00:09:09.820If we start getting closer, I'll worry about the fine print.
00:09:16.140uh everyone will have to excuse me too i am recovering from a respiratory um issue so
00:09:23.860in a little scratchy voice um but we're working through it um should be you know not too much of
00:09:31.400a problem it's it's in the late stages of it and i'm clearing the last little bit of garbage out
00:09:37.340um so yeah we're moving in on 56 and we were discussing um
00:09:44.660last episode about we were entering into the middling wise um series or actually we were
00:09:53.520already in it this is kind of the last of it um that we move into in which we
00:09:58.400um speak of being measured wise or middled wise um
00:10:05.480And so, you know, in 56, the last one, a measure of wisdom each man shall have.
00:10:12.480Again, this is a repeating, but never too much let him know.
00:10:17.540Let no man the fate before him see, for so is he the freest from sorrow.
00:10:25.040So, and this one is, if anybody can attest to or has been well-versed in runic lore, in particular in the auspicious nature of the runes, this is definitely true.
00:10:46.480the idea really is is that uh the the repeating of measuring of wisdom means knowing when to know
00:10:56.900enough is about the measurement and that's the kind of tongue-in-cheek placement of it a lot
00:11:04.580of people take it as like that lord lord wasn't saying you know be be middle smart or middle dumb
00:11:13.120But I think it's more about the ideas that it's kind of like trying to, you know, pin down a puddle of water.
00:11:29.760But the problem with that, of course, is the search for wisdom, it's like oftentimes it's too late.
00:11:35.840and um so you know knowing knowing when to to pump the brakes on wisdom is good because
00:11:45.500uh if you know too much if you see too much and you can project your fate to the future
00:11:51.700um you'll find you know very little accommodating to what you you know what you are here in the now
00:12:00.340you know thinking or projecting or trying to do um
00:12:05.320i don't know i think this is one is truly an interesting one because
00:12:11.300speaking of the future and speaking of fate as um especially since we focus on the negative
00:12:18.780and a lot of times i think that the way things work the gods the norns a lot of times a perceived
00:12:28.320bad can often be good. And, you know, you find these in other maxims, like I believe the story
00:12:36.920about the farmer who, you know, breaks his leg, but then doesn't have to get conscripted into
00:12:43.760the military and so on and so forth. They keep saying, you know, this is terrible news. And he's
00:12:49.000like, perhaps for now. And so on and so forth. It's this idea is that, you know, if you know
00:12:56.120too much of your fate. You will focus on the bad. You will focus on the negative, and it can dash
00:13:03.540a lot of your desires, hopes, and dreams. So it's better to focus simply on what's in front of you.
00:13:10.500And I think that's the ultimate warning that Lord Odin is giving in this stanza.
00:13:17.440All right, so a couple of thoughts. First, Brandy gives $50, hashtag bestesthoff. Thank you very much, Brandy and Rob. Sarah donated $20, just adding to the hashtag bestesthoff amount. Hail the AFA. Thank you, Sarah and Rob.
00:13:41.720And Ronald Blake, $50. Ronald, thank you so much. You are so consistently generous on here.
00:13:54.860Each donation you make makes a difference, but certainly the accumulation of donations has made a tremendous difference. Thank you very much.
00:29:23.680and again, lending back to the time of
00:29:26.800when, you know, the poems were spoken in the halls.
00:29:31.900Again, if you were to go out and attain victory,
00:29:36.340if you're going to go out and, you know,
00:29:39.340seek the uh though the winning over one other by by way of blood is what is being really said the
00:29:48.620the enjoyment of the battle is not given to those who to tarry long is in essence what's being said
00:29:59.060there feign of course coming to as a you know enjoyment or pleased or willingness to so if
00:30:05.540you know the willingness of of attaining victory by you know war fighting um and and spilling of
00:30:16.620blood and so i think that's really kind of you know uh what's being said here is is it's about
00:30:26.500the the the attainment of victory through battle if you go out and you seek to fight or you seek
00:30:33.440to gain goods. So raiding and trading, you know, you get nothing if you tarry too long.
00:30:45.360All right. Well, Swan, if you'd take us through 59.
00:30:49.240Yeah. And here we see again, you know, he must, he must early go forth whose workers are few,
00:30:57.080himself his work to seek much remains undone for the morning sleeper for the swift is wealth
00:31:06.380half one and this is um again referring to and you could apply it even to today
00:31:16.120in relation to perhaps a network or a team of people and the idea is that you know if if there's
00:31:24.680no one there to help you pick up the slack. Um, even more so this applies is that you should
00:31:32.620be up and add it early. If you wish to succeed, if you wish to, to gain that victory, if you wish
00:31:40.720to, um, attain, you know, for the swift, uh, is wealth half one. I love that line. Um,
00:31:50.080And sometimes, again, not letting perfect be the enemy of good, getting your foot in there will sometimes be what you need.
00:31:59.660And I think that that's kind of something that our society today really does kind of place on, especially like with students and things like that, the idea of, you know, you put your time in, you put your ticket in, you put your resume, and then you wait.
00:32:16.440And this is saying, no, no, do that extra mile, do that extra bit.
00:37:26.720I mean, anybody who's a fabricator, and I know quite a few folks in our church who are, and I was as well.
00:37:34.960This is golden wisdom, because you just never know.
00:37:39.800and then you end up kind of over wasting and you know you maybe never get to realize how much time
00:37:46.740you wasted because you know you don't get a chance to sit down and kind of calculate but
00:37:51.460it's one of those things you might not want to find out how much time you wasted so you can
00:37:56.800save yourself more in the front end than you can you know uh later on or even unquantifiable
00:38:09.800Yeah, another thing about this, not only measure twice, cut once, but also failure to plan is planning to fail.
00:38:24.280So taking your time to strategize and make a good plan before you rush headlong into something is very important for all of the economics of it.
00:38:44.540But just in general, having a solid plan and, you know, in the AFA, I try to make sure that when able, we've got, you know, plan A, B, and C, just, you know, we've got triple redundancy in case something doesn't work.
00:39:06.900And you don't always have that. But when you can acquire that, it gives you a certain amount of breathing room in a crisis to where you have a plan, you have contingencies, you've thought it out, and it gives you a freedom of action in the moment that you don't have otherwise.
00:39:26.900And I think that's, I think that's a very important part of this stanza and of life.
00:39:39.920Ronald Blake just donated 50 more dollars, $50 for Baldursov.
00:43:15.020It's, you should still go, even if you don't think that you are as dressed as nicely or
00:43:20.820as, you know, set as more, as organized as others.
00:43:27.000It's, it's saying that you should still go and do the best that you can, that you should
00:43:33.160show up with the best that you have because that's better than not showing up at all and
00:43:40.760in reality you should look at others not in the sense that oh that's a thing i think that's going
00:43:46.760on right now victimization people victimize themselves so quickly in our culture that when
00:43:51.880they see somebody dressed up they're like they become kind of conscientious and that's fine you
00:43:57.240know in a certain sense but it doesn't necessarily mean that the people that are dressed up are
00:44:02.120looking down on you as so much as they're saying next time you know do a little bit more try to
00:44:08.040get a little better you know and we're all on that that scale of getting better um and i think
00:44:15.320that a lot of people get lost in that and they get falsely intimidated and uh lord vodan is saying
00:44:23.400show up care to the best of your ability and show up your your car might not be that great
00:44:30.520your clothes may not be that perfect, but you're there and people will know that
00:44:36.960more so than if you don't show up at all. So, all right, first, say it a thousand times,
00:44:45.480we'll say it a thousand more. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. That's what this is saying.
