Asatru Folk Assembly - 2⧸18⧸26 Victory Never Sleeps, Ep 189 - Prose Edda： Gylfaginning, Part 3

00:00:00.000 Transcribed by ESO, translated by —

00:00:30.000 Thank you.

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

00:03:10.680 Tonight, Svon and I are going to continue our much-anticipated study of Gilfoginning,

00:03:20.680 and I'm pretty excited about that.

00:03:23.980 So I know last week was a little bit, or not last week, two weeks ago when Svon was on last,

00:03:29.200 was a little bit janky because that night was the last night in our old home in reno and i am now

00:03:36.720 coming to you from our new home in gainsborough jackson county tennessee so very excited to be here

00:03:43.920 got about all the way there yet but we're largely unpacked and situated in our new place which has

00:03:51.040 been fantastic it's been awesome to get involved with local membership and stuff since being here

00:03:58.480 it's very nice we're very fortunate to have afa friends that helped us pack helped us travel

00:04:03.280 helped us unpack and you know we've been able to be at two different moots since getting down here

00:04:10.400 so it's been it's been fantastic um producer nick was over at my house earlier today to use our

00:04:18.480 internet uh for uh because he had a power outage situation where he was at so it's cool to already

00:04:25.760 be getting into some afa community here which is fantastic um top of the show things as always

00:04:35.040 might as well start off with this gw farnsworth you're amazing thank you for your continued

00:04:39.680 donations um you're an example to us all you donated 30 to full services and 30 towards the

00:04:47.280 heat situation at thorsoff so thank you very much for that um

00:04:51.760 Um, Stephen in Japan donated $20 to Folk Services.

00:05:01.000 Oregato, Stephen, we appreciate that.

00:05:06.080 Yeah, so we got that going on.

00:05:08.580 Weekly update on Frazehoff stuff.

00:05:13.280 Again, you guys are awesome.

00:05:14.580 We've made really good progress so far.

00:05:16.420 We're sitting at, you know, 35.6% paid off.

00:05:21.760 We still owe $80,490, but that is remarkably low at this stage in the game,

00:05:29.580 which is really cool because you guys are amazing.

00:05:32.380 And comes out to about $110 from every AFA member, immediately pays that off.

00:05:40.140 So something to keep in mind.

00:05:42.360 And, yeah, thank you, guys.

00:05:43.300 If you want to contribute to any of these things, donate at runestone.org.

00:05:48.460 runestone.org slash donate will get you there and yeah as always your generosity is very much

00:05:57.720 appreciated uh speaking of generosity in money well generosity generosity and money is fantastic

00:06:03.800 we need it we appreciate it uh be generous in your intellectual pursuits with us if you have

00:06:11.000 questions it's a question and answer program um we do have material to cover tonight but we're

00:06:17.700 always here to answer any of the questions you might have about the text or about anything um

00:06:25.780 ideally i was true related but we'll we'll take all comers on it so whatever questions you guys

00:06:30.580 might have we'll give it a shot and we appreciate that not just now but whenever so if you have a

00:06:36.180 question that occurs to you when we are not doing the show or i suppose while we're doing the show

00:06:41.540 if that's how you want to ask it vns at runestone.org uh gets that to us and we will answer

00:06:49.380 any and all of those at our next available opportunity and we've already got a couple

00:06:55.700 that way for this week and people have been a number of you've made a really good use of that

00:07:00.260 over the past few months appreciate that a lot i think that's been a been a good avenue to get

00:07:04.980 questions uh other stuff

00:07:11.060 my daughter and i are traveling down in the morning to uh head to mjordshoff in beautiful

00:07:18.660 white springs florida hoping to see you all there or at least see many of you there if

00:07:24.580 it's something you can do if you can make it there we would love to see you there

00:07:28.100 any of our folk builders can get you set up if that's something you'd like to do

00:07:32.020 it's a good opportunity to meet people it's a wonderful opportunity to worship

00:07:36.100 our gods and to be at Lord New Orleans Hoff so if you can be there make it out

00:07:45.020 I would love to see you it'll be great it should be a really good weekend um

00:07:52.020 without further ado where did we leave off two weeks ago I believe we are on

00:08:00.060 section 16. All right, so we are going at veluspau.org and we are reading from the

00:08:14.780 Prose Edda, the Gilfaginning. So feel free to follow along there, follow along

00:08:20.220 in, you know, hard copy at home or whatever you got, any translation you

00:08:24.620 want. Maybe it has something put in a slightly different way or something you

00:08:28.500 learn from but feel free to follow along and it's fun um whenever you would like go ahead and

00:08:36.580 take us into the text i think what we're gonna do is

00:08:41.940 do about an hour of text and commentary on said text and if you guys have questions that are

00:08:48.500 relevant to what we're what we're reading we'll try to hit those as they come if not we'll take a

00:08:55.380 break somewhere about an hour in and answer kind of clear the queue of the questions and go back

00:09:03.220 into the text so yes fawn take us into guilt forgetting 16 if you would okay and just for a

00:09:11.460 little context for people uh we're leaving 15 15 was about yggdrasil the ash that is in heaven

00:09:20.420 And that when the gods leave Ausgard, their castle, their enclosed kingdom in heaven, which is on the heavenly mountains, they come up and over and down to the base of Yggdrasil where there is Earth and Verdandian Skald,

00:09:45.420 scald the the norns at the well spring at the base of the tree where they revive it

00:09:53.180 um so there's a little bit on the well there's also the horses that they use to travel

00:10:01.820 from the heavenly realm um or from the uh from ausgarth to the heavenly realm proper if you will

00:10:10.460 and um then there is the mention uh really interesting part about how there are norns

00:10:19.240 of the gods there are norns of the elves and there are norns of the dwarves and we spoke about

00:10:25.060 um you know the the common uses that that we speak of today is dsir um which is again very

00:10:32.300 important uh coming up for for um disa thing in which um a d is a determiner of fate uh a bestowing

00:10:45.020 of goodly power or doom depending on which way at the very end of 15 it said um good norns and of

00:10:54.300 honor our end of honorable race point good life but those men that suffer evil fortunes

00:11:00.300 are governed by evil norns so the nornir are placers of fate and it just kind of re-emphasizing

00:11:11.420 cosmology and how the the heavenly mountains being up above midgard where the gods live the tree is

00:11:22.060 and is surrounded by the swathes of light the light elves and um and there will be some more

00:11:28.780 actually because this is just we notice that these um sections are on subjects so 16 is

00:11:39.020 further on the ash uh the further on yggdrasil so then gun larry asks what more mighty wonders

00:11:50.380 are to be told of the ash and high replied much is to be told of it an eagle sits in its limbs

00:12:01.180 and he has understanding of many things and between his eyes sits a hawk that is called

00:12:07.900 or wind-torn. The squirrel, called ratataskr, or chattering teeth, runs up and down the length of the ash, bearing envious words between the eagle and nidhogr, the corpse gulper, or the nether gulper.

00:12:37.900 and there are four hearts in the limbs of the ash that bite the leaves and they are called

00:12:44.700 dawin dvalin dunir and durrthror which are the names of dwarves and we don't necessarily know

00:12:57.580 any story in relation to that but by that naming system we can clearly see that there there's

00:13:04.940 actually i i i'm a hundred percent in belief that there's a missing story as to how for

00:13:14.140 uh dvergar end up being the four hearts that are constantly kind of eroding

00:13:21.260 yggdrasil um so and they they describe the ratataskr climbs from the top of the tree and he

00:13:30.380 He goes down into the underneath the roots and into the holes and disappears and then travels his way down to the bottom at the taproot where Nidhagar is gnawing on the root.

00:13:47.800 Moreover, so many serpents are there in Fergelmir.

00:13:53.220 Fergelmer is the well at the taproot, and with Nidagr, that no tongue can tell them, as it is said, Ash Yggdrasil suffers anguish.

00:14:06.220 And that's kind of the whole point of the paragraph we just read, is that Yggdrasil is under constant assault.

00:14:15.940 Ash Yggdrasil suffers anguish more than men know of.

00:14:19.760 The stag bites above, on the side it rotteth, and Nidhoggr gnaws from below. And it is further said, more serpents lie under Yggdrasil's stock.

00:14:34.080 so in uh as yggdrasil is in heaven the heavenly mountains and then the midgard and then neither

00:14:42.840 velar and then even niflheim all descend below and there are serpents gnawing upon the roots

00:14:50.840 um more serpents lie under yggdrasil's stock than ever unwise ape can think

00:14:59.040 It is further said that these Norns who dwell at the well of Urðr take water from the well every day, 0.92

00:15:26.720 and with it that clay which lies about the well and they sprinkle it over the ash to the to end

00:15:36.080 and that its limbs shall not wither nor rot for that water is so holy that all things which come

00:15:45.460 there into the well become as white as the film which lies within the egg shell as is here said

00:15:55.160 I know an ash standing called Yggdrasil

00:16:00.840 A high tree sprinkled with snow-white clay

00:16:05.560 Thence comes the dews in the dale that fall

00:16:09.440 It stands evergreen above Urðr's well

00:16:14.320 And that dew which falls from it onto the earth

00:16:20.140 Is called by men the honeydew

00:16:22.800 And thereon are bees nourished, and two fowls are fed in earth's well, and they are called swans, and from those fowls has come all of the race of birds.

00:16:35.300 Then, said Gangleri, thou knowest many tidings to tell of the heaven.

00:16:46.160 What chief abodes are there, more than earth's well?

00:16:51.580 And Haur, high, said, many places there are, and glorious, that which is one called Aufheimer.

00:16:59.900 There dwell the people called Leozalvar, or light elves.

00:17:06.640 But the dark elves dwell underneath the earth, and they, unlike in appearance, but by far more unlike in nature.

00:17:17.840 And we've had classes on this.

00:17:20.060 I've spoken about how alvar, the word, the moniker, confuses people.

00:17:25.700 But it is best way to remember that Alvar, with whatever is in front of it, is a being of pure synthesis to it.

00:17:37.960 So the Leos Alvar are beings synthesized with light.

00:17:43.060 Dark elves are synthesized with the darkness. 0.89

00:17:46.180 And we find this in the Kennings, like Gandalf, a being of the wand. 0.80

00:17:53.020 And we also see it when the Vikings in one of their haiti, or one of their kennings, is that they are skip alvar, they're elves of the ship. So alvar is a broad term. And even here, it says, you know, that they are unlike in appearance.

00:18:14.280 um the light elves are fairer to look upon than the sun but the dark elves are blacker than pitch

00:18:23.660 then there is also in that place the abode braitha bleak or broad and shining and there 0.98

00:18:34.780 is not in heaven a fairer dwelling there too is one called glitnir the scintillating or

00:18:42.860 or glittering. Those walls and all of its posts and pillars are of red gold, but its roof is made

00:18:50.360 of silver. There's also an abode called Himenbjark, or heavenly mountains, or the castle upon the

00:18:59.660 heavenly mountains, and it stands on heaven's edge, and by its bridgehead is the place where

00:19:06.660 Bivrost joins heaven. Another great abode is there, which is named Vyallaskyalf. So when

00:19:16.820 Bivrost comes down, it arcs up and over and descends over heaven's edge. And that's where

00:19:27.400 it is met and continues into the heavenly realm. Vyallaskyalf, or the precipice of the chosen,

00:19:36.660 Odin possesses that dwelling. The gods made it and thatched it with sheer silver. And in this hall is Hlíðskálf, or the battle precipice or the viewing precipice.

00:19:52.140 the high seat is so called and there's debate as to whether or not it's was

00:19:58.860 pictured as a a cliffside or just a kenning for the name of the high seat itself um so in many

00:20:09.380 depictions you might see um lordo then sitting on a cliffside in a high seat um and that's again

00:20:18.860 that play on its interpreted meaning.

00:20:25.260 Whenever the All-Father sits on this seat,

00:20:28.260 he surveys all lands.

00:20:31.520 At the southern end of heaven

00:20:33.160 is a hall which is fairest of all,

00:20:36.320 brighter than the sun,

00:20:38.220 and it is called Gimli.

00:20:40.080 It shall stand when both heaven and earth

00:20:43.520 have departed,

00:20:45.080 and good men,

00:20:46.140 and of righteous conversation,

00:20:48.860 shall dwell therein. So it says in the Volusbau, a hall I know standing there, then the sun fairer

00:20:58.080 thatched with gold in Gimli bright. There shall dwell the doers of righteousness and ever and

00:21:05.980 ever enjoy delight. So we start to see some directionality in heaven, which is why I'm a

00:21:15.980 big proponent for understanding that Ausgarde is in heaven. It's not the entirety of heaven

00:21:24.060 because we start to see this directionality that in the southern part of heaven or in the place

00:21:31.780 above the clouds where the gods live in the southern part, it would be facing the sun,

00:21:36.820 which is a huge cultural thing in the north, in northern European climates,

00:21:43.780 to have your door facing the south um was a boon so it's it's it's saying that though

00:21:51.580 it's got a prime spot um and at this point um it's mentioning that the the souls of those

00:22:07.260 of amongst the gods will dwell there and it survives Ragnarok. But there's another interesting

00:22:15.480 thing that goes on that a lot of people don't talk about in cosmology. And that is the other

00:22:22.160 heavens. And we have to remember that the word heaven being placed here is an elevated place.

00:22:29.660 And it's very interesting when we go over the names of those places. I think they'll shed more

00:22:36.080 light on what, what is being said. Um, so in essence, this upper realm, this place amongst

00:22:46.660 the Leosalfar, where the Leosalfar are kind of inhabiting the upper realms, the gods are there.

00:22:53.580 And then we see what would in essence be an escalation. And I think that this is, uh,

00:23:00.380 corresponding to the level upon which the gods interact with the earth that there are there is

00:23:09.180 abilities to be far removed from fate and far removed from the middle world but they choose

00:23:19.420 to be closer because they can interact but those places become safeguards when um heaven is under

00:23:29.440 attack. And we could kind of see this as a compartmentalization of heaven in a way in which

00:23:37.040 it's in a cosmological sense. Their direct interaction with fate, with Orla, with creation,

00:23:46.940 and all of these things that by moving to these upper realms, there is a distancing that

00:23:55.400 removes a lot of their ties so they don't do that um but yet save it for when heaven's attack

00:24:05.960 they can place the souls of those who have ascended there by choice via valfather and his

00:24:12.900 choosing of of the the uh einherjar by the valkyria and by those who have ascended up there

00:24:20.380 through greatness of deed and greatness of renown and so even the souls in heaven um

00:24:28.860 some of them it's fun we're going to pause for just a second we got somebody blowing up the chat

00:24:33.740 i'm very insistent that we answer a question apparently i'm not sure what pagan revival is

00:24:42.220 I assume it is an outlet for Raven Folk or something, but somebody wants me to address, I guess, a variety of accusations there or whatever.

00:24:55.420 But the closest I can tell is for me to address the Kevin Van Paye situation.

00:25:02.400 So here's the thing.

00:25:04.100 We had a guy, Kevin Van Paye, who applied a number of years ago.

00:25:11.440 And they had, we had just kind of started our security team on figuring stuff out.

00:25:20.120 Process was a little bit clunky.

00:25:22.800 This is the first attempt by the AFA to have a security team and to vet applicants with like criminal history and stuff.

00:25:31.200 And the guy had a sexual assault charge and it was very ambiguous what exactly that charge was and the details of it were.

