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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. A Short History of the Revival of the Troth by Edred Thorsson, Drighten. It is important for all true folk of today to know that the revival happening now is not a fluke or a bizarre outcropping of a bunch of kooks. Some of our critics might claim as much. But we must be armed with the plain facts. We must go out into the world and make it known that the struggle we are involved with is an age-old one. To know this fully one must learn the lore of the struggle to re-awaken to the Gods and Goddesses of our ancestors. In about a year's time* the manuscript for a book-length discussion of this whole historical movement will be available. Until then, we will have to make do with what we have available. Because the Gods and Goddesses of the Elder Troth are not separate or alienated from our flesh and blood, as long as that flesh endures, so shall They endure. They may sleep or slumber-or perhaps better said wc can loose consciousness of Them-but they can not die. For this reason it is somewhat false to speak of a revival-it is really more of a reawakening. Also, as we know, when we awaken from a deep sleep it takes some time to wake up completely. We may stumble around for a while and not be able to think very clearly. Many early attempts at reviving a meaningful Germanic tradition have been failures because we, as a people - were not awake enough yet. Here I would like to put the whole current interest in Teutonic spirituality or magic into some historical perspective. At the same time I am interested in clearing up as many of the major misconceptions as I can in this short space. Probably the greatest single misconception about the Germanic tradition is that it somehow led to Nazism and that it remains a "fascist" form of spirituality today. The best way to set the factual record straight in a way so that you can make up your own mind, is to present a historical sketch of the Nordic Renaissance from around 1100 to the present day. "History" itself gives us many problems. In reality history is a poetic fiction of sorts. All you have to do is look at fairly factual aspects of contemporary history: Did Lee Harvey Oswald kill John F. Kennedy? The Kennedy assassination is perhaps the most investigated, documented and analysed events in history. Yet certainty escapes us. What are the facts? What then is the "truth" about the assassination of Julius Caesar? What are the "facts" of the life of Jesus of Nazareth? Even the external facts elude us and if they are known for certain a significant question to ask remains: "So what?" What do the facts mean? For meaning we must go to
myth. Myth is not something which is not true, it is something that (for
better or worse) is eternally true. External facts may be unknowable,
or if known they may be meaningless or irrelevant. Myth is intelligible
(with effort), meaningful by definition (often on many levels), and eternally
relevant (to the present and future). This is not to say that history
is useless. It is a key tool to be employed in unravelling the mysteries
we seek - but it is a thankless end in itself. Knowledge of the facts
is the most nutritious food with which to feed a highly developed intuitive
intelligence. The last great temple of the elder Gods was destroyed by Christian missionaries at Uppsala, Sweden in the year 1100. It is from this date that we can begin to measure the revival of the traditions of those Gods. Of course, the process of Christianisation had begun long before that date and there was really no final "victory" for Christianity even in 1100. The true religion continued for centuries. It is ironic, yet fitting, that the place where Northern paganism made its "last stand", Uppsala - was also the site of its first great reawakening. The intervening five and a half centuries (1100-1550) were a time when the ideas and texts of the ancient pre-Christian Northern world were preserved - but in slumbering forms. The Icelanders vigorously and enthusiastically collected and maintained their rich national cultural heritage. The poetry of the scalds was kept alive. This poetry preserved the tales and myths of the elder Gods. Snorri Sturluson wrote his Prose Edda in 1222 in an effort to shore up the knowledge the Icelandic poets had of their own true traditions. (Note that this was over 200 years after the official conversion of Iceland to Christianity-and that it was only then beginning to decline is a tribute to its tenacity.) Throughout this medieval period vast amounts of data were being stored and preserved - much of it in monasteries where it was collected by monks with an interest in their own natural tradition - not just those promulgated from headquarters in Rome. As example of this kind of material is the Germania by the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus, who wrote the book in 97' CE. This book was carefully preserved-being copied and recopied, by hand, hundreds of times by monks throughout the Middle Ages. Only later (after 1500) would it be fully appreciated for the invaluable document it is. It gives us insights into the values and characters of the Germanic folk in the Roman Age. Medieval humanists and magicians preserved the materials which would become grist for a more powerful mill in the Renaissance. It is a clear historical fact that in those areas of Europe where Christianity came late (Scandinavia, England, Northern Germany) it took hold less effectively than it did elsewhere and that it is precisely in these areas where the international Church was eventually overthrown in favour of national Churches. This is what happened during the Refomation. One -of the places that accepted Protestantism quickly was Sweden. The Northern Renaissance 1550-1650 Uppsala remained the true spiritual capital of Sweden even after the end of official paganism. It is very likely