Exploring Our Gods and Goddesses – Coventina

Often times Heathens focus primarily on Viking Age Scandinavia, followed by Anglo-Saxon England, and more rarely continental Germanic Europe during the Migration Era, and the earlier Iron Age during contact with the Roman Empire. But they tend to overlook Roman occupied England for exploration. Yet there’s a wealth of information to be found that can show insights into who heathens were venerating. There is no such thing as a pure Germanic heathen religion, polytheism allows for deities from other traditions to be syncretized by others. Through war, trade, alliance, slavery, and personal interactions there’s always levels of blending and interaction. As such, to my mind, regardless of the origin of a deity, if they’re worshipped (especially on a documented scale by ancient Germanic heathens), those deities can and should become part of our heathen tradition too. With the understanding that to truly understand any power, learning as much as you can about the mysteries and cosmological nuance the deity had in his or her culture of origin is necessary to understand the deity.

Depiction of the Goddess Coventina upon a votive altar to her. RIB 1534.

As part of my explorations into Roman era Britain, we see Germanic worship to Coventina, a local Romano-British Goddess. We know thanks to numerous inscriptions found in the archaeological record that she was worshipped by Roman military auxiliary units from specific Germanic tribes (Batavians, Frisiavones, Cuberni) as attested along Hadrian’s Wall. These were erected by Germanic soldiers serving in the Roman Army. We have other inscriptions to the Goddess that came from individuals, including a couple we know were also Germanic heathens (Maduhus, Crotus). While we only definitively know she was worshipped at Fort Brocolitia there are some other sites that have been theorized to be connected with her too.

Hard Knocks – Oaths and Doors

Forsa Ring, Photo by Marianne Hem Eriksen*

The Forsa Rune Ring (Forsaringen) used to be on the parish church in the Central Swedish Province of Hälsingland. This iron oath ring (17 in / approx. 45 cm wide diameter)  has been argued by some to date to the 9th Century, though other scholars argue late Medieval era. Scholar Sophus Bugge, interpreted it as being Christian, but scholar Aslak Liestøl argues that Bugge’s reading of lirþir (clergy) was incorrect, and that the legal inscription should read liuþir (the people), and thus removed the Christian context. Scholar Stefan Brink has provided a more recent 21st century translation, one that points to it being a heathen relic that stipulated what was necessary for cultic practice in maintenance of a holy temple, or the Old Norse vé[1]  (or the Old Swedish vi as it appears in the following translation):

The Mjolnir Project (US) Shuts Down

Back in 2006 Dan the Blacksmith of White Hart Forge (in Oak Grove near Portland, Oregon) set out on a mission he called the Mjolnir Project, to gift hand forged Thor’s hammers to Heathens/Asatruar on active duty in the military so they were reminded that they were not forgotten back home. While there were many US soldiers who were recipients, there were also some military members from various international militaries who ended up with one too (Australia, Canada, Germany, Sweden, etc.). In fact, Dan partnered with blacksmith Martin (of Metalmorphose) in the United Kingdom to help him meet demand. He also sold hammers to those who either weren’t in the military, or were no longer active duty but veterans. There was even some “Mjolnir Project” apparel, proceeds of which helped offset material and shipping costs for the gifted hammers.

Earlier this year on July 3, 2023 Dan announced that while he hasn’t put down his blacksmith’s hammer, he no longer has the time thanks to a promotion at his primary job to keep the Mjolnir Project active and thus is shutting it down. While the US branch is shuttered, Martin (UK) is still keeping the project alive here. US service men and women, please reach out to him directly it sounds like for now Martin plans to continue to support active duty US military as he can.

I’m about 2 months late on learning about this development (Facebook algorithms are atrocious). I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge Dan’s good contributions and service to our community at large. Thank you sir for 17 years of hammers for our troops. If you received a hammer you may want to hop to his Facebook page and comment on his shutting down post to send one last thank you.

For posterity I’m including a screenshot of his farewell, and a few photos from his official Facebook page for the Mjolnir Project, including recipient appreciation photos of their gifted hammers, and Dan at work in the Forge. So if the Mjolnir Project page disappears from Facebook, there’s an alternative record highlighting his good works.

Dan’s Notice on Shutting Down the Mjolnir Project on Facebook

Cultic Worship to Loki – Revised & Expanded

Did you know we have possible evidence of cultic worship to Loki from antiquity?

