00:04:35.040Every single Wednesday in that month, Witten Svahn and myself are going to go through
00:04:41.620uh ale saga and that is one of if not the most exciting and all over the place and chock full of
00:04:55.220um oftentimes meaty but just as often entertaining and fun content of any of our sagas it's you know
00:05:09.420It is a very complete, very long, very intense saga that's got lots of parts about someone who is a very interesting man who lived an extremely interesting life.
00:05:24.340And we celebrate him with a day of remembrance on the 9th of next month.
00:05:30.340And so we're going to jump ahead and go ahead and do that saga the entire month of December.
00:05:38.860i encourage everybody to read along on their own to get immersed in the background of it and uh
00:05:45.740yeah i'm looking forward to that it's gonna be a lot of fun it's been a number of years since i've
00:05:50.060read the saga myself um so i think it'll be exciting for everybody involved and uh
00:05:59.020to go over it with iceland's own witness von harrell i think will be an added added bonus he
00:06:06.940can add some some context and some familiarity and i think it's going to be really good um
00:06:18.060stuff to be aware of tonight we have a new product the first time in a long time we've
00:06:23.980got the 2025 afa calendar um this was put together by gothe trent east lovely wife
00:06:32.300madison um it's beautifully done it is illustrated with pictures of
00:06:40.700afa activity over the last year it's got our days of remembrance in there it's got
00:06:47.820when each of our hops are celebrating each of our holy tithes every month it is it's a nice thing
00:06:55.500it's yeah it's something really cool and i'm glad that we have and i encourage anybody who wants to
00:07:02.300they are in the store at runestone.org um yeah please go buy get one get one for a friend
00:07:10.540get a couple for friends always a solid thing to do and we appreciate you guys um also starting out
00:07:18.300today as seemingly always gw farnsworth bought us five coffees we appreciate your continued
00:07:28.700generosity uh that's fantastic thank you very much um he's able to do that through the little
00:07:37.500the little skinny thing that uh nick just put up on the screen if not there is instructions
00:07:44.540in the description of this video if you'd like to donate that way um yeah thank you to everybody
00:07:51.420who's been such a loyal viewer and anybody who contributes you guys are very generous
00:07:59.500with both your time and with your hard-earned money we appreciate you guys a lot um as always
00:08:05.820want to encourage everybody like share subscribe get the word out tell family tell friends tell
00:08:13.260anybody you can word of mouth is such a powerful tool to get more eyes on this and more ears on
00:08:20.940this if you think this is you know something for folks to check out and something worth hearing we
00:08:27.340continue to get really really good feedback on the show and we're very proud of that and
00:08:32.620very thankful that we have the opportunity to get speak with you guys every week
00:08:38.940so as always tonight we're going to and i think the link will pop up we're going to be going
00:08:45.100through the bellows translation you can use whatever translation you'd like feel free to
00:08:52.380follow along with us ask questions whenever you want questions that are about the text or about
00:09:02.540a topic raised in the text we'll try to do as those come about and questions that are are less
00:09:10.220directly related we're going to save till the end of the show but we will stick around and answer
00:09:14.460all your questions um it's fun can you give folks any necessary background for tonight's
00:09:26.780uh bits of lore anything they should know going in any points of familiarity
00:09:31.500they should have before we crack this open um this poem is super interesting
00:09:39.980has, I think, a lot of lore to offer, but it is not a common one that a lot of people know just
00:09:50.760right off the top of their head. If we're talking about Lord Othyn speaking to the witch,
00:10:01.000you know, that's pretty straightforward. If we talk about Lord Thor going into Jotunheim
00:10:05.760and uh you know going through his trials of strength um that these are ones that come to mind
00:10:12.800um however this one is not so much and it's in league with the uh poem that we covered a little
00:10:22.000while back um hindlio uh hind la leal where um the uh the the holy freya tries to
00:10:35.280get hindla to speak of otars um uh lineage and we talked about ascendancy well in this case too
00:10:47.360i would also make a point that sweep dog or a sweep day swift day who is a character in this
00:10:56.480poem may be one in the same he may be otter and otter also may be older who is a big mystery
00:11:04.960for a lot of folks when they talk about older and the holy freya and the um the loss of her lover
00:11:15.440who makes you know she sheds gold and tears a lot of folks think linguistically that this means her
00:11:23.360that uh is it's lord ovin but um i think this poem kind of really sets a tone that
00:11:30.480that this may not be the case and what we see here is um another iteration of the fact that the holy
00:11:39.760freya gives out boon to um mortal slash you know ascendant or um you know eventually risen um
00:11:55.120folk but i would argue too that sweep dog goes all the way back further um into
00:12:05.360our history uh i would say of the migration periods uh and and you know early stages of rome
00:12:14.640um because there are lending uh tales uh that that just mimic and then there's also
00:12:23.520there's claims that sweep dog is part of um royal family lines and so
00:12:31.600you know the he's never quite listed as a god and then there's also the general acceptance that his
00:12:41.840his mother or stepmother in the poem is a jotun but an or an ancient being um however that's you
00:12:52.800know not um it's not super established but at the same time it's kind of like it could be simply
00:13:00.400implied when the gods encounter beings outside of the middle world, it's generally seen that they
00:13:06.120are not, you know, folk. Um, but at the same time, I mean, we speak about, uh, Lord Odin raising the
00:13:17.560vulva in, uh, or the, uh, the vulva in the witch in, um, the underworld. And is she a Jotun? Is she0.96
00:13:27.760a human um you know it's it's it's left to mystery so we have the story of a young hero um
00:13:40.080speaking to his mother who is a uh a practicer of saver um which is is a form of like well you know
00:13:48.720know, trance, um, meditation and communication, um, and is asking her to help him, um, ultimately
00:14:01.560gain access to the maiden surrounded by fire. That's a huge one. Um, I won't go too much into
00:14:11.080that. We'll, we'll, we'll cover it, but a couple of things for people to know this poem was two
00:14:17.700separate poems um but since the subject is on um on sweep day or sweep day uh sweep dog that um
00:14:29.940generally people combine these two together though they're technically two separate poems
00:14:34.660so the first one is called groa galder and groa is the stepmother or the mother of sleep dog and
00:14:43.620galder uh generally we think of it as to mean like a runic um sound but the overall usage of
00:14:52.180the word is that it's a spell it's um a verbal incantation of some sort and it can also be
00:14:59.860used synonymously with simply magic so i think the broad sense of this this term is this is
00:15:07.940Groa's spell or Groa's magic um would be a better kind of translation of this title and um
00:15:18.740there it's it's very small very short and then we move into the the latter the the latter half
00:15:25.220um so it's just worth noting that also sweep dog is one of the only characters that is
00:15:32.820is word for word or letter for letter translated in um saxo grammaticus is gesta denorum um
00:15:43.660saxo grammaticus was a uh a christian dane uh and he wrote the history of the kings of denmark
00:15:52.500uh the difference was is that he you know really pushed in the gods but he uhemarized them
00:16:00.360completely. He made them mortals. He made them, uh, you know, capricious Kings and so on and so
00:16:06.560forth. Um, and I, you know, he did this partially for his disdain. And the other part is because he,
00:16:17.380um, you know, was of that mindset that the only reason why his ancestors would believe in these
00:16:23.760gods is because they were somehow tricked by humans. But it's interesting that he very rarely
00:16:31.960is there a cross-referencing, but he places Sweepdog in the list of the originators of
00:16:39.920the kings of Denmark. And so Sweepdog being either an exalted one, which I think is the case,
00:16:48.840But there could be argument, too, that he is an avatar of some sort. The ability for the gods to place themselves into the middle world and exist and affect Orlog is a topic that we've discussed before amongst the Gothars.
00:17:10.260like to what level would it be, you know, to do such things, you know, and what evidence do we
00:17:17.220have that the gods might have done it. And Sveepdag or Otar are prime examples of that possibility,
00:17:26.160along with shield sheafing, who's mentioned in Beowulf. So the mentioning is scant,
00:17:34.160But I think ultimately, Svipta is an elevated soul who, more likely than not, is Oður, the lost lover of Holy Freyja.
00:17:49.840Over in the chat, I see a couple of Croatian war master wanted to pop in and let everybody
00:18:09.200know that uh odin is the ancestral god of english speakers who are white um
00:18:21.040i would say he is the ancestral god of all speakers and non-speakers who happen to be white
00:18:30.080he is yeah but he is certainly that which you claim that he is as well um
00:19:06.260If not, we will answer that when we're done with the text.
00:19:10.360With that, Svon, would you like to get us started on tonight's poem?
00:19:16.540Yeah, and one thing I would like to point out right away, and this is something that scholars, you know, there's the mistakes that could be made during transcribing the stories.
