Are the Eddas reliable?

You can watch the video about this subject in here: [Youtube Video]


Are the Eddas reliable? First of all, what does “Edda” mean? Opinions differ, greatly, as to be expected. But the most usual meaning is that the word is related to ódr (poem/poetry) and may be translated as “poetics”. 

Our knowledge of the pagan deities comes from several sources, and most prominent among them are the two Icelandic works, the Poetic Edda, a collection of songs relating the deeds of Nordic gods and heroes, and the Prose Edda, a work composed by Snorri Sturluson. These are two essential works to have an understanding of pagan Germanic religion. 

But let’s start with the Prose Edda first, which seems much more complex to talk about. The Uppsala Codex is one of the three most important manuscripts composed by Snorri Sturluson, the first part is about the Aesir and Ymir, then comes the Skáldskaparmál (Poetic Diction) and last the Háttatal (Account of Meters) a composition about King Hákon and Duke Skúli. 

Snorri Sturluson writes his Prose Edda during the 13th century. He made good use of the Poetic Edda, but also other accounts, some lost forever, obviously, but others which have survived through oral tradition. He gives us a synthesized and simplified version of the Norse mythology. This work of his comes in contradiction with other sources, and also, quite possibly, his work was influenced by Christianity, which already was the official religion in Iceland for 200 years, already in Snorri Sturluson’s time. It’s also very likely that the sources Snorri used to compose this mythology comes solely from the region of Throndheim, in Norway, such sources composed by the end of the X century. The very myth of creation, transmitted to us by Snorri, which he refers to it as – in the beginning there was only a great void and two worlds were created, one of ice and another of fire – might give us the indication that this might be a very Icelandic perspective of the creation of the world, adding familiar elements to the story, the landscape of Iceland – glaciers and volcano activity – combined to create a land. This brought to my attention that mythology is clearly different from place to place, not only because of historical, cultural and traditional factors, but also because of geographical factors. To the Scandinavian communities further south, where the landscape is clearly different of that of the north, such communities wouldn’t have the same perspectives on the creation of the cosmos.  

Another aspect is that the great majority of the sources were composed by poets, financially sponsored by political and military authorities, and also poems to spread amongst warriors. Which means, poems to be read and listened by certain groups, where certain deities were more popular than others, which helps to explain why in archaeology Freyr was much more relevant in ancient Scandinavian societies, and why in Denmark there are more place names related to this deity, and also Týr, but then in the sources, particularly in the Prose Edda, Odin seems to be the most important deity, almost to the point of being the major deity, because in the Prose Edda Odin is seen as a god not only related to war, but also poetry, and here we can see the connection between poets and the military and political leaders. 

Being the major deity, or seeming to be the major deity, might be one of the aspects that shows us the influence of Christianity. The Catholic Age in Iceland (1000-1550) changed pagan behaviours a lot. Public sacrifices to the Germanic gods and the traditional faith was kept in private, in hiding. The conversion was a prolonged gradual transition, from generation to generation the new faith, and the culture along with it, began to take hold. Icelandic scholars travelled abroad to learn the new faith, and schools were established in Iceland itself, and 100 years after this slow process of conversion, the Icelandic language was first used to write down histories, sagas and poetry. During Snorri Sturluson’s time, in the 13th century, was a time of Danish dominion in Iceland and a sort of golden age of Icelandic culture and literature. Poems of the Poetic Edda were committed to parchment during this time, also, and Icelanders already lived really comfortable with their national Catholicism.  

Snorri Sturluson was a man of power, very active as a politician, and Christianity was also very active in the Icelandic political network. So you can’t expect Snorri Sturluson to write something completely pagan and get away with it during this time. There was the great risk of losing his position in the Icelandic society, so if you read the Prose Edda, you can see a lot of Christian influence; you will see the Icelandic political and social realities printed in this work. So we need to read it and go beyond the metaphors, try to separate what is Christian and what is pagan, so we can understand the religious background of the Norse societies, and of course we need to already have a certain knowledge of the pre-Christian Germanic religion in order to understand it better.  

