tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43703753407588841592024-03-15T19:53:39.041+00:00Wight of the Nine WorldsThis blog is about the Northern Tradition Paganism, about the roots of European people, Gods, Spirits and other Beings throughout the Nine Cosmic Worlds, the ways of Shamanism and also other tradicional religions of many countries in Europe. Welcome friend and feel free to share with me your thoughts and doubts, your knowledge, for i will also share my lore in this place of learning.Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.comBlogger574125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-2851933450563809582022-01-26T12:59:00.002+00:002022-01-26T12:59:30.958+00:00Academic Videos concerning the History of Icelandic Magic Staves<p> <span style="color: #e69138;">Hello friends,</span></p><p><span style="color: #e69138;">I know I haven't been to this blog for a very long time, as I have been focused on other platforms such as Patreon and Youtube, but also in my day-time job as an Archaeologist.</span></p><p><span style="color: #e69138;">Many things I wrote in this blog I've been revising for the past 5 years at YouTube. New research and evidences are always popping out, so it's always important to have our knowledge updated. This also concerns posts I've written in the past in relation to the <i>galdrastafir</i> (Icelandic Magic Staves).</span></p><p><span style="color: #e69138;">I thought it would be useful to add here the YouTube videos I've done concerning Icelandic Magic Staves (galdrastafir) to help people research about the history of such symbols, as there's plenty of pseudo-historians and modern merchandise dealing with "Viking Religious Symbols" which does not portray the actual historical evidences and scientific knowledge concerning the history and archaeology of Nordic History.</span></p><p><span style="color: #e69138;">The videos I will share here are my own academic works, and you can find bibliography at the end of those videos, so you can check for yourself. I hope it is useful. Thank you.</span></p><p><span style="color: #e69138;"><br /></span></p><p><b><span style="color: #e69138;">Galdrastafir : Common Misconceptions:</span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yLGEmALzjqk" width="320" youtube-src-id="yLGEmALzjqk"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><b><span style="color: #e69138;">Similarities Between Umbanda Symbols and Icelandic Magic Staves:</span></b><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JGa-b1YgNi4" width="320" youtube-src-id="JGa-b1YgNi4"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><b><span style="color: #e69138;">The True Ægishjálmur [Helm of Awe] :</span></b></div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LxVjT3feRJI" width="320" youtube-src-id="LxVjT3feRJI"></iframe></div><br /><p><b><span style="color: #e69138;">The Real Meaning of the Vegvísir :</span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6ZIRCWZ4QLg" width="320" youtube-src-id="6ZIRCWZ4QLg"></iframe></div><br /><p><b><span style="color: #e69138;">Balkan Religious Symbols Similar to Icelandic Magic Staves :</span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/A11RBkt5zS0" width="320" youtube-src-id="A11RBkt5zS0"></iframe></div><br /><p><span style="color: #e69138;">I very much hope you enjoy these videos and may they be useful.</span></p><p><span style="color: #e69138;">You can find me at Patreon <b><a href="http://www.patreon.com/ArithHarger">www.patreon.com/ArithHarger</a></b></span></p><p><span style="color: #e69138;">And you can also find all of my social media networks by following this <b><a href="https://linktr.ee/ArithHarger" target="_blank">[Link]</a></b></span></p></div>Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-369581573571625122021-08-18T12:50:00.001+01:002021-08-18T12:50:26.246+01:00Rune Divination Methods: The Three Norns Method<p>Since I've started a YouTube Channel I have progressively put aside my past blogs. But today I would like to share with you my first video concerning a Rune Divination Method; turning into video format past blog-posts concerning the runes and divination-methods associated to them. Hope you enjoy it!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zsbz0oMKw6g" width="320" youtube-src-id="zsbz0oMKw6g"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p>Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-12411773580200929102020-12-30T14:30:00.001+00:002020-12-30T14:30:50.821+00:00The Runes: Dagaz<p> </p><p>It has recently come to my attention that in this old blog I've never actually spoke about Dagaz; for some reason this rune escaped my earlier writings concerning the runes, rune-readings and divination with the runes. Three years agora I've started to make new rune-series at Youtube and finally, on December 2020, I close those rune series too, with Dagaz. So I'll leave it right here since it is a missing piece. Thank you.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="355" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bOeDlDJUVmY" width="528" youtube-src-id="bOeDlDJUVmY"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-63381855922313001942020-12-27T20:10:00.000+00:002020-12-27T20:10:11.268+00:00FAQ (in video format)<p> </p><p>Hello everyone, it's been a while since I've made any post in this blog. The truth is that I have completely abandoned it when I joined the YouTube Platform and also Patreon (the latter is where I submit my academic works).</p><p>In the past 4 years (when I became a YouTuber) there's been many questions, but I've noticed some general doubts follow the same type of questions on specific subjects. So I've decided to put some links to my YouTube Videos where I've already answered Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). I hope you will find this post useful and you may also join me at YouTube and Patreon.</p><p>Just click on the * <b>[Link]</b> * and it will take you there:<br /><br /><b>1)</b> Viking Religious Symbols: <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLAzWtAsuZ0&t" target="_blank">[Link]</a></b><br /></p><p><b>2)</b> The Runes - Common Misconceptions: <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki1nLxLdCfQ&t" target="_blank">[Link]</a></b></p><p><b>3)</b> Common Misconceptions in Old Norse Religion : <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMAUFHJ7dJo&t" target="_blank">[Link]</a></b></p><p><b>4)</b> Heathen Holy Days: <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMj4Pmti1jM&t" target="_blank">[Link]</a></b></p><p><b>5) </b>Heathen Vs Pagan: <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuxeKUhfnZQ" target="_blank">[Link]</a></b></p><p><b>6) </b>The Witch Cult & The Great Goddess: <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLzdAlmGmYo&t" target="_blank">[Link]</a></b></p><p><b>7)</b> Ergi & Homosexuality in the Viking Age: <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbls2qpvPpg&t" target="_blank">[Link]</a></b></p><p><b>8)</b> The Truth About Shieldmaidens: <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6aGSNAzcAA" target="_blank">[Link]</a></b></p><p><b>9)</b> Viking Men were also Housewives: <b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfWxtVFCvck" target="_blank">[Link]</a></b></p><p><br /></p><p>If you want to find me in other social media networks, just follow this <b><a href="https://linktr.ee/ArithHarger" target="_blank">[Link]</a></b></p><p><br /></p><p>Thank you for your friendship and support. I'll see you around. </p><p>Yours truly</p><p>Arith Härger</p>Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-16454222812384703772019-05-16T16:42:00.000+01:002019-05-16T16:43:50.854+01:00What is Animism?<br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I know I've abandoned this blog some time ago, but most of you are now with me at my Youtube Channel, or continued to support me on the Patreon platform. Even so, if any one still comes here, or by chance comes across this blog seeking something concerning paganism, and you don't yet know about my work, I leave this video here because I think it might contain useful information for those stepping into paganism and want to understand the essence of it, the way of thinking.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I think this video contains some useful information to understand the basics of paganism. It seems to me, nowadays, most neo-pagan movements and neo-pagan thinking is simply an extent of monotheistic world-denying views; there's still the tendency to follow the same line of thought. Neo-paganism in great part seems like a "paganization" of Near-Eastern monotheisms - worshiping the gods as if they were our personal servents and we make demands from, and there is still a great spiritual detachment from our reality and people still seek a spiritual-realm elsews.ewhere, as I often hear: "Middle-Earth is not for me! Valhalla awaits me!". I think by understanding Animism we can better grasp part of the pagan consciousness, and it is a way to start gaining world-accepting views.</span></div>
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Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-32150355115121638952018-11-24T11:06:00.000+00:002018-11-24T11:06:56.814+00:00VIKINGS: Björn Ironside Facial Tattoo Meaning<span style="color: #e69138;">As you know, I'm no longer here on this blog due to lack of time for some writing; as an archaeologist that profession takes much of my time, but you can still find my work and my posts in a variety of other social media that I shall leave the links in this post.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138;">My good friends, I've made a post on my <a href="https://www.patreon.com/ArithHarger" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Patreon</a> about the meaning of Björn's facial tattoo on the TV series VIKINGS. I'll leave the link down below to that post because it's open to the public:</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138;">Click here: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/vikings-bjorn-22815139" rel="noopener" target="_blank">VIKINGS: Björn Ironside Facial Tattoo Meaning</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138;">Consider being my patron for more posts and academic works of mine. Thank you very much for the support!</span><br />
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<a href="http://whispersofyggdrasil.blogspot.pt/"><span style="color: #e69138;">Blogspot</span></a>Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-73625004055253203382018-05-17T20:57:00.000+01:002018-05-17T20:57:16.282+01:00Will You be my Patron?<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now is the chance for you to become my Patron!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you wish to directly help me in appreciation for the work I do on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/VikingWidunder" target="_blank">My Youtube Channel</a> , now you can become my Patron and send me whatever amount you want so I can continue to provide content. Let’s face it, being an Archaeologist doesn’t pay the bills at all, unfortunately, and I’m currently working as a independent researcher, which means I earn absolutely nothing; I actually spend my own to be an archaeologist and provide history to the public.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So just go to <a href="https://www.patreon.com/ArithHarger" target="_blank">My Patron</a> , and support me my dear friend. Thank you in advance. Being my Patron also means you will have access to exclusive content.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Best Regards</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Arith Härger</span>Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-90362342929838641332018-02-07T19:22:00.000+00:002018-02-07T19:22:27.106+00:00The Cult of Odin in the North<br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Watch the previous video here: <strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTGUnXvUpQw" rel="noopener" target="_blank">[The Cult of Odin]</a></strong></span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Watch the video about this post here: <strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJtiogDlcKQ" rel="noopener" target="_blank">[The Cult of Odin in the North]</a></strong></span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When we talk about Norse mythology the first name that comes to mind is Odin. It’s inevitable.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since the 13th century Odin was transformed into a figure closely related to the Christian god, because that was the religious reality in Europe at that time, and people are prone to create patterns that are related to the social reality they live in. Also, in an Era very much influenced by Christianity in every field, if you wanted to talk about pagan stuff you had better include Christian values and morals, or having a very Christian speech in the pagan tales so people would better understand the religious sense behind the mythological accounts, so they could compare it with their religious reality.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since then, Odin was completely transformed into a Christian figure with some old pagan traits. People became familiarized with Odin because the main religion of medieval Europe was Christianity and Odin resembled the Christian god. This went on until nowadays and even now most pagans, who follow the northern European pagan traditions, can’t detach themselves from this Christian comprehension of the god Odin. People are not to be blamed because in a society so deeply rooted in Christianity, unconsciously people end up absorbing Christian values and become Christians, and when jumping into a pagan spirituality, they hold on to something spiritual that it’s still familiar to them.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I want to show you that Odin wasn’t always the Alfather, the wisest of all gods, not even the king of the gods and the cosmos itself did not turn around the pure will of Odin. He was not the central figure.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The cult of Odin was not indigenous in the North. The time when this deity was introduced in Scandinavia is difficult to say. It was obviously before the Viking Age, probably the closest date is somewhere around the late 5th century and the beginning of the 6th, arriving in Britain with the Saxons and reaching what is now Norway and Sweden by way of Denmark.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, when the cult of Odin arrived in Scandinavia, this god wasn’t the central point of Norse mythology before the Viking Age. Only during the Viking Age Odin became one of the most, if not the most, important deity of Norse mythology, and from that moment on the Norse tradition started to change greatly and focusing and turning around Odin.