

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people and there existed a belief in multiple gods. As such this religion was mostly limited

to single communities, due to geographical, social, temporal, and cognitive – pertaining to

how people reason, perceive and understand the world – differences between groups of

people.65 This made for a multitude of slightly different modes of religion all across

Scandinavia and Iceland, which asks for recognition regarding the fact one is actually dealing

with Old Norse Religions instead of one coherent religious system. For convenience sake I

will, however, be using the term in singular throughout this thesis, with the implied

understanding of its actual plural nature.

Representing this wide array of variation, however, seems to be beyond the scope of

possibility, as information extracted from literary and archaeological sources is far from

sufficient to create a complete image of the Nordic religious landscape in the late Iron Age.

Even so, multiple scholars have tried to tackle this problem using different methods.

Nordberg, for example, has two suggestions as to how continuity, change and regional

differences might be studied within the framework of ONr. He argues that variations in

religion are often rooted in social conditions, meaning that different social groups within a

society can likewise create varying religious systems. He then proposes that similar relations

between varying religious configurations and societal elements might exist, creating the

opportunity to study different religious configurations within the larger framework. 66 One

would however still have to be careful not to generalise any findings above their own

regionality. Brink furthermore uses the compilation and analysis of theophoric place-names

in Scandinavia to find clues as to which gods and goddesses were worshipped and where. He

finds that worship of particular divinities seems to have been distinctly regional, which is a

strong indicator for the heterogenous nature of Nordic pre-Christian religion.67 This

approach introduces the use of geography to the study of this religion and, Brink argues,

concerns the beliefs and practices of the common people for place-names are unbiased in

that they would not have been individually chosen.68 The only disadvantage of this method

lies in the fact that known place-names do not represent all the names that might have once

been in use thus providing a possibly incomplete image.

The non-dogmatic character of ONr provides further explanation for its diverse

nature as it seems to reflect a relative freedom people had in shaping their religion; perhaps

65 Gro Steinsland, Norrøn Religion: Myter, Riter, Samfunn (Oslo: Pax Forlag A/S, 2005), 31-34 66 Nordberg, “Continuity, Change,” 139 67 Stefan Brink, “How Uniform was the Old Norse religion?,” in Learning and Understanding in the Old Norse World: Essays in Honour of Margaret Clunies Ross, ed. Judy Quinn, Kate Heslop, and Tarrin Wills (Turnhout: Brepols, 2007), 125 68 Brink, “How Uniform,” 106

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even down to the individual level as evidence for individual worship of the gods can, in fact,

be tentatively construed from archaeological as well as literary sources, providing an

impression of true individual devotion to a specific god. 69 These sources range from finds

like amulets and divine symbols of various kinds70 to phrases in the literary sources like ástvinr

“close friend” in for example Eyrbyggja saga71 wherein the god Þórr is described as “ástvin

sinn” in relation to Þórólfur mostrarskegg. As said above, such finds can only be tentatively

used to determine the existence of personal religion, for both are subject to our interpretation

and the latter is strictly speaking a Christian source, but they might still convey a part of pre -

Christian reality.

This notion of personal worship implies an independence people might have had

concerning their spiritual beliefs and practices. Either way, two individuals can never have

the exact same religious convictions, making individuality an inherent though not always

recognised element of any religion. In general though, there appears to have been a focus on

the collective, rather than the individual, within the context of the cult-focused community

wherein the emphasis lay on a shared ritual experience, further strengthening its spiritual and

social unity.

ONr, furthermore, emphasized life and “the now”, rather than the afterlife, which is

aptly reflected in the saying ár ok friðr72 “good crops and peace.” A saying which is believed

to have its origin in pre-Christian ritual legacy,73 and emphasizes the idea of a peaceful and

prosperous life, unconcerned with the afterlife.

This life knew hardly any difference between the social community and religion, the

two being comfortably entwined74, creating a deeply lived religion. Informal due to its natural

integration into ordinary life and thus constantly present because of its everyday use.

Mythology and Cosmology

On the subject of myth concerning the primitive stage of religion, Bellah mentions

two features of the primitive mythical world he considers to be most important. The first

pertains to the high extent to which the mythical and the real world are connected to each

other in that not only the shape and contents of the landscape have a role in the mythological

69 Hultgård, “The religion of the Vikings,” 213 70 Hultgård, “The religion of the Vikings,”213 71 Eyrbyggja saga, ed. Einar Ólafur Sveinsson and Matthías Þórðarson, ch. 4 72 Ynglinga saga, ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson, ch. 12, 13 73 Hultgård, “The religion of the Vikings,” 217 74 Christina Raudvere, “Popular Religion in the Viking Age,” in The Viking World ed. Stefan Brink and Neil

Price (London: Routledge, 2012), 235

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narrative but the place and arrangement of people herein as well. There consequently does

not exist much of a divide between reality and the mythic.

The second feature is the constantly fluid state in which the mythical world and its

narrative exist. Bellah argues that there are no sharp distinctions or definitions present, and

as such symbolism and meaning can easily change, affecting multiple religious elements

within a belief system. Myths themselves, Bellah describes as being dreaml ike and occurring

“out of time.” The concept of one or multiple gods does not yet exist at this stage, though

there are many world and narrative shaping divine beings, human and animal, who have the

roles of heroic forebears of human beings in the myths.75

The stage of archaic religion introduces mythical beings as gods among whom a

hierarchy is established. They become more fleshed out as characters and wilfully and actively

rule the world. A world which is still holistic, though a hierarchy between the human realm

and that of the gods does appear, wherein the latter is the more powerful one. 76

Nygaard does not go into much detail with regard to cosmology or mythology in the

conception of his chieftain-religion, though some aspects pertaining to the mythical, such as

the primitive idea of tracing back one’s descent to the gods, are mentioned.77

Myth and mythology in general are of great importance in an exclusively oral society

as they are the only medium whereby the ideas, worldview, values and emotions of a culture

can be conveyed. Consequently myth has multiple functions and contexts: it has an

explanatory function regarding the origin and structure of the world and humanity, but also

acts as a guide to social behaviour and legitimises key institutions within a society. 78 Nordic

mythology however, contains a vast body of narratives and a complex multi -layered world.

John Lindow, in his Handbook of Norse Mythology79 suggests this is due to the fact that the data

relevant to the research on Nordic mythology spans at least two millennia and the

perspectives and motives of the ones who composed the mythical narratives were in almost

all cases not the same to those who eventually wrote them down. 80 As such, these narratives

know a great variety, not only of subjects but also within subjects, as the sources do not

always agree with one another. Therefore one cannot speak of one mode of Nordic

mythology, nor is it clear what understanding(s) the Nordic pre-Christian people had of their

mythological reality exactly.

75 Bellah, Religious Evolution,” 361-364 76 Bellah, Religious Evolution,” 364-366 77 Nygaard, “Sacral Rulers,” 24 78 Hultgård, “The religion of the Vikings,” 214 79 John Lindow, Handbook of Norse Mythology (Santa Barbara: ABC CLIO, 2001), 1 80 Ibidem

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Perhaps the best known version of the Nordic cosmology can be found in the Gylfaginning81

and Völuspá.82 These mention nine worlds or realms, which are divided spatially within the

universe, though still connected through the roots and branches of the world tree Ygdrassil.

In this sense the primitive notion of a holistic single world seems to apply, but when one

looks at the hierarchy among the gods with Oðinn being the allfather83 to the other gods, or

the relation between the Æsir and the Vánir as established during their great war in

Skáldskaparmál84 and Völuspá,85 and the differentiation people perceived between their reality

in life and that of the gods in their dwellings, like Vallholl or Hel, then archaic cosmology also

plays a role.

Whether one can speak of a connection between the real world and the otherworld

in such a particular way as Bellah argues for in his primitive stage of religious evolution is

not that clear cut. There certainly are quite some examples of mythical narratives which

explain the shape of the land. For example, in Gylfaginning86 when Þórr strikes three blows on

Skymir’s (Útgarda-Loki) head it turns out he actually created three valleys with his blows.

There furthermore are relations between supernatural beings and the landscape, like elves

living in stones, dwarves living underground and mountains being inhabited by supernatural

peoples or even the dead.87 Would it be incorrect to assume that reality was perceived as fully

governed and motivated by the mythical world? The highly integrated character of religion

into everyday life seems to imply not. However, the state of mythical fluidity is difficult to

assess due to the oral nature of the myths. Naturally their contents would not have been

completely static, but whether the distinction between reality and the mythical was

sufficiently small to make changes to mythical narratives is hard to say. Personally I would

not go as far as to say this was the case, for while there existed a primarily holistic worldview

within ONr, the beginnings of a dual perspective are visible too.

There is, however, evidence for the primitive concept of gods or divine beings as

ancestors, which can be found in Ynglingatal,88 a ninth century skaldic poem, which tells of

how the Ynglingar of Gamla Uppsala trace their lineage back to Freyr. Nygaard too,

81 Gylfaginning, ed. A. Faulkes 82 Völuspá, ed. and trans. U. Dronke, verse 2 83 Gylfaginning, ed. A. Faulkes, Ch. 20 84 Skaldskaparmal, ed. A. Faulkes, Ch 57 85 Völuspá, ed. and trans U. Dronke, verse 21, 24 86 Gylfaginning, ed. A. Faulkes Ch 47 87 Luke, J. Murphy, “Continuity and Change: Forms of Liminality in the Sacred Social Spaces of the Pre-Christian Nordic World,” Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 12 (2016): 156-157 88 Ynglingatal Þjóðólfr ór Hvini, ed. and trans E. Marold, Verse 31

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mentions this account of divine ancestry, supporting his idea of the sacrality and numinosity

of the ruler.89

The Nordic myths themselves range from a primitive “out of time” context, like the

cosmogony, which tells of a time unimaginably far removed from the people in the late Iron

Age, to more historical mythical narratives like Ynglingatal, which play in a distant mythical

past, but are not so far removed from reality that people would not be able to bridge the

time gap in their minds.

Consequently myth and cosmology seem to largely fall into the primitive category of

religious evolution, though some archaic elements are present too, but they are not subject

to the critical reflection Bellah suggests archaic religion introduces due to the attainment of

literacy, yet. As mentioned above Nygaard’s only addition to this theme is of a primitive

nature. As such, Old Norse myth and cosmology lie somewhere in between the two stages

of religious evolution.

Ritual

Bellah describes primitive ritual, and ‘religious action’ in general as being

characterized not by worship or sacrifice but by identification with and participation in myth

through the acting out of mythical events. Boundaries between the actors and the mythical

beings they represent disappear and there is no distinction between the past and the now.

There furthermore, exists no religious hierarchy; no priest or congregation, no mediators, no

spectators, as all participate in the ritual and become one with the myth. 90

Archaic religious action is more structuralized in that there is a much more definitive

distinction between humans as subjects and the gods as objects. As such, it takes the form

of a cult headed by a priest-like figure, wherein the need for a way of communication with

the gods becomes stronger. This need is then catered to through worship and sacrifice,

providing humans with more agency as active participants in their relationship with the gods,

though the certainty of a divine response diminishes, making this relationship more

ambivalent and imbued with anxiety.91

Nygaard emphasizes the role of the sacral ruler in the practice of ritual as sacrificer

or priest-figure, but also as the sacrificed because of his inherent sacrality and numinosity.92

89 Nygaard, “Sacral Rulers,” 15 90 Bellah, Religious Evolution,” 363 91 Bellah, Religious Evolution,” 364/365 92 Nygaard, “Sacral Rulers,” 18

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The information available on pre-Christian ritual, whether public or private, is rather scarce

as religious expression of the practical sort was one of the first things to be prohibited when

Christianity established its laws against the pagan religions in the 10 th century CE.93 What

data can be extracted from the sources seems to suggest that ritual activity practiced by the

Nordic peoples in the late Iron Age is primarily reflected by Bellah’s archaic stage of religion.