00:44:53.820One thing that you might notice is in our lore, there's lots of seemingly contradictive
00:45:00.340stanzas, and they're not contradicting so much as indicating a certain amount of balance.
00:45:09.220One of the things that's, our faith is a mature faith, and it requires a level of maturity and
00:45:23.060discernment. It is much easier for every single thing to be black and white. That's much easier.
00:45:31.400You don't have to think too much. You don't have to work too hard for it. You don't have to balance
00:45:35.060it. It's very clear and very easy, but all too often the world's not that way. Now that said,
00:45:41.080there's plenty of things that are black and plenty of things that are white,
00:45:45.600but there's also a lot of things that are nuanced in between.
00:45:49.380you know swan talked about people judging it yes people absolutely judge you by what you look like
00:45:54.100i said that last show i'll say it again we absolutely judge you everyone judges everyone
00:46:00.100by what they see first but also judged by other things they judge whether you're there or not
00:46:06.260showing up with the best you can is better than not showing up at all and if you wait for that
00:46:12.260perfect time where you can strut in with the finest you know of everything chances are you're
00:46:18.820never going to go and uh you know we a previous line we talked about is how you know even the
00:46:28.020cripple can do stuff but the dead can't do anything you know if you're not there you can't
00:46:33.740affect anything at the meeting if you're there with the best you have try to be fed try to be
00:46:39.420clean the things that you have power over and showing up you're way better off than if you
00:46:44.100don't try or don't make the effort and that's the thing you know over the years and this has
00:46:48.480been part of the evolution of also true in our modern era um folks in the afa have taken our
00:46:58.200appearance a lot more serious when we show up for a religious occasion presenting our best self
00:47:03.620trying to dress nicely and dress in our nice clothes when we go to the hof for a religious
00:47:08.660of it or for anything else for that matter. And so the pushback is, oh, well, so we can't show up
00:47:15.840if we're not wearing a suit and tie. Of course not. Like I said, there's balance to things.
00:47:22.240No, dress the best that you can, that you've got handy, that's going to be comfortable and
00:47:26.520practical for what you're doing. Nobody's ever been turned away because they're not dressed
00:47:32.420nice enough. That's not real. But what is real is when you can and you have the ability
00:47:38.160to show up, you know, representing yourself to the best of your ability, behavior-wise,
00:47:45.680visual-wise, speech-wise, show up offering your very best to the gods and putting your very best
00:47:52.200foot forward. And some days your best foot forward is not as good as other days. And your best foot
00:47:58.660forward may not be as good as the guy next to you's best foot forward in certain, you know, areas.
00:48:03.460but it's better than nothing. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. Show up now and get some
00:48:08.980better clothes. And that's time you show up. If that's something you want to do and you feel
00:48:12.000you're deficient in, or, you know, get a better horse or whatever, whatever the case may be in
00:48:17.060the time or the place. Um, yeah, just keep that in mind. Perfect doesn't exist. If you're, you
00:48:24.860know, you're showing up in a Mercedes with a suit on, there's going to be some guy next to you with
00:48:31.360a newer model or a fancier suit or a sparklier tie or whatever else there's never going to be
00:48:39.160perfect do your best and if it's not good enough then you know up your game next time but uh yeah
00:48:47.660don't let perfect be the enemy good uh and monk hundred dollars hail odin odin hail uh monk the
00:48:58.800first one donating from Odenshof District. Thank you so much. I really, we really, really appreciate
00:49:04.460that. Thank you, Monk. And thank you, Rob. All right, Svon, if you could take us through this
00:49:12.660next one. And this next one is interesting imagery. So go for this next one, Svon.
00:49:17.600All right. So when the eagle comes to the ancient sea, he snaps and hangs his head. So is a man of a throng who few to speak for him, he finds or him finds.
00:49:38.020excuse me i'm adding a little bit in there to kind of smooth that but uh yeah so a lot of these ones
00:49:47.180are where we're starting to get i i find most of our members in the church will ask about these
00:49:54.240in the later maxims because there's perhaps a context or something's lost in it and
00:50:00.920doesn't quite seem to fit because the other ones are so straightforward and now they're starting
00:50:07.180get a little cryptic or a little mirroring. But this, again, is kind of referencing to the
00:50:12.460althingi or referencing to the meeting place. You know, when the eagle goes to the sea
00:50:20.140and is looking, flying out and about, you know, looking and scanning the ocean,
00:50:27.980going for the kill, going for the for the hunt. But the first thing that's note is that when it
00:50:33.500arrives out there in this kind of wide horizontal waist, looking left and right, constantly scanning.
00:50:41.080That's what's being kind of referenced here. And so as a man, if he goes to the Althing, if he goes
00:50:46.300to, you know, an official place or has to stand perhaps, you know, in dispute and needs retainers,
00:50:56.920needs someone to stand up for him or with him and having an ally, he finds few he finds
00:51:06.280that are able to speak for him. And so this one is more or less kind of speaking about
00:51:14.620the desperation of that, that a person should take great care in what they do and how they invest in
00:51:21.860their their friendships because you never know when you're going to need someone and you don't
00:51:27.180want to be that eagle you know um lowing its head and looking around you know in desperation for
00:51:36.740people that aren't there is really what this is kind of coming at
00:51:41.880um yeah it's worth reiterating our value is given context and given life by community
00:51:53.100um time and again in our lore the unfortunate position is portrayed as as the person outside
00:52:02.920of society the person finds himself alone with no friends we are social we
00:52:11.300are social creatures society our community is is the context and the
00:52:21.240proving ground for all of our principles and all of our values how we function
00:52:27.440within a community, how the community treats us,
00:52:32.980how our friends treat us, how our foes see us,
00:56:38.320But say it in a group, and then you're locked.
00:56:44.440You know, I really think this is valuable going through this with Spahn because, you know, he and I see different implications in each of these, in so many of these stanzas.
00:57:05.940And not in a contradictory way, but just in a, like, just in a subtle context way.
00:57:13.240So, yeah, absolutely what Svon said. If you got a plan that you're just kind of, you know, just tossing some ideas around, word gets out. You know, I'm thinking more in terms of if you have a secret or if you have something that, you know, you're trying to say in confidence to somebody.
00:57:31.240loose lips sink ships. And, you know, if you tell one other person, okay, maybe you can trust that
00:57:37.820person, but they're going to have somebody else that, well, surely I can trust them too.
00:57:44.220And that circle of trust or, you know, trust in air quotes gets real big, real quick.
00:57:52.420Even if people aren't trying to betray a trust, the more people, you know, once a couple people
00:57:58.980know a secret it's not a secret anymore because inevitably stuff gets out stuff gets out there
00:58:05.140so there's that but there's also the thing at the beginning you've got to be
00:58:09.620quick on your feet if you want to be successful amongst other people you got to be quick to
00:58:17.220analyze the situation to assess it to know what questions to ask to get you the knowledge that
00:58:23.220you need to know or to improve your position and you know how to artfully answer questions
00:58:30.740that are asked of you to where you can make the best of your situation and you know that has a
00:58:39.140lot to do with and our ancestors valued speech craft a lot it's one of the standout characteristics
00:58:49.300of specifically um the northern branch of our ancestors culture but even at a time with
00:58:56.900you know limited writing and literacy and things you see our our brothers and sisters to the south
00:59:04.740having very developed um legal processes and speaking before the senate
00:59:11.380and you know prosecuting or defending legal cases it's really important you also see that in the
00:59:17.460north when people come together if it's you know composing poetry and composing verses back and
00:59:24.900forth at one another or answering questions when people want to test you about the lore test you
00:59:30.340about things so much of what we'll see as we go through our lore is in an answer form when you're
00:59:36.740in someone's court you're in someone's hall you know people will make a game of asking obscure
00:59:42.180questions or asking riddles and you're having the swiftness of mind to be able to artfully respond
00:59:48.980to those things was you know held in high regard by our ancestors and is today if you have a quick
00:59:54.420wit um it adds a lot of adds a lot of value to social situations
00:59:59.780this uh this next one i really like it's an interesting one because i think anybody who's
01:00:15.380been on the giving and receiving end of a punch or has been in an altercation in their life
01:00:24.660that this one, this one rings really true. Um, it just doesn't seem, uh, you know,
01:00:31.540especially as it's written, it can be a little obscure, but it becomes pretty clear if you
01:00:37.160think about it. Um, the man who is prudent, a measured use of the might he has will make.