00:19:31.120the stories were stories first and then they became poems that fit within specific styles
00:19:38.940and had very strict rules so they were carved and shaped to fit in the mold and then these
00:19:46.740were transcribed um and it was Snorri Sturluson and Simon who gathered these together and wrote
00:19:56.740much but not all there may have been nameless transcribers excuse me as well and so in doing
00:20:07.000that there is some um writing repetitive errors and things that are kind of mismatched I I would
00:20:16.700say to be honest there are a lot less than um I would suspect if you know with like the the
00:20:23.800telephone game, if you will, but it is evident here that, and, uh, it's generally, it's on
00:20:30.300Bellows, um, who translates this. He, he of course gets, um, the Holy Freya and Frigga, um, mixed up
00:20:40.460because of the Haiti that is used. Um, there's a name in here that's going to be spoken. It's
00:20:47.020Menglov, and Menglov is, Menglader, is gladly of, like, gladly adorning the necklace, and
00:20:58.340Bellows kind of misinterprets that and says that the Holy Frigga is the bearer, or Holy Frigga is
00:21:11.520the bearer of the brisingaman the necklace that um is the origin of of um her power and
00:21:19.200and what exudes into the world through um our passions and and desires um so he he does mess
00:21:27.280that up and it's kind of seen if you're on the website i think they write about it he writes
00:21:32.240about it in the bottom um so we start off with with uh sweep day um swift day or sudden day
00:21:45.600is his name and it it really does speak to the idea of the breaking of light over a mountain
00:21:53.280it's um it it's sudden it's swift and it cuts right into the eyes so very very kind of poetic
00:22:01.600name sweep day speaks in one he says wake thee groa wake mother good at the doors of the dead
00:22:12.880i call thee thy son bethink thee thou baddest to seek thy help at the hill of death so one of the
00:22:24.640things to consider in this situation is that groa may be beyond the veil and the hill of death um we
00:22:35.520know that our ancestors talked about the threshold of death the point in which there is of no return
00:22:44.400is Nipah's cave. And Nipah's cave is where Garmar, the guardian of the dead, where he resides.
00:22:57.500So again, this is him standing at the threshold, but it also could be a barrow mound.
00:23:05.660And this is a common theme that is in stories of our ancestors, is coming to the barrow mound,
00:23:13.220cutting open the barrow mound and speaking in in order to see the ghostly image of um you know
00:23:23.660the former king or one's father or one's and one's mother so this poem really i think has
00:23:31.880really old dating um and the reason for this is the when you look at the funerary practices of
00:23:41.580our ancestors, it moved from barrow mounds to cremations, and then kind of back to barrow
00:23:51.740mounds and cremation. Like, they kind of joined. So, you know, by the dating of this poem, as far
00:24:03.420as when it was possibly constructed, I think that they're lending back to the further time,
00:24:08.580the original time in which uh kurgans were made or barrows were made um by our ancestors
00:24:15.460ancestors to to the icelanders who composed this poem um so uh groa speaks
00:24:27.780uh what what evil vexes mine only son what baleful fate hast thou found
00:24:37.540that thou callest thy mother who lies in the mold and the world of the living has left
00:24:48.980this um would of course lend more so that groa is not a yachting but a powerful uh0.71
00:24:58.180witch of of the human world um but again the usage of a mole molder
00:25:05.140molder being dust or the earth itself in relation to the dead. And Svipdai
00:25:16.420speaks in three, he says, the woman false whom my father embraced has brought me a0.99
00:25:24.040baleful game. For she bade me go forth where none may fare and Mengloth the maid0.99
00:25:32.760to seek. So now he's been tasked in order to find the love who is Mengloth, or
00:25:46.860the one who adorns the necklace, the glad necklace bearer. Groa speaks,
00:25:55.080long is the way long thou must wander but long is love as well now mayest find purchase perchance
00:26:05.640what thou fain wouldn't have if the fates their favor will give so here is kind of where it starts
00:26:15.720to frame the idea that perhaps the the notion of gaining ascendancy with the divine is a process
00:26:28.440it has a a way to do it but it is long and is arduous but ultimately uniting with the divine
00:26:39.160um is the end goal and um also she you know makes point to say that and it that the translation is
00:26:50.520not fates but scald and for those that know of the of the mother nornir scald is debt or doom
00:27:01.560or that which is in essence fated to happen based off of the actions before um the willfulness that
00:27:12.600you you participate in now will ultimately weave your debt or your doom or your your your fate
00:27:21.000so i thought that was very interesting that he says you know if the fates their favor will give
00:27:26.280but at the same time i understand he can't go in and and say debt or doom people might
00:27:33.160not quite understand what that means but it's worth noting that the the word in the old north
00:27:38.200skull just means that the things you do now may very well give you the pathway to your goal um
00:27:48.680So it frames it differently from a fatalist view that it doesn't matter if Sweepdog tries or doesn't try.
00:28:16.280it's an important thing for us to realize there's a I'd say a significant misconception
00:28:25.520when it comes to Ausatru and free will there is an idea that there's all this predetermined fate
00:28:38.360And you're just kind of at the whim of it. So I've seen that go two ways. I think people proudly will say that in the sense of, you know, being fearless because, you know, fate's already been written.
00:29:01.780so you're just you know nothing that's going to happen to you that hasn't already been foretold
00:29:06.100so just go and embrace whatever challenge in front of you i've also seen it as a lazy excuse
00:29:13.060not to do something because well you know fate's got it all planned out so it doesn't really matter
00:29:18.660what i do anyway and people uh beat their chest about that less proudly but i think it gives them
00:29:25.860an excuse to sit on their hand and be in a corner of benches or grandma's couch
00:29:31.780the linguistics matter the concept matters schooled is the same route as should not will
00:29:44.560not must not has been foretold but it is it's directional it's a projection of
00:29:53.880if you stay the course and you continue this path this is the likely outcome
00:30:01.080but it's not a guarantee and it's really important to factor that in there's
00:30:07.920by understanding and aligning yourself with the workings of earth you can see things to come you
00:30:18.060can have visions or premonitions of the future but your actions and the things you do and the
00:30:27.180things you put in the well, they're what shape the next phase of that tapestry. You can deviate from
00:30:34.680the course that's been presented before you, be that a good course or a bad course. You can lean
00:30:41.000into it and embrace it. And, you know, it's also been mentioned and should be reiterated that
00:30:49.540Scold is the name of one of our holy Nornir who looks over that future projection of things.
00:30:58.880I think that it's much less related to a fixed linear must happen and much closer to a momentum, if you understand it.
00:31:15.100that's the momentum an event is headed that is a forecast of future events with present data
00:31:22.940and with things that are likely to occur one can completely abdicate their responsibilities and
00:31:29.420drastically alter the momentum the the school of something that ought to happen um so there's a lot
00:31:38.940of there's a lot more depth in the concept than i think uh sociologists and early scholars of this
00:31:52.940have uh bequeathed down to us in their their treatment of it so make note of that
00:32:08.940all right let's see um and just not expounding on that but the next um verse does kind of show
00:32:21.100that sense of um desire to will does not always mean the completeness of an outcome
00:32:30.940and you had made mention that a lot of times fatalism works towards um you know kind of
00:32:37.820abolishing fear in in some way or or at least an attempt to but in this in uh in five um
00:32:47.580it's uh it's a different way in which he you know he says like no i i am you know afraid that i will
00:32:55.340be cut down in my prime in this in the danger um and that's why he's here this is his motivation
00:33:01.900is to gain the charms um to protect him um the spells to to be read over him that will safeguard
00:33:13.260him from death so that he you know will not die at such a young age and he says it right here in five
00:33:19.420he says um sweet duck says charms full good then chant to me mother and seek thy son to guard
00:33:30.700for death do i fear on the way i shall fare and in years i am young me thinks
00:33:37.980so you know he says speak your spells good over me and keep keep your mind in protecting me while
00:33:46.660you speak these spells because death is on the road that i am going to travel and i am young
00:33:53.320And I think ultimately, too, is what the ultimate point of this is, again, another Aryan mythos cycle is the attainment of the heart or the knowledge or the winning of the maiden.