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If we take a look at the oldest poems referring Odin, like Beowulf for instance, dating between the 8th and the 11th centuries, and also the Volsunga Saga, which is a late 13th century Icelandic prose work but there are representations of the story in stone dating to the 11th century… well, in these stories we see Odin is indeed the major deity and the heroes in such stories are closely connected with Odin. So based on such accounts, Odin only became an important deity during the 8th century. Which makes Odin’s importance in Scandinavian society quite new in Scandinavian history. The god that everyone speaks about, everyone thinks about when talking about Scandinavian mythology, is actually not that old. But obviously we have to be aware that all these sagas and poems before being put to parchment or even carved in stone, belonged to the oral tradition, and therefore are much older. This deity is much older.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So if we turn to archaeology and historical records to support the findings, we may come to the conclusion that perhaps Odin in the North and in the religious context, is much older that the 8th century.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The customs associated with Odin might give us some answers.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sacrificial hanging was practiced in Sweden about the end of the 5th century, and even though Scandinavia was never romanised, people were aware of each other. There are historical references that the practice of hanging as a distinctly sacrificial act, was attributed to Scandinavians. Human victims were sacrificed in this way to the god of war. The roman historical references do not speak about the name of the deity, it is compared to the Greek god of war Ares, and so it could mean Tyr, the Norse god of war. But there are little evidences about that. Tyr in archaeological terms is an unimportant figure in the Norse mythology. There are no archaeological evidences of sacrifices to Tyr. Human sacrifices at least. Human sacrifices by hanging and offered to the god of war, can only be to Odin.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This shows us that the Cult of Odin was already practiced in the north at the beginning of the 6th century, and that is perhaps the date when he was introduced in the north. But mind that I’m talking about the Cult of Odin and not the deity itself.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What I’m saying here is not that Odin is a young deity, younger than the Christian god even. No. Odin, or Wodanaz, was a Germanic deity, a god of war and death, but he did not exist in a Scandinavian religious concept before the invading Germanic tribes.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Obviously throughout history people came and went from place t place and there is a possibility that Odin was known in Scandinavia during the Nordic Bronze Age, between 1500 – 500 BCE. Which was an age when the Nordics imported lots of gold and bronze from central Europe, and the Scandinavians adopted many central European and Mediterranean religious symbol, and also objects, technology and artistic styles.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Bronze Age was also an age of war and all over Europe the cultures and traditions were around war. So the concept of Odin as a god of war ONLY, might have been introduced in Scandinavia since the Bronze Age, but the Scandinavians, especially the Swedes, maintained Freyr as their most important and highly worshiped deity.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So in conclusion, Odin was a god of war in Germanic societies, especially in central Europe, during the Bronze Age. The cult of Odin in Scandinavia, seems to only have been introduced during the 6th century of our era, but this doesn’t mean that his cult was something new at this time, but started to be introduced in the major religious events during the end of the 5th century and the beginning of the 6th. Odin only became a major deity during the Viking Age, and during the 13th century and with the influence of Christianity, Odin became the Alfather, associated with creation. So there seems to have been an increasing in the importance this deity had in the old Scandinavian societies.</span></div>
Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-88491179929405992922018-02-02T18:39:00.002+00:002018-02-02T18:39:56.358+00:00Viking warrior-women existed?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You may ask: Arith, why in the devil would you pose this question? Well, it might seem strange, but till now there were no physical evidences to support the existence of Viking warrior-women.</span></div>
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<br />Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-24591141165052187602018-01-31T19:01:00.000+00:002018-01-31T19:01:59.763+00:00The Cult of Odin<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can watch the video about this subject in here: <strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTGUnXvUpQw&t=" rel="noopener" target="_blank">[The Cult of Odin]</a></strong></span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I will divide this short essay into three parts. First I’ll talk about Odin historically, his introduction in the old societies and the meaning of his name. Then, some of Odin’s aspects as a god of war, nobility and shamanism, focusing on certain characteristics. And finally, on the third part, I will talk about the Cult of Odin. I think the last part is the one you will like the most. So much blood and sacrifices. <br /> <br />Odin is one of the most complex deities of the Norse pantheon, perhaps because his cult was spread throughout so many different social and religious realities that this deity ended up being introduced in every pre-Christian religious cult of Scandinavia, and absorbed the functions of other gods. <br />But first things first: <br /> <br />Odin is the ruler of the tribe of gods called the Aesir. He is a god that often goes into journeys, wandering throughout the nine cosmic worlds seeking for knowledge, in a relentless selfinterested pursuit for wisdom. And because he is a god so committed to obtain wisdom, he doesn't care how he obtains it, so he is often depicted as a god with no regards for values, justice, law, fairness, respect and even the safety and well-being of others. If he has to ruin lives or even kill for wisdom, he will do it. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />He is a god associated with war and death. A god associated with nobility, poetry, wisdom, spellcraft, sorcery, magic in general and much like Loki, Odin is also a master of disguise and trickery and shapeshifting. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> He's a god associated with so much stuff and often things that contradict themselves and have no connection, that we often wonder how is it possible for one single deity to embody all of the qualities and fields of expertise, I've just mentioned, all at once? Well, he was a god worshipped for many centuries all over Scandinavia and Continental Europe, mostly central Europe. So it's normal that this deity took the "job" of other local deities when he was introduced into local cults. And to better understand this, let's take a look at what his name means. <br /> <br />Wodan is the elder form of the name of this deity, associated with several shamanic functions. He is associated with the dead and those who are slain (especially in battle). He appears as a wild rider at the head of an otherworldly pursuit, the leader of the Wild Hunt, and also a god associated with storms and strong winds. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The name Wodan comes from Old High German wuot, insane. <br />From wods, angry, obsessed. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Old English wod, raving. Wod also means sound, voice, poetry, and odr – poetry. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />And in modern German, Wut, meaning anger, rage, fury, wrath. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />So the concept of his older name is associated with madness, obsession, and ecstatic frenzy. But the name Wodan has other variations, such as Wode, Wotan, Woide, Wods, Wuotes and so on, apparently all linked to either shamanic trance or the brain condition necessary to enter in a trance state, through madness, insanity. <br />Now, the Germanic Wodan is not like the Norse Odin, the chief of the gods. The continental god leads the wild hunt, a horrific, ghostly cavalcade of spirits, elves, some deities and the dead. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Wodan is a god of rage and ecstasy, a god who made warriors enter in a state of madness while in battle, turning his chosen warriors into wolves or bears, and us such he became the favourite and most important god among many war-like tribes. These tribes invaded Scandinavia. As conquerors, they installed their order and their god became the chief deity, king of the gods, and the father of all. And just like this, Odin was introduced into Scandinavia and a new god was born there. Odin. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Now, before Odin, Fricco, or Freyr, was one of the most popular and highly worshipped deities in Scandinavia, especially in Sweden. He was the chief god of the old Swedes before invading tribes introduced the cult of Wodan. In the process, Woden lost the W and became Odin, while Freyr lost much of his importance and became a minor farmers’ god while the nobility worshipped and sacrificed to Odin. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />In Scandinavia we see Odin with many names, many titles, such as Hertýr, god of the army, Valgautr, god of the battle-slain, Hrafnagud, ravengod, Grimnir, masked one, Báleygr, flame eye, and so on. A variety of names meaning completely different things and others which we still don’t know the meaning. It’s a long, long list. Which shows us that many independent local gods were integrated in the cult of Odin. <br /> <br />Odin remained with many of his old continental characteristics, along with new characteristics from Scandinavia and through time he still remained so important in the Scandinavian societies that even during medieval times he continued to be associated with other things. According to the social reality of each period in history, he became associated with more stuff. For instance, in continental Europe he was associated with the dead and spirits, but to the Germanic tribes there was no concept of a warrior-heaven. <br />A place in the after-life solely for warriors is a concept that few European cultures had, only some Celt-Iberian tribes and the Erulians had this concept. Valhalla was something new introduced in this cult. To the Germanic tribes there was no need to have a heroic death in the battlefield. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Another example, in Iceland during medieval times Odin became associated with magic, spell work, sorcery, even Seidr. We must not forget that in the old Scandinavian pagan societies, seidr was seen as the province of women and it was not honourable not even manly for a men to practice Seidr, men who practice seidr were considered effeminate and it was an insult, they were called Ergi, unmanly, effeminate. But all of a sudden Odin becomes associated with such practices, a male god, he gains prominent effeminate qualities that would have brought unspeakable shame to any ancient Norse warrior. Well, in medieval Iceland this was no longer a social problem, and since Christianity didn’t let people practice magic, people needed a patron god of magic, and thus Odin being the most famous deity of the old gods, he also became associated with sorcery, witchcraft. <br /> <br /> <br />So, recapitulating, the mainland Woden was an important deity, but not a patriarchal chief of the gods such as the Scandinavian Odin. He changed from a storm god, Wode, to a god of ecstasy and rage, Wodan, to a god of rulers and warriors, Odin. And kept on changing, and I dare say that he will change again to assume a form that fits in our time and our present realities. <br /> <br /> <br />After this introduction, let's take a look at some of Odin's fields of expertise, and I'll try to be brief on that. <br /> <br />As a god of war, he encourages the process of war, he inspires people to do war. He needs people to do war because that's how he obtains warriors for his personal army. Dying gloriously in battle is the only way to go to Odin in the literal sources. However, he isn't a god that concerns himself with every warrior. Only those who he deems to be worthy, he will help and bestow his blessings to them, mainly legendary heroes, people that stand out and become really good at killing and in the arts of war. But he also maintains a close connection with shamanic-warriors, such as berserkers. Warriors who combine fighting techniques with spiritual practices, achieving a state of ecstasy, but focused solely on the cult of Odin, which also includes working with animal totems, mainly bears and wolves, which are the animals associated with Odin, and as I've told you, the remnants of the continental characteristic of this deity. As a god of war, he isn't like Týr, concerned with the war itself, the reasons behind a conflict, or even the rules, honour and the deeds involved. In terms of war, Odin is concerned with the chaotic battle-frenzy, the very force, essence, state of mind, achieved through the madness of battle, through violent acts, uncontrollable rage and fury bringing out the beast in us. <br /> <br />As a god associated with sovereignty and nobility, he is the divine archetype of a ruler. As I've told you before, since he was the main god of the invading Germanic tribes, he became the god associated with power. This is an interesting aspect, because when Christianity came along, the first to be converted were the rulers, chieftains, kings and emperors, the high power of the society, while the people from rural areas, the countryside, practically forgotten by such high powers, continued to be pagans. This is exactly what happened in ancient Scandinavia. The high powers adopted Odin as the main god, chief of all the gods, the “Alfather”, while in rural areas people maintained their older gods, such as Freyr which became associated with agriculture because of that. So even in the ancient pagan societies, pagans adopted another sort of paganism while in the countryside people remained more pagan than the pagans. <br /> <br />The Norse society, much like many ancient societies, was socially and politically divided into three groups. Rulers, warriors and farmers. So the gods were also divided into these three groups. And Odin being the god of nobility, obviously he was set on the top of this hierarchical society. So he became the king of the gods. Odin in Scandinavia became linked to the nobility, and as such he became the legendary founder of numerous royal lines, and the Scandinavians tried to pass this into their mythologies, introducing Odin as the creator of the first humans, along with his two brothers, or these three characters being three different aspects of the same deity. