Asatru - Modern Day Norse/Nordic Paganism (United States of America, Scandinavia/Europe)





    Nordic Revival



    In the early 1970s, individuals in Iceland, the United States, and the United Kingdom formed new religious organizations devoted to reviving pre-Christian Northern European religious beliefs and practices, particularly those of pre-Christian Iceland and Scandinavia, but also those of the Germanic peoples of continental Europe and the Anglo-Saxons of England. 


    • The term Nordic will be used to refer to the peoples and cultures of Northern Europe. 
    • Norse will refer to the pre-Christian culture and religion of Iceland and Scandinavia in general.
    • Whereas Old Norse or Old Icelandic will relate to the language and literature of those periods in more detail. 



    In the early 1970s, the Icelandic, American, and British Nordic religion revival organizations were not in touch or even aware of one other's existence. 


    • Each had come to the same conclusion—that the Nordic pagan religious traditions of the past should be resurrected for the sake of contemporary people. 
    • Sveinbjorn Beinteinsson, a poet and farmer from Iceland, and a group of friends, many of whom were also poets and fans of early Icelandic literature, founded Asatruarfelagid, or "the fellowship of those who believe in the old gods," which is frequently shortened as Asatru. 
    • Stephen McNallen and Robert Stine founded the Viking Brotherhood in the United States, which was later renamed the Asatru Folk Alliance. 
    • The Committee for the Restoration of the Odinic Rite was founded in Britain by John Yeowell and his colleagues. 

    These 1970s Nordic Pagan revival organizations have since branched and split as more people became involved, introducing new ideas and sometimes divergent directions, while remaining united in their devotion to the religious and cultural traditions preserved in Iceland's and other Nordic nations' ancient literature. 



    Most contemporary Nordic Pagans identify to themselves as Asatruar (Asatru believers) and their religion as Asatru (believing in or trusting in the old gods).

    • Alternatively, they refer to themselves as Heathens (the ancient Germanic word for non-Christians) and their religion as Heathenry. 
    • In this article, the words Nordic Paganism, Asatru, and Heathenry shall be used interchangeably. 


    Many additional countries, including Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Canada, and Australia, have formed Nordic Pagan revival groups. 

    Based on interviews and field research in both countries, this chapter will give a short history and evolution of the Icelandic and American versions of Nordic Paganism, as well as a sketch of Nordic Paganism at the turn of the twenty-first century. 


    Previous research on Nordic Paganism in the United States has tended to highlight (and maybe exaggerate) some racist and Neo-Nazi aspects within the Nordic Pagan movement. 

    The bulk of contemporary Nordic Pagans are ardent supporters of Northern European cultural heritage as well as outspoken opponents of Nazism and bigotry. 


    • Most contemporary Nordic Pagans condemn the minority of Nordic Pagans with Neo-Nazi sympathies as members of fringe organizations with whom they want nothing to do. 
    • Nordic Pagans' pride in their ethnic background should not be mistaken for bigotry, nor should dedication to Nordic culture be mistaken for Nazism. 

    One of the American Nordic Pagans interviewed for this article is a lesbian with an Asian lover, another is a member of a Nordic Pagan organization with an African American member, and a third has adopted Korean children whom he encourages to research their Korean spiritual and cultural heritage and only become Heathens if they feel compelled to do so. 

    These aren't the faces of aspiring Nazi goose steppers.




    United States - Brief History of Nordic Paganism 



    Since its inception in the early 1970s, Asatru/Heathenry/Nordic Paganism in the United States has gone through many different phases, as well as a number of schisms and disputes. 

    It has entered the twenty-first century with a new degree of organizational sophistication and a broad agreement on the need to reduce disputes and enhance collaboration across the many Nordic Pagan groups, regardless of their views on specific topics. 



    The Viking Brotherhood, established by McNallen and Stine in Texas about 1972, was the first Nordic Pagan group in the United States. 


    • This organization evolved into the Asatru Free Assembly (AFA), which existed until 1987 before resurfacing in the 1990s as the Asatru Folk Assembly, as it is currently called. 
    • Many of the major organizational and ceremonial structures created by the AFA are still in use in American Nordic Paganism today, but subsequent organizations and individuals have continued to experiment with them, adapting and reinterpreting them as they see appropriate. 




