"...For Man is the joy of Man."

For a change, the subject is actually heathen today. Coming, as it does, from the Havamal. I'm not normally a big fan of the Havamal. It is a bit piecemeal for my liking and comes across as a dumping ground for dozens of odd snippets of quotes, probably taken out of context.

I have a friend who is quite a solitary person. He doesn't really keep in touch with his family. I'm not sure what his relationships with his other friends are like, but we only indulge in occasional, superficial interaction these days. So, I've come to think of him as a bit of a loner, you might say. The other thing about him is that he sometimes has trouble dealing with life. Emotionally, he can be quite fragile. Like me, he too has a long and bitter history with the black dog of depression. Like me, he shares issues with self image now and then.

As a heathen, I have a tendency to link those two aspects of his character. The only reason I feel I handle life's tests better than he does is that I keep in touch with my extended family. I also have a network of friends with whom I am very close. So, when life bowls me a googlie, I have them to fall back on. Not really in the sense of sharing my woes with them or using them as a sounding board for my feelings. Just knowing that I am a part of their lives and they are a part of mine helps me get through most trials and tribulations with fewer emotional upheavals than he suffers.

Heathenry is about being part of a community. Even solitary heathens are only solitary in the sense they don't have other heathens with whom they associate. They still have family and friends who support them. At least, I hope they do. No man is an island. Nor are women.

As I have always contended, my family is a big part of my heathenry, despite not being heathen themselves. I know some heathens have issues with their families which preclude the kind of relationships that I enjoy with mine. But people do say that the families of the twenty first century are made up of friends - that is very true. We all need that support network. They also provide a greater whole to which we can offer our strength, fealty and toil.

Being a "Proper Heathen"

As the inaugural monthly moot creeps toward us, and a potential attendee has already contacted, it occurs to me that I may well be expected to talk about heathenry with at least a vague air of authority.

This doesn't really come naturally to me. First of all, I like to keep things chilled and understated. Our hearth consists solely of my family (at the moment) and we don't really go in for elaborate rituals and verbose appeals to the gods and goddesses. Secondly, I've lived around half of my life by now, and for anyone with even an ounce of experience, that is more than enough to learn the things I don't know far outweigh the things that I do know. So, really, I'm not usually one for proselytising as I understand that "my heathenry" is just one of a myriad of equally valid ways to do heathenry.

We like to think of our hearth - and, by extension, moots - as being more about socialising and forging friendships and less about loremastery and, hopefully, less drama.

As we potentially have people travelling to see us, though, it does rather pile pressure on us to wax heathen and discuss "matters of faith". Left to our own devices, we'd more likely spend time talking about music, films and beer and barely ever mention anything to do with contemporary heathenry.

Perhaps we could make a name for ourselves as the least heathen-oriented heathen hearth in the UK? That would be quite an accolade! ;)

Further Hearth update

The first moot heralding the re-opening of the Salgofnir's Call Hearth to the public will take place on September 29th 2019 at The Beer School, Westhoughton, Lancashire BL5 3AZ. Starting around 2.30pm and ending whenever we get bored or too inebriated to continue.

If you're thinking of attending, feel free to comment here or on the hearth's Facebook Group and we'll be happy to offer any advise and help we can.

As stated in a previous post, the emphasis is on the social, so please don't consider lack of knowledge or experience an impediment to joining us.

Just to reiterate, we are a universalist group and oppose racist and bigotry in all its forms.

Salgofnir's Call Heathen Hearth - Bolton, Lancs

Just set the Facebook group settings for our heathen hearth's page to "Public". The idea is to attract a few heathens and other assorted pagans in the area with a view to having regular moots once again. Operating under the title, "Salgofnir's Call Hearth", we used to hold fairly regular moots when we lived in Manchester's popular Northern Quarter. Held at the Angel pub on Angel Street, just off Rochdale Road, we only really used to get the occasional traveller wending their weary way to us. But, when we did, we always had a good, genial time and managed to wax heathen for hours in good company. We will re-use/resurrect the name - the hearth has never really gone away, it has just been mostly limited to our own, small family unit until now.

Have to confess to feeling a mix of excitement and trepidation for this. Very much looking forward to meeting any heathens or pagans in the area and possibly making new friends. I also know from experience, though, that we are just as likely to meet some less savoury people whose vision of what contemporary heathenry should entail might not gel with our own.