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />As a god associated with wisdom and shamanism, it's quite interesting: <br />The wisdom aspect is one of the things that differentiates him from being the all-powerful-god. You see, many people nowadays see Odin almost as the only god that matters. Many people in Asatru practice Odinism, focusing only on this god almost to the point of turning Polytheism into a monotheistic religion. But what happens in a monotheistic religion is that the only existing god is the all-knowing and all-powerful, while Odin show us that he himself has limitations. That's the beauty of Polytheism, the gods much like us, in their own individuality have limits, and that's why Odin is always seeking for knowledge, to overcome his limitations on every field, obsessed with obtaining wisdom because he is restless when a problem comes along and he has no power. He sets out in a relentless and ruthless quest for more wisdom, more knowledge, more power, and whoever stands in his way, he immediately takes them out of the game. And well, most of the knowledge he gains is usually of a magical sort. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />And of course, as you know, he sacrificed an eye for wisdom and at a certain point he sacrificed himself, hanging on a tree and stabbing himself with his own spear. To achieve the knowledge of the runes. An old reminder of ancient shamanic practices and techniques of inducing an altered state of consciousness through a violent ordeal, through a near-death experience. <br /> <br />In terms of shamanism, along with the goddess Freyja, he’s one of the two greatest practitioners of shamanism amongst the gods. He learns this art from Freyja herself, which reminds us of the social stigma of only women were allowed to practice seidr, a form of shamanism, in the ancient Scandinavian societies. And in many accounts we have hints of Odin's shamanic journeys, especially when he uses his eight-legged horse Sleipnir. An eight-legged horse is a typical symbol of northern Eurasian shamanism. <br />Also, when we deal with shamanism, almost every time we will come across shamans who are accompanied with familiar spirits, not just animals and land spirits, but other beings. Odin is always closely associated with wolves and ravens, animals who are his companions all the time, and also other spiritual entities associated with him, such as Valkyries. And as I've said before, I've already talked about shamanic-warriors, which was the type of shamanism socially acceptable for men in Germanic societies. <br /> <br />As a god of Poetry, in the Ynglinga Saga for instance, Odin is celebrated as the inventor of poetry (skaldskapr), and also experienced in Galdr or Galdar, spells, incantations, and of course, and also, the master of runes. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Odin is a master of poems and he grants this gift to others he deems to be worthy. And the story of how he became a master of speech, and mind that this is closely associated with Galdr, the power to persuade through words of incantation, well, the story his quite interesting because he obtained the mead of poetry, and in old Norse the name of this mead was Odroerir, closely associated with the word Odr, which not only is one of Odin's names but also the very word connected to ecstasy, fury, inspiration. This Mead of Poetry might be an old reference to an Intoxicating drink which helped to alter the state of consciousness, to achieve ecstasy, inspiration and obtain knowledge. <br /> <br />In terms of being a god associated with the dead, he is a divine figure who guides those who have just died and go to the underworld. And this aspect might be older than his aspect of being a god of war. As I've told you, Valhalla was a later concept, and unknown in continental Europe, which was later introduced, meant to motivate warriors into suicidal fighting rages. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Odin continued to be associated with the dead even during medieval and modern periods in Scandinavian history, quite possibly an old characteristic of this god because he was already associated with death and the dead before his cult was introduced in Scandinavia. And we also have notes of him communicating with the dead, raising the dead, so he seems to have been a powerful necromancer. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Now let’s talk about the cult of Odin or the perception we have of it in archaeological findings and the study of the written sources. <br /> <br />The cult of Odin in the north involved sacrifices, mostly in times of war, and the victims were always humans, either volunteers or prisoners. This doesn’t mean that animals weren’t also sacrificed, they were, but humans were always sacrificed to Odin while animals were sacrificed occasionally or were mostly used as sacrifices to other deities. However, I must add, the number of examples we have of human sacrifices to Odin, are small. I mean, there are a lot of examples but they seem small compared to the span of time during which Odin was considered the major deity. But anyway, in all the examples we have of sacrifices to Odin they are always human sacrifices. Let me give you at least 4 examples: <br /> <br />King Vikar, in order to win against a neighbouring enemy, a priest of Odin was sent out into the forest to seek the answer from Odin. Through divination and in a vision, Odin tells the priest that he requires a man out of their company in exchange for his blessing to ensure victory. Odin choses King Vikar himself and instructs how he is to be sent to him. Hanged and stabbed. King Vikar was Hanged and stabbed and thus he was given to Odin. This sacrificed ensured King Vikar’s army victory, although he wasn’t around to celebrate it. <br /> <br />Aun, King of Sweden, sacrificed one of his 10 sons every few years. He lived long indeed because out of those 10 he sacrificed 9. <br /> <br />During the reign of Ólafr Trételgi, there was a famine and people attributed that to the lack of sacrifice made by Olafr. They burnt him in his house and offered the sacrifice to Odin so they could have plenty. Sure enough, the famine was over. <br /> <br /> <br />King Haraldr was also a king plagued with a famine during his reign. Through divination it was found that the gamine could be stopped by the sacrifice of the noblest youth in the land. The son of a noble was required, Angantýr son of Heidrekr. Now this one is interesting, because Angantýr is very similar to Hangatýr, which is one of Odin’s names, meaning God of the Hanged. Anyway, Heidrekr refused to give away that son, so he gave his other son Halfdan and to compensate the fact of not giving the one Odin required, he also gave all the host in Halfdan’s commend, as a sacrifice. The temples were covered with the blood of the ones who were sacrificed. <br /> <br />As you can see by these four example, it always involved the sacrificed of humans and from the nobility, since Odin was worshipped by the nobility, being a god associated with this social class. Also, Odin didn’t want a nobody to be sacrificed to him, he chose those from nobility which he required, and indeed in archaeological findings and in the comprehension we have of the ancient Scandinavian beliefs, we see that only warriors who died in battle and nobles, were allowed to go into Valhalla. <br /> <br />In addition to sacrifices of this sort, there were 3 great annual sacrifices in ancient Scandinavia. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />At the approach of winter, a sacrifice for plenty. At midwinter, for increase of the crops. And at the beginning of summer, a sacrifice for victory, sigrblot. Quite possibly these 3 sacrifices were made to the three major gods of Scandinavia at that time. The sacrifice from plenty was to the god Freyr, the sacrifice for increase of the crops to Thor, and the sacrifice for victory to Odin, because of the constant references to him as the god of victory and sacrifices and vows were made to Odin for victory in times of war. <br />There were also sacrifices in great scale every nine years at Uppsala, at which sacrifices of men and various animals were offered. These sacrifices took place about the spring equinox, coinciding with the annual sacrifice for victory. Both men and animals were hanged in the grove close to the temple. Of the animals hanged, most were not edible ones, such as dogs, horses and hawks. Nine male animals hanged with humans. Of course, speaking of edible animals, in Scandinavia horse meat was also consumed, but it’s quite different. Edible animals were sacrificed to Freyr, while Odin required nobler animals, animals that were used by nobility and were to be taken with the sacrificed people into Valhalla, to serve them there, hence, dogs for hunting, horses to ride, and hawks for hunting but also as animals linked to activities performed by the nobility. <br /> <br /> Several cases of hanging occur in the cycle of stories involving criminals. It was customary to sacrifice prisoners to Odin on the battlefield. The sacrifices at Uppsala were sacred, so most likely the sacrificed ones were of noble birth and no criminals, neither prisoners nor slaves were sacrificed there. But in a battlefield, or any other place when victory was needed, criminals were sacrificed to Odin. <br /> <br />You might be asking if hanged people were really just sacrifices for Odin. Maybe it was for other deities? </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />There are no other evidences of hanging people and offering them to other gods. Hanged people were to Odin and Odin alone. For instance, there were human sacrifices to Thor, but these appear to have been put to death by being felled with a club. Yes . . . beat them to death with a club. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Odin is constantly being associated with the gallows, as we can see by some of his names. Galga Framr, burden of the gallows, galga gramr, galga valda, Hanga Drottinn, Hangatýr, Hanga gud, Lord or god or the gallows of the hanged. <br /> <br />It is possible that the slain victims to offer as a sacrifice to Odin were not criminals and or slaves. Because when sacrificing to Odin, people would automatically go to Valhalla and to go there they needed goods and animals of valour. Thats why nobility was chosen. But of course, once in a while criminals would be sacrificed but on another context, and slaves were often sacrificed with their masters. Sacrificing slaves separately was most certainly as offers to Thor, because it is to Thor’s Hall that slaves will go, to be servants in his hall. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Also, there are references of criminals being sacrificed alongside wolves, and not dogs. Dogs had a purpose, they were useful and were used in the afterlife by the nobility. So hanging wolves was with criminals was a way to socially show that those hanged there were not nobles, and the people hanged couldn’t use those animals in the afterlife, and also wolves instead of dogs were sacrificed with criminals in order to disgrace the victims on their arrival into the other side, maybe so Odin might now that those cannot enter Valhalla. <br /> <br />The sacrifices of Odin often involved hanging but there was also stabbing, although both at the same time was not common, or, stabbing and hanging at the same time was the ritual in important sacrifices to Odin. But few are the accounts of both at the same time. Although stabbing as a sacrifice to Odin was a reality, especially with a javelin, and we have many references in the myths, such as Odin’s weapon which a lot of people refer to as a spear, but it was a javelin. Odin throws his javelin over the army who is going to perish, Odin stabs himself with his javelin, and there are references of dying people and others with perfectly good health, being marked with a javelin, as a mark to be sent to the gods. So hanging might have come later. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Marking the victims with a javelin might have been a form of dedicating the victim to Odin before the sacrifice, which was hanging. Both at the same time might have been the ordinary ceremony of sacrifice. <br /> <br />In terms of funeral rites, and I promise I’ll be brief because this video is already too long and I’m afraid I’m losing your interest. Well, for instance in the Ynglinga Saga we have references of funeral rites dedicated to Odin, or how they should be conducted in order to send the dead to Odin. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Burning the dead in a pyre along with their earthly positions, to take them into Valhalla, and also what the deceased during life buried in the earth, mostly treasures, which could also be included as earthly goods to be taken into the other side. The items thrown into the pyre included weapons, jewellery, animals and occasionally servants. The animals also included those owned </span><span style="color: #e69138; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">by the deceased. There are accounts of horses being taken into the burial mound and sacrificed there and placed in the burial mound. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Well, I’m getting ahead of myself. I’m speaking about burial mounds because after the deceased was cremated, the ashes were either thrown into the sea or buried down in the earth, and a mound was to be raised as a memorial to noblemen, and people who achieved any distinction during life, a Bautasten should be raised, a reference to a Scandinavian menhir which probably gave birth to the rune-stones in memory of people who during life achieved something great.</span>Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-4509244859213199772018-01-12T21:06:00.000+00:002018-01-12T21:06:56.147+00:00Ragnarök in the Bible?<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #e69138;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #e69138;">You can watch the video about this subject in here: </span><span style="color: #ffd966;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O8NyYOHHKQ&t=" rel="noopener" target="_blank">[Ragnarök Video]</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let’s start with the most obvious question: What is Ragnarök? If we want to have a shallow idea of what it is, well, it’s simply the end of the world as we know it. But of course I’m not here to give you a simple explanation.