A few primitive elements can be found however. As mentioned above myths were in fact

acted out in rituals, though there is no obvious evidence for a complete loss of time, place

and the self, but a temporary shift from reality within the temporal and spatial confines of

the ritual certainly is a possibility. Related to this is the idea of performativity in conjunction

with ritual. Terry Gunnel discusses the possibility of “ritual drama” as an element within the

tradition of ‘performing’ eddic poetry. He describes such performances as taking place in

another world with either the audience being “there,” or the god/hero being “here.” 94

These practices overlap quite a bit with Bellah’s description of primitive ritual, for

there is the same suspense of the here and now; of disbelief, when reality and myth merge

and all participants exist in the mythical past, or the “everywhen”, as Bellah calls it. 95 Even

so, it cannot be said for certain that these performances of eddic poetry can indeed be linked

to religious practice.96

Archaic ritual is much more clearly related to ritual practices in the late Iron Age.

They were intentional, structured and organized around the cultic character of ONr. Worship

through sacrifice was the main ritual practise, being performed both in public and more

private settings,97 where offerings to the gods were made up of animals, libations and divine

symbols.98 Many of the gods had their own cult, and the amount of information available on

sacrifice suggests the need for communication with them was certainly present and

subsequently an important part of late Iron age spiritual life in general.

Place names with sacral elements reveal that natural sites were an important location

for ritual, for example mountains (fjall), groves (lundr), arable land and meadows (akr, vangr),

93 Hultgård, “The religion of the Vikings,” 215 94 Terry Gunnel , “Til holts ek gekk…” The performance demands of Skírnismál, Fáfnismál and

Sigrdrífumál in l iminal time and sacred space,” in Old Norse religion in long-term perspectives: Origins, changes, and interactions, ed. Anders Andrén, Kristina Jennbert and Catharina Raudvere (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2006), 239 95 Bellah, Religious Evolution,” 362 96 Gunnel, “Til holts,” 241 97 Big sacrificiacial feasts blótveizlur often related to the seasonal festivals and held at prominent places, as opposed to smaller family or individual blóts performed in or around the farmhouse. Source: Hultgård, “The religion of the Vikings,” 215 98 Hultgård, “The religion of the Vikings,” 216

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islands (ey), rivers (á), and lakes (sjór). 99 This suggests that nature had some significance in

relation to ritual. Indoor places, like chieftain’s halls, farmhouses and possibly even specific

cult houses were, however, also used as ritual locations.

Information on possibly important figures concerning ritual is not very decisive. 100

There does not seem to have been a designated priest-like figure, but instead, multiple people

within a community, who, alongside their daily tasks also performed religious ritual functions.

The closest to a proper religious character one can find are the chieftain or king and possibly

the goði. The former are known to have had important roles during the big public sacrificial

feasts, the latter being a medieval social construct, though probably traceable to pre-Christian

times, whereby the individual appointed the title of goði held political and judicial as well as

religious functions.101

In short, ritual may initially seem to be very easily categorized as having an overly

archaic character, due to the practice of worship through sacrifice, the possible existence of

a designated religious figure presiding over rituals and the idea of the gods as being distinctive

characters with whom one can maintain a relationship through ritual and worship. Primitive

elements do sneak in however, as the acting out of ritual, which is such a prominent part of

primitive religion, also has a place in old Nordic ritual, being connected to the idea of ritual

drama. Nygaard’s sacral ruler is certainly hinted at here because of the king’s assumed

importance during big public rituals, but whether said kingship can be regarded as sacralised

is very uncertain.102 As such, both the primitive and archaic stage of religion are applicable.

Afterlife

Both Bellah and Nygaard have almost nothing to say on the subject of the afterlife,

apart from the former mentioning that the primitive stage of religious evolution regards the

life after death as a “shadowy semi-existence in some vaguely designated place in the single

world.”103 Archaic religion gets completely skipped, and it is only in the following stage of

historic religion, Bellah says, that the afterlife becomes of higher importance, as people begin

to perceive more of a distinction between the “real” and the mythic, and thus life and death.

A dualism, legitimized by the new authority of an organised religion.

99 Hultgård, “The religion of the Vikings,” 217 100 Ibidem 101 Hultgård, “The religion of the Vikings,” 217 102 Olof Sundqvist, “Cult Leaders, Rulers and Religion,” in The Viking World ed. Stefan Brink and Neil Price (London: Routledge, 2012), 225 103 Bellah, Religious Evolution,” 360

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What the literary sources reveal about the belief in the afterlife is very eclectic. This is further

corroborated by the burial excavations which show the overtly individual character of the

late Iron Age funerary rite, that is, a single modus of burial across the Nordic world had no

existence at the time.104 This is a rather opposite notion to what Snorri describes in Ynglinga

saga105 as Óðinn’s burial laws. So not all people went to Vallhǫll after their death, that much

is clear. Where people went instead is difficult to ascertain due to the sparse and varied

information available.

First there is the idea of an actual afterlife to where the deceased travel after their

death. Sources mention places like the hall Folkvangr wherefore Freyja, its mistress, “halfan

val, hon kýss hverian dag.”106 (half of the fallen she chooses each day.)107 and the seeress

describes a harrowing place where perjurers and murderers go after death, called Nástrǫnd.108

Hel, furthermore, is attested as being a place as well as being death personified in the form

of a gruesome-looking woman109: “Hún er blá hálf en hálf með hörundar lit. Því er hún auðkennd ok

heldur gnúpleit og grimmleg.”110 (She is half black and half with skin colour. Therefore is she easy

to recognise but rather stern-looking and fierce.)111 These images of the afterlife are

supported by the practice of cremation whereby the “soul” of the individual is freed from

the body to ascend to the afterlife.112 Boat burials and grave goods like carts, sleds and horses

also give the image of a belief in the afterlife to which the dead travelled with the means of

transport provided in their graves.113

Afterlife in these unearthly places was, however, not the only bel ief concerning life

after death, as there also seems to have been a belief in the dead “living on” inside their

graves. This is reflected by the draugar roaming the saga-landscape, terrorizing and killing its

inhabitants close to the vicinity of the graves from which they have come back to “life.”

Examples hereof are Víga-Hrappr in Laxdǽla saga114 and Þórólfr bǽgiffótr, in Eyrbyggja saga,115

both of whom continue their lives within as well as outside of their graves. There are also

104 Price, “Dying and the Dead,” 257 105 Ynglingasaga, ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson, Ch.8 106 Grímnismál, U. Dronke, verse 14 107 Own translation. 108 Völuspá, ed. and trans. U. Dronke, verse 38-39 109 Christopher Abram, “Hel in Early Norse Poetry,” Viking and medieval Scandinavia 2 (2006): 11, 22 110 Gylfaginning, ed. A. Faulkes, Ch. 34 111 Own translation. 112 Hilda R. Ell is A study of the Conception of the Dead in Old Norse Literature. (New York: Greenwood

Press, 1968), 62 113 Price, “Dying and the Dead,” 262 114 Laxdæla saga, ed. Einar Ólafur Sveinsson. 115 Eyrbyggja saga, ed. Einar Ólafur Sveinsson and Matthías Þórðarson.

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instances of people dying into the landscape like Þórólfr mostrarskegg in Eyrbyggja saga, who

believed his afterlife would be spent inside the mountain Helgafell.116

Lastly, there is some evidence for a belief in reincarnation with the practice of naming

children after the dead in order to pass the deceased personality or soul unto a new vessel,117

as happens in Þáttr Ólafs Geirstaða Alfs in Flateyjarbók.118

Considering these beliefs relating to the life after death there simply does not seem

to have been one definitive idea of the afterlife, but more likely a multitude of beliefs thereof

by different groups of people or perhaps even individuals. Thus, the great variety which the

literary sources offer regarding the afterlife, while being very scarce, may reflect a certain

concern with the similar variety of humans – naturally of a much bigger scale – in which their

individuality in life might be reflected by the location of their afterlife. It may, however, also

reflect a preference towards the afterlife on the account of the writer of any one of the

sources, likely expressed through a Christian perspective as well .

On the other hand, there is the sentiment of placing the emphasis on life rather than

death, which is supported by both the idea of reincarnation and the deceased living on in

their place of burial.

This amalgamation of differing beliefs in the afterlife makes categorisation into any

one of Bellah’s stages of religion rather difficult, aside from the fact that he, and Nygaard

too, hardly treat the subject at all. The idea of an afterlife as taking place in a location or

realm distinct from the earthly human abode is close to being of an historic nature, though

a dualistic perspective is not wholly established yet as the holistic worldview was still in place.

On the other hand, “living” a semi-existence in a grave might be closer to the primitive idea

of afterlife in the one existing world. As such, it seems that the late Iron Age view on the

afterlife has elements from both primitive and archaic religion as well as displaying the first

development of the historical dualistic perspective.

Magic and Witchcraft

Oddly enough neither Bellah nor Nygaard spare any words on the topic of magic and

witchcraft, while one has only to read any traditional ethnographic work on primitive-like

116 Eyrbyggja saga, ed. Einar Ólafur Sveinsson and Matthías Þórðarson, ch. 4 117 Ell is, A study of the Conception, 138 118 Þattr Ólafs Gerirstada Álfs, ed. Sveinbjörn Egilsson, 209–215.

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religions to come to understand the profound importance magic has in most of these

cultures.119

What is of importance here is the notion of a “magical worldview,” described by

Stephen A. Mitchell as “(a) belief in causation, a world where nothing is accidental but rather

the result of (magical) actions of others, stimuli that can be interdicted an altered.”120 Magic

is thus an explanatory tool, more practical and tangible than religion, to discover who or

what causes one’s misfortunes or fortunes. It also provides agency in the managing of one’s

own fortune, so people can take their fate into their own hands instead of being only subject

to it.121

Some sources tell us that magic was first introduced by the gods Óðinn and Freya.

In Ynglinga saga122 Freya is said to have been the first one to practice seiðr (magic) and teach it

to the Æsir, while Óðinn” is said to be the wisest of all beings in Vafþrúðnismál .123 He is also

the most prominent magic-wielding character in the literary sources.124 Whether people in

pre-Christian Iceland and Scandinavia actually held this belief, or that the idea was introduced

after the arrival of Christianity is unclear however.

Magic was used as a powerful tool by humans as well; its multiple forms originating

from a set of principles and techniques used for connecting to supernatural powers which

one could then either bind to oneself or persuade to do one’s bidding. 125 As such, seiðr, must

have known as many variations and purposes as there were people who practised it.

Most characteristic among practitioners of magic was the völva. A mysterious woman,

who was not wholly part of society due to her “different” social status, but at the same time

being much revered, while not wholly trusted and even feared. These vǫlur were powerful

sorceresses, using their skills in seiðr to foresee the future and help people with their fortunes,

while also able to cast malicious curses on any who would thwart them. 126

The usage of seiðr was concerned with all aspects of daily life, though its most

common application concerned divining the future; predicting people ’s fate for the

119 For example, Sir E. E. Evans Pritchard’s Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande (1937), and

Bronislaw Malinowski’s Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922) 120 Stephen A. Mitchell, Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), 41 121 Ibidem 122 Ynglingasaga, ed. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson, Ch. 4 123 Vafþrúðnismál, ed. T. W Machan, Ch. 55.5-6 124 Price, “Sorcery and Circumpolar,” 245 125 Ibidem 126 Price, The Viking Way. 112-116

26

foreseeable future and beseeching the gods for an abundance in any practical needs people

might have, such as fortune, health, the weather and romance. 127

It is clear that magic had a predominantly practical role in the late Iron Age and was

consciously and actively manipulated in an effort for people to be able to sustain a

comfortable life as much as possible. This awareness of seiðr being a tool, giving agency to

the one practising it, reflects an archaic demeanour: expressing the ability of reflection upon

the use and consequences of a supernatural power. However, the magical worldview stays in

place, which diminishes the ability to reflect. Seiðr was furthermore considered indistinct

from religion and thus as much a part of everyday life and the prevailing worldview, which

conforms with the primitive holistic perspective of how the world works. Therefore I suggest

a combined primitive-archaic categorization.

