Paganism or the rediscovery of Identity
by Jörmundur Ingi, Allherjarsgodi of the Asatrúar Félagidh, Iceland

Antwerp, 7^th March 1999
© Jörmundur Ingi, 1999


Let me start by quoting a line of Icelandic poetry:

Að fortíð skal hyggja ef frumlegt skal byggja.

We Icelanders are a tribe of poets. In older times everyone could make poetry in the in the long honoured tradition. This may not be the case today but we still have the tendency to believe everything in verse. The line I quoted here before, is by one of the poets from the last turn of the century, and means in a rather un-poetic translation: Keep an eye on the past for an original future.

As the Icelanders take the words of their poets to be unconditionally true. This statement is accepted by one and all in Iceland. This makes the work of those, such as me, that want to model the present and the future on the ancient traditions, that much easier.

Plato said that man was a political animal "zuon politikon" .We can just as well say that man is a traditional animal. It is becoming more and more obvious that our genes play only a minor role in our humanity. Tradition, customs and milieu are what make us human. The genes are simply a biological blueprint for our bodies. They control the colour of our skin and whether we are 160 or 200cm tall, and other rather insignificant factors, from a human point of view. We are human beings no matter which colour we are, or whether we are long, short, medium, fat or thin. But we allow ourselves to question the humanity of those that do not follow the customs and traditions of society. A book published last year I think, called "The most beautiful story in the world" in it one of the authors the eminent professor Coppens states that in the last 100.000 years all human development is cultural, not physical. As a matter of fact in the 100 -130.000 years since Homo Sapiens came into being is to short a time to affect any but the most minor changes in any life form.

Our identity is based upon language and tradition, not skin colour or genetic makeup. Our identity is also largely based upon our religion. Perhaps our identity crises as human beings, steams a great deal from the fact, that religion has played an ever-diminishing role in our lives in the last 150 years or so. The seventeenth century Italian thinker Giambattista Vico, wrote that history is based upon three forces that must be in balance. These are: Reason, Religion, and Tradition. History goes through a cyclic development starting with the age of the Gods, that is of course Religion. Next comes the age of Heroes, that is tradition. And finally the age of Men, that is Reason. When the age of Reason (or the age of Man) is reached Tradition and Religion decline. The end of the cycle is brought on by the weakening of traditional ties and the questioning of accepted customs and values. This results from the establishment of free democratic republics and leads inevitably to corruption and dissolution, according to Vico. Let me state that I do not share Vico's apparent pessimistic view of democracy, after all Iceland functioned excellently under democratic rule for over 300 years. When the Icelandic Commonwealth collapsed, it was due to decline in democracy, and the increased power of the Church.

We could just as well argue that identity is based on reason, religion and tradition, then it becomes obvious that a life (or society) based mainly on reason is meaningless and doomed to fail, when tradition and religion are no longer present. An example is the society created by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.

Exactly the same thing will happen to an individual's identity (or society) based solely on religion and forsaking both reason and tradition. A case in point is Afghanistan of the Talebans.

The third example would be someone who based his life (or the order of society) on tradition, forsaking both reason and religion. Probably this kind of existence is the one of these three that would stand a chance, but only to stagnate and self-destruct in the course of time. I can not think of a nation I could cite as an example, but I have the feeling that certain nomadic tribes would fit this description.

What I'm trying to say here is that identity is based, not only upon tradition but also reason and religion. The ideal is a balance and a mixture between the three.

In our modern society both tradition and religion have been systematically faced out and everything is supposed to be based upon reason, or more precisely, upon science. This makes for a very unstable personalities and society. It also makes both persons and whole societies susceptible to bizarre religions and customs, as we have so many examples of.

Think now of the nations and people of Eastern Europe. Both their national and personal identities are in jeopardy due to the breakdown of traditions, both old and new. A good deal of the old traditions had survived the Communist rule because of the inadequate structure of these fabricated utopian societies. Unfortunately the new Western set of values now being forced upon them, are all based on reason. Thus both religion and tradition are being wiped out at an even more alarming rate than in the Western countries themselves. In order to balance this it is necessary to preserve the old customs and traditions, and the old religion as well. This is being done in many places. Unfortunately I am not to familiar with this work except in Lithuania, where Jonas Trinkunas has done a marvellous job both for the Religion and the old traditions. I think that one of the most worthwhile things we, the Pagans in the Western countries could do is to give moral support to the people whose very identity is being systematically destroyed. This is of course even more evident in Africa and America than in Eastern Europe.