</span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> For some people Ragnarök already happened, if we understand that after this chaotic event, a Golden Age will begin, an age of peace and compassion, the rebirth of the earth and a new prosperous world. More or less 10.000 years ago the Ice Age finally came to an end, and we progressively stopped being hunters and gatherers and began to tame the land through agriculture and pastoralism. Controlling the earth and flora and the domestication of the fauna, was a great step to the so called progress of civilization, and our dominion over the earth is leading to its destruction and the extinction of many species. In the long run, this is Ragnarök, a battle of more than 10.000 years. Humanity versus nature, and we are actually winning and accelerating our doom, but intelligent as we are, we are finding better solutions to reduce the stain upon the earth that we left, so in other words we are now progressivity walking towards a Golden Age.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is just one perspective of what Ragnarök might be if we take a look at our nowadays reality.</span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> Due to the popularity of Norse mythology and the history of the Viking Age, today in the movies, television, literature and games, many people who until then did not know the myths, or knew little about it, became more interested in the subject. So before I jump to something a little bit more complex, I'll first try to give you a simple and straightforward comprehension of what Ragnarök is.</span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> First things first, Ragnarök is a myth of Nordic origins, created by the peoples of medieval Scandinavia. It might be a myth with older origins, but as it reach us today, the whole concept seems much more medieval than prehistoric. In the middle Ages, between the V and XI centuries, between the Vendel Period (V-VIII) and the Viking Era (VIII-XI), the Norse mythology took shape and was developed into the perspective we have on the written sources. The Medieval interpretation of Ragnarök refers to future events in an unspecified period of time, in which catastrophic events will occur that will profoundly change the world as we know it. All stories must have an end, but just like in every mythological account and also religious interpretations, Ragnarök isn't the end of time, rather it's an event with a purpose, a period of change.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We must not forget that the written sources we have to read about Ragnarök, were sources written in medieval Iceland during the thirteenth century, a period in Iceland's history already greatly influenced by Christianity, and the entire idea of Ragnarök seems a lot like the "End of Times" Prophecy as it is written in the Bible. So let's take a look into some similarities:<br /> Before Ragnarök actually happens, there will be a great winter that will last three years. In here we can see the Icelandic perspective of things. A great portion of mythological accounts are shaped by the geographical realities people live in. So a world of Ice and frost is a harsh reality for Scandinavian peoples, especially during medieval times. Iceland itself all around is filled with glaciers and volcanic activity, so fire and ice is the perfect combination for the end of times in an Icelandic perspective.</span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> But after this long winter, humanity shall rise up and fight each other, great and terrible wars, in the Bible that’s what happens before the end of days - War on a large scale (Matthew 24:7; Revelation 6:4.). If you study military medieval history, you know that the greatest fear of war during medieval times wasn’t the war itself but famine which led to an increasing of crime (Famine: Matthew 24:7; Revelation 6:5, 6.; Increase of crime: Matthew 24:12.) Before Ragnarök the survivors of the great wars will only have morning dew to feed on (Vafþrúðnismál). During this time the Prose Edda speaks of incest as one of the things that will occur, “siblings do incest”, and also in the Völuspá speaks of the sons between brothers and sisters that will stain kinship, as we also have in the Bible during the “end of days” – “Breakdown of the family, with people who have “no natural affection”” (2 Timothy 3:2, 3.). Then we have great earthquakes also in the Bible (Luke 21:11.) and in the Prose Edda as I will quote: “The whole surface of the earth and the mountains will tremble so that the trees will be uprooted from the ground, mountains will crash down”. In the Völupá a fear will quake all when Heimdall blows the great horn Ghallarhorn, and Yggdrasil itself shakes. We also have this reference to earthquakes in the Poetic Edda. I could go on with more similarities between the Bible’s “End of Days” Prophecy and the Norse Ragnarök, like that part when the dead will walk the earth again as it says in the Bible, and during Ragnarök the great ship Naglfar will come, built with the nails of the dead, and possibly bringing the dead along, because the dead from the realm of Hel will also be in great activity during these catastrophic events. And as I’ve said, mankind in its process of civilization and the attempted to control the earth is destroying the earth itself, it’s a point which isn’t referred in the Nordic sources but it’s referred in the Bible - The ruining of the earth by mankind (Revelation 11:18.).</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All this to tell you that the perspective we have of Ragnarök was greatly influenced by Christianity, when the old pagan world started to be forgotten and a new spiritual reality was being formed, adopted by the pagans, and in most cases forced by the social, political and economic circumstances of Medieval Europe.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We humans are prone to see patterns in everything, but I must tell you, even if there are clear influences of another religion into pagan mythological accounts, we must take into account that this is a tale that was around before Christianity and even before the written word. In Christianity mythology the world will be destroyed once and for all and historical time is abolished. But in the tale of Ragnarok we see a very different message. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The accounts of the destruction of the world in the Old Norse primary sources are immediately followed by accounts of its re-creation. There is no end of the linear history. What Ragnarok describes is a cyclical end of the world, after which follows a new creation, which will in turn be followed by another Ragnarok, and this will keep happening forever. This specific point makes all the difference between the two religious realities. Christianity that does not accept reality and there must be an end and it's all over, and the Norse paganism that accepts reality and that life will go on no matter what, but there always must exist a balance, order and chaos, creation and destruction, life and death.</span>Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-43967642318924817632017-12-30T14:57:00.001+00:002017-12-30T14:58:34.713+00:00The Autumn Equinox<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hello friends! Speaking about the Autumn Equinox, Mabon and Haustablót, always with a personal perspective on the subject. Enjoy dear friends :D</span></div>
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<br />Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-71107572756711420382017-12-29T20:16:00.000+00:002017-12-29T20:16:17.527+00:00The Runes: Thurisaz ᚦ<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I know it's been awhile since the last video on the runes, but better late than never :p I do hope you enjoy this video dear friends.</span></div>
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<br />Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-28229039294317548732017-11-29T12:48:00.000+00:002017-11-29T12:48:36.272+00:00Dísablót- in honour of the Dísir, female spirits<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can watch the video about this subject in here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZYyeU_H83g&t=" rel="noopener" target="_blank">[Dísablót]</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Dísablót is a blót or a festival (sacrificial holiday) which is held in honour of the female spirits called Dísir. There isn’t a specific day for this celebration. We know that it was held during winter. In some accounts it was in the beginning of winter, during the time of the <em>winternights</em>, but in some places this holiday was by the end of winter, to celebrate the revival of nature.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Suffice it to say that this celebration was held at some point during winter – the exact timing differed widely across Germanic and Norse lands. In Norway and Iceland, for instance, this festival was known as Dísablót, “a sacrifice to the Disir,” and took place at the beginning of winter. It could be held in either a private house or a formal temple, and unlike Álfablót, this was a public celebration. In Sweden, the Disting or dísaþing, which means “Disir-Assembly”, was held at the beginning of February. To the Anglo-Saxons it seems this celebration was called Modraniht or “Mother’s Night”, which took place around the New Year and probably has connections to the Germanic and Celtic “matron” cult. The “matrons” are female spirits who are very much like the Disir; fertility spirits, guardian spirits, warriors, and so on.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But what exactly is this festival about?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From the name of the festival, we understand that the principal ritual act was a sacrifice, and from historical sources we know that there was a banquet, probably after the sacrifice, as it was normal. Possibly consuming the meat of the sacrificed animals. The main purpose of this festivity was to honour all the female spirits, the female ancestors, the goddesses and other female beings such as the Valkyrjur (Valkyries).</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">During this festival and the days that followed it, people worship female goddesses for the fertility of the fields, to have order and peace at home, and to receive that motherly touch of motivation. The care and love that is unique in the female spirit. The Dísir are not just the goddesses of the Northern Pantheon, but also the Vættir, the <em>wights</em> or nature spirits that may help with the fertilization of the land, for good crops, healthy cattle and a proper soil for future plantations. In this group of female spirits are also included the female ancestors of each family, because in the northern traditional paganism, it was believed, when people died, they might choose not to go to the other world just yet, but to stay a little longer to help their descendants in their daily works. They stay to ensure that their families are safe and sound, in happiness, joy, health and wealth. They might help in the planting season and in the harvest, or taking care of the house, keeping the peace and order and unite each member of their family, to keep the family bonds strong.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are used to the idea that the northern peoples of Scandinavia used to burn their dead in the long boats, along with their earthly goods, but there were other ways to bid farewell. One of those ways was to place their dead in some sort of a burial mound made with stones, built in a way that would resemble the “deck” of a boat, and these sacred places where built near the farmstead. This was often done in private properties by those who either had no wealth to possess a boat, or simply did not wish to destroy their boats. Boats in Scandinavian societies were so important that they represented power and wealth. Boats were the principal means of transportation and the booster of the economy of Medieval Scandinavia. The importance of boats to the Scandinavians is reflected on these grave mounds in the shape of boats. Burning a boat wouldn’t last long, but building one in stone and covering it with dirt, would last forever and the memory of the ancestors would endure. And of course, building burial mounds is an ancient prehistoric tradition, using such constructions as markers of private property.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now you ask: Who or what exactly are the Dísir?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There seems to be a lot of speculation about what exactly are the Dísir. The sources don’t help much in answering these questions. Why did the Norse differentiate a group of female spirits from the rest of female beings?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think it’s important to separate the Dísir from other kinds of spiritual beings, because sometimes the Dísir seem to be all the female spirits recognized by the ancient Norse peoples, but other times the Dísir seem to be a group of female spirits different from all the other spiritual beings and other female spirits. We might find some answers if we look at the Valkyries. They are depicted as being female helping-spirits of the god Odin. They are referred to as “Odin’s Dísir”. Both the Dísir and the Valkyries are depicted as being warlike spirits, but also protective. Resembling the nourishment and protectiveness of a mother, and a mother’s love can sometimes turn women into fearsome warriors when it comes to protect their children.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Disir are often portrayed as being guardian-spirits of either a single individual, a group, or guardians of a location. They don’t seem to be distinguished from other guardian spirits such as the Fylgjur – guardian spirits of an individual; Hamingjur – entities of an individual or a group of individuals; Landvaettir – spirits of the land or of particular locations. In terms of land spirits, known in Old Norse as Landvættir, when they are female they are sometimes called Landdísir in certain literary sources and place-names in Iceland and Norway. The Disir are also often depicted as being the spirits of dead female ancestors.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Still feeling confused? You still don’t know what exactly are the Dísir? That’s alright! No one can answer that question.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unlike other religions which have a doctrine and tell us “what is what”, the Norse pagan tradition as always been a living spirituality to this day. It’s open to interpretation and it’s free from the bounds of religious laws, regulations and dogmas. The concept of Dísir, much like any other spiritual being of this pagan tradition, varies from account to account, location to location and from time to time. To the pre-Christian Norse there was never the need to formulate a religious doctrine to make people worship in a single manner. So, the Dísir may be the female ancestors, or a particular group of goddesses, or specific spiritual beings. From source to source what they have in common is that they were female beings and important enough to make a festivity in their honour. The Dísablót might be the remnants of a prehistoric cult to the mother goddess and her helpers. A festival to honour the fertility of the land, to call for protection, nourishment and the love only a mother can give.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the end it doesn’t really matter who the Dísir are. What is important to remember is this concept of honouring your female ancestors, remembering them and their deeds, how they fought to keep the peace, love and order in the family. Never forget their importance, because you, one day, shall joined them and become an ancestor of someone, and you too will want to be remembered as a great figure and an icon of love, honour, strength and wisdom, according to your deeds of course. Also, honour the female members of your family that are still alive. Keep them proud, give them love, attention and respect, so in turn you might also receive their love and respect. Try to take the essence of this festivity into your everyday life. Make all days great days full of joy and love!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/VikingWidunder" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Arith Härger</a></span><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">References:</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></strong>
