What is it?
Ásatrú is a neopagan movement based on ancient Germanic or Scandinavian tradition and adapted to the present day.
Ásatrú has no strict dogmas nor scriptures defining the faith, but rather it lives as an organic national culture. This means that each practitioner interprets and defines his or her own faith and that there are variations and differing viewpoints in e.g. how each practitioner understands the deities.
The name ásatrú refers to a family of deities, of Aesir (old norse: Æsir) , (trú = faith, ásatrú = aesir faith). Because Germanic paganism entails a lot more, the term is slightly one-dimensional. Important elements, besides the aesir, include the deity family of vaenir, different nature’s and fortune spirits like norns, rune mysticism (rune = old writing and divination system) and the shamanistic seita (sacred place for e.g. offering). Alternative terms would be Odinism used in England, referring to Odin, the main god of the aesir pantheon. Because of its patriarchic and monoteistic connotation, however, the term Odinism is even more misleading. Yet another term is Forn Sidr, which stands for the old way. Before Christian faith, the concept of religion was unknown, and after Christianity, paganism was first referred to with the term ”the old way”. However, Forn Sidr does not refer to Scandinavia, and perhaps that is why ásatrú has remained the more common term.
Nowadays, ásatrú tries to be more close to nature than Christianity, i.e. closer to nature as such, as well as to the human being as a natural phenomenon. It also tries to be a more flexible religion for those with a Scandinavian or Gemanistic identity. As a religion, it is also open in the sense that it does not try to be ”the only right” religion, but only one possible way of interpretation.
Origins
Germanic paganism was the most common religion till the 11th century, when the Nordic Countries were converted to Christianity. The word ásatrú, instead, stems from the 19th century. The present day ásatrú started in Iceland in the 1970’s, when a group of people, lead by the sheep farmer Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson, wanted to establish a religious community which would be based on the ancient Nordic paganism. The community was called “Félag ásatrúarmanna” and was soon accepted as an official religious community.
After Iceland had shown the way, ásatrú communities also began to form in other Nordic Countries as well as in England, USA and Germany (and later, in other countries). There can be great differences between ásatrú communities and their traditions, but most of them are very liberal, leaving a single member a lot of room for personal interpretation.
Scriptures and sources
The most important scripture in ásatrú is the Poetic Edda, the most important source of ancient Germanic mythology. The Eddic poems have been written in Iceland in the 13th century, but their contents come from the pagan era. Another important source is the Prose Edda, which is an introduction to the ”old religion” written by Snorre Storluson in the middle ages and from a Christian viewpoint. There are also quite a lot of other written sources of the religious traditions of the viking era.
From earlier ages, the sources are scarce, consisting mainly of archaeological findings and rock paintings. The most important written source from an earlier age is the work Germania by Cornelius Tacitus, where he describes germans and their ways of life. A lot of information has also survived in national tratitions which have been recorded at different times.
Values
There is no compilation of rules like the ”ten commendments” in ásatrú. The Poetic Edda contains a poem called Hávamál, or the ”Sayings of the high one” which gives some rules of life, most of which can easily be adapted to the modern day world. Certain values can also be found in the Icelandic saga literature and other written sources. The germanic thinking does not contain the concepts of good and evil in the dualistic sense of Christianity, nor the concept of sin. Instead, honour is important. An honorable lifestyle contains certain virtues, such as honesty, wisdom, moderation/reasonableness, and independent initiative. Based on this, the English Odinic Rite has developed what they call the nine noble virtues. These are: courage, truth, honour, fidelity, discipline, hospitality, self reliance, industriousness and perseverance. However, most practitioners want to form their concept of honour themselves, so the nine noble virtues of the Odinic Rite have not attained much success elsewhere.
Cosmology and gods
According to the Poetic and Prose Eddas, there are nine worlds which are connected by the world tree Yggdrasil (yg +drasil = Ygg’s (Odin’s) horse). Among these are e.g. Asgård, the home of the gods, and Midgård, the home of people. How these worlds and gods are conceived, is individual and varying. Some think the gods are reflections of nature, some see them as Jungian archetypes in the human mind, and some take them as mysteries that cannot and should not be explained. However, the gods are divided into two families, the Aesir and the Vaenir.
The Aesir are gods who concentrate on the social order and warfare. The most important are Odin, the god of magick and extacy, his wife Frigga, Tor who fights the forces of chaos and the god supervising order, Tyr. The Vaenir, then, are rulers of love and fertility and the most important of them are the twins Frej and Freja. In addition to the gods, another three important figures are the three Norns who are spirits of fate. Your fate (orlög) is not carved in stone, but only the most probable course of events. With strong will, you can defy and change your fate.
Blót
Blót is a ceremony where you get together to offer and celebrate. Offering to gods is not seen as one-sided submission, but rather as a trade where when you give the gods something, you get something in return. ”A man must be a friend / to his friend / and give gift for gift”, says the Hávamál. Blóts were celebrated at certain times of year, part of which are known, others not. Midwinter and midsummer are the most important celebrations.
Isn’t such a viking religion rather male-centerd?
The general idea that ásatrú is some kind of male-centered viking blustering dates from the 19th century when Germanic mythology and the bachelors’ adventurous vinking fantasies were very popular among male bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie culture of that age has had some effect on the ”viking image” of today’s popular culture.
Another reason why the Nordic mythology presents itself as male-centered to us is the Christian historians who were reluctant to describe female goddesses or their cults, which were simply considered too indecent for Christians. We can also assume that Christians have been more destroying towards the feminine aspects of the religion, because the patriarchic traits could more easilybe adapted to Christianity. It is a well-known fact, however, that the Freya cult has been extremely popular, and perhaps equally important as the Odin cult – only too little information has been preserved of this. Archaeological findings and older written sources, however, talk about the central position of women.
Isn’t this kind of germanism racist?
In the past, the values of an age have often been reflected in the historical symbols of the age, and the nazi Germany is a good example of this. The fact that the sunwheel, the runes or the swastica have been used in a political sense in the 1930’s and 1940’s, connected to certain ideologies, does not make these over 1000-year-old symbols the signs of those ideologies. Neither does ásatrú contain the concept that the germanic people or culture would be in any way supreme. You can be proud of your roots, but you need not imagine that you are better than others. However, racist ásatrú groups do exist, as well as groups who resist them intensively. Racism or any kind of racial thinking, though, do not belong to ásatrú in any essential way.
Do you need a viking helmet or do you need to know ancient norse?
No, you do not. The fact that you take into use some ancient symbols, names, and rituals, does not mean that you shift yourself into the past, but that the parts of that ancient culture have to be adapted to the present day. Putting your soul into a historical role and live action role plays are a different thing altogether. Some do, though, practise some kind of historical revivalism in the context of eg.g Blót, but it is not necessary or even appropriate.