Conclusion

From this discussion of ONr it has become clear that both primitive and archaic

religious elements are present in the four themes used. Cosmology and mythology fall in

between the primitive and the archaic, while ritual is leans more to the former than the latter.

The afterlife, interestingly, shows a hint of historic dualism, but also adheres to primitive and

archaic elements. Magic and witchcraft, lastly, are somewhat contradictory in their adherence

to both the primitive and the archaic perhaps displaying a transitionary form. A fairly

consistent image of ONr as being both of a primitive and archaic nature is the result.

127 Mitchell , Witchcraft and Magic. 52

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Chapter II: Ásatrú in Iceland

In this chapter a more in-depth view will be given on Ásatrú, its origins and make-

up. Subsequently, the data collected from four interviews held with members of

Ásatrúarfélagið in Reykjavík will be discussed and analysed with regards to Bellah’s primitive

and archaic stages of religion similar to how ONr was analysed in the previous chapter.

Ásatrú

The official founding of “Vor Siður”, as the association was called in its early days,

took place in 1972. It was dedicated by the founders to the pre-Christian myths, customs and

beliefs of late Iron Age Iceland. 128 Though, while some of the founders had a purely religious

inclination towards this newly established society, others wanted a primarily scholarly

approach to the Iceland’s heathen religious tradition; the very reason for the ambiguity that

seems to surround Ásatrú, even now with regards to whether it should be regarded as a

purely religious movement or more of a cultural heritage organisation. 129 This ambiguity is

of importance for it seems there only lies a very thin line between the two ways of thinking,

and in individual cases these often blur into each other creating a dichotomy, which

surprisingly seems to lead a peaceful existence nonetheless.

Scholarly interest in the old Nordic heathen practises and beliefs, and more

importantly the wish to reconstruct said religion can trace its origin to late 18 th and early 19th

century Romanticism.130 Its German branch was particularly interested in the Germanic

myths,131 and ‘Germanic paganism’.132 This modern desire towards reconstructing Old

Nordic/Germanic religion is thus born out of a romantic inclination towards a primordial

pre-Christian culture, which was understood as being more natural, authentic, and somehow

providing a purer existence than the one constructed by the chaos and confusion of

modernity.133 Where German scholarly interest unfortunately soon turned to emphasizing

the idea of a racial or national revival, and the Nordic/Germanic heritage was grossly misused

128 Strmiska, “Ásatru in Iceland,” 112 129 Ibidem. 130 Stefanie von Schnurbein, “Tales of reconstruction. Intertwining Germanic neo-Paganism and Old

Norse scholarship,” Critical Research on Religion 3 (2015): 155 131 Examples hereof are the Deutsche Mythologie (1835), written by Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm, and Der Ring des Nibelungen, magnum opus of Richard Wagner which he wrote between 1853 and 1874; 132 Schnurbein, “ tales of Reconstruction,” 150 133 Schnurbein, “ tales of Reconstruction,” 153

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by the nationalistic Völkisch movement in Germany during the early 20 th century,134 the later

establishment of independent Nordic religious movements during the 1970’s, like those in

Scandinavia and Iceland, were not founded on ideas of national or racial superiority

however.135

The development of Ásatrú in Iceland and Scandinavia was, as such, not so much of

a socio-political endeavour as it was a conscious re-appropriation of the Nordic heritage, and

can thus almost be seen as a natural consequence of the traditions and beliefs already inherent

to a culture and a people.136

This very notion of old Nordic tradition and religion already being an integral part of

modern Icelandic culture makes for a brand of Ásatrú that is very independent and confident,

in that its members do not necessarily feel the need for “external” sources or influence. An

example hereof is the use of scholarship in ONr, which while it is deemed an important

source upon which Icelandic heathens build their religion, it is not so much needed as an

authority legitimising their beliefs as might be the case elsewhere. They rather use it as an

inspirational basis, combined with an experimental and experiential (re-) constructive

approach.137

So, even if the heathen belief in the old Nordic gods and myths has not been a

constant element of the beliefs and traditions in Iceland and Scandinavia during the last

millennium, a cultural awareness of their existence has always been part of people’s lives;

ingrained in tradition and folklore. This is true as well for the Icelandic heathens I have

spoken to, for they argue that Ásatrú is just a natural extension and restoration of what was

already there.

As such, Icelandic Ásatrú in its current form can be understood as a religious

movement, wherein the preservation of cultural tradition is of equal importance to its

members as is the creation of a religious or spiritual environment to which all are welcome

and subsequently free to interpret, realise and internalise this religious environment for

themselves.

134 Schnurbein, “Tales of reconstruction,” 150 135 Schnurbein, “Tales of reconstruction,” 154 136 Schnurbein, “Tales of reconstruction,” 158 137 Ibidem

29

Interviews

As explained in the subchapter on theory and methodology the interviews have been

carried out to get a more comprehensive perspective of the ideas and experiences of the

people who practice and believe in Ásatrú. They gives an idea of how these people live their

religion, how it ties into their life, and as such how this life reflects upon their religion and

vice versa.

This interview is made and structured based on the four themes, presented in the

introduction, and Bellah’s implementation of them, as shown in the last chapter. The

introductory questions will not be discussed in this chapter but in the following.

Introductory

I) How did you come into contact with Ásatrú?

II) What made you decide to join this religion?

III) What does Ásatrú mean to you; what does it provide you with?

IV) To what form of religion or other practices and beliefs would you compare Ásatrú?

Mythology and Cosmology

V) To what extent do you make a distinction between the mythical and the “real” world?

VI) To what extent, do you feel, does the mythical world govern the “real” one?

VII) Where and how do you place the mythical narratives in your religion/beliefs?

VIII) What role do the gods play in your religion; what does their power extend to?

Ritual

IX) What are the main forms of ritual you practice?

X) What is the motive behind rituals (in general) practiced within your religion, specifically in relation to the gods?

XI) How do you experience the rituals you perform in relation to time and place?

Afterlife

XII) Do you believe the afterlife to be a distinct world/realm; where do you locate it?

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XIII) Describe the afterlife how you believe it to be, are there more than one version?

XIV) How big is the role of the afterlife in your religion?

Magic and Witchcraft

XV) Do you perceive a distinction between magic and religion within Ásatrú, or are they the same thing?

XVI) What is the role of magic and/or witchcraft in your religion or for you personally?

XVII) Does it influence your worldview or perception of how the world works?

Mythology and Cosmology

The responses given in answer to questions V through VII display both similar and

different ideas on the subject of mythology and cosmology. There seems to be a consensus

on the notion of a holistic cosmology, wherein multiple perceived realms or worlds exist

together and generally overlap. Teresa, for example, explains this overlap like being similar

to a Venn diagram: “For me the easiest way to describe them is to say one of them is physical

and the other one is not physical; it is more metaphysical.” Jóhannes too sees the two worlds

as being mixed together. He likens them to radio frequencies: “My idea, it is mixed together

just like radio frequencies, all of them could be here in this room, the gods or the hidden

people, there are a lot of frequencies. I believe we can receive multiple frequencies, it depends

what kind of radio you are; it depends on people.” When asked whether the mythical world

governs the human one, the answers differ slightly, in that Teresa completely agrees with this

notion saying: “as above so below.” According to her both worlds follow the same patterns,

though the divine operates on a higher level than the mundane. For Jóhannes the two worlds

influence each other equally, though this is a hard concept for people to understand, or rather

to come to terms with, as he believes we may have not developed enough as a species to be

able to cope with such ideas without feeling threatened by the existence of a world we cannot

fully see or understand. Óttar approaches the concept on a more personal level : “There are

the norns, (…) they are supposed to set out the lines of my life, but I still am the master of

my own life. Maybe you could say, they deal out the cards but I have the say and I play the

game, for better or for worse.”

The mythical narratives are mostly seen as metaphors and can subsequently be used

as containing guiding principles. Jóhannes suggests, “It could be a metaphor for our human

31

mind, about love and feelings; could also be some collective mind-set relating to the

zeitgeist.” These metaphors, he says, always remain the same like the core of narratives, while

circumstantial elements of the story change little by little as time passes. For Kári these

narratives are of much importance: “What scholars have written about them is also very

interesting. I think many of them have a very deep meaning, that maybe became lost.

Something like that makes a lot of sense to me and I often wish that we would make more

stories about that.” Teresa too, sees the mythical narratives as cosmological meta-narratives

for life, and uses them pretty much for everything she encounters in life: the way in which

she understands and perceives them forming the fundament for her religious beliefs.

With regards to the gods too, Teresa has a very direct approach: “I would use different gods

for different reasons. They can directly affect me, but it is more that if I ask them to help me

with something I am not really asking that they do it for me or solve it for me, but rather

that they give me the power to do it myself, (…) So I use them sort of more as equals than

as some higher power.” Óttar, on the other hand, accepts that the gods are there but he does

not believe they have the will nor time to interfere with human lives and they consequently

do not play much of a role in his day to day life. Kári tends to think of the gods in relation

to their roles in the literary sources: “Well, personally when I look at the sea I see Ýmir’s

blood, with fertility I think about Freyr and when I see rain and wind and thunder of course

I think of Þórr.” For him, the gods are tied into the natural world and to a certain extent as

much part of people’s lives and reality as they were in the past. In general the gods are called

upon and worshipped during blóts, where their stories from the literary sources are often

recounted.

When it comes to mythology and cosmology then, there seems to exist a decidedly

holistic worldview among the correspondents, wherein the mythical world and human reality

are overlapping or mixed, if not one altogether. Consequently the mythical world is believed

to govern our world entirely or partly, influencing life on earth according to its own make

up, though a reciprocal influence is also mentioned. Both these beliefs adhere to the primitive

worldview.

This does, however, not seem to be the case for the mythical narratives, which are mainly

seen as metaphorical guides regarding worldview and religious beliefs rather than indistinct

from reality. A view which could hardly be expected to persist into modern times at any rate.

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Ritual

Ritual in Ásatrú pertains mostly to blót, whether they are a public event for the whole

community to attend or smaller private affairs. There are the four big seasonal blót, performed

at the beginning of winter and summer, Yule and the Þingblót in June. These are headed by

the goði, 138and begin with him blessing the attendants and ritual space, after which accounts

from the Edda are recounted “to get people in the right mood” Jóhannes says, followed by

a feast at which some mead is spilled in honour of the god presiding over the blót. At the

private ceremonies the sacrifice of food is more popular, but people will also offer handmade

things or parts of themselves like a lock of hair Teresa says.

The motive behind a blót depends on the occasion at which at which it is performed,

and besides honouring the gods and being in touch with the mythical world, a ritual like this

provides its practitioners with other things as well. Óttar, for instance talks about a feeling

of togetherness: “The best blót is with friends.” Jóhannes does not especially experience a blót

as spiritual but he does feel it creates a special time or ambiance. Kári says that he is more of

a lone practitioner, but, like Óttar, he also emphasizes the social element of people coming

together as important to ritual. He, furthermore, does experience ritual a s a spiritual

experience: “It clicks in a spiritual sense in that I think you can only get there this way: it

opens the spiritual mind in your head; it gives you a certain trance I guess.”

None of the correspondents have experienced a change in time and place139during

rituals they have attended or performed, but they do put a strong emphasis on the location

of a blót, that is, a ritual performed outside “in nature” is generally preferred to everyday

places like home or even the community’s weekly meeting place. Óttar emphasizes the fact

that Ásatrú is a religion which is founded in nature and natural forces: “Nature adds a lot to

it. Performing a blót here (in the Ásatrúarfelagið building), it takes something out of it.”