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Almazan, Vincente, (1986). Gallaecia Scandinavica.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bellows, Henry Adams, (Trans.), (2007). THe Poetic Edda, <em>The Heroic Poems</em>.</span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dasent, George Webbe, (2014). Popular Tales from Norse Mythology</span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mitchell, Stephen A., (2011). Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages</span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Örnólfur Thorsson, et al. (eds.) (2000) The Sagas of Icelanders: a selection. Penguin Books</span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pires, Hélio, (2017). Os Vikings em Portugal e na Galiza: <em>As incursões Nórdicas Medievais no Ocidente Ibérico</em></span><br />
<em><span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></em>
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Price, T. Douglas, (2015). Ancient Scandinavia: <em>An Archaeological History from the First Humans to the Vikings</em></span><br />
<em><span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></em>
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Simek, Rudolf, (2007). Dictionary of Northern Mythology. Translated by Angela Hall</span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sturluson, Snorri, (1997). The Prose Edda. University of California Press. Translated by Jean I. Young</span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Turville-Petre, E.O.G., (1964). Myth and Religion of the North: <em>The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia.</em></span>Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-45187631797848131092017-11-22T13:29:00.001+00:002017-11-22T13:29:58.236+00:00Álfablót – a sacrifice to the Elves<div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can also watch the video about this subject in here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXRalFRqKuw" target="_blank">[The Álfablót]</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In northern pagan traditions there is a celebration called Álfablót – a sacrifice to the Elves. This was a celebration held at the end of autumn, but we have to take in mind that to our Norse ancestors autumn did not count as a season. There was spring, a short summer and a very long winter. After the end of the harvesting season, when all the crops were reaped and the animals well fed, it was time to go indoors. The long winter and harsh weather forced people to shut themselves in. Just as nature would sleep beneath the cold mantle of winter, all birds ceased to sing and a dead silence fell upon the world, so did humans retreated to their dwellings and spent the winter indoors, surviving by feeding on the stored food. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The true essence of paganism is to celebrate life; to cause facilitate well-being to the family and the community by working together. Each individual plays an important part in the welfare of the community. But the Álfablót is a different celebration, not like the other blóts or other pagan celebrations and festivities. This is a small celebration that can be made by one individual or one family. It was a local celebration at the homesteads of each family, and it was administered by the lady of the household. During this time, strangers were not welcomed near the homesteads when the celebrations were being held, because this is a private blót, a private sacrifice, a moment to be shared with the ancestors and honour them at their burial mounds. A celebration that focuses on the particular affections and love that people feel for the family members that are already dead. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This celebration is not only to honour the ancestors, but also all kinds of other spirits, such as the Elves and the Landvaettir (Spirits of the Lland). The Elves are seen as spirits closely connected to the fertility of the land but also in contact with the dead. They are a source of spiritual power and through them people can communicate with the dead and the gods. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Much like the Celtic belief in faerie, the Norse/Germanic peoples also believed that they were always surrounded by entities of great power all over the land. Gods and Goddesses, land spirits/landvaettir, Alfar (Elves), Duergar (Dwarves), ancestors, Trolls, Huldrefolk and so on. Every entity lived in the land, on trees, rocks, streams, in animals etc. and helped the people in their daily needs, mundane life. They would also help giving guidance and wisdom, or for some, giving a hand in magical works. People lived in close association with these spiritual entities, and the connections and friendship between both sides were forged through a series of ritual actions. The most important ritual or celebration in this matter was the Álfablót. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Álfablót was a celebration held during or after the Winternights/Vetrnætr (the three days which mark the beginning of the winter season). The aim of this celebration/sacrifice was to help the participants connecting with the local spirits surrounding their farmstead, and to begin to </span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Formatada: Tipo de letra: Itálico</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">establish the relationship of mutual trust, respect, and support with them. As I've said, strangers were not allowed near the farmsteads during these times. We can assume to know why strangers weren't welcomed and why this celebration was a local family thing, because those that did not belong to the family and had no close connection with the deceased members of the family, couldn't possibly have any link to the feelings shared by each family member towards their own ancestors. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Strangers should be at their own homes with their own families – this was the main rule. To the Norse, their property wasn’t just their home and farm, but also the place where they would bury their dead. The family’s grave mound was built within the property; the same concept of a sepulchre. It was believed that the spirits of the dead occasionally wandered near their burial mounds, so during the Álfablót the celebration was also held near or on top of the burial mound. It was important to maintain the bonds of love and friendship with the deceased family members, because the living ones would someday join them. This reinforces the privacy of such a celebration. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This celebration is still held nowadays in many places. Today you can invite whoever you want, because the main objective of this celebration is to be connected with the sSpirits of the Lland. For instance, in Iceland, people still honour the local spirits of the place where they live, and ask them if they can build their home in the area, because the human presence may not be welcomed at such places by the local Spirits of the Land. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/VikingWidunder" target="_blank">Arith Härger </a></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">References:</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bellows, Henry Adams, (Trans.), (2007). THe Poetic Edda, The Heroic Poems.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dasent, George Webbe, (2014). Popular Tales from Norse Mythology</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mitchell, Stephen A., (2011). Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Örnólfur Thorsson, et al. (eds.) (2000) The Sagas of Icelanders: a selection. Penguin Books</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Simek, Rudolf, (2007). Dictionary of Northern Mythology. Translated by Angela Hall</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sturluson, Snorri, (1997). The Prose Edda. University of California Press. Translated by Jean I. Young</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Turville-Petre, E.O.G., (1964). Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia.</span></div>
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Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-17427039667929950422017-11-07T22:43:00.000+00:002017-11-07T22:43:18.266+00:00The Bear - Symbology During the Middle-Ages<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A video a little bit different than usual. The symbology of the bear during the Middle-Ages. How it turned from a pagan symbol to a christian symbol of evil and the representation of the victory of the divine forces over chaos, in the early European medieval times. Enjoy! :D</span></div>
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<br />Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-58193716311804888272017-11-03T17:38:00.003+00:002017-11-03T17:38:47.949+00:00Summer Solstice - The Celebration of Fire<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whatever it is you want to call it, Midsummer, Litha, Midsummerblót, Saint John's Day and so on, the Summer Solstice is the celebration of the sun and the fire element. Never forget your ancestors and how important fire was to them. There were times when fire was the only ally our ancestors had, which helped them to get warm and to survive. Great celebration to all of you and may the sun bring you happiness and spiritual strength.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can watch the video about this subject in here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xti11zm6H4g&t=">[Werewolves in Norse Mythology]</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is this idea that werewolves are exclusively from eastern Europe, but I’ve collected a lot of tales about werewolves from places I wouldn’t even imagine that such tales were part of the local folklore. But then again, it’s not surprising, because at some point in prehistoric times, our ancestors’ spiritual practices were very much connected to animal totems, the power of animals. As I’ve said before, in Europe, the animals connected to royalty, courage, the warrior spirit and such, were the bear and the boar. These two animals were the most representative creatures of every European culture. And then there was the wolf. The wolf was something else entirely. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Beyond the borders of the villages and the boundaries of our familiar world, there lies vast, wild and solitary landscapes. When night comes, those places become a scenery of dark and gloomy shadows. In the deep forests the famished wolves roam and hunt, howling in the cold winter nights. Howling at the moonless sky. Their eyes glitter in the dark as if they burned with a foul fire. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The human being has always feared the unknown, and in ancient times, these landscapes beyond their villages, were terrible places of both mystery and death, few were those who dared to venture into those places, so such places became the scenery of many fantastic tales and the wolves became a symbol of terror and power. These animals were considered to be the wildest beings on earth, always searching for the kill, so it is perfectly natural that these natural facts led to so many folktales about werewolves and other mythical creatures. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, let’s focus on werewolves for Northern Europe. We have many mythological accounts about werewolves in ancient Scandinavia. Let's start with one of the most famous tales. The tale of two men, Sigmund and Sinfjötli, who one day find a house in the middle of the woods with men under a sleeping spell. These men had enchanted wolf-skins. Sigmund and Sinfjötli steal their wolf skins and put them on. The moment they do this, they transform themselves into wolves and can even understand the wolf language. Then, after a few adventures and killing other men, things go wrong and one wounds the other, apparently a mortal wound. But things turn out for the best and the two men survive and take off the wolf-skins and destroy them. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First of all, these two men were in the woods because they were outlaws and lived from robbery and other activities against the law. They were outlaws. In ancient Scandinavian societies, the outlaws, murderers, defilers of temples and thieves, were given the name of Vargr - they were the Vargar - which means wolves. Such people weren't killed by their actions or arrested, they had a worse fate. They were expelled from the community or the tribe and were left in the wild landscapes, as an animal who now needed to survive alone or in a group of people in equal circumstances, just as wolves do. Everyone could kill them, hunt them on sight, with no penalty nor punishment, because the Vargar were animals now. No one considered them as humans; they were mere beasts. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another aspect, they came upon other men in a remote area, in the wilds, away from civilisation, who possessed enchanted wolf-skins. Now, we might be in the presence of individuals who are also outlaws, and as such, they are Vargar, or we are in the presence of shamans. Shamans also lived outside the communities, far away in the wilds. But they didn’t live as beasts. They had their own dwellings and most survived because of the offerings the community gave to them in exchange for their power, their assistance in a variety of fields, from healing, to divination, and so on. In the history of shamanism we see many parallels with this aspect. Shamans living outside the communities, being both feared and revered; no one wants them close, but at the same time they need them. There are other tales similar to this one in the northern European countries. In Finland for instance, there are tales about men stumbling upon other men under a sleeping spell. Men with great spiritual power and can even turn into animals, mostly wolves. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So the two men stole these enchanted wolf-skins and turned into wolves. They either accepted their condition as outlaws, or precisely due to the fact that they lived in the wilds, they encountered a spiritual path, they had contact with a shamanic perspective of life. To our ancestors, spiritual power came from the wilds, away from civilization, going out these to seek knowledge and power. We see this in shamanism, isolation as a shamanic technique to induce trace. The boundary between civilization and the wilds is a parallel to the boundary between sanity and madness, and it’s precisely with that balanced state that shamans do what they do. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There were also tribes of shaman warriors, which could take the form of wolves in their trance journeys, and they acted like wolves, these shamanic mysteries were preserved as hereditary traditions among some families. These shamans at their initiation rites to become wolf-warriors, would go into the swamps, the most dangerous and wild places of the world, and left their clothes behind, symbolically this is the abandonment of the human form and the identity as a member of a community. These people would live their lives out of the civilized world and learning from the wilds. These people were called wolfmen or werewolves. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are other accounts of werewolves in the Norse tradition, such as Ulf Bjalfason, a character in the Egil’s Saga. As soon as night approached, his mood would darken and he had to get away from everyone and being isolated. People started to be suspicious and began to wonder that he might be one of those who changes his skin. People started to call him Kveld Ulf (night’s wolf), cool nickname. We can see in here the similarities with the previous account. Isolation and to become a skin-changer. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m sure you were already thinking about this. Obviously, in Norse mythology, we have the Great wolf Fenrir, son of Loki. Fenrir will kill Odin during the events of Ragnarök. Eventually I shall speak about Fenrir in another time. But Fenrir symbolises the wilds, power, chaos, the other side of things that oppose order, but must exist to create a balance. The wild side of nature, its cruelty and destructive power. As we have seen before, people sought knowledge in the wilds, spiritual knowledge, the knowledge that can only come from the dead, from what is chaotic, untameable, and people have always had this need to try to tame the untameable in order to survive. It’s interesting to see that Fenrir will kill Odin. Odin being the personification of wisdom and power, but Fenrir is also power, the other side of power, the wild power. Two opposites against each other and it’s the wild power that will eventually succeed but ultimately be consumed and fail. Just as we have seen with Sigmund and Sinfjötli, they enjoyed their time being wolves, but could not control the power and the wild side took control of them and one ended up killing the other, </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but taking their wolf-skins off, they became men again - civilized. Fenrir might be the remnants of a prehistoric tale about those who are skin-changers that take the form of wolves and live their lives according to their wolf-totem. Every tale has a moral, and this one would probably be that seeking power is healthy and wise, but be careful to not let yourself be consumed by such power and let it control you. Fenrir also has two sons: Sköll and Hati. One chases the sun and the other chases the moon, every day, like a shadow. Darkness seeking to overcome balance and nature itself. We have the same principle as with Fenrir. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We know of two other wolves. Geri and Freki, the wolves of Odin himself. There is a great possibility that these two wolves are not just pets, two animals akin to dogs and Odin just likes to have them near, pet them and feed them his food under the table. It’s possible that Geri and Freki represent skin-changers, and that in fact these are two people. Maybe Odin’s own bodyguards, or two chosen warriors of his utmost confidence; the best of the best, the perfect loyal soldiers. There are many archaeological finds depicting figures wearing wolf-pelts. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Scandinavian societies, the tales of wolves went further than the mythological tales, there was the existence of the elite warriors called Úlfhéðnar (Ulfhednar) people who went to war dressed with the skins of wolves, and were also warriors with immense strength, who sometimes fought naked, without showing that they were uncomfortable with the cold weather, or the landscape itself, adapting perfectly to the harsh environment just like wolves. These warriors went to battle in some kind of a trance and did not have the need for weapons, they could kill with their bare hands or bite just as a wolf does. In fact, that is what they were, people with the shapes of wolves, who thought that they were wolves themselves and acted like the creatures. There is a great possibility that before battle, they consumed some kind of hallucinogenic, entering in a trance-like state, psychologically they could feel the difference. It's just like if someone asks you to lift a table, and you don’t have the strength or the strength fails you and it's hard, but when you are angry, you gain strength and you can lift and throw the table with no problem. People sometimes go beyond the limitations they think they have, when they are physically and psychologically affected, when people are pushed into certain situations, the need to survive comes to the surface and the wild and savage feelings hidden within us appear, almost feral. Of course these accounts may be exaggeration, but the fact is, we find representations in archaeological excavations, so people probably believed in this and these warriors were actually part of a cult which involved hallucinogenic-drugs and pushing people to their limits, inducing rage, anger, inducing a state of uncontrollable mindless violence – being feral. These people were represented as wolves, from a cult which goes far back before recorded history. To the prehistoric shamanistic communities of wolf-men, or werewolves. </span>Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-20455951768448312192017-10-11T12:42:00.000+01:002017-10-11T12:42:58.314+01:00The Boar in Celtic Culture<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can watch the video about this subject in here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym6UJ6ht5_M&t=" target="_blank">[The Boar in Celtic Culture]</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are many mythological accounts concerning boars in a variety of cultures throughout the world. Boar hunt, and all its process – from tracking the animal, chasing it and delivering the final blow at the end – as always been a very ritualistic activity, greatly linked to initiation rites, tests of manhood, strength and an exercise to prepare for war. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hercules chased and captured a ferocious and gigantic boar; the goddess Artemis sent a boar to Calydon to ravage, lay waste, create chaos in that region because Oeneus, the king of the city, forgot about the yearly sacrificial rituals to the gods; in Norse mythology we have Gullinbursti – the god Freyr’s mount - a boar; In Hindu mythology, the boar Varaha is the third of the ten avatars of Vishnu and under that form Vishnu defeated the demon Hiranyaksha. Well, it’s not my intention to give you a list of mythological accounts about the boar, I just want you to understand that this was an animal of great importance in many cultures, but let’s focus on the Celtic culture. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Through archaeology we know our ancestors started the process of domesticating animals during the beginning of the Neolithic period. Of course they domesticated animals before this period, but the Neolithic marks a time when Man’s actions greatly changed the behaviour and the physical appearances of animals. Changes in the animals eating habits, changings in the habitats, inter-breading to enhance certain features of an animal – the earliest genetic changes – well, a variety of factors which contributed to change the physical appearances of animals. Boars were domesticated and we have transformed them into pigs, and for millions of years, in general to us there as always been this idea that boars were just wild pigs and pigs were domesticated wild pigs. So there was no great difference between the two. However, to the Celts, a pig was a pig and a boar was a completely different creature. In the Celtic languages there are different words for a pig and for a boar, I mean, the Celts didn’t just refer to boars as wild pigs. The Celts did not identify the two animals as being from the same species. For instance, he word for Boar in ancient Irish and Gaelic-Scottish is “torc”, in Welsh is “baedd gwyllt” and in Cornish “bath”, this shows us the singularity of the boar in the Celtic cultures. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Both the bear and the boar were considered to be the most fearsome creatures of the forests in pre-Christian times and throughout the early middle ages. The Celts highly respected and admired the capacity the boar had to defend itself when the creature felt threatened. So the boar became a symbol of courage and bravery, and also ferocity in battle. To the Celts and also among the Anglo-Saxons, the boar assumes the zoomorphic figuration of the Ideal Warrior, which is why the figure of the boar appears in decorations of weapons and in the equipment of warriors, most prominent in helmets and shields. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When the Celts went to war, one of the most characteristic objects they would take with them was the Carnyx, those long bronze trumpets, with an animal head from where the sound would come, and most of the heads were representations of a boar’s head, of course there were other </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">animal representations such as serpents, but the boar was the most used representation for these wind instruments. The boar being an animal linked to courage, bravery and ferocity in battle, it’s really interesting to see this very creature represented in these objects emitting a battle chant from the depths - frightening. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The boar is also associated with certain Celtic deities, such as Vitiris, a Celtic god who was worshipped in the British Isles, a very popular deity amongst young warriors and even roman warriors who adopted this god. And the god Mogons also associated with the boar and Moccus a deity from Gaul, worshipped by boar-hunters. The goddess Arduinna, also from Gaul, a goddess from a specific forest in ancient Gaul, and she is associated with hunt and the boar, she even rides a boar. And in ancient Lusitania, the cult of the god Endovélico involved sacrificing boars, and also pigs. So the boar was one of the main animals used in the cult of a variety of Celtic deities. And we have other spiritual/religious references to the boar, such as some of the warriors from ancient Celtic Scotland wore wild boar skins, or even a Celtic tribe from northern Britain, whose name was Orci which means “tribe of the boars”. And then a wondrous variety of statuettes and figurines of boars, and boars represented in coins. The boar was one of the most represented animals, second only to the horse. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In conclusion, the boar is one of the most representative animals of the Celtic culture, as a symbol associated with war, but above all, courage and bravery, ferocity in battle, and in a variety of folktales and Celtic legends, even the ones about King Arthur, the boar is also associated with magic and the other world, in Celtic mythology, especially in Welsh mythology, the boar can speak with humans and the creature is able to lead people into the world of the spirits, linking the animal to initiation rites; rites of passage. </span>Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-12700959696237179792017-10-10T12:43:00.000+01:002017-10-10T12:43:09.239+01:00The Valknut is a "Lie"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A video about the term "Valknut" and how it has been misused, applying it to the wrong symbol. A possible name to the symbol in question is a matter of discussion brought to light by our new studies. I hope you enjoy it friends :D --- Aside from the English subtitles, this video also has subtitles in Portuguese, Spanish (American-latin), French and Italian. My thanks to all the contributors.</span></div>
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<br />Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-88771623252117125742017-10-04T14:00:00.002+01:002017-10-04T14:00:52.363+01:00Bealtaine and Friggablót<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well friends, here's a new videos talking about Bealtaine and Friggablót, where you have to suffer a little bit of my silliness at the beginning before the actual content. Enjoy it :D</span></div>