In Africa, and elsewhere, Christian missionaries are destroying whole cultures. Not only is their religion of the Africans being supplanted by Christianity but at the same time their whole culture is being systematically destroyed, thus wiping out their identity, self-respect and in many cases their ability to sustain themselves. If we want to live up to the motto "all different, all equal" we must do something to prevent this mass-destruction of culture and identity.

If we are going to help or support others, we have to start with ourselves. How well have we managed to recreate or rebuild our old ways and customs, this is of course something everybody must answer for him- or her-self. How can we recreate something as fundamental as religion and the customs of our ancestors. The answer is we can't. We can't recreate something that is lost. How can I say that to you, I'm myself a leader of one of the first groups to do just that. You are all members of groups doing just that. No you are not, at least I hope that you are not. We do not recreate, we rediscover, there is a lot difference between recreating and rediscovering.

Imagine trying to recreate the religious believes and ceremonies of Ancient Egyptians or Greeks, even if we have all the documentation that these people left us. Scholars have been trying this for a long time. The results are sterile to say the least. You can not recreate something as complex as religion or even the simplest customs. You can however rediscover all these things, but only if you have a direct contact with the original believers. That direct contact is language, ceremonies, family traditions, folk-art, folk-tales and songs.

Language is a fascinating phenomenon. We seem to be born with the ability to speak, not a specific language but any language. The nature of language is such that it transcends time, that is to say in the language we speak today are hidden ancient ties and old meanings. In an old and complex language, such as Icelandic, it is common for young children to make mistakes that are in reality ancient forms. All the developments and changes that a language has gone through for hundreds or even thousands of years is still lurking right under the surface. This is especially true for languages that are not a mixture of two or more languages.

Ceremonies are a bit like languages, below the surface the old traditions are still lurking. In many cases old pagan customs have simply been Christianised. A case in point is Christmas. Most if not all Christmas customs are Pagan Yule customs that have been only slightly modifies to please the clergy. The Christmas tree is Yggdrasil, the evergreen world-tree. The gifts and the Christmas buying-spree are directly descended from the Yuletide sympathetic magic. Franska kenslukonan

The family, especially the old fashioned extended family, where the grandmothers and great grandmothers are the storytellers and babysitters, preserves old traditions for unbelievably long time. My grandmother, on my mother's side, was born in 1880 or thereabouts. She told me stories from 1780 and even 1680 with the same assurance and accuracy as she told stories of her own life. She knew our family-line back to the settlement of Iceland, in the late ninth century. My great grandmother, on my father's side, taught me innumerable poems and stories at a very early age. I don't remember any of them today, at least not consciously, but I'm sure that they are in there somewhere and I draw upon that treasure when I do my rediscovering work.

Art especially so-called folk art preserves an unbelievably great number of things. Patterns, colours and subjects stay unchanged for centuries. In Rumanian embroidery there is a very popular motive called "tree and horses" it is almost impossible to see the tree and the two horses, but when you know the name it becomes apparent. This is of course the tree of life venerated by two animals, a reoccurring theme in folk-art from Persia to Iceland. Perhaps the most striking example of this are the famous murals from Catal Hüyek in Anatolia that depict the vultures that devour the bodies of the dead and ascend to heaven with the their souls. The majority of the kelim rugs woven in Turkey today are this very scene, only slightly stylised. The most remarkable thing is that the dominant population of Anatolia has been changed a number of times during the last seven thousand years, but the pictures are still there. What better evidence that racial memory is not genetic, but cultural.

