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Asatru - What Is Odinism, Or The Religion Of Odin?





    THE ODINIAN RELIGION. 


    This is an article on a religion that was hundreds of years old at the time of Christ and has continued to exist unbroken, although sometimes in secret, until our own day. 


    • The number of followers of the Odinists' many and sometimes competing organizations is still in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions. 
    • Around 1935, it was estimated that 2,000,000 people in Germany believed in the ideas of the New Heathen, as they were known at the time. 
    • This essay is not a member of any of the cults or clubs that today's membership consists of. 
    • Except where otherwise indicated, the author's views are his or her own, despite the fact that it was produced under the broad auspices of the Runic Society of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

    The author has interviewed members and leaders from Germany to Australia over a number of years; most of the interviews were done in person, but some were conducted through email. 


    • Most nations in northern Europe, North America, and Australia, as well as Iceland, have groups. 
    • The ideas, declared dogmas, and views have been documented as faithfully as possible on these pages. 
    • There has been a lot of disagreement, and there have been a few groups who have not responded to correspondence. 

    ' The author does not claim to have published a full history of the faith, or even a comprehensive review of its beliefs and practices. 


    • Such a book would take several volumes to finish. 
    • The author believes that he has gathered, processed, and brought together a great deal of previously unorganized material on the topic. 
    • The goal of the article is for the average reader to be able to deduce what the fundamental principles of the Odinist religion are. 

    Because of the mythical and real-life achievements of its most renowned practitioner, the seafaring, nation-founding Vikings, the religion of Odin is often referred to as Odinism. 


    • We often overlook the fact that the Vikings were not the only ones who believed in this. 
    • Prior to their conversion to Christianity, the Germans, Dutch, English, Scandinavians, many French, and Normans were all adherents of the same religion. 



    The ASTRU, or ‘men loyal to the Aesir,' was the term given to this religion in antiquity. 



    The majority of its modern adherents refer to themselves as Odinists, but some still refer to themselves as such. 


    • Both usages are, of course, valid. 
    • When the reader finishes the essay and decides whether or not to become an Odinist, he will find that the article lacks sufficient knowledge for him to do so. 
    • The Elder Edda, the Prose Edda, and the Saga of Bigurd the Volsung, all foundational texts of the religion, are not included. 


    The ASATRU, like other faiths, has a corpus of "stories and tales" that encapsulate the majority of the faith's fundamental truths. 


    • It, like many other faiths, teaches via parables and comparisons. 
    • Courage, kinship loyalty, kindness, and keeping one's word are all important qualities in the religion. 



    The ASATRU are the original believers in predestination, by whatever name it goes by in its travels. 


    They do not believe in free choice and instead think that one must follow one's destiny. 


    • 'And when the time comes for you to die, do it as courageously as you can, striving to be worthy of your ancestors and the ASATRU family.' This is the Swan-road, the path of the Swan. 
    • It would be impossible to put a date on when the ASATRU reappeared in contemporary times. 
    • Instead of a particular date, two or three decades would have to be chosen. 


    What seems to have happened was a steady rise out of obscurity around the time of Prussia's humiliation. 


    • Napoleon was defeated in the Battle of Jena in 1806. 
    • Following this loss, Prussian nationalists fought tirelessly to restore the Prussian Army, and the unification of Germany began. 
    • For inspiration, ancient German customs were remembered, dredged out from history, essays, and researched. 


    The ancient gods reappeared from the mists of an almost forgotten past, eight hundred years later. 


    The tales that Richard Wagner utilized as a foundation for his renowned dramas, The Ring of the Nibelungen, in mid-century came from this well of narrative and from translations of the Icelandic Eddas and Sagas. 


    • Richard Morris, a novelist and poet in England, took notice. 
    • He studied the Eddas and other Icelandic tales and mythology at Iceland after learning Icelandic. 
    • To commemorate this, he composed Sigurd, the Volsung, an epic poem that Richard Wagner dubbed "the finest epic poem since the Iliad." Thor and Odin returned to the English-speaking globe and the Anglo-Saxons. 
    • As the Elder Edda and the Prose Edda were translated from Icelandic into other languages, knowledge of the topic became even wider. 