Therefore nature adds something to a blót which otherwise is absent. In this setting he feels

like he has the mythical world on the metaphysical (telephone)line and though this does not

necessarily embody actual contact, it does give him a feeling of peace of mind. Within the

vé,140 Kári says, the space is sacred and time will not be on people’s minds. Here, he says, the

goði transforms his everyday self into a connector with the gods. The personal connection

138 A modern interpretation of the Late Iron age goði who was both a priest-l ike figure, presiding over religious ritual, and a powerful, high-status community leader. They were mostly rich landowners with a large retinue of retainers and slaves. Within Ásatru the goði is considered to be the high-priest and

overall leader of the Ásatrú community. Source: Strmiska, “Ásatrú in Iceland,” 115 139 See chapter I on primitive ritual 140 A ritual space, often physically separated from its surroundings, specifically for the practice of religious ritual. It is a sacred place wherein no violence is condoned. Source: Anders Hultgård, “The

religion of the Vikings,” 217

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Kári has with the gods he describes as “… a connection with the gods in a metaphorical way,

but just in your mind and nature. We are a part of nature and you can feel it through your

senses.” Teresa has experienced that the right setting, like Þingveillir at the Þingblót can prolong

the feeling of sacredness until long after the actual ritual has ended.

With regards to ritual it is clear that Ásatrú practices of such kind do not adhere to

the primitive stage of religion in the least. There is no sense of acting anything out during

rituals and none of the correspondents gave any indication of experiencing a change in time

and place. Furthermore, the foremost form of ritual are the sacrificial blót whereby the gods

are worshipped and honoured, and all of this is presided over by the priest-like figure of the

góði. These elements of worship are all distinctively archaic, and as such Ásatrú ritual practices

can be assumed to adhere almost solely to the archaic category.

Afterlife

In regard to the concept of the afterlife the correspondents held very different beliefs.

Óttar, to begin with, says there are three general ideas about death within the Icelandic Ásatrú

community. The first of these is that death simply means the end of someone’s existence in

that there is no belief in the presence of an afterlife at all – which is his own conviction– the

second is the belief in reincarnation based on accounts in the literary sources and the third

idea does accept the idea of an afterlife. Like Óttar, Kári does not strictly believe in an afterlife,

except that your reputation will live on, similar to how the concept of honour is portrayed in

many of the sagas. If, however, there is an afterlife, the heathen one makes the most sense to

him, which he understands as people being buried and “living on” in mounds, stones, glaciers

and mountains. In general though, he emphasizes the importance of life, and to make the

best of it, rather than dwelling on death and the afterlife.

For Teresa, dying means going into a higher world: “…but at the same time you

remain a part of this world as well, but in a changed form. Most commonly you will just turn

into compost when your body is in the earth so you become part of the earth and the earth

is a living entity. Therefore you remain alive in there, keeping everything living on the earth

nurtured. But at the same time I also believe there is some sort of continuing life in the

metaphysical world” The afterlife itself, she believes, is composed of multiple realms like

they are described in the literary sources, each of them having their own unique properties.

Jóhannes has an altogether different vision of the afterlife: “Dying is like walking out of a

boring party, you are just outside; you can look in through the window, but most people will

not see you. The afterlife has no specific place. Life takes place in a big house where all

34

people exist. When you leave/die, the nice people go to the sunny side of the house and the

bad go to the shadow side.” He also believes in reincarnation however, saying that everyone

will return to a new life on earth after having spent some time in the afterli fe.

The afterlife proves to be a tricky subject as it is hardly discussed by Bellah, but the

answers given here point towards a perspective that is mainly primitive, for the mentioned

afterlife realms are not distinct from ours; a life continued in the grave takes place in our

reality too, and reincarnation is suspended between these two. The idea of life being of more

importance than the afterlife, furthermore, is still present in Ásatrú.

Magic and Witchcraft

Magic, it seems, is mainly perceived as an all-permeating natural force, which can

possibly be manipulated by humans. Teresa sees magic and religion as one and the same:

“…there’s just varying amounts of magic. I would say there’s a lot of magic in Ásatrú (…) in

comparison to many other religions. Like for example in Christianity where they would like

to believe they have magic. Some of them oppose the idea of magic, but as I see it, it is all

magic, they’re just using different definitions.” For her, magic furthermore provides a way to

connect this world and the mythical one, but it also gives her an understanding of how things

work as Teresa is inclined towards “magical thinking” wherein everything is related through

magic even though one might not understand how. Kári is concerned with the practicality

of witchcraft; the use of magic or rune staves and nithing poles, which he says are still used

today, though they are only a last resort and their use is considered as very significant: “The

magic works within this society because people understand it, but you would not be

successful if you take it out of context. It is a tradition that binds society together like

religion.” For both Jóhannes and Óttar magic and witchcraft are not of much importance in

relation to their religious beliefs, though Jóhannes admits: “I believe in some kind of force,

but not everyone can manipulate this force, either willingly or accidentally .” Óttar adds:

“Accepting, at least not rejecting it, makes life more colourful”

Like the afterlife, magic and witchcraft are subjects Bellah does not treat at all. As

mentioned before there seems to be a general belief in a natural magic-like force which links

our world to the mythical one. Humans are able to manipulate this force and make it into a

practical tool, but a tool of causation as well, as is indicated by Teresa’s mention of her

magical worldview and the practical social explanation of magic, given by Kári. Consequently

35

it would seem most likely that magic and witchcraft as perceived and used by members of

Ásatrú adheres most to an archaic worldview rather than a primitive one, because while it is

perceived as an all permeating force it is a consciously used tool as well, providing people

with an agency which primitive religion does not bestow its practitioners.

Conclusion

Concluding this chapter it can be said that Ásatrú consists of fairly equal parts of

primitive and archaic elements according to Bellah’s theory of religious evolution. The

Nordic cosmology seems to be understood in a holistic and primitive way, while ritual has a

clear archaic character and both the afterlife and magic appear to be a mix of the two. As

such Ásatrú and ONr occupy the same stages of religious evolution, both being a mix of

primitive and archaic elements.

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Chapter III

In this chapter ONr and Ásatrú as categorised according to Bellah’s typologies of

religious evolution will be compared to each other, highlighting their differences and

similarities. These will subsequently be looked at in regard to the notions of re-enchantment,

neomedievalism and neopaganism, through which it will be attempted to come to an

understanding of Ásatrú as a modern religious phenomenon reflecting modernity’s desire for

a specific kind of spirituality, which reaches back to a time and an understanding of the world

that provides people with a sense of re-enchantment.

Comparison and Analysis

To answer my initial question concerning the inquiries undertaken regarding ONr

and Ásatrú in the last two chapters, both can be categorised as examples of what Bellah calls

a “compromise formula”141 of the primitive and archaic stages of religious evolution, the

combination of which so attracts people in today’s Western society within the sphere of

modern spirituality.

Of real interest here though is the specific make-up of Ásatrú, being a composite or

even a bricolage, of the old and the new. To uncover what belongs where a final comparison

of the two religious systems, as placed within Bellah’s framework and the religious themes

used throughout this thesis, will be needed.

With regards to core characteristics there are some clear similarities between the

religious systems. Namely, both have a non-dogmatic character, which gives the possibility

for considerable variety of beliefs and practises between not only communities but

individuals as well, creating a diverse religion. This is likely more so the case for Ásatrú than

ONr, as members of the former are actively encouraged to seek their own way to connect to

what their religion provides, thus creating an individual spiritual experience within the larger

frame of reference that is Ásatrú. To what extent this might have been a possibility for

Nordic people in pre-Christian times is hard, if not impossible, to asses, but the few pieces

of evidence – as discussed in chapter I – that point towards an individual approach to

worship and belief go some way towards representing a certain sense of individual spirituality,

141 Bellah, Religious Evolution,” 361

37

a concept which is heavily emphasised and encouraged within the Icelandic Ásatrú

community.

The prevalent cosmology, for both religious systems, is primitive, though with an

archaic inclination. This means that both religious systems hold a largely holistic perspective

with regards to the universe; there being multiple realms which are, however, part of a larger

whole (Yggdrasil), or exist in each other; overlapping and mixing. For modern heathens this

belief might be less literal and tangible compared to how the pre-Christian people of the

North experienced the unity of the mythical and the “real” world, but it is a clearly expressed

view nonetheless, and can therefore be called primitive. The shared recognition of the gods

as a higher power is an archaic belief however, and while the beliefs of the correspondents,

concerning the gods and their nature differed, their existence was recognised by all of them.

The view on cosmology, as such, is quite similar for Ásatrú and ONr.

Myth is where they start diverting and to quite an extent. Where the modern heathens

see myths mostly as metaphors possibly containing guiding principles, the people in pre-

Christian Scandinavia and Iceland where completely dependent on myth for the worldview,

values and past their culture was built upon. In a sense, myth has a guiding nature in both

cases then, but the difference in its importance to the community is considerable. As said

before, this is hardly a shocking conclusion as today the old mythical narratives are

considered, by most, as just that; captivating stories, a reflection of the pre-Christian mind-

set at most, but certainly not a representation of a long lost past.

With regard to ritual modern heathens are mostly in agreement with their pre-

Christian counterparts. For their ritual practice adheres closely to the archaic: worship

through sacrifice in honour of a specific god, surveyed by the goði or another Ásatrú-member,

being its primary form. ONr does, however, also display primitive ritual elements like the re-

enactment of myth and possibly ritual drama. Even so, the cultic nature of both Ásatrú and

ONr being composed of sacrifice to distinctive gods in order to strengthen communication

with them, together with the presence of people governing ritual, is predominantly archaic.

Important to note here is the emphasis on the conduct of ritual in a natural context,

expressed by the many pre-Christian sacred place-names accorded to natural sites and the

unanimous preference for outside ritual locations among modern heathens.

Both religious systems display multiple beliefs in the afterlife. One could perhaps go

as far as to say that there are as many different ideas about the afterlife as there are modern

Nordic heathens, for it seems that there is no common shared concept of life after death,

except for what is written in the literary sources. Though the interviews reveal these are not

38

authoritative and people can and do have their own ideas about the afterlife without

necessarily addressing the mythical abodes of the dead. It is again made clear that individual

interpretation of the different religious aspects of life is an important part of Ásatrú and

pertaining to the afterlife these seem to have a preference for the primitive.

The Old Norse afterlife too was regarded in different ways, displaying elements, not

only, of primitive and archaic nature, but also the beginnings of a historical dualistic view.

This eclectic quality might express a certain sense of individuality as well, even if only on a

local level. Literary and archaeological sources suggest that people did put quite some

thought into the afterlife and the journey it took to get there even if the main focus was on

life and the hope for it being peaceful and abundant. A similar sentiment is present among

the Ásatrú-members today, who would rather concentrate on the present, than dwell on

death.

Both the all-pervading character and the practical application of magic in ONr are

reflected in Ásatrú. Within its community there are people who believe in a universal magical

force, which can be manipulated towards being used for one’s own benefits and goals.

“Witchcraft” is performed by women who are known as völur, their magic being considered as

significant acts which are very much real in the sense that people recognise the meaning or

message behind the action that exists within the cultural context of the Icelandic “magical”

tradition. As such both Ásatru and ONr display an archaic understanding of magic which,

while supporting the primitive holistic worldview with the concept of magical thinking, is

used as a conscious tool of causation as well.

On the basis of this comparison it is safe to say that there are surprisingly few

differences between ONr and Ásatrú in regard to their analysis according to Bellah’s

typologies of religious evolution as not only do both religious systems adhere to a

compromise formula of primitive and archaic religion, they also tend to overlap within the

discussed themes to a certain extent. The only real differences pertain to those elements of

religious conviction that are too far removed from the modern mind-set and sensibility to

maintain the significance they had in pre-Christian times.

As to why ONr and Ásatrú converge within this compromise formula of primitive

and archaic religion so well is not only due to the fact that the latter is mainly an effort to

revive the former, but that it is also the reason behind this effort. Admittedly, this is due to

the wish to connect to cultural heritage and keep its rich tradition alive. But why does this

have to be a spiritual or religious endeavour and why only now, in the last 45 years or

39

thereabouts? It is my opinion the answer to these questions are partly related to the concepts

of disenchantment, re-enchantment, neopaganism and neomedievalism.

