One of the commonly misperpetuated beliefs of the Asatru afterlife is that the end goal is for us all to go to Valhalla. For these individuals that put such importance on the warrior aspects of our religion they overlook a couple of things. Foremost is that Freyja also had choice of the battle-slain, so if you qualified you may end up going to Her hall, and NOT Valhalla. Secondly, while warrior aspects and cultuses were present in antiquity, ultimately the ancient cultures were agriculturally derived. As such, life and the afterlife was more than about war, instead it was representative of the entire culture and worldview.
Unfortunately, much of the information on the afterlife was lost during the time of Christian conversion. However a few select references within our tradition remain about a number of Halls and Gods that play host to the dead, including:
- Battle-slain individuals (who were not evil) would go to – Odin’s Valhalla or Freyja’s Sessrumnir believed to be found in Fólkvangr.
- We know that the hall Vingolf played host to the dead. But it’s unclear from the lore if this is another one of Odin’s Halls where those who are not battle-slain may go, or it may also refer to a hall hosted by the Goddesses instead.
- Those who die at sea are said to go to the Goddess Ran.
- The Goddess Gefjon is said to play host to dead maidens.
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