00:25:39.480 we had a member at the time who's no longer a member but was on that security team that vouched

00:25:44.680 for the guy and said he knew him during the vetting process he slipped through the cracks and ended up

00:25:51.560 joining and getting his invoice paid and being a member so we're like we were told a story that

00:25:57.880 turned out not to be true about the circumstances of his sex offense we said we're going to look

00:26:03.000 into it we started that process and that fell through the cracks he ended up getting in and

00:26:09.560 becoming a member um to my knowledge there was no harm or problem while he was a member and

00:26:17.400 two years later when it was brought to our attention that hey wait this guy's a sex offender

00:26:22.360 and he's in i'm like hold on show me the you know show me about that and as soon as documents were

00:26:29.480 presented that he had a sexual offense involving a minor we immediately got rid of him

00:26:35.400 in response to it not only did we immediately get rid of him we put measures in place so that

00:26:40.040 that wasn't going to be something that would happen in the future we adopted a policy of

00:26:46.120 you know if you're a registered sex offender you're not allowed to be a member no matter

00:26:49.880 the circumstance that's something that you know just to avoid any problems with it absolutely not

00:26:56.520 and then we run a check at least once a year if not a couple of times a year on all of our members

00:27:03.240 to make sure that no member either had slipped well we ran the initial check to make sure nobody

00:27:09.400 else had slipped through and then we ran through and continue to run through so in case something

00:27:15.480 comes up you know in the meantime that we don't know about to make sure that we have no registered

00:27:20.760 sex offenders in the afa so we check that at minimum once a year um often twice a year

00:27:29.160 and that's what i know on that anyways back to what you were saying spawn oh yeah

00:27:39.640 addressing that and i think is good because a lot of people i i think even the the gentleman

00:27:45.400 who's no longer a member uh who vouched for this person is trying to say that we're in the wrong

00:27:53.080 when it kind of falls on his shoulders but i mean there's a don't get me wrong clearly if i had it

00:28:00.280 all to do over again uh knowing what i know would not have you know would have been more vigilant

00:28:06.120 about the guy not slipping through the cracks we've tried to keep you know we were trying at

00:28:11.000 at the time. And we've continued to try to adjust to where more and more cracks are closed to where

00:28:16.660 those kinds of things can't happen. But, you know, that's never been something that's, you know,

00:28:21.600 okay with the AFA. That's not an okay thing. And, you know, we absolutely do our best and, you know,

00:28:29.860 we try to, you know, when a mistake happens, we try to learn from it and adjust accordingly as

00:28:35.360 best we can. But no, that's the safety of our members and our families has always and continues

00:28:40.200 to be extremely important to us and so we're always working to make that as best as possible

00:28:49.560 um i also noticed a question here from uh command door or com command yeah command door ham

00:28:57.240 he asked uh are there three main norns and they have good and evil helper norns based off of what

00:29:03.480 we were reading and i think what it implies is that there's levels of fate hierarchy that the

00:29:11.240 things in um in the divine realm are just like uh the the material realm is a reflection of the

00:29:19.000 divine and there is hierarchy and there are uh functionalities and so what they're really saying

00:29:26.360 is that there's layers of um functionality within fate the gods and the nornir um that is the highest

00:29:37.640 peak but then the nornir of say the elves and of men and of dwarves are in essence like what we

00:29:46.440 would call dsir that's just the more popular name that we use and we do that to differentiate them

00:29:53.080 from the nornir with a capital n um and the dc are the uh honor honorific

00:30:02.760 kind of fate spinners or maintainers of fate throughout each of those groups

00:30:11.560 and the nornir are at the top so i wanted to mention this back when we were talking about uh

00:30:17.560 yggdrasil uh a stanza ago or a chapter ago rather however well it's not really a stanza

00:30:24.680 but i don't know what we call the sections of this piece anyways there are

00:30:34.520 a couple of things there are catch-all names that imply a lot of stuff and that's one of the

00:30:40.680 the situation when we're talking about the supernatural in our lore is there's a lot

00:30:47.720 of words that have layers of meaning so i was talking about the morning norm means which

00:30:54.440 and it can mean spinners of fate in like the big earlier than the in skull

00:31:02.440 it can mean lesser nor near that are involved in the working out of morals fate 1.00

00:31:09.720 There's a whole realm of female divine and semi-divine personages that there's a lot of overlap between. 0.99

00:31:22.020 It's like the term desir. Desir means priestess. It also means goddess.

00:31:28.020 And it means kind of all those things in between.

00:31:31.320 Usually when it's a capital D, desir, we're talking about elevated female ancestors that look on their family line. 0.87

00:31:39.720 When we talk about the Nornir with capital N, it's usually the big three that are the main directors of fate in that way. 0.90

00:31:53.700 um but yeah there's a lot of lesser female spirits that you know including the uh philgia that 0.82

00:32:04.060 help to shape to lay out the manifestations of fate so there's there's a little bit of overlap

00:32:12.780 there but what i was going to mention on the tree there's these circulating systems within our cosmos

00:32:17.640 most that exist. The women behind the scenes weaving together tapestries of fate, weaving 1.00

00:32:26.840 together social tapestries and relationship tapestries is an ever-present theme. And I

00:32:33.440 think that we see, you know, we see, we see that in life. Um, but also this motif of the

00:32:41.600 tree and that there's always these forces of chaos trying to nip away at or rot the tree

00:32:51.600 or bite away at the tree or eat at the roots of the tree i think there's some important symbolism

00:32:58.400 about the devouring of roots and about rootlessness being you know the start of death

00:33:06.000 but i think the idea of that circulating system that replenishment of the tree by feeding it with

00:33:13.360 this clay with this pure clay with with nutrient rich soil with nutrient rich things and nutrient

00:33:19.760 rich do is fundamental um the idea that existence has this tree's circulating system as how it

00:33:32.800 works the idea that feeding negativity and chaos injecting that into the circulatory system of this

00:33:42.000 tree makes it wither makes it diseased makes it unhealthy feeding it with right action feeding it

00:33:50.480 with the continuation of the gift cycle with the relationship between icier and folk keeps it

00:34:00.240 healthy it revitalizes it it strengthens and it nourishes it and it's all fed through this world of

00:34:07.920 earth and

00:34:13.920 earth is cognate with the word fate but it means like more than that

00:34:20.880 um it implies a collectivity of actions that go in an ordered progression to cause outcomes

00:34:32.400 it is synonymous with the english word weird the old english word weird and it it means that it

00:34:42.560 means the playing out of fate being your actions and the culminations of your history and the

00:34:48.800 things you bring with you shaping how the future unfolds shaping how destiny unfolds and it shapes

00:34:56.800 that through how this tree flourishes how it grows how it uh how it develops and ultimately

00:35:04.320 the things that it puts into motion or whatever fall off and go back into that which feeds the

00:35:11.680 tree. But it's really, I think, very deep and beautiful imagery of how those very potent realities

00:35:22.400 work within our cosmology. And I didn't want to derail, but I did kind of want to speak up on

00:35:34.400 something um uh one is that we i know we have to get through the corpus of the lore so we're doing

00:35:40.960 the reading and then we answer questions so for people in the audience they know that's how we do

00:35:46.480 this just because we have to go over it um and we do i think you and i both trail into some crazy

00:35:55.120 stuff along the way um this uh shade forest that just uh commented it's shameful that matt and his

00:36:02.800 leadership chose to remove everyone who spoke up about van pay rather than earn their trust back.

00:36:09.920 And I would argue that it's far more shameful that the people who left didn't ask for an

00:36:17.120 explanation. They didn't work towards an explanation with their church. They didn't

00:36:21.120 give the church a chance many people uh just heard rumor hearsay and um left and you don't do that

00:36:33.280 that's really shameful when you have your kin fence and you hear these things and you don't

00:36:38.960 know the details but you just utilize it to do what you want that's truly shameful that's not

00:36:44.880 it went down those people quit almost 100 there was a select few that didn't because they were

00:36:54.720 actively trying to tear down the afa and stuff behind the scenes and were unwilling to talk to

00:37:01.200 anybody or whatever there's a lot going on at the time behind the scenes but nobody got removed for

00:37:07.120 raising a concern not at all when somebody raised a concern about van pay we immediately got rid of

00:37:13.920 them and we thanked them for letting us know because we didn't know nobody had paid any

00:37:19.280 attention or knew that that was a thing that wasn't something and as soon as it was brought

00:37:24.400 to our attention we immediately got rid of him um you know one of the only ones that got removed

00:37:32.240 was literally the guy that had vouched for him and was kind of responsible for for putting him

00:37:40.960 in that position and abetting him for that amount of time but no that's not how it went down and if

00:37:47.600 that's what people have told you you've been you've been misled i'm sorry for that a lot of the here's

00:37:52.320 the thing too it's easy to get irritated when it comes up because we've you know been dealing with

00:37:59.840 those folks trying to make that a make that into an existential thing for years now but

00:38:06.560 But for a lot of people, it's their first time hearing stuff.

00:38:10.260 And they're hearing things that are designed to scare them or get them very upset and riled up.

00:38:17.200 And I don't fault people for having questions or asking questions.

00:38:20.760 Questions are always welcome.

00:38:22.240 And questions is kind of how this show got started was, hey, when anybody has questions, please come and ask them straightforward.

00:38:29.860 We're very happy to answer them.

00:38:31.340 So I don't fault people for asking questions.

00:38:34.120 But a lot of people have been lied to about this situation for nefarious means, unfortunately.

00:38:42.460 As long as I've known you, even when I was just coming into the church, you always said you had an open door policy.

00:38:48.620 Just come in, ask you questions.

00:38:50.380 I do find it quite poetically beautiful that this is all going on when we're talking about the things that are gnawing at Yggdrasil.

00:38:59.620 like these uh these elements that try to constantly tear down and dissipate and break

00:39:09.780 or over spiral and purity or purity spiral or split it's it's a constant thing and you can

00:39:17.660 always tell i think that's a good marker perhaps the idea is that you know when you are on that

00:39:23.320 onslaught it's because you matter and because you are that that center force um you know nobody's

00:39:30.900 really uh cracking down on uh out outliers edge walkers that have no point the center is always

00:39:41.140 constantly being attacked very very uh divinely um fitting if you will it's unfortunate but it

00:39:51.720 is what it is, but it's, it's one of those things. It's just not true. And it's been weaponized and

00:40:03.640 the goal of it seems to be to tear down stuff that is good and successful. And unfortunately,

00:40:12.160 a lot of well-meaning people get pulled away from our faith because of it. And then those people

00:40:20.200 don't come back. Those people end up getting distanced from, you know, a good relationship

00:40:27.900 with the gods and an active ability to participate in the gift cycle. And, you know, all for a lot

00:40:36.500 of pettiness. And the things that are, the folks that are spreading, the folks that are at the top

00:40:41.460 spreading those things know for a fact that they're not true, or at least the way they're

00:40:46.660 characterizing them are grossly untrue. They all know that, but it trying to tear down the AFA is

00:40:55.640 more important to a lot of people than practicing ausitrine in whatever they feel like the right

00:41:03.180 way of doing that is. And that's something that's something I think is relevant in our circles a lot

00:41:10.860 and is worth discussing are people there's a lot wrong in the world and I think we get that but I

00:41:23.000 think some people get very caught up to where they lose sight of the things that they're for

00:41:28.060 and they only define themselves by what they're against there's a constant need to tear down

00:41:34.960 But an aversion or a, I don't know, a lack of any focus on what they're for.

00:41:44.160 And I think we see it with race a lot.

00:41:47.360 I think when people become racially aware and they see the persistent degradation of white people,

00:41:58.880 And they start being very anti. And they become more anti-other than they are pro-white. And I think that's unfortunate. And I think we see it in Ausatru. When somebody has a disagreement, either legitimate or illegitimate, with a group of Ausatru, or their focus, and often this lands on the AFA, is to spend years

00:42:26.780 complaining about the AFA rather than to spend time building whatever they think, you know,

00:42:34.140 the right way, the right way to do it is. And we see that time and time again, it's really

00:42:40.520 unfortunate, but the most unfortunate part is people who genuinely don't know any better,

00:42:45.000 they get caught in the middle and it damages their relationships they have with their friends,

00:42:50.540 their family, and with the ICR ultimately. So I hope people can overcome that. Again,

00:42:55.560 I'm always here for any questions, answering questions is important.

00:43:00.360 But while I'm on that, Nick donated $10 each to Sigurheim and Frazehoff.

00:43:08.600 Thank you for that.

00:43:09.240 We appreciate it very much.

00:43:11.320 Gilbert donated $200 to the Thorshoff Heat.

00:43:16.800 Thank you for that, Gilbert.

00:43:18.820 You are consistently amazing with that.

00:43:21.940 We appreciate it very much.

00:43:24.080 Andy donated $100 towards the Sickerheim mower.

00:43:28.340 Thank you, Gilbert. We appreciate it.

00:43:31.020 Also, Shannon donated $20 to Frazehoff and $10 to the Thorshoff Heat.

00:43:36.760 So thank you for that.

00:43:38.200 Also, an additional $20 to Frazehoff.

00:43:41.880 So thank you for that, Shannon.

00:43:44.160 And Monk donated $110 towards this broadcast.

00:43:48.380 Thank you, Monk. We really appreciate it.

00:43:50.000 And just so there's no confusion, Nick in North Carolina donated that, not this Nick.

00:43:56.140 All right, there you go.

00:43:59.180 I was wondering if I could address one more question before we go off into the-

00:44:03.520 No, you're fine. Go ahead.

00:44:04.580 Yeah. So Morris Taylor, 2445 asked, do the three Norns represent your mother in the past,

00:44:14.840 wife of the present, and daughter of the future?

00:44:17.700 I think that that's a correlative symbology that you could place, but that the Nornir are predominantly the cyclical nature of time.

00:44:32.280 One, the number three is dynamic. It's about movement. We see this throughout.

00:44:39.020 four is stability and three is movement moving forward um and what you end up kind of getting is

00:44:48.800 the the names because there's never a specification of perhaps appearance where uh one nor near looks

00:44:58.160 in a particular way um instead their names have more meaning about the source of all things

00:45:06.600 other is the one that is attaining and verdendi is in the skein of the moment but interesting

00:45:14.320 is skald skald means debt um that which is brought about from the past so it cat it goes right back

00:45:25.220 into there's past present and that which is brought about by the past and all of that flows

00:45:32.540 back into the past so there's this circular nature of time um you know obviously amongst

00:45:41.300 aryan groups uh or indo-europeans or whatever you want to call them um we see this we see this a lot

00:45:49.680 with like uh again right off with the hellenics the greco-romans and uh their usage of the fates

00:45:57.320 um and there is a lot of cross comparison there there's ironies which are like the valkyrie

00:46:04.620 or the valkyries um and we see these disbursements of of fate there's fate that's centralized close

00:46:15.540 to the gods very powerful and as it moves away it becomes more um segmented and focused on

00:46:23.860 different areas, fate on the battlefield, fate for say mothers and fate for even other worldly

00:46:35.460 beings. So I would say just because there's never really a mention of it, but there's nothing wrong

00:46:44.060 with you applying that thought. As you get closer to the divine and work with our gods,

00:46:52.600 There are many things that we do, and it needs to be allowable.

00:47:00.500 I think that's how people relate.

00:47:02.820 You can't have somebody coming in and say, no, don't look at that that way. 0.58

00:47:06.880 It's just that it's an understanding, okay, there's never any moment in which women are

00:47:12.700 distraught, but there's nothing wrong with you applying it in that way.

00:47:18.420 there's a a kind of cohesion that you will have with exploring facets and ideas that bring you

00:47:27.540 closer to understanding fate time and again uh the the feminine as i was here ago he was talking

00:47:36.100 about interweaving um i often say you know the masculine is vertical it's the pillars and the

00:47:43.620 the feminine is horizontal, like the weaving between the pillars, almost like cloth or a

00:47:48.940 basket. And in this case, we see the weaving of fate and the threshold of the feminine. 0.66

00:47:58.900 All time passes through the threshold of the feminine, just like children are born through 0.65

00:48:05.460 the threshold of their mothers. So I really think that's an interesting way of looking at it.