    It wasn't as though paganism had been totally suppressed. 


    • The crusading army of Christians traveling through the Rhineland on their route to Palestine in the 12th century, for example, felt it essential to send out detachments of soldiers every now and then to wipe out pockets of pagans who still worshipped the old gods. 
    • Incidentally, this was the same army who murdered and persecuted the Jews of Cologne and Worms in the Rhineland. 
    • It was commonly thought throughout the Middle Ages that ancient gods existed, but that they were demons. 
    • They may appear to mortals, but only to seduce I the  road of righteousness into evil, and to lead them to their destiny. 
    • Two centuries later, in the 15th century, we may still discover references to Frey worshipers in Sweden's back country. 




    The hidden organizations of witches and other pagans were undoubtedly havens for the ancient gods as well. 


    Thor and Odin were still worshipped in one or two districts of Sutherland in northern Scotland in the early 18th century. 


    • Historian Gibbons, whose remarks the reader will encounter again in these pages, called it the Odinic religion, and it has been known as the Church of Thor and Odin as well as the ASATRU. 
    • In reality, it seems that the ASTRU are a branch of that ancient pagan religion that once included all of Europe's peoples. 
    • When the names of the Gods are changed, such as Zeus or the Slavic Perun for Thor, the Thundergod, it is found that the religious systems of the ancient Teutons, Slavs, Greeks, Latins, and Celts are essentially the same. 

    Other than names and the language in which they were uttered, there seems to be a distinction between the deities. 


    • As a result, in the years after World War II , when Odinism was resurrected, a new tolerance prevailed. 
    • This new tolerance is founded on a belief in the fundamental oneness of European peoples, and it has its origins in the similarities between Europe's old pagan traditions. 
    • All Odinist organizations now aggressively seek membership from the whole European derived population. 
    • They see racial sub-group distinction as divisive, and they worry that it may lead to a caste structure inside the religion. 



    There are no claims to racial superiority, Nordic (or Mediterranean) supremacy, or cultural superiority, just claims to a shared cultural heritage. 


    The majority of the membership believes that those who will be interested are likely to be of North European ancestry, but that those of other races who want to learn about the history of European culture are welcome. 


    • Another difference is the younger age of the membership. 
    • Since WWII, all of the Odinist groups have been re-founded, and with this younger membership has come liberal ideals. 
    • Over half of the organizations are seen to be politically left of center. 
    • One example is Iceland, where Odinism was not legally permitted since Luthesnism was the state religion. 


    After a few hundred people had converted, the issue was brought before the Icelandic Parliament. 


    • When it came to a vote, it was the socialist left that won, and socialists became the midwives of one of the world's oldest faiths' rebirth. 
    • While there are as many left-wing Odinists as there are right-wing Odinists, whatever totalitarian connections or affinities that the previous movement may have had have been washed away in the new age of goodwill. 
    • As one member described it, "a confidence in democratic republicanism has supplanted the inclinations toward one-party control." "A system of religious and political freedom provides the greatest opportunity for a tiny faith like ours to thrive... 
    • It's the only option in an increasingly authoritarian society." Other attitudes have shifted as well. 
    • The Fruit of Islam, an organization of American Muslims, has been one of the movement's models. 



    As a result of this, a political movement known as the Nation of Odin was formed with the goal of improving the lives of Odinists. 


    They want to be like the Sikhs of India, and they use these tactics to preserve Teutonic culture and values. 


    • Another contradiction exists among conservative Odinists: a rising respect and compassion for the nascent country of Israel.
    • This is owed in part to Israel's valiant defense against all comers, and in part to the increasing conservatism of today's Jews collectively. 
    • Only the most deranged Jews remain in the communist camp, since the ordinary Jew today has much more backbone than the sniveling kind who were so outspoken for the left before the Six Day War, and their increasing hatred of Russia has left only the most deranged Jews in the communist camp. 
    • This is what conservative Odinists will tell you, at least. 



    Two leaders of the Odlnist religion lived in the twentieth century and had a significant impact on its growth. 


    In the German-speaking world, it was General Erich Ludendorf, who became Germany's de facto ruler during World War I, whereas in the English-speaking world, it was an Australian named Tasman Forth. 


