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The Assembly of The Elder Troth would like to welcome you to our website. Please click on the links to the left to enter the relevant area of our site. Heil and welcome to the Articles section of the Assembly of The Elder Troth website. Here you can find items written by many wide and varied folk. The idea is to provide a venue for discussion, debate and education amongst the folk by giving people an individual flavour to the information provided. Every article here is the work of its' author. The Assembly of The Elder Troth DOES NOT endorse the words or anything that is found herein as being official Assembly of The Elder Troth policy, it is purely the work of the author as provided in each case, and Copyright rests with the Author, reproduction is prohibited without the authors permission. One Folkish View - Faith, Folk, Family by Böðvar Ásbjörnsson ...I have written this for the last two days in my head, proceeding from conversations on this list. It is by no means complete, but is rather a work in progress. It is by no means binding on anyone else but myself, and is offered here for your consideration. This is what it says that it is: ONE folkish view, which is to say my own. Your mileage may vary. ********* One Folkish View: Faith, Folk, Family For years now, I have described the coming home of today's heathen's as happening in waves. The First Generation, the Generation of Founders, the Generation of Godhar and Gydhjur, is still with us, helping those who have come after with our work by their guidance and their patience. We in the Second Generation are building on their foundation. Sveinbjorn, Jormandur, Steve Drighten, Valgard, Alice Karsdottir, Thorsteinn, Saemarr all put a hof here for us where no hof had existed for a thousand years or more. We later arrivals must build upon this brave work. That is the task before us. The First Generation found the Gods. We must find the Folk. This is, so far,
the most contentious aspect of modern Germanic heathenism. We live in
a world where "the folk" has almost been taken to mean something
dirty. Ethnicity is the core of a folk For this reason, it is important to examine the faith, place the folk of our faith in a context of history, place them within their proper context of their families and friends, and only then can one discuss the work of this generation and it's future meaningfully. The Faith Even for those who view the Northern European Folkway - Asatru, Germanic heathenism, what you will - as a mere religion, separate from the other life concerns, religion must be recognized as a coming together of mankind with the divine. Gods, you see, have no religion. They are gods, after all. The folkish dimension is then at the very heart of the faith. Religion is a human affair. Religion encompasses how a people - a specific people, those of the faith - understand their conception of the divine. So, in the end, it comes down to the folk. You can't have a folk religion, as Asatru has been described, without first having a folk. If the Jews are Jehovah's Chosen People in their own context - which can be taken to be a dig of superiority if one wishes to take it so, but history and biblical and rabbinic commentary belie this view - then the Northern Folk of the Aesir and Vanir are the Chosen People of their Elder Kin. This should be taken to mean that, if today's Jews are the heirs of biblical and later rabbinic tradition, then we Northern European heathens are the kin of our own divine relations. If a Jewish god is Jewish, if he is a father to his people, then our Nordic pantheon is Nordic, and they are, if not a collection of fathers and mothers, are certainly a broad and, occasionally, troublesome and troubling as well as benevolent and noble elder uncles, aunts and cousins. Our faith revolves around a cyclic calendar of agricultural festivals and commemorations, some of them ancient and some modern. We celebrate our the rites of our faith as communicants with a greater whole, as the Folkway is a communal faith and outlook. Those of us separated from our fellows celebrate the rites, as they understand them, in the quiet of their garrets, but the Folkway really comes to it's own when the folk come together to call the Gods by name. This has ever been the case. Germanic heathen religiosity is a distinctly Germanic construct, distinct if similar to Hellenic or Celtic religiosity. It stems from the people themselves. Therefore, it would be asking a person from outside the community of Northern European/Germanic ancestry to understand the nuances of what it is to be Germanic. By the same token, those not satisfied with being Germanic, who would rather be Jamaican, Indian or Japanese might find it hard to get under the skins of the ethics, stories, and lessons of those cultures. That is because the Folkway is not merely a religion. It is an expression of who the people are. This expression of context does not blunt or limit the individual communicant. In truth, when operating naturally and free from the influences of personal agenda and foreign influences, the individual is empowered by a reinforcing of the context in which he lives. While it is hard to "be a Viking" in the 21st Century, it is much easier to be a heathen when it is reinforced that we today are a continuation of a long, interrupted but reestablished tradition of a specific, historically significant people. In celebrating the faith, we remind ourselves who we are, and of our power together as men and with the power available from our Gods, ancestors, and the spirits of this world and the others of our Lore. But, the celebrating, rites conducting and even the