00:48:11.720 And so I would never discourage that, honestly. But I have to give it to you from the lore perspective first. And that I think is the names are indicative of purpose and titling all of the gods.

00:48:28.880 The gods are the gods of the Aryans. And whether the Greeks call them by certain names or whether the Norse or the Germanics call them by certain names, the titles have purpose in the way that our relationship to the gods has been built.

00:48:47.140 We ask the gods, and very rarely, I mean, some of the titles are based strictly on observation. Thor, thunder, so observation. But the furious one, and again, observation, but it's connected to battle, and that's Lord Odin.

00:49:09.240 So all of the titles are kind of built around giving us glimmers of purpose and scope.

00:49:21.000 Something else to add on the observation about the Nornir. That really, that is the root of the Wiccan, what is it, maiden leather throne tripartite there. It's drawn from the same source.

00:49:39.720 so you're not and those functions are very much kind of what you're talking about in what you're

00:49:46.920 saying so to see that in that is isn't odd and it's not you know it's not outside the norm of

00:49:54.900 things that people have taken from that progression so it's it is an expansion on a theme that i do

00:50:03.260 think is useful and worthwhile to formulate thoughts in though it's not you know explicitly

00:50:11.180 what the point of those particular norm there are but that said we're we're what's gone i

00:50:19.820 know you were finishing up right in the last section here of 17. um so we talk about the

00:50:28.700 other heavens and in our modern way of thinking oh is like a place above a place but we have to

00:50:35.980 remember the storytelling and the understanding of the heavenly mountains which a lot of people

00:50:43.740 forget about um there's the heavenly mountains and up there is is the either of all the plane

00:50:51.340 of of work where the gods have built us go to there and there's the tree and then there's uh

00:50:56.700 like these elevated places connected to um so it's obviously this is symbolic of

00:51:08.060 things and i was kind of speaking about um how the the not residing in those elevated places

00:51:17.820 because it brings them closer to the middle world is i think the important part of that

00:51:23.100 and we can kind of see to some some understanding um because here after speaking about the hall

00:51:31.100 gimle um then gangleri asks what shall guard this place when the flame of sorter shall consume

00:51:43.260 all heaven and earth hower answers it is sad that another heaven is to be southward or it is said

00:51:51.420 actually this is right i might be written wrong it is sad that another heaven is to be southward

00:51:59.420 and upward of this one so i think it's said um and it is called on our own longer

00:52:10.940 which means end long or on the end long of heaven so now we start to see

00:52:18.220 the idea that there is an extension um that is off and upward and there is a third heaven

00:52:28.820 and again the word heaven meaning elevated place um we of course conceptualize it differently

00:52:36.920 because of both christianity and its usage but this elevated place so end long is kind of off

00:52:45.460 of heaven and upward, but there is a third and it is called Vithblauen, which means the far blue

00:52:52.580 or the far, um, or the wide blue, the, the great expanse, the sky, if you will, um, clearly

00:53:02.420 referring to sky. Um, and in that heaven, we think this abode is, but we believe that none dwell

00:53:12.380 there but the light elves that inhabit these mansions now so the leo salvar alvar again

00:53:20.540 another title like nornir uh synthesizing with light the leo salvar are masters of light or the

00:53:29.820 lords of light if you want to think about it like that alvar is kind of like lords and they inhabit

00:53:36.700 this heavenly realm around the heavenly mountains of the gods and even in the far off and uppers

00:53:44.140 now the only uh inhabitants there are the leo salvar and that they inhabit the world

00:53:52.380 are the clouds and the stars the starry expanse around um the gods the in in the blue and in the

00:54:00.300 in the light and they descend down into uh midgard to encourage things to grow and uh perhaps you

00:54:08.460 know protect and give guidance um we see this in the names the anglo-saxons names like alfred um

00:54:17.500 meaning counseled by the elves but it's just not specified um or it could also mean a council elf

00:54:26.140 meaning somebody who's completely synthesized which makes them good at it um could be read

00:54:33.500 either way um so i just i find that very very interesting but i think in a cosmological sense

00:54:43.180 and now as we know that the the world is not hemispherical but spherical um and we're looking

00:54:50.140 at the cosmos in a slightly different way from our ancestors, we notice that there are elevated

00:54:56.840 places upon which the gods will place the souls that live amongst them into these places for

00:55:04.760 safekeeping up and away from the battle. And they do not remain there because it doesn't befit

00:55:15.260 their adjudication of order in the middle world.

00:55:19.660 They choose to be closer and more involved,

00:55:23.620 which is, I think, a subject that we talk about a lot,

00:55:26.480 that the gods are watching

00:55:27.820 and that the gods are involved in our lives.

00:55:29.700 And they do care and see when we all gather together

00:55:33.280 and give them thanks and give them gifts.

00:55:37.920 So, 18, about the source of the wind.

00:55:42.780 Then Gangleri asks,

00:55:45.780 Whence comes the wind?

00:55:47.780 It is strong, so that it stirs the great seas, and it swells fire.

00:55:54.780 But strong as it is, none may see it, for it is wonderfully shapen.

00:56:01.780 And then Haur said, That I am well able to tell thee at the northward end of heaven. 0.99

00:56:10.780 So, in the upper realm, on the north side, the cold side, there is a giant or a Jotun. And remember, we talked about that too, like Alvar is a title. Oftentimes, Jotun is a title, and people immediately relegate it to one place and thing, and that is not the case.

00:56:34.620 But the best thing for, I think, for folks when they're reading the stories, when they see the word Yotin, it's ancient, like the mountains, old, and before the gods organized themselves into the adjudicators of order, there were the Yotins from various places.

00:56:56.340 And so it is a jaten in the shape of an eagle, and its name is praisvelger. Praisvelger or praisvelger means carrion or corpse eater, swallower or gulper.

00:57:20.180 And he has plumes of an eagle, and when he stretches his wings for flight, then the wind rises from under his wings, as here it is said.

00:57:34.440 Reisvelgerheit is he, height meaning title, who sits at heaven's ending, giant in eagle's coat.

00:57:43.780 From his wings, they say, the wind cometh, all men folk over.

00:57:48.760 So the picture that I did as the interpretation of cosmology, I made a spherical Earth because I wanted to connect that understanding and show that the application of mythos can apply even if you have a scientific spherical Earth.

00:58:13.920 um and in it there at the top in it's very small but you could see it uh behind the strut of heaven 0.99

00:58:22.880 there is a race velg and he's um a rice svelger he's uh fanning uh over the world making um

00:58:35.580 the wind and there's little plumes of wind coming off of his wings um and i think that that is 0.51

00:58:42.440 really indicative of the nature of Jotun's in relation to the Midgard world. We talk about

00:58:53.220 pressure and buildup. Vanaheim is of life and of death and the cyclic nature of these things.

00:58:58.880 Jotunheim is really resistance, and that doesn't necessarily mean against life, but the buildup

00:59:08.060 of pressures wind is pressure building up the heat the cold um and uh you know elevations and

00:59:17.200 lowering so the yotans of that primordial um tapestry of pressures even tornadoes and hurricanes

00:59:27.880 are equalizing between great powerful pressures um so uh we have 19 um about the differences

00:59:43.000 between summer and winter then said gang live why is there so much difference that summer

00:59:51.820 should be hot, but winter cold. Haur answered, a wise man would not ask thus. And you'll notice

01:00:01.240 this throughout the story. There's this kind of antagonism from the tripartite to Gangliri.

01:00:09.880 There's a reason for this as it will be kind of revealed. But in other words, they're already 0.99

01:00:16.000 onto his ruse um and they are kind of jibing him because he's pretending to be ignorant 0.88

01:00:26.720 and i think in this in this case he is truly ignorant of of these uh instances but they're 0.74

01:00:32.720 jibing him to see if he'll crack if he'll break his his disguise um so they say a wise man would

01:00:41.520 not ask thus seeing that all are able to tell this but if thou alone art become so slight of

01:00:48.960 understanding as not to have heard it then i will yet permit that thou shalt rather ask foolishly

01:00:56.240 once so if you are so slow that you can't catch it despite everyone else i give you know pass to

01:01:05.360 to let you you know ask this but once and uh then thou shalt be kept longer in ignorance of a thing

01:01:15.200 which is proper to know he is called svalv sudor or the the soft south who is the father of summer

01:01:27.520 and he is a pleasant nature so that from his name whatsoever is pleasant is called sweet

01:01:35.360 The sweet south, the soft to south. And even though it's not indicated by title, the general view is that this is of not mortals and not of gods, but of Jotun.

01:01:50.940 So again, another indication of how Jotuns are interconnected in the middle realm.

01:01:58.100 They could be Vanir, but it's not mentioned either way.

01:02:02.920 But there is this deep connection between the Vanir and the Jotnar in the middle world with Midgard.

01:02:10.420 They are deeply connected to nature and heat and cold and all of these primordial forces.

01:02:20.860 So his name is Svaldsudr.

01:02:23.140 But the father of winter, old man winter, father winter, is variously called Vindlioni or Vindsvaller, like wind, actually I don't know about Vindlioni, but wind gale or gust for Vindsvaller.

01:02:49.420 and he is the son of Vausader.

01:02:54.700 I think it's, because again, too,

01:02:56.800 the English translation kind of throws me off sometimes.

01:02:59.900 And these were kinsmen, grim and chill-breasted,

01:03:04.640 and winter has their temper.

01:03:09.340 Chilly-breasted, of course, means cold of heart.

01:03:12.800 So we kind of get a glimpse into

01:03:16.260 To the hierarchy of the Jotunar in relation, we see this predominantly through nature and distance. Those that live in the Utgard or the outer edges of Jotunheim are control over other forces of nature or influence, I should say, not total control, influence.

01:03:39.440 Because, again, all of our divine, and that's a concept that I think a lot of Christians have a hard time, is that their God is the God of everything.

01:03:52.440 And even though there's evil, he's the God of it, which would then lend me to think that he created it, and it is of him.

01:04:05.900 But in our faith, the divine is great powers that share over the dominion of primordial forces and that the gods are adjudicating these primordial forces in the benefit of the folk. 0.96

01:04:30.600 and the Yotnar are either neutral or hostile. 0.97

01:04:37.020 And so that means to be ausatru, to be trothful to the gods, 0.87

01:04:40.920 is to be trothful to the gods that look benevolently upon the folk

01:04:45.940 as we carry their breath, they gave us our breath.

01:04:50.240 So that's one of the biggest points.

01:04:53.220 It's not that they're a completely different race or something like that. 0.78

01:04:58.040 there is various uh natures to the title um and so yes they were cold-hearted and from them winter 0.52

01:05:06.960 flows um and the the turning of that creates the cold and the hot um so 20 so pause for a sec

01:05:21.900 before we get to 20 because i think that's a good that's a good break 20 is when we

01:05:26.820 start getting into the list of the ICR. And that's something that is really foundational

01:05:33.920 to a lot of things that we do. We do have some questions from earlier on. We got a couple

01:05:41.760 of questions stacked up. One, success breeds success. Failure breeds failure. Success is

01:05:52.180 rewarded by the body of various feel-good hormones by building psychological momentum

01:06:00.460 and by gaining spiritual might. Failure does the opposite. How can people who spent the majority

01:06:08.760 of their lives failing break the habit and start to succeed? How do losers become winners? Thank

01:06:16.620 you swan what are your thoughts on that and before we get to that i think that's a very good question

01:06:22.860 and very important question what are your thoughts well one i think that uh what you were talking

01:06:28.380 about before is a key element to how uh people can become successful instead of building yourself on

01:06:38.860 what you're not or what you're against it's about building yourself on what you are

01:06:46.300 about who you are about and what you want and this applies um if you think about it like when people

01:06:53.740 say oh you know if you have a job you love you never work a day in your life the idea about

01:06:58.860 going out there and making a living off of something you truly love is the same as

01:07:04.220 building about what you are not what you're against or um so i think it's synthesis of the

01:07:15.440 self and finding a way to build off of what you love to do uh and that doesn't necessarily mean

01:07:26.600 um you know the modern age can give kind of uh interesting pathways some people are better at

01:07:34.280 it than others um but uh you know even looking into it like i was just having this trail of

01:07:43.920 thought where let's say somebody uh i don't know likes to live at home and bake bread you know and

01:07:50.220 you could do social media but let's say what if you don't want to do that the idea of being able

01:07:56.580 to hold classes or to go to community centers and teach people how to share the love that you have

01:08:03.440 with things and entering into the community and trying to figure out things there, networking

01:08:08.600 through common interest. There's so many ways, but it really is about positive outlook versus

01:08:16.340 negative outlook. And I was here to go, I'm saying this to the audience, I was here to go,

01:08:21.360 gets me all the time with negative language versus positive language and i will just i mean i have

01:08:28.320 these furrows over my eyes for a reason because i just grind into you know and get angry about

01:08:36.720 or or what have you and i'll see her with these like whoa why don't you do or think this way

01:08:44.320 and it's kind of like a smack in the face so success does really stem entirely from whether

01:08:52.800 you're going to feed the deer eating off of your soul off of off of your tree or being the nornir

01:09:02.480 and watering the roots and that comes from positivity and from mindset um even if it's

01:09:12.240 dark. And I've been through some really dark times in my life and you will go through these,

01:09:17.800 but the key is bearing that in mind, searching for that, keeping that, writing it down,

01:09:26.380 water your roots with the well water. Don't be the deer. Don't focus on the positive. Try to build

01:09:34.320 and focus everything that you're doing around stuff that you love. You love your family and

01:09:40.080 you enjoy doing this, then you build from that. You don't slog in the mines. We thankfully are

01:09:47.980 in a place where we, that's that kind of stuff. You know, uh, we're not getting the mines, um,

01:09:55.960 the, the state, um, the, the commissar needs you to dig lead. Um, instead we're, we're at a point

01:10:04.400 right now. And I think with all the doom and gloom and with all of the terrible stuff going

01:10:09.020 on around us. It's not being naive. It's just that you are aware and you understand there are evil

01:10:16.600 things, there are bad things, but you choose to focus your mind on the good things and build

01:10:24.620 and build them for the sake of the things you love. And that's why I think a lot of people

01:10:30.760 get us uh they mislabel us um in the sense that any of these things are coming like we we

01:10:42.360 are harboring a place of hate i think it's more self-reflective to them and that we are doing

01:10:48.620 much of what we do out of love for the gods out of love for our ancestors out of love for our family

01:10:54.280 and out of love for our folk. And that is why we have been so successful.

01:11:11.740 Yeah, I think, so I think the positive outlook is important. And I think it plays in what I was

01:11:19.440 to focus on though that i see in the question itself that is meaningful is momentum um

01:11:28.480 momentum is so important and if you've got a negative momentum to where you're accustomed to

01:11:35.280 failure it's hard to break out of it what is the surest

01:11:41.600 so along with negativity is setting your sights on distant goals that seem out of reach and being

01:11:56.060 discouraged because the goal you've set is too far so how can you possibly get there you can

01:12:02.220 never win might as well just not even try and go back in the cycle of losing I would say

01:12:08.640 establishing momentum by identifying small victories that you can achieve and doing those

01:12:17.520 and stacking small victory upon small victory until you get closer to some of the bigger goals

01:12:24.520 you have in your life. I think that that's relevant if they're completely unrelated things

01:12:31.860 and you just need to score some wins. But I also think when you have those bigger goals,

01:12:37.780 to break them down into a succession of a bunch of smaller goals so that you can chart progress

01:12:47.400 and feel like you're picking up momentum by doing those things. One of the things with

01:12:54.840 our young men that I noticed they have such a problem with is finding a girlfriend,

01:13:03.680 and getting a wife, starting a family, it's very daunting if you don't have success to build some

01:13:10.800 success. Maybe the success for somebody is just talking to a girl. Say hi to a girl. Did you say

01:13:19.300 hi to a girl today? Cool. That is a win. You have succeeded at one of your goals. Hey, start a

01:13:26.540 conversation. Did you talk to her? Did she say something back? Counts. That is a second win.