Al-Tartuschi (also known as Ibrahim ibn Yaqub) hailed from the Cordoba Caliphate (specifically the Al-Andalus area from the Iberian peninsula), and wrote of his travels abroad in Europe in 961 – 962 CE.  He records seeing worship connected to the Sirius star in Hedeby, Denmark. The population size is estimated to have been around 1500-2000 people. Hedeby of the time was a commercial center populated by a range of groups: Danes, Frisians, Franks, Germans, Swedes, and Slavs. So that suggests to me the possibility for a much wider dispersion of the practice outside of Hedeby.

Open Halls is Shutting Down

Husband and wife, Josh and Cat Heath, who have long been the operating force and co-directors behind the Open Halls Project have announced that they are shutting down. For those unfamiliar with the Open Halls Project, Josh Heath was on active duty in the US Army from 2006 to 2011 (deployed 2008-2009 In Operation Iraqi Freedom). He saw a need and decided to act upon it. He wanted to make it easier for military heathens to find heathens wherever they might be posted, both civilians and other active duty or veteran military heathens. That included penpals, care packages, connecting heathen clergy, kindreds and other believers. It evolved into making resources for military chaplains available. It had been an over decade fight by others (including the Heaths) to get pagan and heathen symbols approved for veteran tombstones. There was a national rally on the Washington mall in DC on July 4, 2007 towards this end. The pentagram was added in 2007, and the mjollnir added in 2013. (You can view the symbols at the official Veteran’s Affairs emblem database).

The Heaths decided that they wanted to tackle getting the religion added to the US Army. On June 16, 2011 they put the call out seeking US Army soldiers (past and present) who identify as asatru or heathen, as they were working with other organizations to get heathen/asatru added to the religious preference list for the US Army.

The Holy Tides – Hlæfmæsse and Freyfaxi

When it comes to religious, pagan celebrations most people are familiar with the eight holy days or sabbats that comprise the Wheel of the Year, such as Lugnasadh. In the Northern Tradition, we do not call these celebrations sabbats. Instead, based on words (like the Old Norse hátíðir) used to describe the most holy of these celebrations (like Yule) as high tides, we tend to call the various religious celebrations we recognize today as holy tides (since not all of the holy tides are considered high tides).

Since we practitioners of the Northern Tradition are dealing with a general umbrella culture that existed in vast plurality we look to ancient Germanic, Scandinavian (Norse, Icelandic, Swedish, Danish, etc.) and Anglo-Saxon sources. It is important to understand that these ancient cultures reckoned time in different ways in comparison to one another or to the modern world. They existed in different latitudes, lived amongst different types of geography with unique climate conditions that affected the local agricultural cycle. This means that sometimes the timing between when one group would celebrate and another would celebrate a similar type of holy tide could be several weeks apart.

Sometimes we can see an obvious and clear link between these cousin cultures to a specific holy tide like Yule, in other cases things are a bit less clear, or the celebrations of the different groups can sometimes seem vastly different even when they have a similar root, or some celebrations may be unique and not echoed in extant sources elsewhere.

Hlæfmæsse translates in our modern English tongue to Loaf-Mass, and is sometimes also called Lammas, we have numerous instances in Anglo-Saxon literature that talk about this particular Christianized celebration and some of the traditions attached to it. Since mass denotes a Christian ritual, some have theorized that the pre-Christian name for this holy tide may have been Hlæfmæst (feast of loaves), and for this reason some Heathens will use this name instead. That theory may not be far off reality. The ninth century text, Old English Martyrology, refers to August 1st as the day of hlæfsenunga, which translates to ‘blessing of bread’.

Cultic Worship to Loki

Did you know we have possible evidence of cultic worship to Loki from antiquity?

Al-Tartuschi (also known as Ibrahim ibn Yaqub) hailed from the Cordoba Caliphate (specifically the Al-Andalus area from the Iberian peninsula), and wrote of his travels abroad in Europe in 961 – 962 CE.  He records seeing worship connected to the Sirius star in Hedeby, Denmark. The population size is estimated to have been around 1500-2000 people. Hedeby of the time was a commercial center populated by a range of groups: Danes, Frisians, Franks, Germans, Swedes, and Slavs. So that suggests to me the possibility for a much wider dispersion of the practice outside of Hedeby.

Long May Our Gods Be Hailed!

I saw this over on my Facebook feed today. 

