Asatru Folk Assembly - 12⧸3⧸25 Victory Never Sleeps, Ep 178 - Guðrúnarkviða in þriðja ｜ Oddrúnarkviða ｜ Atlakviða

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 Thank you.

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00:01:30.000 Thank you.

00:02:00.000 Thank you.

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00:03:00.000 Hello, and welcome to this week's exciting edition of Victory Never Sleeps.

00:03:15.520 Svon, why are you looking so casual today?

00:03:18.540 There's only one reason. I got the Freysoft shirt, and I actually, normally I wear a shirt

00:03:28.240 tie to work and i actually wore this today to work and i was getting dressed upstairs and i was put

00:03:34.240 my slacks on and i was like no wait this is the perfect time to wear this shirt so that's the

00:03:40.960 only reason why i'm doing it very special occasion so why is it the perfect time to wear that shirt

00:03:46.960 because the dedication to phrase off is happening next or uh coming up this weekend and um

00:03:55.680 I will be there. You will be there. All of us will be there. This has been the big collective

00:04:02.540 group push to the goal. And now we are here and I got a chance to go up before I, I recently just

00:04:11.980 came back from a trip from Japan. And before then I got to do the mural and pretty, pretty happy

00:04:20.100 with it and i really can't wait to for everyone to see it i i pray mostly that um holy fray is

00:04:29.060 happy with it but i you and everyone else i hope is happy with it too for your sake i hope so as

00:04:37.860 well yes no um i i am very fortunate in many ways but one of the ways i'm fortunate is when spawn

00:04:47.140 goes to paint these murals I get all these like progress pictures in the in the making of them

00:04:52.900 and this one looks really cool I'm very very excited to get to see it here this weekend

00:04:58.420 um yeah so as Fawn was saying that's coming up in a couple of days

00:05:03.220 we would love to see you guys there if you can make it by all means do now is it is a once in

00:05:11.220 a forever opportunity um it's a pretty amazing building in a pretty amazing spot uh and

00:05:22.180 we're very confident that it's some a worthy gift to honor uh frayer with um

00:05:31.060 got real i think we're sitting at 142 registered right now which is amazing it's going to be a

00:05:38.980 great event and we would love to see you guys there so if you can do it let one of uh one of

00:05:43.380 our folk builders know we can get you all set up um you can uh rsvp on the runestone site

00:05:53.860 it's free but we do like to get an idea who's coming so we can make sure we got enough food

00:05:59.220 um but yeah it's gonna be awesome i'm very excited a lot of afa leadership will be there

00:06:05.460 also in attendance a very special treat our founder uh stephen mcnalen will be there along

00:06:11.220 with his wife githya sheila mcnalen um yeah not enough good i can say about it it's going to be

00:06:18.100 awesome judging spawn and his mural the pressure mounts when you just said the founder it's going

00:06:27.860 to be it's going to be it's going to be great no really and truly though it's going to be awesome

00:06:33.140 um update on stuff because that's what we do at the top of the program right um

00:06:42.260 we you guys are astounding with your generosity and it's much much much appreciated

00:06:49.700 uh as we go into the dedication we are 32 paid off of phrase off

00:06:55.620 we have to run the run the math on it we have just over 80 000 left to pay down on it

00:07:11.620 so anybody who would like to help us with that you can donate at runestone.org

00:07:19.700 donate you guys have already been extremely generous we're very very appreciative of it

00:07:25.620 And speaking of generosity, GW Farnsworth, as he always does, started off today's broadcast with his amazing generosity, $25 to this broadcast and the AFA General Fund.

00:07:40.720 Thank you so much. We appreciate it. And we appreciate your consistency in giving. It's it's it helps and it helps a lot. So thank you for that.

00:07:51.380 so we're getting back I'm sorry I was looking at the questions I think we'll answer a couple

00:08:04.580 of questions maybe before we start today and then we're going to get back into the text we are

00:08:09.400 hitting a lot of the really small fragmentary pieces and really small pieces at the end of

00:08:15.320 poetic era so i think we should probably have maybe two more broadcasts after this on the

00:08:23.480 poetic era and then we can move on i appreciate everybody uh joining us on this journey through

00:08:30.200 our lore um i hope it's been beneficial to you guys i know that i have gotten a lot out of being

00:08:36.600 able to go through it with uh with spawn and with all of you um i believe that spawn has gotten a

00:08:42.280 lot out of it as well hope you guys have it's always cool to go back over it with fresh eyes

00:08:48.040 at a different stage different season in your life and you know with different people that

00:08:52.520 may have different questions or a different you know a different angle that they're seeing

00:08:56.280 different things from so if you want to follow along tonight uh velospow.org nick's got the

00:09:02.200 link up thank you nick um we are going to be covering three pieces tonight uh the guthru

00:09:09.800 In three, the, and the and I'd have to go back and look at the length of each of those,

00:09:24.560 but I think that's easily doable in tonight's show.

00:09:28.300 As always, any of the questions that you have also forgive my pronunciation, I'm working

00:09:33.820 on it.

00:09:34.820 I think I'm making progress.

00:09:35.820 No, I think you're doing great.

00:09:39.160 don't know about all that but i appreciate it coming from a son of iceland a lot better than

00:09:43.240 a lot of folks and even myself in some eastland's own favorite son here um

00:09:53.960 while you guys are sorting that out we got um you know a question that's that's easy uh how many

00:10:00.040 Hoffs does the AFA have now? The AFA has 4.9. After this weekend, the AFA has five once

00:10:09.300 is officially dedicated. We own five Hoffs now, and we are officially doing the dedication

00:10:15.180 of Frey's Hoff this Saturday. That's Odin's Hoff in Brownsville, California. Thor's Hoff

00:10:21.580 in Linden, North Carolina. Baldur's Hoff in Murdoch, Minnesota. New York's Hoff in White

00:10:28.280 springs florida and now phrase hoff in austintown ohio um yeah so that's where we're sitting

00:10:37.000 uh for perspective we got our very first off odin's off um we dedicated that 10 years and

00:10:47.400 one month ago. So in 2015. Svahn, what do folks need to know before we get into the text tonight

00:11:00.220 or do you just want to roll right into it? No, a little preface is that one, the three

00:11:07.160 are medium to short, depending. And so that's why I think doing all three of them. And again,

00:11:15.140 re-emphasizing the importance of um what these poems are they're late in the uh era of poetics

00:11:27.140 in iceland and greenland the two the uh two of them in here are actually probably sourced from

00:11:35.200 greenland and the poets at the time that were comprising the poems may have been christian by

00:11:44.040 this time. Yet they do mention much from our faith and the older faith that would not have

00:11:51.760 been too far removed from them, maybe a generation or so. But you kind of begin to see it because

00:11:58.420 they are starting to lose grips of the spiritual understanding of certain places that they

00:12:06.240 mention and cosmology um and that's kind of a sad part of this but um the other point is is that

00:12:18.400 this is coming to the end and where it started it started in central eastern europe during the

00:12:28.000 migration period with the goths the huns the burgundians uh with all of the moving arounds

00:12:38.960 between france and what would now be ukraine these stories were so formulative and they carried on

00:12:48.320 in this oral tradition becoming not history but beyond history from meta history it became legend

00:12:57.280 and the legend and its purpose was to carry a spirit and to propagate a spirit amongst our

00:13:04.640 people with uh an inclination of inspiring the crowds that heard these poems by the late stages

00:13:13.760 it is about the meter it is about uh the memorization about organization and oftentimes

00:13:22.000 what was left um of the stories some of them there's a character tonight in one of the poems

00:13:29.120 she's never mentioned in any of the other stories so it's speculated that uh

00:13:39.440 her poem was created simply in retrospect to everything else going on um

00:13:45.760 So by the late stages, it is about formulation, but we can't forget where this comes from and who is being mentioned.

00:13:55.160 And this specifically with Attila and with the Burgundians and with Theoderic, the king of the Goths, he's mentioned in here.

00:14:07.200 So, I like to emphasize to folks that when these poems are being written down, they were stories and poems being told to audiences, and those audiences were meant to inspire, and they had traversed centuries amongst our people, and remained.

00:14:29.240 so even though we're kind of going over these smatterings of the last little bits of everything

00:14:37.040 satelliting the Volsunga saga it's important and I think anybody here listening is doing

00:14:44.980 a little bit of an extra service to themselves because a lot of folks don't read these things

00:14:50.580 a lot of folks don't ever get a chance to kind of delve into these nooks and crannies of lore

00:14:56.120 but more so the big picture is what we're doing what you just mentioned is we get to see everything

00:15:03.900 kind of interconnected we get to kind of talk about how all of this came to be and it and

00:15:10.380 ultimately why the icelanders made the poems and wrote down the codus regis and ultimately i believe

00:15:20.220 had a divine hand in it i believe that that was the seed being planted by uh lord odin and his

00:15:29.420 way of preserving that which would be uh grown again and is grown again with us so the the story

00:15:38.700 continues with us so that was kind of my i just really really thinking about that today on the

00:15:48.540 way home from work all right well um i think what we're gonna do is read one then answer questions

00:16:03.180 then go into the next then answer any other questions that get generated and kind of go

00:16:07.740 through the night that way a little bit breaking it up um this one has 11 stanzas so you don't have

00:16:13.740 to have a long attention span to get through this one oh and which one because i know we're doing

00:16:18.140 the three which one are we doing first uh the guthronar kvita uh in three though okay all right

00:16:27.340 let me find it all right yes the the the another thing that i was kind of thinking about kvita

00:16:37.740 um versus say like mall or like like uh however mall the maul at the end and the kvita kvita is a

00:16:46.540 song and maul would be like a ballad it's they're they're very similar in perhaps the way we would

00:16:57.340 perceive them but for people at home if you see the word at the end that means it's it's a song

00:17:04.220 or a recited poem and a maul is a ballad which again is kind of recited but i think it's more

00:17:13.020 structured when it's a ballad um and i know this one in particular is a lot more organized but

00:17:22.860 when we get to say like with uh at least uh um that's chaotic so yeah my understanding is that

00:17:34.540 um maul is like a saying or a statement a lecitation yeah so i don't think it has to be

00:17:43.820 lyrical i don't think song in this sense has to be lyrical as well i think in medieval literature

00:17:52.300 you have a lot of epic poetry that's described as songs that i don't know that they're recited

00:18:00.620 lyrically but certainly poetically and i think that the the meter and the rules are a little

00:18:06.780 bit different uh any kind of a issuing of a statement it can be mal as opposed to kvida

00:18:15.260 which is you know a meter poetically metered presentation um so let's see yes this is uh

00:18:29.660 very short um now the big one about this is there's some interesting points that i wanted to

00:18:37.340 bring up one i mentioned that the possibility that christians were at hand in relation to

00:18:45.500 composing these poems and the only reason why i'm bringing up in this poem is because this one has

00:18:51.260 a trial by boiling water and the only place that i could find this mentioned um as an actual thing

00:19:03.900 is done by a catholic priest in france in another story during the um like medieval uh time between

00:19:17.340 the renaissance and of course like the the the late nordic period i was just looking around to

00:19:22.380 see if there was ever any comparison and uh this trial by the by uh attrition um seems to

00:19:34.300 somewhat source from there and we see this happen a lot in the greenland stories there's also a

00:19:41.340 story of a christian and uh an ausitru berserker who um walk over coals

00:19:51.900 and this kind of comparison trial uh starts all the way back in the bible i believe with um

00:20:00.060 uh one of the the jewish um uh believers of yahweh going against the canaanite believer of i i don't

00:20:10.940 know exactly who no there was a jew versus one of pharaohs i think it was moses versus a one of

00:20:20.380 pharaoh's viziers to compete on they had like a wizard battle right yeah no well no i remember

00:20:29.740 this one was about a pyre or lighting a pyre and they were is that it is that the same one no no

00:20:37.100 that's a completely different one that's a different kind of different kind of wizard

00:20:41.380 battle that happened right and well that's kind of what i'm surmising here is that uh there is a

00:20:49.140 strong argument to say that this part of the story this trial um or by ordeal um that gudrun is placed

00:20:59.240 under may have uh christian origins and it it harkens all the way back because christianity

00:21:09.000 is a subsect of judaism there are tropes that they have carried with them from the middle east

00:21:15.640 all the way to even uh just before the renaissance you know it's it's strange and i don't know because

00:21:22.360 there's various i don't know about trial by ordeal per se but there's trial by combat a lot in our

00:21:33.160 tradition under a similar premise that said premise so anyways that's why i had a sip um

00:21:46.280 um but it uh also christians exist in the land of the original story when we talk about the

00:22:04.700 um you have the roman empire at that point with the first hints of Christianity maybe it's an

00:22:15.260 ancient element of that that makes it through i think that's less likely but the other thing is

00:22:21.500 it's interesting to see the evolution of setting when stories are reinterpreted or performed in

00:22:32.460 contemporary ways one of my favorite like visual things it's just neat to look at is an old codex

00:22:41.660 uh from iceland with it's where you get a lot of pictures of the gods and i can pull it up but

00:22:50.060 it's like they're in like renaissance clothes they have like pantaloons and like

00:22:55.180 you know halberds and like falchones and like they the stuff that they have

00:23:02.300 isn't viking age things it's interpreted in the things of the day and you see that a lot

00:23:09.660 in medieval art and medieval stories you see that when you get the evolution uh with this cycle of

00:23:16.540 stories in the new lung and lead it's told on the scale of you know epic high medieval armies and

00:23:25.260 castles and stuff that didn't exist at the time in the you know the level of grandeur that it has and

00:23:32.300 And I think, I don't think it's done dishonestly.

00:23:38.620 I think that very often the poet to relate the stories

00:23:43.500 to the audience of the day, crafts the setting

00:23:48.080 in something that's familiar with the audience

00:23:51.240 that's being delivered to.

00:23:53.360 And so I think we see some of that periodically on display.

00:23:56.720 Sorry, I was actually asking Catherine real quick to grab something because we're talking about imagery.

00:24:06.260 Before you do, Leroy in Michigan donated $30 towards Fraze Hoff.

00:24:13.460 Thank you, Leroy.

00:24:14.220 We appreciate it.

00:24:14.980 Thank you very much.

00:24:16.140 And Mump donated $500 to Baldur's Hoff Steeple.

00:24:21.160 And he says that Odin's Hoff is the best Hoff.

00:24:23.920 thank you monk we appreciate that very much and i'm certain that balder appreciates that thank you

00:24:32.540 um i was gonna say you know by no means when i bring it up am i doing a kind of pick and choose

00:24:43.500 i we have spoken you and i personally and on bns about how knighthood comes out of germanic

00:24:52.080 paganism and that it wasn't really prevalent in christianity prior um and you know leading into

00:25:01.600 the crusades the the the unification of the knighthood and what it meant to be a knight and

00:25:06.800 why they had to change christianity to kind of bring in the knights um so that would be us kind

00:25:14.000 of saying see without us you get but then to say oh but these trial by ordeals that's a christian

00:25:20.800 thing only i i was not trying to do the pick and choose on that certainly uh we know in europe

00:25:31.360 as everywhere there were there were um things that by modern standpoints we would be

00:25:39.760 we would look kind of sideways at them um but i i'm just looking into it trying to find it

00:25:48.400 found those correlations and what led me to the big part of that was about how these last poems

00:25:54.880 are coming from greenland we know that eric or ogroda he eric the red oh thank you so much um

00:26:04.080 uh his son leif was converted and there was a huge spiritual gap between um iceland and

00:26:15.920 greenland i do like to say that iceland was named in the spirit of trying to keep

00:26:23.280 harold fairhair out but that greenland was deceptive and there might be some correlation

00:26:32.640 with uh there was kind of uh some deceptiveness going on societally by that time but i did want

00:26:41.280 to bring up this is um you know dealing with imagery uh when you you know in the adas when we

00:26:50.240 show the the images of the gods that they wrote down were wearing fluted pants they they looked

00:26:57.840 almost like german mercenaries from the renaissance with plumes and feathers and large caps and

00:27:05.360 multi-colored uh pleated pants with giant gross messers and um even the trident almost vajra

00:27:16.000 looking uh implement that lord odin has um but later on when we see the renaissance of um imagery

00:27:26.080 the gods and uh even even the smart alfar are depicted in a way in which it kind of removes

00:27:39.080 them and they become more or less just classical in their appearance um and we even discussed a

00:27:48.360 lot about this when we were doing the murals how should we could we should we do classical

00:27:53.640 should we do historical um and i think that uh imagery of the gods and imagery of of the way that

00:28:04.040 we um connect but i think when you were talking about how um the last jump off point was the

00:28:12.100 norse that was where we we so we're connecting to that jump off point and we're not doing a big

00:28:20.480 smattering of everything from all over um that's what led to the murals being where they're wearing

00:28:26.880 uh nordic and a little bit of anglo-saxon uh appearance um in their uh visage of the gods

00:28:38.080 there um i think that uh it's it's important that people know that um that that was a discussion

00:28:47.600 that we had that that was something we were working towards that that was something on your

00:28:51.680 mind on my mind as we were building a lot of these things and when we read the stories when we read

00:29:00.320 the adas and when we read the merceberg charm and so on and so forth taking consideration time

00:29:06.960 the surrounding uh the climate of our ancestors with in relation to their their relationship with

00:29:15.360 the gods their relationships with each other etc these are all factors that very rarely get discussed

00:29:23.040 by scholars uh historians um or perhaps one focuses on it more than the other but very

00:29:31.280 rarely does it ever get wrapped into one and that's the big point i think of our our uh

00:29:39.200 live discussions is that they kind of start to blend all of that together

00:29:49.200 um so with that being said gudhrun is now at the hall of atli her brothers are slain by atli

00:30:03.840 for past grievance uh that's been covered in the stories previously she is not going to let that

00:30:12.860 abide that is a huge tenant of our ancestors of the time is that to let the murder of your

00:30:22.200 kinfolk go unavenged is greatly dishonorable it is unseemly um and it was again poetic

00:30:33.820 even taken up by women in the stories and this kind of lends to the concept or the idea that

00:30:42.780 the audience was greatly moved this would be the similar sense as uh say like 80s action movies

00:30:50.460 there are certain things in 80s action movies that the audience loved they were tropes that

00:30:57.100 were used over and over and over again because they were awesome and everyone loved them

00:31:01.260 we are not different from our ancestors and they're very it was very much the same thing so

00:31:08.280 having the notion of a horse that was loyal to you having the notion of a daughter who avenged

00:31:16.640 your death having the notion of your son fighting and dying in a grand battle uh you know for the

00:31:26.340 honor or for glory these were all uh repeated and brought out and the audiences loved it that's what

00:31:36.180 uh the the functionality of these stories is like a rope each strand has its own purpose

00:31:42.940 and we can't forget that one strand of these is entertainment and so she is going to

00:31:52.160 set her sights on avenging her brothers and her, in essence, her family. And

00:31:59.820 it has already been prophesied. And so if any of the audience had heard any of the other previous

00:32:08.000 stories, the story of Brynhild or the Volsunga saga, they would know that it was coming. So it

00:32:14.380 was all about how it was going to play out um she is accused Gudrun is accused of being adulterous

00:32:26.800 with um the king of the Goths historically the Huns moved westward into Gothic territory the

00:32:37.720 Goths were not a single people, but a conglomeration of people.