that a "secret order" of high level officials around the king remained true to the old ways. This "order" was disguised within the royal and even church institutions of the Middle Ages. It is also possible (if not likely) that this "order" was one which existed on a virtually unconscious level by the time the Protestant liberation came about in the North. We can clearly see how ingrained and supreme these old ideas were when we see that it was not from the fringe of society or "underground movements" that the impetus for the revival came - but rather from the highest levels of established society. This shows that the old ideas never died - they were only awaiting the opportunity to spring up again. vii Johannes Magnus was the first "high priest" of Gothicism - he was also the last Roman Catholic bishop of Uppsala He was succeeded in his role as chief proponent of Gothicism by Johannes Bureus (l568-1652) who was the tutor and adviser of king Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. Bureus was a remarkable man. He was one of the fathers of modern scientific runology (with his contemporary, Ole Worm of Denmark). He was also a magician in the school of Paracelsus and Agrippa. Bureus was familiar not only with Cabalism and Rosicrucianism, but also with the magic and traditions of the more remote regions of his own country. So we see that right from the beginning of the runic revival there was a cooperation between scientific or academic runology and operative or magical runelore. In the scientific field Bureus made drawings of many of the known Swedish runestones and began to interpret them correctly as ancient Norse texts. Before this "scholars" had often been baffled by the meaning of these mysterious stones. Hundreds of stones were recorded and interpreted by Bureus in the early 1600s. Some of these monuments in the meantime disappeared and the records of Bureus are all we have left. (These "lost" stones periodically turn up in farmers' fences or in church walls in which they were used as building materials in the 1700s!) As a magician Bureus worked with a system which was a combination of the runes and runelore (as he understood it) and Christian Cabalism and the western magical traditions of Paracelsus and Agrippa. The main reason he did not use much of the detailed and profound theological and mythological lore of Germanic origin is that in his day very little of it had been recovered. Even in our time it is a major problem that the very basic lore and mythology is largely unknown to most aspiring magicians. The tendency then as now was to fall back on the familiar rather than forging ahead into the unknown. The "Gothic Movement" of the 1600s was as much or more an expression of the national and political will of the Swedish leaders as it was a true spiritual or magical revival. Although Bureus was, as we look back on his work now, largely "Christian" in his practice; he was an absolute "heretic" as well. Orthodox Christian authorities, whether Catholic or Protestant, were set against him - but he was protected by his close association with the king. Gustavus Adolphus established the office of Antiquary Royal headed by Bureus to be his Gothic "think tank." It was in this period that Sweden became a true world power. Over the following century the myth and lore of the ancient Teutons only slowly made its way back into the levies of their descendants. From the mid-1600s to the mid 1700s there was interest in the past - but it was largely of a purely antiquarian nature. Humanistic scholars were interested in filling their curiosity cabinets of ideas with quaint and ancient data so they zealously collected manuscripts and artefacts with no deep level understanding of what they were collecting. Enlightenment Humanism Around 1750 a new impetus
began on the European continent and in England. The underlying motive
for this interest in Germanic heritage was a cultural desire for self
determined authenticity. In the area of the arts the Teuton - be they
English, German or Scandinavian were tired of the imposition of cultural
and artistic values from the In the cultural sphere, this time (1750-1800) was a period when the concept of pan-Germanic cultural unity began to be understood by a few visionaries. England, Germany and Scandinavia formed an ancient cultural bond. In pre-Christian times these cultures had shared the same language, the same pantheon of Gods and Goddesses, had similar political and cultural values. This ancient bond still held the heart strings of these nations-but now in an almost or secret way. The Romantic Rebirth (1800-1850) Following 1800 Romanticism comes into full swing in the Germanic areas. Romanticism is essentially the desire to turn inward to find what is valuable and great in life. It is a turn toward feelings and intuition. In individuals this is reflected by interest in the interior life - even in the night side of nature. In nations it is often reflected by an interest in the past heritage of the folk. It was again in Sweden where this movement was most strongly influenced by the Nordic ideals. But this time instead of coming from the royal house it came from philosophers and artists. This up welling of the movement from more popular levels is typical of the Romantic urge. In 1811 the author Jacob Adlerbeth founded the Gotiska Forbund (Gothic League) in Stockholm among a group of artists, poets and philosophers. Among its members were the poets and social reformers Erik Gustave Geijer and Per Henrik Ling. The aims of this league included the revival of an ancient Germanic spirit of freedom and promotion of national independence. It was also interested in researching ancient Norse literature and cultural traditions. This research would, of course, help refine and inform the movement in its more revolutionary aims. Not long after this, in 1815, the Manhemsforbund (League of Manhem) was founded in Stockholm. Manhem, or the "World of Man" is a Romanic name for the North based on the old Norse Mannaheimr. The author C. J. L. Almqvist began the Manhemsforbund as a true initiatory secret society or lodge. The aim of the Manhemsforbund was more the transformation of the individual than that of society. Almqvist was greatly influenced by the mysticism of Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772). These societies and orders