And for anyone having difficulty reading the image the text is quoted below:

The Theodosian Code 16.10.11 tells us that on this day, February 24, in the year 391 CE, Roman Emperor Theodosius I decreed the closing of the temples and shrines. In the next few years there were further erosions to religious practice including the destruction of those holy sites, and the punishment of those polytheists who tried to worship their Gods.

Over 1600 years later and the Gods and Goddesses are still worshipped, new temples and shrines are being erected.

So on this day, let us post pictures of the new temples and shrines, post pictures of your altars to the Gods and Goddesses. Greet the Gods by name, lay offerings out to them, give them your prayers. Long may the Gods be hailed!

Galina Krasskova

While the decree by Emperor Theodosius I obviously had a huge impact on ancient Roman polytheism, these restrictions also impacted other traditional polytheisms as well within the width and breadth of the Empire.

So yes, I think it’s a great idea to post my current altar in testament that the Gods are still hailed. In that spirit here is Weyland, Gerd, Freya, Eir, Hlin, Nott, Odin, Heimdall, Nerthus, Thor, Frigga & Baldr.

Understanding the Symbols

Every religion and culture has an iconography which is uniquely it’s own, and the Northern Tradition is no different. Common symbols found in conjunction with this religion are the Valknut, Mjolnir, Irminsul, magical staves (known as a galderstav, such as the Ægishjálmur & Vegvisir), Sunwheels (including solar crosses and the misappropriated swastika), etc. But what do they mean?

Understanding the Sources of the Northern Tradition

So you want to learn about the Northern Tradition, but don’t want to read scholarly analysis, or any ruminations from modern practitioners. You just want one source from the culture to learn everything that’s historically authentic to the culture but tells you about the cosmology, and the details of all the rituals? Well sorry to burst your bubble, but that doesn’t exist.  

There is an old joke, that ours is the religion with homework (and really, all religion has homework). There’s a lot you need to understand in the big picture before you can really start to tease out the details of pre-Christianity.

Before I go down the very nuanced rabbit hole, I want to make one thing abundantly clear: the history, the stories, the folk customs, the archaeology are all useful and important. But a faith is a living thing, and you have to live a religion, which means finding ways to practice it. How do you conduct rituals? What offerings do you give? What prayers do you say? What are your devotions? How do you live a religion? You can find helpful resources and inspiration from the past but at some point you have to venture out and find your own way of living the religion.

I also want to stress that you do not need to be a scholar to follow this religious path. The only thing standing between you developing a relationship with our Gods, the ancestors, and the vaettir is simply you. Some enjoy delving into the history, to immerse themselves and tease out nuances. Others don’t, and merely want a framework of understanding so they can then move onto living the religion through the customs that come with a living and ever evolving practice. But for those of you who want to delve into the vast knowledge from antiquity, the following should help define a helpful framework to have in mind before you start your own explorations of the sources. This is useful as well to read, even if you only ever plan to do a little bit of exploration into the ancient sources on your own.

We can find a lot of information if you’re patient by going through the old literary and archaeological sources, but it’s not easy. For those of us in the Northern Tradition we have the misfortune that so little has survived to us from ancient believers. Unlike some other major polytheisms, like the unbroken tradition of Hinduism, or other major polytheistic traditions that have a large corpus of work by believers from antiquity about their own religious culture that survives into the present day: Kemetic, Hellenic, and Cultus Deorum, etc.

First you have to understand the history, the various sources (and how they connect to the historical context). Then comes the harder element, the fact even when rituals are mentioned it’s usually in passing, or only in vague context. In order to obtain our creation story you have to look at five different sources: Völuspá, Grímnismál, Vafþrúðnismál, Gylfaginning, and Alvissmal.  So it’s very common that we have to take little puzzle pieces from a range of material to try to piece together specific details. This means to fill in the gaps many look at the entirety of the Northern Tradition umbrella from the lore (various literary sources including (but not limited to) the sagas, eddas, & skaldic poetry, various Anglo-Saxon sources, as well as Byzantium, Roman & Arab accounts, late appearing folk customs & tales, and even archaeological finds.

Approaching this material with an understanding of how this culture viewed the seasons, and drafted their calendar can help you tease apart the timing of some of the rituals too. While we can find commonalities in the over-arching shared worship to Odin/Woden, there were also unique traditions tied to specific settlements or tribal groups that to our knowledge did not appear elsewhere too. This has led in the modern movement to a range of different approaches, some are strictly reconstructionist from a specific area, and others may be more universal across the entirety of the umbrella, plus a range of other denominations in between.