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<br />Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-48744812750360420892017-09-27T13:06:00.000+01:002017-09-27T13:06:03.516+01:00Viking Warrior-Women existed?<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can watch the video about this subject in here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qXl2Y797nQ&t=" target="_blank">[Viking Warrior-Women]</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I’ve told you before, there are historical facts and then historical facts proven by sciences. There was always this idea of Viking women fighting alongside men; fearsome female warriors in poetry and in the sagas. For instance, we have the famous Freydís Eiríksdóttir, the daughter of Erik the Red. She appears in the Sagas of the Greenlanders as a fearsome warrior, with masculine physical features, and a lot of people died due to her schemes, and she even fought the North-American natives. But there were no certainties that she even existed. We have always heard about warrior women in the ancient Scandinavian societies, especially during the Viking Age, but the truth is, there were no palpable evidences that they were real, that the women in these societies were warriors or could be warriors, it’s like when you have an idea, you spread it so much that all of a sudden everyone is talking about it as if it were true and becomes a fact. But fortunately nowadays, and this is a recent discovery, there are physical evidences that viking warrior women really existed, all thanks to archaeology, physical anthropology and genetics. So now we can say with certainty that women in ancient Scandinavian societies could be warriors. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Women were very active within ancient Scandinavian societies. For instance, unlike Iceland where men were more active in activities related to witchcraft, especially Galdr, in mainland Scandinavia, Seidr – witchcraft, rune-magic, divination and so on – was the province of women. Women also took care of the household and the farmstead when men were away raiding, they could even get divorced, and if their husband was killed they could take their sit in the Thing (the assembly of the community), having a very active role in politics. But when there were kids to take care of, their mothers were in charge of teaching them the arts of war. Mothers would teach their kids how to use the bow and arrow, the shield, sword, axe and spear - so women knew the Scandinavian medieval martial arts. With this knowledge in fighting and using weapons, why not try their luck like men? I’m sure taking care of the farmstead was a dull business, being at the assembly probably quite boring, so why not explore the world, discover new places, meet new people and kill them and rob them of their properties? </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Archaeological evidences of warrior graves are numerous, especially during the Viking Age period of Northern Europe. And in the Viking town of Birka, in nowadays Sweden, was the key centre of trading between the 8th and 10th centuries. There is a great number of graves distributed over large burial grounds encircling the town area. Of course, graves not only for warriors but other town's folk, but there is a specific area just for the garrison of this town, and in this area were found the deceased warriors. The graves in this area contained all manner of objects linked to the activities of warriors. The grave goods included swords, axes, spears, armour-piercing arrows, battle knifes, shields, well . . . the complete equipment of professional warriors. Some graves even had horses, and horses already indicate high-ranking officers. One of these high-ranking officers was a woman, scientists came to the conclusion after osteological and genetic tests. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now the question is, do weapons found in graves necessarily determine a warrior? There is a variety of archaeological findings of viking-women buried with weapons and they weren't </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">necessarily warriors. But this one not only had all the equipment a warrior needs, also had horses. Two horses, as I've said. Horses weren't easy to come by, and it was extremely expensive to own one horse, let alone two. Horses were also chosen to be the sacrificed animals when it came to funerary rituals for someone of great importance, extreme importance really. But that depends on the context. In this context, these two horses show us that they were worthy of an individual with responsibilities concerning strategy and battle tactics. Of course there is the Oseberg ship case, where two women were buried with a great number of horses, but on that context we are in the presence of something completely different and unique, which I would love to talk about on another video someday. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And now you ask, what about signs of trauma in the skeleton which indicate that the individual was a warrior? Well I must say that the skeletal remains of this female warrior did not exhibit signs of trauma. But weapon-related wounds are not that common, actually, during the Viking Age, traces of violent trauma are more common in mass burials, so it's more likely to find graves for a single warrior with little or no traces of trauma, and not every weapon hits the bones and leaves a mark, we have to take in mind that there is a lot of flesh and muscle to slice and people can die from it. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, this goes beyond my professional knowledge, as an archaeologist I know a bit of theoretical physical anthropology and a tiny bit of genetics, but that work is left to the scientists who really know about this stuff, and they say this skeleton belonged to a woman and we can be certain it did. Now, is this the only female warrior of the ancient Scandinavian society? Of course not. Till now the idea was that men were the warriors and no one really went to the trouble of properly study the osteological remains to see the gender. This woman was not only a warrior, but a highranking officer, so if women could have such a high statues in the military field, certainly they could be warriors. In conclusion, female Viking warriors were part of a society that dominated from the 8th to the 10th century of northern Europe and now with certainty we can say that women were full members of this society, being very active in every field. </span>Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-649127688746148252017-09-18T12:37:00.000+01:002017-09-18T12:37:50.280+01:00The Autumn Equinox<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can watch the video about this subject in here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TboCW0qBJgw&t=">[The Autumn Equinox]</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The equinoxes are somewhat times of equilibrium, day and night are matched. After an entire year of hard labour, not just when we speak of agriculture, but also in a kind of spiritual development, the autumn equinox is the time of repose, even in nature when the days become shorter and nights are longer. The autumn equinox marks the completion of the harvest, the waning powers of the sun, a farewell to summer and making preparations for the coming darkness. But let’s start with the Mabon celebration and then the Haustablót or FallFest. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mabon is often the term referring to the celebration of the autumn equinox, and to know why this name was adopted for this particular date of the year, we must understand its meaning and where it came from. The name "Mabon" was introduced by the neo-pagan religious movements and in the seasonal list of celebrations of the year. This name comes from the god of hunting "Mabon ap Modron", or in other words, Mabon son of Modron, a deity from the Welsh mythology. Mabon means “Divine Son” and he is the personification of youth. This god was kidnapped, three days after he was born, and was taken to Annwn, which is the other world, the world of the spirits and of eternal youth. We see a union here with youth and death, the beginning of life meeting the end of all things, decay, death itself, and this union is somewhat the personification of this season, letting go summer, youth, rejuvenation, light, and accept the very opposite of that which nature shows us almost in a poetic way, winter, cold, decaying of the soils and put a stop in life. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So Mabon is the celebration of the year when the days start to grow shorter and the nights and darkness will prevail till the winter time comes. A preparation for the harsh winter, when the crops come to an end, and when people start to gather food to survive the long dark and cold days of winter. It is also a time to burn the soil and the fields where the crops were, in order to fertilize the land that will be covered by frost and snow, and at the spring time nature will do its work, and the land is ready to be planted again. The main celebration during this time consists in the need to share what the earth has given to us throughout the year, during the harvesting cycle, the fruits of the earth are shared with the community in a sort of ceremony to secure the blessings of the gods during the coming winter months. There is a similar Northern pagan Tradition at this time, called the Haust blót or Haustablót, and let’s talk about that so you can better understand the true purpose of this celebrations and enter in the pagan spirit of the season. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I often talk about blóts, but what exactly is a Blót? I’m afraid I’ve never share that knowledge with you, so I will take this opportunity to do so. Blót was Norse pagan sacrifice to the Norse gods and the spirits of the land. The sacrifice often took the form of a sacramental meal or feast. Related religious practices were performed by other Germanic peoples. This celebration wasn't made just by the norse/germanic peoples, but also throughout Europe, the celts, and latins did it, in their own traditions. Animals and even people (mostly prisoners of war) were sacrificed. The word Blót means "to worship with sacrifice", and in this type of celebration/ritual/ceremony, the people gave their offerings, such as mead, food, animals, </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">personal objects, all to the Gods and in turn people expected the Gods to give them gifts back, they asked for fertility, good health, a good life and peace and harmony between people and Nature. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now that you know what a Blót is, I will tell you what the Haustablot is, this specific blót in this time of the year, between the 21st and 24th of September. This is the autumn equinox, such as the Celtic Mabon, it is a time to celebrate the harvest of the crops and it's ending, it is also a time to thank and to meditate, the celebration is made with the food and drink that is made with the Corn and wheat, and also to celebrate with cakes, cookies, mead, bread, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and so on. </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It isn’t just a time to thank to yourself, your family and the Gods, for all the hard work, blessings and mutual help among the community, but also a time to thank and praise the Landvættir, who are the spirits of the land, and they protect and promote the flourishing of specific places where they live, which can be as small as a rock or a corner of a field, or as large as a section of a country. It’s important to take note that when people worship or pray to the Landvættir, or to the gods in general for that matter, people are perfectly conscious that the Landvættir or the gods will not solve anything for them, they will solve things WITH them. The Landvættir and the gods manifest themselves through us and infuse us with the power we need to do the things we must, to perform our tasks, so people didn’t ask for, let’s say, give me money, make my fields productive, clean the house for me, no, people asked for the power, the will, motivation to do things for themselves, just a little push to be successful in their hard work. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the Northern pagan Traditions, there was a celebration held in this time of the year, at the beginning of the autumn equinox, it’s called Haust blót, or the Autumn Sacrifice, and it is still held today by the neo-pagans who worship the gods from the Norse pantheon. As the season indicates, this is the time when the days grow shorter and darkness prevails until the winter time comes to an end. The last crops are coming to an end also, people start to gather their food and store it to survive the long and harsh winters of Northern Europe. Now, we can try to understand the pagan mind of our ancestors by looking at the natural world itself and how that influenced them. This was also a time to make festivities around the fire and praise, in a way, the Fire Element, because the world itself would take its colours, the fields are veiled by a cloth in tones of fire, dark yellow, red and oranges, the skies at dusk emit a red light that resembles blood, a warning that the days ahead will be hard, the forests and the mountains become silent, most animals also store food and hide in holes or inside old trees, others will hibernate, ravens will go to and fro, from place to place, in search of those who did not survived the hazards of the season and the harsh weather, so this is a time where everything becomes more magical and mysterious, but also the beginning of the trials that are in store for us, the ability to survive and prevail, in a way, a sort of battle between Man and nature, it’s exiting, because we humans love to be challenged, and during winter we are being challenged by the gods themselves, who manifest their powers through nature, and it’s a great honour to accept such a challenge and better still to be victorious at the end, it gives a certain feeling of being worthy. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is the time to pray and to thank the Landvaettir, the spirits of nature, of the soils and the land, to pray to the ancestors who still look over their decedents and protect them, and in some </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">way still work the soils to provide better crops, so the family can survive in prosperity, happiness and wealth. People also prayed to the elves, who work along with the land spirits, to maintain the land fertile and the soils rich. People also pray to the God Freyr and to Freyja, the Gods of fertility, because the land itself also needs fertility, it needs to be prepared to be planted again, with new seeds, when the winter comes to an end. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With hard work, perseverance, patience and love the land gives us so much, enough to survive and live with health, and a gift always calls for a gift, so we in turn must give something to the land, a personal object, or food, the mead that is passed amongst the folk in the drinking horn, will be poured into the land, so our ancestors and the gods, may also drink with us, giving to them what we can create with the things the earth gives us. People dance and sing, tales of old are told, to remember the deeds of our ancestors, and so we might find inspiration and strength. </span>Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-42600908424728236462017-09-17T13:08:00.006+01:002017-09-17T13:08:55.561+01:00The Runes: Uruz ᚢ<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alright dear friends, the next rune is here: Uruz. Its basic meaning, the mythology connected to it, its upright and inverted meaning for divination purposes and a bit of information on binding runes with Uruz/Úr. Enjoy :) (Forgot to mention in the video, but this rune is connected to the water element, even though it's primarely a rune connected to the male gender).</span></div>