01:00:47.480he finds when among the brave he fares that the boldest he may not be
01:00:54.660so the way this is written and the way bellows writes it is so it's kind of coily coily um
01:01:05.700uh wise it's it's not quite revealing the full it's like like what we did on the last one me
01:01:14.460you is uh i'm saying about plans intentions and you're saying no secrets it's like that
01:01:21.260there's levels you could take it and the way he writes it it leaves it's so lightly touching it
01:01:28.580but in reality what's what's going on here is um you know like in the first stanzas the uh
01:01:35.380if there's a mighty man he should be prudent and measure in his actions in his deeds what he's
01:01:41.940trying to do if he's uh you know a strong or you know he's particularly good and this is in reference
01:01:47.400to like strength prowess and and so on um that he should use measure when he goes out and finds
01:01:56.400himself around other brave folk because he might not be the you might not be the bravest one there
01:02:04.940and what this is really saying is is like you find yourself in a situation you come out
01:02:10.660banging the pot saying you're, you know, your, your confidence is good, but you're over the top.
01:02:18.360You are way out of, you know, you're rubbing in people's faces and doing so on and so forth.
01:02:25.200And meanwhile, there might be someone in that throng of people with you
01:02:28.940that have a lesson to teach you. So you never, it's, it's hard. Uh, you know,
01:02:37.240you're just basically showing off too much it's about if you got a lot if you got a good sense of
01:02:42.940confidence you should still do it with a measurement of wisdom because you don't know
01:02:48.860what other people are when you're around them you don't know how good uh like so again i spoke of
01:02:57.280this like in a martial arts sense is the ideas is that if you're a martial artist and you are
01:03:02.260out there you don't show off you don't um make a big over you know ridiculous like uh show of it
01:03:10.960because you just never know who might have a better technique and you're showing off
01:03:15.120what you got these you know there might be somebody in there who's just being quiet and
01:03:20.280watching and he's also a monster you know on the mat or in the ring um and you just never saw it
01:03:28.840coming because you were so busy you know fluffing kind of your own stuff so i think this one really
01:03:34.740talks about it's better when you don't know the people around you to be measured in your confidence
01:03:40.980and to uh or at least the showing of it showing people what you have your abilities and what you
01:03:47.760can do it's nothing wrong with being confident about yourself it's just that you don't always
01:03:52.720have to reveal everything you know yeah and i mean i think folks over in the chat have it have
01:04:01.280it down pretty good it it behooves everyone to have a certain amount of humility and to not
01:04:14.480you know as one of our folks over in the chat says so don't flex all the time um that's a thing
01:04:22.720If you start strutting around and you get real comfortable exerting your will over others, bullying people, being cocky, being a loud mouth, whatever the case is, it may work out well for you a lot.
01:04:35.620You may be the biggest, baddest dude in the room that you're usually in.
01:04:39.440There's always someone out there, bigger, faster, stronger, more brutal, whatever the case might be.
01:04:50.820you get too comfortable in your in your surroundings and you stop
01:04:57.900assessing your situation before you act life has a way of of pointing out your
01:05:08.040inadequacies that way and you could save yourself a lot of heartache if you have a
01:05:17.580If you're measured about it, if you have a presence about you to where you are not being cocky, you're not flaunting the skill that you think you have.
01:05:29.640Because it's very easy to end up looking foolish or end up, you know, getting your butt whooped.
01:05:39.060I mean, I think, again, so many of these things, the jaded amongst us, well, that's common sense.
01:05:48.300some of it is but we're in a day and age where common sense is far less common than it once was
01:05:57.180and sometimes it's the fundamentals and it's the common sense things that we need reiterated the
01:06:03.260most often because they're they're that important and checking back in with the fundamentals is
01:06:08.220always something worth doing all right yeah never remember that from the marine corps boot camp
01:06:19.580all right so i've got an anecdote i gotta do i learned this at very i learned a very fortunate
01:06:27.100um in outcome lesson to myself when i first started bouncing
01:06:32.460i got very good at snatching up drunk people and ejecting them from the bar
01:06:39.780cool so it's closing time i'm you know pushing people out doing stuff i'm very well calibrated
01:06:48.540for drunk people um well dude came in to pick up his friend and he was stone sober he'd just
01:06:54.660gotten in before closing time he was just mad so he was he was in complete possession of his
01:07:01.880motor skills in his faculties he was just angry and he wasn't about to do what I was telling him
01:07:06.660to do but I'm I'm used to whatever I'm doing working I'm a big enough guy and I've thrown
01:07:13.220out 10 people that night no problem this guy's I got this took my off the ball literally took my
01:07:20.520off the guy's hands I snatched him up but I wasn't paying attention to where his hands were
01:07:25.000And so I got him outside. He slipped the hold I had. And next thing you know, he reaches around and I got a finger in my eye socket up to that second knuckle. And I'm on my back like a turtle wondering why I'm seeing rainbows.
01:07:42.660um luckily i had i had my team of gods with me and they got me out of my situation you know
01:07:51.580in seconds but i got up and he had because he had his finger all in my eye it had stretched
01:08:01.820out my eye sock or not my eye socket but my eyelids a bunch so i wasn't seeing right i'm
01:08:07.860like uh-oh I gotta push my eye back in so I thought that's what was going on one of my one of my my
01:08:15.260bouncer guys was making fun of me he's like oh Matt's crying uh-oh that's blood and I was just
01:08:23.280bleeding from the eye um so I learned pretty quick I wore an eye patch for about a week
01:08:31.060all in all i'm very thankful to that lesson because i things may go wrong in my life
01:08:38.840again in many different ways i may not always come out on top but i'm gonna i'm gonna damn
01:08:44.220sure know where people's hands are and that's not gonna happen to me again so it's one of those
01:08:49.420things don't don't get cocky don't get cocky i tell you what i learned so i keep going back to
01:08:58.980it and it's not it was a very it was a time in my life as a young man where I learned so much
01:09:06.340about myself and so many so many really cool lessons in a very matter-of-fact way and it was
01:09:12.720really cool that way but I learned a lot more for the times I came up you know I came up short than
01:09:17.620on the times I was you know times I was you know on top of things it's it's the the coming up short
01:09:25.800times that i learned the most important lessons so yeah thanks for indulging me on that we can
01:09:33.080we can move on to the next stanza now no that was epic just
01:09:44.280um excuse me laughing too makes it just the cough kind of like comes out so um i
01:09:53.960it's kind of good that we were following this one after that one,
01:09:59.500because this one isn't, this, obviously, if you, if anybody's looking at it,
01:10:05.300by manuscript sense, the first two lines are gone,
01:10:09.460and they're often added in because of a note from manuscripts elsewhere.
01:10:17.580And so you'll find that line in 65, the first two of the stanza are gone.
01:10:22.840And, you know, there is, of course, a recommendation here as far as from those manuscripts that, you know, a man must be watchful and wary as well and fearful of trusting a friend.
01:10:37.500Oft for the words that to others one speaks, he will get but an evil gift.