00:34:12.360and this is you know so familiar even into the christian times with with knights um it is the
00:34:21.820same cut from the same cloth and this may be pre-migration era in in the sense of the story
00:34:28.900so the idea of the warrior going forth and finding the maiden passing through trials and then gaining
00:34:38.060her um love her affection or her realization is a very old aryan mythos cycle and again applying
00:34:51.600this to the possibility that the maiden is also a goddess and the idea that she's an
00:34:56.880and that we uh can through great devotion be um elevated in in ways if we you know it as far as
00:35:08.640focusing perhaps a devotion to one um of the gods um so in six groa speaks then first i will chant
00:35:21.760thee the charm oft tried that rani taught to rind from the shoulder whatever mislikes these shake
00:35:33.200for the helper thyself shalt thou have so this one right out uh rani and rind the only thing
00:35:44.320that i can find is is that rani is a haiti for lord odin and it means the one who ransacks or the
00:35:53.360one who plundered a plunderer um a pilferer if you will and here he teaches it to render
00:36:03.520and that's a really interesting thing because render is one of the oust veneer and she gives
00:36:10.480birth to one of the holy gods um and depending on the accounts whether it's um saxo or or sorry
00:36:19.840snorty or saxo saxo says that the gods are human and that lord oh then um conquested
00:36:29.840render who was the queen of the ruthians which um was uh was the ukrainians or what would be ukraine
00:36:39.840now um that he he conquested her and used spells and herbs to um to get her and to to uh sleep with
00:36:50.640her but the difference with snorty is is that you know he views the gods in their proper places as
00:36:57.280divine beings and this again attests to the fact that rinder is amongst the gods enough to where
00:37:05.840where Lord Odin teaches her spells. Some people have suggested, though, that this is the spell
00:37:12.780that he used in order to weaken her. But I don't think that is particularly the case. And again,
00:37:26.560we have to remind ourselves that Saxo had a heavy, heavy need to vilify the gods in a lot of
00:37:34.040different ways. Um, yeah, so, um, so in this case here, uh, it says from the shoulder, whatever
00:37:46.840mislikes these shakes, uh, these shake for the helper thyself shalt thou have. So anything that
00:37:54.520befalls you will be shirked off of you and onto, uh, something else or another. Um, so that you,
00:38:02.400uh, in essence, it's like making the false target. Um, anybody who might know of like
00:38:08.020witches jars or things of that ilk, that's what this is. Um, and in seven, the next I will chant
00:38:17.580the, if needs thou must travel and wander a purposeless way, the bolts of earth shall on
00:38:25.920every side be thy guard on the road thou goest so if you find yourself lost then the very fabric of
00:38:38.640fate will guide you back towards the destination that you must apply your will
00:38:48.560the bolts of earth i i um i the interesting part about that is the word
00:38:54.080that um is used as locker and um bolts um are these are kind of like the pieces that would um
00:39:05.600like rivet planks of a ship together so um i just you know i found it interesting the translation
00:39:14.480as bolts but um again the the fabric or the substance of fate will always from all sides
00:39:24.800from everywhere guide you to where you need to go where your where your intended purpose
00:39:30.880where your will has led you or is wanting you you know where you want your will to lead you
00:51:08.540i don't know why this is not so easy for me to read uh the deece of vegetation the daughter of
00:51:18.220the alvar sigtrig sister of sif mother of older sweep dog with um
00:51:26.940ale and uh good domer with connor and this is accordance to ryberg um i think that that's
00:51:41.900that is an interesting take but to to say so assuredly i would i would give pause um
00:51:49.340Um, Groa's name does, it lends to the idea of something growing, the growing, um, or, you know, something of, of either power or, or vitality.
00:55:49.340But I think it does add a lot of confusion into the mix.
00:55:53.980And I don't think that's due to accuracy always.
00:55:59.980There is a very overt force there to like forcibly you hemorrhize all of the divine into a historical chronological narrative that's strange and incongruent with other things we know.
00:56:19.160but it is it it is an interesting source and i know that reidberg and folks that follow his um
00:56:25.520trying to thought on that lean heavily into it and i do think there's valuable things to be
00:56:32.160gained from it i find it really interesting but it's a really it's a really cool source and a
00:56:37.640really cool book and if you have not read it or you should familiarize yourself with it and maybe
00:56:43.380will chip away at that at some point it's kind of a daunting task it's a it is a weighty tome and
00:56:49.940it's uh yeah that's a lot so we may hit that at some point i think that's interesting i do think
00:56:59.540as we go through our lore something it's not celebrated or spoken about as
00:57:03.700lot is a lot is the idea of mortal ascendancy and becoming
00:57:16.100the idea in the greek of a demigod isn't quite the same but as something more than just human
00:57:24.580and something a uh closer associate with our gods and i think we do see we don't see that
00:57:33.380as the focus very often but we do see that occur time and again in the periphery
00:57:46.100oh and uh just to answer um eager eager cunning guys asked what was the book it's guest of the
00:57:53.780honorum by sax or grammaticus i don't know if nick can write that down for you
00:58:04.420what does that translate to the deeds the history and deeds of the danes
00:58:11.380uh yes guesta well i'm trying to think of what usually the english title is if it comes out to
00:58:18.580something different it's like jordane's history of the goths that's not what it was in gothic but
00:58:29.700yeah i guess to the norm is the title you're usually going to find it under
00:58:39.780yeah my old old norse translation doesn't bring it up well that's because it's well and it's a
00:58:46.260hybrid with his latinization like yeah i think it's the latin for um oh that's right it's probably
00:58:54.740latin based entirely yes because saxo is you know good at his grammar as his uh
00:59:03.780title would indicate and that grammar being latin grammar because he is a
00:59:10.020now what was his position with the church do we know
00:59:17.200oh the roman catholic church anyways that's a strange side trail and we're
00:59:23.740in the midst here so let's try let's go ahead and finish out um
00:59:29.920this work and we'll get into the next section here because we're getting close
00:59:36.520all right yeah we did kind of tangent off we as we tend to do as we tend to do
00:59:43.020it's like running around in circles now this is interesting too because um
00:59:48.860it it people will will hear it um and it's just it's kind of an interesting point in which
00:59:58.220the the story itself is probably all the way back to the migration period but there's a
01:00:06.820mentioning here that brings it right into the modern time if you know if you were um
01:00:12.440a poet of the you know 10th to 11th century um that i find you know super amusing it it amuses
01:00:23.340me all the time every time i hear it um but it does kind of play some of the politics that were
01:00:28.380going on at the time or at least the religious politics um pause before spawn gets into it just
01:00:35.500because i found it out the idea is saxo was the archbishop's clerk perhaps and guested in oram
01:00:42.540does mean the deeds of the danes which you know deeds that are written down are history so yeah
01:00:53.340History or deeds of the Danes, I think, probably works, but linguistically.
01:01:00.940Well, so in 12, it says, and she's still chanting the spells over Svita.
01:01:11.380And she says, a seventh, I chant thee, if frost shall seek to kill thee on lofty crags, the fatal cold shall not grip thy flesh and whole thy body shall be.