00:32:41.400 They were a nation of Germanic tribes.

00:32:46.740 And the Huns had superior weaponry and horse movement.

00:32:54.960 But as they moved westward, they started running into a problem.

00:32:58.080 The mountains and the forests of Europe were not making it so easy.

00:33:02.480 So they predominantly reigned in the east.

00:33:05.280 And this would be around Romania, Wallachia, Pomerania or Poland or any of those areas there and along the Black Sea.

00:33:21.200 And so she gets accused of being an adulteress and she has to defend herself.

00:33:28.780 and i just take note too atli is very much a villain in all of these renditions so um

00:33:39.620 pay attention to what atli does throughout all of this so um starting out there's a brief little

00:33:46.860 intro herkya herkya was the name of a serving woman of atli's she had been his concubine

00:33:56.100 She told Atli that she had seen Theodric and Gudrun together. Theodric, Theodric. Atli was greatly angered thereby. Then Gudrun said, and it begins the meter in stanza one.

00:34:18.460 What is thy sorrow, Atli, Boothli's son? Is thy heart heavy laden? Why laughest thou never? It would better befit the warrior far to speak with men and me to look on.

00:34:36.320 and i think that kind of lends to a concept right there is the sullen man uh the the loner

00:34:47.140 uh no women are she's saying like it would be better to look upon you shining amongst your

00:34:57.640 war band amongst your your group and being the leader being strong being bright um all the while

00:35:06.200 course this is double standard because we know ultimately her goal is not to sleep around on him

00:35:14.280 the goal is to avenge her brothers but i digress so atli then speaks it troubles me gudrun

00:35:23.800 kyuki's daughter what hirka in the hall hath told me that thou in the bed with theodric

00:35:32.680 liest beneath the linen in lover's guise pretty straightforward on that one uh and he kind of

00:35:41.800 jumped she said uh i've seen him together and then at least like you guys are sleeping together um

00:35:51.800 gudrun then speaks

00:35:55.400 this shall i with oaths now swear swear by the sacred stone so white

00:36:02.680 So she is referencing what could uniquely be either a Gutanish or Gothic tradition, a Hunnish tradition, or something that may just be understood at the time, or maybe something that was added in in the later ages.

00:36:31.680 ages but she's swearing to uh take an oath upon a white stone um i looked around for this to try to

00:36:42.240 find out if there was any references to a a white stone uh of oafing and i haven't found anything

00:36:50.880 yet but that again is another key thing and i think that as we read these things ultimately

00:36:56.960 to the house of true folk assembly and the gothar are encouraging our folk to look into things read

00:37:05.760 things see the different versions of it but more importantly to try uh learn how to find the clues

00:37:14.880 to look into and this is one of them very very interesting that they mention it um and she

00:37:22.080 continues to say um oh she also mentions she says theodmar's son so uh theodoric is theodmar's son

00:37:32.800 she says i'm not laying with him nor any man in this court and uh she says nor ever once did my

00:37:40.800 arms embrace the hero brave the leader of hosts host of course meaning army uh in another manner

00:37:49.280 our meeting was when our sour sorrows we in secret told so she is saying that she didn't

00:37:56.480 meet with him but they were lamenting um a loss together um and she says with with 30 warriors

00:38:09.280 theodoric came nor of all his men doth one remain though has murdered thou has murdered my brothers

00:38:17.840 and the male-clad men thou hast murdered all the men of my race um so the union between her and

00:38:29.660 is in essence she's saying you are such an ultimate warrior and killer that we are lamenting

00:38:41.600 because of what you do and how well you do it um it is uh again that kind of a loss and i've

00:38:52.440 wondered if this was west versus east that she's in essence without saying it uh my people of the

00:39:00.900 west european are uh lamenting at the loss at the hands of an outsider an easterner but the word race

00:39:09.800 in here is not race as in the way we would use it for nomenclature of um uh folk and other peoples

00:39:20.920 of the world um she specifically is talking about her theod her people her theod um or her theusk

00:39:32.920 um even to this day the icelanders called germany theuskaland which literally means

00:39:38.760 land of the people so it's it's the you you slayed my people and more importantly she's mostly

00:39:46.680 referring to her actual family um or clan um so then at this point it's set up um

00:40:02.360 Um, and she says in, uh, in relation to this, let's cut to the chase.

00:40:12.380 She's summon Soxie.

00:40:15.040 Now everyone, um, might not be familiar with the word Soxie or Sox, Soxa.

00:40:22.020 Um, it means sword or knife or a short sword or kind of almost like a bowie knife, depending

00:40:29.760 in the, in Western Europe and England.

00:40:32.360 But this is the name and of apparently the adjudicator of the court, the one who will conduct the trials.

00:40:43.940 Summon Soxie, the Southron's king, for be the boiling kettle can hollow.

00:40:50.640 So blessing the kettle for the trial.

00:40:58.160 Soxie's unknown.

00:41:00.000 i looked at that as well i mean it is a name um and the southron's king um

00:41:10.640 the only thing i you know could put to this is that a ward chief of one of the

00:41:18.800 tribes of the gutins one of the gothic tribes um but i don't have much more on that um

00:41:27.280 um but she says summon him so he can bless the kettle um that the trial will be done 700 there

00:41:37.360 were in the hall air the queen her hand in the kettle thrust so it's witnessed by 700 folk in

00:41:48.760 hall or in the court of

00:41:51.360 Atli.

00:41:53.220 And then she speaks after

00:41:55.280 thrusting her hand into

00:41:57.020 the boiling water.

00:42:00.260 And also

00:42:01.400 it's worth noting that sometimes

00:42:03.160 the boiling water, especially in that

00:42:05.120 case with the

00:42:07.140 French Catholic priest

00:42:09.140 was they had to attain a ring

00:42:11.360 or a rock from the bottom

00:42:13.140 of the call.

00:42:17.340 Gutheran speaks

00:42:18.560 uh and she speaks of her brothers and i think ultimately this is she's really upset at ottley

00:42:26.900 about this so it's a reoccurring gudner comes not hogni i greet not no longer i see my brothers

00:42:37.800 loved my sorrow would hogni avenge with sword now myself for my woes i shall payment win

00:42:45.880 To the bottom she reached with hands so bright, and forth she brought the flashing stones.

00:42:53.900 Behold ye warriors, well am I cleared of sing by the kettle's sacred boiling.

00:43:01.720 So that stanza is the one that I think kind of lends to the possibility that the audience at least had a modicum of Christian attendees.

00:43:15.060 and that perhaps this is added as a trope for them.

00:43:20.700 It's not 100%.

00:43:21.780 I'm not making a claim.

00:43:24.420 But it is something to consider.

00:43:28.740 So when she brings up the stones,

00:43:34.320 then Atli's heart in happiness laughed.

00:43:38.340 When Gudru's hand, unhurt, he saw.

00:43:42.020 And then he says,

00:43:42.980 Now, Herkia shall come to the kettle fry, she who grieved for Gudrun planned.

00:43:52.220 So if the adulteress is free of her crime, then the stirrer of strife will face the kettle.

00:44:02.400 never saw man sight more sad than this how burned were the hands of herkia then

00:44:13.480 and in a bog so foul the maid was flung and so was gudrun's grief requited

00:44:20.780 there you have it and that's it right right to the boom uh one i also thought it was interesting

00:44:30.820 too because the mention of the bog most people um generally reference um tacitus is germania

00:44:41.380 in relation to the bog and when they bogged um traitors uh cowards and people uh men who had

00:44:51.080 unnatural relations unmoral relations um with other men but this i think is also hearkening

00:45:00.380 to the fact that this is a common punishment in relation and also that uh where this poem is

00:45:10.060 constructed whether it's greenland or iceland the nearest bog is denmark so this does go all the way

00:45:19.420 back and so it's important that

00:45:31.340 casting in the bog isn't just

00:45:38.780 it's not just a normal punishment it is a it is a disgust uh the way it was explained in tacitus is

00:45:47.660 you know they would hang regular criminals or or do whatever and make an example out of them but

00:45:55.180 the ones that get thrown in the bog the bog stomped were people that were so disgusting by

00:46:01.420 the nature of their crime you know the cowardice cowardice and face the enemy or with the uh

00:46:08.460 homosexuality that it was so like gross and off-putting that they didn't want the reminder

00:46:16.060 of its existence like let's bury this down beneath you know beneath the the murky waters of the bog

00:46:24.460 that it never rises up again and that we don't have to be that we don't have to look at this

00:46:28.860 because this is something that we find disgusting not just there's a difference between anger at

00:46:36.140 something and disgust of something and so the the uh indignity of being cast in the bog is like

00:46:44.940 no you're so gross we don't even want to like kill you in a proper visible way we just

00:46:51.180 we want you gone and out of sight out of mind and out of memory because that's something that's so

00:46:56.780 you know that kind of false witness that kind of of dishonesty and stirring of strife

00:47:04.460 and not something that was wanted to be around um i don't say yeah i also i don't think oddly

00:47:13.820 was one to trifle with at all and that there were uh even the legendary atli not attila was by

00:47:26.700 those times the story was just it was scary and um just as quickly as you could try to stir strife

00:47:35.100 against uh his new queen that he slaughtered her brothers uh you could find yourself on the other

00:47:44.700 end of his ire if you were just making it up indeed well let's hit the questions that we have

00:47:57.500 and then we can go into our next piece so sarah was wondering i hope you could talk about the gift

00:48:04.380 the gift-carrying yule goat and how it's an important symbol of the upcoming season

00:48:12.140 it's fun tell us about the yule bot yeah um i think that uh since uh all the way back to

00:48:22.540 founder mcnalen um all the way back to the 80s uh and and the 90s when uh we were coming into house

00:48:31.420 true there was a huge call for an understanding about yule yule has been in development through

00:48:40.700 the decades um i think that as people have coalesced more and more together and the church

00:48:47.660 has become more and more organized the evolution of yule still continues on um and now we're getting

00:48:56.300 to the point in which the application of traditions versus say someone writing an essay only about it

00:49:06.140 um there is this observance that that grows within the church and it's reached a point where now it's

00:49:15.960 like okay now uh there are people doing this um that it becomes part of the whole it's the same

00:49:25.240 as like the, um, the bread horses that you generally see going all throughout social

00:49:31.700 media on the church during Freyfaxi. Um, the Yulebach, the Yule goat, um, there is a connective

00:49:43.300 tissue between the Yule goat and all of the Aryan or Germanic Aryan branches. Um, anybody

00:49:52.380 who's familiar at all with the victorian age father christmas there is uh pictures of him

00:50:01.180 riding a goat um and carrying a bowl of wassail um the lightly alcoholic drink for carolers

00:50:12.300 um and then you go up into the nordic lands you have the tomta and the nisi

00:50:16.780 and the yulebok and sometimes they're all kind of combined together um in which the tomta or the

00:50:23.740 nisi has a goat bearing gifts so this was long before the coca-cola reindeer sleigh um

00:50:35.020 kind of version of things so what's ultimately happening is in the church across the wide is

00:50:44.940 that the yulbach is becoming the uh trade the trademark or i hate to say trademark but

00:50:54.860 it's it's the symbol every one of our holidays has a sacred symbol um obviously yule has multiple

00:51:03.100 um but the yulbach now why the yulbach one of the big things to understand is

00:51:10.860 is the yulbach is the animal of kind of traversing and carrying things through rugged landscape,

00:51:25.740 oftentimes more so than a horse or cattle. The goat was just very versatile at being able to

00:51:35.100 be a pack animal so the goat really is about utility i do not really feel that there's a huge

00:51:44.540 deep symbolic uh reasoning just very much like in america in the united states uh the modern santa

00:51:53.340 claws in the sleigh um and and the reindeer it was it was thematic and i believe that the the goat

00:52:05.740 um at least on the surface level is thematic the idea that there are gifts uh that are brought to

00:52:14.780 the house by a spirit of giving and dispersed to give gifts and bring joy um is uniquely germanic

00:52:26.700 it's separate from the saturnalia of the um hellenics and uh certainly separate from the

00:52:38.300 constantinople turkish uh kind of traditions that were brought about because of christianity

00:52:45.980 um so the the yule goat ends up becoming something that is stark uniquely germanic and uh

00:52:57.260 polytheistic ausitru um and it has connections to england connections to germany connections to

00:53:05.820 all of the lands that kind of make up our people so um the yule bak as a symbol of of that and then

00:53:17.100 it's just the application thereof um i know in my house we have the yule elf he gets called um

00:53:25.500 by lighting the yule log and he brings gifts of two variety he brings gifts of the ancestors

00:53:33.500 and those are placed under the tree on the fourth night of yule the fourth morning of yule i should

00:53:39.840 say um and those gifts are from the ancestors and he also places his own gifts that he wants

00:53:50.200 to give the children inside the stockings and he is paying attention to the children

00:53:55.760 and if they are miserly if they are greedy if they don't if all they care about is getting

00:54:02.020 gifts and not giving them um he will fill their stockings with burnt wood or charred coal and uh

00:54:11.860 at that point when the the ancestors gifts are brought in um all the people of the household

00:54:19.380 will bring their gifts down that they wish to share with each other it's it's a a gifting or

00:54:27.700 for those familiar with the runes it's a gifu energy being exchanged in the house that is

00:54:35.540 the very spirit of the yule elf or father christmas or old man winter or the you know by many names

00:54:45.140 but uh at that point before they uh the gifts are given to each other the first gifts that

00:54:53.380 are opened are the gifts of the ancestors so the kids will get the yule elf stockings in the morning

00:55:01.060 and by the evening ancestors gifts are opened up and um pictures of the ancestors are brought down

00:55:10.740 uh and before you open them up you tell the children about who who sent them the gift

00:55:17.140 and um i go so far as uh with the yule elf he writes in runic so that way the kids can't quite

00:55:27.240 figure out who's you but the ancestors have three rules they they always give gifts that protect

00:55:34.400 their descendants make their descendants stronger or make their descendants smarter so clothing

00:55:42.520 books that encourage thinking and also sports and games, things that make their descendants

00:55:52.760 stronger. And then the gift exchange is usually the gifts that a lot of times I think kids get

00:55:59.520 gifts from their parents and it's great for a year and then they kind of move on to the next

00:56:05.360 thing but um my eldest son still talks about the wool socks that he got from his um great

00:56:12.240 grandmother so there there is a certain sense there that's cultivated um so the yulebach is

00:56:20.360 important in this function that the yule elf brings so the the yulebach is a symbol of gift

00:56:28.540 giving and of the tenacity of despite the darkness despite the cold you're still taking the time to

00:56:38.300 celebrate to give and and to be happy um so there's the tenacious spirit of giving even in the darkest

00:56:45.820 of times um and also you know there are many people in house of true in the church that have

00:56:54.700 different things some do crampus because they're of german descent um some folks do uh the nisi

00:57:03.660 and the tomta throughout their house or or or out in their yard and so the one thing is the yule

00:57:10.940 bach is less um niche to a specific group but spread out more our dutch brothers and sisters

00:57:22.700 Just like the Million Dollar Man has Virgil, the Yule Elf there has his buddy Chocolaty Pete that doles out the coal and other things to the bad kids.

00:57:34.820 Nick, two things. Can you find a picture of Father Christmas on a goat? It's a common picture.

00:57:47.040 I know the picture you're talking about. Absolutely, I'll find it. And Matt never.

00:57:52.340 never never skipping an opportunity to mention chocolatey p at that time of year i got to i got

00:57:58.580 to well and there's something about svarta pete and this is just something that i'm not against

00:58:04.740 i'm not trying to be a cold towel on traditions but with christianity coming in and the

00:58:12.700 synthesization of christian uh concepts into our um arian traditions one of the things that i've

00:58:21.020 notice is there is the presence of the scolder or the the punishment the the punishment giver

00:58:27.680 um the kind of juxtaposition between uh goodness and bad or um salvation and sin um and obviously

00:58:38.880 the dutch santa claus looks very much like a bishop um whereas svarta pete who lives in the

00:58:47.100 coal bin and carries a brush that would be used to clean out the chimney he beats the children who

00:58:55.980 are miserly bad what have you the only thing i can say too is the icelanders went one extra level

00:59:04.740 into crazy actually two levels with um grilla and the yolakati uh grilla is a witch troll

00:59:16.100 demon depending on who you're talking to and she has 13 um

00:59:23.040 sons or sometimes they're um her husbands and they're called the yule lads and each one of

00:59:34.060 them comes down um before christmas for 12 nights but the big thing to understand with that is you

00:59:42.840 can clearly see that the yule elf in uh england in norway uh in iceland it became uh 12 separate

00:59:53.980 yule elves and then after christianity they were not gotten rid of but they came before

01:00:00.620 the the 25th whereas uh you know perhaps before that wasn't always the case but grilla as an

01:00:09.000 addition where she takes children and um throws them in a sack and and takes them up into a

01:00:16.360 mountain and eats them um if they're bad and if you are a good kid um you she has to eat nails

01:00:26.600 and it helps kill her uh i think ultimately too it adds another level because you would encourage

01:00:33.640 your friends to not act bad so that it was a collective effort at killing gorilla and then

01:00:41.720 at the end of yule there's yola kati the cat of yule and um if you did not have new clothes

01:00:49.560 um you would be eaten so all the kids would uh really tell their parents to buy them new clothes

01:00:58.200 and i think that again is a collective uh push towards making sure that the clothes were good

01:01:05.080 um and finished so that way they could survive winter but so i want to say on

01:01:13.400 the yulebok tradition a little bit um in modern times

01:01:19.960 it is

01:01:20.440 the all right very often in also true ritual uh in blotar we uh offer things into uh the fire

01:01:41.640 one of the and this was true in our ancestors time too there was a belief that something

01:01:47.960 burns in in a fire it goes you know it fast tracks its way to the land beyond the veil

01:01:55.960 to land of the gods whatever the point might be so it was one of the the imageries and the ideas

01:02:02.520 with cremation was that it's like it skips the decaying phase after death and it sends

01:02:14.200 all the parts of one's soul straight up to the land beyond the veil straight to the other side

01:02:20.760 in one heroic gust the idea is similar when we offer sacrifice into the sacred fire

01:02:30.920 at bloat and sacrifice doesn't mean giving up something it's not what it means it quite

01:02:37.640 literally means making something sacred so it is sending something from our side of the veil

01:02:45.720 to the other side it's sending something to the ancestors it's sending something to the spirits

01:02:52.120 in bloat it's sending something to the gods um as fawn talked about earlier the the yule goat

01:03:00.200 is a pack animal that takes the presence and takes the things

01:03:03.880 you know from the north pole or whatever and gives them to the kids or the family it it brings

01:03:12.560 these things so at yule we use that as a vessel for our offerings so we tie ribbons and you know

01:03:21.620 well wishes on the goat before we offer it into the flames in times where one would do

01:03:29.940 you know, when an animal sacrifice occurs, the idea is you place your hands on the animal that's

01:03:38.540 about to be sacrificed, and you imbue that animal with your energy, with your well wishes,

01:03:44.480 with your devotions, so that it goes with that animal into the land of the dead,

01:03:51.120 into the land beyond the veil. And that's one of the things we do with this, is we adorn the

01:03:56.840 Yulebach with with ribbons and and messages and then we offer it to the gods in the fire

01:04:03.640 um you know we do similar things with you know the boat that we do at uh Einherjablot

01:04:12.080 um with sun wheels that we do at Midsummer

01:04:16.480 with you know in a way with what we do with the uh bread horses at Freyfax excuse me but

01:04:27.080 that idea of sending that into the flames and up is an important part of what we do and i've got kind

01:04:34.440 of a cool yule box story um when i was doing so some of you guys may or may not know i was born

01:04:44.040 and raised in alaska it gets cold up there and so we'd get out and we'd have a big we'd have to

01:04:51.480 have a big fire and this this particular yule we had a it was a 10 pallet pallet fire

01:04:59.240 and we had you know gone in with snowblower and carved out the uh the ritual circle

01:05:06.200 and it was you know i forget but it was negative degrees so it was very cold

01:05:13.720 and we had this raging fire in front of us and we had to spin around in circles and like

01:05:21.480 Because the front of us would be so hot because of the blazing, the proximity to this bonfire.