    • Both men wrote numerous articles and had the greatest impact prior to World War I in the 1920s and 1930s. 
    • General Ludendorf (1865-1937) was a famous German professional soldier who, with General Paul Von Hindenburg, was the hero of the Battle of Tannenburg, in which the Germans destroyed an invading Russian army. 
    • The General, together with his second wife, Mathilde, were the spiritual leaders of the New Heathon in Germany after the war. 
    • He wrote numerous articles and fought tirelessly for the moral rehabilitation of the German people. 


    General Ludendorf was involved in the persecution of communists after the war, serving in the Free Corps, the Kapp Putsch, and other anti-communist organizations. 


    • In the early 1920s, he joined Hitler and the Nazi organization, but later left after becoming persuaded that Hitler would destroy Germany. 
    • Ludendorf marched with the Nazis during the Deer Hall Putsch in Munich in 1923, only to split with them when the attempted coup failed. 
    • Ludendorf never talked to Hitler again because he believed Hitler had proven himself to be a coward by falling for the ground as the gunfire began. 
    • Regardless of the facts, the old General remained opposed to Hitler to the end and became irrevocably alienated from his old buddy Hindenburg when President Von Hindenburg named Hitler Chancellor of Germany in 1933. 


    Ludendorf died in 1937, without seeing his Hitler prophecies come true. 


    • The Nazis absorbed the New Heathen, Ludendorff's organizations, but they also swallowed the Catholic and Protestant faiths, as well as the Centerist, Nationalist, and Socialist parties. 
    • The second well-known leader from the second and third decades of the twentieth century was an Australian named Tasman Forth (Alexander Rud ) (1885-1964), who led an Odinist organization in Sydney, Australia, in the 1930s. 
    • As a result, he qualifies as one of the early leaders of the ASATRU in this century, as well as one of the first in the English-speaking world, with George Bernard Shaw. 
    • He authored a few articles that may still be found in used bookstores. 
    • He had a small group that gathered on a regular basis to commemorate the ancient European religion's traditional four seasons and other holy days. 


    General Ludendorf was the spiritual founder of Odinism, and the two individuals, Ludendorf and Forth, were among the prominent leaders of Odinism in this century. 


    • This is an essay on religion, as we said at the beginning. 
    • The racial ideas of De Gobineau, Grant, and Alfred Rosenberg have been left out since they have no place here. 
    • Richard Wagner's and Nietzche's ideas and works have only been discussed when they have impacted the evolution of religion in any manner. 
    • True, the SS promoted Nordic religion and old gods, and Himmler and Alfred Rosenberg were Wotanists (Odinists), but when the Nazi Party made their choice, they signed a concordat with the Vatican, saying, "The government sees the most important factors for the maintenance of our folkdom in both Christian confessions," True, religious ideas are inextricably linked to the historical era in which they were developed; nevertheless, We cannot hold today's Catholics accountable for the Inquisition's atrocities, the Massacre of St. 


    Eartholamew, or the Crusaders' sacking of Jerusalem when they conquered the city. 

    We cannot hold today's Protestants accountable for the Reformation's atrocities. 

    Similarly, we cannot hold modern-day Odinists accountable for the heinous crimes perpetrated by a psychopath whom the Odinists would likewise deem beyond the scope of humanity. 



    The Odinist religion is actually sprouting from nowhere in North America; it is growing from the earth. 


    Individuals and groups who were sure that they were the only Odinists in the world were astounded to learn that others had independently rediscovered and returned to the ancient religion, according to the author. 


    • What percentage of the time did they return to it? Because they felt their ancestral Christian faith had failed them personally or was failing our people. 
    • Here's what renowned German philosopher George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel had to say about Christianity. 
    • "Christianity has emptied Valhalla, felled the sacred groves, extinguished the national image as a shameful superstition, as a devilish poison, and replaced it with imagery of R nation, whose climate, laws, culture, and interest are foreign to us ant1 whose history has no connection whatsoever with ours, Our popular imagination may have an i1avi.d or a Solomon, but our own country's heroes are buried in academic history studies. 

    It's probably an understatement to suggest that we'll be hearing from them again... 

    Let us now return to the mystical realms of Thor, Odin, and the AESIR.



    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/