Disenchantment

“The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, by

the disenchantment of the world. Precisely the ultimate and most sublime values have retreated from

public life either into the transcendental realm of mystic life or into the brotherliness of direct and

personal human relations.”142

With these words Max Weber describes the predicament of modernity as he

perceived it, borrowing the term “disenchantment” from Friedrich Schiller143 to portray what

he believed lay at the heart of modernity, that is, a world wherein everything is predictable,

knowable and manipulable by humans.144 This effectively eliminates any sense of

enchantment human experience of the world might have, leaving said world a cold and

disenchanted place.

According to Weber there are two main features to disenchantment. One being the

process of secularization and the subsequent diminishing of belief in magic, the other being

due to the growing scope, power and scale of bureaucracy, the law, policy-making and most

importantly the formal “means-end” rationality of science.145 As such Christopher Partridge

argues that the history of modernisation has been the history of the gradual demise of the

social importance of a supernatural worldview too. With the disappearance of such a

collective mind-set, specialisation and differentiation of social units has become central to

societal modernisation creating consumer-centric cultures that are compelled by the demand

for variety and individual choice.146

Extremes, can however never exist without the presence of their counterpart. As

such, the cold and calculating rationality that brought the western world into a magic -less

“post-modernity” has engendered a cultural reaction to the opposite effect, namely, people’s

attempts to temporarily escape from the disillusion that is modern reality and find some

enchantment outside that which is rational.

142 Weber, Essays in Sociology. 155 143 Johan Christoph Freidrich von Schiller (1759-1805) was a German poet, physician, playwright, historian and philosopher. 144 Jenkins, “Disenchantment, Enchantment and Re-enchantment,” 12 145 Ibidem. 146 Partridge, “The Disenchantment and Re-enchantment of the West,” 237-238

40

Re-enchantment

Re-enchantment is a sentiment that essentially has its roots in 18th and 19th century

Romanticism and is showing rapid growth in recent times, with the rise of cultural trends

such as New Age, the Gothic and High Fantasy. 147 So despite the romantic desire for a

mythic, pre-modern and un-rationalised past, the modes of re-enchantment people invent

for themselves are decidedly modern as they range from alternative lifestyles and new

spiritual traditions to cinematic escapism and the enormous scope of “enchanting” content

that can be found on the internet.

Jenkins has formulated, what he calls, a tentative, loose and catch-all definition of the

term:

“Enchantment conjures up, and is rooted in, understandings and experiences of the world in which

there is more to life than the material, the visible or the explainable; in which the philosophies and

principles of Reason or rationality cannot by definition dream of the totality of life; in which the

quotidian norms and routines of linear time and space are only part of the story; and in which the

collective sum of sociability and belonging is elusively greater than its individual parts.” 148

As such re-enchantment is counteracting the rationality of modernity.

Of relevance to this thesis is the spiritual kind of enchantment, which explores both

new and archaic understandings of the world in conjunction with ritual and myth in an

attempt to come to terms with and finding alternative manners in which to relate to

technology and people’s needs in modernity.149 This new form of spirituality is, in

correspondence with modernity’s individualistic tendencies, focused on the individual and

lies within rather than outside and above the self, thus creating an inherently personal

spirituality, freely tailored to modern needs, though still being largely dependent on the

idealisation of an archaic past for its contents. A part of the desire of finding enchantment

through spirituality is, however, also found in the wish to belong.150 To be able to connect

with other people; sharing one’s beliefs, values and goals and seeing them verified, not

judged.

To this description of the notion of re-enchantment a fairly clear resemblance can be

seen in Ásatrú, for here too there is a mixing of the old and the new in the endeavour to

reconstruct ONr. The shared convictions and beliefs of modern heathens in Iceland being

ones that extends beyond human reality. A reality wherein there is more to life than that

147 Partridge, “The Disenchantment and Re-enchantment of the West,”242 148 Jenkins, “Disenchantment, Enchantment and Re-enchantment,” 29 149 Partridge, “The Disenchantment and Re-enchantment of the West,” 245 150 Partridge, “The Disenchantment and Re-enchantment of the West,” 252

41

which is visible; one which may be a safe haven or have a soothing effect against our

disenchanted world; where one can find a sense of belonging among others whilst

maintaining the individuality of one’s faith.

These sentiments are expressed by the interviewees as well: Johannes says that “We

(humans) have an affinity for religion and without it we are not fully developed beings.” and

Óttar stating “I realized that we all have a need for some religious ideas or point of view or

something.” He furthermore argues that “Accepting, at least not rejecting it (magic), makes

life more colourful.” Kári even expressed the wish to fully belief all that his religion holds,

instead of being held back by rational and scientific convictions: “Sometimes I wish I was

more involved, that I could believe more because that would make life more fun.”

Such utterances seem to display a desire and a need for re-enchantment through

spiritual means. Likewise is there a wish for belonging implied in the emphasis on acceptance

among fellow heathens and the importance which is laid on the social aspect of ritual, being

described by Óttar as providing a feeling of togetherness and Johannes experiencing the

Jólablót as a “nice special time, especially the Jólablót at nighttime with fires; it is a cosy time.”

These resemblances suggest Ásatrú could also be a provider of re-enchantment to people.

Neomedievalism

Neomedievalism, first coined and popularised by Italian medievalist Umberto Eco in

Dreaming of the Middle Ages (1986), has been a much debated topic within medieval sciences

recently as it concerns a medievalism shaped and governed by modernity’s fascination with

the Middle Ages. Therein lies a dichotomy which seems to be inherent to people’s pursuit of

enchantment. That is why Stephen G. Nichols argues that the Middle Ages have something

important to tell about our own age; just because of its radical alterity to our time.151

This fascination with the Middle Ages spans a time – longer than the they are

normally considered to run – from roughly the third century to the beginning of the 16th

century C.E. and is much influenced by popular culture. As such, examples of this medieval

category can be found in fantasy narratives like J.R.R Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and C.S.

Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia; Role Playing Games videogames like World of Warcraft and the

Elder Scrolls games and movies such as Braveheart and Kingdom of Heaven. Consequently some

scholars have dubbed neomedievalism as a faux medievalism or a meta-medievalism as its

151 Stephen G. Nichols , “Writing the New Middle Ages,” Neohelicon 33 (2006): 141

42

unhistorical and bricolage focused approach is mocking and trivialising medieval scholar’s

efforts towards historical accuracy and textual authenticity with a jesting disrespect.152

One can, however, wonder whether neomedievalism can be truly seen as one of the

medievalisms it so scandalises. In Living with Neomedievalism Carol L. Robinson and Pamela

Clemens therefore argue that neomedievalism is more independent and detached from the

Middle Ages than any other medievalism; creating an alternative universe of medievalisms.153

As such neomedievalism is not so much related to the actual Middle Ages, as it is to the idea

of that age and its recreation is not the goal, but rather assimilation and consumption. 154

Neomedievalism then is an idealisation of a time and a way of life which never truly existed,

creating an utopia that contrasts with the dystopia of modern society, thus being dependant

both upon the Middle Ages and the postmodern predicament. In Medieval Unmoored Amy S.

Kaufman describes the concept very aptly, saying that “neomedievalism obliterates distance

in an intensified combination of love and loathing, its desire for the past torn asunder

between the denial of history and the longing for return.”155

The Nordic pre-Christian era, of course, is not strictly part of the Middle Ages, but

as mentioned above, neomedievalism has a scope that reaches back to the third century, at

least partially validating the inclusion of the Nordic pre-Christian times. Besides that, the

denial of history and the longing for return, mentioned by Kaufman above, can hardly be

related to medieval times alone. On the contrary, archaic and pagan spirituality, which will

be discussed in the next section, are a very popular subjects of reconstruction in modern

society and play a big role in providing re-enchantment. As such Ásatrú can be seen as a

similar type of desire for a past and a reality which will never be fully known. I do not wish,

however to, undermine Ásatrú’s serious and genuine claim of historicity, for the modern

heathens in Iceland emphasise the fact that they are reconstructing an historical religious

system. In a sense they feel their religion is very much a continuation of how it was in pre-

Christian times, before its repression and disappearance. Even so, it has to be said that this

feeling of continuation and the natural place modern heathens find Ásatrú to have in

Icelandic society because of its rich folkloric tradition, seems to make them somewhat less

critical of the sources and less dependent on scholarly works on ONr,156 which then

152 Daniel Lukes , “Comparative neomedievalisms: A l ittle bit medieval,” postmedieval: a journal of medieval cultural studies 5 (2014): 3 153 Carol L. Robinson and Pamela Clements, “Living with Neomedievalism,” in Studies in medievalism XVIII, ed. Karl Fugelso (Martlesham: Boydell & Brewer, 2009), 56. 154 Kaufman, “Medieval unmoord,” 5 155 Kaufman, “Medieval unmoord,” 2 156 Schnurbein, “Tales of reconstruction,” 158

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diminishes their claim on historical accuracy. This makes the neomedieval practices of

assimilation and consumption of pre-Christian religion against a modern backdrop more

plausible concerning Ásatrú as it is hard to say to what extend its contents are based on actual

fact or an idealised picture people want to be true, due to the lack of reliable source material.

Neopaganism

Neopaganism has a very wide scope as the term knows many forms and expressions.

Therefore a single definition would not do it justice, and as such it can be loosely described

as an effort shared by most modern pagan religious movements to revive the polytheistic,

nature-worshipping pagan religions of pre-Christian Europe and adapt them for practice by

people in modern society.157 The conviction modern pagans have in their turning to the past

is that the pre-Christian beliefs and practises have a continued value and use in modernity,

even after centuries of repression and neglect.158 The origin of this interest for the archaic

past lies not only in 18th and 19th century Romanticism, but also in the publication of works

like Frazer’s Golden Bough and Margaret Murray’s The God of Witches which, even though the

findings and facts in these books have been disreputed or discredited in later years, create an

air of mystery and allure around pre-Christian religion and encourage a nationalistic pride in

mythology, folklore and religious traditions of Pagan times which attracts people to this

day.159

The term neopaganism itself is a heavily debated topic however. Not only among

scholars but by Pagans themselves as well. Many of them find the “neo” tag derogatory and

reject it in order to emphasise the affinity they have with the paganism of the past, renouncing

any divergence between them and their Pagan forebears.160 As such most prefer to be called

simply Pagan or otherwise Heathen. Even so, the time and space between the old religions

and the modern ones is so great that one can hardly believe there to be much continuity

between the two and that is why Michael Strmiska opts for the term “modern Paganism”,

saying that it is a product of both the old and the new; a hybrid, as modern Pagans have “a

great reverence for the spirituality of the past, (…) which they interpret, adapt , and modify

according to modern ways of thinking.”161

Neopagans often are people with romantic feelings towards nature and their religious

beliefs and practices are commonly described as nature religions. Cultural and spiritual

157 Strmiska, “Modern paganism in World Cultures,” 1 158 Strmiska, “Modern paganism in World Cultures,” 2 159 Strmiska, “Modern paganism in World Cultures,” 8 160 Strmiska, “Modern paganism in World Cultures,” 9 161 Strmiska, “Modern paganism in World Cultures,” 10

44

traditions are similarly very important. Concerning the divine there mostly exists a belief in

a pantheon of multiple gods and goddesses with human natures/characteristics. The

worldview is a holistic one; interconnectedness being of key importance in the Pagan

worldview.162

It seems Ásatrú fits quite well within this description of neopaganism or modern

paganism, even down to their aversion towards the terms used, for it is my experience that

the modern heathens in Iceland do indeed not wish to be called neopagans because they feel

it undermines the connection to and continuation of the past Ásatrú has and is, in their eyes.

Most prefer to be called heathen like their forebears were by the Christians who came to

Iceland more than a thousand years ago.

The claim of continued relevance in modern society too can be found in Ásatrú as

is reflected by Kári when he says that the religion is about seeking for knowledge of the self,

its narratives having deep meanings about nature and the ways of things; or Óttar stating that

Ásatrú made him find his way back home culturally speaking.