01:05:27.840 But the backside of us would be, you know, going numb with cold.

01:05:33.600 So we'd have to spin in little circles as we were doing the bloat when you get too hot.

01:05:40.720 Because it was that cold.

01:05:42.160 but we built a really big cool Yulebach out of bales of hay or bales of straw or you know

01:05:50.880 whatever kind of dried grass the bales were so we built this thing and it was probably

01:05:58.160 three foot tall two foot thick four foot long it was a pretty big thing we had it sitting out there

01:06:06.000 by the fire and it was really neat and really auspicious like i said this fire was very very

01:06:16.880 hot because it was so cold out we had this bonfire going but we wanted the yulebok

01:06:22.960 accessible so that when the time came i could pick it up and offer it into the fire

01:06:27.680 and it was so hot and things were going on that at the point in the ritual when I turned to offer

01:06:36.780 the Yule Bach it burst into flames and it was it was amazing and it was at the perfect time at the

01:06:47.200 perfect moment and you know I'm aware it's dried straw and there's a bonfire and something hits a

01:06:52.920 smoke point at a certain time but it was at the exact right time it was really really powerful

01:06:59.580 but yeah that was really cool and I remember that but that's you know we we use that as a

01:07:06.000 um unifying factor in the places where where AFA members gather to celebrate the season

01:07:13.080 so that we all wherever we are we're all doing this this Yule Bach ritual together

01:07:18.940 and that's that's important about that um i don't want to wax over long because we do have two other

01:07:25.620 little pieces to get to here but we do questions i was going to ask or say we should address the

01:07:31.700 question that like we'll get all the questions we'll get all cassandra robertson about asking

01:07:37.560 if we're a cult uh is this just cringe or a cult um no and no no first it's not cringy it's awesome

01:07:47.240 Secondly, depends on how literally you want to take the word cult.

01:07:52.420 No, it's not a cult in the way that you're thinking a cult is.

01:07:56.700 But it's one of those every political leadership structure you like is a administration and everyone you don't like is a regime.

01:08:10.040 The words aren't really any different.

01:08:12.320 It's just got stank on it.

01:08:13.780 Every religion is technically a cult.

01:08:15.940 so i suppose but no it's not cringe it's not a cult um stick around though it is entertaining

01:08:22.180 it's something that you might learn something cool on you didn't know about um meaningfully

01:08:30.340 uh four ages of cyclical time seem like a pretty widespread indo-european cosmological concept

01:08:36.980 but announced true i only ever have heard reference to the present wolf age do we have

01:08:43.700 named equivalents in our faith to the yugas in hinduism or the ages of the greeks i.e gold silver

01:08:51.380 bronze and iron etc it's fine do you want to speak on that yeah uh i was gonna say too with

01:09:00.820 just for lending uh back to cassandra real quick is um uh yeah not cringe there are cults of

01:09:07.780 practice that you hear that in in uh when people talk about religions but uh yeah definitely

01:09:16.740 if you don't have time to stick around and listen to us definitely go check out runestone.org

01:09:23.620 and it'll tell you everything that we're about and you can see we are a religious church um

01:09:32.260 um uh as far as for uh king of gas station meets what a great name

01:09:42.100 um so first off there are four ages mentioned in um the volospout uh it is a wind age a sword age

01:09:55.540 an axe age, and a wolf age, where brothers will slay brothers. But that is kind of a point that

01:10:07.740 we talk about when we talk about Aryan branches having connectivity. Always you'll see a battle

01:10:18.520 at the end, a battle in the beginning, sometimes a battle at both ends of the story of the

01:10:26.060 people. Sometimes they're euhemorized, and other times the divine gods are not. We talk

01:10:35.460 a lot about the connection between, say, Lord Tyr and King Nuwata of the island gales, or

01:10:48.400 gaelic people um there are clear connection tissues so i do not think that it's uh

01:10:59.040 like simply um happenstance that there were four ages mentioned in the voluspal but again

01:11:06.960 when you look at uh different aryan groups you will see that sometimes things are placed in

01:11:12.880 different ways and there isn't some sort of kind of universal connection between them um but the

01:11:19.760 four ages at the end were pretty clear in relation to the old norse or the late nordic viking age

01:11:31.040 um as far as ages mentioned there are the ages of gold mentioned both before mankind and

01:11:42.160 And after Ragnarok, and it's specifically referring to heaven, though our ancestors did believe that heaven was connected to the middle world, but upon a higher plane or a higher range of mountains.

01:11:58.820 um and it's just not emphasized whether or not that also allocates to the midgard but

01:12:08.020 the usage of the word gold the the of the golden age uh is utilized but the others are not so

01:12:16.740 the comparison i can see is there in the sense that of the people who are transferring the

01:12:26.120 stories but they're not identical in in a kind of matched sense as far as I so so I lied we're not

01:12:34.840 going to answer all the questions first we got more questions coming in but we're going to finish

01:12:39.240 this one and then we'll do the uh and then we'll do some more questions and then we'll finish up

01:12:48.100 with the uh atlic viva um but while we're on this

01:12:55.540 i am aware that there is frequent reference to the march of ages in arian mythos

01:13:09.620 i think that it and i don't want to cheapen this to this but i do think that it

01:13:15.620 is the genesis and a part of and sure maybe the meme is part of the cyclical time um the whole

01:13:27.780 you know hard times make strong men strong men make good times good times make weak men weak

01:13:35.780 men make bad times and the cycle repeats i very much do think it's part of that and i think it's

01:13:42.180 part of the outside of time mythic narrative much more than i think it's a real chronological thing

01:13:50.580 i think we see that certain things do come in cycles um oftentimes you know boomer political

01:13:59.060 types talk about well the pendulum swings and whatever there's some truth to that and there is

01:14:06.100 but you don't see that in the high mythos like you mentioned the Hindus and they've got

01:14:13.460 this you know progression of ages and they've developed it very well but it's impossibly long

01:14:21.380 like we've been in the Kali Yuga since time in memoriam and there's like no time in memorial

01:14:29.780 and there's no end in sight to it it all exists all the other ages seem to exist outside

01:14:38.900 of human beings existence in the historical period and so when we get that sometimes

01:14:47.220 in modern house are true we talk about the wolf age because we realize that things are very far

01:14:56.420 from where they should be but is this the wolf age if i'm looking back a thousand years from now like

01:15:02.900 whoo those people had it easy back in you know 2025 no this is the wolf age and i think humanity

01:15:09.940 has a tendency to do that so i don't wax over long on thinking about cyclical time because

01:15:17.860 the people that i know that talk the most about it are the most do-nothings that have internalized

01:15:23.940 Well, if we wait around long enough, then it'll come back around and we'll have golden age stuff.

01:15:29.760 So I can just sit here and be lame.

01:15:32.240 I very much believe in, to the best of our ability, crafting the age that we want within the age that we're in.

01:15:44.460 I believe in the idea of building a golden age outpost in the husk of Kali Yuga.

01:15:52.160 and I think that's a real thing for us to aspire to and I think you know if the times come back

01:16:01.660 around right then good we'll be in good position for good stuff to happen when it's time for good

01:16:06.160 stuff to happen but if we just sit around and you know sit on our hands because well we're destined

01:16:12.580 to have you know a rough time and then we'll have good times again it doesn't make us active or

01:16:19.100 heroic participants in life. And I also think in all of those Indo-European conceptualizations of

01:16:26.660 time, the scale of it and the turning of it is so vast that it's outside of our lifetime worth

01:16:34.640 of conception. It's not like you see those ages of time cyclically in the life of a man or even

01:16:40.240 the life of a family or the life of the dynasty. So you can make connections and you can see these

01:16:46.540 cycles play out in miniature all around us, but the grand cycles that they talk about, I don't

01:16:53.400 think that we see in a perceptive way. I think, you know, according to the Hindus, we're in the

01:16:58.300 same cycle that, you know, the Vikings that brought us the lore that we're going over tonight

01:17:03.640 we're in, and clearly the world is in a very, very different situation than it was at that time.

01:17:08.800 So it's not to say there's nothing to it, it's just to say it's on a scale that's so

01:17:13.540 grand, I think we run out of application for it when we try to overlay it over historicity.

01:17:26.580 Like you can see cycles in things. It's not. And so let me elaborate. It's not that there's

01:17:32.020 no cycles. Obviously, our liturgical year is done through natural cycles. We see, you know,

01:17:39.280 rising and becoming and and decaying and passing away and then becoming again we see these cycles

01:17:46.080 on a lot of things but when you talk about those big progressions of ages most of the ages they

01:17:53.120 talk about don't exist in a historically accessible time period i think spawn may have thoughts

01:18:01.920 because he's making faces.

01:18:04.040 Oh, I'm making faces because somebody who said that they had a serious question

01:18:10.500 later on made a comment that proved that their question wasn't serious.

01:18:15.000 Did you really fall for that that was a serious question?

01:18:18.220 No, no.

01:18:18.900 I'm pointing out that if you're going to take the time to type that and say that,

01:18:23.440 you should at least be honest.

01:18:25.320 I know that the possibility isn't there, but very unseemly, Cassandra.

01:18:29.720 um the loaded question was that uh you know if we didn't say like if you you know uh if you have to

01:18:40.160 say you're not a cult then you are a cult and it's like no we're asking your question you asked us if

01:18:46.100 we were the how the you're silly goose right anyways definitely not an honest or serious

01:18:53.800 question on the onset really uh you know don't have much more to say than that if you don't like

01:19:01.960 it you can go somewhere else if not sit back have a beer enjoy what we're talking about um

01:19:07.960 but swan speaking about what we're talking about would you take us into this very unique uh

01:19:14.840 addition to the to the volsung cycle yes and i also wanted to say some of the questions that

01:19:21.320 are asked especially about some more yule stuff yeah we've got good ones coming up that they want

01:19:26.200 us to get i want to i don't want us to rush those so i want to wait until our next break to get on

01:19:30.680 those all right so we are now moving to all the runners now the interesting thing about all the

01:19:43.400 Adruna, again, I mentioned, she's a character that isn't in any of the other sources.

01:19:52.720 So we have Adruna, who is a lover of Gudrun's brother.

01:20:04.260 she again he goes with um Brynhild but somehow in the story or somewhere and perhaps there is

01:20:17.840 maybe something from the past that was lost but she is uh standing on the sidelines um

01:20:27.980 watching Gunnar, Gudrun's brother, deal with Brynhild and ultimately be slayed by Attlee,

01:20:41.080 and this is her lamentations of watching all of this kind of unfold. She could simply just

01:20:49.000 represent um the audience and also she could be a target audience in which this poem maybe

01:20:58.920 was directed towards the ladies of um the audience so but to be honest and bear in mind i've never

01:21:10.920 read this specific poem so um i'm learning as well um

01:21:21.000 so hydric was the name of a king whose daughter was called barkney

01:21:30.120 vilmond was the name of the man who was her lover she could not give birth to a child until

01:21:37.640 Until Odrun, or Odrun as they say in the English trenches, Atli's sister had come to her. Odrun had been beloved of Gunnar, son of Gyuki, about this story is the following poem.

01:21:53.180 So a couple of things. One, it's immediate connection. Avarun is the beloved of Gunnar, even though she's never mentioned anywhere else. And then specifically, it is stating that their situation is told in this poem.

01:22:11.520 And a lot of times, that's not specifically mentioned in the poems. So this most likely was a late edition story. And I have speculated why it was created, but it does have some interesting things.

01:22:30.440 Um, so in stanza one, I have heard it told in olden tales, how maidens came to morning land. No one of all on earth above to Hedric's daughter, or Hedric's daughter, help could give.

01:22:50.100 so first thing is right out the gate there's a use of in olden tales in olden times um

01:23:00.420 this is more of a for this time period this is actually a new introduction um kind of lending

01:23:10.300 to the olden times, but Mourningland, Mourneland, and that translation, already in the other

01:23:21.620 stories, the land of the Huns, where Atli is, is called Hunland, so this may be, is most

01:23:31.620 likely another kenning for Hunland, and it's referencing the fact that the Huns live in

01:23:39.080 the east where the the sun comes up so morning land um and uh hedric's daughter um it uh has

01:23:52.960 a great need um this all the rune learned the sister of otli that sore the maiden sickness was

01:24:06.040 the bit bearer forth from his stall she brought and the saddle laid on the steed so black so

01:24:15.480 the bit bearer is a horse uh a kenning for a horse um and she immediately makes uh ready

01:24:24.720 um Avrun is the sister of Atli and now we have again a cross point but Gudrun her brother Gunnar

01:24:39.100 who fell in love with Brynhild or tricked Brynhild into uh marrying him uh this is his

01:24:47.360 um kind of uh the woman who loved him um perspective she let the horse go over the

01:24:58.360 level ground till she reached the hall this loftily rose and in she went from the end of

01:25:06.300 the hall from the weary steed the saddle she took hear now the speech that first she spoke

01:25:14.040 um and i i do like that the poet the way that they're utilizing um very very clean descriptors

01:25:26.260 um and unfortunately the first spoken part there is a missing section of the verse

01:25:35.580 most likely because of damage to the writing

01:25:39.220 uh for it says what news on earth and then there is a break or what has happened in hunland now

01:25:50.620 then a serving maid speaks here borkni lies in bitter pain thy friend and all the room

01:26:00.880 thy help would find.

01:26:04.500 So Borkni again is suffering

01:26:06.660 and Atherun has come to help.

01:26:12.760 Atherun then asks,

01:26:14.700 who worked this woe for the woman thus?

01:26:17.820 Or why so sudden is Borkni sick?

01:26:22.540 So the plot thickens.

01:26:27.500 The serving maid then speaks,

01:26:30.300 Vilamund is he

01:26:32.060 the hero's friend

01:26:34.020 who wrapped the woman in bed

01:26:36.200 clothes warm for five winters

01:26:38.260 five yet her father knew

01:26:40.300 not. Then

01:26:42.200 no more they spoke

01:26:44.480 or spake me thinks

01:26:46.220 she went at the

01:26:48.280 knees of the woman to sit

01:26:50.200 with magic Audrun

01:26:52.000 and mightily Audrun chanted

01:26:54.380 for Borkni's

01:26:56.060 potent charms.

01:26:58.900 So

01:26:59.240 this part here on in six um the reasoning villamund uh so villamund is not mentioned anywhere else

01:27:12.640 but villamund is supposedly one of botley's warriors and he killed uh gudrun's brother

01:27:21.200 Hogni or Gunnar. Gunnar was the one with Brynhild. There was also Hogni and then they had the third

01:27:29.720 brother. The third brother they amped up and sent him at Sigurd. He got killed in that altercation

01:27:36.080 but Sigurd also died. So then the two brothers end up going against Atli and they end up getting

01:27:43.760 killed and then gudrun gets taken as kind of a a trophy wife um of war so vilmond is apparently

01:27:55.200 the person who killed hogney but he's not mentioned and it says down in the notes

01:28:00.800 uh the slayer of hogney vilmond but unless he was one of at least followers

01:28:06.000 who cut out Hogni's heart. That's mentioned in the Drap Nivlunga. There is nothing else

01:28:16.300 to connect him to Hogni's death. So again, uniqueness of this poem after the fact being

01:28:25.480 added in so um but he is the slayer of hogni uh so then they spoke no more they went to her

01:28:38.040 they sat at her knees and there the magic alderun uh began to chant and again we see this in the

01:28:47.560 icelandic sagas the chanting um and i think that by proxy this would extend to greenland by that

01:28:56.280 time most of the magical um acts that were kind of portrayed in the sagas was done through

01:29:06.040 specifically song um uh and at last were born a boy and a girl so they speak charms to aid her

01:29:16.600 in birth and she gives birth to a boy and a girl son and daughter of hogni's slayer then

01:29:24.840 speech the woman still weak began nor said she ought where this she spoke or spake so may the

01:29:33.720 holy ones the help frig and freya and favoring gods has saved me from sorrow now so the queen

01:29:44.920 bortney who was in trouble trying to give birth is helped by other and then she immediately says

01:29:55.080 uh in a blessing she gives blessing to other and she says may the holy ones help you frig and freya

01:30:03.160 and all the favored gods um as you have saved me from sorrow so this is another uh interesting

01:30:10.840 point it's one of the clearest examples of a kind of blessing um being issued which we don't often

01:30:20.760 see um but this i think we do it in our faith today quite often but um and it's i would say

01:30:30.220 it's not much different but at least it lets uh people know that yes uh the sprinkling of water

01:30:38.900 on babies um we do that now and we're not copying uh christianity that's mentioned long before and

01:30:47.940 i think that this is a hold over um of uh tradition of giving blessing out and especially the detail

01:30:57.540 of mentioning the two major our senior of our faith there are 14 um may uh goddesses but there

01:31:08.340 two major, and that is, of course, Frigg and Freyja.

01:31:16.640 Then Othrun speaks, I came not hither to help thee thus,

01:31:21.920 because thou ever my aid didst earn.

01:31:25.120 I fulfilled the oath that of old I swore,

01:31:29.560 that aid to all I should ever bring,

01:31:32.840 when they shared the wealth the warriors had.