01:13:33.680 um figuring out small wins because they look really different for whoever it is if you've got

01:13:40.160 a you know a fat loss or a fitness problem start tracking your food today cool track it tomorrow

01:13:51.600 tomorrow was it better than it was today awesome that's a win that's a little bit better

01:13:59.400 Build on the small victories and take stock of them.

01:14:02.540 And I think that goes a long way towards it.

01:14:06.040 And the other thing that Svon mentioned about the positivity,

01:14:09.760 when you are so focused on what you can't do and the things you can't have,

01:14:16.520 it's very hard to notice the opportunities for success that present themselves every day in your life.

01:14:23.480 if you're not looking for ways to win, if you are looking for things that you are upset about

01:14:31.140 or things that you have failed about, you don't notice the small opportunities you have to win.

01:14:37.360 And you have those opportunities all the time. So being looking upward, keeping your head upward

01:14:44.440 and picking off small victories that you can build momentum on, I think that is a huge part of it.

01:14:52.320 So that's what I would suggest on that.

01:15:01.280 Question for VNS.

01:15:03.940 Recommendations for children's books for introducing our lore to my children.

01:15:08.960 My kids and I are...

01:15:12.200 I apologize, guys.

01:15:22.320 Um, anyways, back to the question, recommendation for children and books for introducing our Lord to our children. My kids and I read a God story every night and all my children are five and under. Spawn, do you have any recommendations for that?

01:15:38.680 yeah i have a huge one um again being a storyteller um and i i don't think a lot

01:15:47.880 of folks have heard about it there is a book called northern pathways by douglas rossman

01:15:55.400 he uh was a minnesota i believe he was a um uh descendant of uh scandinavians that settled

01:16:06.280 in minnesota and he was a storyteller and it is a phenomenal book for giving the broad outline

01:16:15.640 of stories i think that he uh takes some liberties in combining them but he doesn't do it in a way

01:16:23.320 that's egregious there is another book i tell people to avoid because in personal experience

01:16:29.640 The liberties that are taken are kind of egregious. They kind of put a negative spin very lightly on things that I don't think are negative. And that would be Odin's children.

01:16:47.240 So I'm not a big fan of that one. Mainly as you're reading it, you can see Thor is easily angered because of his capriciousness.

01:17:00.540 And so they kind of, I just don't like that twist. And there's also, again, a kind of twisting of the way that the gods and the elves and humanity interact, where they kind of make the gods, again, uncaring.

01:17:19.980 um so uh northern pathways by rossman uh if you're looking for maybe pre-teen or older

01:17:32.320 uh norse myths by kevin crossley holland are great as a story-based sense and they're a little

01:17:43.320 bit more advanced than for say like young children but they're they're right around 10 to 15 year

01:17:49.420 olds um and then there's another one and um i was actually looking for it um i know the last name

01:17:59.260 uh but the title of the book i believe is just norse myths um by kiri is the last name and it's

01:18:10.780 actually kind of strange because it's written by two people um and it's their sisters yes uh let

01:18:18.620 let me see. It is Tales of Norse Mythology by A, one moment, Annie Kiri and Eliza Kiri,

01:18:35.120 but on the book it says A and E Kiri. They're sisters. Now, one of the reasons why I love

01:18:41.700 this book is because this was written at the, um, the end of the 1800s, beginning of the 1900s.

01:18:49.780 And, uh, the, the ladies that write this book, they present the gods in a very majestic way.

01:18:58.540 They pulled Viking and Arthurian together. So they describe instead of say Frigg being in

01:19:10.640 some sort of long house with, or, or wearing shoulder pelts and face paints. No, she is in

01:19:18.280 her crystalline salon where she has the maidens with her. It's very majestic. It's really cool.

01:19:25.800 I think it's a, a very good way, an interesting way. I think that the reason why, um, perhaps

01:19:33.720 people who do not like our folk want us to worship the gods barbarically is because as we

01:19:41.340 present the gods and as we're in drawings and things, it reflects the nature. And I think that

01:19:49.240 all too often Christians forget that all of the beautification of their religion really comes from

01:19:55.760 the Greeks and the Romans. You know, if you look at the biblical angels, it's, you know,

01:20:02.540 tentacle demon with eyes and then once it becomes the stalwart man with wings fighting a dragon

01:20:11.380 that's actually greek and roman paganism and i think that we are on that evolutionary trail we

01:20:18.960 see in the stories here and in the depictions um in the adas that the icelanders are drawing

01:20:26.200 the gods wearing clothing of the age they're wearing doublets they have a falchion um instead

01:20:33.920 of a traditional you know two-sided viking sword uh or norse sword that they are of that time so i

01:20:43.160 think what we are and should be inclined to do is to show the gods in an elevated sense a sense of

01:20:53.600 beauty um a mixture though we we are living in an information age so we have a unique ability to

01:21:01.840 look at the past and know details that our ancestors didn't even know they romanticized

01:21:08.800 much of what they thought and um that is good it has a kind of bombastic mythos to it but now we

01:21:17.200 have real knowledge so the reason why the murals are are drawn the way they are is because we have

01:21:25.040 knowledge so we have information and then we have key elements um that are unique little easter eggs

01:21:32.720 placed in there but more importantly is that there is beauty and majesty in the gods in their

01:21:39.680 depictions because that is a reflection of who we are if you're drawing the gods as some

01:21:46.960 sort of forest troll um i think that reflects what is inside and i hope that on the journey they

01:22:00.620 move away from that and go into elevated forward and upward things but we see this

01:22:08.440 even in the stories, just by words alone. The gods are not primitive, savage things. They are

01:22:18.380 beings of gold and silver and light and fairness and waters springing up and words and songs being

01:22:28.780 spoken. It's very, very beautiful. And we should, that's why I recommend this book because it's one

01:22:34.480 of the first books i've ever read that kind of hints towards that um very interesting i don't

01:22:42.660 think everybody's gonna like it um but if you have a kind of an elastic um if you don't view

01:22:50.820 the gods simply in one singular way i think it opens and broadens horizons and it really does

01:22:57.460 make some majesty for the children when they're hearing it um the idea of crystalline castles and

01:23:06.420 and um golden uh roofed halls with beating of light it's it's awesome it's a really good book

01:23:17.140 that sounds cool

01:23:18.020 um so next question hi nick thank you for all you do having gone over a section of

01:23:30.500 gil forgetting about dark elves as they're described as black as pitch and evil could

01:23:36.820 there be a leap made that black people are these evil dark elves should we be treating them as such 0.80

01:23:45.060 would our ancestors have viewed them as anything else or are we to assume they are different

01:23:50.740 magical beings so thanks for asking me answers no i'll let them answer continue though all right so

01:24:01.700 no um that's not the case i think that they exist completely um

01:24:10.420 um outside of the conceptualization of our ancestors when we're talking about

01:24:19.060 our lore because they are completely foreign to us and our cosmos and our existence um i think

01:24:27.980 you see that our lore is very us focused and it doesn't try to account for different for not us

01:24:36.220 in the realm of humanity it it's our existence and the divine forces that are relating to it i also

01:24:47.420 don't think our ancestors conceived of different races of people as being some kind of mythic

01:24:55.340 beings but they treated them in a much more biological sense because we have a we have a

01:25:01.100 word for it for that in old north we have an understanding for that for the rare occasion

01:25:05.660 that it comes up to where you know a a black person or africa itself is depicted blau mother 0.60

01:25:14.940 uh blue blue man and um africa itself uh uh blauland is the land of the blacks

01:25:26.460 or the land of the blues rather i guess but the conceptualization how you made like black

01:25:31.900 dye and stuff it was a it was a blue it was a super blue variant it's like the you know

01:25:37.740 term to describe somebody who's like super duper black is blue black um

01:25:44.300 so yeah it was it was black the the blau mother um and there was no indication that that was

01:25:51.500 diff like some kind of a magical creature it was another biological earth fauna thing that they

01:26:02.780 were dealing with it was clearly not them but i i don't think that there's an association between

01:26:08.940 that and um trolls or or dark elves of our um our mythos and you know we also see that when

01:26:17.180 they talk about scraylings for um native americans there wasn't the idea that there's some kind of

01:26:24.380 strange wood elf creature that exists in the woods it was very much treated like another biological

01:26:31.820 you know being that they were interacted with and not like a something that had inherent

01:26:36.780 spiritual implications but certainly something that was markedly different and not us

01:26:43.420 swan do you have anything to add on that yeah um and you had mentioned this the scrailing good um

01:26:51.820 and i just recently was looking at there's some people speculating the translation not meaning

01:26:57.580 necessarily the people of like the woods or the roots but also the people of screaming or yelling

01:27:03.820 uh perhaps because of uh battle cries or something of that nature but yeah uh for people that might

01:27:09.660 not understand blau mother why would you call them blue men is because blue is a spectrum of color

01:27:15.740 um from sky blue which would be referred to as sky blue and then blau in and of itself was more

01:27:22.860 a midnight blue it's the same with red uh road is red but it can be also pink um i think that's an

01:27:33.420 uh in european culture um young boys wore pink because it grows like the color grows up to red

01:27:42.300 so the pink on a young boy was representative of him being a young man and then when he was a man

01:27:48.940 he was fully red um vitality things like that but you know these these things are kind of funny

01:27:56.060 And they do cause confusion. But, you know, in the part, it says that there is one of the people called light elves, but the dark elves dwell down in the earth and they are unlike in appearance.

01:28:10.560 So there's a big thing between whether we're talking about Svartalvar or Dvergar and Dark Elves.

01:28:19.540 And I was trying to see in this case, because sometimes the translators will mess or switch these things up.

01:28:32.040 But one of the big things about the Dark Elves and being black as pitch, they are synthesized with darkness.

01:28:40.560 And I am of the belief that dark elves are actually the same as, say, a barrow white or a mound elf is referred to sometimes.

01:28:52.180 um the alvar that are connected to the land that have traveled the road of death 0.71

01:29:00.400 um and are synthesized with it as opposed to the smart alvar which smart now is the word for black

01:29:09.100 in modern germanic languages but back then it wasn't it meant swarthy and sooty based on

01:29:16.540 um material like from burn uh burning firewood or from um blacksmithing so there was this kind of

01:29:29.860 difference between and the darkness is a huge part of that um that they are of of death and

01:29:41.520 have walked the road of death and are in these places some of them are i i don't think there's

01:29:50.880 any case where they're benevolent but some are more neutral than they are malevolent to those

01:29:57.760 who live but sometimes they give over the sword to the the maiden so that she can give it to

01:30:06.320 her husband so he can slay a monster there there is a continuing poetic tropes or or uh constructions

01:30:16.160 and so the dark dark alvar are absolutely mysterious i would say more more so and out

01:30:24.160 of the two if we're talking about the svart alvar or the the dvergar and the dark elves it is

01:30:29.760 clearly that the dvergar are more malicious and more capricious the dark elves are mysterious and 0.83

01:30:37.840 shadowed and uh undefinable and their they their presence shows a thinning of the veil 0.96

01:30:48.240 their their presence in the barrow their presence on a battlefield absolutely is more built around

01:30:56.240 the scariness of you're in an area that uh the the lines between the worlds are blurring

01:31:05.360 so but uh the leo salvar are the ones they're you know focusing on in the heavenly realm

01:31:12.960 the light beings the beings that are uh fair to look upon like the sun so um

01:31:19.440 um the alvar title lord of light lord of darkness and lord of soot or smarter is like lord of the

01:31:30.260 of the the grit and the soot of the earth so i hope that helps uh break that up sometimes i

01:31:40.500 wonder halfway through if i'm like that's all good um meant to ask in a previous episode but

01:31:47.860 could you explain the style of vestments that the afa clergy wear yeah um the afa clergy wear stoles

01:31:58.100 um a couple of reasons for that well and specifically i wear a gold stole the uh

01:32:07.620 speckengar wear white stoles and the gothar wear blue stoles and

01:32:24.740 so

01:32:28.900 they're useful in the fact that they're very recognizable in western culture as a religious

01:32:35.300 garment as a religious item that sets you apart as someone leading a religious service

01:32:43.120 and that's pretty you know at least in the west that's very immediately understandable and

01:32:50.520 relatable and it's something done in a number of different religions as a matter of fact

01:32:55.280 And looking into the origin point of it, it's of Latin pagan origins and not a Christian thing.

01:33:07.000 The Christians copied it due to their association with Rome and their springing up in Rome.

01:33:12.200 but it was originally something that um roman priests and learned like roman scholars and and

01:33:21.400 people of high um intellectual acumen would wear to to denote that so that's yes that stole is what

01:33:32.760 we wear and it's one of those it's why there's kind of dual use to where you've you've seen

01:33:37.880 uh various christian pastors or priests um the greek greek orthodox have a different style of

01:33:45.720 stole but they saw the stole they wear but you also see it at graduations and for professors

01:33:52.920 and things that way because it came from that um you know being someone of deep learning in ancient

01:33:59.960 Rome. They, um, they're also, uh, stoles are, they predate obviously Christianity. Like you

01:34:12.060 said, they are actually even before Roman organization, the Umbrian, uh, iguavine

01:34:17.840 tablets show a person wearing stoles and they are the officiating priest offering rituals,

01:34:25.740 uh ritual sacrifice so i you know i think that people that immediately jumped on the idea that

01:34:32.300 we were somehow copying christianity but again we don't define ourselves by what we're not the

01:34:39.900 the usage of it is you know to be to go in and go to someone on their deathbed at a hospital

01:34:49.020 and if you show up wearing shoulder pelt and charcoal face paint and carrying like a stick

01:34:56.860 with bones on it people are going to think you're crazy but if you show up there and you're dressed

01:35:02.460 like a decent normal western civilization human being and you have a stole on there's absolutely

01:35:09.820 no doubt why you're there you're there to console help or possibly give the last rights to a member 0.96

01:35:17.900 of your faith. And I think that when people attacked that, it really showed the immaturity

01:35:25.340 and the juvenile mental state that many people are when they kind of take Ausatru as a faith,

01:35:33.840 maybe from the internet. And it's all about just being what they're against. And they're not

01:35:39.620 thinking about what they want to be. And I think it's something that's a little bit,

01:35:44.640 i don't know i think there is absolutely that and there's plenty of that but i think a more generous

01:35:51.400 place that some people come from is and i started there uh this is i had all these thoughts about

01:36:01.180 everybody's doing it wrong and what else is supposed to be like before i'd ever actually

01:36:05.440 done it in front of people or with people or had any frame of reference i think we all start with

01:36:12.280 an imagination of things. And things work really different when you have to actually implement

01:36:21.080 them in the world and you deal with just the realities of things. So I think that genuinely

01:36:30.060 there are a lot of people that think you should go show up to do prison ministry or show up to a

01:36:38.340 hospital or show up, you know, to a council of religious leaders in your town dressed like

01:36:46.120 high long. And I think that would be absurd on the face of it. It would be off-putting and it

01:36:54.960 would bring our faith into really bad repute. So trying to think of things that are, um,

01:37:00.980 that are meaningful trying to be judicious about what you use and what you don't

01:37:08.660 but there's certain things that have meanings in western society and i don't think there's

01:37:13.800 a need to shy away from those things unless the need is particularly overt and in this case i

01:37:20.100 don't think it is i think that immediately when people see us in stalls they oh there is a religious

01:37:26.080 officiant officiating a religious happening. Everybody sees that picture and without words

01:37:34.600 knows what that is. Svon's issue that he mentioned about the hospital, I've had that literally

01:37:41.740 happen where I've been in the hospital a couple of times caring for our members who found

01:37:47.980 themselves there and immediately the staff know exactly what I'm doing and why I'm there and

01:37:53.200 treat that with a level of respect because of you know showing up dressing nicely a shirt and tie

01:38:01.600 looking like you're serious on it but also the stole it helps that a lot so that's why we end up

01:38:10.880 um it's fun let's get back to the text and learn about the all-father oh yes

01:38:23.200 Okay, so moving into 20.