Now, in terms of the Poetic Edda, the majority of the information in there comes from WesternScandinavian sources – Norway and Iceland – with a Germanic influence, of course, in some of its compositions and even Irish, in some of the poems. But what we have in our hands nowadays is the written version made in Iceland, therefore, culturally shaped by Western-Scandinavia. The material of the Poetic Edda was written during the 13th century, but its contents can be dated between the years 800 and 1200 (the Viking period of Scandinavia). Some of the elements come from a much earlier age, through oral tradition, but the form in which they were preserved is definitely medieval. The skalds who composed these poems may have been pagans, but they were aware of Christianity and Islam, which may or may not have influenced them in creating such tales. Furthermore, the religious understanding of the Central-European Germanic peoples who fought the Romans, is very different from the medieval far-travelling Vikings. So it’s a great mistake to think the Vikings subscribed to the exact same mythology as the Central-European Germans a thousand years before. Religion in prehistoric Europe was not a static unchanging tradition, but a wild field of creative innovations, and that sort of thinking lasted till the middle ages.  

In conclusion the Eddas reflect late Icelandic believes rather than a Pan-Germanic mythology, but they are still great sources to understand Norse mythology if your mind is opened to the fact that what is written there isn’t purely pagan, and you have to accept that a Germanic religion doesn’t exist as a whole, a unified religious belief; it is a beautiful variety of pre-Christian believes mixed together to give us a better understanding of the world.  

The Black Viking

You can see the video about this subject here: [The Black Viking]


This is a story about a man named Geirmundur Heljarskinn, born in Rogaland (Norway), between the years 850-950 AD. He was one of the first explorers to settle in Iceland, going with the early Viking expedition teams. This is not a fictional character from Norse mythology or the Sagas. This person is in fact an historical figure and nowadays in Iceland people can still trace their bloodline through genetic tests to this ancestor of theirs (and such tests have been performed). He was a "black" Viking, but not in the way you might think; not black because he was of African ancestry, nor because he was so evil that he gained this seemingly ominous title of being "dark" when darkness is associated with evil, mystery, death and even magic. He was black/dark according to the perception of the people of those times. The reactions people had in relation to this man, are really interesting and makes us wonder about certain attitudes society has towards people who are physically different. 

The rather short story of Geirmundur Heljarskinn is present within the Landnámabók, which is “The Book of Settlements”, a medieval Icelandic written record which describes the settlement of Iceland by the Norse between the 9th and 10th centuries. If you research the story, it's called Geirmundar þáttr heljarskinns, and this story is about Geirmundur and his brother Hámund. This account comes in great detail about the lineage of Geirmundur, which I will not write it here so we can go straight to the point. Suffice it to say that there was a man called Hjör, doing the regular raiding and pillaging to obtain wealth. This Hjör went raiding in Bjarmland, the westernmost part of Siberia, where there was a great trading activity between the natives and the Norse. Hjör took as a hostage of value a young Siberian woman called Ljufvina, the very daughter of the "king" of Bjarmland. Hjör ended up marrying this woman. Now, in Siberia there were no kings, these were nomadic people, so it's quite possible that this whole story of her being a princess was made up to have a royal justification for her to become a queen in Norway, otherwise, without a royal lineage, she would have no claim to the throne. 

The majority of Siberians are of Mongol origins - with dark hair and skin - and Ljufvina was no exception. Now, speaking of genetics, we know that when two people, both having different skin-colors from one another, the darker pigmentation tends to thrive and be more visible. But this is nowadays that we have this knowledge, back in medieval times people expected their sons to follow their father's lineage, therefore more prone to look like their fathers. Hjör was a man with Nordic features, so people were surprised when Ljufvina gave birth to two boys with dark hair and skin. To the ancient Scandinavian societies, people with darker skin-colours were considered to be, well, back. But being “black” during these times, at least in ancient Scandinavia, wasn't necessarily a motive for prejudice, intolerance. The only problem here was the fact that the father was white, tall, fair of hair, and the social belief that children should look like their fathers. These were patriarchal societies. Another problem, was that the children looked nothing like the royal lineages of the kings and queens of Norway, they looked much more like Thralls - slaves - and this was absolutely unconceivable for nobles. 

This isn't a case of racism in ancient societies. The problem wasn't directly due to their skin, the problem was breaking the royal lineage. 