01:31:36.700 so she had made an oath to aid any in need with her capabilities and most likely again because

01:31:45.620 of the usage of charms and the usage of spell verse that's what this is talking about um

01:31:53.240 not just uh aiding in general but that she is specifically versed in um the elder form

01:32:05.200 song and and magic then borkmi speaks uh wild art thou author room and witless now

01:32:17.600 that so in hatred to me thou speakest i followed thee where thou didst fair as we had been born

01:32:25.920 of brothers twain so arthur is fulfilling an oath um that she said she would help with her

01:32:36.560 with her magics but she hasn't forgotten um the the loss of her love who was killed by uh borkmi's um

01:32:50.240 Attlee. So that's kind of what she is saying. And Borkmi is like, why do you still hold this

01:33:00.420 hatred towards me? We could be sisters instead. But she says, no, I remember the evil one Eve

01:33:11.380 thou spakest when a draught i gave to gunner then thou did say that never such a deed by maid was

01:33:21.220 done save by me alone then the sorrowing woman sat her down to tell the grief of her troubles great

01:33:31.620 happy i grew in the hero's hall as the warriors wished and they loved me well

01:33:37.540 glad i was of my father's gifts for winter's five while my father lived these were the words

01:33:45.140 the weary king ere he died spake last of all he bade me with red gold dowered to me

01:33:54.420 and to grimhild's son in the south be wed so this is bortney speaking to audrey um

01:34:05.220 Um, about, uh, her, her life and the things that she has endured and that, um, uh, her, her father, her, her life too has kind of come from this.

01:34:24.920 But, you know, I'm also reading the stanzas here, the notes in which it kind of like trying to see if it goes more into the structuring of Borgni's life.

01:34:43.980 The word rendered to evil is, apparently Borgni was present at Atlee's court while the love affair between Atherun and Gunnar were in progress, and criticized Atherun for her part in it, a draft or a draught apparently in reference to a secret meeting of lovers.

01:35:06.660 years so author is maybe considering that atli killed gunner not because he was an enemy

01:35:17.460 or that his connection to sit but because of their secret love and maybe that's the

01:35:23.440 way, she's taking it, and Borgni was the one that brought it to light.

01:35:34.420 Atherun spoke, but Brynhild, the helm, he bade wear, a wish maiden bright, he said she

01:35:45.540 should be, for a nobler maid would never be born on earth, he said, if death should spare

01:35:52.520 her. At her weaving, Brynhild sat in her bower. Lands and folk alike she had. The earth and the

01:36:02.680 heaven high resounded with Fafnir's slayer the city saw. So Aldrin is speaking of Brynhild and

01:36:14.400 how the true love of brinhild was fafner slayer sigurd and if they had been together then she

01:36:22.640 could be together with gunner um then battle was fought with foreign swords and the city was broken

01:36:34.560 that brinhild had not long thereafter but all too soon their evil wiles full well she knew

01:36:42.400 woeful for this her vengeance was as so we learned to our sorrow all she's talking about

01:36:49.840 brynhild brynhild of course is the other antagonist of the stories she's a spurned

01:36:56.160 lover but more so than that she's not just quite human she's also a valkyrie and she causes pain

01:37:04.320 death and conflict and even all the room is saying this um in every land shall all men

01:37:13.680 hear how herself at sigurd's side she slew uh love to gunner then i gave to the breaker of rings

01:37:28.080 as brynhild might and uh again that that laying of who is exactly the breaker of rings the breaker

01:37:38.320 of oaths has been tossed around in this story um back and forth um

01:37:47.280 atherin speaks again she says to atli rings so red they offered and mighty gifts to my brother

01:37:55.680 would give 15 dwellings fame would he give for me and the burden that granny bore granny of course

01:38:04.640 is the horse of sigurd and it's saying here uh the treasure that was won by sigurd uh

01:38:13.360 was carried by granny so granny is again an ever-present vehicle of

01:38:18.880 uh treasure just like the goat for yule or the golden boar for holy fray and why we use piggy

01:38:29.520 banks um a vehicle uh an the the emblem of that power granny is that symbol and um he says but

01:38:40.480 otley said he would never receive marriage gold from gyuki's son yet could we not our love overcome

01:38:49.280 and my head i laid on the hero's shoulder this part here these last two sentences

01:38:56.480 you clearly see um some of the poetic construction from mainland europe is being

01:39:06.640 kind of introduced um it's almost very reminiscent of um poetry of the age of knights and and um

01:39:18.880 the the age of chivalry um

01:39:24.000 23 uh many there were of kinsmen mind who said that together us they had seen at least said that

01:39:32.880 never i would would evil plan nor ill do but none may this of another think

01:39:40.800 or surely speak when love is shared soon his men did aptly send in the murky wood on me to spy

01:39:51.120 thither they came where they should not come where beneath one cover close we lay

01:39:58.240 and i think this is interesting too the murky wood um i find that interesting considering

01:40:05.760 other ones already established her magical prowess and the idea of of living in a

01:40:13.680 the the dark and and murky wood um is interesting but they don't really go into it um

01:40:20.400 to the warriors ruddy rings were offered that not to otley ever they should say so

01:40:30.240 uh her and gunner are together the warriors that are spying see them together and so she

01:40:38.560 or he or her she doesn't specify offer these warriors rings of for their silence

01:40:47.640 But swiftly home they hastened thence

01:40:51.140 And eager all to aptly told

01:40:54.000 But close from Gudrun

01:40:59.280 Kept they hid

01:41:00.820 What first of all she ought to have known

01:41:04.760 Great was the clatter of gilded hooves

01:41:08.980 When Gyuki's son through the gateway rode

01:41:13.120 The heart they hewed from Hogni then

01:41:17.140 And the other they cast in the serpent's cave. So this is speaking again of Gunnar and Hogni. These were the two that conspired to kill Sigurd.

01:41:33.180 after Sigurd's death they are in the lands of Attila or Atli and when it is found out that Gunnar is

01:41:47.040 with Atherum in this story Atli then kills them both um and I think that that's the the point of

01:41:57.600 her ire even though the other stories clearly show atli killed them because they were uh competition

01:42:07.200 but um hogney is is his heart is carved out of his chest and gunner is thrown into a cave of circuits

01:42:18.960 uh and she says alone was i gone to german then the draught to mix and ready to make

01:42:28.980 the hero wise on his heart then smoked for help from me in his heart yet hope

01:42:36.880 the high born king might come to him um i think this uh interesting stanza

01:42:49.480 is uh again speaking of her ability to make potion another element of her magical acumen

01:42:58.600 um and in the notes here it specifically mentions that according to the geography

01:43:05.560 the land that she mentions plesi is an island uh in the danish peninsula so

01:43:13.640 So, but the geographical accuracy is probably not 100%.

01:43:24.820 You know, they weren't doing GPS maps per se,

01:43:31.120 and it doesn't quite make sense considering that Apley

01:43:36.500 and his court is so far in the East.

01:43:39.500 um but uh he speaks more on this and she says across the sound the boats we sailed till we

01:43:51.900 saw the whole of atli's home then crawling the evil woman came atli's mother may she ever rot

01:44:01.260 and hard she bit to gunner's heart so i could not help the hero brave

01:44:09.500 And here we see another referencing, if you remember in the Volsunga saga, Gunnar's mother is also a worker of spells and is the one that convinces Sigurd to forget Brynhild and fall in love with Gudrun.

01:44:39.500 So again, we see that now it's Otley's mother who is also, so the evil queen is a very, very baked in part of our stories all the way back.

01:44:57.900 And even Otley's mother is a worker of ill will and magic.

01:45:03.140 And we see this in many Aryan branches.

01:45:07.660 The one that comes to mind right away is Alexander the Great's mother being listed as kind of a strange and mysterious woman from faraway lands with magic.

01:45:21.400 um uh 33 so oft have i wondered how after this serpent bed goddess talking about the mother

01:45:35.180 that she is the the one who um organized gunner being thrown in um to the serpents

01:45:47.260 Oft I wondered how after this serpent bed goddess I still might live, for well I loved the warrior brave, the giver of swords as my very self.

01:45:59.580 Thou didst see and listen, the while I said, the mighty grief that was mine and theirs, each man lives as his longing wills.

01:46:10.900 Aadhrun's lament is ended now.

01:46:14.180 and that's the end of it and i think that addition at the end also shows that this is

01:46:23.420 or perhaps was singularly created for its its purpose and that the poet immediately drops it

01:46:33.360 at the end but there are elements in here that we can learn from even to the point of the giver

01:46:39.760 of swords um the warriors as a giver of swords and that she loved him uh as she loved herself

01:46:48.960 these are interesting words being utilized to express love and devotion so but that's

01:46:59.040 that is it all right we've got one more for you here in a few minutes but i'd like to go

01:47:04.720 go over a couple of questions first. What exactly is Yggdrasil? What is its reality? Interested to

01:47:13.820 hear your thoughts. Svon. Yeah, I like the way it's worded is what is its reality? I think first

01:47:28.420 and foremost, it's

01:47:30.140 worth considering

01:47:31.460 that Yggdrasil

01:47:34.460 is part of the

01:47:36.240 original

01:47:36.960 tripartite. I don't know

01:47:40.340 if you have to drink on that one, but

01:47:41.720 it wouldn't hurt.

01:47:48.420 There is

01:47:49.640 Muspelheim, Niflheim, and Gnungagap.

01:47:52.700 And in Gnungagap,

01:47:54.600 which is potential,

01:47:56.240 there is a tripartite

01:47:58.240 form because three is the number of movement of dynamicism and we see yggdrasil emir and

01:48:09.200 ad umla and you can't you can talk about yggdrasil after this stage but you lose a lot if you don't

01:48:19.200 consider it. The belief of the three thrones of the tripartite starts here. There is always

01:48:29.420 stasis, dynamicism, and capitalism, and it starts with this. Yggdrasil is unmoving and rooted still

01:48:38.820 deep and so stasis. And then we have Adumla, who moves between the ice and the fire and creates.

01:48:50.120 And there we see dynamicism. And lastly, Ymir, we see is the catalyst. If he awakens,

01:49:00.680 If he comes to his full form, he destroys everything.

01:49:07.260 So what ends up happening is that the holy Isir, who are formulated outside of Gunungagam initially,

01:49:17.220 they come into and create dominion.

01:49:22.180 And one of the things that they do is they kill, they catalyst the catalyst.

01:49:28.140 They lay will down first by slaying Ymir, removing the possibility of him waking up, but out of that they must create. They do create.

01:49:42.140 create and um also with that adumlah is a becomes a another source so the the soul of adumlah and

01:49:53.340 the soul of emir move because nothing truly ever dies but from them there is order there is the

01:50:03.980 maintenance there is the hierarchy there is heaven there is midgard there is jotunheim vanaheim

01:50:10.700 Then there's Nidavellur. And then lastly are the two primordial places that have always been.

01:50:18.280 So out of that tripartite in the beginning, Yggdrasil is the only one that remains.

01:50:26.340 And Yggdrasil is connected to everything in the cosmos from the beginning.

01:50:30.780 So there's no accident as to why Lord Odin synthesized himself to Yggdrasil, so that he, too, could become one with Yggdrasil and know where the roots go.

01:50:45.880 So Yggdrasil is, I am of belief that stasis and Yggdrasil, and again, stasis does take

01:50:58.080 as a function of the way our gods, by observation, not declaring this, I'm observing this in

01:51:08.580 our stories. Stasis is structure. Stasis is hierarchy. Stasis is axis. It is the center

01:51:17.220 point. It is that which is holding the above to the below. It's the alignment of everything.

01:51:25.000 And when Yggdrasil falls out of alignment, when Yggdrasil falls, so does all of the order.

01:51:34.020 And there is a reason why, in heaven, the gods built Ausgard near Yggdrasil, because they are the adjudicating gods of order.

01:51:47.380 So Yggdrasil is many things, but I would say to cut straight to the core, it is the axis mundi of heaven.

01:52:00.860 It is the axis mundi of the universe, and it's also a circulatory system because there are roots in every well, in every level, and all roots draw up.

01:52:14.860 So whether it's Earth's well in the upper realm, where the gods mete out the doom of men and see the originating point of time and fate, or whether it's the well of memory, where only Lord Odin knows any places upon Mimir's head, the godhead of memory.

01:52:44.240 where all things flow.

01:52:45.960 And then lastly, there's Virgilmar.

01:52:48.580 Virgilmar's the well of primordial start,

01:52:51.920 but there is a root there, the tap root, nonetheless,

01:52:55.620 and it goes up into the heavenly realms.

01:52:58.880 So it is a circulatory system of creation.

01:53:02.100 And that's why Lord Odin slaying himself upon the tree

01:53:08.740 is a unification between one of the original first elements of Ganungagab that Lord Odin

01:53:19.680 becomes intimate with, and the power he finds in there brings him back. His soul does not move

01:53:27.460 on into a different way. He comes back into himself, which is what makes Lord Odin's death

01:53:34.900 unique from say baldurs or emirs or uh adumlas so um that's i i could go on and on about this

01:53:46.020 so that was just my short answer yeah i i don't i don't think that the you know

01:53:53.460 know as fawn said um certainly you know all the stuff that spawn said but also all the stuff that

01:54:06.380 spawn didn't say it's something that you can talk about for a very long time but i think

01:54:13.220 what approaches the question a little bit more directly is what it's not it's not a big tree

01:54:19.920 um i mean children if you're watching sure it's a big tree but it's not a collection of

01:54:31.600 bark and leaves and stuff

01:54:34.280 the imagery of that is particularly poignant when you see

01:54:41.760 so many other things Svon mentioned it's you know the reality's circulatory system

01:54:51.660 and in many ways it is that if you look at um if you look at the human

01:55:00.080 uh venal system you see what very much looks like a tree if you look at you know

01:55:13.280 probably only time i'm going to do this if you look at a placenta

01:55:17.520 but you still you again jokes aside i mean a broken clock's right twice a day

01:55:29.640 um there are elements though that do that look that way for a reason it connects

01:55:38.880 in a very simple way the upper from the lower but it also connects all the other stuff too

01:55:49.160 um i think there are other you know you could argue other poetic meanings for it being

01:55:57.200 the terrible one's steed but i also think it is a means of traveling between the different realms

01:56:09.420 it is a conceptualization of the matrix of our reality and the ways in which we are

01:56:17.780 connected to other planes of existence other parts of existence and

01:56:25.320 the felling of that separates the connectivity it breaks down the connectivity of all the

01:56:34.120 different pieces that form the order of our existence so it structures and orders

01:56:40.880 the different planes of our experience and our reality it separates but it also connects

01:56:50.460 and i think that's the reality of it it is the interconnecting matrix between

01:56:59.640 us and the lands beyond the veil between the above and the below and the middle

01:57:10.780 and all the other realms of existence and it

01:57:17.820 facilitates movement between those different places

01:57:26.400 we also liken it in a important way ritually to our existence writ large and writ small

01:57:38.920 that when you feed the tree good stuff you make a healthy tree when you feed it bad things you make

01:57:49.800 a decaying and a and an unhealthy tree when we do um we do stumble we talk about when you speak well

01:58:00.300 over the horn you're putting good things into the well that feeds the tree of our existence

01:58:07.380 when you misspeak or you speak poorly over the horn you feed poison into that well and that's

01:58:17.920 seen in the tree of our existence the macro large-scale yggdrasil is that connectivity

01:58:28.160 between all of our worlds but there's connectivity between you know there's ways to liken that

01:58:36.280 analogy to so many different smaller scale things to our body and what we feed to our mind and what

01:58:45.380 we feed it what we don't to our family and what we allow in versus what we don't that

01:58:53.180 system that circulates all those things and all that energy throughout the worlds through different

01:59:01.960 places from those places and back that circular that circulatory mechanism is the reality of

01:59:12.680 I also wanted to say to the emanation of its power um some people have gotten I think they're

01:59:24.400 misunderstanding things they try to see the world um in a different like the pictures that perhaps

01:59:32.880 if they see a tree with tiny little bubbles representing all the worlds and what have you

01:59:38.480 our ancestors most likely saw the midgard as the central plain and that upon heavenly mountains

01:59:46.480 himenberger uh that is the upper level um and in that upper level there is the tree and its roots

01:59:55.840 descend down into the middle world and even beyond and all in all directions and so there's this

02:00:03.520 emanation from the singular tree and i think people have gone to mistaking it to be uh that

02:00:10.320 the tree is somehow in the underworld and i think that that's a um flawed logic because of a couple

02:00:18.560 of reasons one arian mythos very rarely does uh it place say like the base of mount olympus

02:00:26.400 doesn't start in hades it is uh in for them in the middle and goes upward but more so is that

02:00:35.840 the gods are at the well of urd the the origin well they are at the pinnacle of order all order

02:00:46.080 descends from them the farther you go down because that's the directional uh if you remove christian

02:00:53.920 ideology of up and down the farther you go down from the gods the more that the it becomes primordial

02:01:04.000 and that hierarchy and order and the emanation of Yggdrasil becomes um more primal. It's the

02:01:14.960 the tap root and it's shaded and unknown and that is ultimately one of the uh sages places to be

02:01:23.920 when order and chaos fight um and we see this in the story but there is this sense that

02:01:31.680 Yggdrasil is not a being of will but an emanation of existence and creation

02:01:44.080 that the gods are with and one god in particular our god lord Odin synthesized with it

02:01:53.200 and that is something that is even a great feat for gods to do and I find that very important

02:02:04.120 to kind of prospect. There's things that in our stories by observation and I'm not limiting the

02:02:10.780 gods but the idea is that it is a great feat for the divine to go into those primordial realms

02:02:20.620 away from order and not every god can just do it like it's a Tuesday and also synthesizing with

02:02:28.980 Yggdrasil which is what makes Lord Odin so powerful so um yeah but so all right I want to

02:02:39.200 tackle one other question before we get back into the into the text um

02:02:48.020 If these traditions are reconstructed, what makes your reconstruction more authoritative than anyone else's?

02:03:02.280 How do you distinguish between a real spiritual experience and a constructed, symbolic one?

02:03:10.740 swan would you like to take the first swing at these two questions sure uh i think those are

02:03:20.300 two separate questions um i might maybe you have a better way of putting those two together but i'll

02:03:26.940 i think that's a good point there are two separate questions yeah if these traditions

02:03:31.680 are reconstructed what makes your reconstruction more authoritative than anyone else's go

02:03:38.680 um authority makes us more authoritative um i always like i always like to say that like people

02:03:48.720 love hierarchy until you've got to do hierarchy people love authority until it's not them at the

02:03:56.100 the helm um no really though it is that we have had a divine initiation the founder of our church

02:04:06.780 has had not a inclination or a desire to simply.

02:04:14.580 It was a divine initiation that started this relationship.

02:04:22.660 The gods said, we're coming back.

02:04:25.800 Now's the time to start.

02:04:27.020 There was an initiation.

02:04:28.460 And that initiation has led to decades of a relationship with the gods.

02:04:36.780 In a organized and collected manner under a banner with the purpose of glorifying the gods, bringing them back to our folk and establishing their Hoffs again.

02:04:52.260 So it's kind of like asking like when there's a millet, like why did Napoleon have power?

02:05:00.960 it's because he did and and then he uh i mean it was clear i i think was hegel said you know when

02:05:12.120 he saw napoleon marching through his town uh he said it was almost as if he was not just a man

02:05:19.220 but a force of will or a force of greater power uh guiding him um but the reality is is that we

02:05:29.300 We are sincerely having a relationship and processes and building structure around that sincerity, around that desire of we're not simply scholars.

02:05:45.200 We are not simply, we're not LARPing as our ancestors.

02:05:50.440 We are living in this moment now.

