
The Norns and Death
Just as Urd and her sisters choose mothers to give the sacred fruits of childbirth to, and thus dispense the gift of life, so too do they decide when, where, and how someone will die. Not only that, they also own the hall where the Helthing takes place and where the righteous dead shall dwell

The Purpose of Sacrifice
Sacrifice is never viewed as a form of humility on our part . There is even evidence that the gods sacrifice to one another . The reason for this is that we believe such offerings empower the divine , which allows them to perform magnificent feats , usually to our benefit.When Ódin , in Hávamál

The Epic School in Odin’s Wife
The major literary sources of Norse myth are of four kinds: eddicpoems, skaldic stanzas, Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda, and the sagas. What unites this body of literature is that it provides us with a picture of the pre-Christian past, either, because the material itself originated in the pre-Christian period and was recorded later, or because its authors were

Gullveig
Since we have already discussed the first Giants or Etins in the creation story, it is now time to progress to the role of these creatures of Chaos after civilization has been established. Heimdall taught the humans all sorts of skills to help them create a culture, giving them the holy fire as well as

Hel in The Asatru Edda
XXIV. Hel Urðr, the Dís of örlög, is also the Dís of death. Because she determines the örlög and length of every human’s life, she also determines their death. She who lays the lots of life, lays the lots of death. She and her sisters reign over the past, present, and future; she reigns over

Homosexuality and the Germanic Weltanschauung
By TRISTAN POWERS Within the Germanic Faith we often face attacks and attempts at censor from various currents of society who would seek to identify us as divergent or even dangerous to the accepted ideas and behavior of modern society. One of the most frequent of these attempts comes from the realm of modern political

The Fylgia
We are told that the fylgjas, who are tutelary spirits in the Odinic faith, are women who die as virgins and are thus led to serve Urd in this capacity. Their virginity is based on the idea that the family and clan must always be kept together, and since they have no children they must

On the Animals living on Yggdrasill
“In the poetic imagery of Yggdrasill several animals exist that represent the various powers of the cosmos. In Niflhel are the serpents that represent the corruption of Chaos as they constantly gnaw away at the ordered creation. Four harts nibble at the crown of the tree, whose names denote slumber and death and thus symbolize

Cycles and Ages
“We believe that the universe and its four basic elements ( Water, Fire, Earth,Air ) are eternal in that they have always been and always will be, they simply transform or appear to transform through a constant cycle of convergence and entropy, which some call the cycle of life-death-rebirth. This cycle is reflected within every

On Theistic Paganism, Doctrine and Hierarchy…
Original title: “ On the Need for Theistic Paganism, Doctrine and Hierarchy; or Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Wiccans By TRISTAN POWERS Among the modern incarnations of Germanic Heathenry is a decentralized, grassroots structure which has given rise to innumerable permutations of religious thought and behavior. Some of these have resulted in strong and