wrangling and teeth-gnashing are done by those of us in Midgardh. That is because religion - the faith - is a thing for men and women. The Gods need no reminders, and live in context. The Folk Who are the Folk? Are they all "white" people everywhere? Are they any person with any measure of "white" blood in them? Are they that portion of people of European ancestry who are predominantly Northern European? Are they strictly those with documentably exclusive Northern European ancestry? What part has blood to play in all of this? What, the religionists say, does blood to do with faith? Simply put, the Folk are who the Folk accept. Those outside the Folk are uetlaender: strangers, outsiders, who may be friends, but who can only expect that portion of ourselves which we choose to offer. Those among the Folk should be able to expect much more. Germanic leadership has generally been from the front, but with a heavy reliance on consensus. The people fight when the people agree to fight. They also recognize something as theirs or as foreign, and accept or reject it as the final arbiters of what is and isn't "them" and "theirs". These heathen people exist within a circle of duty, the Innangardh. Within that circle, all are family, either by blood or by choice, and contribute their efforts and their luck - a much slipperier and more spiritual concept to approach - to the whole. While it is painfully apparent that each denizen of the Innangardh is a fierce individual, all are trusted to work for the good of the whole within defined and agree-upon limits. While not communism, it is certainly a commonwealth. There exist many Innangardhs of the Folk. There are folkish "circles of wagons", Theodish circles, and little voluntary associations, little mini-Innangardhs dedicated to people who know and value eachother. Then, one finds talk of "THE" Innangardh, to which we all belong. This is a more abstract concept, implying a charge of duty to people you've not met, and a promise of support from people who may not know you, except possibly by reputation. When we speak of the Folk, henceforth, we speak of this Greater Innangardh, the boundaries of which are not as strictly defined, and the duties in which are not readily understood. Stephen McNallen, recognized by many as Drighten or elder chieftain today, has distinguished between "all white people" and those who celebrate the faith among us. Those still in the thrall of the foreign faith, still looking for a place to belong, or simply there with no thought of belonging, he refers to as "the Folk Without". They exist outside this Greater Innangardh, as they have not yet "come home" to the Folkway. Those who have, who can and do call upon the Gods by name, are "the Folk Within", or those in the Greater Innangardh. The Folk Without, those people whose family history and background make inclusion in the Innangardh of the People of the Aesir and Vanir natural, will be the source for future communicants of the faith, as has been the case in the past. It is foolish to "go a'viking" for "converts" among the Hottentots, Eskimos and Javanese islanders. It is probably also rude, as they probably have a belief system already, relevant to their own culture, environment and circumstances, as ours is to us. Culture, and being native to a culture, is a much better determinant than is any quantum of blood, especially as it is often difficult to establish with certainty in the absence of a blood test. In that case, one must rely on the evidence of one's eyes. As has been said, "if they look like the Folk and act for the Folk, then they are the Folk". Such people are more likely to be accepted, and to be offered the chance to accept the challenge of being one of the Folk. It isn't a membership in a club. It isn't a ticket to an elite. It is a charge of duty, which ultimately leaves one scarred, hopefully old, and then dead. It is a journey in the company of family, both those of this world and those who walk between worlds. The Family Family is the other way we will "flesh out" the Folkway. We will choose a mate and marry, and have and rear children in the faith. That seems simple, but the specter of blood quantum again is brought out by some. Some among us have married outside the Innangardh, either to people of other faiths, or to people of other cultures. What, then, of our children? What of our partners? What, then, of our faith? The question rests on two pillars: the question of purity and the question of acceptance. I defined acceptance earlier, as that which the Folk accept as theirs, belonging to them and among them. The other is a more charged concept. Humans are not pure animals. If we look back far enough, we see Scythians mixing with proto-Slavs, moving to Europe to mate with Celts, and giving in to the charms of Italic maidens or the strapping young man from the XXth Legion. Even those arch-purists, the Nazis, only required the purist among the, the SS, to document back as far as the 18th Century. Today, DNA testing is easily available, but it's results are illusory and potentially harmful. The Folk are those who the Folk accept. The Family is also a matter of choice. Some among us have made our choices long before returning to the Folkway. Some of us would make the same choices, even in the face of sideways glances for marrying outsiders. Some of us bring foreign faces and foreign accents, foreign ways and foreign blood to the Innangardh. What of those? Can a man be expected to give up a wife, or a mother a child, on the basis of decisions made prior to returning home to the Folkway? Should such a person be made to feel less a "serious heathen", or be less trusted or valued for such an alliance