01:10:50.220the way that it comes off is basically saying like you know you should be watchful of friends
01:10:56.380because they will betray you at any minute and i think that what is the real
01:11:03.600translation part of this is that you should be weary of making friends swiftly because often
01:11:13.600people will tell you what you want to hear when in reality they're going to gift you nothing
01:11:19.980but treachery and that i think has a lot more of a standing point um i remember you know uh
01:11:32.700speaking highly and speaking grandly about when i when i first came in to the um to the church
01:11:40.240and i remember you saying like okay well you know all in all in good time all in due time like
01:11:47.300don't you know you're you're waving flags and ringing bells right now it's like okay and i
01:11:53.860you know i felt crestfallen but that's because i was naive and i imagine now and knowing now
01:12:02.100how many times people do come out of the gate you know saying a lot uh promising a lot
01:12:10.340and doing a lot saying you know again like you've mentioned it before you know i'm ready to slay
01:12:14.980dragons but then let me ask them to show up for a food drive they just oh buddy i hey hey now
01:12:22.260showing up for a food drive you sleep that's okay you got a number in case those dragons come at you
01:12:35.380yeah excuse me so yeah there there is um that's kind of what it is is is this this
01:12:44.980stands as saying that you should never take a fast friend but that a friend should be gained
01:12:51.300over time as you get to learn about the person and as you you understand them more and you get
01:12:59.700a chance to measure their word to what they do and you know it as opposed to someone who
01:13:06.900you know says all the right things or um you know even for a short amount of time just does the
01:13:14.100right things but then you know you you build in on this false sense and in a lot of ways um
01:13:24.420you know those people that look at you in say your work or in the church or what have you
01:13:31.940um or any social groups you'll find a lot of people you know being friendly to you
01:13:39.460but thinking another thing this happens all over it happens in every social groupings we can we
01:13:46.660can think of and you know the the person you joke around with um you know is laughing and joking
01:13:56.900but he doesn't care about you or he's thinking only about himself but that that kind of that
01:14:03.380guy that never jokes with you the guy that's kind of maybe even standing off or whatever and then
01:14:08.900you go to ask him for help and he helps you out he has no intention of like somehow crushing you
01:14:15.140for for his own gain it's just you never know you've got to be very careful about a lot of
01:14:20.100times the people that put up front and forward views um might have alternative views behind them
01:14:27.780so don't make fast friends uh recklessly as i really think that that that's what this stanza
01:14:34.980is going for you know that's one of the
01:14:46.820the have them all is not always warm and fuzzy and
01:14:52.980And there is something truly beautiful about somebody who comes and is just so open and genuine that they share of themselves right up front, that they're trusting, that they're, you know, right out there with it.
01:15:14.320honestly that's a that's a trait of our folk i learned that when on an afa trip to denmark
01:15:21.120and i forget what the expression was because i don't speak danish but there is a trait that
01:15:28.320the danes get uh stuck with called blue wideness that kind of means you're gullible they go
01:15:37.520vacationing down in in spain or in the mediterranean and they're an easy mark because
01:15:43.440they can be taken advantage of because they you know are are so trusting um
01:15:54.800in the wolf age when our people still suffer from such a great soul sickness
01:16:02.720it's very easy to become jaded and have all this this very jaded very guarded advice
01:16:08.640face it's worth having and it's worth knowing even if you choose to forego implementing it
01:16:18.240because any of these things it's not about telling you what you are and aren't allowed to do
01:16:27.600it's about being mindful of things to factor in any of these things we've talked about no if you
01:16:36.480up and you just want to stuff your face and you're confident you know your situation and you're
01:16:40.400hungry and your value isn't to make a good social impression it's to get fed eat up if you're you
01:16:49.520know your surroundings you know who you're around and you're you want to show up and get lit get lit
01:16:54.400but know the consequence when you do it if you want to share with people and and say things do
01:17:02.880but be very aware that there are people there are ill-intentioned people out there
01:17:07.760that will use that against you and if you're willing to run that risk then by all means
01:17:13.760but don't go in uninformed and that's kind of one of the it's a
01:17:23.120just so you know admonition especially knowing that the high one who is speaking in the have them all
01:17:31.440is all father odin who gave his eye for wisdom who hung from the world tree for wisdom he's not
01:17:40.360one to be middling wise but he's saying hey you know i've gone to the abyss and i've looked in
01:17:48.720and stuff stares back know what you're getting into before you go too far on some things
01:17:54.580it's really a valuable caution you don't have to be middling wise but if you're not going to be
01:19:11.820jimmy cracks corn in thorshof and i do care uh five dollar donation
01:19:21.180am i missing the context on that one i know that's just the name he chose oh and uh the
01:19:34.860little song the little ditty um excuse me anyways uh go through rob ain't broke yet let's keep going
01:19:42.700uh come on y'all dollar for dollar uh and that's true so the five dollar donation from jimmy cracks
01:19:50.860corn and thorshoff i appreciate it and thank you jimmy and thank you rob all right proceed
01:19:58.220oh sorry i was reading uh some of these the the comments as well as before
01:20:07.460so um uh 66 oh random side note before you do i'm just watching the thing in the chat and i'm not
01:20:18.960sure we got some east coasters asking the question i don't know if they'll be here when we get to
01:20:22.960questions who holds the hoff wide record for the most families fed at a food pantry
01:20:30.000uh hashtag hardest working hoff so that's odin's hoff um but new york's hoff is doing amazingly
01:20:40.880and for anybody who may or may not know uh last weekend at new york's hoff they fed 72 families
01:20:49.840um and that's what they're like an hour of that food pantry that's a huge huge impact on that
01:20:54.560community and thank you everybody who took part in that um odenshoff has had some that are bigger
01:21:00.720than that but we've been doing it at odenshoff now for i want to say about six years and
01:21:12.000And that's been, I apologize, 74 families is corrected in the chat room, even better.
01:21:19.920But Odenshoff, I think, has got in the low 100s, but I'd have to check with Githya McNallan on that.
01:21:27.300But again, it's been going for six years on doing it, and in a particularly impoverished area that's gone through some very targeted calamities with fires and other stuff.
01:21:42.000So I'm all for let's continue to compete to see who can feed the most families and help the most in their community.
01:21:51.040I think that's a that's competition where everybody wins.
01:21:54.180so uh moving here into 66 uh too early to many a meeting i came and some too late
01:22:16.780have I sought. The beer was all drunk or not even yet brewed. Little the loathed man finds.