02:05:52.640 We are this faith tangibly here and consistently showing that we are, by building Hoffs dedicated to the gods, that have not been around, like the Hoffs have not been around for a thousand years.

02:06:14.580 And now we are building them. And people get into their heads that, oh, you know, well, I mean, what makes you different than some guy who does this in his backyard?

02:06:27.200 And I would say there's a lot that makes us different from that guy.

02:06:32.380 Does that, if that guy is capable of learning and understanding and joining us and being part of this, there's no problem there.

02:06:43.740 And that sense of us growing together and moving forward towards the horizon, unfortunately, our religion is plagued with people who want to tear things down to year zero, and they want to be the leader of something, and that, I think, is disingenuous to the gods.

02:07:03.740 But instead, here we have, it has already started and it continues to go. And the processes is not about someone trying to make their stance and being the grand poobah in their backyard church.

02:07:26.380 and that authority of doing is what separates us from others

02:07:35.800 and the sincerity that we are honoring the gods

02:07:41.620 and we are trying to bring glory to the gods

02:07:45.560 not just the gods of our ancestors but the gods of us as people

02:07:50.380 yeah i first thank you for asking the question thank you for asking both the questions i think

02:07:59.340 that they are good questions and i think if you detect any kind of spiciness in response

02:08:05.820 because these are questions that are very often

02:08:12.460 posited as these like rhetorical gotchas or something because they don't have the clearest

02:08:20.380 like, perfect answer.

02:08:25.280 And I get fervent about it anyway.

02:08:27.220 Well, no, and I want to get that.

02:08:29.000 So I want to approach it from a little bit of a distance here.

02:08:31.620 One of the things that is a common refrain is,

02:08:36.060 well, who's to say what's right and wrong?

02:08:40.280 Somebody first,

02:08:42.780 because imagine a world where nobody says what's right and wrong.

02:08:46.580 That's terrible.

02:08:47.300 and then who's to say the person with enough courage and moral rectitude to stand up and say

02:08:56.200 this is this and that's that and to stand and suffer the slings and arrows thrown at them

02:09:01.580 by all the naysayers that but what about this but what about this other thing but what

02:09:07.000 because at some point you have to pick away and go with it so

02:09:11.600 So in the case, the Astru folk assembly, what makes our reconstruction better than everybody

02:09:21.200 else's first, because we don't hold to the pretense that what we're doing is a reconstruction.

02:09:29.740 I am not trying to imitate anything that our ancestors did.

02:09:34.660 I'm trying to do Ausatru in 2025.

02:09:42.240 I would like to be informed

02:09:44.940 by the knowledge of our ancestors, absolutely.

02:09:50.640 But I'm not trying to copy what they did.

02:09:53.360 I am trying to learn from things that they did

02:09:56.820 to inform best ways to do the things that I do

02:10:01.820 I do and that we do, but I'm not trying to pretend to be anything other than who we are.

02:10:11.980 And we have worked very honestly for 30 years this year, here in a few days,

02:10:21.880 would be 31 years as the Ask True Folk Assembly, in establishing and maintaining the gift cycle

02:10:32.880 between our folk and our gods.

02:10:37.120 That's built on a previous 33 years of our founders' efforts to do the same.

02:10:51.880 One thing that makes ours more authoritative is that we have that history that we're moving forward.

02:11:00.060 In the course of time, that may not seem like a lot, but in the circles that we're in, and for other people who are doing something similar, it does show a stability and a lasting commitment to doing this right.

02:11:18.040 um being able to accomplish things is also a mark of authority in doing this

02:11:28.280 um it's not just that we've been around for a long time but it's in that time we have successfully

02:11:37.280 engaged with our gods in a way that they've blessed us i understand that you know any

02:11:45.640 tom dick and harry can say that the gods are blessing them and maybe they do but you can see

02:11:52.120 those blessings in the afa in some very tangible ways i think our success our hoffs the progress

02:12:00.280 that we make and the stability that we have over time does speak to those blessings

02:12:07.160 and i think that does say something i think you can also

02:12:13.800 what is also authoritative is the seriousness that our go-thar take

02:12:23.840 the responsibility bestowed on them

02:12:26.840 that time hasn't just been sitting up sitting back and existing it has been time spent

02:12:34.900 working and building and developing the AFA, but it's also time that's been spent

02:12:41.400 in prayer and in gifting the gods and in seeking their wisdom and their inspiration and their

02:12:50.700 approval and refining over that time how we do what we do, what works best, what do we feel

02:13:00.700 gains divine approval what things do we feel don't that we need to discard and

02:13:05.860 and alter or change or shift around to to do this better um it's the countless hours and

02:13:16.800 years spent in devotion and dedication by our volunteers and by our priests and priestesses

02:13:24.400 our gothar in trying earnestly to get it right and it doesn't mean or authoritative doesn't mean

02:13:34.720 perfect but we honestly strive for perfection i don't say that's silly we know that we're very

02:13:42.640 far from perfection but we're a lot closer than we were 30 years ago and i have to believe that

02:13:49.360 were much closer than someone who started 30 days ago that authority counts and the other things

02:13:57.680 are matters of faith that somebody from the outside might not take us seriously or be it's

02:14:03.600 very hard to prove empirically but somebody who's been devoted to this for um you know

02:14:09.840 the lion's share of my adult life it's you know i say it honestly um

02:14:15.840 um the all-father inspired our founder to do this and make this happen and he

02:14:33.840 gave him the responsibility to do this I can't say he's never given anybody else that

02:14:41.520 responsibility there was a time where a number of people had responsibility from the Isir to carry

02:14:48.940 this forward and there was a time of testing to see who would be able to accomplish who would be

02:14:55.580 able to stand up to that struggle and be worthy of it who would be the force from that original

02:15:05.740 charge from the Isir to bring this forward? Who was going to be the one that was able to do that?

02:15:12.580 And as the other founders and pioneers of this movement fell by the wayside and things that,

02:15:19.580 and even if they stood the course, those who came after them weren't able to carry

02:15:23.680 that torch forward, that energy and that divine mandate coalesced around the Alice True Folk

02:15:32.980 assembly. And it's a very important responsibility and

02:15:36.540 something that's sacred to us to be the very best stewards of we

02:15:41.620 can. I think that our continued perseverance in this, I think

02:15:51.800 that, you know, and again, it's it's a different story. If you

02:15:55.540 were asking me why I think we're the authority. It's harder to

02:16:01.700 convince somebody who's on the outside looking in because the things that i know to be true through

02:16:09.300 my experience aren't things that you would have the same experience or the same you know you

02:16:16.340 weren't there when i was there so you wouldn't experience the same way and i wouldn't expect

02:16:23.540 that you would sign on saying, but I do think the longevity, the success, and, you know, I invite

02:16:31.620 you to judge us on, are we sincere, and are we doing our best at this? And I believe we are.

02:16:40.700 This goes into the second half of your question, so we'll get to that in a second,

02:16:44.520 But I very much feel that the things that we are doing are blessed and are appreciated by the Aesir, and in exchange, they continue to give us their blessings.

02:16:59.220 I don't think they think that we're perfect not at all but I do think they know that we

02:17:09.460 genuinely care we genuinely love and worship them and we genuinely want to get it right

02:17:15.860 and I think that over time they help us learn how to get it right and I think that we are at

02:17:21.920 a further stage of getting it right than other people that have not been engaged for the time

02:17:29.060 that we have and that lack the, uh, spiritual lineage and the torch that was handed to Stephen

02:17:38.100 McNallan by the all father, they don't carry that torch. Um, but something else that

02:17:46.140 I wanted to mention on the, the authoritative nature of our reconstruction or our tradition,

02:17:55.280 because I do think it matters.

02:17:59.960 What is essential to the practice of Ausitru

02:18:08.080 isn't what our ancestors did.

02:18:11.840 It's why they did a thing.

02:18:15.900 It's not how, but it's why.

02:18:19.080 I guess to a degree it's what,

02:18:20.680 but it's a it's not the like methodology it's the what was accomplished and why did they do

02:18:29.900 certain things to accomplish that starting fresh today if we did not have any lore at all

02:18:37.220 we could do ausitru we would be at a disadvantage not being able to learn from the wisdom of our

02:18:46.820 ancestors but also true is us worshiping our gods making offerings to them that please them enough

02:18:58.620 to where they share their gifts with us and to where we can continue that gift cycle into the

02:19:04.480 future it's not about how closely we mimic actions of the past and i don't want our you know

02:19:13.400 quadruple sextuple great-grandchildren to look back and try to emulate what we're doing as closely as

02:19:21.480 possible. I want their practice to have evolved and be as relevant to them and the world that

02:19:27.640 they live in as ours is to us and as our ancestors in the lore that we read about's practice was to

02:19:34.600 them. The relationship with the Isir is timeless. The method and what it looks like and you know

02:19:42.360 the exact nature of the ritual changes over time and over circumstance svan how do you

02:19:49.540 distinguish between a real spiritual experience and a constructed symbolic one

02:19:54.780 um well one i did want to commend you on your uh intellectual honesty towards folks

02:20:04.360 inviting them to come in and judge our sincerity i get a little uh soap boxy sometimes and i

02:20:12.320 think you tempering that down was probably better um uh so i and in the chat it was mentioned as

02:20:23.320 well uh someone said you know when we look into the sky we see the gods and you're not wrong

02:20:29.320 the manifestation of the gods through their will and the very nature of what they they can do and

02:20:36.060 i'm i'm not stating what they can't do what i'm saving is based off of observation and and our

02:20:42.300 relationship and my personal relationship with the gods their manifestation of will into the world

02:20:48.780 comes in different ways they're not just you know the god of storms their purpose and understanding

02:20:57.900 of keeping balance of things whether it's environmentally cosmically but it's also again

02:21:04.700 deeply spiritual and um even uh the balance of community and of of the people themselves

02:21:12.780 all the way down to the microscopic all the way up to the biggest cosmic the gods manifest their will

02:21:20.620 in each of those layers and they show themselves through their deeds and it is a matter of us

02:21:30.780 observing um it's very easy for us to see a storm and say oh lord thor but it's harder for us to

02:21:40.060 conceptualize the idea of uh let's just say in the environmental sense that there is a balance being

02:21:48.540 made that there is a positive and a negative there's a a heat and a cold and if they build up

02:21:56.460 they will eventually collapse and create a tornado or a typhoon or a hurricane so there is balance

02:22:04.940 being played out uh in in front of us and science can explain perhaps how but doesn't explain why

02:22:16.860 and the gods are the why but that's just one manifestation of how they exert their will and

02:22:25.740 their connection to fate and time through the well of urd and their ability they gather there to

02:22:32.860 counsel every day is again adjudication of will the manifestation of deed and we can see it in

02:22:42.300 almost every level um of interaction but generally when we talk about personal spiritual beliefs

02:22:51.500 Most people are coming from a singular individual point of view.

02:22:59.320 Perhaps it's been formed by modern society or previous religions, if they're coming from Christianity or some other kind of way of thinking.

02:23:11.480 They will go into looking for a cultivation of the interior self.

02:23:17.620 And one of the things that I find important to talk about is that when you come into Ausatru, it is a return to both a collective sense of deed and working together and manifesting spiritual might.

02:23:37.640 giving and praying is good, but also giving and praying with your people is good. And so we start

02:23:49.340 to get away from the need to humanize the divine and turn it into a mortal. We get away from it

02:24:00.400 needing to be, oh, my soul in specifics needs to be saved. And if you're not saved, then you go to

02:24:08.360 a bad place. And that just makes me feel so good. We get away from that. Our semblance of religious

02:24:15.500 experience is about unifying with our community, unifying with our folk, giving praise to the

02:24:23.360 gifts that we receive through their will, the gods, and building that relationship with them.

02:24:31.080 That connects us together, connects us with the gods. So our spiritual experience first

02:24:37.720 and foremost comes with connection. And connection, it's something that I think a lot of people

02:24:46.460 nowadays have a hard time battling with. Everything for them is very atomized. They're

02:24:53.580 deeply internal. And it's the books they read. It's the websites they go to. It's the people

02:25:00.400 that they interact on X or whatever. And that's fine. I'm not shooting any of that stuff down. I

02:25:06.980 do that stuff as well. But it is about connection. It's about what you do with your people, what you

02:25:13.520 do with your tribe and we are so far removed from that that people have a hard time grasping it

02:25:20.360 and so when you are with your people and you feel this overwhelming presence whether it's of your

02:25:29.720 ancestral uh line a specific ancestor or if you feel this presence moving forward um of one of

02:25:40.720 holy gods you it's it is fully different than reconstructing say this is the full moon i want

02:25:53.440 to draw this diagram of nine squares or a petrahedron and i want to light this and ring that

02:26:03.280 and do this in order to maintain the balance and don't get me wrong i understand something called

02:26:10.320 obligatory service in which in essence by obligating yourself to order you are helping

02:26:17.600 maintain it that's a concept we talk about in the gothar uh program and in the gothar

02:26:24.640 in general but it is for us relationship and relationship i think is the driving force between

02:26:32.800 you you having your spiritual um connections if you are not able to do with others we still

02:26:39.920 encouraged it is better to do something than nothing at all and to do it not with the express

02:26:46.560 idea of getting something in return but to build relationship we are in truth we are in deficit

02:26:54.000 to the gods they don't owe us anything we have to come back from hundreds and hundreds of years of

02:27:03.520 kind of losing our way and again that fight i think is important i think they want us to fight

02:27:11.040 back for our true selves to our true identity sometimes it's about the journey of shirking off

02:27:17.040 that which uh weighs you down that which uh poisons you taints you that journey is a spiritual

02:27:25.200 journey that i think the gods are to complete so yes sorry i was connection connection

02:27:35.120 is i think the first step to understanding true spiritual experiences

02:27:41.200 you know i

02:27:44.400 again it's a good question it's one of those questions that doesn't have the perfect clean answer

02:27:51.600 um i've mentioned on this show a number of times that

02:28:02.080 so many of us start out wanting to believe in the gods

02:28:09.040 often we say we believe in the gods and we genuinely mean it

02:28:15.440 but there is something that happens that is transcendent

02:28:20.640 where all of a sudden you the presence of the gods is manifest and you have a transcendent

02:28:32.240 experience where you cannot comprehend of anyone not believing in the gods

02:28:42.640 and that can't be proven or demonstrated or convincing other people of but one of the coolest

02:28:59.920 most beautiful things as a gothi is when you can be a part of facilitating that for someone else

02:29:09.580 And you see in their eyes when things got real.

02:29:16.460 And so one of the, it means a lot to me when people are at certainly any bloat that I conduct,

02:29:33.440 but also at bloats that other afa gothar conduct and they go away from it

02:29:40.880 remarking that i felt the gods were there or you know did you see that i saw this thing or

02:29:52.340 that was amazing i've never felt anything like that in my life or whatever people will process

02:29:59.700 it in many, many different ways. But there's something that happens and you can see it on

02:30:06.200 their face when all of a sudden their eyes get as big as dinner plates and they're looking around

02:30:12.920 seeing if other people are experiencing the same thing that they're experiencing. And

02:30:19.300 there are moments of absolute transcendence to where you know for a fact that

02:30:27.840 the gods are paying attention they're present and they're interacting with the world

02:30:36.440 or with you in particular and it's not something that happens every time or all the time to

02:30:46.280 everyone but it is something that frequently happens in the astro folk assembly and that is

02:30:56.120 miraculous when it does, if not for everyone, then for the

02:31:04.860 individual that it happens for. And again, we can't guarantee

02:31:10.520 that, you know, I'm not a wizard. I'm a gothy. The transcendent

02:31:17.140 experiences that happen are things that I help facilitate. I

02:31:23.620 can help create an atmosphere that is conducive i can help speak to the gods

02:31:32.420 as someone that they know that has spoken to them many times before

02:31:38.420 that hopefully is someone that stands in good favor with them and encourage that interaction to

02:31:46.100 happen um but in order for the transcendent to happen the person there needs to be open to it

02:31:57.140 and the gods need to wish to reach out and make that happen

02:32:03.940 sometimes it does some oftentimes it does sometimes it does for the individual sometimes

02:32:10.820 it doesn't but here's the thing on knowing whether it's real or whether it's not once it

02:32:16.820 happens once then it's real the rest becomes academic at that point doesn't need to happen

02:32:24.380 every time or in all circumstances because you know it happens once and then once you know the

02:32:31.620 gods are in fact real and that they hear us when we call out to them then the rest is just a matter

02:32:41.360 of degrees we over complicate things and again i don't mean to be disrespectful by simplifying them

02:32:49.560 it helps me to process and to plan and to conceptualize and go forward when i break

02:32:57.540 things down to very, very basic truths that I know. As people, we understand the idea of

02:33:09.320 exchanging gifts with people. Most of us know the idea of writing a letter or sending an email

02:33:22.720 or sending a gift, or giving a gift personally to people who are bigger than us, who are higher

02:33:30.500 status than us, who are our elders, or, you know, a famous person, or whatever, there's a time where

02:33:40.840 you will give someone a gift, and they will, they will be moved, and you will be moved, and they'll

02:33:48.220 give you a big hug and shower you with appreciation and it's this you know amazing hallmark everybody's

02:33:54.900 in tears moment it's far more often that you give them a gift like oh wow thanks that's cool

02:34:01.940 there's sometimes that they're very busy or they're just not present at the moment you give

02:34:09.480 them a gift and they kind of look at it set it aside and continue about their business

02:34:13.240 all of those are real and all of those are worth doing as long as you are real and the person you

02:34:22.400 are gifting is real all those things count and i think don't claim it's exactly the same but i

02:34:32.040 think that is a starting point to look at our interactions with the divine they're much bigger

02:34:40.640 and much more important than us they have much more to focus their attention on

02:34:46.720 and much greater competition for their attention

02:34:49.820 but sometimes you feel their blessing immediately sometimes you don't sometimes it takes a while

02:35:01.400 sometimes their gift takes longer to reveal itself to you sometimes just doesn't quite

02:35:11.140 work out you may not know but it just needs to be powerful once for you to realize its thing

02:35:19.300 and i'm really happy that at afa bloats very often people will come away from it being

02:35:28.260 profoundly moved that they felt something very real happen and I've had some really beautiful

02:35:36.040 instances of that that I've been lucky enough to be a part of and I want to keep doing things

02:35:43.240 progressively better and better so that I can help be a part of that more and more in the future

02:35:51.040 With that, Svon, can you take us into the At La Cvita?

02:36:00.800 You are muted.

02:36:05.300 Sorry, and I was paying attention, and I jumped away from the poetics.

02:36:12.840 I probably should have set myself up.

02:36:14.880 Atla Quida, the song of Atli. Also, people might notice, it's the Greenland lay of Atli. And that's what I kept talking about with the fact that it wasn't that Attila the Hun was living in Greenland, riding walruses and figuring out ways to conquer Canada.

02:36:44.880 It's because of the time frame in which the poem was composed and there was an exchange of poetics from Greenland back to Iceland that Snorri Sturluson and the school in which Saimander had founded in Iceland was pulling stories from all over Iceland but also Greenland.

