The Nordic Faith
The believe in the old gods, the ancestors and our peoples
The Nordic Faith
The believe in the old gods, the ancestors and our peoples
Heathenry
Asatrú, vanatrú, jötuntrú, paganism; there are many different branches, many different interpretations, but common for all of them is the belief in the ancient powers. Some choose to focus on individual aspects, others embrace the great whole – but no one knows whose sight is the truest.
We will do our best to give an overall view, but will not point fingers and say that A is better or more correct than B, C or D – if you want to make ranking lists based on the knowledge we share, you’re responsible for whatever fallout you may recieve. We just want to enlight, to convey the knowledge that is available to us.
If anyone should find themselves offended by our use of language when we call it The Nordic Faith, we’ll have to remind people to do some reflection. Our gods and goddesses have many names and they wander, in southern Europe you might call a deity Zeus, where in the north he’s called Thor, or in India Dhisana where we here in the north say Dísir. It should therefore be understood as a demarcation, since we’ll be focussing on the faith that originates in Scandinavia – the Nordic countries.
Modern paganism
It is important to note, that the faith we have today is not the exact same faith as our ancestors had, there simply is not enough knowledge about the ancestral faith, that we can practice the exact same, but there’s still a desire to recreate the belief that abrahamic monotheism has tried for centuries to take over, white-wash or rebrand.
As to what is widely regarded as sacred texts, we often only count the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda – there is therefore a staggeringly small source of material to go by, but this will be no obstacle, as the ancient gods surely will stand by us in our worship of the primordial powers.
“Knowledge about our faith should flow freely, this way we’ll probably avoid a number of common misunderstandings you encounter as a follower of the old ways.
That is why we have started to collect everything we know and put it online, readily available without all sorts of contortions for the seeker.“
Thrane, Chieftain of Guðavík
Paganism today
In this section we will have a closer look at some of the many different interpretations, and delve deeper into some of them. We will take a look at everything from rituals and customs, what lies in the future, and what organizations that are around if you want to get connected or know more.
The Nordic Gods
In this section, we will take a look at the individual powers, what they each stand for and what they’re most commonly called upon and praised for.
We’ll use a slightly modern set-up – it should be fun to read after all, since not everyone gets turned on by a dry university lecture.
The Nordic Sources
In this section we will try to build a knowledge bank of all the old sources. Here you will be able to find the holy sources and read them for yourself, in old Norse.
It’s a long way out though, so we would like to direct your attention towards Voluspa.org for now, if you want to delve into the english translations.