The secret of the two brothers, Geirmundur and Hámund, was kept by the family and a few trustworthy people. A white slave woman had given birth to a son, and so they replaced the two brothers for this white-skin baby from a slave. The two brothers lived as slaves within their own father's household. As I have said, it didn't matter at all if the boys had light-skin or dark-skin. The only thing that mattered was the fact that they were sons of the king and carried within themselves many of the noble and royal virtues of this great lineage, independent of the dark skin. The two young boys grew up and became healthy, resilient, strong and intelligent - all the characteristics associated with royalty - while the young white prince grew up weak, cowardly and not very clever - a verdict of his slave ancestry according to this account. When the boys reached the age of four, it was clear to those who knew the secret that no one could hide the truth any longer, that the slave boy who looked like a prince had no nobility at all, he only had the colour considered "right" because it was closer to the colour of Hjör, and nothing more. 

Well, finally, the mother brought forth the two brothers and told the truth to the king (yeah, he had no idea about the swapping-babies-scheme). The king was only surprised by the colour of their skins because he had never seen before such darker skins, but he believed the boys were his sons. Thereafter the boys gained their nickname - "heliarskinn"(dark-skin). The boys grew up to be great warriors and raiders, accumulating wealth and honour, and perfectly accepted by the society they lived in. 

Finally, Geirmundur, like his father before him, travelled to Bjarmland (Siberia) and returned with another Siberian wife - Illþurrka. Together they settled in Ireland and then in Iceland, where they became a very powerful family. The truth of this story has been confirmed by DNA tests of living Geirmundur's descendants living in Iceland, who have mitochondrial (maternal) DNA which indicates their mother's Asian/Mongolian ancestry. 

The Druids and the Moon

You can watch my Youtube video about this subject in here: [The Druids and the Moon]


The Druids are still a fascinating subject, and the unknown still brings mystery, and what is mysterious and almost mystical nowadays, gives us a certain delight in knowing that beyond our dull lives in a civilized world, there is still magic out there, somewhere.  

It’s still extremely hard to understand what the Druids were up to. We know they studied a variety of arts for 20 years, maybe more, but left no written records of their doings. Fortunately, and unfortunately, we have written roman sources describing the religious, intellectual and social functions of the druids within their communities, but these are the points of view from a society with a different cultural, historical and traditional background, seeing from afar something they had never come in contact with; ancestral practices so deeply carved upon the Celtic tribes, impossible for outsiders to fully understand the true essence of Druidism. 

Even so, during Caius Iulius Caesar wars on Gaul (the very same who played such an important role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire), we have really interesting accounts about the druids, especially duo to Caesar’s friendship with Diviciacus of the Aedui, of course a Romanised name for a person we may never know his true name. Now, there might be a certain confusion here, because there was another Diviciacus during Caesar’s time, and he was also a Gaul, a Gaulish King to be more precise, but we know this Caesar’s friend was a Druid, not by Caesar himself but by Marcus Tullius Cicero, a roman politician who had a very peculiar career before becoming an active figure in the political network of Rome. Cicero had been an Augur, a priest whose purpose was interpreting the will of the gods by studying the flight of birds. So Cicero met this Diviciacus in Rome and had long debates with him, because they were colleagues of some sort and both argued about the art of divination. 

This is one of the most important sources we have about druidism. However, as you might have guessed, it’s only a tiny portion of what druidism is and was. We are talking about druidism practiced in Gaul, from a certain Celtic group within a Celtic group, and obviously other druids did things differently, with certain similarities, but we can’t possibly say that all druids were the same everywhere. Also, these are written roman sources with that beautiful roman political touch of the Roman Republic. 

But the question is, what concrete knowledge did the Celts and the Druids had on the stars and how did they applied such knowledge on their societies? In truth, we aren’t certain (sorry), but we have a variety of studies which gives us a glimpse of such a knowledge which seems with each passing year we come to the conclusion that these societies knew much more than we realised the year before, and the year before that. We can count on the yearly celebrations, harvesting cycles, equinoxes and solstices, we can count on the traditional folklore written by Irish priests, and of course we can count on the studies made by Archaeologists and Astronomers about the orientations of the monuments of antiquity. However, this last one, unlike most people think, such megalithic monuments are not Celtic; they were raised during the Neolithic, so we are talking about roughly 5000-4000 years before the Celts, of course the chronology differs a lot from place to place, still, we know the Druids used such monuments during the Iron 
Age, but did they really knew what that was all about? Were they really using such monuments for the astronomical purposes they had been built so long ago? 