02:37:10.540 And, you know, obviously the stories about Sweden, you know, I wonder too how much may have been kind of funneled from there directly, but just to remove confusion.

02:37:27.640 And, of course, Otli. Now, Otli is one of the big antagonists of the story of the Volsungs.

02:37:38.640 And bear in mind that these poems, these stories are very much the entertainment, the drama, the long running poetic stories that would be told in the halls and the intricacies of who was trying to kill who, who was a great warrior, who was poisoning the horns, who knew magic, all of this.

02:38:06.480 And Otley, I think, kind of fits in the second antagonist.

02:38:12.580 Brynhild, the Valkyrie, is very much, I think, the first antagonist.

02:38:19.480 She becomes the love interest that turns into a terrible and vengeful storm.

02:38:25.860 but oddly is very much a cut of uh a warrior of his time great in power but ultimately and i think

02:38:38.580 this is true with the historical attila is um with grand military and might and gaining lands and

02:38:48.340 gaining control over people there was also great chaotic strands of doing things uh that

02:38:59.380 weren't necessarily about him being a wise leader he was cunning but uh i think he had a pendulum

02:39:10.100 swing a lot of times and would do things uh drastically and and and by the poetics that

02:39:18.380 became his motif is that he is um a very scary warrior but he's also very unpredictable and

02:39:28.080 would do things that don't necessarily he's not a schemer but he's also not someone to be trifled

02:39:37.380 with because one minute the the the wind could shift and now you have to deal with them so um

02:39:46.260 again bringing it back we have sigurd and brinhild and then we have gudrun and her brothers um gunnar

02:39:57.860 and hog me and these are again the main core characters of the story um and

02:40:06.820 uh they consistently refer gyuki here in the beginning is of course gudrun it's her father

02:40:14.340 king gyuki so gudrun gyuki's daughter avenged her brothers as has become well known she slew

02:40:27.220 first Otley's sons, and thereafter she slew Otley and burned the hall with all its company.

02:40:38.020 Concerning this, the following poem was made. So we can see some comparisons between the other poem

02:40:45.340 where the poem's actually just simply stating what this is. But now we know what is to come.

02:40:55.140 Brynhild actually was the first one to prophesize that Sigurd would die, she would die, then Gunnar and Hogni would die, and all that would remain lonely is Gudrun, and the only thing she would do in her loneliness is destroy a king and his kingdom.

02:41:18.880 And this is what that story is.

02:41:25.140 So in verse one, it says,

02:41:26.980 Atli sent of old to Gunnar, a keen-witted writer.

02:41:34.340 Nevroth did men call him.

02:41:38.120 To Gyuki's home came he and to Gunnar's dwelling

02:41:42.100 with the benches round the hearth and to the beer so sweet.

02:41:47.760 um i looked into nevrov and i can't quite um find a translation because there's a lot of different

02:42:00.280 um spellings but uh frother um being fruitful or peaceful i think is that part but the the

02:42:12.740 the beginning part nay or knay knay throw that um i don't i can't lock it down so if anybody's got

02:42:20.580 that definitely in the chat um but he was a keen-witted rider and he goes to king juki's

02:42:31.380 realm but specifically to gunner's hall and he is welcomed and there is a warm heart and sweet beer

02:42:40.180 And this is, of course, Atli's man. And we all know Atli eventually kills Gunnar.

02:42:49.020 Then the followers, hiding their falseness, all drank their wine in the war hall of the Huns. Wrath wary. And Nave Rolf spoke loudly. His words were crafty. The hero from the south on the high bench sitting.

02:43:11.280 A couple of things. What we have here is Gunnar's men are false because they are scared of Atli.

02:43:27.140 They're hiding their fear, their wrath wary of the Huns.

02:43:34.220 And so Nevroth and whatever's about to transpire, he's making them nervous.

02:43:41.280 so they're there but they're trying their best to not show they got any issues with the huns

02:43:48.880 and he named it off speaks from the high bench the high bench or the high seat this is a um

02:43:58.560 a sacral point of power uh it could be like the the um the chair of the poet but uh oftentimes

02:44:09.200 the high seat was the seat in the hall if there was a seat where the gods were sitting

02:44:18.880 then there would be a high seat uh in front of the gods for the highest guest in honor

02:44:27.040 if there was a lord of the hall he would have a high seat for his highest guest to be

02:44:33.920 invited to sit in the high seat

02:44:36.140 before the gods

02:44:38.160 or before the lord

02:44:39.500 is a big deal

02:44:41.840 so he's sitting in this seat

02:44:43.660 with all of that attention

02:44:45.920 culturally directed at him

02:44:48.480 as he begins to

02:44:49.660 speak

02:44:51.540 but everyone there is very nervous

02:44:53.800 because the Huns are not to be trifled

02:44:56.380 and he says

02:44:59.820 now Atli has sent me

02:45:02.600 His errand to ride

02:45:04.760 On my bit-champing steed

02:45:08.100 Through Mirkwood the secret

02:45:10.840 To bid you, Gunner, to his benches

02:45:14.600 Come, with helms round the hearth

02:45:17.460 And Atlee's home, seek

02:45:20.520 So this is an invitation

02:45:22.760 Shields shall you choose there

02:45:27.940 And shafts of ashwood

02:45:30.220 Gold adorned helmets and slaves out of Hunland, silver gilt saddle cloths, shirts of bright scarlet with lances and spears and bit chomping steeds.

02:45:44.680 So, again, this is used the bit chomping or the horses biting at the bit.

02:45:52.540 But also, I think it's worth remembering that helmets, swords, all of these things were highly prized.

02:46:02.100 Most of our ancestor warriors were not lords, but were common men who were lucky to have a shield and a leather cap and an axe.

02:46:14.680 But scarlet clothing dyed red and gold and silver gilded helmets and swords, strong, sturdy spears.

02:46:29.680 So he's saying to Gunnar, it's time for you to come.

02:46:35.680 You've been beckoned as he controls the lands.

02:46:39.680 lands you should come there but take these weapons join us um and this would be very enticing but

02:46:50.640 again there's a deep understanding and depending on if this poem focuses on brynhild's prophecy

02:46:59.200 it could all be for naught it's like yes this is all cool but i i know what's gonna happen

02:47:04.400 um then he says uh the field shall we give you of wide gnita heath with loud ringing lances and

02:47:18.420 stems gold overlaid treasures whole huge and the home of thamp now i think thamp or dana

02:47:29.220 is um the dnepir the river oh yeah down here in the in the uh in the notes it's the dnepir river

02:47:39.780 um in that area and uh that gives significance to his mentioning of murkwood the the dark and marshy

02:47:48.980 forest around the Dnieper River in Eastern Europe. So he says, you'll get all this land

02:47:58.700 there. And, yes, and the mighty forest that Mirkwood is called.

02:48:05.860 In six, his head turned Gunnar, so Gunnar turns his head, and he says to his brother Hogman,

02:48:24.200 what's thy counsel young hero when such things we hear no gold do i know on newtah heath lying

02:48:34.160 so fair that other it's equal we have not

02:48:37.900 and then in retort this is his brother speaking uh or sorry he continues on excuse me he says

02:48:48.740 we have seven halls each of swords full and all of gold is the hilt on each my steed is the swiftest

02:48:58.440 my sword is the sharpest my bows adorn benches my bear knees which are chainmail shirts are golden

02:49:07.580 my helm is the brightest that came from carol's hall mine own is better than all the huns

02:49:18.440 treasure. Then Hogni, his brother, speaks. What seeks she to say that she sends us a ring

02:49:32.440 woven with a wolf's hair? Methinks it gives warning. In the red ring a hair of the heath

02:49:42.740 dweller found eye wolf-like shall our road be if we ride on this journey so what this is referencing

02:49:52.420 is um uh in the when after sigurd is slain and gudrun is uh absorbed into the hunnish

02:50:06.100 and taken back and made uh the bride of atli um there is a message sent to her brothers and she

02:50:17.140 offers a keepsake for the messenger to give to her brothers and what it is is a golden ring

02:50:26.020 but it is specifically wrapped with a wolf hair and this is a symbol this is a message

02:50:36.100 because of the the symbology of the heath dweller if for all of those who don't know Fenris the name Fenris means dweller of the fens and fens have both a positive and a negative connotation culturally

02:50:56.100 There's fensaler, the silvery marsh that Frigg inhabits, but then there's also fenris or fenrir, the one who is raised or reared up in the fen.

02:51:16.940 so uh the fact that they they identify the wolf fur and they take it as the intended meaning

02:51:26.620 bradley is going to ambush them and hogni is wiser than gundar gundar has a tendency well i mean

02:51:35.420 obviously he's the one who convinces you know gets sigurd out of his oath with brinhild he pretty much

02:51:44.220 causes a lot of all of the problems, but Hogni is wiser than him, but more reserved. And so

02:51:56.540 he calls it right out. And he says, not eager were his comrades, nor the men of his kin,

02:52:05.900 the wise, nor the wary, nor the warriors bold, but do not speak forth as befitting a king.

02:52:13.820 noble in the beer hall and bitter is scorn so this is saying that kings lords should be able

02:52:23.900 to speak in their own halls and have that bravery but it's double scorn is is damnation of course

02:52:36.380 the the poetic sense of the poem is is that we already know the damnation is coming

02:52:41.980 so perhaps gunner is thinking it doesn't matter so i will speak as i see fit but it's it's that

02:52:51.820 tension that build up of that um and he says stand forth now fjornir and hither on the floor

02:53:01.340 the beakers all gold shalt thou bring to the warriors um he's calling for drinks and the

02:53:10.860 beakers are the crafts or the pouring vessels um that will pour um beer or need for those gathered

02:53:23.820 in the hall now if anybody's reading on the website there is two lines of perforated dots

02:53:31.180 and that means that there was damage um in the recording and so these two lines in the stanza

02:53:38.060 are not available um but uh

02:53:45.260 he basically says get the beer out because what i'm about to say everyone's gonna need to

02:53:50.220 wash their throats from from the nervousness um and then he says the wolves then shall rule the

02:54:01.420 wealth of the needlings wolves aged and gray hued if gunner is lost and black coated bears

02:54:12.300 with rending teeth bite and make glad the dogs if gunner returns not

02:54:20.220 First off, context for those who don't know, the Nivlums. Nivlum, it means mist dweller. And they are the Nivlums. And they are of that clan or stock of people.

02:54:37.700 And he is clearly saying, wolves will rend my kingdom apart if I do not return.

02:54:44.080 Bears will rend my kingdom and make glad the dogs.

02:54:49.560 The scraps will be divided if I do not return.

02:54:53.280 I am the only thing holding this kingdom together.

02:54:59.320 And he says, a following gallant fared forth with the ruler.

02:55:05.140 yet they wept as their home with their hero they left and the little heir of Ogni called loudly

02:55:14.920 so the son of the king's brother his nephew um he yells go safe now ye wise ones wherever ye will

02:55:28.100 then let the bold heroes with their bit champing horses on the mountains gallop and on through the

02:55:39.100 murkwood the secret all of hunland was shaken where the hard sold ones rode i love that hard

02:55:49.500 sold they're warriors they their job is uh killing and so they are hardened souls hard

02:56:03.580 and they uh where they rode on the whip fearers fared they through the fields that were green

02:56:12.060 whip-fearers or horses. Then they saw Atley's hall and his watchtowers high.

02:56:22.140 On the walls so lofty stood the warriors of Boothley. Boothley, of course, is Atley's father.

02:56:30.460 The hall of the southrons with seats was surrounded, with targets bound and shields

02:56:38.300 fulbright mid weapons and lances did atli his his wine in the warhol drink sorry excuse me the

02:56:49.340 separation there um that's interesting the mid the mid weapons and lances i think this is referring

02:56:59.980 to um the level upon which weapons were hung in the hall that uh everyone's kind of familiar with

02:57:07.260 the viking shield on the wall but bows spears weapons that needed to be grabbed were held in

02:57:16.940 the mid wall of the hall so mid weapon and lances in the hall uh atli drank his wine in the war hall

02:57:28.140 without were his watchmen so outside were his watchmen for gunner they waited if forth he

02:57:35.580 should go with their ringing spears they would fight with the ruler

02:57:43.260 so with all of his retinue and his beckoning by atli he shows up with these men and attila's

02:57:50.540 man at least men don't know is this going to be a fight or is he or is he is he uh coming in

02:57:59.180 Then, Gunnar and Hognin, this verse, which is exceptionally long, and again, this is chaotic in the sense that the meter is very different, but Hognin and Gunnar see their sister, who is now the kind of reluctant wife of Atni.

02:58:18.580 16. This there, their sister they saw, as soon as her brothers had entered the hall, little ale had she drunk.

02:58:30.300 Betrayed art thou, Gunnar, what guard hast thou, hero?

02:58:36.300 Against the plots of the Huns, from the hall, flee swiftly.

02:58:41.300 Brother, t'were far better to have come in a barney,

02:58:46.300 with thy household helmed to see Atli's home,

02:58:51.300 and to sit in the saddle all day, neath the sun,

02:58:55.300 That the sword morns might weep for the death pale warriors and the hunnish shield maids might shun not the sword and send Atli himself to the den of the snakes.

02:59:10.400 Now the den of the snakes for thee is destined.

02:59:17.380 Making some realizations on the den of the snakes.

02:59:20.660 That's hell.

02:59:22.420 She's talking about the afterlife.

02:59:25.300 uh the den of snakes i often refer to helgard as the calamity the calamity of man it is the

02:59:35.380 that which brings things to an end and there is a clear connection between serpents and um

02:59:43.540 and especially the fear of venom and the ending of life so she's saying uh atli could have been

02:59:52.440 destined for hell guard but now you are destined i also like um the the usage of the words sword

03:00:02.600 norms um for those who don't know norm means witch um and uh a norn is a being of great power

03:00:14.680 that can twist the fate and it wasn't always a literal witch person but a spirit and um

03:00:24.820 it could be referencing to the Valkyries so that could be a poetic name for a Valkyrie a sword

03:00:32.000 mourn um and uh i just i think that's really really um cool but she basically says you should

03:00:45.340 have stayed outside of the kingdom you should have sat on your horse you should have plotted

03:00:50.080 how to how to fight atli but instead you've walked right in and then gunnar speaks 17

03:00:58.820 the first verse is lost

03:01:01.400 again there's the perforation

03:01:03.540 but

03:01:04.920 he says

03:01:06.220 too late it is sister to summon

03:01:09.600 the Nevelungs

03:01:11.160 his clan

03:01:12.500 long it is to come

03:01:14.660 to the throng of our comrades

03:01:17.320 the heroes gallant

03:01:19.100 from the hills of the Rhine

03:01:21.340 so the Nevelungs come

03:01:23.340 from Germany they've come

03:01:25.160 eastward and he's like I cannot

03:01:27.120 summon the whole of our clan, the whole of our people. But ultimately, I think it's, he knows

03:01:35.820 the prophecy. Then Gunner they seized and they set him in chains. The Burgundians king and fast

03:01:48.080 they bound him. So the Niedlungs in Germany are part of the Burgundians. I know that some people

03:01:58.520 are familiar with the famous coach Vince Lombardi. His name is a tribal name that harkens back to

03:02:08.220 the Longobards. Anybody with the last name Burgundy is a tribal name that harkens back

03:02:14.880 to the Burgundians. And there are many folk in Europe and America today who still have

03:02:24.240 their last names hearkening back to the tribes of the migration era.

03:02:31.680 So the Burgundian king is captured by Adli.

03:02:34.880 Hogni slew seven with a sword so keen and an eight he flung into the fire a hero should fight

03:02:47.320 with his foemen thus as Hogni strove in Gunnar's behalf so Hogni is turns his battle prowess all

03:02:57.980 way up kills seven men throws another man into the fire um and he's not going down without a fight

03:03:06.380 um there is a gap again in stanza 20. uh two lines are missing and then it comes in with

03:03:14.540 the leader they asked if his life he feigned with gold would buy the king of the gods so

03:03:21.820 So that's directed at Gunnar.

03:03:26.740 They basically ask, you know, is your life worth a bounty?

03:03:32.600 Would you be willing to pay to walk out of here?

03:03:36.060 And that's directed at Gunnar.

03:03:38.100 Hogni's already made his decision.

03:03:40.480 He's going down and he wants to be noticed before he leaves.

03:03:50.540 he is killed and his heart is removed. We covered that

03:03:54.560 in the last poem. So Gunnar

03:03:57.740 speaks of this. He says,

03:04:01.920 First, the heart of Hogni shall ye lay in my hands

03:04:05.640 all bloody from the breast of the bold one cut

03:04:09.940 with keen biting sword from the son of the king.

03:04:14.400 He's basically saying, give me my brother's heart.

03:04:17.900 um and i think that kind of also might lend to the idea that they can't desecrate it if he has it

03:04:24.440 um they cut out the heart from the breast of hyali on a platter they bore it and brought it

03:04:34.080 to gunner and the way this is written it would make you seem like the one that declared the

03:04:43.520 heart removal, but we know from the other poem that was not the case. It was Otley's man,

03:04:49.220 Vilmond. Then Gunnar spake forth the lord of the folk. Here have I the heart of Hjalid,

03:05:01.980 the craven, unlike to the heart of Hogni the valiant, for it trembles still as it stands on

03:05:08.800 the platter. Twice more did he tremble in the breast of the man. Then Hogni laughed when they

03:05:17.240 cut out the heart of the living home hammerer. Tears he shed not. So he asks for his brother's

03:05:27.240 heart, and they give him someone else's heart, and he knows it's not his brother's heart because

03:05:34.200 it flutters with fear then they give him his actual brother's heart and they call him a helm

03:05:42.660 hammerer someone who cleaves helmets um and he shed no tear when they cut it out of him

03:05:50.240 and on a platter they bore it and then gunner spoke the spear of the nevelungs here have i

03:05:59.180 the heart of Hogni the valiant, unlike the heart of Hyali the craven. Little it trembles as it

03:06:06.960 lies on the platter. Still less did it tremble when it lay in his breast. That is the most metal

03:06:15.160 line. Oh, that's awesome. So now he knows his brothers died in battle. And the fact that,

03:06:27.380 again it's just that he knew it was his brothers and um it it fluttered uh

03:06:33.780 so little on the platter and even less when it was still beating in his chest um

03:06:42.660 so distant oddly from all men's eyes shalt thou be as thou from the gold

03:06:50.660 there's a gap here and there's going to be some choppy pieces and i'm wondering

03:06:57.380 referring to the gold of the nibblungs or the nibblungs um the gold that uh sigurd brought to

03:07:06.380 them and that ultimately that is at least drive the reason why he has uh gudrun as his wife and

03:07:15.520 And the reason why he's trying to remove the last two noble-blooded warriors of the Nivelung line is so that he can roll in there and get the treasure that Sigurd brought.

03:07:27.380 There is two more lines gapped, but it's still Gunnar, and he's saying,

03:07:37.780 To no one save me is the secret known of the Nivelung's horde.