01:22:29.620So again, the usage of this, of the loathed man, that's kind of an odd placement to the idea of
01:22:40.500what this, the context of this verse is really talking about is, is again, for someone to show
01:22:47.120up too early isn't always a bad thing. It's talking about context though. The context of
01:22:55.540this is, is someone who shows up early to gain much. If they're showing up there to, you know,
01:23:02.000make sure they get the best seat and make sure they get the most food and make sure they get
01:23:05.320the most drink um and then you know or again the one who shows up too late um this is really
01:23:14.960talking about the idea of understanding timing if you show up too early you put people out
01:23:22.620sometimes they're still in preparation uh and now you're just kind of like the person standing there
01:23:28.700while everyone else is trying to get things together and i'm speaking maybe not so much
01:23:32.840like for a religious event or something like that because oftentimes showing up early just means
01:23:38.280extra hands to help but let's say for instance just in our day-to-day lives if we show up uh
01:23:44.120you know too early at an event where things are being prepared and the house is not quite ready
01:23:51.080people aren't even fully dressed and here you are standing there kind of in the middle of it and
01:23:58.120And, you know, this is a benign thing initially, but if it happens over and over again,
01:24:08.880so it's really talking about the ideas that make sure that your timing
01:24:12.700is measured in accordance to things around you. Because if you are showing up always ever early
01:24:21.760or always ever late it causes issues and you end up missing out or being
01:24:30.560too much at the not the right time um you know in your social circles
01:24:38.800so it is it i think this is really about um measuring your your your timeliness it's not
01:24:46.080um sometimes it's about showing up i i'm trying to like not say precisely when you mean to
01:24:54.640and do some some uh gandalf quote there but um the uh the idea really is is that you should
01:25:05.280take stock of the situation before you even show up um do you need to be there exactly on time
01:25:13.200do you need to be there early or not because if you don't need to be there early sometimes
01:25:21.440not getting in the way especially if you haven't been told like hey i need you to show up early
01:25:28.320don't come in there unless you have the ability you know you you never know if you even your
01:25:33.840usefulness and i would even say have the wherewithal to understand too like oh i came
01:25:38.240year early everybody looks kind of busy i'll i'm gonna go out and i will be back or i'm gonna go
01:25:45.120pick someone up i'm gonna go do something something elsewhere before um you know and come back at a
01:25:52.240better time it's still helping out but it's out of the way i i remember in the marine corps they
01:25:58.000they spoke about this often was the ideas like being able to lead being able to follow and also
01:26:04.720being able to know when you're more or less in the way so you know i think this stanza
01:29:06.800Matthew Gordon gave us $25 says hail the gods and the AFA also spawn that tie knot is awesome
01:29:18.720that's the second compliment you've got on your tie knot tonight spawn so doing something right
01:29:23.600with that uh we appreciate go ahead eldritch knots on YouTube they're easy it makes you look like you
01:29:30.940know what you're doing there you go you heard it here folks Matthew Gordon thank you so much we
01:29:35.820appreciate your donation and thank you rob
01:29:41.340carry on uh let's see here so uh oh and uh it's kind of funny too i just
01:29:50.140wanted to say too i just found out this is a donald trump tie
01:29:56.540signature collection i did not know that until tonight
01:30:02.300actually i uh i don't know so yeah finding out that doing the knot and uh trying to figure out
01:30:10.380how to do it made me pay close attention to the small print on the back and i was like
01:30:15.020oh so when i looked and this is completely unintentional mine is a puff daddy time
01:30:23.980did not know that one yeah i didn't know that these names
01:30:28.220uh um i'm sure people are gonna love that one uh so let's this one is kind of interesting
01:30:41.100it makes more sense but it is cryptically written uh to their homes men would bid me
01:30:49.580hither and yon if at mealtime I needed no meat or would hang two hams in my true friend's house
01:30:59.180where only one I had eaten. So a couple of this, a little bit about this. One is basically saying
01:31:08.740Like I've been asked often to my friends' homes, you know, and I oftentimes did, you know, would sit and eat with them, even though I didn't even bring anything.
01:31:24.140And that's kind of what's being said there is that, you know, with good friends, I have often found myself, and even though I was unprepared to sit and eat with them, it didn't burden them.
01:31:38.160They didn't see it as a loss. On the other hand, oftentimes you show up at the right time
01:31:47.460with more and you leave them when you only partake in just a small amount.
01:31:54.960And that's the usage of the word hanging two hands. Back then, the idea of hanging meat around
01:32:03.980the fireplace to to smoke and to dry out was very very common and to have a good amount of this meat
01:32:12.460hanging around was a great way of ensuring that you had a meal um and this is kind of saying like
01:32:19.660showing up with two hands and only eating the one and leaving the other one for your friend so
01:32:26.300it's we often joke about that cycle of giving and gifting that you might have with a close
01:32:31.740friend but it's it's like you never sometimes you might not have a lot and your friends will cover
01:32:37.980for you but make sure you reciprocate by showing up every now and then and only taking a little
01:32:44.220bit of what you showed up with with the intent of you know letting letting your friend have
01:32:50.620the overabundance and that is how things will balance things out it'll it'll always you know
01:32:57.420pay itself forward kind of thing. Um, you know, you show up with a little extra and, um, as long,
01:33:05.960you know, not so burdensome, I guess, I guess nowadays, if you think about it, you show up
01:33:10.940with too much, say like drink or something, um, you know, and you, you, you clog someone's
01:33:17.680refrigerator up might not be so good, but, um, you know, showing up with two legs of lamb and
01:33:25.260saying oh well i only planned on you know us grilling out on this one you should just throw
01:33:29.780this one in your freezer that's a nice really really nice gesture that kind of compensates for
01:33:36.680perhaps times that you couldn't show up so when bounty is good and your bounty is high give
01:33:42.640because it will help you when sometimes when your bounty is low
01:33:45.820see what i took for from this is is the same on the last half but on first half like
01:33:54.160cool if i wasn't going to eat anything then everybody'd invite me to all kind of stuff
01:33:59.420like you'd be really popular if you don't show up and actually consume but when you do that's
01:34:06.040when the cuts are made on who's you know worth having around and who's not it's like when you're
01:34:10.900doing invitations to a wedding or anything else where you're providing the food well maybe we can
01:34:16.920only afford a certain number of guests um i don't know if swan's making the cut because you know
01:34:23.120what does he offer compared to how much he eats? We'll see. This is kind of the juxtaposition to,
01:34:29.660I mentioned, I think last episode, my cousin Scott and I used to, used to when we were Jehovah's
01:34:39.080Witness or when I was a Jehovah's Witness, we, you know, a much younger man who was not wise,
01:34:44.720not proud of the story, but we would show up to the church picnic and you win if you eat more
01:34:51.820than you bought. So we would show up, you know, and we would try to consume more than we bought
01:34:57.080and then go away thinking, aha, we won. Yeah, don't do that. But this is an interesting point
01:35:05.400to it. And it also points out like, it's a nice thing to show up with extra that's not needed.
01:35:12.200So the host can have a little bit more. I tell you what, many a time I have, you know,
01:35:17.740I've been on here drinking beers that are left over from folks that came by and brought more than was necessary to meals that I had at my house, and I appreciate that.
01:35:29.720Little, you know, seemingly small gestures of things like that for somebody who hosts or somebody who, and it describes as your true friend.
01:35:39.980So much of the have them all thus far is strategic.
01:35:47.740think cynical is probably not the right word but it's aimed at going in strange places where you
01:35:56.620don't know who's friend and foe or where you're trying to politically maneuver it points out very
01:36:03.580specifically advice that it means for your friend to your friends even if it's a long way away and
01:36:10.620way out of your way no that's an easy trip because it's important for friends to see each other
01:36:15.980give gifts to your friends share your true mind with your friends and also here like yeah share
01:36:22.620your resources if you got extra show up and like ah my eyes were bigger than my stomach here you
01:36:28.380can have the rest of this stuff um especially when times are tough that can mean a lot to folks and
01:41:31.820I would caution everybody in English speaking I believe probably in all European language
01:41:47.820countries Christianity was translated into our languages and the words that we so often
01:41:58.880associate with Christianity aren't the Hebrew words. They're the English or German or whatever
01:42:09.580culture it might be is equivalent to those words or concepts that we are familiar with that best
01:42:16.040fit that space um so to reiterate sin is a thing sin as far as i can tell etymologically goes back to
01:42:33.480latin at least and into the proto-indo-european meaning basically guilty and being guilty
01:42:40.840feelings of guilt and certainly it is a blessing to man to have simple things like fire to warm
01:42:47.400yourself sunlight to illuminate the world good health and not having to sit around feeling
01:42:56.120guilty about stuff and i think that this is an admonition to appreciate the simple things in life
01:43:06.680that are fundamental but that are often of the most value one of which is
01:43:13.880not having to worry about wrongs you've done or ways you've messed up and sitting around
01:43:19.320not having to live with regret and feelings of guilt for things that you did wrong and
01:43:24.840i don't think that means we shouldn't feel bad for things we do wrong it means we shouldn't do wrong
01:43:30.120stuff as self-explanatory as that might be it's worth saying having inner peace is invaluable
01:43:40.400and that comes from living right and so do that
01:43:47.660yeah i didn't mean to hyper focus just on the word itself no our because i guarantee you a lot
01:43:55.120of people who listen to this, the only context that they've heard the term sin is in a Christian
01:44:01.120or a Judaic context. So I think it's really important to point that out.