01:38:30.520 Of Odin and his names, then said Gangliri, who are the Aesir? 0.93

01:38:41.380 They in whom it behooves men to believe.

01:38:46.520 Hawar answers, the divine Aesir are 12.

01:38:51.060 And I think it's very fitting that it's 3D speaking, 0.94

01:39:18.160 because you'll see that in a little, in a list later on.

01:39:25.840 He rules all things and is mighty as are the other gods.

01:39:31.840 They all serve him as children obey a father.

01:39:36.340 Frigg is his wife and she knows all fates of men,

01:39:40.860 though she speaks no prophecy.

01:39:42.860 As it is said here, when Odin himself spake with him,

01:39:48.160 Now, on that line in specifics, I would like to point out that I think that this point is talking about association.

01:40:03.260 We've talked about the Austvinir, the most beloved ones, becoming of the Aesir because of association.

01:40:14.600 but the other point is is that in this when they're telling the story to gang litty

01:40:21.500 it's important that they don't reveal so they are speaking about loki as he when he was aligned with

01:40:31.760 the gods and as it goes it will turn so it's very important for them to not uh oh you mean

01:40:41.200 like the kinslayer who was walking amongst them whoa whoa whoa focus in on that that's the reason

01:40:47.520 i think that that's not done there's an evolution of his alignment and then eventually his um

01:40:56.800 his breaking of troth and his deeds so um in this odin says uh thou art mad now

01:41:09.760 And I think that this also really emphasizes a point of power between the masculine and the feminine.

01:41:31.760 Lord Odin goes out. He injects himself into the world to gain wisdom. However, the power of Frigg comes from her gathering information that flows to her.

01:41:48.520 She is receptive of it and has many avenues that channel information to her and that she also has portents of prophecy.

01:41:59.680 um yet doesn't speak on it is a very interesting point i think that um the evolution of

01:42:10.720 speaking on prophecy that you know to come forth is because of a greater understanding of fate and

01:42:18.500 will and ultimately um that reservation to make that proclamation into reality um and we see the

01:42:30.660 reason why obviously uh with lord balder um odin is called the all father because he is the father

01:42:41.540 of all the gods. He is also the father of the slain, because all of those that fall in battle

01:42:49.120 are the sons of his, adopt on. For them, he appoints Valhall and Vingoth, and they are then

01:42:59.220 called Champions, Einherjahr, which means the lone or single warrior, but I also find

01:43:12.540 it interesting, harrier, and the idea of rising or flying above. Those two are also connected

01:43:21.380 linguistically um he is also called the god of the hanged god of gods god of cargo and he also

01:43:32.900 has been named in many more ways after he had had come to the king get older so there is a story

01:43:44.260 about, called Grimnismal, the sayings of Grimnir. And in the Grimnismal, he goes to King Geradir.

01:43:54.200 And this is a clear poetic connection. So the gods aren't just connecting only through

01:44:01.380 Gilfi. Obviously, we see it with Quasir, we see it with Gilfi, we see it with Geradir.

01:44:07.940 And that account is leading to much fame because he spoke of his names.

01:44:15.760 So, um, the, uh, we were called Grimner and Gangleri, Herjan and Hjalmberi, Fekker and Thrivi, Thudur, Uður, Hellblindi, Haur, the high one, uh, Sather, uh, actually, let me see.

01:44:45.760 double check, yep, saadur, saadur, svipal, sangetal, herteter, nikar, billjekar,

01:45:00.480 Baleaker, Ballvurker, Fjolnir, Grimnir, Glepsvider, Fjolsvider, Siddhotter, Siggskekkur, Siggfather, Nikudur, Alfather, Outrider, Farmatir, Oski, Ammi, Evenhauer, Biflinti,

01:45:30.480 Gondlir, Hábardar, Svíður, Svidrir, Járkur, Kjálar, Víður, Þrór, Ígir, which is where we get Ígdrisil from, Þuntur, the strong one, Vakkur, Skilfingur, Váfúður, Hrottatir, Gautur, Veratir.

01:45:59.180 So one of the most interesting things that you gain from the list is that it clearly states that when we talk about the tripartite of the gods, and we see the tripartite of the gods throughout history,

01:46:16.260 This is the reveal that the tripartite within the tripartite, who is Lord Odin, is who is talking to Ganglili, because there is high, just as high, and the third in the list.

01:46:34.360 So he, just like with King Gerard, he coyishly reveals the nature of those he's speaking with.

01:46:47.300 And this kind of poetic meter would have been spoken quickly.

01:46:52.680 And the whole point is taking words that sound similar but have completely different meanings.

01:47:00.940 And they just, in Old Norse, rhyme together, if you will.

01:47:09.440 So I just kind of wanted to go over some of them.

01:47:14.040 We have Grimmr, which, of course, is the...

01:47:19.300 Okay, so pause for a sec before you do.

01:47:21.780 So I want to get this.

01:47:22.460 We've got a super chat came in from Jill, $1, wants to know,

01:47:27.340 Svan, which type of metallic paint did you use for Freyr's Golden Sonnenrod and Gulen Bursties bristles?

01:47:38.360 Oh, I didn't use a paint at all.

01:47:40.720 I used gold leaf.

01:47:43.360 Now, it's not real gold.

01:47:48.740 I wish it was.

01:47:49.900 If I could make that happen, I would.

01:47:53.300 it is uh it is um that you could buy at um any arts and crafts store uh it is expensive

01:48:02.340 um and there was another issue that i ran into was i didn't know how much i needed

01:48:08.300 and i was originally going to do gulen bursty in gold leaf as well once i found out the success of

01:48:17.600 and the process of it. Because the first, when I did the Sonnenrod around his head,

01:48:25.740 it was terrible. And I was on a scaffolding. It was late. It was probably three o'clock in the

01:48:32.700 morning. I'm trying to push through. I've only got three days. I'm sleeping on the floor.

01:48:38.980 So I'm at this point where I've already slept one night on the floor and I'm getting

01:48:45.400 frayed at the edges. Let's put it that way. Oh, that's no pun intended. And

01:48:52.360 I ended up trying the process and was terrible at it. And I was very close to

01:49:03.120 kind of, I don't know. Not that I could call it quits. There's no option there. The

01:49:10.880 uh, dedication of the Hoff is coming. Um, but I was doubting myself. I was like, I don't know

01:49:17.360 if I could do this. I don't know if this is going to happen. And then I went to sleep and, uh, that

01:49:24.340 was like, like by four in the morning, woke up at nine, 10 in the morning. And it's like, okay,

01:49:30.120 we're going to try this again. And, uh, went up and started doing it and it was perfect.

01:49:37.480 and then i was like okay i got it down gold leaf everything but i decided to change going away from

01:49:47.640 ghoul and bursty i only did his bristles i didn't want to do the whole of his body because i felt

01:49:53.860 that it would take away from the splendor of of holy so i i opted out on that kept the extras and

01:50:03.300 And now at Thorsof and soon Njortsof,

01:50:09.140 there will be that same gold going on there as well.

01:50:15.940 One of the big things I'm going to be doing at Njortsof

01:50:19.100 is gold leafing much of the image of Lord Njortsof.

01:50:24.880 But it's not paint at all.

01:50:27.140 It's a very thin film,

01:50:31.260 And you have to work on it in a very specific way in order to make it lay smooth and not get bubbles, not crack or break.

01:50:39.940 But once you get it, it's pretty easy.

01:50:42.860 It's just, if you're not used to working with it, it can be frustrating in the beginning.

01:50:47.580 But perseverance.

01:50:49.100 And it is, in fact, magnificent.

01:50:51.820 It is amazing.

01:50:53.140 The pictures don't even do it.

01:50:54.880 It really is.

01:50:56.480 Also, Stephen in Japan, donate another $10 towards Thor's Hoff Heat.

01:51:02.960 Thank you, Stephen. We appreciate it.

01:51:05.200 And Svan, if you would go back into telling us about Lord Odin's names and what some of those mean.

01:51:11.620 So, a couple of things.

01:51:14.160 Obviously, I spoke about how there is the high one and there is the three.

01:51:21.500 And that is why at Odin's Hoff, there is a rock written in runic that says that Lord Odin is three but one.

01:51:30.700 And one who is three is the reference to this title, three V.

01:51:36.180 Obviously, I'm speaking about Vodin Villive or Odin Villive.

01:51:40.960 And the other names that kind of and the only reason why I bring it up is because I wanted to kind of explain poetics.

01:51:51.500 um so when we see like something like uh helm bearer helmets were extremely rare and were

01:52:02.420 often reserved for those of lordly station so will helm is a name that all of those names

01:52:09.540 mean the the helm that is gleaming or willful and leading um because the very mention of a helmet

01:52:18.000 in relation like a metal helmet was uh about station um but you see these kind of combinations

01:52:27.240 between very dark themes and very light themes like um the cargo god uh um there is very specifically

01:52:39.380 a correlation with this Aryan god and I hate to say it that way because it sounds very

01:52:48.040 disassociative but I want to talk about the gods as um the gods are the gods and then each of the

01:52:55.940 Aryan branches individually has interacted and has deep relations there's one interesting thing

01:53:05.380 about the the god we call Odin and that is the correlation between death and prosperity or

01:53:15.880 riches and things of that nature which seems to be hard of a stretch but there is this correlation

01:53:25.460 between fate, the gaining of a good death or the gaining of great riches while alive.

01:53:35.560 And it also lends to most likely the possibility that Lord Odin was prayed to more than just

01:53:44.120 battle, the God of cargos, of roads, of carrying things for trading.

01:53:51.240 So it wasn't just war, but again, it's about prosperity. Prosperity and death are deeply interlinked in the Aryan spectrums. When we think of the Hellenics, they have Hadis, the god of goodbyes. That's where we get adios to say goodbye. 0.98

01:54:17.080 um and but they didn't say his name often so they called him plutonius or the giver of riches

01:54:23.880 um and again this may have a poetic meaning um it could also in the hellenic sense grave goods

01:54:33.480 but we don't quite know um but clearly in the germanic sense lord odin is a lord of war he's

01:54:42.340 lord of death a lord of magic and a lord of prosperity in his own right um traversing and

01:54:49.940 trading involves moving and traveling and so that was important um there is another uh uh

01:55:02.900 changing um we see uh hell blindi kind of i've heard people ask me what is what is that about

01:55:12.260 Well, I think that has poetically a different meaning than just being

01:55:15.780 hell blind is that he is the survivor of death.

01:55:23.040 He synthesizes himself, death in a godly sense, not so much a mortal sense, 0.58

01:55:29.940 but that synthesizing with Yggdrasil did not end him or change him in a different way,

01:55:36.100 but instead he returned with the power that he got there.

01:55:40.420 So he walked the road of death and returned.

01:55:45.540 And then we see others like Spear Lord.

01:55:50.720 Clearly the connections were throwing the spear over the or at the enemy army was to give them in sacrifice to Lord Odin.

01:56:00.400 And I think that really came about from the migration age.

01:56:03.820 I think there were massive cults of the gods at that time.

01:56:07.460 Some folk were honoring, they would have the boar as their symbol, and they would have perhaps vanic or particular vanic gods like Frey and Freya, and then others would honor Tyr, and others would honor Lord Odin.

01:56:24.120 and they had practices that culminated with their re-migration back to the Scandinavian realm

01:56:31.500 that translates in these stories um but uh like uh hair tighter uh hair warrior and tighter is like

01:56:43.160 the host the host of the warriors um the one who uh holds banquet for for great ones um and

01:56:53.500 Lastly, I wanted to talk about was thudr. Thunderer or sounder? So thudr is an interesting one because we know that thor is derivative of the literally meaning thunder.

01:57:08.080 So I heard someone once try to say that Thor is just an outcropping of Lord Odin. I mean, as a son would be, sure, but more or less that Odin and Thor are but the same.

01:57:26.240 And this haiti gives credence to it. I think that's very bad to go into lumping the gods into boxes. But I think it's more important to remember the roaring that he did when he took up the runes.

01:57:42.480 and sound and the the key points of song and um like in the in the halvam or in the halvamal

01:57:53.320 the rune poems are not called poems they're not called runes they're called rune songs

01:57:58.580 so there's always a sense of song and powerful voiced magic uh coming from lord odin so just

01:58:10.600 some interesting ones uh yeah shield shaker uh wand bearer there's a lot of them very very

01:58:24.420 interesting stuff you can look up translates uh now with ai it really really helps but you could

01:58:30.580 also um there is a old icelandic and old norse dictionaries um uh that are really really good

01:58:39.500 I believe the last name Goda

01:58:41.300 Zo Goda

01:58:42.740 Goeda 1.00

01:58:44.580 is a good one

01:58:47.700 so

01:58:48.140 so let's go ahead and finish out that chapter

01:58:58.100 alright

01:58:59.100 so

01:59:02.740 Lorothan secretly reveals

01:59:05.100 the tripartite within the tripartite

01:59:07.660 he is

01:59:09.000 speaking to the interloper

01:59:11.260 the one who's sneaking in

01:59:13.080 and he knows

01:59:14.260 just like with Gerarder

01:59:16.280 he can't just

01:59:19.000 he won't just say it

01:59:20.460 he's got to let it slowly

01:59:23.420 build in

01:59:25.680 then said Gangliri

01:59:28.780 exceeding many names

01:59:31.260 have ye given him

01:59:32.600 and by my faith

01:59:34.500 it must be indeed be goodly wit

01:59:36.980 that knows all the lore and examples of what chances have brought about each of these names.