and the offspring such an alliance produces? I say no. Just as the Folk are who the Folk accept, they accept the entire person. To look down upon or shun the blood or the mate of such a person is to reject the person - in the case of a mate, fully half their household, in the case of a child fully half that child's blood. In accepting a person, one accepts the whole person. In one case, a kinsman brings a Costa Rican spouse to the Innangardh, who turns out to be as accepted and valued as he is - and he is a well esteemed man - and, indeed, who turns out to be as much a credit to her Folk-by-marriage as many of brought to the Folkway by birthright. Their children, one needs only glance at the parents to be assured, will be brought up well in the faith, with respect for it's honor and conversant in it's ways. It doesn't take a platoon of blood-lawyers pulling their beards over percentage of this or possible Germanic history of that part of the world to arrive at the obvious. One accepts the man, he is accepted totally. What of the Costa Rican wife, then? She is family, so she is Folk. What of a kinsman's observant or non-observant Chrisitan wife? Would one reject the man on account of his wife, thereby losing his labors? I would not. Little people would. This kinsman's wife, enthralled as she is by the White Christ, is half of the man's heart, and as such holds a place among the Folk. What then of persons of mixed ancestry? What do the Folk say then? In what quantities does one make a determination? As I've said, the Folk have the say. What should the Folk look to in this case. There, we see revealed the many Innangardhs which make up the Greater Innangardh. Some value exclusivity, holding to their own by blood quantum. Some value conduct or agreement, and accept based on those criteria. Still others are all at sea on the question, preferring to set rules as the needs arise. This would be a thorny question upon which to make a statement, so allow me to instead pose a question: how much ancestry does a person need to be trusted? How much does one have to be - appear, speak, act - for one to be convinced? My own answer on this question will be different from yours. My own answer is born of my marriage to a woman proudly half Indian, and my own knowledge of my own non-Germanic heritage. To be a purist and exclusive on blood quantum for me would be a gross and unfair hypocrisy. Allow me to say that I can't change my ancestry, wouldn't change my choice of mate.I would prefer my own grandchildren to look like and be accepted by their grandparents grandparents. Upon accepting people to the Innangardh, I ask that a person look like, act like, and be accountable to the Folk. The rest are strangers. But, it is from among strangers that one finds one's friends. Friends But, what of those few aspirants from without, even without "the Folk Without", who are curious about our ways, and for whom these ways are attractive? What better friends can one have than those who value who you are and where you come from? We can certainly offer a place at a the table, seated among the Folk, to our friends. A friend is a kinsman of choice, but one to whom one owes what one promises. Being among the People of the Innangardh, a charge of duty is leveled. This is not the case with a friend. All is voluntary. Often, it is also volatile, but sometimes the steadiest companions are those who choose to stand beside you. The tie of friendship can be a deep and profound one, approaching that of family. The tie of friendship among kinsmen adds to the tie of blood and modern chosen kinship making the shared commitment to the Folkway all the closer a tie. It is the tie of brother- and sisterhood. Can we share this with uetlaender? I would hope that we could share our ethics, the profound spirituality of our folkway with outsiders in a way which will earn their respect. I would hope that we might also recognize that we are not bound to do so, and that some steadfastly, as a personal matter, not to do so, and respect this, as well. The Future I have said here, again and again, that the Folkway is a charge of duty. What, then, is the duty before us in this generation returned to the Folkway? I think that it is to rise above personal agendas and reestablish traditions. It is to be worthy of the work given us by the First Generation Godhar and Gydhjur, and the understanding we have wrested from the Lore of our Gods and ancestors. I think that it is also to return tradition to our people. Again, the First Generation found the Gods. We must find the Folk. We have a duty to the future to flesh out that which has been given to us, and meet our oncoming responsibilities both as elders and as ancestors. We cannot leave this heirloom of faith to strangers, which some global inclusionists would have us do. We likewise cannot shut it away in a vault or sully it, as was done by the Third Reich, by paring the flow back to the Folkway down to a trickle by unworkable exclusions. In short, we must deal with the lay of the land before us and not get lost in abstractions or in visions of the world as we would have it. Beowulf and Sigurdh did not face perfect dragons, but rather faced and fought the dragons before them. They were real enough, the challenges of those creatures were real enough, without any theoretical agendas. Ours is a Folkway without time for "if only.". The Folk are who the Folk say they are. The faith is their inheritance and their cultural treasure. The Family is the future of the Folk, and our friends are a gift we give ourselves. That is enough for any heathen for one lifetime. Let us get on with it. HOME
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