Folk-tales are the most obvious sources of wisdom of the ages. Grandmothers change religious tales into parables and fairy tales when custom, new religion or foreign oppression demands. Using the folk-tales as a starting point we can fill in the gaps in the stories by using the language, ceremonies, family traditions, folk-art and finally folk songs. Speaking of folk songs I have to mention the unbelievably rich treasures that where collected in Lithuania and Latvia during the Soviet period, completely fooling the authorities, who never suspected that most of these songs where of religious nature. I don't know how the work on cataloguing these songs is going, but I mention this here in order to point out the importance of this work. After all Lithuania was the last country in Europe to officially accept Christianity.

In ancient time the human thought process was a circular process, there was no defined future or a definite past, or rather past and future preceded each other in an eternal cycle. In order to understand Vico and other ancient philosophers we have to adopt this circular thought process. It is also of the outmost importance to apply this circular thought process to the material from our past that we are working with. Our heritage is largely based on this thought process. We must train ourselves to use it in order to understand and re-discover our heritage.

I will refer again to Vico: "If human societies develop through the operation of features of human nature which we share, there seems no reason why we should not use our knowledge of them to recreate the past and since the world of nations has been made by men, its principles are to be 'rediscovered' within the modifications of the human mind".

By substituting Persons for Nations in Vico's statement it seems evident that we can rediscover our common past. This is exactly what we in Iceland have been working on. Perhaps the best way is to demonstrate how we in Iceland have used our sources to rediscover our heritage. The heritage that the church has tried to disguise with Christian camouflage and at the same time twist it around and give it a Christian meaning. I will take the ceremony we use in name giving as an example. The only direct references to name giving are as follows. "Var Það vatni ausið og nafn gefið". That is water was poured and a name given. This is not much to build on, so other sources must be utilised. So let us look at the opposite of name giving. When was a name not given to a child and what did that imply.

In Pagan Iceland, as well as in most other countries, children where exposed if, for example they where deformed in such a way that a normal life was obviously impossible for them. This custom was also carried out well into Christian times. There is for example a passage in the Norwegian laws from the thirteenth or fourteenth century stating the degree of deformity that would justify exposure. In the Icelandic laws there is a clause stating that exposure is forbidden if the child has had food in its mouth.

We deducted that the phrase "water was poured" referred to the first bathing of the child, and that the formal first bath and the first feeding of the child constituted a ritual, accepting the child into society. Once a child was in this way accepted, society as a whole was responsible for it until it's dying day, according to the laws of the Icelandic Commonwealth.

A child was almost without exception given a name of one of its forefathers. The belief having probably been that the "hamingja" or Genie was tied in with the name. There seems also to have been the custom of giving gifts, the so-called "nafnfesta", which can be taken to mean the securing or fixing of the name.

An unusually large portion of boy's names in Iceland starts with the prefix "Þór" or Thor. In one of the Sagas there is a reference to this custom of name giving, as follows. He was given the name of Steinn (that is Stone or Rock, comparable with the Christian name Peter) and given / dedicated to Thor and was therefore called Thorstein. In modern Iceland most of these customs are still operating although an overwhelming majority of the population professes to the Christian Faith. Thor and names derived from that name are probably half of all Icelandic boys' names. All the preceding and a lot of other bits and pieces have then resulted in the following Name-Giving-Ceremony.

Relatives and friends of the child's parents gather to witness the ceremony, which is preferably conducted by the head of the household in front of the fireplace, this being the sacred place or altar of the home. If the house does not have a fireplace then a small fire or candles are used instead. Preferably the father or other member of the family performs the ceremony, but it can of course be performed by one of the Godhis.

The ceremony starts with the words:

I name all gathered here as witnesses to this name giving and state
that all that I here do is that which I know to be true and correct.
So help me Freyr and Njörd and the almighty One.


The child is held by the mother, or another woman from her family.


I call upon the Wights of Past, Present and Future, that sit under
Mighty Iggdrasil, the tree of life to witness this ceremony and look
upon us with kind eyes and grant the child here presented speech,
wisdom and health.


I also call on the nine wights present at the crib of every child to grant their gifts, such as are the most appropriate for this individual.


sprinkling water three times on the child's head.

I name you Steinn, after your grandfather and dedicate you to Thor
(or another deity) and may good luck (good Genie) be attached to the name.


A minute mixture of butter and honey is placed in the child's mouth
A stanza, from Hávamál (the words of the High One), for example is recited
as a wish for the kind of life the parents want for their child.