01:59:45.120 Then the high one made answer, it is truly a vast sum of knowledge to gather together and set forth

01:59:52.800 fittingly, but it is the briefest to tell thee that most of his names have been given to him by

02:00:00.060 reason of his chance. There being so many branches of tongues in the world, all peoples

02:00:06.520 believed that it was needful for them to turn his name into their own tongue. And a lot of times

02:00:15.280 you'll find people speaking about this as some sort of allowance to universalism. And that is

02:00:23.160 not the case because the peoples that are being referred to are the peoples of Europe, the Germanic

02:00:31.920 branches um and the the tongues i mean they did obviously know that there were people outside of

02:00:39.600 themselves that had tongues but the concern of whether they worshiped lord odin or not is

02:00:48.000 kind of null and void it's it's devoid of the point um but it kind of indicates how broad

02:00:56.720 spanning lord odin's worship was amongst the people um and why we have everything from wednesday to

02:01:05.040 the word god uh from from the lombardic word godhan um as they called him um so uh by which they might

02:01:17.980 the better invoke him and entreat him on their own behalf. But some occasions for these names

02:01:27.420 arose in his wanderings, and that matter is recorded in tales. Nor canst thou ever be called

02:01:35.240 a wise man if thou shalt not be able to tell of those great events. I think that last line too

02:01:41.680 is also snorty making a poke with encouragement for more skulls to come about and learn learn the

02:01:51.280 stories um yeah i agree i think this is and i know i said on each of the episodes but i'll take the

02:02:01.260 liberty it is this is just such a special piece of work for us because it's very much

02:02:11.080 laid out not to tell a story but to this is the cosmology of you know our forefathers religion

02:02:21.320 this is what our ancestors believed this is his presentation of what also true is and

02:02:31.800 it's laid out in such an accessible way from somebody who you know in in this poem um

02:02:40.200 you know hey this is the character knows nothing and is starting fresh and it's being laid out

02:02:49.840 right in front of him in a very instructive way and this is the best example of that that we see

02:02:55.600 in in our lore for these high things i think the album all has a parallel and it's being laid out

02:03:03.860 as you know useful stuff for the reader to apply this lays out the the big picture the big cosmology

02:03:13.140 in in the most clear way and i really like that we'll see that as we go through the uh different

02:03:20.020 gods that it points out something you know spawn was very quick to make the point that it mentions

02:03:25.860 that loki is is of the icer but one of the things that sets this whole thing out that's important is

02:03:36.980 uh these are the you know the ice here are 12 that it's good for mankind to believe in

02:03:45.300 and you'll see this list that we go through um

02:03:50.020 um loki is is mentioned and there are 14 and there's a very specific reason that

02:03:59.400 you know you know so something else on this this list of the gods um you'll notice this list in

02:04:07.480 this order is how we present the gods in the true log mall in a variety of things and very

02:04:15.860 specifically in our ordering of Hoffs. So, man, there's 14 here, but it says there's only 12 that

02:04:25.500 are the ones that are beneficial for man to worship or for man to believe in. That's really

02:04:32.020 intentional, and I think we'll see when we itemize this, running that count of who they are and why

02:04:40.040 certain ones why two of them are omitted from that count and that makes itself kind of self-evident

02:04:46.360 as we go through the list but yeah this is the list in the order of uh hoffs that we're going

02:04:52.920 to establish to the gods um the decision on that um

02:05:03.400 there has always been a lingering kind of question for a long time in modern house to

02:05:12.940 true like oh there's so many gods which gods do you know do we worship which gods don't we but

02:05:18.360 what about this one but what about that one and there's any number of obscure local deities or

02:05:26.340 you know deities that were venerated by one tribe that you know are detested by others there's

02:05:33.400 We could drive ourselves insane trying to figure out the perfect answer to all of the things, but the answer that we decided on was, okay, to solidify, there is a list in the Lord that presents us in a straightforward way.

02:05:48.160 These are the Iser, these 12, it's good for people to worship.

02:05:52.060 And so that's kind of the starting point of the concept of the true legal, the concept of separating this is this, that's that and laying down some foundational doctrine of exactly what we believe. 0.98

02:06:09.940 So everything isn't always a shoulder shrug of everybody doing their own thing.

02:06:14.140 This is structured and we've built upon that structure.

02:06:18.340 And the idea of using that was a, I remember the conversation that I had with a former AFA leader, Brad Hicks, that was, he and I were having a discussion on this.

02:06:37.520 He was a mentor of mine for a number of years there and a good friend of mine at the time.

02:06:42.800 And we were going over, you know, what we need to start making some, we need to start drawing some lines on, hey, this is what we're doing.

02:06:51.480 These are the gods we worship.

02:06:53.080 This is some specificity.

02:06:55.120 And it was his idea to bring up the guilt beginning and how this list is laid out.

02:06:59.800 and from there is what i decided on when it was um when i resolved for us to get multiple

02:07:08.360 hoffs and not rest at the first half this was the ordering process that seemed self-evident

02:07:15.240 to me to go down and it's something i think the icra blessed as we've moved in that progression

02:07:22.120 and it's been kind of um weird it has been a

02:07:32.440 noticeable current in in earlier for the stages of progression and once one is accomplished how

02:07:44.760 smoother we are towards getting the next one there's a number of different signs and things

02:07:51.240 that reveal that the icr have been approving of the way we're doing this ordering so i'm i'm uh

02:07:58.920 bolstered and excited about that um before we get back into the text drew donated ten dollars

02:08:06.840 towards the uh cigarette mower thank you drew we appreciate it and uh yep that is the end of

02:08:16.360 our questions that we've got stacked up. So Svan, tell us about Ausathor.

02:08:24.280 All right, section 21 of Ausathor.

02:08:30.040 Then said Gangliri, what are the names of the other Aesir, or what is their office,

02:08:38.280 For what deeds of renown have they done?

02:08:42.700 Haur answered, Thor is the foremost of them.

02:08:48.700 He that is called Thor of the Aesir, Ausathur, or Okthor, the rolling Thor.

02:09:01.580 And Thor, of course, derivative of the, or etymologically is thunder.

02:09:08.280 He is the strongest of all the gods and men.

02:09:12.300 He has his realm in a place called Thrudvangr, which literally means force or strength fields, might fields, or power or force fields.

02:09:29.120 Though that's getting a little bit more cosmic and really broadening our interpretation.

02:09:36.360 But thruth means like strength or might.

02:09:39.660 And vangr is the area, the field upon which he built his section in the heavenly realms, as it's described in the stories, and the rivers that flow between them.

02:09:53.000 And his hall is called Bilskirner.

02:09:57.200 Skirner is a name that we should be familiar with because it's also the name of Holy Frey's servant or man at arms.

02:10:06.360 And so bil means like a flash,

02:10:11.800 or I mean, excuse me,

02:10:13.580 a kind of a booming flash,

02:10:18.140 or it's like the flash of light.

02:10:21.100 It's like a lightning crack,

02:10:24.120 the blink fast burning light.

02:10:31.100 In that hall are 500 rooms and 40.

02:10:35.560 That is the greatest house that men know of.

02:10:38.800 It is thus said in Grimnismal.

02:10:41.660 And bear in mind, the idea of rooms is a, again, a status symbol,

02:10:47.720 like the helmet that we spoke of earlier, the rooms in the house.

02:10:53.760 But I think it's also super interesting because all of Lord Thor's dominion in relation,

02:11:02.660 not only just to protecting and and being of the gods as a great hero but there is much to do with

02:11:10.120 um the home the fields the land around many children there's just this great sense of um

02:11:19.500 freeman uh energy around and uh it says here he had 500 rooms and more than and more than 40

02:11:29.860 so over 540 uh so reckon i billskirner with bending ways of those houses that i know of all

02:11:41.140 of hall roofed my sons i know the most bear in mind too grimismal uh gerard the king did not

02:11:50.460 know that this was lord odin that he was torturing and now he's revealing because he is the father

02:11:58.240 of Thor. And that's where it kind of sets in for Geradr that he has made a big mistake.

02:12:05.040 So then it goes on out of verse and says Thor has two he goats that are called Tan Gnoster or

02:12:16.340 nostr if the J is soft, and tan grisner. Tan means teeth. Nostr is gnasher, and grisner is gritter or

02:12:30.280 grinder, and a chariot wherein he drives the he goats that draw the chariot. Therefore,

02:12:40.180 he is called Okothor, driving for, moving. He also has three things of great price. One is the hammer 0.92

02:12:51.420 Mjolnir, the crusher, which the rime giants and the hill giants know because he

02:13:02.220 cuts into them. And when I talk about, uh, the buildup of pressures, when the Yatnar build 0.98

02:13:10.440 these great forms of pressure that are absolutely detrimental, and then suddenly they're broken and 0.98

02:13:16.360 they're no longer able is very, I think there's a, uh, an, uh, an, an association there that we

02:13:26.120 kind of place but um when it is raised upon high and that is no wonder it has bruised many a skull

02:13:35.880 amongst their fathers or their kinsmen he has a second costly thing and best of all the girdle

02:13:43.960 of might and when he clasps clasps it about then the godlike strength within him is increased by

02:13:54.280 half. And it's also worth noting that the girdle is called earth mite. So the striker of all the

02:14:05.840 Aryan branches is born of the earth and the sky. He has yet a third thing in which there is much 1.00

02:14:18.940 virtue. His iron gloves, he cannot do without them when he uses his hammer, grasps his hammer

02:14:29.020 shaft. But no one is so wise that he can tell all his mighty works. And of course, the gloves are

02:14:37.500 Ian Gripper and

02:14:39.240 Ian

02:14:40.140 Glover.

02:14:43.340 Iron Glove and Iron Grasp.

02:14:47.780 Yet I can tell

02:14:49.360 thee so much tidings of him

02:14:51.560 that the hours would be spent

02:14:53.700 before all that I know

02:14:55.340 were told.

02:14:57.980 So I like that

02:14:59.460 little ending. I can tell you

02:15:01.260 everything, but we don't have enough time for that.

02:15:05.280 And it also speaks of

02:15:07.100 of thor's fame um you know it's not i think anybody who reads the lore there's many stories

02:15:16.940 of alsa thor doing things he's a prime figure in a great number of the stories that have made it to

02:15:24.380 us and i think that was the case in our ancestors time as well um his fame preceded him um notice

02:15:32.620 over in the chat is having a favorite god like having a favorite parent and then some follow-ups

02:15:41.980 with having a favorite parent not being good and not something we would do so

02:15:47.980 yeah and i think i think the analogy is kind of apt no you would feel

02:15:54.140 wrong and disrespectful to say you had a favorite parent but certainly there's reality to where

02:16:04.620 there's one of your parents you are likely closer to than another the other thing is at different

02:16:10.460 points in your life those parents switch positions in what's closer to you or what's not often

02:16:20.060 depending upon your circumstance depending upon your experience you know when you're a little boy

02:16:28.060 maybe you're closer to your mom when you're a grown man maybe you find yourself relating to

02:16:33.420 your father more when you're a father yourself you know it all of these things yes it is really

02:16:42.060 similar to that with your parents because if you had you know 12 or you know 26 parents or whatever

02:16:54.860 you would have some that you were closer to or that you naturally related to better

02:17:03.100 but you'd feel bad saying that you had a favorite because no you you love both your parents of

02:17:08.380 course you do and yes i feel the same thing with our gods i wouldn't want to talk about my favorite

02:17:12.780 one of the gods it seems wrong and impious but there's certain gods that are you know i have a

02:17:20.620 better or a closer relationship with and ones that that i don't at a certain time or ones that

02:17:30.140 you know i feel a closer connection with depending on experience so i think it's a

02:17:35.420 really apt analogy in that sense and no you don't have a favorite god but you do certainly have gods

02:17:43.580 that you're closer to and you know i there was a time where everybody needed to have their particular

02:17:52.300 patron deity and i think that's missing the point of polytheism but i also don't think it's wrong

02:17:59.900 for there to be you know in the astro focus and we have

02:18:09.660 i could actually count i think like 16 gothar i don't think we have a deep enough core of priests

02:18:18.220 to have our priests specific to each of the gods or whatever but in a in a situation where we had

02:18:26.140 hundreds of thousands of members then sure they're being specific priests for specific deities i

02:18:31.820 think makes sense i think the lore attests to people who are you know had a full truly with

02:18:39.740 a deity to where they had a a full level of troth or like a heightened level of troth with a

02:18:46.220 particular god i think those things exist and we see those but yeah you don't you don't want to

02:18:55.420 give up the beauty of polytheism to turn your polytheism into a monotheism i don't think

02:19:00.620 there's a need to do that and i also think like you said you wouldn't for the same reason you

02:19:06.060 wouldn't do that to your parents is just a fundamental impiety towards that or a lack of

02:19:12.940 familial fealty in that um

02:19:17.020 do you have uh do you have something to say on that or do you want to tell us about balder

02:19:25.840 oh i was going to move into that but i did want to say one thing that's very interesting is the

02:19:31.220 relationships that we have with the gods um in their totality as the icier which i think is

02:19:36.540 important that we we know that and that we also realize the vanir are the icier they are

02:19:43.400 interconnected there's no uh you know i i'm vanatru and that kind of stuff is ridiculous um

02:19:52.200 i think though when we look at the relationships we have with the gods what we often find is when

02:19:58.360 people are in the beginning of their relationship with the gods they go towards the beneficiary

02:20:05.080 the the the gods that um they feel familiar with and that they feel that there is an interconnectedness

02:20:13.160 because they're looking in themselves more interestingly and one of the cool hurdles

02:20:18.840 that i think a person of our faith living their life is when they go into the deficiency realm

02:20:27.080 where they suddenly start having a relationship with the gods because they're looking inside

02:20:33.400 themselves and seeing something missing that is a huge spiritual landmark in in i think that souls

02:20:43.160 uh journey you go from kind of uh the god you relate to the god you like that this and that

02:20:51.180 and then it comes to a point where you're looking at yourself and you're like

02:20:54.260 this is missing out of out of me um i'm going to reach out and build relationships in hopes to

02:21:03.520 guide and build up the the weak points or the missing points or what have you so that's all

02:21:11.240 wanted to say about that was relationships um it's easy to look for for the the the positive

02:21:20.040 and then when you see some of the things you need to work on um reaching out and making those the

02:21:25.880 positive so uh 22 of balder then said gangliri i would ask the tidings of more ice here

02:21:41.240 Haur replied, The second son of Odin is Baldr, the bold one, and good things are to be said of him.

02:21:50.080 He is best, and all praise him. He is so fair of feature and so bright that light shines from him.

02:21:59.540 A certain herb is so white that it is likened to Baldr's brow.

02:22:04.860 Of all grasses, it is whitest, and by it thou mayest judge his fairness, both in hair and in body.

02:22:17.040 Now, this doesn't mean albinism, but it does show a sense of the lightness, the whiteness, the fairness has been a measure of beauty with our ancestors for a very long time.

02:22:37.220 And there is an actual flower. I was hoping that people in the audience could find it real quick because it's eluding me right now.

02:22:47.040 But it doesn't necessarily mean it pops from his brow, though the I made a little Easter egg of that at Baldershof.

02:23:00.320 Um, it just says that it is likened to his brow. So to have a broad and clean and fair brow, not marred by the sun is was clearly a mark of, um, perhaps royalty or just beauty in general.

02:23:21.940 I don't quite know, but he, let's see, sorry, I lost my, a certain herb that's likened to his brow, and of all, okay, both in, he is the wisest of the Aesir, and the fairest spoken, and most gracious,

02:23:41.720 And that quality attends him that none may gainsay in his judgments. He dwells in the place called

02:23:50.580 or the broad flash. Imagine kind of light, but not in a strike. It's just this overarching

02:24:02.900 horizon of light, which is in heaven. And in that place may nothing unclean be, even as is said here.

02:24:13.920 Brideblick is called where Balder has a hall made for himself in that land where I know lie

02:24:23.240 fewest baneful runes. So there is no foulness in that land. There's no evil magic.

02:24:32.900 being done. And again, I love as the story is laying out the veil, the valley of work where

02:24:47.380 the gods have built Ausgard and the sections and the rivers flowing through it. And here is this

02:24:55.820 great expanse and the hall is bright and shining. And in this place, there is just no ill will

02:25:02.800 between the gods and between the souls that reside there.

02:25:08.580 And we move to 23 of Njardr and Skavi.

02:25:14.660 The third amongst the Isir is he that is called Njardr. 0.98

02:25:20.400 He dwells in heaven in an abode called Novatun. 0.99

02:25:26.020 Again, this also emphasizes the idea that heaven is an expansely place with outcroppings and places leaving off.

02:25:38.460 And it means the boat town, though the the etymology of that can be debated.

02:25:45.760 Most folks think of it as the boat town.