03:07:43.720 now Hogni is dead

03:07:46.780 so he's telling Attlee

03:07:48.840 you're not going to get the treasure

03:07:50.160 that Sigurd brought to

03:07:52.200 the Nibelungs

03:07:53.500 because there was only two people

03:07:56.340 who knew it and you just killed

03:07:58.640 one of them and I'm not

03:08:00.580 going to relinquish that

03:08:02.060 of old there were two

03:08:06.420 while we twain were alive

03:08:08.780 now is none but I

03:08:10.760 for I only am living

03:08:12.840 The swift rhine shall hold the strife gold of heroes that once was the gods.

03:08:21.440 The wealth of the Neblums in the depth of its waters, the death ring shall glitter and not shine on the hands of hunnish men.

03:08:32.600 Atli then spoke, he shall bring the wagon, for now is he bound.

03:08:39.100 now again

03:08:41.160 this is a break

03:08:44.300 I wish they weren't here

03:08:47.060 because this is so good

03:08:48.380 on the long

03:08:53.120 maned glaum

03:08:54.700 the gloomy or

03:08:56.580 the black horse of Attila was called

03:08:59.100 glaum

03:08:59.600 the dark horse

03:09:02.520 and rode Atli the great

03:09:04.280 about him were his warriors

03:09:06.380 but Gudrun akin

03:09:07.900 to the gods of slaughter yielded not to her tears in the hall of tumult tumult um so

03:09:18.720 gudrun is akin to the gods of slaughter that means that she has long experienced the cost of

03:09:25.620 war is basically that that's the poetic way of saying that and she yields no tears despite the

03:09:32.480 fact that her kinsmen are dying. Then Gudrun spoke, it shall go with thee, Atli, as with Gunnir thou

03:09:42.000 heldest, the oaths oftentimes sworn and of old made firm by the sun in the south, by Sigtir's mountain.

03:09:52.640 That's, of course, Lord Odin's mountain. By the horse of the restbed, and by the ring of Ur,

03:10:02.480 And we can only surmise this is Ullr, the lord of the hunt and the god of battle, especially one-on-one.

03:10:15.640 Then the champer of bits, the horse, drew the chieftain great and the gold garter down to the place of death.

03:10:24.340 we see this the mentioning of Lord Odin and of Lord Ullr is fitting a a common thing that

03:10:43.300 this is mentioned in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta de Norum and we see that there's a coupling

03:10:50.320 Generally, we would see Thor honored on his own, and we would see Lord Njordh and the Holy Frey honored together, and also Lord Odhin and Ullr honored together.

03:11:06.140 And I think that just fits the fact that this is late Viking Age, because we've seen it in other poems.

03:11:16.320 So 31,

03:11:46.320 moved from the den of snakes. He strikes up a tune instead and pretty much is telling Atlee,

03:11:58.560 I will sing my own song. I will not sing What You Want, which is the location of the gold in the

03:12:05.320 Rhine. Then Atlee rode on his earth-treading steed, seeking his home from the slaughter place.

03:12:14.800 There was a clatter of hooves of the steeds in the court, and the clashing of arms as they came from the field.

03:12:21.960 Out then came Gudrun to meeting with Atli, with a golden beaker as gift to the monarch.

03:12:29.980 Thou mayest eat now, chieftain, within thy dwelling.

03:12:34.900 Blithely with Gudrun, young beasts fresh slaughtered, the wine-heavy ale cups.

03:12:42.560 And a lot of people might not understand that too, like wine, ale, beer, and mead were sometimes interchangeable as indescriptors poetically for drinking.

03:12:57.700 But here specifically is wine.

03:13:00.600 The wine-heavy cups of ale, of atli, they resounded.

03:13:06.120 And that's, again, not all places did they always drink horns.

03:13:10.020 Horns are deeply symbolic to us now, religiously, but we have evidence of ale cups and actual chalices and horns being used.

03:13:25.700 um so they drank from their ale cups uh and they resounded so they're clinking and cheering uh

03:13:35.840 because they've killed the retinue of gunner and his his uh the small group that came with him

03:13:42.580 and when they're in the hall the hunnish youths clamored together and the warriors bearded the

03:13:48.820 brave ones entered then in came the shining one and drink she bore him this of course is good

03:13:56.820 unwilling and bitter brought she food to the warrior till in scorn to the white-faced atly

03:14:06.400 did she speak a couple of things with this one unwilling and bitter she brought him food um

03:14:13.400 And this means that, in essence, poetically, it's just saying she is holding all of this.

03:14:21.880 Till in scorn, to the white-faced Otley, I think this is an indication of shock.

03:14:31.800 He's obviously not a coward, nor is he, I don't think it's referring specifically to his skin.

03:14:40.180 I think, especially a lot of times, they would use color.

03:14:45.540 Like we do it today with like yellow-bellied or lily-livered, the idea of color.

03:14:55.140 So blood drains from his face is, I think, what is being implied here.

03:15:01.240 um and she says uh thou giver of swords of thy sons the hearts all heavy with blood in honey

03:15:12.460 thou hast eaten thou shalt stomach thou hero the flesh of the slain to eat at thy feast and send

03:15:20.920 to thy followers thou shalt never call to thy knees again erp or etel when merry with ale

03:15:29.880 thou shalt never see in the seats again

03:15:33.300 the sharers of gold with lances

03:15:36.040 shaping, clipping the manes

03:15:38.960 and minding their steeds.

03:15:41.280 So if anybody hasn't caught on yet,

03:15:43.800 she's talking about his sons.

03:15:47.460 She tells him this

03:15:51.700 and his blood drains from his face

03:15:53.740 as he comes to the realization

03:15:56.320 that Gudrun has slain his two sons.

03:16:03.080 There was a clamor upon the benches

03:16:05.360 and a cry from the men,

03:16:07.620 the clashing of weapons,

03:16:09.000 the weeping of the Huns.

03:16:10.600 Save for Gudrun only,

03:16:13.500 she wept not ever.

03:16:15.700 For her bare fierce brothers

03:16:18.180 or for the boys so dear,

03:16:20.860 so young and so unhappy

03:16:23.760 whom with Atlee she had.

03:16:27.780 Gold did not scatter the swan white one.

03:16:31.420 The rings of red gold to the followers gave she.

03:16:34.980 The fate she let grow, the shining wealth go.

03:16:39.280 Nor spared she the treasure of the temple itself.

03:16:45.200 Now, I think this is indicating that

03:16:47.760 she dispersed Atlee's wealth

03:16:52.280 along with killing his sons.

03:16:56.640 So not only was he driven to get the gold from the Rhine,

03:17:00.320 now he has no gold because she has completely given it away,

03:17:05.120 including the temple where the Haftoller would be.

03:17:11.060 She took from the gods and just scattered it

03:17:17.340 or threw it quite literally,

03:17:19.940 not even giving it to people but just dispersing it and that again i think for the audience would

03:17:26.380 set the tone that she is burning all the bridges and she almost in an essence she is now very much

03:17:36.540 like brinhild once was in the story earlier so she ends up becoming exactly like the woman she hates

03:17:44.940 or hated um in 40 unwise then was atli he had drunk to wildness no weapon did he have and of

03:18:00.280 good rune beware not oft their play was better than both in gladness each other embraced among

03:18:07.700 princes all with her sword she gave blood for the bed to drink with her death-dealing hand and the

03:18:17.460 hounds she loosened the thralls she awakened and a firebrand threw in the door of the hall and so

03:18:26.020 vengeance she had the flame she gave all who yet were within and from merckheim had come

03:18:35.620 from the murder of Gunnar.

03:18:38.300 The timbers old fell.

03:18:40.560 The temple was in flames.

03:18:42.700 The dwelling of the Búthlungs,

03:18:45.540 the Huns and Atli's father, Búthli,

03:18:50.460 and the shield maids burned.

03:18:53.780 They were slain in the house in hot flames they sank.

03:18:58.240 Now the tale is all told, nor in later time,

03:19:03.240 will a woman in a

03:19:05.520 bernie avenge so

03:19:07.200 her brothers the fair

03:19:09.420 one to

03:19:11.380 three of the kings of the

03:19:13.480 folk brought the doom of

03:19:15.460 death ere herself she died

03:19:17.380 still more is told

03:19:19.660 in the Greenland

03:19:21.160 Ballad of Otley

03:19:23.220 and that is

03:19:27.020 it

03:19:27.800 very powerful

03:19:30.220 yeah I think that's written really really

03:19:33.220 well that's one of the more striking poems i think

03:19:40.580 and i mean go ahead i was going to say the historical death of attila um versus the

03:19:48.420 rumored death in which he uh died from over drinking um or died i i believe somebody even

03:19:57.060 postulated that he died in a vat of alcohol um and then i think it was more historically

03:20:06.420 proven that he did die um in a fight in a battle um i'm not a hundred percent

03:20:13.300 um on that i wanted to look it up but i kind of like going into these poems with

03:20:19.700 just my initial um read and bellows this is the first time i've ever read bellows

03:20:27.060 But yeah, this is very, very good, but it follows the same way in the Volsunga saga, in which Sigurd's sons are slain.

03:20:46.180 this is again a thing

03:20:49.200 that happened in the poems

03:20:51.080 that really got the audience's

03:20:53.380 blood

03:20:53.800 boiling. The idea of

03:20:57.260 a mother slaying

03:20:59.140 her children

03:21:00.280 but ultimately

03:21:03.460 doing it because

03:21:04.720 the lord

03:21:07.500 that she's married to ended her

03:21:09.180 line so she's going to end

03:21:11.200 everything, nuke it

03:21:12.660 from orbit kind of thing.

03:21:16.180 so all right we have a couple few more questions like i said we have just a couple more episodes

03:21:25.100 on this particular saga uh before we go any further sue in ohio donated two hundred dollars

03:21:31.500 towards paying off phrase off thank you sue we appreciate it i hope you at the dedication here

03:21:38.460 this weekend um

03:21:46.060 yeah somebody's saying i sound like edith kravitz yelling through a microphone i guess that's on your

03:21:53.020 end the my mic is echoing i that's what somebody's that's what nick's trying to say

03:21:59.660 yeah it basically does it every single week and if i mute matt then it stops but then matt gets all

03:22:05.740 grr because he can't talk well no nobody tells me it's the thing if i know that's an ongoing

03:22:11.420 problem i don't want a bad broadcast i'll do that and this is the first time i've ever heard it

03:22:16.700 yeah that's pretty much always the thing fake news um poor nick so what kind of things can we

03:22:28.540 do with our kiddos at home for yule besides the standard pagan stuff anything you can lay

03:22:34.780 out for us householders uh svan you've got all of the yule stuff um so in a succinct way what uh what

03:22:44.940 stuff can you lay out as cool stuff people can do yule wise for their kids okay okay first of all

03:22:52.140 i would say they're the best way to look at it is morning and night we have morning traditions

03:22:57.180 of lighting candles uh to virtues to start the days of yule uh those are on youtube they have

03:23:07.180 been around for a very long time highly recommend you find founder mcnalen's um lighting of the

03:23:15.100 candles of to the virtues every morning what i do is that in the morning i i light a candle to

03:23:22.620 the respective virtue of the day and then at night there is a corresponding celebration

03:23:31.820 most people are familiar with mother's night which is on the 20th at sundown it starts yule the

03:23:40.940 lighting of the yule log on that night the keeping of a flame i would recommend that you just take

03:23:47.420 a seven-day candle and from your yule log if you don't have a fireplace do it outside um light a

03:23:54.860 sacred flame um for those that don't have an understanding of like what to do with that

03:24:03.180 great thing to think about start this year take the bottom half of your yule tree

03:24:08.860 and make that your yule log for the next year that's what we do at my house so take that let

03:24:15.820 it dry out all year that's your yule log and when you light that we take one flame from that put it

03:24:23.020 on a candle and we keep that candle for 12 nights the purpose of that is uh keep that flame running

03:24:31.100 in the darkest time of the year when we do it at the hof and when we do it with others if your

03:24:36.940 flame goes out your kinfolk will come and help relight your flame it's a community ceremony

03:24:45.820 that goes on. Now for 12 nights, there are dedications that I like to promote for folks

03:24:57.280 and Nick's putting it up here. But also I think Nick has a Word document that explains a lot of

03:25:05.740 this and it is extremely in depth. But the best way to look at it is Mother's Night on the 20th,

03:25:13.600 celebrating the sun on the 21st and usually that's done in the morning or before noon

03:25:22.000 uh we burn a sun wheel and then ancestors night on the 24th this is when the yule elf returns

03:25:30.720 with gifts from the ancestors that morning and we do the gift exchange and everything on the 24th

03:25:38.240 um and then the last of course is 12th night and that is a celebration uh of the starting

03:25:48.000 it's the end of yule and we we go right into the rest of the year and generally uh eating ham

03:25:55.120 is safe and that's what's kind of traditional uh and if you're hardcore eat a pig's head

03:26:01.840 And that comes from the tradition of making an oath or a resolution on the boar head for the new year.

03:26:16.140 So that's the way I would lay it out.

03:26:19.340 In the morning, light a candle to the virtues and prepare your mind, prepare your individual self for the day.

03:26:28.460 And then at night you give honor, um, except for soon as day, that's usually done in the morning. Um, if you follow the, uh, write up, each day has some unique things, but not all of them are partying.

03:26:47.640 Some of it is cleaning your hearth, cleaning your yard, putting biscuits and treats out on the trees for the birds, ornaments out there, or brewing your meat if you're a brewer, Thor's night.

03:27:06.580 And then for Odin's night, that's a great night for Augury. I usually do a rune reading once a year now, and I'll do it on Odin's night.

03:27:17.640 leaving out some apples and some uh rumplements that's just my personal thing as lord odin

03:27:26.440 returns from the wild hunt he he's going back and um the wild hunt is finally ending so we can

03:27:34.600 all take a breather on that um in the write-ups i would recommend you know people take a look at it

03:27:42.020 But there is a synthesis between the candle lighting and the stuff you can do every night.

03:27:51.480 But I think, too, for people at home, especially with children, calling the Yule elf with the Yule log and then having him bring the ancestors gifts and fill the stockings with his own gifts.

03:28:09.320 and then doing the gift exchange with everyone uh usually you know we do one gift per person

03:28:15.600 so that way our children aren't getting like a floods of gift they know and sometimes it's not

03:28:23.060 even bought it's it's made and the yule elf is watching so if you if you if you get greedy or

03:28:30.200 complain about the fact that you got something you're getting charcoal next year so um but that's

03:28:37.420 a really brief and uh straightforward for here but please the write-up i would recommend and

03:28:46.940 also go to youtube look up the candle lighting virtues um on our youtube channel that founder

03:28:56.300 mcnalen has had and set since the beginning uh you know it's just that it was filmed and and got

03:29:05.740 down and and that's a huge part of our cornerstone of our yule tradition all right i'm white but i'm

03:29:14.700 not nordic am i still allowed in the religion or is my ancestry close enough the astro folk

03:29:21.580 assembly is pan-arian all white people all heterosexual white people are uh welcome to

03:29:27.740 join the astro folk assembly yeah don't get i understand that so much of our lore comes from

03:29:35.180 the viking age and is delivered to us in old norse but that's a very small snapshot of a moment in

03:29:44.860 time of a faith that is eternal and has been with us since the dawn of our race so

03:29:54.220 also true didn't just spring up in norway at some point you know before that it it came

03:30:07.820 into europe before that it was in you know on the step before that it was you know

03:30:14.940 towards the pole before the ice age happened like it's been with our race since the very beginning

03:30:21.100 logic dictates that these are the gods who created us so they've been with us all the way through

03:30:27.120 and we know that those same folk the aryan folk populated all throughout europe and they're just

03:30:34.000 as much you know your gods as they are any norwegian or swedes gods this is your faith you should come

03:30:41.880 home to usager um do you guys believe the gods are real or do you just reference them to honor

03:30:50.360 our people and ancestors so this is an interesting um world that we find ourselves in

03:31:00.680 there was a time in modern house true and i'd say up through the 90s where

03:31:07.160 the majority of people came to ausitru from christianity so you had religious people

03:31:14.440 rejecting a foreign religion and choosing their native religion but what you have more often now

03:31:23.560 is people who were raised atheist that don't really understand or aren't comfortable with

03:31:32.320 religion and divinity that often find out the truth through historical interest or through

03:31:39.080 political alignment and that's a you know it's a fine place to start but that's not what this is

03:31:51.320 white people are awesome ancestry is awesome we're pro-white but that's not the point of

03:31:58.440 what we're doing the point of what we're doing is worshiping our gods we are also true the gods

03:32:04.040 aren't a cool theme for our white people political group that's not what it is we celebrate and

03:32:15.360 embrace our people because of our shared faith in the iser and our shared heritage gifted to us

03:32:24.800 from the iser we believe in the gods very very much we are a church that is what we do

03:32:32.240 the other things are relevant and part of it and related to it but this is a church this is a very

03:32:42.180 real church that we take very seriously so yes we absolutely believe in the gods

03:32:48.620 they're not just you know a cultural reference point that's not what we're doing

03:32:55.600 we have another question here by

03:33:02.880 I don't know where this person's from and it makes a difference in how we answer this question

03:33:12.620 so I'm going to take a first swing at it what are some of the major differences

03:33:17.280 between the AFA and Odinists we have local Odinists but I haven't had a conversation

03:33:25.400 with those neighbors.

03:33:30.860 You're muted.

03:33:34.740 It definitely sounds worded like somebody that might be from Europe.

03:33:42.140 On the surface, there is no difference.

03:33:47.300 But Odinist is a term that I think doesn't do our gods justice.

03:33:59.740 I think it's a remnants of an ideal that perhaps singularity.

03:34:07.620 And we are, again, we believe in many gods.

03:34:10.900 Lord Odin is powerful.

03:34:12.500 I just went over, too, about why with Yggdrasil and all of that.

03:34:17.000 So this isn't about somehow demeaning Lord Odin. It is that I believe Lord Odin sees and encourages that we find strength in multiplicity because all things in the universe that reflect the divine is in multiplicity.

03:34:39.920 nothing is in singular nothing is just uh one thing and it all boils down to one thing that

03:34:47.120 is that makes sterility um but as far as the mechanics and the minutiae uh the biggest

03:34:56.960 thing is is that most odinists might just claim themselves to be odinists or uh also

03:35:02.480 Ousatruer might say they are just Ousatruer or heathens or whatever.

03:35:08.580 But in the Ousatru Folk Assembly, we say we are Ousatru because we are loyal to the gods.

03:35:14.300 We have troth with them, but we are loyal to them.

03:35:20.260 And we are loyal to all the gods.

03:35:23.720 And so we hold that title because it is the best fitting.

03:35:29.600 it doesn't have to be oh you know well back in the day they they probably called it

03:35:34.720 foreign which you know means the old way um

03:35:41.840 i mean you can say that it is the old way but i was through and the outside folk assembly

03:35:49.040 That is loyalty and deed and driving for the gods, doing for the gods, building hoffs, organizing, building communities, building kindreds, building individual practice, and taking the horizon with that.