Thereafter the child is given gifts, of lasting value such as things made from precious metals or money in a trust fund for example. There after a toast is drunk to the child and a feast is held in its presence. The feasting or drinking of ale or mead was a fixed part of all ceremonies.

This is the essential part of the ceremony usually this would be accompanied by reciting of suitable stanzas of the Eddic poems and/or a short speech with an appropriate contains.

This Name-Giving-Ceremony is on the surface very much like the Baptism-Ceremony performed by the priests of the Icelandic State Church. The underlying religious reality is however quit different. As a matter of fact Icelanders view the Baptism as a name-giving ceremony only. It has happened that young and inexperienced priests have been literally thrown out of peoples homes because they attempted to explain the ideological bases of the original sin and the cleansing thereof, to the parents of a child being baptised. The idea of a child being guilty of sin or anything else is unacceptable to us Icelanders. I actually think that the Pagan or Ásatrú ceremony here described would be absolutely acceptable to most Icelanders. So much for thousand years of Christianity, tradition prevails. As a matter of fact everything points to the Pagan ceremony as the model for the Christian one. In the ancient Pagan ceremony water was poured or sprinkled on the child but in the original Christian baptism the whole body was submerged.

We used the same process in rediscovering the wedding ceremony.

The wedding ceremony is the one most frequently used and we have been marrying couples for so long that one tends to think about this as an old ceremony, but as a matter of fact it is only 6 or 8 years old in its present form.

There is nowhere a detailed narration of a marriage ceremony in the old books. There are tales of the negotiations for a marriage contract and two kinds of commitment to marry are described, which we can call engagement and betrothal. One, heitkona, a woman spoken for, where the bride to be is kept in reserve, so to speak for three years and the other one, festarkona "a woman negotiated for" where the marriage is actually negotiated and has to take place within one year. In this case either part is liable for damages in case of breach of contract.

The law-books describe the two commitments and we know about them from the Sagas, as they are not always kept and that makes for a good story. Two things are clear, men and women where considered equal in all things and it is stated that a father must not give his daughters hand in marriage, against her will, there are however no such conditions about the sons, makes you wonder doesn't it. In the marriage contracts it is usually stated that both parties are to be equal in all things and have the same say in the marriage. However there are strict divisions of labour, some work and dealings where considered womanly and other masculine. This line could not be crossed without risking divorce.

The marriage formula in Grágás, the ancient Laws, is short and contains little or no information, at first sight. The man says simply: We name all gathered her as witnesses that I bind this woman, with a legal bound (the translation here is a little tricky the Icelandic word is fastna, literally "fasten"). One has to bear in mind that the Laws are written down only after two or four generations of Christianity, depending on when Iceland became Christian, as this is not at all clear.

One more thing should be mentioned, before proceeding further. The Catholic Church does not seem to have interfered with marriage in Iceland, except perhaps indirectly such as with a blessing during the marriage feast. Divorces where almost as common, first after Christianity was adopted, as before. The Christian Law-book states that a couple that has been wed according to the old customs shall be regarded as married and can not be divorced. So it appears that the Church accepted the old Pagan wedding, however a Church wedding would have had no legal value without the old stile Pagan wedding being fulfilled at the same time. Church Weddings would appear to have a history of less than 200 years in Iceland. The Church however reserved the right to sanction marriages and to hinder divorce, at least in the later centuries of Catholic times.

The role of the Church seems to have been minor in the institution of marriage until the eighteenth century. As a matter of fact it seams that the old Pagan marriage ceremony was the real ceremony and that the Christian one was considered secondary, although necessary. The betrothal ceremony and the accompanying feast, often for three days seams to have been considered the real marriage, at least that was where the couple was escorted to the bridal bed and the consummation witnessed. The Christian ceremony then took place later, perhaps as much as two months. According to the law, children conceived after the betrothal feast, but before the marriage, where considered legitimate and inherited their parents. This of course is the crucial point. It thus turns out that we have a lot of historical material after all. In addition to this we have the material from the Eddas.

