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The "Un-Viking" - by Böðvar Ásbjörnsson

(Written in answer to having been asked: “Are you withdrawing from the general heathen population?”)

I'm not sure if I'm drifting outside the "Asatru" community, so much, as I'm becoming comfortable in what I'm discovering, both about our people and about the Folkway. All too many "Asatru" people are "Norse-oriented", which is understandable. The Vikings are sexy, and there's lots of material on them. Most of the stuff left to us is Icelandic. I'm sure that loads of Vinnish asatruar loudly celebrating the faith pisses off the Icelanders.

But, I'm not a Viking. My folks were German and English – and more besides, as I’ve often said. I'm not going to get all into the English/AngloSaxon expression of the Folkway as presented today. It's too odd and foreign to me, frankly. I'm not seeing anyone out there – besides the niðings in the “14 Words” world – addressing things as Germanic besides Irminenschaft.

I'm a Vinlander. My folks have been here for over 350 years. We haven't been European, Europe hasn't been home, for many generations. I've been to Europe enough times – 14? 15? I lose count – and enough places in Europe – England, Scotland, Belgium, Norway, and Germany, of course, as well as Spain, Portugal, and a few other places – to know what is and isn't home. England is familiar, but they speak English there. It's therefore easier to feel at home. Germany is more my meat, but if it's home, it's a very, very distant home.

So, it's a matter of what your roots are, but roots alone don't make you what you are. We've long damned roots here in Vinland, my people, and that needs to be acknowledged. So, I'm not in a rush to be a Viking.

For that reason, I also tend to use English where others might use Gothic, Norse, German, or some other language when there's an English word for a thing. I like "law". I like "luck". There just aren't words in English that encompass concepts like " örlög ", and so örlög becomes a word currently used in our English.

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