03:36:10.560 um some people i think are just when they say odinist is uh you know i i believe in odin

03:36:18.560 or um you know i believe in a concept or an archetype or something like that and we want

03:36:25.040 to distance ourselves from that and and say the truth the gods are real and we are loyal to them

03:36:33.680 yeah it's a strange question it depends where you're at i think it is more common

03:36:40.560 I think it's so fundamentally, like linguistically and culturally, there's not really a difference between Alcetruar and Odinus in its most fundamental.

03:36:56.760 But the details matter.

03:36:58.720 So I think that if you're in England, very likely the active Alcetruar there are more commonly Odinus and would refer to themselves as Odinus.

03:37:10.560 I don't think it's usually a specific cult of Odin that doesn't include the other gods.

03:37:19.320 I think it's what some guys back in the day decided to call themselves.

03:37:24.400 I think in England, it has a different origin point.

03:37:28.500 I think here in the United States, a lot of certainly racially conscious folks, that's a thing.

03:37:38.760 i don't think you're going to find odinus in the united states that are left of center or that are

03:37:45.480 not folkish and racially aware um i think often there is an element of guys that found

03:37:54.040 also true in prison will call themselves odinus i know it's a broad brush it's not everybody and

03:38:00.120 i don't say it as a pejorative it just is what it is um i think you know norse pagans or heathens

03:38:11.800 are often tend to be left of center sometimes and they're trying to do their own thing and whatever

03:38:22.200 And it's not. One of the problems is everyone wants to be a special snowflake and call their little thing something different.

03:38:33.240 And it really serves to confuse a lot of people like yourself and like a lot of well-meaning people that have questions.

03:38:40.300 that's why we try very hard to brand the word ausitru as best as we can and to really build

03:38:48.920 it with meaning and to where it has a value to where when you go somewhere and people call

03:38:54.960 themselves ausitru it means something um we've seen a big shift in my time as i was here your

03:39:03.180 where a lot of people who are degenerate don't want to use the term house of true because that's

03:39:12.920 what the the evil racist baddies use cool that helps us separate out us who are traditionally

03:39:23.660 minded from people who are very much not um but yeah with i i don't think with your

03:39:32.420 if your neighbor in you know london is an odinist then cool i i think that you you know i

03:39:43.520 i think you should go ask questions and embrace figuring out what that is if your neighborhood

03:39:52.160 if your neighbor in you know toledo ohio is an odinist that might mean different things again

03:40:01.200 it's hard because there's not a one one size fits all answer but i think overall they're the same

03:40:09.580 thing and the details are going to be what ends up mattering and making the difference on it

03:40:18.100 But, yeah, I wish everybody would just call it the same thing.

03:40:21.440 We could move on with it.

03:40:24.140 One of the reasons that, you know, as Fawn mentioned,

03:40:27.020 Alistair is proactive us defining ourselves by our loyalty to the Aesir.

03:40:33.120 I suppose Odinism is also a proactive word of somebody choosing to define themselves as a follower of Odin.

03:40:41.160 I don't like heathen because it's not ours.

03:40:44.280 It's not us.

03:40:45.040 It's them, it's Christians and other people describing us as those backward people on the heath.

03:40:56.100 Pagan is a similar meaning.

03:40:58.700 It's not a proactive meaning.

03:41:00.600 It's Christians defining the other as pagan.

03:41:05.120 Foreign Sather.

03:41:06.400 Nobody would call themselves Foreign Sather until Christianity.

03:41:09.780 It didn't make any sense.

03:41:11.000 foreign say there also is defining us by what we're not oh oh oh these christians no no we're

03:41:18.200 foreign say there we do the old thing that's weak that's not an actual title that means anything

03:41:26.060 it's the same exact wording you use for you know man why are you riding around in a horse and buggy

03:41:33.300 ah it's foreign saver yeah it is you know man why are you playing atari uh foreign saver right

03:41:42.260 it old old-fashioned doesn't that's not real it doesn't mean anything noble or good

03:41:49.580 it just means you do old-timey stuff we're future saver yeah he's like no he's gracious

03:41:57.720 so um yeah but again i know that's not a helpful answer but yeah check them out and see who they

03:42:03.780 are see what they believe uh chances are there's a lot of similarity um could you join if you don't

03:42:14.540 believe the gods are real but you are just pro-white because i am very pro-white i'm glad

03:42:20.540 that you're very pro-white we are also very pro-white we can be pro-white and go have a

03:42:27.580 beer somewhere we can be bond over our pro-whiteness in a number of political contexts or you know

03:42:37.660 clubs and other organizations you know we're a church you can't join our church unless you

03:42:44.060 believe in our gods that's the entire point of what we're doing yes we do happen to be very

03:42:49.900 pro-white as a church but that's a that's downstream of we are also true and we are

03:42:57.580 practicing our faith and our faith isn't a cool theme to do other things our focus is on our faith

03:43:08.440 and the other things you know stem from that or relate to that so no you do have to have a sincere

03:43:15.200 belief in our gods to join or at the very least you have to want to build that sincere faith in

03:43:21.200 our gods that's another important thing to everybody listening we don't expect that day

03:43:28.080 one you're going to have a profound and sincere relationship with the gods relationships are

03:43:34.320 built over time and they're built through the gifting cycle and the exchange of energy so

03:43:40.080 So what you do have to have is a genuine desire to build that, and this is a good place to

03:43:47.780 build that within.

03:43:49.340 And there's no magic words that are going to be said that are going to alleviate you

03:43:54.700 of the deeds you've done, but it's the starting point to getting your life back on track,

03:43:59.980 becoming connected to your folk and your community.

03:44:03.800 It's the starting point.

03:44:05.740 last question and again i can make assumptions off of how it's phrased but we're going to answer

03:44:12.780 it anyway because we want to answer all the questions that come to us since the last question

03:44:16.700 of the night do mud sharks go to a place like fiery hell or to a cold dark place upon their

03:44:24.940 death in alsatru yes i realize how the question is phrased it's do they burn in hell or do they

03:44:32.140 freeze in some other kind i get it but i do think it i do think it warrants a contemplation of the

03:44:42.540 answer to the question so svan what is your pretending that it is a genuine serious and

03:44:50.380 above board question what is your what is your response so uh theologically um we have something

03:45:00.620 called the inner guard and the outer guard and we do believe that our gods are watching us

03:45:06.780 that they are either interacting with us through their deeds or they are interacting us with the

03:45:12.140 well of fate by simply interacting with the well of fate they are in essence wrapping themselves

03:45:20.220 in our lives through fate they do this we are told in the stories they do this every day um

03:45:26.300 Um, but, um, when you are inner guard and outer guard, the concerns that we have morally,

03:45:37.020 a lot of people think that we are not afraid of morals because we're not going to be judged

03:45:44.020 like, uh, Christians, I find give me this argument a lot.

03:45:49.240 No, in actuality, we have two forms and I would argue three.

03:45:53.880 We have being judged by our peers and those that are with us here on earth, those who deem us to be noble or cowardly and what have you.

03:46:07.980 It's very important, especially our church here.

03:46:12.740 But the gods can mark us.

03:46:17.600 Every day they gather at the well and they measure out the doom of men.

03:46:23.880 So if the gods mark us as being dishonorable, unfavorable, and unable to be

03:46:35.480 redeemed in any way, shape, or form, then the gods measuring us too is a huge part on what happens

03:46:43.240 when we die. The other is our ancestors. The ancestors also judge us to not be worthy of

03:46:52.600 returning to them then we are cut into the outer guard we are removed out um and one of the things

03:47:01.640 that i think a lot of people have a hard time understanding is when you ask us what happens

03:47:06.520 in the outer guard that's not a concern i don't know and i don't care to know i do know what

03:47:14.280 happens in the inner guard and i do know where i want to be i want to be in the inner guard

03:47:20.440 so exclusionary acts doing things that dishonor your ancestors doing things that sever the ties

03:47:29.800 with them doing things to sever the ties with the gods if you are a christian and then you realize

03:47:36.920 that that's not your faith and you come to the gods and then you spurn the gods suddenly to go

03:47:45.080 do something else because you're a car chaser like a like a dog chasing a car and just grifting

03:47:51.160 through religions um that has repercussions if you are cowardly and the and the people see that

03:48:00.120 you are marked that way and so if this happens on three levels it is literally the upper the middle

03:48:06.120 in the lower it is the gods uh your folk and your ancestors and we want to be honorable and held in

03:48:16.360 high renown by all three so doing anything that uh takes away from that leads us to being severed

03:48:27.080 away from so if someone does something that severs them away from their ancestors

03:48:34.440 leads them down a track where they're the bloodline especially where uh pieces of the

03:48:41.480 soul that ancestors can bestow upon us and come back through is severed then you are removing

03:48:50.360 yourself in essence and you no longer receive the boon of your ancestors you no longer receive the

03:48:58.520 boon of your folk and you no longer receive the boon of the gods that alone is a punishment upon

03:49:06.520 itself um and we would convince people to maintain their ties with their blood to maintain their ties

03:49:16.360 with their folk to maintain their ties with the gods and remain in the inner and the continuation

03:49:22.920 of all of that going forth um and it doesn't mean you have to have uh children um do this

03:49:33.760 um again you are part of the community or and your ancestors are a part of you you can't separate

03:49:42.640 yourself from the gods are watching you it's encouraged of course to create generations but

03:49:48.240 i spoke before about connectivity and we're and we are in this together we are in this together

03:49:55.160 in the inner guard do not do anything that gets you cast into the outer guard especially do it

03:50:01.900 yourself if you somehow despise your people despise your gods and despise your ancestors

03:50:09.220 and do it yourself and you know it's uh you're on your own and that happens and it doesn't even

03:50:18.220 necessarily pertain specifically to the subject of the question it happens to most everything

03:50:24.860 in our religious spectrum of morality so this is no different ultimately at

03:50:35.900 the time of your death or at some point after

03:50:38.860 the gods and the ancestors make a determination on what to do with you do they want to associate

03:50:50.240 with you or not um and i think that's something that really matters i want to be pious and it's

03:51:02.340 not up to me where you go if you engage in activities. It's up to the gods and your ancestors.

03:51:12.900 And I think that matters. You know, I might have an opinion on this or whatever, but I think that

03:51:18.920 I need to recognize that that is a decision for them to make. That said, it's about connectivity

03:51:29.480 and not you are and I think that we need to there are a lot of people that if someone has one

03:51:39.680 instance of some kind of extra racial coitus they are forever uh get the the negative label

03:51:47.140 implied here and there are others to where no if that's your habit and the thing that you do

03:51:53.600 and you make a bunch of children that are not of one race or the other that are in some kind of

03:52:01.840 ambiguous racial limbo

03:52:06.560 i think that's a really different story i think that's an issue of degrees

03:52:10.800 or whatever it might be but to any of those degrees

03:52:14.640 the person who makes those choices is choosing to separate themselves

03:52:21.580 from their people from their tribe from their folk from their ancestors and from their gods

03:52:28.720 now there are some people that are confused or raised in these universalist faiths that highly

03:52:36.040 encourage that or whatever again the the gods judge the totality of your existence and not

03:52:44.320 necessarily moments of poor decision making but again that's entirely up to them i can't guarantee

03:52:51.260 which way they go on what but

03:52:54.720 that specific activity you are choosing to reject your gods and your ancestors

03:53:03.440 And if that results in offspring, you are then creating a scenario out there where there are these rootless people that you've put in a very bad spot because of your rebellious decision making.

03:53:25.380 I think that's what it is. That's not a natural course of action. That's not a natural thing.

03:53:30.580 I think that's one of those things that is a socially created problem that people are talked into by the media, by entertainment, by whatever forces out there sway public opinion to make irresponsible choices with the people that they engage with.

03:53:52.480 and i think that's often stems as an act of rebellion and as a very overt act of rejection

03:54:01.880 of your own folk and where you come from so

03:54:06.560 i don't know where exactly all those people end up or don't i think one of the comments is that

03:54:17.240 they end up on the strand because they're traitors. I understand that sentiment. I don't

03:54:23.540 think that that's, you know, my call to make, but I do follow the logic that if you are noted

03:54:31.580 in the big decisions of your life for betraying your people,

03:54:37.080 I don't think that your afterlife options are great. So again, that depends on when you look,

03:54:46.340 you know grandma in the face and have to explain your life choices do they want you with them or

03:54:56.020 not and I think that's uh I think if we're honest with ourselves you know do your parents want you

03:55:04.280 with them or not do your grandparents do your great-grandparents or your double great-grandparents

03:55:12.060 i think if we're honest those questions they're going to have

03:55:16.980 we live in a really strange time and there's a lot of people that

03:55:21.180 sometimes make very permanent choices for very frivolous temporary reasons

03:55:26.440 and it's unfortunate because i think there was a lot of things inherently in this world

03:55:33.900 that for thousands of years were obvious and made sense and in the last 20 years we've

03:55:42.040 just decided not let's just reshuffle the whole deck of how we evaluate right and wrong and i

03:55:50.620 don't think our ancestors buy into those things um so it's real important to know that your gods

03:55:59.160 are judging you and your ancestors are judging you and whatever whatever we think unless there's

03:56:08.880 deep mental illness amongst your ancestors they'd really love to have their grandchildren

03:56:14.160 look like them i think we'd all love that and i think we all love it when you look back and like

03:56:20.060 oh wow i look like my great grandpa oh wow my my daughter very specifically my daughter looks

03:56:27.360 strikingly like my mom in a lot of ways we love seeing that in our offspring

03:56:32.520 you don't see that when your offspring aren't like the rest of us um so it's something definitely

03:56:41.740 to consider and again i'm trying to treat the question with the fairness that you know there's

03:56:46.920 people that might wonder out there we don't have guarantees of where we end up on the other side

03:56:52.600 that's up to the gods and the ancestors but there's stuff that you know we know is not going

03:56:58.860 to earn you points, there's stuff we're going to, we know is going to earn you points in,

03:57:02.960 in the wrong direction. And, uh, yeah, the, this would not be something that would earn you a lot

03:57:08.900 of cool points on the other side. Uh, in my understanding, I, I wanted to speak on one

03:57:14.860 other thing too, cause he said, uh, do they go to a place of fiery hell or a cold, dark place?

03:57:20.600 And I wanted to clear up something for folks, um, uh, in all Aryan branches of, of religions,

03:57:27.300 the underworld, the place of death, is seen as, again, cold, shrouded, misty, veiled.

03:57:38.700 That is because death is that.

03:57:41.720 Our faith is built on life, and when you look around, when you are whole of body,

03:57:47.280 and you're living under the sun, and the gods are above you, and you are living this life,

03:57:53.280 when you die it becomes this cold um uh separation in a sense and what that that symbolic language

03:58:04.000 transfers over in almost every aryan branch the fiery hell um this comes from semitic dualism

03:58:14.160 and a death cult with the idea that, you know, I'm going to go to this trash pit that's going

03:58:23.720 to get burned. It's called Gehenna. And modern day Christians believe that if they break the

03:58:29.980 covenant with Yahweh, they are going to go to a trash pit of burning fire. And it wasn't until

03:58:36.600 new testament that it was expounded upon but that is uniquely theirs and any european man who follows

03:58:46.280 uh the christian faith is unwilling to realize what they're doing um ours is symbolic of

03:58:55.640 life and to death but even in death we seek to be within the inner guard so if we join with

03:59:05.000 our ancestors this is a great thing all of the barriers between us fall we are connected with

03:59:12.200 our ancestors we get to hear their stories they get to hear ours it's a great reason for celebration

03:59:19.080 as we coalesce together ultimately too the highest honor is to be brought into the realm of the gods

03:59:25.960 and christianity judaism all that is more or less servitude worshiping death and you either get

03:59:38.080 punished for a little bit of time or for an eternity until you get a chance to sit next to

03:59:44.400 yahweh's feet um this is expounded upon uh even in um some of the uh the apocryphal books

03:59:53.220 kind of really bring it up because they haven't been refined they're from the the older ages and

04:00:00.320 they haven't been edited so when i look at these and i see them where they're talking about how

04:00:05.360 um gehenna is a fiery pit and for jews that uh leave the faith they'll burn there for forever

04:00:13.620 and so will gentiles and that um rabbis and those who uh have uh repented and reattained

04:00:22.640 their covenant will have to stay there for only a certain amount of time. And the Catholics kind

04:00:27.300 of turned that into that they had their purgatory and their eternal damnation. All of this is

04:00:33.140 Semitic. Our faith and our concept of the afterlife really does go into whether or not we coalesce

04:00:44.080 with our ancestors, whether or not we are granted to be with the gods. Not everybody gets a trophy

04:00:51.120 um to be with the gods it's not a participation medal and um

04:00:58.240 that that those those imageries of the cold or moving so slowly that time almost stopped

04:01:06.160 all of that is about um a reflection of what death is which is not life life is meant to be lived

04:01:16.640 and death is a point of true self internal reflection and that's why every fall when

04:01:23.840 things start dying we turn inward we think of our ancestors uh the divine reflects itself in

04:01:31.840 uh the the material so just wanted to bring that up because about fiery hell and cold dark places

04:01:39.200 so that's uh i think that's another theme of that cold is loneliness cold is left in the dark

04:01:55.440 and the frozen landscape that our ancestors were conceptualizing that in

04:02:00.560 warmth is being welcomed by the fire with your ancestors warmth is being invited into the

04:02:11.480 presence of the gods in some way I think when you do actions that are intentionally

04:02:19.700 transgressive against your folk and your ancestry

04:02:22.700 that tends to be one of those things that gets somebody left out in the cold

04:02:30.600 freedom of association will is very important in our faith it's not a matter of if you do a

04:02:41.040 certain action you get a certain prize or you avoid a certain punishment it's about when you

04:02:48.980 are judged are you found worthy to sit at the cool table do you get to sit at the not cool table or

04:02:57.220 do you got to stand and that's stand outside that's and that's that really is i think a way

04:03:05.460 to think about it that may bring some of that home because you may not find a lot of people

04:03:10.660 that want to sit with you if that's the choices that you make in your life um

04:03:18.980 but yeah thank you guys um we are working our way through this if you can make it there are

04:03:24.740 a couple days left um get there austintown ohio saturday we are dedicating phrase hoff

04:03:34.580 it's a beautiful hoff um it is the first off that i have any evidence to say is dedicated to uh fray

04:03:47.300 so you know i have no doubt that our ancestors had hoffs to uh frayer but this is the first one we

04:03:54.100 know about and we are dedicating it here coming up on saturday and we would invite you to be there

04:03:59.700 with us so if you can love to see there if not we will tell you all about it hopefully have some

04:04:05.860 cool pictures and stuff to show you guys when we get back i'll see you guys next week until then

04:04:12.020 hail the isir hail the folk hail the afa and remember victory never sleeps

04:04:42.020 Transcription by CastingWords

04:05:12.020 Thank you.

04:05:42.020 Thank you.

04:06:12.020 Thank you.

04:06:42.020 We'll be right back.

04:07:12.020 Thank you.

Asatru Folk Assembly - December 04, 2025

12⧸3⧸25 Victory Never Sleeps, Ep 178 - Guðrúnarkviða in þriðja ｜ Oddrúnarkviða ｜ Atlakviða

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