It’s possible that the Druids knew how to use such monuments. Oral tradition since immemorial times survived till nowadays, even though with a lot of changes along the way. But we know the knowledge of the druids was passed along, from generation to generation through the oral tradition, in the attempt to keep the secrets of their wisdom, and they did a damn good job because we are still trying to crack this business. And such a tradition partly survived in the Irish Astronomical Treatises of the Middle-Ages, written in Latin, the very same knowledge the Christians used to continue the studies on the stars. 

But the key to this knowledge seems to be in the Moon. According to the roman sources, the knowledge about the Moon and the observation of its phases was one of the most important subjects for the Druids. The complexity of the knowledge of the Moon cycles is something our modern culture lost, at least the peculiarities of this knowledge. 

First, it must be noted that there are two cycles in the motions and appearances of the moon. The first and best known is that of its phases, which are repeated every 29.5 days approximately. Secondly, is the position of the Moon on the horizon, in fact, if we look at what point of the horizon in which the moon appears, we will see that for about 27.5 days the Moon travels in an arc in the horizon, in a round "journey" between its north and south ends. It is important to note that since both cycles are different, the moon does not always leave in the same phase by the same site of the horizon. 

Now, as the lunar orbit is inclined to that of the earth about 5 °, the points of the horizon where the Moon appears on the horizon does not coincide with the appearances of the sun across the sky. In addition the Moon appearances are not static. And then there is a variety of complex information of the cycles of the Moon which would make my statement too long and complex. What I mean with this is that the Moon cycles are much more complex and we need to be precise in our observations of the moon, because the positions are never the same each year. We had to observe the real cycle of the moon for at least 18 to 19 years, until the whole cycle comes to an end and starts again. 18 to 19 years is very close to the 20-year-study of the Druids. Coincidence? Caesar himself left us an account that it took a novice in Druidry nineteen years of preparations to become a Druid, which coincides with the complete observation of one Moon cycle 

So the Druids had to have a real understanding of the natural world. According Caesar and also Gaius Plinius, a roman philosopher and sort of naturalist of the Roman Empire, the Druids only required to observe the Moon in order to understand the stars and the position of the earth in relation with the stars. 

It's interesting to see that the megalithic monuments are not only aligned to be possible to observe the solstices, but some monuments are actually aligned with certain starts. The starts which are much more visible to the human eye without requiring a tool to enhance the celestial "dome". And these monuments I'm talking about, were not only for initiation rites, but also funerary monuments. Monuments with a variety of functions in prehistoric societies. And as I've said, these monuments are much older than the Celts, so it's a wonder the knowledge these people had, and how this knowledge survived for thousands of years until the Iron Age, and the Druids made good use of such knowledge. 

This may be one of the reasons the Moon has played such an important role in the pre-Christian societies, and why there were so many deities related with the Moon. For instance, since I’ve written about the Romans, we start to see in the Roman funerary stelae (stones slabs) a representation of the crescent moon with the propagation of Celtic tongues and certain customs and traditions mixed with local traditions. 

The Runes: Fehu ᚠ

Hello my dear friends, here's the first video about the runes. In this video I will transmit (in short) the basic meaning of the rune Fehu, the mythology connected to it, its upright and inverted meaning for divination purposes, combining it with other runes and the gods associated with this rune. I hope you enjoy it! Tack för idag! :D

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Introduction to: The Goddess Sigyn

Since some of you asked me to make a video about the goddess Sigyn, well here it is :D There isn't much information about this goddess and I like to always give a modern perspective to the worship of the gods, because times change and so do the needs. I hope you enjoy it and from now on all my videos are opened to have subtitles made by you in your own languages; feel free to add your own subtitles if you want to contribute to spreading the information. Tack för idag!

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Introduction to the Runes (Video)

A brief introduction to my new playlist entitled "The Runes". Soon enough (I hope) I shall start making videos about the runes - each rune and its meaning - so after we can proceed to the divination methods using the runes.

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Sígrblót - The Victory Blessing

Sígrblót, the a northern european pagan celebration of victory and of life. Because we have lived long enough in the "shadow" of christian beliefs with the perspective of a life after death and enjoying life on another place; and there shouldn't be a withholding of good emotions and a denial of what makes us humans. This is our life, right now, right here, and we should celebrate behing alive and not thinking about our own deaths and a possible life after that. Life is better lived by achieving victory and sucess, and we can only achieve that if we stay strong, courageous, with a strong mind and will, to embrace and accept life and the natural world.

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