Wounded I hung on a wind-rocked tree
for nine cold nights
Transfixed by a spear, pledged to Odin
Offered, myself to myself
on that tree, of which no one knows
froq. hence it is sprung
They gave me no food, they gave me no drink
downward I gazed
To the runes I applied myself, crying I learnt them
and from that tree I fell

 

THE NAME OF THE RELIGION


The name of the religion of Odin in antiquity was ASATRU.


Asatru means 'Men true to the Aesir'.

This is still the usage in Iceland, where the name of its followers is 'Asatruarmennt.

 

In North America it is most commonly called Odinism, with the

individual being known as an Odinist. It is also referred to as The
Religion of the Teutonic Tribes.

All are correct,


WHO WAS ODIN ?

To answer this question we turn first to the Historian
Edward Gibbons, the author of the decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire"


The mysterious obscurity of the Edda, we
can easily distinguish two persons confounded under the name of
Odin, the God of War, and the great legislator of Scandinavia,
The later, the Mahomet of the north, instituted a religion adapt-
ed to the climate and to the people. Numerous tribes on either
side of the Baltic were subdued by the invincible valour of Odin,
by his persuasive eloquence, and by the fame which he had acquired
of a most skillful magician,


The faith that he had propagated during a long and prospereous life he confirmed by a voluntary death.

Apprehensive of the
ignominous approach of disease and infirmity, he resolved to ex￾
pire as became a warrior. In a solemn assembly of the Swedes and
Goths, he wounded himself in nine mortal places, hastening away
(as he asserted with his dying voice) Prepare the feast of
heroes in the palace of the God of War",


 

 

 

Are Ásatrú and Odinism the same thing? There are Ásatrúar and Odinists who feel that they are the same religion, while many others who are Ásatrúar or Odinist feel there are distinct differences.

 

The term "Odinist" refers to an individual who is primarily dedicated to Odin, and as such could also consider themselves Ásatrú,

 

 

 

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What, then, is the Odinist mythology?


Briefly, our mythology unfolds in five acts (which may be compared to the
evolution of the seasons of the year):


the Creation (spring)
the time preceding the death of Balder (summer)
the death of Balder (summer's end)
the time immediately after the death of Balder (autumn)
Ragnarok, the decline and fall followed by the regeneration of the world (winter and spring)


The first effort of speculative man has always been to solve the mystery of
existence, to ask what was in the beginning. The condition of things before the
world's creation is expressed in the Eddas negatively; there was nothing of that
which sprang into existence:


Nothing was
Neither land nor sea,
Nor cool waves.
Earth was not ,
Sky was not,
But a gaping void
And no grass.
Ymir was a frost-giant, e.g. chaotic matter:
From Ymir's flesh
The world was made,
And from his blood the sea.
Mountains from his bones,
Trees from his hair,
And the welkin from his skull.


There were as yet no human beings upon the earth when one day as the Gods Odin,
Hoener and Loder were walking along the seashore they saw two trees from which
they created the first human pair.

 

Odin gave them life and spirit, Hoener endowed
them with reason and the power of motion and Loder gave them blood, hearing, and a
fair complexion. The man they called Ask ash)-and the woman Embla (elm). As their
abode the newly-created pair received from the Gods Midgarth and from them is
descended the whole human race.


Balder is the god of the summer, the favorite god of all Nature and a son of Odin;
he is one of the wisest and most eloquent of the Gods and his dwelling is in a
place where nothing impure can enter. The story of Balder, well-known in the
Northern countries, finds explanation in the seasons of the year, in the change
from light to darkness; he represents the bright and clear summer and his death is
the impermanent victory of darkness over light, of winter over summer, of death
over life. When Balder is dead, all Nature mourns. His death presages the disaster of Ragnarok,

the consummation of the world, followed by its cleansing and return
to the primal state.


Ragnarok, the Twilight of the Gods, represents a great conflict between good and
evil powers. The idea is already suggested in the story of the Creation in which
the Gods are represented as proceeding from giants, that is from an evil and
chaotic force. And whatever can be born must surely die. In the seasons and
activities of Nature we see a constantly recurring picture of the necessity for
death and the equal certainty of its being overcome. At Ragnarok all the worlds of
Nature will be destroyed and even the giants must die. But from that catastrophe
will emerge a renewed world and the Gods themselves will be born again. We see
this drama enacted every year in miniature when autumn heralds the period of
decline and decay until with the spring we witness the magic of resurrection and
new life.


This, briefly told, is the myth that explained to our ancestors their origin and
the origin of the world, the creation of life from chaos and the emergence of
evolution and harmony.

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