    Structures of Important Rituals: 



    The Blot and The Sumbel (sometimes written symbel) and the Blot are two ceremonial forms created by McNallen and Stine from Old Norse–Icelandic literary sources such as the Eddas and Sagas, as well as other Germanic writings and customs. 


    • The Sumbel is a drinking ritual that takes place inside and may happen at any time or location agreed upon by the participants. 
    • A series of toasts are given, first to the Norse gods and supernatural creatures, then to heroes and ancestors, and finally to others, while a drinking horn full of mead or other alcoholic beverage is passed and poured into individual drinking containers or drank straight. 
    • Oaths and "boasts," or pledges of future acts that participants plan to do, may also be taken at a Sumbel. 
    • Such vows and boasts are regarded serious and binding on the speakers, emphasizing the Sumbel's importance as much more than a simple drinking celebration. 
    • The Sumbel's words are regarded sacred and potent, and they are pictured as entering the Well of Wyrd, the Norse mythology's matrix of time and fate, to become part of the individual and communal destiny of all present. 
    • Mead, the beverage of choice at a Sumbel, is a traditional beverage of ancient Germanic and Scandinavian peoples, made from honey and plants. 



    According to medieval custom, the drinking horn used to pour or drink the ceremonial wine is made from the horn of a bull or other equally big and magnificent animal. 


    • Many Asatruar and Heathens have mastered the art of making mead and constructing drinking horns, which they exhibit, sell, and, of course, drink from during seasonal Pagan celebrations. 
    • This convention is an excellent example of how, in Heathenry and Asatru, reviving traditional skills, crafts, and folk arts of past Nordic culture goes hand in hand with reviving spiritual beliefs and activities of past Nordic religion; cultural and spiritual heritage are not thought of as separate and distinct areas of life, but as different branches of the same tree. 



    McNallen and Stine derived the Blot from ancient sources in Old Icelandic literature and elsewhere. 

    • It is similar to the Sumbel but differs in many aspects. 



    At times of yearly holy days or feast days, it is conducted outside around a fire and under the open sky, and it includes specific ritual processes that go beyond what is done in the Sumbel. 


    • Invocations of the gods, similar to those spoken in the Sumbel, precede the Blot. 
    • Mead is used again in the Blot, but instead of being drunk from a horn passed around to the participants in the Sumbel, it is kept in a sacred bowl and sprinkled on the participants, altars, and images of the gods by the priest or priestess, who does so with a sprig or branch of an evergreen tree dipped in the mead. 
    • The mead is spilled onto the ground or into the fire as a last gift to the gods or ancestor spirits at the end of the ritual. McNallen published a series of books with ideas for Blots for various deities and events. 



    The Blot was originally associated with animal sacrifice in Nordic folklore. 


    • Blood was collected from the cut neck of the killed animal in a holy bowl, sprinkled on participants, and then spilled or smeared over statues of the gods positioned on altars, as the literal definition of the term Blot suggests. 
    • Most contemporary Nordic Pagans have replaced blood with mead, thinking that they are maintaining the same meaning of a distribution of life energy between the participants and their gods. 
    • The old ceremony would conclude with the attendees eating on the sacrificed animal, which had been prepared. 



    Similarly, modern Nordic Pagans end their Blots with a feast. Although the Sumbel and the Blot are the most well-known and frequently practiced rituals in the Nordic Pagan community, there are others.

    • Seid or Seith (Icelandic Seir), a Shamanistic ritual including trancelike, oracular states utilized for contacting gods and spirits, as well as life cycle ceremonies for births, comings of age, marriages, and funerals, are among them.



    You may also want to read more about Asatru, Norse Paganism and Nordic Pagans here.


    You may also want to read more about Paganism here.

    Be sure to check out my writings on Religion here.



    Online Resources


    American Asatru Associations




    Icelandic Asatru Association


    Ásatrúarfelagi≥ (Asatru Fellowship of Iceland). At http://www.asatru.is.


    Icelandic Photography



    Statistical Information


    • Hagstofa Islands (Office of Statistics, Government of Iceland). 2004. “Ísland ítölum 2002–2003” (Iceland in Numbers). Reykjavík, Hagstofa Islands. At http://www.hagstofa.is.


    Asatru Publications Available Online


    • “The Asatru Folk Assembly: Building Tribes and Waking the Spiritual Path of OurAncestors.” Available at http://www.runestone.org/




    By Jai Krishna Ponnappan
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