01:01:28.120so again all of these spells all of these poems when you're reading this should be in your mind
01:01:39.800wow this these are like viable um concerns amongst our ancestors this was something they
01:01:48.400they didn't want charms of uselessness they wanted ones that that made sense and um again
01:01:56.260no more is more prudent than in number 13 um an eighth i will chant thee if ever by night
01:02:05.780thou shalt wander on murky ways yet never the curse of a christian woman from the dead shall
01:02:13.300do the harm and uh it's this one is just super interesting um the uh so the translation is
01:02:24.660kristin down corner a christian dead woman um and it this this cursing from beyond the grave or um
01:02:43.700while possibly one is dying i looked into a little bit about this and um
01:02:48.660there's a couple of things. One, Christians looked very badly upon their fellow folk who0.97
01:02:57.840still remained to the native European faith. Their religion is kind of bent to do that.0.99
01:03:05.880And the idea that a curse or something that can affect people was still held before
01:03:15.160um, Christianity came. So the idea of it just being a Christian woman lends me to think that0.84
01:03:23.140this is more of a common occurrence that, that, uh, that, you know, uh, that these,0.99
01:03:28.880these Christian women would, um, have a tendency to sling curses upon those around them. I mean,1.00
01:03:37.380these women were, in essence, the first kind of, you know, turncoat slash betrayers of their0.96
01:03:52.080culture. I came not to bring peace, but a sword. Oh, that's from the Bible, right?0.90
01:03:59.680Yeah, that's, but the key tenant to that passage, I came not to bring peace, but a sword to turn
01:04:07.340and I don't want to, you know, get it wrong, but to turn basically to turn kinfolk against one
01:04:12.640another. Right. To sever that. There are no bonds of kinship, you know, to eliminate bonds of
01:04:19.260kinship in order to tie the worshippers specifically with the white Christ.0.69
01:04:25.700See, that is a very interesting point because you see that on social media where they're trying to
01:04:30.500say, oh, you know, the rabbi Yeshua is not so pacifist because he said this. But if you read
01:04:36.180further it's no it's so that you it's not a sword to slay the foe it's a sword to divide families
01:04:43.320to defy your own families apart cut you apart from your parents and from your line of kinship
01:04:49.600right because they could be good people but if they don't accept the the the rabbi and the truth
01:04:55.580and the light in the way they don't get in to the um yeah because the man's not saved by deeds but
01:05:02.840by faith alone that none might boast. That's why our random side point here, and this will become
01:05:12.340more relevant later, and it's certainly relevant when we celebrate the ascendancy of King0.89
01:05:22.240a Thanaric, but recognizing the threat of Christianity to severing and disrupting kinship0.93
01:05:30.900and clan and cutting people off and making them rootless was something that the wise0.96
01:05:40.160amongst our ancestors noticed and those who could break the fetters of the momentum of
01:05:50.860time they were in stood against and tried to stem the tide of yeah this this kinship between folk um
01:06:03.500you know i think a lot of people try to utilize it against say if they're ideologically against
01:06:09.420us you know they'll try to say oh you know um our you know your people enslaved each other
01:06:17.660like yes slavery's been practiced all over the world by everyone so ethnic groups would enslave
01:06:23.840ethnic groups especially uh posted the full the full passage from matthew 10 i appreciate that
01:06:32.600because those of everyone who's not familiar with their bible and i'm not trying to believe me this
01:06:39.360is not the program i'm trying to well well you know what you should you should be familiar with
01:06:45.160it so you know so you know what that's about because it's very far it's very far from what
01:06:53.520i think a lot of christians are aware of or would try to to tell you and i think this
01:06:59.620was a very very clear thing we all should know um the apostle matthew you know in that book
01:09:10.060archaic stories of some old vikings that's fun and it's interesting but i don't think enough people
01:09:18.060take note of the seriousness and the modern day relevance that the wisdom within it contains and
01:09:29.160there is quite a bit quite a bit more than people realize
01:09:31.600well and i think our ancestors when christianity was coming in and especially with these
01:09:40.300these women um that were because they they made the groundwork before the sword there was
01:09:46.980the woman um generally you know uh bonds of of marriage there were you know land grabs and
01:09:56.520usury that the church used quite often but more often than not it was it was about uh introducing
01:10:03.540women and moving them into you know spots of power from elsewhere mainland from england um
01:10:13.580How many guys do we know, you and I, Svon, that have come through the Auschufolk Assembly and have quit and rejected everything they believed in for the attentions of a woman?
01:10:32.720I can think of six right off the top of my head.0.68
01:29:50.720uh-oh I told this story already but it's just such a ridiculous story he was driving through
01:29:58.460um he was driving through and he wanted to check out Odin's off way back you know closer to when
01:30:04.160first got odin's off and so he met my wife and i at odin's off and he comes in he's like hey you
01:30:11.120want to see my monkey we're very very perplexed at that proposition i mean on the chance there
01:30:22.080was an actual monkey i think the only answer is yes with some kind of strange euphemism
01:30:28.560the answer is no and should be followed by violence but no it turns out he was traveling
01:30:34.320with an actual monkey and there was this little monkey in a cage that he was transporting for a
01:30:40.960friend of his i guess and the monkey was time to feed him and he was not pleased with the car ride
01:30:46.080but sure enough he rolled up and he had an actual monkey so uh yeah it was neither here nor there
01:30:53.760but it was a thing got a couple of other um questions before we move on to part two
01:31:02.560and you may think we've been doing this a minute but we really haven't
01:31:05.440and part two is much longer than part one so get a snack get a beverage
01:31:12.880because we're in for a little bit also planned snacks and beverages there's 92 chapters to a
01:31:20.720Heal Saga, and we're going to divide that by four, so it is what it is. We may have some long nights
01:31:28.060together in the month of December. So following on this question from last week, last week we
01:31:37.360had a question about if a Christian could join the AFA, and this is a follow-up to that question.
01:31:44.820Watching a different live right now, but wanted to clarify a question I had last week.
01:31:49.060It wasn't about not being a committed Christian in questioning, but questioning when others keep saying that certain Christian observances are actually from ancestral practices.
01:32:02.400Be back later, and if not, happy Thanksgiving.
01:32:19.060um no if you're sincere as long as you're not lying to anybody come check it out I don't know
01:32:28.300where you're located but what is the best is to come to one of our Hoffs that's why we that's
01:32:36.220not why we have them but it's a benefit of us having them is that folks who are interested
01:32:41.800can come and see what this is about and meet alsatruar and get a more visceral feel for what
01:32:52.560we do um the question last week came about in terms of membership and no we would not want
01:33:02.880you to be a member of our church if you are of a different religion i think that's common sense
01:33:08.480But to attend and to see and to check things out and to look into it and discover whether it rings true to you, certainly we'd invite you to do that.
01:33:22.140And I think that's we just want to be fair and open handed with everybody.
01:33:26.460we'd love for all of our folk to come home to alsatru and we have no expectation that sight
01:33:34.380unseen you just buy into completely flipping the paradigm that you've lived this far of your life
01:33:40.460under um that's absolutely it it can happen instantaneously or it can be a long process
01:33:48.540we respect that so if if you're somebody with sincere questions or sincerely wants to learn
01:33:53.500And we'd love to have you come to one of our Hoffs or somebody locally could, you know, walk you through it or invite you to a moot or we can get that figured out.
01:34:01.980But I hope that clarifies a little bit.
01:34:06.460I want to add one thing about the lore that we just covered.
01:34:11.640And just kind of going along with, as was stated, about Groa being a desir of vegetation, there certainly seems to be that there's a transcendency of Svipdag's parentage, his mother being Groa.
01:34:33.640or you know and and i don't know if it's stated but we do know that groa is in another story
01:34:41.640and she helps lord thor out so now we've got this situation where groa is not in or is in
01:34:50.520the middle world she's in jotunheim and she helps um when lord thor gets a honing stone
01:35:01.160uh cracked in his head she speaks spells over it but then she sees her husband who she thought was
01:35:07.800dead that thor saves him and she stops and um the story leaves with with lord thor having the uh
01:35:16.680the honing stones or the shard of stone in his head um and a lot of people believe that this
01:35:23.800may lead to the reason why there is a nail often posted in god posts but uh her husband's name um
01:35:33.960is uh arvindel and arvindel is mentioned as that when they cross the rivers um
01:35:45.320they throw the uh his toe into the sky and we see this with the oz's eyes so this is a common
01:35:53.800thing in which the the story states that the gods throw you know something into the sky and it
01:36:01.160becomes the star uh we still don't know exactly what star is uh arvindil's toe most likely it's
01:36:09.320it's probably cirrus um because it you know lending his name meaning like light of the east um
01:36:16.120Um, so probably that, but it just kind of, again, places them in a world in between Jotun's and, uh, gods and men.
01:36:29.040Um, and in this case, or at least by this time, Sweet Dog was definitely seen as, as more than simply a man.
01:36:37.380um but Groa as well and uh Arundel or excuse me um Arvindel uh the reason why too is that's the
01:36:47.720same name that J.R.R. Tolkien used for um the elf Arundel if anybody's familiar with with that um
01:36:58.260or at least heard it and was like wait a minute that sounds very familiar that's where um some
01:37:04.240of the more of pop culture that comes from but i just wanted to state that groa is um
01:37:15.360elevated in in some way if if the term deece is is fitting and it may be um she is now elevated
01:37:23.360and presides over so she passes goes through the why would she not be if we refer to great0.76
01:37:31.680grandma that passed as one of the dc right that's what i you know sweep dog going to her her um
01:37:41.760well i'm only saying that in the sense that um people i apologize i said that as a question
01:37:49.200yes i will stipulate that groa is a ds and one of the dcs right like the idea of saying
01:37:58.640big d or little d is the question keep it clean in the chat room well one thing is is like the
01:38:07.600way it was termed as ds of vegetation um what we do see about the d series that they preside over
01:38:15.680their bloodlines it is so important that we consider who we marry and who we have children
01:38:21.360with because our desir can turn off the faucet they they twist the fates they can turn off the
01:38:29.920faucet they can turn it on um and they can give you the boon and they're kind of in an intermediaries
01:38:36.320between the the the ancestors and humanity and sometimes even the gods so the idea that
01:38:45.120she is mortal and she dies and then she is elevated through the root and placed in the
01:38:53.520position as a ds over her line including starting with her son sweep that and now he is seeking
01:39:03.360knowledge from his ds mother through the grave um fits 100 and i i was only bringing that up
01:39:12.880just because the dees of vegetation um dees kind of often is thrown around too sometimes it's like
01:39:18.720a god but they're really yeah the twisters of fate that's what i'm saying there's as far as
01:39:27.360the elevation of mortals in the ascendancy
01:39:33.600there is a spectrum there that doesn't
01:39:38.400there's many stages of ascendancy betwixt god and man just because one is more than a mortal man
01:39:52.620doesn't make them have some equivalency to the great gods of our race there is a position there
01:40:03.320for elevated heroes and heroines and for honored and ascended ancestors that's
01:40:10.600in between there in in that space and i think that the elevation of some of these that we hear in our
01:40:22.420in our sagas and our lores i was in our sagas and our lore clearly are people who have ascended to
01:40:31.400something more beyond the grave, but that are clearly not the Aesir, but have a relation to
01:40:38.520them that is perhaps closer than ours is as mortals in Midgard during our lifetime.
