Not just a warrior cult? No, but...

The nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards.
~ William Francis ButlerWhen I first started upon my heathen path, I would respond aggressively to anyone who wrote off norse paganism as merely a warrior cult. Understandable, as there is so much more to the eddas, sagas and lays than that. It was these things in which I was more interested back then.

Now, however, having spent some time as a practicing heathen and having interacted with other heathens (mostly online, I will concede), I find my view changing in one very important respect.

The importance of the role of warrior, of battling one's enemies, of physical confrontation cannot and should not be ignored. The mythology is rife with references to battle and combat-related metaphors. The necessity of fighting to defend one's family or property was very real and pervasive back then.

This shaped our heathen forefathers, both physically and mentally. In a way that I feel many contemporary heathens don't appreciate. To call oneself a 'warrior' because you 'fight high insurance prices' in your daily work (or similar weak metaphor) betrays a complete lack of awareness of the huge effect that regular combat (or even intense training) can have upon a person's personality and values.

There is an argument for ignoring the warrior motif within heathen sources. After all, contemporary society doesn't require all of us to literally fight for our livelihoods. Some of us may become police or soldiers who will act on the front lines in a manner very similar to our viking ancestors, but most of us will spend our lives doing something much more pedestrian, likely in complete safety. Thankfully, very few of us will ever be required to fight at all, never mind literally fight for our lives.

However, the warrior mindset gained through training for and taking part in combat clearly informs a great portion of the beliefs and values expressed in the heathen sources, such as the eddas, sagas and heroic lays.

So, as part of my heathen path, I am taking time to investigate and, where possible, experience, what it is like to actually be a warrior. Even if that is simply some 'alive' training for my internal martial arts - my class, for example, also has a full contact sparring class on Tuesdays. Tentative exploration of this will inform my faith as well as any time spend poring over various texts.

Heathenry: Musings

I've spent some time over the past week or so thinking about heathery.  More specifically,  what does it mean to be heathen?

What is it that defines a person as heathen.  If I am said to be heathen, what does that say about me?

Judging by what can be found on the Internet, these questions are easy to answer.  Often certain traits of people from the viking age are cited as being valued by the modern heathen.

Honesty, self reliance, honour, courage and fortitude are among the usual suspects.  The problem is that none of these traits appear to be in evidence for the vast majority of contemporary heathens that have chosen to give themselves a voice online.

The solution?  Perhaps just evidencing any of those traits in my day to day life.

Be the heathen that heathens claim to be...

Courage quote

"Courage is being scared to death... and saddling up anyway."

~John Wayne

Read more at BrainyQuote

If victory you would know...

...twice name the name of Tyr!


Some people referring to this suggest asking, "Tyr! Lord Tyr grant me victory!" or somesuch. I always think, though, that might be a request too far. Rather than asking for 'victory', i.e. asking the god to give you success regardless of the effort you put in, would it not be better to ask something like, "Tyr grant me courage! Tyr grant me strength!", both of which would be very useful, giving a great advantage, but still require you to put the hard work in?