The nationalistic pride in tradition and myth, mentioned above, is very much present

too, in that people have much reverence for the old traditions, their wish being to preserve

and maintain these. Öttar expresses as much when he explains that he joined Ásatrú partly

because he wants to support the Nordic culture, and Kári expresses his fear of losing the

older knowledge and traditions, with younger generations of Icelanders having less interest

in them.

Nature is of much importance as well for the Iceandic modern heathen as was

expressed by all interviewees. Together they describe a pantheistic life stance for they see

nature as a cosmological force of which humans are a part too and it is fundamental to Ása trú

in the sense that the divine is found in nature, governing it through the images of the gods.

This might then explain why ritual is so connected to nature for both modern and pre-

Christen heathens; it is the means by which communication with the gods is established and

thereby nature too.

All this suggests that Strmiska’s description of Modern paganism comes pretty close

to a fitting description of Ásatrú after all.

162 Dennis Carpenter, "Emergent Nature Spirituality: An Examination of the Major Spiritual Contours of the Contemporary Pagan Worldview," in Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft. Ed, James R. Lewis

(Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996)

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Ásatrú, a religionism?

On the basis of everything that has been said up until now I hope it has been made

evident that Ásatrú is not only an example of a religion based upon a primitive-archaic stage

of religious evolution according to Bellah’s theory on said subject, but that it is also closely

related to modern trends towards finding a reality that provides people with re-enchantment.

This first observation is of relevance because it reveals an interest in a specific form

of spirituality which can be found in multiple media that can be seen as providers of re -

enchantment; video games such as the Elder Scrolls Games and World of Warcraft; literary

works like The Lord of the Rings and a Song of Ice and Fire; Live Action Role Playing

events163 and pagan modern religious movements, all of which provide a spiritual worldview

or reality wherein “medieval” culture and archaic-primitive spirituality work together to

create a world which is imbued with magic and reaches back to a past, somewhat idealised

and untainted by modernity’s rationalism. The fact that Ásatrú displays these same

tendencies, then brings us to the second observation on this religious system as it coheres

closely to the concepts of neomedievalism, modern paganism and subsequently re -

enchantment. The search for which, I suggest, is then partly the reason behind the relatively

recent revival and reconstruction of ONr in the form of Ásatrú thus creating a reaction to

and a reflection upon modern society due to its complete alterity to it, while still being

governed by modern ideas and values; a true hybrid of the old and the new.

What I propose is that Ásatrú is indeed an example of the “religionism” I discussed

in the introduction. A religious configuration I uncovered in a previous study, which

presented an uniformity of religion in relation to re-enchantment to which Ásatrú adheres as

well.

In a way it can be seen as an extension of how neomedievalism works, though applied

solely to the sphere of religion; expanding its formula beyond the medieval and seeing it

mirrored in a religious model; an ideal mode of religion providing an enchanting experience

by grasping back to a period which creates an appealing feeling of nostalgia while at the same

time being a bricolage of cultural elements from different times. An “ism” because it fits into

a certain stage of religious evolution; is characterised by a specific configuration of its

163 An example from a large Dutch LARP organisation Games-n-stuff is the “The Doler: Middle-Ages and Mythology” which is set in 13th century Europe, though with a twist which introduces all myths, legends and folklore into the medieval reality, creating a new reality which are called “wander-places” and are l iterally described as meeting place “for the mythical and medieval human.”

https://gamesnstuff.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=39&Itemid=85

46

religious themes and displays a convergence of the old and the new. A specific composition

of religious elements I believe can be found in similar attempts at reconstructing and creating

religious systems that serve in the need for enchantment, whether they be influenced by

popular culture like The Elder Scrolls games or, like Ásatru, by tradition. This religious

configuration thus finds itself united in a religionism due to people’s wish and need for re-

enchantment. An experience which, as it turns out, asks for a very specific set of

characteristics, all reflected in the concepts discussed above and Ásatrú, as an example of

this religionism, as well. It is a spiritual ideal explicitly, though perhaps unwittingly, created

to enchant a disenchanted society.

The answer as to why modern people desire this ideal lies not only in the values which

make it radically opposed to modernity, such as the harmony of an holistic worldview; the

monistic view concerning the divine, magic and nature; the focus on life; the emphasis on a

simpler past; the irrationality of an alternative reality and many more, but also in those values

which are seemingly shared between primitive-archaic religion and the modern. These are

the variety and freedom of spirituality (non-dogmatism), which give a sense of agency and

individuality. Both are concepts which have repeatedly proven to be highly prized in

modernity.

As such this type of religion is not only a reaction to and a critique on modern society;

its cold rationality and disenchanted character, but also a reflection and a product of

modernity, more so than its practitioners would likely wish it to be. This is made evident by

the following statement by Partridge:

Western culture is increasingly characterized by forms of religion that do not claim

absolute truth, do not require devotion to one religious leader, do not insist on the

authority of a single set of teachings, but rather encourage exploration, eclecticism, an

understanding of the self as divine, and, consequently, a belief in the final authority of

the self.164

All of the above mentioned characteristics are inherently modern and all are present

in Ásatrú as well. Indeed, it is the stage of modern religion in which Bellah describes an

infinitely multiplex world wherein people have infinite choices concerning religion,165 which

in turn become privatised and centred around the individual. It seems that his inherent

human dualism of world-rejection vs. world-affirmative views are both at play here; the latter

being implicated in the first trying to escape reality. It is this paradox: a spiritual past much

164 Partridge, “The Disenchantment and Re-enchantment of the West,” 240 165 Bellah, Religious Evolution,” 371

47

longed for, created in the image of a modernity so abhorred of which Sabina Magliocco

argues that it lies at the heart of modern pagan religions.166

I believe this to be true for Ásatru as well and while this might only add to the

disillusionment, it also goes a long way in explaining why such a religionism, whereof Ásatrú

is a part too, can be found; why this configuration of religion is chosen and why it works so

well in our post-modern society. The answer lies precisely in this paradox: the nostalgic

tendencies towards times long past, meant to fend off and critique the alienation of

modernity, are, simultaneously being fed and conditioned by this very same modernity.167

The past and the present work together in creating a religious ideology, which both expresses

anti-modernity and an implicit modernity, tailored to the needs of modern people.

166 Sabina Magliocco, “Neopaganism,” in The Cambridge Companion to Religious Movements. Ed Olav hammer and Mikael Rothstein. (Cambridge: Cambridge university Press, 2013), 154 167 Dijk, “Religion in The Elder Scrolls.”

48

Conclusion

The Icelandic heathen past and the modern-day Ásatrú community lie a fair amount

of time apart. Even so, the Icelanders feel the religious traditions have always been a part of

their culture. The continuity of said traditions is, however not the only thing or reason

binding the religious past and present, for part of the reason behind their current

convergence can be found in a desire for the former and an aversion against the latter, though

both work together in the creation of modern pagan religious movements like Ásatrú,

providing the much needed re-enchantment in modern society.

With the use of Robert N. Bellah’s theory of religious evolution, ONr and Ásatrú

have been successfully categorised as being compromise formulas of both the primitive and

archaic typologies of religious evolution. Their analysis in regard to the religious themes:

cosmology and mythology, ritual, the afterlife and magic and witchcraft show some

differences but mainly similarities. The resulting shared religious system is non-doctrinal

allowing for spiritual freedom. It also displays a holistic worldview with a cosmology wherein

the mythical and the human realms are converged and communication between them is

conducted through ritual worship and sacrifice. Myths, furthermore, provide guiding

principles concerning life and afterlife offers a myriad of possibilities. Magic is an all-

pervading natural force used by both gods and humans with witchcraft being a tool to

oversee one’s destiny.

The “why” behind this religious make-up lies not only in the wish for the preservation

and reconstruction of the old ways, but can be explained with the concepts of

disenchantment, re-enchantment, neo-paganism and neomedievalism as well. This reveals a

modern religious movement that caters both to the longing for a simpler, magical past, and

the need for individuality and a place to belong, successfully supplying an alternative and

enchanting worldview which effectively undoes Bellah’s idea of dualistic worldviews, but

rather, merges the two by creating a world-affirming view within a reality where people reject

their world.

Having bridged the temporal gap between ONr and Icelandic Ásatrú through their

shared categorisation into the same primitive-archaic compromise formula of religious

evolution, an image of Ásatrú has emerged that portrays more than a reconstruction of a

spiritual past alone. Indeed, said reconstruction, assimilation and consumption of ONr in

49

modern Icelandic society seems to reflect something besides the wish for the preservation

of a religious tradition, namely a wish for “the magical” to be brought back into our modern

reality. There is a desire for the re-enchantment of a disenchanted world, the contents of

which are made up of both past and present, creating an alternative worldview that allows

for the presence of the magic, irrationality and authenticity of the spiritual past, while still

meeting the needs of the modern mind-set. The resulting product is a very specific religious

configuration which seems to suggest the existence of a religious ideal where the need for re-

enchantment is concerned. Of course this concept is only based on the analysis of ONr and

Ásatrú above, plus the findings from one previous research project, but I do believe both

suggest a possibility for the existence of this religious ideal and that it could be applied to

similar religious systems in modern society as well.

It is a reflection on modern society, critiquing the rationality inherent to modernity,

but also a reflection of this society. This creates a contradiction between modernity and anti-

modernity with both poles fuelling each other into a the creation of a successfully enchanting

religionism.

50

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Appendices

Interview transcripts

Name: Jóhannes A. Levy

Introductionary

XVIII) How did you come into contact with Ásatrú? I first heard about Ásatrú when I was eleven years old; I lived in the South of Iceland . I was immediately interested in this society, but nobody knew how to contact this group. Also I was underage and was not allowed to go by myself. My parents they were not interested in this. They were typical Icelandic Christians, But I was raised with an open mind. I had read the whole bible when I was twelve years old, out of curiosity. Also, it was a problem that there was no news about Ásatrú and for many years I heard nothing. And then finally I heard the society was still alive. And I also got information about how to register. And I did that; I was 22 years old. It was the 20 th of March in 1985. I was probably member number 17, or something close. And then there was no news, we got no newsletters from the society or anything. Then it happened, in 1990 , I got some news about it, it was some sort of meeting. Up until then I didn’t do anything on my own. But I signed out of any religious group. And then I finally knew how to join this society. On my sister’s birthday.

XIX) What made you decide to join this religion?

I was interested. It was something inside me, when I heard about it. Sometime during the national celebration of the 100 th year since the settlement. My mother always said I was pagan. I was baptized, but I never performed this statement: “I believe in God and Jesus…” But the priest, he gave me his blessing. They knew I was not good in this, in prayer. Strictly, I was not a Christian. We (humans) have an affinity for religion and without it we are not fully developed beings.

XX) What does Ásatrú mean to you; what does it provide you with?

I don’t know how to answer this, It does not give me freedom or saves me, it just makes me happy. I always found that the monotheistic religions, there is something wrong with them. The universe/nature is colorful with many shapes, it is not black and white, and Ásatrú accepts this. There is a connection with some force, nature.

XXI) To what form of religion or other practices and beliefs would you

compare Ásatrú? Ásatrú as we know it today is from the writing of Snorri . We can find traces of it in religions close to us, like the Celtic religion and the German. The Slavic nations have similar gods. Of the religions alive today it would be Hinduism, to which it is related from some 1000 years back. It comes from the same root or original idea. There are gods in Hinduism which are very close to gods in Asatru.

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Mythology/Cosmology

XXII) To what extent do you make a distinction between the mythical and the real world? My idea, it is mixed together just like radio frequencies, all of them could be here in this room, the gods or the hidden people, there are a lot of frequencies. Then we can argue about which radio station is the best or true. I believe we can receive multiple frequencies, it depends what kind of radio you are; it depends on people. Some people care nothing about this, even their will to live, they deny things. Most everybody can experience this, but some won’t, they go crazy. For me, they have never asked this of me before. I have had experiences with things in live...which made me more open minded and even made question something more about what is reality.

XXIII) To what extent, do you feel, does the mythical world govern the real one?