were not yet able to cause a large scale breakthrough in the Germanic
Renaissance largely because the basic data necessary to inform the Renaissance
was still lacking. It was left to the German "academic Romantics"
- chiefly the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm to put the future of the
Germanic Rebirth on a firm foundation. The Grimms researched Germanic
antiquities and set up formal studies of every aspect of ancient Germanic
culture - religion, mythology, language, law and folklore. The Grimms
were Romantics or "Germantics" - who wanted to show that the
Germanic culture and intellectual world was every bit the equal of the
Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian. It was just that the old Germanic ways
had been suppressed by Mediterranean cultural imperialism. The time had
come to let the old suppressed Jacob Grimm first published his Deutsche Mythologie (Teutonic Mythology) in 1844 and the two brothers together collected and published their Kinder - und - Hausmarchen ("Fairy Tales") from 1816 to 1818. These, and a host of other less celebrated works, put the future of the Germanic Renaissance on a foundation more firm than had ever been the case before. This phase of the Germanic Rebirth (1800- 1850) was characterised by a romantic longing for the lost values of the past. It was largely an "ivory tower" movement active among artists, thinkers and academics. It was a movement of the soul and emotions, but it was also a time for the laying of firm intellectual foundations. But even if it has its origins in the sphere of artists and academics, its inspiration came directly from the folk and the fruits of the academics' labours were intended to find rest again in the hearts of the people. In Europe during the middle of the l9th century the cause of nationalism was identified with liberalism - the urge to freedom. The force of conservatism attempted to preserve conserve - the way things were. At that time the status quo was a Europe ruled by absolute monarchs (based on the Christian divine right of kings) and split up into political states which did not conform to national realities. The Germans, for example, were divided up into dozens of kingdoms, duchies and principalities there was no unified German state in harmony with the culturally unified German nation - that is the German-speaking people of central Europe. Utopias of the North (1850-1900) The second phase of the modern Germanic Rebirth might be called the liberal and utopian phase. By this time at least some of the real values and ideas of the ancient Teutons had begun to filter down to a more popular level. The Nordic or Germanic ideals became more and more appealing on a broad popular level. The ultimate Germanic mythic hero - Sigurd or Siegfried - became a new pattern of human development. Artists and thinkers such as the Early English socialist and author William Morris used Germanic mythology and cultural history as a model for utopian solutions to the problems brought on by the Industrial Revolution. Even the German Friedrich Engels, who co-wrote the Communist Manifesto (1848) with Karl Marx, wrote a Siegfried Drama entitled Der gehornte Siegfried (the Horned Siegfried). The Teutonic past was being seen more and more as a model of social and religious order which had worked in the past, and which could work again if the right combination of keys was found to unlock the deep-level secrets of the past. In Germany the dominant figure
in the Germanic Renaissance during the last part of the 19th century was
Richard Wagner (1813-1883). His interest went beyond merely using Germanic
themes for entertainment purposes in his operas as "total works of
art" as he called them. Wagner was essentially a social and cultural
revolutionary who used the medium of art as a catalyst for change. Essentially
Wagner was a progressive revolutionary who attempted to "redeem"
the world from materialism through his symbolic "total works of art"
The enlightened, some say "mad" King Ludwig II of Bavaria For the late 19th and early 20th century phase of the Germanic Renaissance the ideas of returning to nature, social reform, peace on the national and international levels, in the context of ancient and traditional national values were really the dominant ones. These were, unfortunately, perverted in the early 20th century - which set back the true cause of the Rebirth by a century, I would estimate. The Failed Renaissance (1900-1945) During the early 20th century the Germanic Rebirth began to take an ugly turn. As can be seen from what has gone before, the movement was hardly mature. This childlike movement was, however, faced with some enormous cultural and political problems. Europe was plunged into World War I, the Communist revolution in Russia and widespread economic chaos. The immature response of the movement was to abandon its long held ideals of National liberalism and progressivism for an authoritarian racism. Racism is an immature understanding of nationalism. One does not have to hate others as a sign of loving one's self. In fact, if hatred of others is a hall mark of a movement, it is probably because the members of that movement really hate themselves. True "nationalism" involves the respect for and assumed freedom and independence of, other national folk groups. Germany and Austria saw the rise of dozens of neo-Germanic groups, orders, societies and churches, and hundreds of books and periodicals dedicated to the cause in the time before the