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Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4370375340758884159.post-74174595121030279572017-09-04T16:37:00.000+01:002017-09-04T16:37:06.385+01:00The Runestaves<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can watch the video about this subject here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw64ulIyt2A&t=" target="_blank">[The Runestaves]</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To establish a context, I’ll start with the history behind the rune staves, but let’s not go that far back in time. To better understand the rune staves, we must understand the historical background of Iceland during the Middle-Ages, for that is the historical line I draw here because it was a time of great changes in the Scandinavian pagan mind. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Iceland was first settled in the latter decades of the 9th century, mainly by Norwegians and their Celtic thralls (slaves). These Norwegians came to this unpopulated island to seek political and religious freedom, running away from a monarch who was “hunting down” pagans – King Haraldr hárfagra (fair-hair). This king was still a pagan, but under the political influence of Christian Europe he set about to conquer Norway and bring it under a Christian-style monarchy. The new Icelanders set up a social order deeply rooted in their native heritage, so the land was ruled by local priest-chieftains, goðar (sing. goði). The Icelanders practiced the religion brought with them – their polytheistic Germanic heathenism – which is a religion that allows as much individual freedom as possible. Of course there were a number of Christians among the Celtic thralls brought to Iceland, and even some of their masters converted to the faith. The Icelanders originally tolerated such religious differences, but eventually Christianity was accepted as the official religion of Iceland due to a variety of social, economic and religious pressures of the Iceland’s foreign contacts who had all become Christians. The acceptance of Christianity by Icelanders was highly formalistic, so the old practices were maintained, in private, even though certain aspects were forbidden, in public. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The individual freedom of their native faith allowed Icelanders to compose works about certain aspects of their spirituality. In terms of magic, manuals were scarce in the beginning but there was still a lot of oral tradition and practices which survived within the families, and of course the Sagas and the poems. The written records we have of such magical practices were written during Iceland’s Catholic period; the social and religious realities were very much different, great changes had occurred, and obviously the mixture between paganism and Christianity greatly influenced the people who composed these works. Hard to say how far the reliability of such accounts go, but in terms of magic, and cultural aspects in general, the Catholic period in Iceland wasn’t that radical. Luckily, one of the traditional areas of Germanic magic survived in some parts of Scandinavia as late as the 19th century, and this area is “rune-magic”. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> In pagan times the runic sorcerers/magicians, were well known and honoured members of the society. Traditionally these people were members of a social order interested in intellectual and/or spiritual pursuits. Now, the general technique of rune magic during pagan times consisted of 3 steps: 1) Carving the symbols in an object; 2) Colouring them with blood or dye; 3) Speaking a vocal formula over the staves to imbue them, load them, with magical power. We have several examples of this technique in Old Icelandic literature, this kind of magical work can be read in “För Skírnis” or “Skírnismál”, a poem in the Poetic Edda; we have an example there of a curse, for instance. Or in the Egil’s Saga, in order to detect poison in his drinking horn, Egill drew out his knife and stabbed the palm of his hand, he rubbed the blood in the horn which was carved with runes and changed an incantation. So the runes are symbols of power, but in order to awaken that power, one must give part of him – blood – life itself and probably all the ancestral history printed in the blood, all the knowledge of the ancestors, and also an incantation, giving breath to it, the breath of life, a sort of spiritual part of yourself and the </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">uniqueness of your voice. Remember that Galdr is exactly that, the power of the voice, and in Norse mythology that was the gift Odin gave to mankind – the breath of life – and through sound powers are awaken, be that the power of suggestion, persuasion or invoking/summoning, hidden forces. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Of course during the Catholic period elements of the ancient native heritage and the new foreign religion were being syncretized. The pagan elements in magical tradition would naturally be diminished over time. Nevertheless, the old techniques must have continued in a way for many generations. Many features of the pagan tradition were kept alive for a long time, but then we start to see this magic changing when demonic entities and orthodox figures appear in spells. Of course there came a period in Iceland when magic was absolutely forbidden and written materials were destroyed, but a few books survived, remarkably, and it’s from those written sources we know about magical work in ancient Scandinavia. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Now, putting this historical introduction aside and let’s move on to the rune staves. We have all heard about magical symbols, objects, talismans at least once in the context of magic and ancient religious practices, such a subject is often heard, so now let's try to understand the runes as talismans, or placed in objects that might help in any kind of magical work. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> In the Norse/Germanic traditional paganism, runic talismans for magical work are often constructed in the form of staves, which surprisingly, (or maybe not that surprising) this kind of work is also very similar with the magical practices using Ogham - the Celtic alphabet. The runes for spellcasting, or runestaves for magical work, usually are handled in series of three or more according with their influences. Most staves consist in either three of five runes, because it is easier to manage, anything longer than this can be very confusing, not just to the person who is using the runestaves, but also for the powers a person is working with. Things are normally kept as simple as possible. Before someone chooses the runes, they must know if the talisman they are about to create is a permanent charm or if it is intended to have a finite effect. This is something that people had to ponder deeply before creating such a talisman, because the purpose of these talismans are to create an event or to attract something to the person or to any one that owns the talisman, after the event occurs, the spell is done and the talisman has no further purpose, and as such, the talisman must be removed from this world, burnt or destroyed in any way, according to the Norse traditional magical practices. So this is why the majority of the runestaves were created in either parchment or wood, to easily destroy them. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> It's interesting to see that those who had such practices had a very conscious view about the subject itself. In the sources and also what comes from oral tradition and folk accounts, people couldn't expect, sitting at home, for the effects of the magic they performed to happen simply because there was magic at work. There was an understanding that things don't magically happen, so there was this idea that the runestaves, and even bindrunes or any other kind of magical work, helped to create or attract an event in someone's life, and everything in this world to be attracted to something must be near it or have any kind of contact with it, like a magnet attracts iron, so if people created a talisman to find a job, for example, they needed to go out </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">there, search for a job, to take physical action, and the talisman will help its owner, it will help in attracting that event into that person's life. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> One tricky aspect about runestaves is that when someone creates them, they have to make sense, the sense that expresses the intention regardless of the direction the runes are read - left to right or backwards. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> So, as you can see, in the old northern European societies, it was common to use runic symbols and combinations of runes for different magical purposes. Most of the symbols and spells used in the incantations of the bidding of runes, appear to have been for the use of simple daily problems in the life of the common folk, at least that's what was left not only in written sources but also archaeological evidences. For instance, we have many examples of talismans and runestaves for catching a thief or to overthrow an enemy. Surprisingly, the ones to catch thieves were very common and abundant, which might indicate a connection to the economical background of ancient Scandinavia, when people's wealth was measured in the quantity of cattle, and stealing cattle was fairly easy so there was probably a lot of thievery in these aspects. Anyway, other runestaves helped heal livestock, whilst others look at cursing the animals of another (again, the importance of cattle and the measurement of wealth). It was also common to create charms to help preserve food and ale, staves to bless the bearer with strength or courage, or symbols to help with fishing or prevent death by drowning. The bidding of runes, charms, staves and so on, were also commonly created to protect a person while in battle, to enhance the durability of a shield, the deadly strike of a weapon or the flexibility of a bow. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> However, the people in the 17th century in Iceland faced more difficulties in agriculture, herding and hunting and fishing, rather than the troubles of war. With long dark winters, little arable lands for crops, and icy seas, life was unforgiving. Luck seemed to have an important role in that society, and the inhabitants would do what they could to influence their fortunes themselves. In times of famine, neighbours would be tempted to steal from each other, and disputes would often end in violence of course. Reputation and the ability to intimidate seems to have been an important factor in survival, and many staves were created to allow the bearer to do this or cast back negativity upon their perceived attacker. So this was the time when a lot of runestaves, talismans, magical symbols, were created for these specific troubles of this era - the 17th century. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The 17th century in Iceland was marked by an event, when Denmark established a trade monopoly over Iceland so that the island could no longer trade freely with whomever it pleased. This resulted in a time of economic hardship (1602). This was also an age when Christianity had great influence in the European societies. Witchcraft was still used by some but in secrecy, as folk remedies for instance. This was not like in the beginning when Norwegians settled in Iceland and there was a certain religious freedom; now things were different in terms of witchcraft, it was much more restricted, illegal even. The staves appeared to have been drawn by using the Norse runes and later mediaeval and renaissance occult symbols. They were at least influenced by later charms used on mainland Europe, as we have seen already, the period when paganism </span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and Christianity were being syncretized. But during the 17th century in Iceland, it was a time when the Christian faith and the old Scandinavian faith was much more mixed together to create almost a new magical tradition, when compared to the early traditions. Icelandic society never forgot their past, their traditions, fortunately, so some charms that accompany certain staves mention the Old Norse gods such as Odin and Thor, whilst others mention Solomon, Jesus and Mary and other Judeo-Gnostic formulas. The system seems to be an interesting blend of old and new magical beliefs. During the periods of transition between religions, Odin was still appealed to or mentioned, but his role had shifted from being the All-father figure to that of a sorcerer. The Christian God had taken the place of the Father of men on earth, so the old gods started to be used for magical purposes, and Odin lost the connection with death, war and creation, and started to be the god associated with wisdom and witchcraft. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Folk magic went underground and its practices became hidden. Some records that still exist of the staves, and their uses and other magical practices by the Icelanders, were made by the courts during the trials of witches. Ironically, it is this act that has preserved some of the old customs to this day. Without being recorded, they would simply have been forgotten or would have died with their practitioners. But how well were they transcribed? It's very likely that the true knowledge of such magic has been completely forgotten. However, after so much time in secrecy, these magical practices returned. It was only in the last century that it became safer to explore the practices of folk magic throughout Europe. Whilst still frowned upon as superstition and nonsense, the Icelandic staves have seen a surge in popularity. Many of the staves are used in art and decorative wares, whilst some people have taken to having them tattooed onto their bodies. The Icelandic staves have evolved over the centuries, and while certainly incorporating Norse runes, they cannot be considered exclusively of "Viking" culture as they are influenced by other esoteric practices from mainland Europe and beyond. </span>Arith Härgerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04479598136502518440noreply@blogger.com0