01:44:07.760Yeah, the idea of an offense against the gods or against your ancestors,
01:44:16.920um you know this this word was chosen because of its equivalency you know malak became angelos
01:44:25.520because of the equivalency um and everyone just assumes oh angel that's you know but no that's
01:44:33.180that's a greek word what did they they used a totally different word and it sounds crazy
01:44:37.840uh the word sin the word heaven the word hell evil and good these are all our words and they
01:44:44.620were in place and stood in testament to our moral sense long before uh christianity contextualized
01:44:53.260these words for its uses yeah the hebrew word is i can't make the like phlegm noise but kata
01:45:01.260basically which means uh falling short or missing a goal um that's not the same as being guilty of
01:45:09.460offense which is a is an aryan word and arian concept yeah and this one's unique arian because
01:45:15.220of that that bridging between you said that you know with the latin it goes all the way back to
01:45:20.180in the uh in uh the uh gothic language which you know oldest germanic that we we have um these both
01:45:29.540kind of run parallel with each other so that's showing this goes all the way back and so
01:45:34.580that's kind of why i wanted to i love this translation and i wonder how many people have
01:45:42.900kind of turned their nose up to things without you know looking at some of that stuff i would
01:45:48.500highly recommend if anyone's ever interested in like words and and you know check the etymology
01:45:53.940on words you'd be surprised where they come from etymology trumps definition all day long oh it's
01:46:01.220so fun it's it's it's amazing to like see the history and the ancestry of a word and i've had
01:46:07.540people ask like oh why do you use the word heaven when you talk about the gods and it's like because
01:46:15.540heaven is our word it's uh him in bjork where heimdall is in on you know is in the edges
01:46:24.980of ausgard that's heavenly mountains it's it's you know such it is a word of common use and
01:46:31.220understanding before christianity it's just that we've become so kind of yeah either bitterly
01:46:36.900rejecting or what have you and and so um you know looking at these words and and being open
01:46:43.780to their etymologies are really important you end up finding out we have a lot more of our own
01:46:50.580it's just i i know years and years of people kind of getting conditioned by
01:46:56.740a foreign faith these words might have more of a bitter taste to them i guess but
01:47:04.260taking the time is i think good it'll break out of that get you out of it and that's what i think
01:47:10.420too is this uh this this sin is on multiple levels for us the the sins against your ancestors the
01:47:17.620sins against your folk the sins against the gods um what we're really talking about here is yeah
01:47:23.940these transgressions against the way that the gods perhaps want to see us become and the way
01:47:31.060our ancestors want to see us become and so it is best you know that you live your life
01:47:37.780so nick nick makes a good point in the chat for anybody who's listening that doesn't
01:47:43.140doesn't see it this is a point i wanted to make as well
01:47:47.940this is maturing in our faith um i've mentioned before in the early
01:47:54.500days of the modern resurgence of aussitrew
01:47:57.300so much was about trying to reject a foreign religiosity
01:48:02.420and everything you know so much of what was being done
01:48:05.700was a reaction to or oh well christians do this
01:48:09.860so we need to immediately do the opposite we're past that now we need to embrace
01:48:17.540who we are and what we're about and not define ourselves by counterpointing everything that we're
01:48:24.660not um and that comes with reclaiming our nobility as a people so much of the image
01:48:32.660that you see on tv with the you know dreadlocks and shoulder pelts and ashes on the face
01:48:40.740is trying to contrast and make our ancestors as barbarous as possible
01:48:46.100no our people were civilized people we were the civilizers um dignity and nobility are inherent
01:48:55.940in our blood and in our folk and reclaiming pious religiosity is is a mandate from the gods that we
01:49:06.660must do and so re-evaluating these terms is really important if you look at the the jewish word that
01:49:14.100means to miss the mark or to fall short that's pointing out the imperfection of yahweh's creation
01:49:23.540The protection racket that was set up to where people are born broken and they can't be perfect and anything less than perfection is worthy of death.
01:49:33.720But wait, if you give everything to Jesus forever, then maybe I'll save you from death.
01:49:48.940You bear responsibility for doing something wrong.
01:49:51.980And the difference in those concepts may not seem like a lot at casual observation, but fundamentally it is responsibility versus, you know, oh, well, I can't be perfect.
01:50:07.800I'll just Jesus take the wheel as opposed to, no, I'm responsible for my actions.
01:50:13.880I'm responsible for guilt that I've incurred through doing wrong to another person, to the gods.
01:50:24.020And that implies that it's something that can be corrected or can be compensated.
01:50:29.820And I think that's really, really important.
01:50:37.800um let's see all right so 69 if you will right okay all wretched is no man though never so sick
01:50:56.120some from their sons have joy some win it from their kinsmen and some from their wealth
01:51:27.880Like, once you see it, you can't unsee it.
01:51:31.740It's basically saying that no one is so wretched
01:51:34.400that there is no happiness in the world around you.
01:51:40.520There's no point in which the darkness should be able to claim you
01:51:48.760because there are joy in things that are around you.
01:51:55.520So a man is never so wretchedly sick or ill or even downtrodden
01:52:02.060that he should not see. There are joys in things. You can find joys in your children. You can find
01:52:10.040joy in your friends. You can find, again, the uses of the word wealth. And I think this means,
01:52:18.240you know or is more speaking of your um accumulated like uh
01:52:28.480achievements and of your or of doing worthy work so it's it's you can find positives in things
01:52:39.040even in the darkest of times and that you should you should never let that wretched illness fall
01:52:44.400before you that it it washes away all the things you've done um and i know people battle with
01:52:52.480depression a lot and this is i think kind of the referencing of that is that um no matter how dark
01:53:00.480you think it is there is testaments that you have done there are people that you are that you know
01:53:06.480So your children, you know, even if you have problems with your children or things that are, you know, because we all grow up, grow older or what have you, you know, you should take comfort in the truth of knowing that you've made these testaments, you've made these achievements, you've gained these things,
01:53:30.220or you can and should go out and do worthy works in order to, you know, remember that you are worth
01:53:41.200living, you are worth doing, you are worth continuing on. And this kind of juxtaposes,
01:53:46.340or not even, but it kind of aligns with, you know, the dead, the dead do nothing, the dead are worth
01:53:52.000nothing. At the end of the day, if you are at the point where you're, you know, at a loss,
01:53:59.780you know, go out and, you know, forcing yourself to remember, forcing yourself to do or more. And
01:54:07.620then, you know, ultimately I would say, of course, speak to someone, get counsel, you know, reach out
01:54:13.600to your friends, reach out to those people, reach out to your gothar, but you're never so lost that
01:54:21.580you cannot have some list of your worth in the world don't forget that yeah i think it's
01:54:34.300one thing that's very okay i'm trying to think how to set this up i'm sorry um
01:54:43.020all too often when we think about things historically
02:11:51.560he you know placed it out the tempo is really good and it just drives it home you know that uh
02:11:59.400you know that we find ourselves there is that is um
02:12:07.160i i don't i think it's it's interesting like the blind are better than the burned
02:12:13.000this of course really does show at the time uh and i think still true today
02:12:20.680our cultural usage of what death is in relation to cremation that wasn't always the case for our
02:12:27.400ancestors we've gone back and forth but the finality of being burned really does drive
02:12:33.000this home even more than than perhaps saying being buried um is is is that there's no the
02:12:39.800transformation is complete uh and and and the living must live on and so you know here we it's
02:12:49.880the, you know, the lame can still ride a horse. The lame can still, you know, they may have
02:12:57.160trouble walking, but there are ways for them to get around. And, you know, the handless,
02:13:03.120and I find that it's like a missing of the hand, you know, can still help with guiding the animals
02:13:11.660and moving them about because their body and their presence needs to be there. And the deaf,
02:13:17.460I mean, even in this regards, the usage of the death, being able to not get overtaken by the din of battle can sometimes be an advantage, or at least I would say, perhaps in Elden times, but, you know, it's the idea is still there.