There are described a few Sacred Marriages in the Eddic sources and we have drawn on some of these. The most important one is the Marriage of Sigurdrífa and Sigurd, perhaps better known as Brunhild and Siegfried in Richard's Wagners magnificent opera the Ring of the Niebelungen. It contains most of the elements used, he Ring of Fire and the sacred Mead given to the bridegroom by the bride. Then there is the marriage of Odin or Wotan to Gunnlod in Hávamál there in the second day of the marriage feast and the three drinks of the Sacred Mead. Then there is the marriage of Freyr to Gerd, which again mentions the Sacred Ring of fire.

The marriage ceremony preferably takes place outside, if possible under a tree and/or close to water, there should be a Ring of Fire, Vafurlogi (literally, surrounding flame).

The Godhi says:

I name all here as witnesses that everything I do here is that which I know to be true and correct;
so help me Freyr and Njord and the almighty One
Hail to the Day hail to the sons of Day hail to the Night and her daughters look upon us with kind eyes and grant us all victory
Hail to the Gods hail to the Goddesses hail to the bountiful Earth
grant us speech and wisdom and healing hands as long as we all shall live

The Godhi calls the bride and groom and then addresses the guests gathered; gather around these two wish to make an important announcement.

An ash I know named Yggdrasil high boughs sparkling with shining water hence comes the dew that falls in the dales evergreen
it stands over the fountain of live.
There the maidens rich in knowledge dwell by the well three they are under the tree
Past, is one Present, the second; written by runes Future, the third
They make the laws they choose the lives for all men they proclaim fate
I sanctify this gathering in the name of Frigg the guardian of the home and marriage.
I sanctify this gathering in the name of Freyja the Goddess of love and fertility.
I sanctify this gathering in the name of Vár the protectress of all pacts made between man and woman.

turns to the groom;

Young I was and travelled alone thus I lost my way
rich I felt when I another found
man rejoices in man

The groom;

I call upon all here gathered to witness that I (name) take this woman (name) as my wife and fully understand the solemnity and responsibility of this my decision.


The Godhi turns to the bride;

Withers the fir that stands alone sheltered neither by needles nor bark so is the one that no one loves how long shall she live

The bride;

I call upon all here gathered to witness that I (name) take this man (name) as my husband and fully understand the solemnity and responsibility of this my decision.

The Godhi turns to the bride;

Take this horn filled with the holy mead to seal the woes that you have given.

The bride;

I pour a libation to Frygg the guardian of the home and marriage.
I pour a libation to Freyja the Goddess of love and fertility.
I pour a libation to Thor the guardian of all humanity.
drinks once and gives the horn to the groom saying;
Ale I bring thee thou oak-of-battle blent with strength and brightest honour;
mixed with charms and mighty songs worthy magic and merry runes.

The groom;

I pour a libation to Thor the guardian of all humanity
I pour a libation to Freyja the Goddess of love and fertility.
I pour a libation to Frygg the guardian of the home and marriage.

drinks three times and recites his marriage woes (optional) then gives the horn to the bride saying : Long is the night longer are two how will I survive three often a month longer seemed than this night of waiting

The bride drinks two times and recites her marriage woes (optional)
then gives the horn to the Godhi

The Godhi;

Place your hands on this sacred ring.
In the name of Vár I proclaim you man and wife.


You may now kiss each other. This is the only part from the Christian ceremony but is left over from the original Pagan marriage service where the bride and groom where taken to the marriage bed by the witnesses.

Of course the bride and groom can make changes in the ceremony, for example to accommodate old customs, or simply according to their preferences.

The first ceremony we rediscovered, so to speak, was the sanctification of the Althing at Thingvellir. Actually this was one of the few ceremonies written down, in a short form, already in the twelfth century. Then we could supplement this with later Christian ceremonies. As it turns out, when you skip over the hail Merrys and the names of the various Saints, the old Pagan rite is there almost unchanged.

We will perform this ceremony in its fullest form, at the original side next year in Thingvellir. The opening ceremony is done at eleven o'clock at night at mid summer. At that time of year in Iceland there is still full daylight. This will be the one thousand and seventieth time, counting from the year 930, that this rite is performed.

