Asatru, Norse, Heathen web blog full of pictures and other Heathen related stuff.
Ran by the Gothi of Kaerhrafnr Kindred in Central Southern Wisconsin.
This is NOT about the comic put out by Marvel.
(Note: Heathen Temple is submitting various rites and ways of Asatru. Some may be ‘fluffy’ others not so much. The goal is to increase your knowledge and give you a framework of practice seeing there is really no step by step given in Lore. this includes all information on the page in general as well unless Historical context is provided)
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Ostara (Eostre) - Ways of Asatru
The first mention of the goddess Ostara (Old High German), or Eostre (Anglo-Saxon) comes in Bede’s De Temporum Rationale, in which the christian cleric tells us only that she is a Heathen goddess after whom a month (April, roughly) was named and that during this month a holiday was celebrated in her name. The Frankish Ostarmanoth (recorded in Einhard’s Life of Charlemagne) and the surviving Modern German name for the festival, Ostern, support the belief that she was known among the continental Germans as well. Not only was she known, but she must have been well-known and firmly rooted, since her name had to be kept even for the christian feast. The name Ostara does not seem to have been known in Scandinavia at all; though we have no evidence for it, it is quite tempting to suggest that Iðunn may have stood in her stead.
Týr - God of Asatru/ Germanic Heathenry
Tiw and Zisa
(Týr, *Tiwaz, Tius; Tisa, *Týa, *Tiwon)
Although the tales of our folk speak little of Tiw, his name and what few things we do know of him hint that he held a great place in early times. Now, many are finding themselves touched by this god (and even his less-known womanly counterpart, Zisa), and seek to bring his ur-old worship back to life again and call his might forth to brighten the Middle-Garth. Among these folk stands William Bainbridge, who tells of his chosen god (and goddess) in this work, “Týr and Zisa”.
Gerðr - Goddess of Asatru
Gerðr is Fro Ing’s wife, an etin-maid won by the magical force of the god’s servant Skírnir. Skírnismál tells us that she was not willing to marry Freyr: Skírnir tried to bribe her with golden apples and the ring Draupnir, and threatened her with Freyr’s sword, but she did not yield until he brought a magical tine carved with three thurse-runes (thurisaz) against her, threatening that if she would not have Freyr, he would curse her with perversity and lust, and doom her to be the bride of a three-headed troll. Then she welcomed Skírnir with a cup of mead, and said that she would be wedded to Freyr in nine nights at the grove Barri.
Þórr - Gods of Asatru
Thonar
(Þórr, Thunar, Donar, Donner, *Thonaraz)
Of all the gods of the North, Thonar is likely to be the best-loved and, together with Wodan, is the best-known - he has always been one of the most beloved and called upon deities. He is the champion of Asgard and Midgard against the chaos and destruction of the thurses His Hammer is the sign of the true, worn as the emblem of the troth of our folk even by those who are given to other god/esses. Few indeed are those who do not hold some love for old Redbeard - the Friend of Men, the Middle-Garth’s Warder, whose Hammer-blows are ever turned outward to protect humankind from all the threats beyond the Middle-Garth’s walls and whose mighty mod is seen in the raging of the storms from which his name - “Thunder” - comes.
The God Bragi - Heathen Gods
Bragi, whose name means “the best” or “the foremost”, is said to be the god of poetry; Óðinn tells us in Grímnismál 66 that he is the most awesome of skalds. Since we already know Wodan to be (to a much stronger degree, as nearly all the skaldic references to “poetry” attribute it to him) the god of that craft, Bragi’s function in that role is a little puzzling. However, the first skald of recorded memory was the early ninth-century Bragi Boddason inn gamli (the Old).
The God Heimdallr - Heathen Gods
Heimdallr is the watchman of the Ases’ Garth, standing on the bridge Bifröst which links the Ases’ Garth with the Middle-Garth. Snorri tells us that he is called the white Ase, Loki’s foe, and the recoverer of Freyja’s necklace.
The Goddess Gerðr - Heathen Gods
Gerðr is Fro Ing’s wife, an etin-maid won by the magical force of the god’s servant Skírnir. Skírnismál tells us that she was not willing to marry Freyr: Skírnir tried to bribe her with golden apples and the ring Draupnir, and threatened her with Freyr’s sword, but she did not yield until he brought a magical tine carved with three thurse-runes (thurisaz) against her,
The Goddess Skaði - Heathen Gods
Skaði, whose name means either “shadow” or “scathe”, is one of the darker goddesses of the North. She is not of godly kin, but the daughter of the etin Thjazi, who stole Iðunn and her apples and was slain in eagle-shape by the Ases while chasing Loki back.
The Goddess Hella
(Hel, Hell, Hölle, Halja, *Haljon)
This goddess was known to all the Germanic peoples, including the Goths: a Gothic word for “witch” was haljoruna - Hella-runester. She must have been the goddess of the underworld from a very early time, as her name is given to that land in all the Germanic tongues. The name itself stems from a root meaning “to hide”: she is the concealer. Simek compares the description of the road to Hel as “down and to the north” to the burial mounds of European megalithic culture,
The God(?) Loki - Aesir(?)
They hurry to their end,
they who ween themselves so strongly standing.
I am almost ashamed to work with them.
To turn myself again into licking flames
I feel a luring lust.
To consume them who once tamed me,
instead of stupidly going under with the blind,
though they be the godliest gods!
that does not seem stupid to me.
I’ll think on it: who knows what I’ll do?
- Wagner, Richard (Rheingold, scene iv)
The Goddess Eir - Aesir -Frigg’s Handmaiden
Eir (also Iær, Aer) is mentioned once by Snorri and appears once in Svipdagsmál. Snorri tells us that she is “the best of healers”; in Svipdagsmál, she is one of the maidens on a mountain called “Lyfja” (“to heal through magic” - de Vries,Wörterbuch, p. 369 )
The Goddess Idhunn - Aesir
Iðunn is well known as the keeper of the apples of youth, which she feeds to the god/esses to keep them young and strong. The only tale of her is the one recounted in the skaldic poem Haustlöng (ca. 900) and the Prose Edda. To redeem himself from the clutches of the etin Thjazi (father of Skaði - see “Skaði, Gerðr, and other Etin-Brides”), Loki lures her out of the Ases’ Garth and Thjazi, in eagle-shape, swoops down and snatches her.
The God Thor - Aesir
Thor features strongly in the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson, in which Thor’s many conflicts with the race of giants are a main source of plots. Thor is the most physically powerful Norse god. He uses his superior physical power to protect Asgard and Midgard.
The God Odhinn (Odin)- Aesir
Odin (Old Norse Óðinn, also known as Oden), is considered the chief god in Norse mythology and Norse paganism. Like the Anglo-Saxon Woden it is descended from Proto-Germanic *Wōđinaz or *Wōđanaz. He is also known by Wodan or Wotan in Old High German and Godan in Lombardic.
The Goddess Frowe (Freyja) - Vanir
The Frowe is probably the best-known and most beloved of the goddesses today. As mistress of magic and goddess of sexual love, she kindles the imagination and sparks the heart. Whereas that other great goddess, Frija, is wholesome and safe, the Frowe is sweet, wild, and dangerous. Though Fro Ing is her twin brother and their mights mirror each others’, the two of them show that might forth in very different ways.