01:40:46.160So the other thing that we've got, well, we've got a couple other things.
01:41:01.360Sierra wants to know what we are thankful for, the both of us.
01:45:49.260It was left by a guest at the last moot we had over here.
01:45:53.740But this horn was gifted to me by a really good friend of mine, Daniel Young,
01:46:02.160because Thor's Hoth was the first Hoth under my administration that we got.
01:46:08.060It was the first Hoff to our gods that I could be the one to dedicate, and that was such an important moment in my life that they won this horn, and he gifted it to me.
01:46:26.480The friends that I've made in the House of Truth focus on a personal level, I'm tremendously thankful for.
01:46:33.900these are people that are my family that are everything to me and uh
01:46:41.900dude on the other end of this actually both gentlemen on the other end of this the ones
01:46:46.060you can see and the ones that we don't end up looking at to hear from on occasion very thankful
01:46:51.900of these men they're genuinely some of my very closest friends and people that are all in on
01:46:58.380making this happen and share in the daily joys and daily toil of of this work that we do um
01:47:08.540the tremendous honor of being the all-seriously of the astro folk assembly
01:47:15.660there's no way i could properly express how thankful i am for that
01:47:21.260the fact that so many people who listen to this podcast
01:47:25.100come up to me and you know tell me how much they enjoy it or how it meant something really
01:47:31.540important to them in a moment in their life where they needed to hear something that we said
01:47:35.400the blessings of our gods have poured out on me and my family in ways that
01:47:45.480you know i can't properly acknowledge all of i'm extremely thankful for my lovely wife mandy
01:47:53.680for my amazing daughter Aubrey. Mandy and I kind of, we keep it real. We embrace the truth as one
01:48:05.800of our core values. But we were talking, you know, and a lot about kids. Like, man, what if our kid
01:48:16.020was ugly? Or man, what if our kid was, you know, misbehaved? Or what if we, you know, some,
01:48:22.680everybody likes their kids what if ours was lame no uh realistically
01:48:29.960there's no such thing as perfection but i don't think that in any realistic scenario
01:48:35.800we could come any closer than aubrey um she is fantastic she is absolutely amazing i'm
01:48:42.760amazed by her every single day i'm extremely thankful for so much in my life and i couldn't
01:48:50.600possibly cover all of it. So we got that. We've got two more questions before we'll go into the
01:48:59.460other and longer of the two poems that we're going into tonight.
01:49:05.020From Gauthier Trent East, question for both of you, and just another additional plug.
01:49:11.860Trent's lovely wife, Madison, is responsible for making those amazing AFA calendars that are now
01:49:17.500on sale at runestone.org. Get yours today. That said, question for both of you. I was
01:49:25.300here to go with you and Wynton Svon. What is your favorite Thanksgiving dish? Svon,
01:52:47.180that tomorrow you are serving some of0.98
01:52:49.220your children um lamb's head crotch super or whatever the like lamb's head delicacies of your
01:52:59.060homeland no actually one of the things i'm intending to do is i want to butterfly a turkey
01:53:04.540breast out and fill it with mashed potatoes and stuffing and green bean casserole and then roll
01:53:11.500it up and into a roast and then cut it and serve it as a pinwheel so it's just like the whole meal
01:53:19.860inside a turkey breast and then garnished with mashed potatoes and stuff
01:53:26.420that sounds awesome i'm disappointed about the lack of of of lamb's head yeah you gotta eat the
01:53:32.340lamb's head i know that when we move to sigurheim i know you're gonna be like you're you're gonna0.77
01:53:39.540have me cooking the weirdest crap you got to that's the delicacies of your homeland0.80
01:53:45.780i'm gonna have like hunkakut and you know like lamb's head and how carl and all the other like
01:53:52.100strange things that you can just come over rotten shark that's gross um and you can keep the like
01:53:59.140testicles that's not i'm not going to eat testicles well that's what that's one of those
01:54:04.100things i'm i it's not what i do i think you would like because it's just condensed lamb and then
01:54:11.300the other is um hard of the fish good hard of the fish good i think you would really like but
01:54:16.420everyone hates it when i eat it what hard fish yeah yeah um my friends call it whale scabs and
01:54:24.420it makes the whole house smell like cod but it is so good when you like dried fish with like
01:54:31.380butter on top no i'm i'm down let's do that um so i don't like soggy bread um my
01:54:41.300i don't have super exotic thanksgiving delicacies i really like just being simple i like gravy and
01:54:54.240turkey and that can shaped uh cranberry cranberry cranberry sauce that looks like the can i've had
01:55:06.480fancier kind that's way more gourmet but no i want mine to look like the can that it came in
01:55:14.720it's got to that's how you know it's legit and mashed potatoes and gravy um
01:55:22.480i mean growing up we always had uh round up a clown
01:55:29.120i mean that might be delicious i don't know um so growing up we always had had uh succotash
01:55:35.840which there's fancier versions my mom always just made frozen corn and frozen lima beans but it was
01:55:42.800good um i'll eat fancy green beans where i'll cook up green beans with like uh the little slivered
01:55:50.640almonds and the uh and bacon that's always good i'm not as fancy as some people are i've never
01:55:57.520been the huge pumpkin pie guy like i will i will eat any dessert don't get me wrong but that's never
01:56:04.320my pie of choice my pie of choice for thanksgiving's always been cherry which is not usually
01:56:09.360the one on offer so that was kind of a special thing my my parents and grandparents made sure
01:56:15.440i had um that's what i got uh we got one more i said before we're going to go into the next
01:56:26.800deal is odin the same being as indra both mythologies describe them as king of the gods
01:56:34.320um no and I don't think the I think the Vedic evolution of religiosity varies in different
01:56:49.920ways than some of the more one-for-one European expressions I think Indra is often much more
01:56:58.620similar to also Thor um there are depending on where you're at there are so many what the
01:57:08.400the Supreme or the top of the food chain in the Vedic gods are it all depends on kind of where
01:57:14.160you're at and what's what but no I don't think that Indra is the one that bears
01:57:20.580most similarity to Odin uh at all I think Indra bears the most similarity to us of Thor
01:57:27.360oh this this question i think i saw earlier and i i like to answer this too please i kind of know
01:57:36.300where this is coming from um i made mention of like the the cramming of of lord odin and all
01:57:42.720the gods but one of the distinct differences between the ostrich folk assembly and the other
01:57:48.400groups that are kind of like i need to find the singular sky daddy um is that we talk about the
01:57:56.820tripartite and the thrones and that each of the Aryan groups um have these thrones these thrones
01:58:03.960of need and emphasis and the gods who are the gods fill these thrones um and for us to think
01:58:14.060that there's this unilateral sense um when we could see that it's not even unilateral amongst
01:58:21.800the nords where we have where you know in upsala where um lord thor is in the center of the
01:58:30.760tripartite and on the highest altar and he is you know flanked by um the the holy fray and by lord
01:58:42.440odin so we see that these these desires and the idea that the gods kind of move around but i will
01:58:49.080tell you one thing that always seems to happen is that there is a sky father and an earth mother
01:58:55.480and after they establish the structure of the world and of heaven they then create or i'm not
01:59:04.760saying create but the substance of the three thrones or the tripartite and its division is
01:59:13.880always something that happens so you know we see this with um in our stories with bor and with
01:59:22.040bestla and um and then after them the tripartite forms we see this amongst the hindus with uh i
01:59:30.440think is dios potter and uh or di's potter i don't know how it's said but yeah the heavenly father
01:59:36.920or shining father and mother and then the tripartite happens and we have indra and agni
01:59:44.120and uh varuna i believe um we see this amongst the slavs there is the the that creation point
01:59:52.920between the heaven and the earth is stratified that the heaven and the earth split they're held
01:59:58.680apart and then svawrog uh perun velez show up or we see it amongst the gauls with um teratatis
02:00:09.400tyranis and asus and so on and so forth we even see it amongst the um the uh etruscans who are a
02:00:18.520hybrid um peoples that you know again most of their genetic origins coming off the coast of
02:00:24.520italy but they were so entwined with other arian groups um they had a tripartite so
02:00:33.640the the bigger thing to think about is
02:00:38.040these thrones have value amongst the the people and the gods fill those values they give unto the
02:00:46.520people that which they need they they end up um fulfilling and those three thrones i always talk
02:00:55.800about are the dynamic throne the static throne and the catalystic throne and it it varies depending