02:13:36.520And, you know, even a blind man is better than a corpse on the pyre.
02:13:41.800yeah i mean i think we hit on a lot of this in the last stanza but this one i go to a lot because
02:13:51.780again it's easy to feel useless in one or more areas especially if you you know are disabled
02:14:02.160in some way or you've suffered some kind of loss very often when we suffer loss all we can see
02:14:09.240is what we lost and what we wish we had.
02:14:16.840I try to make this point a lot to our folk,
02:14:28.740we miss all of the opportunities that we still have.
02:14:33.000I guess it's, you know, trying to think of the analogy, but, you know, we are not made whole by complaining about that which we lost or which we wish we had that we don't.
02:15:04.660There's people that are able to, and this comes a lot because in leading the AFA,
02:15:10.260we have all different kinds of our folk.
02:15:16.340We have all different people at different ages, different life experiences, different skill sets, different abilities, physical, mental, and otherwise.
02:15:32.860We have people that come to us from so many different places at so many different levels.
02:15:38.120all of those people can contribute in a valuable way to the success of our folk
02:15:46.500to the success of our faith and building something glorious for our gods
02:15:51.720and for our descendants to have in the future
02:15:54.560the challenge is finding what ways those are and then applying it
02:16:01.860we part of the soul sickness that afflicts our people so much
02:16:07.180is a mourning for what we don't have that we feel we should and a resentment at what we perceive
02:16:15.560others have taken from us instead of an empowerment of what we have and how we can make the best of
02:16:24.160what we have and how we can take the best advantage of the circumstances presented to us
02:16:29.040and crying over spilt milk helps absolutely zero zero of us focusing on what is within our grasp
02:16:40.140and making little victories where we can that's what moves us forward and yeah I think it's really
02:16:47.320important um sorry i was um that's this next one looking at some of the old norse to uh
02:17:04.440his translations was just throwing me for a loop on this one um 72
02:17:09.960a son is better though late he is born and his father to death have fared memory stones seldom
02:17:20.840stand by the road save when kinsmen honor his kin and i think um i was just looking at some of the um
02:17:34.680the the old norse but so the first part of this a son is good as a son is good or a son is is best
02:17:43.840or better uh to be born than to never be born at all it is good to leave a legacy uh or or to have
02:17:52.920someone to carry on the the honor and the name uh even though his father is his dead past you know
02:18:04.000before he's fully an adult and it's it's memory stones are you know seldom raised by by strangers
02:18:14.060and so i think this one really lends to a key component in our in our faith about um
02:18:20.260if you have the ability to you should invest in having children you should have offsprings you
02:18:30.060should have someone who honors and remembers you and caretakes. These things are important and
02:18:39.980you know especially here clearly our society and the keeping of the name by the son is so important
02:18:49.420in our culture that this is what it's focusing on. But I also think of just children in general
02:18:55.580uh be they a son or a daughter it's best to have them later than never because um
02:19:02.900you know that the legacy of your deeds and the things but that also involves you living a life
02:19:11.340that your children remember you being that person that deserves that that memoriam that deserves
02:19:22.120that who speaks highly of you and i think about that a lot uh when we're at sumble and people are
02:19:29.000speaking of um their you know kin folk that have passed um it's such a beautiful thing to be spoken
02:19:39.160of highly by your children especially in this day and age you find a lot of folks um perhaps either
02:19:47.560didn't have very good parents or, you know, their parents were good people, but they perceived them
02:19:55.140as being bad. And so it's, that's a touchy kind of thing. It's very, very hard to measure out,
02:20:02.940but living the life in which your kids thank you later when they are older and realize,
02:20:11.420how much sacrifice you put in and how much caretaking and love that you had for them
02:20:18.940that maybe perhaps they don't realize it at certain times in their life,
02:20:23.900but when they get older, they realize and speak highly of you.
02:48:35.200that echo throughout thousands of years
02:48:38.140um maybe we won't get there maybe we will but if we try we'll get a lot further than we would have
02:48:48.320if we didn't but reputation is so important so this is advice to us to build our own
02:48:56.400investment in our own immortality by being worthy of being spoken about being remembered
02:49:03.920But it's also a responsibility upon us to remember those people from our past, to remember our kinfolk that have passed, to remember the heroes of our folk who have done worthy deeds and to celebrate them and carry on that cult to them after they've passed, to keep their names and their reputations alive here in Midgard as long as we can.
02:49:39.420And so many of our people, and I think this has been a conscious effort by our foes, have tried to erode all of that.
02:49:46.640It's our responsibility not to let that happen and to remember the heroes of our people, to celebrate them, to sing their praises, to talk of their deeds.
02:49:57.480And we all bear that responsibility individually and collectively.
02:50:03.920And I think this is a really important mandate for us to do that and make sure that we do that.
02:50:10.640I was wondering if that would be a good place for us to stop off because I have some interesting, I want to try some stuff as far as translations go for the preceding verses from here on out because now we're starting to shift towards.
02:50:30.080okay as long as nick can remember because it's not at a page break so yeah i think that's a
02:50:37.280good place for us to stop we are through 78 please keep this remembered for next week and
02:50:45.400next week we will start at 79 um i do think that that's you know if ever there were a perfect place
02:50:56.460to stop. I think that's the place. That said, we have a couple of questions to get to. And we also
02:51:05.380have another donation that just came in from Chris Lucat for $5. If one of our folk is rich,
02:51:13.940we should rejoice, not scorn. Absolutely. 100%. $5 from him. Thank you so much, Chris.
02:54:08.740well i i would be amiss to not be absolutely truthful and i can always imagine that there's
02:54:18.540always going to be this basement dweller um internet wizard that's going to do well actually
02:54:23.660so i'll cut ahead and and just show that i know this um there is no written reference
02:54:31.860to the meaning of the symbol to our ancestors it is carved on stones but there is nothing
02:54:40.740explaining its meaning and its usage to our ancestors in the past so you know there's always
02:54:47.700somebody that's going to be like well the meaning doesn't have any meaning because of it wasn't we
02:54:53.720don't know what our ancestors thought however it was always it is uh all on its accounts is
02:55:01.780placed on stones that show sacrificial transitions battle transitions and life-to-death transitions
02:55:14.420and it has been referred to as the valk knot or the vowel note like the the knot of the chosen
02:55:25.140And so the correlation between Lord Voden and the Valknaut are clearly there based on the context of the carvings.
02:55:36.840But there is no runestone that says this symbol means this.
02:55:41.940So a lot of people have different interpretations of it.
02:55:44.260And that's what makes, one, symbols extremely enigmatic.
02:55:48.280And two, the validity of symbology in our culture today does not get lost because we don't know what it meant to our ancestors, because it does mean something to us now.