Still, we are hoping that, gods willing, this enterprise bears some valuable fruit.

Heathenry: All form and no content?

The following article was inspired by an experience our hearth had a few weeks ago. We had arranged to meet with people we'd met online at a fairly local moot. While we hadn't met any other members of this group before, we were looking forward to the meet up, as at least one of the attendees, the organiser, had shown themselves to be what we considered a good heathen and the kind of person we'd like to hang out with (not an accolade we bestow lightly).

The gods had other ideas, though. The day of the moot turned out to be one of the first sunny days of the year, spring having sprung a week or two earlier. Due to the nice weather, every man and his dog turned up to the meeting place. This would not, necessarily, be a problem - were it not for the very limited parking available. We drove around for quite some time, but to no avail. More and more people descended upon the area, bringing their unnecessarily large automobiles with them.

So, we left a message stating that, sadly, we wouldn't be able to attend and headed home. When we got back, it turned out the moot organiser had suffered the same problem and had also been unable to attend. Shame, but we all resolved to meet again next time.

All, that was, except one guy. Let's call him 'Bill'. Apparently, Bill had turned up and had been waiting for us all to arrive. Bill felt he had been unfairly put out by our failure to arrive. Despite the heavy traffic (and limited parking) being more than evident and despite our messages of explanation and apology, Bill decided to get massively butthurt over this.

It would seem being left alone on a beautifully sunny day had really aggravated him. Being made to attend a really nice pub with a very nice menu and good range of ales was probably the last straw.

To some extent, I can understand being a little annoyed. What I can't understand is leaving a really immature message on the group's online noticeboard and complaining that the organiser had let him down. I also recall some ad hominem attacks, if I am not mistaken. Seriously, this guy was whining like crazy over one lousy cancelled moot.

Thing is, looking at his profile on social media, he seemed to have given himself a really butch viking-style name (think 'Ragnar Thunderpants, or similar) and seemed to buy into the whole heathen/viking macho ideal. Perhaps not quite full on Brosatru, but getting there.

How can this guy think of himself as a modern, tough, stoic viking and then get really upset about a long drive to a nice pub near a beautiful park that didn't quite go to plan? Does Bill consider that hardship? He should try crossing the Atlantic in a longship...

This really has me worried now that a much greater proportion of the heathen community than I had previously thought are precisely this kind of immature, 'dummies out of the pram' style whinger.

To me, one of the most important things that attracted me to heathenry in the first place was the fact that it actively discouraged this kind of attention-seeking, diva-like behaviour. I'm not saying I want a mindless, Rambo-esque Brosatru hearth or moot, but just no-one that needs suckling before we can get to the proper business of drinking and setting the world to rights.

Too much to ask?

Einherjar: Lone Fighters

I was reading somewhere else online (another heathen blog, perhaps) that the old norse name for the warriors in Valhalla, 'einherjar' literally means something along the lines of 'those who fight alone'.

The writer in question explained that viking warriors were trained in all aspects of combat and could be thought of as 'a one-man army'. Thus, they were well prepared for and perfectly able to fight alone, even outside of the shield wall, if necessary.

All of this I agreed with and admire, but it was at this point that the writer went on to use this to explain the importance, for them, of time alone.

I don't really feel that the importance of alone time (whoever enjoyable that might be) was the lesson to take from this. Rather, I think the more valuable attribute (especially in this modern age and in an overcrowded nation such as the UK) was the importance of self reliance.

Being able to operate, provide for oneself and even thrive - alone - is a very admirable trait. Especially in contemporary society, in which we are expect, and required, to rely on others for everything. Our food, our security, our entertainment, fixing our tools and even making decisions for the direction of our lives and the upbringing of our families - all are provided by third parties. This can leave us over-reliant and unable to fend for ourselves, if we are not careful.

So, perhaps, in a time where striving to be ferocious, ruthless warriors is frowned upon, being something of a Renaissance Man is the next best thing for the modern heathen?

Family

Family, kin, call it what you will. We are due something of a family day today. There is to be a fayre at Freyja's school. So, lots of Daddy-time will be logged today.

It is times like this that I feel most heathen.