02:01:05.960on the people some people have dynamicism as the height of their world view others have stasis
02:01:15.480like the slavs svaurag sits above and watches all below and does not move and um velez and perun
02:01:27.400are the dynamic or sorry yeah velez is dynamic and perun is catalystic so to go across and take
02:01:36.440all of them and then just start to cram them in i don't think is the correct way to do it i also
02:01:41.160don't think it's the true point of observation i think observation is about again observing
02:01:47.320how the gods work and if we try to cram the gods outside of what we can clearly see
02:01:58.280is where we start to get faulty um the biggest uh point to understand is that all of the stories of
02:02:06.440all of the aryan branches are deeply cultural reflections of the way that gods work in our world
02:02:14.200and certain the arian gods are arian gods and amongst those different branches
02:02:22.360those gods have different emphasis because of the relationship that they have with their people
02:02:31.880so all right last question we got and then we're going to get into round two here
02:02:36.440so far be prepped and ready on this one croatian war master this might not be related to the poem
02:02:43.320but our poetry and songs to the gods using the services of the house um not as often as they
02:02:51.320should be it would be really cool if we had more song and poetry involved a lot of it doesn't exist
02:03:00.120yet and we would you know we await a day when that does happen um there is a
02:03:10.200chant song if you will that gets done at every odin bloat that i do which is the harry father
02:03:19.720song that gets used in ritual a lot where i see song and poetry happen most often
02:03:27.480is in sumble at the hoffs um we'll have people that will compose a poem or recite a poem
02:03:35.320uh every now and again someone who will sing a song i also we have a song that gets sung in our uh
02:03:42.840disabloat in at winter nights that happens so it does happen i would love to have more
02:03:50.040of that happen it kind of needs to happen organically but yeah those two examples i
02:03:57.160mentioned are mainstays and i'd love to see more of that develop as we go further
02:04:02.760but with that it's fine if you would take us in to uh svip dags mall part
02:04:10.840okay so at this point now we will see some again very common heroic or arian heroics um
02:04:27.320mythos that are going to play out we see this again with um holy fray when he goes to send us
02:04:36.040um uh skierner to um pledge for a meeting with the oust veneer gerder so these are
02:04:46.680just common things as he's coming to the house he meets a um
02:04:58.520guardian if you will and i i looked up the translation on his name and they generally
02:05:03.880translated to all wise but the closest translation that i could find towards it is is mountain wise
02:05:11.720um which uh would would lend um to this idea that that that fiols with might be a joten
02:05:23.000and i wonder if this part of this story is actually a section of something lost in which
02:05:29.800um the holy freya is captured by jotens and it is sweet dog who goes and transcends even
02:05:40.280the mortal world to go and and free her um but but i mean we may not know um
02:05:49.560so in in one before the house he beheld one coming to the home of the giant's high sweet dog speaks
02:06:00.280what giant is here in front of the of the house and around him fires are flaming
02:06:06.840this is very similar to skirner where he speaks to the the jotin on the hill and he says that
02:06:13.960you're never going to get past the fire barrier and fjolsvith which again they say greatly wise but
02:06:22.760um you know that i'm really looking to try to figure out where they found that or figured that
02:06:29.080translation as i've always kind of fjol or fjol um as a derivative of fjol which means a mountain
02:06:39.000um uh so i'd be i'm looking into that right now that one kind of threw me for a loop
02:06:46.280uh and he says the jotun says what seekest thou here for what is thy search what friendless one
02:06:55.480fame wouldst thou know by the ways so wet must thou wander hence for weakling no home hast thou
02:07:05.880here so it's immediately aggressive you know what are you why are you here what are you looking for
02:07:12.680you have no friends here you have no kin um in this place why would you travel the roads uh0.59
02:07:21.160um you know besmirched by by rain and wind to get here and such a tiny little weakling as yourself0.83
02:07:30.920you know you you don't even live here you don't you have no place to claim here
02:07:36.760um sweep dog says what giant is here in front of the house to the wayfarer welcome denying
02:07:44.760playing in again to the idea that our ancestors held great value in hospitality and it's clear
02:07:53.320that fields is not hospitable at all um so he's kind of jibing at the fact that the house could
02:08:01.340be uh that the insult could be levied against the house that it is um you know not good and
02:08:11.800I also interesting thing about the translations on the Icelandics or the old, uh, North side is
02:08:18.640that, uh, feels it is not mentioned. Um, but that it's, it's, uh, uh, common mother. And then there's,
02:08:28.360he's also referred to as, uh, or like word of the mountain or word. I don't know that I'm going to,
02:08:36.600this is like just now hitting me that these, these, uh, translations, cause we don't prep for
02:08:41.380this show. So like, and now I'm like, Oh, I really need to look into that. Um,
02:08:46.520so fuel fit speaks and he says, greetings, full fair, thou shalt never find. So hence
02:08:57.900shalt thou get the home. Yes. What's in the hat or, you know, what's the quickest way to the
02:09:05.020house you back the way you came um is basically what he's giving him um yeah you'll find no
02:09:12.000greetings here and the only home that you have for thee is the one you left this morning
02:09:17.320um and he's he continues he says fjord sviv am i and wise am i found and i think that's why one
02:09:28.080of the translations they're saying like mighty wise um but i i think mountain wise again mountains
02:09:35.440were definitely associated with the yachtins um and their time before the gods on midgard um
02:09:43.880and he uh he says uh fjolsvith am i and wise am i found but miserly am i with meat
02:09:54.360thou never shall enter within the house go forth like a wolf on thy way so
02:10:02.640here he's he's talking about the the feast and that like you'll find no joy coming here um
02:10:12.660and and the interesting thing about the translation of meat meat is an is an anglo-saxon
02:10:21.440word that meant meal um it just meant to eat it didn't only speak of flesh of an animal um
02:10:30.160but i just i find that those translations are very interesting when you get into some of those
02:10:35.840details it was later on that english transformed to have uh meat mean flesh um and he says yeah
02:10:46.240like make like a wolf and and just keep you know uh loping by uh and and of course is is referring
02:10:54.640to the fact that he is a wolf or that he is this kind of unwanted consumer um and sweet dog speaks
02:11:02.320he says in five few from the joy of their eyes will go forth when the sight of their loves they
02:11:12.000seek full bright are the gates of the golden hall and a home shall i here enjoy so you know he is
02:11:23.040he's motivated by love that's his ultimate uh quest um and so even though it's dark and even
02:11:32.080though there's a menacing yachting at the front and there are flames ringing the house it is the
02:11:38.560love of his heart and his desire that will allow him to supersede these these problems um
02:11:49.680and then fjol svith speaks he says tell me now fellow what father thou hast and the kindred of
02:11:58.800whom thou canst. Svipdag says, Vindkald am I, and Varkald's son, and Fjolkald is his father.
02:12:10.580It's very interesting here, and most likely he's not revealing his true name, but in actuality he's
02:12:18.060obfuscating his true name with the intention that, you know, you should never give your true name
02:12:24.980to an adversary. And then that names have power. So, you know, he says, I am wind cold. And again,
02:12:34.380this references Windkald or Windkaldr is that he just came from the road. So it's a travel name.
02:12:42.560It's a, it's a name that emphasizes that he is traveling. I am wind cold. And Varkald is my
02:12:51.620father and feel called is my is his father um and in seven um fuel sweet says now answer me this
02:13:02.980uh oh sorry excuse me it's the other way around sweep dog says now answer me this feels with
02:13:09.620the question i ask for now the truth would i know who is it that holds and has for his own
02:13:16.900the rule over this hall so rich and fjolf says it's mangrove is she her mother bore her
02:13:29.620to the son of svarthorin the black thorn um uh there's really nothing known of that name but
02:13:39.940But to the son of Svartathorin, she is, she is it that holds and has her own, the rule of the hall so rich.
02:13:53.360And Svipdag says, now answer me, Fjolsviv, the question I ask, for now the truth would I know, what call that, what call they the gate?
02:14:04.220For among the gods never saw man so grim a sight.
02:14:09.940So now they're talking about the great palisade or portcullis, I should say, that's like blocking the way into the courtyard or into the hall.
02:27:48.120And few can guess what shall fell the tree, for fire nor iron shall fell it.