02:25:49.660 He rules the course of the wind and he still stills the sea and fire.

02:25:56.020 On him shall men call for voyages and for hunting.

02:26:01.400 He is so prosperous and abounding in wealth that he may give them great plenty of lands or of gear.

02:26:09.900 And him shall men invoke for such things.

02:26:13.580 Bear in mind, too, hunting, sea voyage hunting was very much a big thing.

02:26:17.640 My grandfather actually owned an island where we were legally, my family was legally allowed to go there and take one seal and bring, you know, hunt it, bring it back and, and eat it as they, they became more strict on the animal laws, which I'm absolutely there for.

02:26:40.120 but um that caretaking and that hunting is again in reference to that um and we talk about that

02:26:49.720 all the time the the dominion of the gods Ullr is the god of the hunt um but he's also the god of

02:26:56.040 self-defense and self-preservation and self uh standing and Njordr is here you know if you read

02:27:02.840 it literally oh he's the god of the hunt how can that be he is the I mean the gods share dominion

02:27:09.280 over many things, and you can call upon them in your relationships. But I think this is also

02:27:15.980 referring to hunting by sea. And perhaps fishing might have actually been included in that.

02:27:25.320 So he is so prosperous and abounding in wealth that he may give them great plenty of lands or

02:27:33.560 gear and to him shall men and vote for such things my order is not of the race of the icier 0.80

02:27:41.320 he was reared in the land of the vanir but the vanir delivered him as a hostage to the gods 0.51

02:27:49.160 and took for hostage in exchange him that men call high near he became an atonement between 0.54

02:27:59.720 the gods and the Vanmere. Njörðr has to a wife, the woman called Skaði, daughter of Fyazi the giant. 0.79

02:28:11.080 Skaði would fain dwell in the abode which her father had had, which is on certain mountains

02:28:20.040 in the place called Threemheimr but Njörðr would be near the sea. They made a compact on these

02:28:30.840 terms. They should be nine nights in Threemheimr but the second nine in Nohaton. But when Njörðr

02:28:39.960 came down from the mountain back to Nohaton he sung this lay, O loath were the hills to me,

02:28:47.400 I was not long in them, nights only nine, and to me the wailing of wolves seemed most ill, after the song of swans. And then Savi, Skavi, sang, Sleep could I never on the seabeds, for the wailing of the waterfowl, he wakens me, who comes from the deep, the sea-mew every morn.

02:29:12.860 Then Skadi went up into the mountains and dwelt in Thrymheimr, and she goes for the more part on snowshoes and with bow and arrow to shoot the beasts. 0.53

02:29:24.980 She is called the Snowshoe Goddess, or Lady of the Snowshoes, so it is said. 0.94

02:29:31.080 So we see this movement between heaven and earth.

02:29:55.700 We see the goddess of the snowshoes, whereas you will also see reference to Ullur as god of the skis.

02:30:04.960 And what we're really looking at here is not, I don't think it's wise to look at it flatly.

02:30:12.560 What snowshoes represent, what they mean, the expanse of being able to travel over great distances in skis,

02:30:20.740 or to be able to track prey in snowshoes without sinking and especially the the perilous nature of

02:30:29.480 hunting in the winter time versus hunting at any other time of the year um has a heavy sense of

02:30:37.160 uh survival and uh there is that rawness there um we talked a little bit too about what if there was

02:30:45.240 some like when we talked about the horses with the sun and the moon what if there was a kind of

02:30:51.620 deeper meaning and the gothar in the afa um came up with something that really uh struck me and

02:30:59.300 it's just it's not the explanation all out be out it's just an interesting consideration of the

02:31:05.140 water tables and the way that water moves from the mountain to the ocean and then is evaporated

02:31:11.820 and then returns and and we have this kind of cycle being done again material reflects divinity

02:31:21.020 so i'm not saying that that's what that story solely means or anything but it's again building

02:31:26.840 those relationships looking into those things that's one of the things that i think uh was

02:31:32.700 really poignant coming from the clergy um i thought was just it's good to to think these

02:31:40.740 ways and just like that story about the nornier i mean this question about the nornier so we move

02:31:47.940 now to of frere or fruer depending on if you the ey uh and fruia or freya uh yes

02:32:03.780 over in the chat there's a comment that i just think is worth remarking on you know people

02:32:08.660 praying to the oust true gods may have a better chance of being heard this might help outreach

02:32:14.340 to people who pray to a foreign god that ignores them so i think that's

02:32:28.100 it's it's really hard because our best tool the only tool available to us

02:32:32.900 i guess i guess the two tools available are our experience our imagination um when it comes to

02:32:44.100 how do the gods think the only thing we have to go by is kind of the way that we think

02:32:52.820 and our experience and the knowledge that the gods are so much more than us

02:33:03.860 um you know i've always said a really good place to start the very least the gods are

02:33:12.980 is the very best that we can imagine humans to be they are far beyond that but from our

02:33:21.140 scope and our perspective so it's one of the things that i i often wonder gods are gods and

02:33:26.020 i don't know there's limits to their capacity of how many people to listen to or how many people

02:33:32.180 pay attention to but i think something that is probably true to a degree or holds some sort of

02:33:38.900 sway that's interesting um we are at a special time in the development of our folk right now

02:33:47.860 It is tragic that such a small number of our folk worship the Iser, but it also presents

02:33:58.940 a really special opportunity and a really special relationship we get to have with them.

02:34:07.300 If every, you know, all of our people, which we would like to see happen, and we work hard

02:34:12.240 to make sure we're making progress towards happening, we're to return to worshiping the

02:34:16.660 is here then your voice becomes one in a much much larger ocean of voices right now i think

02:34:28.100 is the best time in the history of ever for an individual person to develop and be impactful

02:34:36.500 and have the gods pay closer attention to them because there's such a small number of people

02:34:43.700 worshiping our gods that those who do have a disproportionately high i don't know chance for

02:34:54.500 audience with the gods it's like you're going to visit seek an audience with the king on an off

02:34:59.620 date where there's only a couple people in line as opposed to when there's thousands of people in

02:35:04.020 line you've got more time for their attention to be on you and i don't mean to limit whatever that

02:35:11.620 might be but just from my own understanding you know you you have the ability to to be impactful

02:35:21.380 in a way that if everyone had come home to the gods you have a much harder time being

02:35:29.000 individually impactful so there's an opportunity for each of us to make the best use of the

02:35:37.080 attention of of the ice here being upon us to gain their favor to make them proud to impress them

02:35:45.260 with who we are and the men and women that we that we exist as how we function in our life what we

02:35:53.900 accomplish the the character that defines us never is there a better time or a time where the gods

02:36:02.660 are likely to pay more attention to us individually than at this moment and i think that's a special

02:36:09.460 opportunity that we all have it's fine you're mute uh terribly sorry uh no i was gonna say in

02:36:25.300 relation to uh many uh folk have they relate immediately to christianity because of its

02:36:32.980 over-pervasing uh power in our society and and a lot of times we've come up in those families

02:36:41.220 really interesting thing to think about too is old old uh ancient judaism where christianity comes

02:36:48.260 from, though many try to virulently deny it. You know, the idea that you shall put no other

02:36:56.500 gods before Yahweh, and specifically talking to the Israelites is, you know, very telling

02:37:04.540 in its nature as to the relationship that their religion had in regards to foreign religions

02:37:13.900 for them. Um, and this was the case well into, uh, Europe that, um, the idea was kind of a beating

02:37:26.560 out other gods. And then of course, Saul of Tarsus, um, who was, uh, changed his name to Paul

02:37:36.280 to, to blend in with the Greeks. Um, he was the one that kind of started to try to convert

02:37:43.840 non-Jews into the religion. And this is where the line started to get blurred. And also the 0.54

02:37:50.740 formulation of one of the key things that you might hear Christians say today is that all gods 0.74

02:37:56.280 that are not their God are demons, which is funny because one, the word demon being Greek,

02:38:04.620 the word they should be looking for is the Aramaic or Hebrew word Shadim. But there's no

02:38:12.600 mentioning of this idea that these gods are Shadim. This is theological framing well after 0.76

02:38:23.740 in Europe where they're trying to make sense of one, why were the European Christians were

02:38:33.300 trying to understand why are the Israelites the chosen ones? Just like today, a lot of modern 0.91

02:38:39.940 Christians are like, oh, the Israelites are no longer the chosen ones and the Church of

02:38:45.260 Christianity is, except they can't quite define which church is. But as they're scrabbling for 0.97

02:38:55.600 this kind of positioning, but they also needed to try to make sense of the idea that why were

02:39:05.720 these gods worshiped all over the world and not the one God from Israel. And that ended up leading

02:39:18.560 them to, oh, they're all actually Shadim that were once angels or malaks is the word that they 0.99

02:39:27.520 should be using. And it sounds really, it sounds like you're reading a Klingon treaties when you 0.99

02:39:33.240 start kind of going, and it emphasizes how foreign, like, oh, all the gods are actually

02:39:38.920 Shadim, and the Shadim were once Malaks of Yehovah or Yahweh, and it just starts to get

02:39:46.120 wild. And if you paraphrase it this way, too, I think it emphasizes the foreignness to a lot of 0.96

02:39:52.280 folks. But again, others are just going to jump through the hoops that they need to. But that

02:39:58.400 concept is a later concept. Now their neighbors, they were a Semitic religion amongst Semites and

02:40:06.720 sure. Yeah. They're, they had some crazy stuff going on down there. Uh, it seems to be pretty 0.99

02:40:13.060 much across the board. It was just that the Israelites were like, you know, their God was

02:40:17.620 like, instead of human sacrifices, I'll take the foreskin, which is also pretty crazy. Um, 0.88

02:40:24.440 Definitely better than burning babies, but all around, it shows kind of an overarching nature that's very foreign from the mindset of our folks.

02:40:33.720 And we could joke and meme about it or what have you, but in all seriousness, it's just that if you dig deep enough, anything after the philosophes of Greece, after the Neoplatonists' influence of Christianity, it is really foreign.

02:40:52.300 um and we need to be aware of that um i remember too there was a part of uh the bible where it said

02:41:02.860 that like of the north the the might of yahweh diminished under um the people of the iron wheel

02:41:09.640 and their gods and i i find that interesting um and of course the connection to victory

02:41:15.040 through the divine was direct. When we win, my God beat your God kind of thing. And we see that

02:41:23.760 in them a lot. In Europe, we don't necessarily see that because the reality is everybody was

02:41:30.040 worshiping the same gods. We saw it in the difference between say Romans and Germanic

02:41:37.940 because of the different levels of their considerations of society, tribal versus

02:41:44.260 metropolis and so on and so forth but it was very easy for them to go amongst the germanics

02:41:49.860 and create equivalencies because they branch from the same source um so things get very very

02:41:59.140 odd when you add in christians who are jews coming from judea or palestine or whatever

02:42:07.460 you want to call it they come into turkey they go into greece they go into rome and eventually 0.61

02:42:14.100 non-Jews kind of take over that and they humanize their God as a heretical rabbi 0.92

02:42:21.380 and they go from there but they did bring in Jews from the area Charlemagne said don't mess 0.95

02:42:28.820 with the Jews there are biblical cousins leave them alone and they spread and so even after that

02:42:36.980 with many Jews converting to Christianity, either by force or by choice, there was also

02:42:43.160 influx of ideas coming there. It's a very wild thing where we start to look at the way we perceive

02:42:53.000 perhaps foreign gods, other people's gods, and so on. So that universalism that happened

02:43:01.060 is, I think, a detriment. I think it's important that we just consider that the divine spirit of

02:43:09.080 a people is connected to the people and that our gods are connected to us. And that is of most

02:43:15.800 importance. Outside of that, I leave that just is not in my consideration. And yeah, I try not to

02:43:26.020 make it so much a big deal or or even to the point where it's like oh yes they're actually

02:43:30.900 jotens um i know that's a very interesting and desirable path for a lot of folks to go down but

02:43:38.080 it's it's more or less irrelevant if you focus on the positive and building the spiritual strength

02:43:43.680 between the folk and the gods everyone else outside of that is again outlandish

02:43:50.480 all right well let's read about uh Freyr and Freya okay 24 of Freyr and Freya

02:44:03.840 Nyarður in Nohatun begot afterward two children the son was called Freyr and the daughter Freya

02:44:14.940 they were fair of face and mighty frere is the most renowned of the isir he rules over the rain

02:44:25.520 and the shining of the sun and therewithal the fruit of the earth and it is good to call upon

02:44:31.500 him for fruitful seasons and for peace he governs also the prosperity of men but

02:44:39.260 pause for a sec

02:44:41.180 pause for a sec

02:44:41.900 I want to point out a couple of interesting

02:44:45.160 things that go on here

02:44:46.580 just

02:44:51.720 make note of

02:44:54.920 and I've said this

02:44:57.300 a number of times but I think it kind of

02:44:59.180 shines here in a different way

02:45:00.520 we tend

02:45:02.580 the pop

02:45:05.220 culture references to our gods

02:45:07.460 tend to be very one-dimensional um you know

02:45:12.100 prayer equals you know male fecundity um thor equals strength balder equals bravery because

02:45:25.540 that's what his name means odin equals wisdom or whatever those things are it's interesting that

02:45:33.100 balder is the wisest of the icier and everyone trusts his judgment that's not usually what

02:45:41.740 you think of first when you think of balder here it talks about how you know frayer is the most

02:45:49.340 of the most renowned amongst the icier i think most people would suggest

02:45:54.700 that that's also thor if you're talking about like battle prowess um

02:46:00.060 um our gods are great at lots and lots of things for us to boil them all down like oh for a god

02:46:10.380 to be wise that has to be odin odin's the only god that's wise is i mean saying it like that

02:46:17.020 obviously makes it foolish but we all too often don't we get trained in that pattern recognition

02:46:25.500 So it's interesting in this particular presentation of the gods that sometimes, you know, their glory is manifested in different ways than, you know, just the Thor equals strength and thunder.

02:46:42.800 This God, there's a depth here that I think is maybe something that people haven't considered or not something that people are used to that I wanted to point out.

02:46:54.100 Carry on.

02:46:55.500 So I also want to bring up a point. So a lot of people don't make these associations and I would like to make a connective point. In Íðavr, in the Vale of Work, they said that Thor's home is in the realm called Þrððvangr. That's important. So let's go into what we're, you know, as we're reading.

02:47:18.480 um so it says but freya is most renowned of the goddesses and she has in heaven the dwelling

02:47:29.560 folk vonger so a lot of folks i wanted to make the point of the field the idea of the area or

02:47:38.840 the land around a hall having a name having a purpose having a sentiment that reflects the

02:47:47.800 nature of the divine um these these domiciles are a kind of a honing and then as it gets to the land

02:47:57.640 outside it's even it's a broader point and uh we can see that and then that makes it very interesting

02:48:04.680 with the idea of the name folk long or the field of of the people um and really we can kind of

02:48:13.400 surmise okay well what does that mean we can surmise a little bit more with the name of the

02:48:18.600 hall and how deeply interconnected holy freya is to people to the uh passions of the people

02:48:30.420 and their their uh proctor like their their appropriation their their proclivity to numberings

02:48:39.200 I guess. But it's also, again, it's about, there's a deep connection there, I think,

02:48:44.200 with the energy of, say, people and the community. It says, the dwelling is called

02:48:53.900 Folkvanger, and whereso she rides to the strife, when she rides to war, she has one half of the 0.83

02:49:02.300 kill and Odin the other. As it is said here, Folkvangers is called, where Freyja rules,

02:49:12.000 degrees of seats in the hall, half the kill she keepeth each day and half Odin has. And her hall

02:49:20.160 is called Ses Rumnir, which means the seating room or the room of many seats. So again, kind of

02:49:28.840 The field of the folk, a place where people gather, or a lot of people gather, and then the roomy sitting place, lots of seats. So there's always just kind of this connection to an abundance of people as a symbol of her might, and where I think ultimately her dominion dwells.