02:56:01.920And so people have always thought of this as the, in reference to Lord Vothin's binding of fetters and loosening of fetters, and that the idea of the sacrifice of, or the commitment to, the processes of Lord Vothin's deeds and what he's doing, the ultimate goals, prolonging Ragnarok, or whatever it might be,
02:56:30.100is associated with this symbol as well.
02:56:34.900So if you look at it from an archaeological standpoint
02:56:39.580and say, okay, it's just a symbol on a stone
02:56:42.600that depicts sacrifice and dying in battle
03:02:22.120i i think it's i don't know just worth mentioning the uh the well actually basement wizard
03:02:37.640So, what do we do when we have a symbol that's clearly very powerful from our ancient past, but we don't have a record of exactly what was meant by it?
03:02:57.320If you throw up your hands and like, oh, well, I don't know, it could be anything, then you're useless.
03:03:08.860What we do is as Gothar, as priests of our faith and our gods, is we try to ascertain the best use of it and the best meaning for it.
03:03:22.640We look at the different instances it was used and why.
03:03:27.320We meditate on it, we pray on it, we compile the modern understanding of its use in the last, you know, 50 years, and we, you know, make of it the best that we can, and we seek truth in it.
03:03:46.540Symbols evolve their meaning over time as social context changes, as people's wisdom grows, and as their relationship with our gods grow.
03:04:03.160It certainly is an Odinic symbol, and we see that in the archaeology.
03:08:08.180One, it denotes the idea that our ancestors had a common knowledge of the multiplicity of the gods, and that so much so that a person could be a gothi of one of the gods, and it was just understood that they held that link.
03:08:27.680um i think that it's again has to be measured we have to be careful in this day and age because
03:08:34.420a lot of people lend too much into monotheism as the template that they left or that it's just
03:08:41.960easier to have one or you know all all all the gods are really just odin uh we got to get away
03:08:48.660from that for sure. Um, but the, uh, you know, having full through or having a higher troth or
03:09:00.300perhaps a sacred moment that you like, I have a huge amount of, um, like visceral emotional,
03:09:11.160uh feelings in relation to lord thor like i have prayed and have had things i can't explain just
03:09:21.300happen to the point where i i feel a greater connection than say to perhaps for seti um
03:09:29.760but i believe it is important that we do honor all the gods in the way that you know by expanding
03:09:38.100our knowledge about them and again reaching out to them because i have met people who
03:09:43.460have a great uh perhaps like connection to uller uh perhaps for whatever reasons they they find
03:09:50.500themselves uh leaning in that direction um and i think that's good i think it's fine for us to
03:09:56.900build relationships with the gods on individual levels and goddesses i think that all the the
03:10:02.340the women folk of Asatru should take great desire to learn about the Asanya and reach out to them
03:10:09.400and pray to them and learn their wisdoms. And I do believe that they will teach you. You just,
03:10:15.140again, it's about opening yourself up to those wisdoms. I don't think it's foolish or childish.
03:10:20.260It's just, I would be careful of like, again, I'm doing paganism, but it's really just monotheism.
03:10:26.800like some people do that nowadays and um yeah uh for myself I when I was young everything was
03:10:37.000Odin everything was about Odin um and I had a profound experience in which I can't say that I
03:10:47.940like Odin didn't come down and say hey this but I will say this much after a long period
03:10:56.040of being out at night in a forest when I was very young and I probably should not have been
03:11:05.100out there I was I was not nobody knew I was out there and I was doing um a ceremony to
03:11:13.060to Odin in dedication what I came back from that was you cannot spurn the forest
03:11:20.440to praise but one tree. And that's what I got from that. The reason being is because there
03:11:26.380was a tree I specifically chose that looked like it was covered in eyes. And I was like,
03:11:31.100that's Othyn's tree. I got to honor Othyn at the Othyn tree. And I really just like drove it,
03:11:37.380drove it, drove it. And then what I got from that was kind of like, hey, stop being so
03:11:42.460one-dimensional. You can't just gain the protection of the forest if you honor only one tree.
03:11:49.660And that's when I became a hard polytheistic practitioner. I got that placed into my head. And suddenly I understood I had to understand why Lord Voden was trying to stave off Ragnarok and why all things in nature are in multiplicity and why the gods are important, all of them.
03:12:13.100and um so i i moved to that i moved to to hold devotionals to all the gods and all the goddesses
03:12:21.540and to memorize their names and to know their number and um and bear that in you know all in
03:12:28.120mind and that was because of the multiplicity so um speak and build relationships with the gods
03:12:37.320they especially give unto you blessings but never forget the whole never forget the kingdom of the
03:12:44.360gods the assas themselves yeah um as i mentioned it's it's not just a new age thing that certainly
03:12:55.240was the case in our ancestors time but sometimes it was sometimes exceptional circumstances are
03:13:05.720pointed out and shed light on because they are exceptional
03:13:12.440we don't see that as being the common thing for all the people to do we see that as very select
03:13:20.200individuals do that um certainly when we see somebody phrase gothi or somebody you know
03:13:27.640thor's gothi or whatever in the golden age i would imagine that our our ancestors had very established
03:13:40.120cults to all of these gods that had their own individual people who were responsible for that
03:13:48.200cultic practice we see that in you know other arian faiths that's clearly a thing you have
03:13:55.320people that attend to just to odin because that's his shrine and it's a particular priest to him
03:14:02.760that does those sacrifices that makes sense in that context and again when we have you know
03:14:10.120millions of our folk come home to aussitru then we'll probably have some specialized cults to
03:14:16.600these different gods and that's that's a really important evolution we're not there yet though
03:20:12.340And so most likely utilizing that summation is that it is heavily associated with death and with the binding of perhaps a soul as property to Odin.
03:20:27.480And that's what brings a lot of the dark, mysterious, don't get this just on your body for the sake of it kind of mythos.
03:20:37.400because it is on the back of a image of a person presumed to be being sacrificed to Lord of Odin.
03:20:49.080So that is a pretty, you know, dark and mysterious thing.
03:20:53.100But that's as far as it being a pathway, I have done a ritual with the Valknaut as a labyrinth,
03:21:01.420walking the Valknot and attaining three draughts from each of the corners representing his
03:21:08.500attainment of the the meat of poetry and uh you know being guided in through a woman that ritual
03:21:15.580is extremely powerful and so you brought up the idea of it being a pathway uh I certainly have
03:21:21.460seen it used that way but as far as its actual meaning we'll we don't know but our summation is
03:21:27.740is death and most certainly connections to to odin just as much in um statuary that shows ravens
03:21:38.060eagles wolves and horses in relation to him the valkna is can easily be placed in correlation to
03:21:46.460him as well so i mean that's really all we have i just wanted to do a little bit more on that one
03:21:53.340absolutely and as a as a final note capping it um gofi rob stam has rounded up slightly his
03:22:02.540contribution is 500 for the night so uh that's that's amazing thank you so much rob we appreciate
03:22:11.660you that's a really important thing you did thank you um not only that but he encouraged
03:22:18.460you know others to to donate in kind so that that that really does help out a lot of what
03:22:24.860we're trying to do and and it's examples like that that are very inspirational thank you for it um
03:22:31.180it's fine you're not feeling well let you get a little bit of rest uh i'm gonna go eat some dinner
03:22:37.420and we will pick up where we left off next week i'm really enjoying this series i hope the rest
03:22:44.700of you are as well um yeah uh thank you for for your questions thank you for you know thank you
03:22:54.460for listening and being such a great audience and thank you very much those that donated we really
03:22:59.180appreciate you guys your generosity goes a long way until then until next week that is
03:23:05.420Hail the gods, hail the folk, hail the AFA, and remember that victory never sleeps.