I think both the worlds influence each other. It is only our primitive mind that still doesn’t understand it. We are trying to understand. We have to use all kinds of word; metaphors or pictures to explain it. We talk about cold or warm colours, but red is not warm when you touch it. It is difficult to explain the mixing of multiple worlds; you can talk to many people and they would all explain it differently. They intermix, though we still don’t understand this. Maybe if human kind will survive for many years we will maybe understand it. Our mind/brain is different than many thousands of years ago. Maybe we have to mutate to understand maybe it has already happened. Imagine you had this ability. Some people can already see something different. There is something in in our nature to protect our lifeform. In order to do so we kill any threat to it. There is a primitive force in us. You can see it today, we are arguing which groups are better. When there is a mutant who is very different then they are the outgroup. They might not be so different.

XXIV) Where and how do you place the mythical narratives in your

religion/beliefs? I look at them as a metaphor for things . It could be the forces and laws of nature, some natural laws, like theory of gravity etc. It could be metaphor for our human mind, about love and feelings, could also be some collective mind relating to the zeitgeist. They reflect the times. Some of these metaphors are basis things surviving over centuries. There is always this basic theme; maybe they change the colour but it stays the same. Maybe we name it differently, but the essence stays the same.

XXV) What role do the gods play in your religion; what does their power

extent to? Yes we use them. In our Blót in winter we always read a short version of Skírnismál . The one in charge of the Blót tells the stories from memory. The goði tells the Skírnismal; she said it is like telling stories to little children. Every time the story changes a little but the core stays the same.

Ritual

XXVI) What are the main forms of ritual you practice? We have four big blóts during the year: at Jól, the first day of winter and summer and the Þingblót in June. All our rituals are blóts. It starts with the goði blessing the attendants and ritual space; he tells stories from the Edda’s to get people in the mood, followed by a feast.

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XXVII) What is the motive behind rituals (in general) practiced within your religion; how do they relate to the gods? We worship by coming together, like on our open hour days. During the Blóts certain gods are honoured by us telling their stories. For example, we honour Freyr during Jólablót and the Þingblót is performed in honour of Þórr, because he is the protector of the law. At the feast some beer is spilled in honour of the gods. We have no intention of going back to the stone age with our rituals.

XXVIII) How do you experience the rituals you perform in relation to time

and place? They are mostly performed outside to be closer to everything; we’re not hiding. It is not a spiritual experience for me but it is a nice special time, especially the Jólablót at nighttime with fires; it is a cozy time.

Afterlife

XXIX) Do you believe the afterlife to be a distinct world/realm; where do you locate it? Afterlife is a fact. Dying is like walking out of a boring party, you’re just outside; you can look in through the window, but most people won’t see you. The afterlife has no specific place. Life takes place in a big house where all people exist. When you leave/die, the nice people go to the sunny side of the house, and the bad go to the shadow side. You can change your place as people eventually go where they belong.

XXX) Describe the afterlife how you believe it to be, are there more than one

version? See above.

XXXI) How big is the role of the afterlife in your religion? It does not play a big role at all for me. Even in the saga’s there is talk of resurrection. You will live again as a different person, after some time in the afterlife. I was a soldier in WWII in my last life.

Magic and Witchcraft

XXXII) Do you perceive a distinction between magic and religion within Ásatrú, or are they the same thing? I believe in some kind of force, but not everyone can manipulate this force, either willingly or accidentally. There are Kraftaskálds who compose poems which affect destiny, like a curse. It manipulates this force. Most Icelanders say they do not believe in it, bu t they don’t deny it either.

XXXIII) What is the role of magic and/or witchcraft in your religion or for you personally? Magic is not important for me personally. Maybe it functions as some sort of karma effect. It sometimes runs in the family.

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XXXIV) Does it influence your worldview or perception of how the world works? See above.

Name: Teresa Dröfn Freyrsdottir Njarðvík Introductionary

I) How did you come into contact with Ásatrú? I just sort of picked them at random I guess, At least originally. Because they (the government) were changing the registration rules. I did not want my tax money to go into the government or church groups, so I just picked something and decided Ásatrú sounded pretty good because they have the Eddic poetry. I never even really knew they were religious to begin with. I thought it was more of a cultural association. I was in high school, so I was 17 I guess. Later when I decided to check out what I had signed for, I found out there were a lot of likeminded people and that they actually were religious too. I am now a believer but it didn’t start that way.

II) What made you decide to join this religion?

See above.

III) What does Ásatrú mean to you; what does it provide you with? It is just an understanding of the world, how everything is linked together. It provides a worldview, spiritually as well. At the moment monism is for me the only thing that exists, so I don’t believe in good or evil for example, I don’t believe in opposites, because for me there are no opposites in the world; they don’t exist. That is how I see spirituality as well. It’s just one thing.

IV) To what form of religion or other practices and beliefs would you

compare Ásatrú? When it comes to pre-Christian or non-Christian religions it is very similar because I think they all teach the sam,e but use different vocabulary, though they really have the same definitions and the same teachings. But when it comes to the Christian religion the main difference is the idea of duality: they have rules, we don’t have any rules; they have a code o f behaviour you’re supposed to follow, we don’t have any such things; they believe that there is good and that there’s evil and that these are fighting in opposition, we don’t. But I would still say that in the end it is all we all have the same goals, just a very different interpretation of how they should be reached.

Mythology/Cosmology

V) To what extent do you make a distinction between the mythical and the real world? This is difficult to explain, I’d say both yes and no, they just overlap, like a Venn diagram. For me the easiest way to describe them is to say one of them is physical and the other one isn’t physical; it is more metaphysical.

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VI) To what extent, do you feel, does the mythical world govern the real one? Completely. I guess, as above so below. They follow the same patterns, but one is on the higher level (the mythical world) an d the other is one the lower level (the material world). We can reach the other world.

VII) Where and how do you place the mythical narratives in your

religion/beliefs? I use them pretty much for everything. The sagas and the poetry that we have left are a huge part of how we perceive the cosmology. The only flaw is that it is not complete, there are always gaps, where you need to guess and fill in. I use the poetry and the myths as a basis, for my religion and believes; how I understand and perceive them. I always have my own interpretation of the myths. I try to see them mostly as cosmological - or metanarratives for something else.

VIII) What role do the gods play in your religion; what does their power

extent to? I would use different gods for different reasons. Some of them I talk to a lot, some of them not so much at all. There are probably some deities I have not tried to talk to at all. It’s just that I don’t feel the need to talk to them specifically, not that I see them as less, it’s just that I don’t need them. So I would just take one, depending on what the situation is. They can directly affect me, but it is more that if I ask them to help me with something I am not really asking that they do it for me or solve it for me, but rather that they give me the power to do it myself, but somehow with them as an addition. So I use them sort of more as equals than as some higher power.

Ritual

IX) What are the main forms of ritual you practice? I’d say just blóts and sacrifices. There is the pouring of the mead, and I think that is mostly what we do at the community gatherings. But then there are the personal ceremonies. People will leave something different. For example food is more popular in the smaller, not the bigger ceremonies. Sometimes when you have very small blóts in the felag, with maybe ten to fifteen they might use food. Sometimes it can be something you have made or a part of yourself like a piece of hair. It really depends on the people and the ceremony they are doing. For example when some people got married they have mixed blood, because that is what they had read in some sources, that that used to be done. It can be a lot of different things. I don’t think that anyone in Iceland does anything like animal sacrifice anymore, not even the farmers that have livestock, because of the regulations of the government, but you might use part of the animal afterwards. I know some farmers who have buried the remains of their horse with a ceremony because they really cared for their horse but still needed to let them go.

X) What is the motive behind rituals (in general) practiced within your

religion; how do they relate to the gods? Well there is usually a different reason behind each ceremony in itself, and it is usually tied to the year. For example at the Yuleblót we are celebrating Jól or what has become Christmas, and then we are celebrating the sun and the growth so then it would be natural to have Freyr included because he is the god of fertility and all the clouds and showers. But most of our ceremonies are in devotion to Þórr because he is thought to be the friend of men and is also needed to sanctify things , so I guess he always has a spot, but then there’s usually one o r two gods who own a specific blót, but that will always be depending on the occasion.

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XI) How do you experience the rituals you perform in relation to time and place? Not that I have ever noticed specifically. Some of them are really short, but some of them are really long and others can be sort of accidentally prolonged. For example the Þingblót in the summer at Þingveillir, there has been a tradition for the last couple of years that a couple of people stay behind and throw up a tent, so even if the ceremony itself ended on Thursday it somehow it still feels like a ritual space. Even though it’s young people in a tent the conversations are all about the felag or about the ritual, so it somehow feels like an extension of the ritual, But I don’t really notice anything specific during the ceremony itself, but I’ve noticed that hallowness that follows can be extended sometimes.

Afterlife

XII) Do you believe the afterlife to be a distinct world/realm; where do you locate it? For me, when you die you go into the higher world but at the same time you remain a part of this world as well, but in a changed form. Most commonly you’ll just turn into compost when your body is in the earth so you become part of the earth and the earth is a living entity. Therefore you remain alive in there, keeping everything living on the earth nurtured. But at the same time I also believe there is some sort of continuing life in the metaphysical world, but I don’t think it looks anything like this life we know now.

XIII) Describe the afterlife how you believe it to be, are there more than one

version? I would say that the afterlife is composed of a lot of different worlds and each of them has like a unique property, but they all belong to the same realm somehow, and I think you can travel sort of freely between them. There’s just the question of whether you have a reason to enter another realm or not. Like, not everybody is going to Vallhalla , but not everything is going to Hel either. They could go to Jotunnheimr for all I care. We have all the places mentioned in the sources but it is just a question of what place is fit for you or what place you maybe accidentally travel into, or what place you might not have an interest in to going to at all. And then it is described a little bit in the sources, what place is a good place and what is not so good. So I would say you have a free choice of all of them

XIV) How big is the role of the afterlife in your religion? A really big one I would say. It is quite crucial. What I have experienced with people in Ásatrú is that they would all be furious if they would have a Christian funeral. Furious!. We even have a special card that we carry in our wallets that are for organ donation but they have an extra box where you can fill in that you want only a goði to p erform your funeral rites for example. Because a lot of people would not want a Christian burial at all. They also don’t want to be in a cemetery, that is one of our biggest problems, because according to regulations you have to be buried in a cemetery. We have a spot that is non-religious/Christian, but nonetheless it is in a cemetery and that is a big problem for us because we don’t want to be in a cemetery, we don’t want to be in these places that we are being offered. Most of us would like to have boat burials. If that’s not possible we would like to have a plot in the mountains not on the cemetery.

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Magic and Witchcraft

XV) Do you perceive a distinction between magic and religion within Ásatrú, or are they the same thing? No, there’s just varying amounts of magic. I would say there’s a lot of magic in Ásatrú in comparison to many other religions. Like for example in Christianity where they would like to believe they have magic. Some of them oppose the idea of magic, but as I see it, it is all magic, they’re just using different definitions. I always remember when I was reading about witchcraft and magic once there was someone who said there is no church of magic, but there definitely is.

XVI) What is the role of magic and/or witchcraft in your religion or for you personally? In some way to connect to both worlds, the one we are in and the one that is beyond.

XVII) Does it influence your worldview or perception of how the world works?

I guess I am inclined towards magical thinking where there are relationships between everything even if you don’t understand what they are or how they work.