02:27:55.420So this makes more sense that the name, because if you think back to Alvismal, each of the realms name components to cosmology differently.
02:28:09.840and in this case here we talk about the tree that is in heaven that that cascades over all
02:28:18.120um existence uh to the jotens they would they call it mimir's tree and that's because there's
02:28:26.900one significant root that runs into jotunheim it is the receptacle of memory um erd porous forth
02:28:35.360or log and time and the gods are again presiding over it in cosmic order and then it flows through
02:28:43.840midgard and it works all of its many multifaceted processes and then it flows into mimir as well
02:28:51.540and that is where lord othen placed his eye so that he could see all that has happened perhaps
02:28:56.560if he had missed something um so it makes sense that they would call this mimir's tree but
02:29:02.480It is Yggdrasil overhanging Jotunheim. And again, that's just the emphasis that Yggdrasil is the cosmological circulatory system.
02:29:19.460It reaches in and it's, you know, nobody knows how deep the roots go and where they go fully save one, the one who has placed himself upon the tree.
02:29:32.480Um, but that it's, it presides through all the worlds, it stretches in all places.
02:29:40.400Um, and these three major roots are the ones that, you know, one goes down into, um, Nivelheim
02:29:47.300and just beyond Helgard and, um, it draws up.
02:29:51.920And so the ascendancy of the dead coming from the, the lower realm, the place that's kind
02:29:59.440of outside of the jurisdiction of the gods or at least outside of it's it's always been there it's
02:30:06.240the ancient world of nivelheim um is the perfect place to kind of set things that are it's outside
02:30:13.420of the jurisdiction of like everything in a way it's a perfect safe zone and then with the root
02:30:20.360drawing up it brings elements back up into the heavenly realm um but it still does spread into
02:30:30.840jotunheim and i you know it's never stated but i would presume also vonaheim it is the matrix
02:30:37.640of our reality something really important about and again it's not a tree
02:30:44.920it's a thing that is the context for our existence
02:30:52.300but it has roots in deeds in the past in things that are fed to it those roots and things that
02:31:04.820are fed to it go throughout its veins all the way through to its leaves they feed how it flourishes
02:31:14.320or how it doesn't flourish, whether it's stricken with blight
02:31:19.200and it withers and rots, whether it's strong and healthy
02:33:39.140Not just our existence in the material,
02:33:42.080but in a very holy, in both senses of the word, context.
02:33:47.920And I think it's really important to note here,
02:33:51.580some of the meat of so much of these poems that we read,
02:33:55.700And the story itself matters and is cool and useful and strengthens our faith in particular deities or in particular applications of our values.
02:34:09.180but the picture it paints should affect the lens in which we view the world as we approach it
02:34:18.620the lens in which we see one another the lens through which we see our gods the lens through
02:34:25.020which we see ausitru and the future that we leave for our children i think it's worth noting here i
02:34:33.080it seems kind of random when we mention Yggdrasil it's worth noting these things also as kind of a
02:34:41.960side note is we have a a page break here between this and the next five stanzas i wanted to note
02:34:49.400in case he disappears or may have other things to do um i say he i don't know uh tcg does the
02:35:01.240AFA look down on or condemn at home practice once joined, such as my family and I's bloats
02:35:07.880held on different dates. I don't know what kind of bloat are you and your family do,
02:35:16.320so I can't say definitively, but no, as a general rule, of course not. We would love
02:35:23.360to have at-home practice our gods getting worship is good them getting more worship is more good1.00
02:35:33.940them getting less worship is less good now assuming those blotar are good and coming from
02:35:43.160a right place and devoted to our iser of course we don't look down on that we celebrate that
02:35:51.260That's fantastic. That should be strengthened and in turn strengthen our public practice when you bring the hymenia that you've built from your home practice, you and your family, to our Hoffs.
02:36:08.700You share that with the rest of us when we stand with you in ritual.
02:36:13.060When you unite with us through doing home practice, we're all made better because of it.
02:36:18.920so no we don't look down on that at all and i just wanted to make that clear
02:36:24.520in case you know you may go on your way this evening i know it's getting late depending on
02:36:28.440where you are um yeah that was a little bit more of an aside than it needed to be but i think it was
02:36:39.640you know worth mentioning and these uh firestone parabolita salted caramel beverages that i'm
02:36:48.920consuming are 9.2 so i waxed it i appreciate them they're really good and they were brought by
02:36:59.400a relatively new member that came and joined us at our most recent dinner and i appreciate that so
02:37:10.340Yeah, I think it's also worth noting that like for Yule,
02:37:14.660almost the entirety of Yule except for Mother's Night is celebrate.
02:37:19.040Like Mother's Night is generally when we get together
02:37:21.080and we light the Yule log together and we unite in that light.
02:37:25.240But the rest of Yule is generally done at home, you know.
02:37:30.200So, it's even in our structuring of one of the biggest holy tithes.
02:37:39.780It is, and it's a unique and a really special challenge that we have
02:37:46.440to contemplate home practice versus Hoff practice.
02:37:52.000Approaching this, and I don't know, TCG, I have no idea who you are,
02:37:56.440your familiarity with us a true but until 2015 we didn't have a half everything was some version
02:38:07.160of home practice maybe with guests maybe not but it's only relatively recently that we're able to
02:38:15.720also practice in temples to our gods in our ancestors day in the sagas and the times that
02:38:23.720we often read about in the lore aside from maybe seasonal gatherings or whatever so much of their
02:38:34.200practice was done at home so no we don't look down on that or minimize it at all and to do this right
02:38:44.040one of the things that i'm very proud of about also true that differentiates it from
02:38:50.280some other religious practice that we may be more familiar with
02:38:54.520it's not just something that you do on you know the one day a month that we have a holy
02:39:00.280tide at the half it should be integrated into your family everybody takes a strange and deviant
02:39:10.520sexual connotation to um the lay of rig it's not0.61
02:39:20.600it's not about sexuality it's about inviting the the the icier into your home into your marriage0.87
02:39:30.840into the relationship you have with your wife and into the very fabric of bringing your children0.92
02:39:37.720into the world and raising them up to adulthood is imbuing them with relationship through the
02:39:45.960gift cycle with the iser so the fact that you do home practice we would never ask you to stop that
02:39:53.000i just wanted you to be real sure on that i don't know if that's a point that needed to
02:39:56.200be cleared up but if it did i wanted to make sure we did so i do think there is another
02:40:01.400layer to this question though and that's the differentiation between
02:40:07.720gothic-led practice and not gothic-led practice or gothic gothic gothic yes yeah just to not get
02:40:16.600confused with gothic people and or the architecture and are both because their uh their lineage is
02:40:24.880laid into the well of memir so that said no realistically the the thing that might be
02:40:34.180confusing and this isn't to your question your question may be one and done but there may be
02:40:38.700others listening um the ideal the best circumstance when we're all together as a community is yes we
02:40:48.280want our gothar our priests performing the sacred rights for the community but that doesn't preempt
02:40:55.980when in the absence of that you performing those rights in your home for your family
02:41:02.380um i think that's a a confusion and i don't think it's um taken poorly i think it's because
02:41:10.460of the evolution of our faith and where we're at we just recently had priests in a very formal
02:41:19.020way or in a way where they're distributed across you know across midgard in as well as they are
02:41:26.540and there's still places that are very far from our gothar the idea is it's good to maintain the
02:41:33.100gift cycle with our gods you as an arian man arian woman should on your own engage in that
02:41:42.060gift cycle when you're able when we do it as a community yes it's best done under the auspices
02:41:50.140of our gothar because that's the right order of things and it's most potent but it doesn't negate
02:41:58.140you doing that on your own at your at your house with your family and i think that
02:42:05.020because one is optimal doesn't make the other one bad and i think that's our people are really
02:42:13.100we struggle with nuance um when one thing is preferred people take that to me and everything
02:42:21.500else is forbidden or bad or when man i like chocolate cake you mean you hate vanilla cake
02:42:28.540no i love cake cake is delicious i prefer chocolate there's there's no reason to go
02:42:35.980that route and i appreciate you bringing it up nick because i think it's a very relevant point
02:42:39.740but no we don't look down on your home practice at all uh yeah solid fact matt loves cake he does
02:42:46.780um but if you're going to give matt cake he prefers an ice cream cake
02:42:52.860uh if cake is happening but any cake will do because it's delicious uh but no realistically
02:42:59.740and with the the point of what you asked home practice is awesome you should do that as well
02:43:06.300as public practice and as fawn mentioned so much of the yule celebration is done in the home with
02:43:13.500primarily home practice but spawn what do you got well i was just going to add this too one
02:43:19.340of the big differences between say um home or um non-gothic practices is the processes of gifting
02:43:32.620versus um blessings received so oftentimes what you will see with um gothar is that they as a
02:43:43.580representative of the folk in their entirety um with the authority that is given to them by the
02:43:50.140outs of true folk assembly and its long initiatory traditions the the gothar will distribute or
02:43:57.980first they will ask for the worthiness of blessing and then distribute blessing whereas
02:44:03.260you'll find in a lot of uh like say home um you know gifting cycles and i even do it too it's kind
02:44:13.660of funny like when i'm at the hof i feel that ability but when i'm at home i generally just
02:44:22.140gift i i place the mead into the bowl and then i pour the bowl out after the um the bloat is done
02:44:32.540um because again the the distributing of blessings can be uh different or and it's not
02:44:40.940it's not that it's not done it's just that it's done differently under different circumstances
02:44:46.380The Gothar are, again, taking upon themselves the mantle of being a representative of the people in a house that was built by the AFA or, you know, again, built in symbolic sense and sometimes quite literal sense in dedication to the gods, which are not around.