First World War. But these dramatically multiplied after that war. It was on this virtual tidal wave of popularity that the Nazis rode into power in 1933. In the early 20th century there was the Guido von List Society (and its inner Armanen Orden), and the runic circle around Friedrich Bernhard Marby. The old liberal and utopian tendencies were being led off into "reactionary" and conservative directions by pressures from the right and left. A powerful and popular movement which has swelled up from the grass roots was at a loss for guidance. In 1933, when the National Socialists took power the movement as a growing cultural phenomenon began to die. What the Party could not absorb it destroyed. But because, for propagandist purposes, they marched under the banner of "Germanism," and because in the years subsequent to their defeat, all that they touched has come to be identified as absolute evil. The whole subject of "Teutonic spirituality" once so broad and deep that millions sought it and millions found it meaningful, was tarred with the brush stroke of "Nazism." This is unfortunate and very false. The Nazi interlude was in actuality 12 years in which the "Germanic Renaissance" was wrested from the hands of the people and put in the hands of the state. xi As yet the people have not been able to win back the banner of the movement from this misconception. The only way it can be re-won is if people understand the great historical process that has been going on for at least 1000 years.The Nazis did not invent neo-Germanicism-they subverted something that was already strong for their own political purposes. Unfortunately, many would-be revivalists of Germanic culture, religion and magic are all too enamoured of the Nazi mythos and mystique. The National Socialists did not advance the cause of Germanicism - they set it back: at least 100 years. After the Second World War serious interest in Germanic spirituality was slow to re-emerge mainly due to the "bad press" the subject received at the time of the war and following. but great ideas with a history of centuries of struggle against the odds could not and can not be kept down by these "image problems." In the 1950s an obscure Australian Odinist, A. Rud Mills produced a series of books attempting to revive Odinism1. While in Germany the runes and rune magic were being revived by Karl Spiesberger. Nevertheless it would really take a full quarter of a century from the end of World War II before serious attempts to renew the Germanic Renaissance. In the early 1970s a variety of groups were founded in Germany, England, Iceland and the USA. By 1980 the Rune-Gild was founded as an effort to renew traditional runic methods of initiation. As I see it the Ring of Troth stands at the forefront of the great stream of history set forth here. I see it as the organic outgrowth of all that has gone before it. Even in our weak and sometimes misguided attempts to reawaken to the Gods there has been a nobility of will that should not be lost. From this short sketch of the long history of Germanic revivalism I hope it has been made a bit clearer that this idea is not a fad of any kind or a flash in the pan - it is a long-standing, deeply seated urge of our folk to return to its spiritual and cultural roots. It has welled up time and again - but each time the emotional or passionate energy has been strong the authentic knowledge base needed to channel those passions in a positive way has been lacking or deficient. Now for the first time in history there is the possibility of linking an authentic knowledge base with the passion for renewal. But this work remains one of the most difficult cultural tasks of all time. It will take heroic efforts to win the day. * This paper was first published in the Idunna, A journal of Northern Tradition, Vol.2 # 4, July, 1990. The official magazine of the Ring of Troth, U.S.A. 1. Alexander Rud Mills (1885-1964) was Australia's first Odinist of prominence. He published Hael! Odin! in 1933, using the pseudonym "Tasman Forth". He also published a critique of Christian ethics entitled And Fear Shall be in the Way, followed by The Call of our Ancient Nordic Religion. In 1936 he was calling for the establishment of the "Anglecyn Church of Odin". During WW 2, the Australian Govt. deemed the revival as "pro-German". Mills was incarcerated without trial and held in Loveday Concentration Camp, in South Australia, for three months, during which he was starved and beaten, in 1942. Other Odinists, not so "fortunate", were held from 1942 to 1944! This foot-note was added to correct E. Thorssons "obscure" listing and to set the proper time period. Mills was a school class-mate of "Pig Iron" Bob Menzies, [later Sir Robert] the Australian Liberal Prime Minister during the early years of WW 2. Mills was a prominent member of the "Upper Class". His association with the founders of the "Australia First" movement, who advocated non-involvement in the "European War" was probably the real reason for his and the Odinist Movements' persecution. R. Grimnisson. Source: Renewal Magazine (Aust.), Vol 2 #2, Sept. 1995. 2. Since the establishment of The Assembly of the Elder Troth, Edred
Thorsson has given his full backing and support for our independence,
structure and aims. He was the founder and Drighten (Leader) of the Ring
of Troth in the U.S.A. He no longer has any official connection with the
R.o.T, but still remains Irmin-Drighten of the Rune Gild. The Ring of
Troth was founded in 1989, after the dissolution of the Asatru Free Assembly
(founded in 1972 by Stephen A. MacNallen, who has since formed the Asatru
Folk Assembly). Images and Contents Copyright © Assembly of The Elder Troth 2002 - 2007 or as specified. For communications regarding this website please e-mail webmaster@aetaustralia.org Page maintained by Schmitt Services Last Update: Monday, June 30, 2003
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