02:49:55.440 um so uh her hall is called sesrumner and it is great and fair when she goes forth she drives

02:50:05.760 her cats and sits in a chariot she is most comfortable to man's prayers and from her

02:50:14.400 name comes the name of honor through by which noble women are called songs of love are well

02:50:22.860 pleasing to her. It is good to call on her for the furtherances of love. So one of the things I,

02:50:30.960 you know, wanted to speak of really there is there is the clear mentioning of the masculine

02:50:39.460 praying to her. And that is not seen as some sort of taboo, but in actuality is again,

02:50:46.860 giving blessing to her um with the ability to incite the passions of someone uh you love i think

02:50:54.480 that uh beauty and um uh passion is her dominion um it can fall into uh possession which is a scary

02:51:10.400 thing which i think she that's why she has um kind of the some darker aspects to to look at but

02:51:17.200 a lot of the the idea of singing songs in prayer to her in the furtherances of love and passion

02:51:24.980 um i often associate holy freya with even the aesthetic of beauty and the aesthetic of what

02:51:36.100 beautiful art can inspire in people when they see it and that feeling that power that wells up from

02:51:44.280 them um 25 of tear then said gang lady great in power do these icier seem to me nor is it a marvel

02:51:57.160 that much authority attends who are said to possess understanding of the gods and know which

02:52:04.040 one men should call on for what boon soever? Or are the gods yet more? Haur said, yet remains that

02:52:14.700 one of the Iser who is called Tir, he is most daring and the best in the stoutness of heart.

02:52:23.020 He has much authority over the victory in battle. It is good for men of valor to invoke him.

02:52:30.560 It is a proverb that he who is tier valiant, who surpasses other men and does not waver, he is wise so that it is also said that he that he that is the wisest is tier prudent.

02:52:48.740 this is one token of his daring so it's not just his uh combat prowess it's his prudence

02:52:57.220 um and it's his valiant and wisdom um this is one token of his daring when the isir enticed

02:53:07.700 the Fenris, the swamp dweller, the wetlands or bog dweller, Fenrir, the wolf, to take upon him

02:53:19.700 the fetter, Gleipnir. The wolf did not believe them that they would loose him until they had

02:53:27.720 laid Tyr's hand into his mouth as a pledge. But when the Aesir would not loose him, he bit off

02:53:35.440 the hand at the place that is now called the wolf's joint and tear is one-handed and is so

02:53:42.860 and is not called a reconciler of men he is he is uh not called for peace amongst men

02:53:54.380 he is an adjudicator of victory in war um the concisement and the uh the sense of

02:54:03.400 just absolutism. But I think one of the things that I find most kind of overlooked is I think

02:54:12.100 that when we look at, say, Lord Odin, and even Tacitus spoke of this, is that the Germanics

02:54:18.680 were very concerned with Lord Odin. And again, it's pretty solid, but we can say there is some

02:54:28.160 speculation when they refer, he kind of analogizes Lord Othen to Mercury is that the, where their

02:54:36.200 soul goes, if they die in battle, but there's the, also the point that Tyr is about the victory,

02:54:47.560 the, the, the, the, I would say the aftermath of the battle, when you are victorious,

02:54:56.200 You have to, you take those lands, you allocate the lands, you allocate resources, you allocate what's going to happen to those who have been taken over.

02:55:06.300 And so the concept of justice, and I mean that a lot of people kind of intermix the justice of, say, law, which I think would be more Forseti's boon, if praying, Tir, I think, is more about the wisdom of leadership and about the allocation of everything from funds to resources.

02:55:30.820 a very, the god of the living after the battle, whereas Lord Odin was very much the god of the

02:55:39.700 dead after a battle. And I know that's kind of a broad way to say it, and I don't mean that in

02:55:46.060 any disrespect of things, but it's like just an inclination for our folk to consider these things

02:55:52.500 as to why lord tear is called the god of justice um that justice is really judgment adjudication

02:56:01.780 um as opposed to say asking him for boon in a trial it is more about after

02:56:11.220 going across the threshold of war and battle that we find there's the need for allocating things

02:56:22.500 So, yeah, we go with 26 of Bragi and Idon.

02:56:35.880 One is called Bragi.

02:56:38.880 He is renowned for wisdom and most all for fluency of speech and the skill with words.

02:56:44.560 He knows most of Scaldship, and after him, Scaldship is called Bragr, and from his name, that one is called Bragrman, or woman, who possesses the eloquence surpassing others, of women or of men.

02:57:05.180 His wife is Idun. She guards in her chest of ash those apples upon which the gods must taste whensoever that they grow old, and then they all become young, and so it shall be even unto the weird of the gods.

02:57:25.180 then said gangliri a very great thing methinks the gods and trust to the watchfulness and the

02:57:32.360 good faith upon even then how are laughing loudly twas near being desperate once i may be able to

02:57:42.920 tell thee of it but now thou shalt first hear more of the names of the ice here so he gives an

02:57:51.440 a kind of uh enticement to obviously the theft of even but we see this in the core of every

02:58:02.240 aryan branch there is the soma of the uh araya in india um there's the ambrosia of the hellenics

02:58:10.300 the golden apples um one thing that i see a lot of people do is they try

02:58:15.440 is is there some correlation between eden and even because of the apple no the bible says fruit

02:58:24.540 specifically and they're most likely talking about pomegranates uh the change to the apple was for

02:58:30.380 european folk when christianity was being taught amongst them to make it more relatable um no so

02:58:39.740 that, that etymology is not, um, uh, connected. It's like, just, I've seen people try to make

02:58:48.000 the connection between Niflheim and the Nephilim, no connection. Um, so it's perhaps just that

02:58:57.400 coincidence in, in, in that when two, uh, languages are kind of passing by each other.

02:59:03.300 However, I think it's really interesting. One, in the list of the Ausenir, Idun is not there. And there is the list of the Ausenir that folks should pray to. But that doesn't mean that the gods outside of this list don't exist, which is why we've chosen to give them the title Ausenir, the most beloved ones.

02:59:29.800 And that is clear with Idun and Bragi. Bragi is of the gods. Idun is an Austvenir. And she holds and is entrusted. So that shows that the Austvenir as well are given extremely high trust and power.

02:59:49.800 power. Um, and I also going really cosmic I've, um, the golden apples, um, of youth and of light

02:59:58.860 and of life. I thought it was very interesting when you think about it as the gods in their

03:00:04.400 heavenly realm, um, the connection or correlation between life and light and sound, um, which are

03:00:12.780 two parallel powers and again when when the light and the sound of heaven comes to the earth it is

03:00:21.980 um prismatically represented in bivrost which i find uh very beautiful but these are more just

03:00:31.660 kind of again mental um considerations and things like that stuff that we do talk about amongst the

03:00:39.420 goth are and postulate um okay so 27 of high yeah all right so let's call it a night on the text for

03:00:55.900 tonight um we do have one question left i and i want to make sure we're not you know rushing

03:01:03.660 through any of these things i think we're at the i don't know this is such an important one i want

03:01:10.060 to take our time on it um we got one more question this evening do we have any reason to believe the

03:01:19.660 gods demand us to fear them like how yahweh demands us to fear him swan do you have any thoughts on

03:01:28.460 Yeah, I do. I don't think that there is a demand. However, there is a healthy respect. And we see it in the names. We see it in the stories when Lord Thor, he has the sliver of stone in his head that causes great aggravation.

03:01:52.780 And when he is angry, as it's said in the story, that few are spared from his wrath, even though it's not directed at them.

03:02:03.120 They're just around him and he is just letting this loose.

03:02:10.620 But it's about, yes, again, that great respect.

03:02:14.180 It's not about a demanding of fear.

03:02:16.460 I think that the capabilities and understandings of the powers of the gods, especially amongst her ancestors, knew that they were presiding over and the ability to affect these primordial domains.

03:02:34.960 domains. So, um, saying a prayer to Skadi while on the mountain in, in hopes that an avalanche

03:02:43.780 did not take you, um, praying to Lord Nyarder when you go out to sea, um, and hoping that,

03:02:53.560 you know, you don't get sideswiped by, by foul storms or whirlpools or, or, or what have you.

03:03:01.500 Um, we see that there are inclinations towards more respect and, um, again, not fear, but just healthy respect towards certain gods over others.

03:03:19.500 obviously balder uh no but like lord odin the idea is that lord odin understands so much that

03:03:31.900 your place in it is you might you might not understand things and he is doing what he must

03:03:41.100 do and so there is a kind of overarching sense that you have to respect his workings

03:03:49.020 even though you might not understand them because of the broader view but there's no demand to be

03:03:55.740 i mean i think if you're disrespectful it gets worse when the king of uh norway gives a false um

03:04:06.540 sorry that's uh um an alarm the uh when uh the king of norway gives a false sacrifice to lord

03:04:16.700 odin um he takes him because of the blatant disrespect the uh that i think is the elevator

03:04:26.300 of whether or not there's a demand of fear yeah i think it's an interesting question because i

03:04:35.300 i think the natures of our gods versus the desert god are really really different um

03:04:43.660 I don't

03:04:48.960 Jehovah makes lots of 0.95

03:04:52.740 Demands

03:04:53.700 He's super jealous

03:04:55.880 And you have to

03:04:57.380 You have to meet all these requirements

03:05:00.520 And you have to like

03:05:01.920 Hyper focus

03:05:04.460 On him 24-7

03:05:06.160 And he

03:05:07.180 Wants to punish

03:05:09.960 All of the things

03:05:11.420 There's a very different

03:05:12.980 mentality at work there um our gods aren't like

03:05:22.160 if a if a person were that obsessed about what people thought of them it would be a

03:05:35.960 tremendous sign of weakness in a person our gods don't make a lot of those kind of demands but

03:05:46.680 they're very um i don't want to put it like

03:05:56.440 if odin wants you to be afraid he can certainly terrify you with great ease like there are

03:06:02.040 the mag just the magnitude of divinity is awe-inspiring but i think that it's not just

03:06:17.740 awe-inspiring it's also there's an inherent fear and it's not the fear of a bully or somebody

03:06:27.600 who's threatened you or demanded that you be scared of them it is a natural response to

03:06:34.060 something that is so much greater than you are and a due reverence and due respect towards it

03:06:43.640 now there's you know there there's levels of things but it's like if all of a sudden you

03:06:48.640 found yourself in the ocean next to a blue whale you would be terrified not because it's malevolent

03:06:54.640 not because it demands that you fear it but because the immensity of this creature that is

03:07:00.160 near you that you know is so much more powerful than you and so much larger than you and just

03:07:06.880 so beyond your comprehension that it would be scary um so yeah i think there's a

03:07:17.120 jehovah literally demands that you be scared of him i don't think our gods do that i think they

03:07:28.000 can choose to terrify you if they want to i think that they you know are perfectly capable of

03:07:35.440 inflicting that fear if it's necessary to their foes or to those who displease them

03:07:41.440 um but i don't think that that's the default stance a default stance of

03:07:48.680 very cautious reverence absolutely that's out of an abundance of piety and that's out of

03:07:55.800 that should be inherent to any mortal dealing with any deity just by the nature of the difference

03:08:03.440 and station um i don't think that that our our worship of the icr is motivated out of fear i

03:08:12.480 don't think fear is the motivator we hear fear uh in certain by names and things especially with

03:08:19.920 with owen but i don't think that's as if his worshipers ought to be terrified of him

03:08:26.560 he is fearful to his foes he's fearful to those who cross him he's fearful to those that he

03:08:32.320 he is on the other team of. The point of being also true is that we have troth to the Isir of which 0.92

03:08:39.000 Odin rules as the king. So yeah, I don't think that there's a malevolence inherent in the

03:08:49.920 question that I don't think is present with our gods in their relationship with their worshipers

03:08:57.000 that I do think is very present, certainly in the Old Testament conception of Jehovah or Yahweh.

03:09:09.920 But yeah, I think that you never want to go the wrong way and mistake it to where, you know,

03:09:16.620 you think the gods are your homies. That's absurd and ludicrous. 0.98

03:09:22.280 so many people in modern times 0.73

03:09:25.240 pretend that's the case

03:09:27.400 there is no equity there

03:09:29.240 there's no equality

03:09:31.380 there's no familiarity as if

03:09:33.400 you guys are buddies

03:09:34.400 there is

03:09:36.280 a

03:09:38.820 appropriate devotional

03:09:41.440 relationship between

03:09:42.800 God and worshipper between

03:09:45.480 you know I think that there

03:09:51.360 certainly can be a a deep love there a familial love that's that's important i think there can be

03:10:02.480 a a kindness exchange don't get me wrong that way but you say friends that implies

03:10:09.200 a level of equality that's not not really how that works friends as in you know they're on

03:10:18.720 your team if you're talking to your kids i know you know thor's your friend in the sense that he

03:10:25.600 likes you and he's on your team sure in the sense that he's just like billy down the street that

03:10:32.800 you're making sandcastles with absolutely not and and i think that we get that so i'm we're

03:10:40.160 belaboring the point here but i think that remembering that very healthy respect for

03:10:45.280 the difference in stations is very important. But I don't think we see the kind of pettiness

03:10:54.080 in our gods that is very prominently displayed in the conceptualization of Yahweh.

03:11:03.920 But I think that's why the Pharisees was against the Rabbi Yeshua was because he was

03:11:11.280 changing those kind of

03:11:13.400 conceptualizations, and they were like, no, you need

03:11:15.560 to fear, and then

03:11:17.020 as it went, they literally

03:11:19.460 romanticized Yahweh

03:11:21.760 and humanized him

03:11:23.180 into, now it's love,

03:11:25.720 and I think they needed to change

03:11:27.580 their message in order to attract

03:11:29.160 non-Jews in Europe, 0.98

03:11:31.600 so it's pretty funny when you kind of just 1.00

03:11:33.540 observe it.

03:11:35.820 All right, well, thank you for

03:11:37.520 joining us this evening. As always,

03:11:39.500 I'm looking forward to our next episode because I've been wanting to go through the Guilfaginning with you for years now.

03:11:48.660 So I'm excited about that.

03:11:51.960 Thank you for having me.

03:11:53.460 And I'm also glad, too.

03:11:55.300 I'm leaving from this show and making my way southward.

03:12:01.060 Okay.

03:12:01.740 Well, then anybody who can make it out to New York's Hof this weekend, do the thing.

03:12:07.940 Be there, meet Svon, meet me, or if you've already met us, say hi and get some time with us.

03:12:16.160 I would love to meet new folks and interact with old friends, and I'm looking forward to it.

03:12:23.240 It's going to be great.

03:12:26.400 Next week, we'll be joined by Speckinger Daniel Young to talk about piety and right action.

03:12:37.940 looking forward to that should be a good show for you. And yeah, we'll see you. Hopefully I'll

03:12:43.440 see you this weekend. If not, we'll talk to you next week. Until then, hail the ISEER,

03:12:48.480 hail the folk, hail the AFA. Remember, victory never sleeps. Bye everyone.

03:13:07.940 Transcription by CastingWords

03:13:37.940 Thank you.

03:14:07.940 Thank you.

03:14:37.940 Thank you.

03:15:07.940 Thank you.

03:15:37.940 Transcription by CastingWords

Asatru Folk Assembly - February 19, 2026

2⧸18⧸26 Victory Never Sleeps, Ep 189 - Prose Edda： Gylfaginning, Part 3

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