02:45:10.960Uh, there's no like official places other than in the Ossetree Folk Assembly dedicated to the gods of the Germanic people.0.87
02:45:24.000So when the Gothar are there in that capacity and authority, gaining the blessings from, um, all of that Orlog that has worked towards those achievements is a huge deal.
02:45:36.380um whereas you know generally when i'm doing smaller blokes i just gift i gift uh the the
02:45:44.720bowl of mead over um and uh you know once it's placed inside the flout bowl i don't really
02:45:52.080um you know mess with that that's a gift to them so that i think there's one
02:45:58.000little subtle difference between the two
02:46:00.080um oh sorry i just realized i i am floating alone in space um okay so the next part here
02:46:17.540that we're moving into is going to be really really interesting because um there's mentioning
02:46:23.380in lore um that is uh you know not common um so sweep sweep dog says now answer me feels vid the
02:46:36.660question i ask for now the truth would i know what grows from the seed of the tree so great
02:46:43.540that fire nor iron shall fell it now this is very important these two stanzas are extremely important
02:46:51.380within the large overall ethos of the church fuels with speaks he says women sick with child
02:47:01.860shall seek its fruit to the flames to bear then out shall come what within was hid
02:47:09.780and so is it mighty with men so there is an important reason why
02:47:17.540the ausser true folk assembly sees the sees yggdrasil in its proper place that it was not
02:47:24.020a mistake that snorri wasn't trying to make some allegoric you know gotcha moment no
02:47:31.380bore lifts heaven and separates the sky from the earth and in doing so on the top of heaven's
02:47:41.700mountains, there is a tree. And Ausgarder is there as well. But it is not, it's the entirety
02:47:50.240of heaven. And the roots from heaven descend down into all the other worlds. Is it actually a tree?
02:47:56.600We've already discussed that. No, it's, again, it's the circulatory system of our reality and
02:48:02.200all realities. And most importantly, when the well of earth, which is in heaven, and again,
02:48:10.380And the way things kind of work is that that which is above is hierarchically, you know, controlling or predecessing that which is below it.
02:48:22.200So the gods give unto us and the tree gives unto us and thus mankind is made in the middling world.
02:48:32.420And then our lives here then turn towards ancestors and, you know, governs their inner, well, in a way to they govern our interceding who's allowed in.0.97
02:48:44.900And then the root that is in the lower draws back up to the tree.
02:48:50.660And every morning the dew that falls forth from the tree is new life.
02:48:55.180and it is adjudicated at the well where the gods sit at their doom seats in heaven so that's one
02:49:04.720of the big reasons why we emphasized our our clear and definitive differences towards cosmological
02:49:10.800views like other groups like the norena society and we view that the idea that um you would take
02:49:17.340this cosmological view and move all of the roots into the underworld and completely destroy
02:49:24.100the cyclical nature of that symbology is uh i don't know if it's i mean sometimes i think it's
02:49:32.420kind of asinine but other times i think it's again it's just a blatant disrespect towards
02:49:37.300kind of uh the mysteries that are that are revealed for us to understand better things
02:49:43.940uh you know i've heard all kinds of theories oh yeah snorty was a christian so the three roots
02:49:51.860um are the tree is on its side because he wanted the the the faith of our true to be destroyed
02:50:01.420i've heard some crazy stuff um but no the idea is is really really simple that the the strata of the
02:50:10.120of the tree its roots descends from those who are living amongst it in cosmic order the gods
02:50:17.700and the nornir and all that flows into it creates time creates fate and ultimately
02:50:27.840the newborn of our children whether they are you know parts of or the souls of our ancestors drawn
02:50:35.820up in the tree and either as these do the dew drops the gods make them desir make them alvar
02:50:43.520or let them proceed through to join and give boon to their bloodlines it's all happens right there
02:50:51.400at that convergence point and if you suddenly make all the roots of Yggdrasil at the bottom
02:50:57.340one it greatly loses the purpose of what the the place beneath that that place far away
02:51:04.720why what its mythological purpose is um but it also kind of again ruins
02:51:11.440the ultimate cyclical nature of it all and it's all just simply because
02:51:17.180i don't know like the axis mundi needs to be maintained but if we look like i was speaking
02:51:24.600with the tripartites it's the same with the mountain or heavenly mountains or you know the
02:51:32.920the tree all of the centering of the u of the world and the universe is different in every
02:51:38.760aryan branch um but again we're not saying in literalism that's what they are it's it's uh
02:51:47.160it's just that you know the nordic and germanic view of the center of the heavenly realm is is a
02:51:54.840tree um some would say a mountain and those connection points between them are varied as
02:52:00.520well we have the airman soul um and we have that understanding of the heavens being foisted and
02:52:07.000and placed upon the joist that keeps heaven and the earth separate um and others would say oh
02:52:14.120no it's the mountain or you know it's um um well generally it's usually just a mountain or a tree
02:52:22.200um anyways so life that comes from yggdrasil that flows forward and drops into the well of urd and
02:52:32.680manifests in our time and in our reality comes from the tree and the tree is so
02:52:38.920vital to the movement of soul power of humanity um and with good reason and the gods are utilizing0.52
02:52:47.080this um as they refine us as they make us better um so here he says yes that when women are pregnant
02:52:59.240they seek the the benefit of the tree because the tree is what bears forth
02:53:04.280life for the folk as they go forward um and sweep dog says
02:53:10.680um oh and also bear in mind too this is again he's seeing the cascadingness of the tree even in
02:53:19.320jotunheim and in alvis mall it's the same igdarsil is mentioned um it is seen uh it is understood
02:53:28.520it's not simply something far away in heaven but is also kind of again overlapping over all things
02:53:35.720and its roots reach everywhere um and sweet dog says in 23 now answer me feels the question i ask
02:53:44.440for now the truth would i know what is he on the highest bow that glitters all with gold
03:20:41.200That's something that we are working on internally is beefing up our linguistics on that.
03:20:48.240And it's just something I want to share with the audience because I'm really getting a lot of benefit out of it.
03:20:52.600And I think that those of you that don't already have that would get that benefit as well.
03:21:06.040So I should bring this up before we do it because I know we got like 10 stanzas left.
03:21:11.200But a question came up, and because I opened the door of linguistics, I do think it has become relevant.
03:21:18.780Heathen Man asks, hey Svan, did you ever look up that Elfdalion dialect that survives still in Sweden, that is said to be very close to Old Norse and still use runic script into near modern times?
03:35:35.580I'd like to, as a final kind of note this evening,
03:35:39.640I am thankful for the fans of Victory Never Sleeps.
03:35:43.860I'm thankful for our amazing guests that we have on the program.
03:35:47.820As always, I am beyond thankful for the blessings of the Aesir in my life, in the Astro Folk Assembly, and bringing us all together for these evenings that we share.
03:36:03.900And I would encourage everybody tomorrow to feast, enjoy time with your family and your friends, and really take the day to appreciate all of the blessings in your life and to be thankful.
03:36:25.680and i mean that on a couple levels i would encourage everyone to give prayer and thanksgiving
03:36:35.260to our holy isere that have done so much to bless us starting from our very existence
03:36:45.440and carrying us through our lives do that if nothing else but also on top of that
03:36:55.220Let the people in your life who have blessed you and given you gifts know that you appreciate it.
03:37:54.660And really, and I'm saying this as much to you guys as I am to myself, spend tomorrow being thankful for all of your blessings because all of us are far more blessed than often we realize.
03:38:10.820So with a heart full of appreciation for my blessings, thank you guys for spending the evening with us.
03:38:22.300Thank you, Svon, for joining us once again and for being one of my very best friends.