Name: Óttar Ottósson

Introductionary

I) How did you come into contact with Ásatru? It is always luring in the background. We all know about it, but obviously not everyone adheres to it. But interestingly, a year ago, we passed the 1%, so that’s quite an achievement. Now we have 3600 members. It’s a simple story in a way. As a part of what we were supposed to read in high school, and I thought why should I read this old crap and I was offended, I was not willing to go ointo it but I did still and I was very very fascinated because I was presented with a religion that was meant for real people. It does not oppress people in relation to their physical needs like other religions. Shortly after that I got out of state church. I remember I was in opposition to the state church as an institution, but not Christianity, in a way I didn’t mind that at the time. Then I lived as an atheist, well I thought I was,,,well maybe I am, until I realized that we all have a need for some religious ideas or point of view or something. Some people oppress that efficiently, which is fine for them, but I immediately found out that if I was going to be a member of a religious society this was the only option. Mainly because this is from our own culture and easily understood. I not even jokingly say that we are born with it. But still, I never made any secret of that I am not a member for religious reasons, well also, but mainly for cultural reasons. I was member for 3.5 years in Iceland and Denmark where I started and nobody minded. I was not hiding it or anything. My shift happened in Denmark in the mid-90s. I had participated in attempts to establish a heathen society, but they were unsuccessful, because it was unorganized. The people ranged from half-Nazis to tree huggers; the differences were too big. Less than five years later there was a society, in 1997. And about a year later I was elected as chairman and I had resigned half a year before I went back to Iceland in 2003 and immediately registered in this society.

II) What made you decide to join this religion?

Because of my claim that we have a need for something religious and I want to support Nordic culture. And by the way I was born and raised in Iceland, but on one hand one of my grandfathers was from Denmark and I lived in Denmark for 25 years. So being an Icelander is not important for me, but being Nordic is important. My nationality is secondary to that.

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III) What does Ásatru mean to you; what does it provide you with?

Let me put it this way, I found my way back home, culturally speaking, and that gives peace of mind.

IV) To what form of religion or other practices and beliefs would you

compare Ásatru? It is an individual religion, and absolutely without dogma’s; we don’t have that. I wouldn’t. No, it is closely related to Greek and Roman heathenry and Hinduism. They have been apart for so long that there are differences, but the principles are the same more or less. I’m talking about Indo-European culture now, which includes a vast area.

Mythology/Cosmology

V) To what extent do you make a distinction between the mythical and the real world? I never went into that. Perhaps they overlap, I’m not convinced but I don’t reject it automatically, even though I have met charlatans; they don’t know what they say.

VI) To what extent, do you feel, does the mythical world govern the real one?

There are the norns, that’s not this world but that is on an individual plane, they are supposed to set out the lines of my life, but I still am the master of my own life. Maybe you could say, they deal out the cards but I have the say and I play the game, for better or for worse.

VII) Where and how do you place the mythical narratives in your

religion/beliefs? They do not really play a big role for me, but I would say it is ridiculous to claim that the stories in our religion are more absurd than in the Christian religion. After all they are very similar. And it puzzles me that my religion is Indo-European, and the other Semitic, but I can’t claim anything about that, there may be a relation. Every religion is a peoples attempt to describe and comprehend the world. Present day people don’t know much about how all this happened. So I would say every cultural group has the right to describe their own ideas about how things happened.

VIII) What role do the gods play in your religion; what does their power

extent to? In my day to day life they don’t really play a role. But there they are in a way and I accept that, But the thing is that they are not controlling my life or anyone’s else’s life, they are busy; they have their own lives Some don’t even have a life, like Baldr, which is a fascinating thing; a god that is dead.

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Ritual

IX) What are the main forms of ritual you practice? Blót, that’s about it. We were with about 9 people when we established a blót group in Copenhagen in 1999. It still exists and I still know some of the founders. The best blót is with friends. You get a different feeling. Doing that with people you don’t know or dislike doesn’t give the same experience. It is usually done outside. The most enjoyable blóts in Iceland are held in the countryside, especially those done by two women I know; I often attend their blóts.

X) What is the motive behind rituals (in general) practiced within your

religion; how do they relate to the gods? I would say, staying in touch with the other world and admitting that there might be, I would personally say, more to it than meets the eye. It also gives a feeling of togetherness. There is something spiritual to it for me but not always. Other times quite a lot. If a blót is performed in nature with good weather and I am with friends that’s the best blót. I feel in a way, that I got the other world on the line, which does not necessarily mean there is actual communication, but again it gives this feeling of peace of mind.

XI) How do you experience the rituals you perform in relation to time and

place? Nature adds a lot to it. Or the opposite. You could also turn it around. Performing a blót here (in the Ásatrúarfelagið building), it takes something out of it. And this is a religion based on nature and natural forces. It is the fundament.

Afterlife

XII) Do you believe the afterlife to be a distinct world/realm; where do you locate it? Well, there are three ideas. One is ,when you die you just die. The second is reincarnation. I don’t understand it but I don’t mind. And there is the afterlife, but please forget about Valhalla. It seems to be one of new things in Ásatru. I believe in just death. It is not a question of whether you like it or not, I mean if that’s the fact than we just have to except it. Except of course our children and grand-children: in a way I live in them. When it comes to it, when I die, what happens to the world? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Don’t think you are anything special.

XIII) Describe the afterlife how you believe it to be, are there more than one

version? See above.

XIV) How big is the role of the afterlife in your religion? See above.

Magic and Witchcraft

XV) Do you perceive a distinction between magic and religion within Ásatru, or are they the same thing? Well, I am not convinced and I don’t reject it. I think that sums it up. But I am not into that myself. It just doesn’t interest me. Life is here and now. Heathens are more preoccupied with life before death.

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XVI) What is the role of magic and/or witchcraft in your religion or for you

personally?

XVII) Does it influence your worldview or perception of how the world works? It is possible, but I don’t have personal experiences with that. It may be a question of who is sane and who’s not. Then the next question would be, what is sanity. Accepting, at least not rejecting it, makes life more colorful. So from that point of view I don’t mind.

Kári Pálsson

Introductionary

I) How did you come into contact with Ásatrú? I think there was always something. Even just things like stories, even poetry from my grandfather, he was a big fan of poetry. Also in kindergarten I heard stories. I guess it’s always in the back of your mind. But later in high school we were reading Hávamál and Vóluspá, and then I guess I got really hooked on the beauty of the poetry. It was something that I really liked, something clicked. Then I started reading myself, both of the Edda’s and a couple of sagas. And then around that time I joined, I was maybe 18 or 19, ten years ago.

II) What made you decide to join this religion?

I remember discussing the felagið. I thought when I was a young kid, how can people believe this. I guess I didn’t understand the concept then. But it was something I was very curious about. And later, when I started to get into the Icelandic language I saw many leftovers from the Edda’s. I think that was something that made me curious.

III) What does Ásatrú mean to you; what does it provide you with?

Maybe to the Christians it means strong believe in the Aesir, but to me it often reflects strong metaphors in connection to strong forces of nature and men. We talk of the gods as being fetters and ties; they bind us to the surroundings in a certain way that it aff ects you. But I guess it does that too to other people in other societies but it just works in a different way.

IV) To what form of religion or other practices and beliefs would you

compare Ásatrú? It’s different in that Ásatrú is always reaching for knowledge, but it’s not religious tradition and there is no final truth, you have to find out yourself what fits your life, what is your own goal. There is nobody telling you what to do. Odin is always reaching for knowledge, but he never reaches enlightenment. Like a lone wanderer who is looking for his so, and that is kind of what we do now in our own mind too; always looking for yourself.

Mythology/Cosmology

V) To what extent do you make a distinction between the mythical and the real world? The mythical world that we have, I think, is very rusty and many things are unexplained, but I can understand, like I know there are galaxies and everything, but I kind of look at the cosmological world as it is. It is hard to explain, we talk about Hel, usually being underground and people going on a hel journey when they’re dead. And I guess when you look

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at Jotunnheimr, it is something not from this society, you can look at it as a different society. It is 2017 now, and we have travelled a lot more than people back in the day when it wasn’t known what was behind those mountains you know, so it doesn’t surprise me why it was categorized like that back in the day. Science and traditions change a lot. So I tend not to think that we should stop right there and think like that for eternity. But I look at this in a metaphorical way. I believe in science. It is difficult to define the believe. But if you look at the black and white picture I believe in science.

VI) To what extent, do you feel, does the mythical world govern the real one?

See above.

VII) Where and how do you place the mythical narratives in your religion/beliefs? Vóluspá is a lot about this circular thing. Everything is circular. Even though Snorri wrote a lot of bullshit I do think that he tells very significant stories; He said that the earth was alive and got everything back that it gave birth to. What scholars have written about them is also very interesting. I think many of them have a very deep meaning, that maybe became lost. Like the story of Skadi and Nordr representing the seasons. Something like that makes a lot of sense to me and I often wish that we would make more stories about that. And in Vóluspá, where honour is very important. It was in a time before things were written down, and an oral agreement was very important, and I think that should still be.

VIII) What role do the gods play in your religion; what does their power extent to? Well, personally when I look at the sea I see Ýmir’s blood, with fertility I think about Freyr and when I see rain and wind and thunder of course I think of Þórr, and I cannot reject that. I tie it to the world When I think about the threatening forces of the cold I think of the frost giants. I mean it is part of society in a sense. It was part of peoples life and reality and to a certain extent it still is.

Ritual

IX) What are the main forms of ritual you practice? I personally am more of a lone practitioner, but I do participate in blóts with people of course. I like that, to be with people. There is something within me that I was taught about, land wights and this elf thing, and when I am alone I am still looking out because I was brought up like that. And I might not fully believe in it but I won’t fuck with it either. Rituals and blóts, I think is more about people gathering together today. Because blóts back then were very different from now. But the feast part of the blót is becoming more accepted today. There is some spirituality for me in them. I cannot deny that. It clicks in a spiritual sense in that I think you can only get there this way: it opens the spiritual mind in your head; it gives you a certain trance I guess.

X) What is the motive behind rituals (in general) practiced within your

religion; how do they relate to the gods? I think it is always fun to see other people, just like in the Christian Church they don’t only come for their god, but also to see each other. The blóts for me have become habit; it is tradition, so you go.

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XI) How do you experience the rituals you perform in relation to time and place? There is always a vé which is a special place and time will not be on people’s minds in there, and the goði becomes another figure than he is in everyday life, he is transforming himself into the connector to the gods. They have a special dress on exactly for that purpose. I only feel a connection with the gods in a metaphorical way, but just in your mind and nature. We are a part of nature and you can feel it through your senses. It affects your personality in a specific way. I tend to think about them a lot in relation to skaldic poetry.

Afterlife

XII) Do you believe the afterlife to be a distinct world/realm; where do you locate it? I personally think that the afterlife is what remains of your reputation on earth. If there is an afterlife then the heathen afterlife makes most sense to me in a way: when people are buried in mounds, mountains and glaciers after which they become land wight of those places. There is still a tradition here: you don’t walk over a grave, that kind of afterlife; you don’t want to walk over somebodies spirit, they might come after you and kill you, like a draugr. If you look at the sources afterlife seems to just exist in the place of burial. And going up to the skies, it doesn’t make sense to me. I personally think though that when you die, you just di e, but your reputation lives on.

XIII) Describe the afterlife how you believe it to be, are there more than one

version? See above.

XIV) How big is the role of the afterlife in your religion? I just think about this life; you have to spent it well.

Magic and Witchcraft

XV) Do you perceive a distinction between magic and religion within Ásatru, or are they the same thing? Well, in a sense I believe in it. I heard that you shouldn’t mess with magic staves. And I heard someone was carving in ice, and the old people didn’t like it. I look at magic staves with respect. They are not often used, but when they are it is a very significant thing. Nithin poles, for example, are still used, and if you see a nithing pole people will notice and gossip. It is used as a last resort and it works, because people take it very serious. I would not want anything put in my garden no. I would be very surprised and a bit worried. The magic works within this society because people understand it, but you would not be successful if you take it out of context. It is a tradition that binds society together like religion.

XVI) What is the role of magic and/or witchcraft in your religion or for you personally? It’s a lot about sending to another person, you’re sending a message; also for others to see. And that’s something I totally believe in because I’ve seen it work.

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XVII) Does it influence your worldview or perception of how the world works? Not how the world works no, but how this society works. But I would not be surprised if seiðr would become universal: when you don’t need words, but just very primitive sounds and visions, like music is something like that. Sometimes I wish I was more involved, that I could believe more because that would make life more fun.

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Consent forms

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