In Iceland Thingvellir, the "Parliament Plains" are considered the most sacred place in the land. As a matter of fact it is designated by law as a sacred place of all Icelanders. When the Minister of Culture tried to forbid the Ásatrúar to perform the opening ceremony there a few years back, there was such an outrage from a multitude of people that he promptly reversed his decision. Now we have the same rights there as the Parliament and the Bishop of Iceland. These three are the only ones that may perform public ceremonies in this most holy place. I mention this to illustrate the place that Ásatrú plays in the mind of the Icelanders. The national identity of all Icelanders is strongly linked with the past, and the past is irrevocably linked with Thingvellir.

Our identity, whether it is our national identity, our cultural identity or our religious identity is not physical but mental. Thank the Gods for that. If our identity was physical we could not revert to the beliefs and ways of our forefathers without undergoing major surgery. Even without surgery the process can be quit hard and painful. Christianity has molded the thoughts of western man for almost 2000 years. It takes more than a simple decision to become Pagan.

It is not enough, as some seem to think, to form a Pagan group and adopt the rules and teachings of the Church, only inserting the names of the Gods into the appropriate places. That leads only to a mockery of Christianity. A much more honest way would be to make everything up, at least the result would be compatible with your own identity.

When Ásatrú was established in Iceland in 1972 we where faced with the difficult assignment to rediscover Icelandic Ásatrú or "Our Way" as it was known in times of old. We based the whole thing on our identity and insight. Of course we had read the Sagas and Eddas in the original 12th and 13th century Icelandic and we knew quit a bit about the scholarly work on these sources although that did not do us any good. Scholarly works on religion are quit worthless unless you understand that religion on a personal and cultural level. In other words we based our whole work on traditions and our identity.

One thing did not enter our heads and that was to set down religious teachings and dogmas. On the contrary we stated that it was every man for himself, so to speak, and so it has been up to this day. There are no demands made on the members (exempting a few rules of conduct). Those that state that they are Ásatrúar are accepted without question. Then they will of course have to dig into their subconscious for their own religious truths. This makes up for a variety of different believes, but no conflicts, perhaps as we Icelanders, Pagan and Christian alike, have a very strong conviction that the religious believes of each individual are his, or hers, private matters that others should not meddle with.

After the principles where clear in our minds, our first priority was to gain the formal recognition of the Ministry of Religious Affairs. This would make us eligible to receive our share of the religious taxes, which however where pitifully low at that time. More important was the recognition itself without which we could have been viewed as just an other group of eccentrics. The fight for the recognition took the better part of a year. Far to long we thought but as it turned out a remarkably short time when compared to what would happen in other countries not so much later.

One of the strangest arguments of the Ministry was that it was all right, and even a duty, to recognise the so called international religions with long histories, thick books of teachings, well defined dogma and many members in a number of countries. We steadfastly refused to submit any written statements or teachings, and where of course only a handful of people in one small country. This, that I thought at the time to be an eccentric view of small country bureaucrats is upheld in a recent ruling by the International Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. In the case brought by Yahweh's Witnesses against the State of Rumania the Court found for Yahweh and stated that Yahweh's Witnesses where a well defined religion, established many years ago with many members, in a number of countries and therefore it was the duty of the Romanian Government to grant them full statue as a religion. I suppose that the same could be said of the Church of Scientology and many others.

To me it is quite astounding, to say the least, that the authorities in Countries all over the world will recognise religions only on the bases of quantity, that is number of members and collection of written works. I can not but sympathise, although I do not agree, with the Russian authorities in their refusal to accept what they call strange religions, at least they are being Russian and are simply trying to cling to their Russian identity. New religions whether freely accepted or forced upon people will change the identity of both individuals and nations. Of course Christianity has changed the identity of the North Europeans but perhaps not so much as one could be lead to think. When new doctrines are forced upon people only a small part of the new teachings are accepted. As a matter of fact there is a lot of North European Paganism in Christianity, otherwise it could never have succeeded as long as it has.

We can never recreate the traditions and religious beliefs of our forefathers, as I said at the outset, but we can rediscover our Pagan identity by looking inside ourselves and come to terms with our past, without refusing the present.

Jörmundur Ingi



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