Asatru Folk Assembly - 4 Hofs, 4 Murals： The Real Story (from VNS Episode 17)

00:00:00.000 We have a question from Don that comes along with a $20 donation. Thank you so much, Don.

00:00:11.600 We appreciate it. Hail Alsharyagothi and Witten Svan. Fantastic insight. I also hail Thor. Every

00:00:19.340 time I hear thunder, it just comes out of me. Svan, would you let us in on some of the secrets

00:00:24.780 you've hidden in Thor's mural.

00:00:29.180 Yeah.

00:00:31.480 Then they wouldn't be secrets.

00:00:33.400 No, no.

00:00:34.040 There's a lot of little Easter eggs in there.

00:00:37.980 And in reality, they came about kind of as the evolution of the mural.

00:00:45.020 I mean, are we going to go into the murals?

00:00:48.020 Because, I mean, I know there's questions coming in.

00:00:49.760 So separate here, because we also have another question coming up in the line about your experiences painting the mural. So separate your content questions from your experience of painting it questions, if you would.

00:01:08.760 Okay. Yeah, well, the inception of the mural really did come about through, it was a reaction. There were things going on, and it led to specifics of the mural and the way it was going to be presented.

00:01:30.380 One of the first things was coming to the Hof to be, I like to joke and say, the Emir body.

00:01:42.280 It wasn't quite shaped to what we were going to bring, but it was there, and we walked in, and we saw this alcove, and immediately just struck me as, you know, that's where he needs to be. 0.78

00:01:57.840 That's where he wants to to stand over his house. And at the time, to be to be completely honest, I didn't know where we were going to go with this.

00:02:05.260 I didn't know what what type of Godsteads we were going to be working with.

00:02:09.380 I didn't know if we were going to do statuary. I didn't know if we were going to do a painting.

00:02:13.400 If we were going to do other sort of imagery and things like that, God pulls and there was all sorts of stuff on the on the list.

00:02:21.000 But when I walked in there and I saw that archway, I just really knew if this is the way it's going to evolve, he needs to be there because that is where he wants to be.

00:02:35.160 And I say that very lightly.

00:02:36.900 I'm not saying – I just had an overwhelming feeling of that moment where I was just like this is – everything just fills into this spot.

00:02:47.440 And I could see an image there in my mind of what I what I would want is just the correlation of other things that needed to be to evolve from it.

00:02:58.660 So naturally, I wanted to show a combination of things.

00:03:07.260 Really, I wanted to show upper, lower.

00:03:11.080 I wanted to show force, will, power, and dynamicism, attacking kind of an otherworldly alienism.

00:03:19.740 And then I wanted to also bring in the elements of cowardice in which when the string is being cut from Jormungandr, this moment, it could be read as like – if people read the story and thought of this as like a moment of failure, really the failure and onus falls on cowardice.

00:03:43.300 And so the events that were going on around that time were really pervading about action and about standing up for your beliefs and about attainment.

00:03:58.740 This was the first Hoff outside of Odin's Hoff that was going to breach the threshold.

00:04:04.380 It was on the other side.

00:04:05.880 Let me interrupt for just a sec because I think this is background that's going to be useful to the rest of the story.

00:04:11.500 i'm going to throw up the other question as well and we can combine these two with just telling

00:04:16.380 the whole tale of the mural so the next question is from filthy heathen svan could you talk a bit

00:04:22.460 about your experience painting the thorshof mural so about all of these things and to set them to

00:04:28.540 the backdrop um so many of these things are so big that it's hard when we get a really specific

00:04:41.420 a question to winnow it down to what's what's relating to it and what's not because everything

00:04:47.580 links to everything else so excuse me if i take a pause on that sometimes so i was talking to

00:04:53.820 in some kind of a context it was talking to uh sheila mcdallin uh a little while back

00:05:00.300 and she mentioned that uh you know her and steve weren't weren't exactly sure where this all would

00:05:06.140 go and how this would all develop um it was such a long struggle to get our first hoff that um you

00:05:15.340 know nobody really knew what that was going to be like if that's the only hoff we're going to have

00:05:19.100 and everything's just going to be about that or you know nobody knew for sure there was going to

00:05:24.700 be other hoffs or that that's the way we were going to go or what we were going to do um when

00:05:29.420 i when i became alas harry gothi it was very important to me to build temples to to each of

00:05:35.900 these these gods of ours and uh that was a really important thing for me um odin's hof it was

00:05:45.420 originally called uh new grange hall and it was kind of a generic hof to to the icer and a assembly

00:05:53.100 hall for for the afa and at that time again we didn't know that we were going to have all these

00:05:57.980 other Hoffs when we had to change the name of of the Hoff and I dedicated that Hoff and this was

00:06:06.860 we we had to do the name change of the Hoff after I uh became Alsheria Gothi and at that point it was

00:06:11.980 very important with that opportunity to me to dedicate that Hoff specifically to Odin and to

00:06:18.700 make that the first of many Hoffs this was a um when we talk about titling our Hoffs

00:06:24.460 Thor's Hoff is Thor's Hoff, the second Hoff of the Ausatru Folk Assembly, because we knew that we were going to continue this process. 0.53

00:06:34.460 Even before that, when we made the sign for Odin's Hoff, it's Odin's Hoff, the first Hoff of the Ausatru Folk Assembly, putting it out there that we plan to have many more Hoffs.

00:06:47.460 and the actually the idea of putting that title at the bottom the subtitle the first

00:06:52.580 off of the austral folk assembly was our law speaker alan turnage's idea um but yeah when we

00:07:00.580 got so before this uh we would always have an event and this event has become the thorshoff

00:07:08.100 event but we would have ostara in the south was that was a national event a number of years

00:07:12.740 previous to this and we'd go to this and every time the people um people in first anyone who

00:07:22.260 was at the event but very specifically folks who were in our in the carolinas would ask you know

00:07:29.300 how do we how do we get a hof over on the east coast how do we get a hof near us and we talked

00:07:34.820 about that and man they they're like man we really one day what what can we do we'll do anything to

00:07:40.180 get a hof near us this is the most important thing how do we get a hof and they were so excited about

00:07:44.500 it and uh eventually you know when we were when we were making this decision and we found the

00:07:52.580 location of you know well okay when we were scouting the location for thor's hof and uh

00:07:59.620 we decided on looking in the south um we looked at our membership base and where we had leadership

00:08:07.380 and we had a very um very active membership at that time in the carolinas and a couple 1.00

00:08:12.180 of hindrids who were were very active and man they they wanted this off so bad and they talked 0.98

00:08:19.540 such a big game about how much we need to do this we need to make this happen and i think everybody 1.00

00:08:24.180 is very comfortable with dreams as long as those dreams are out of reach it's fun to talk about

00:08:31.780 them when there's when there's no consequence and there's literally no skin in the game it's

00:08:36.260 it's a fun idea so they put this out there and they asked me to get them a hoff and okay cool

00:08:44.260 so uh the leader of one of these kindreds and a folk builder at the time and somebody who was

00:08:51.780 in our uh gothar program at the time you know this this hoff was going to be in in his state

00:08:59.140 and close to him and whatever and i asked you know before we even got it like hey i want to make sure

00:09:05.940 that you guys have this and this is something you're going to do and you're going to be able

00:09:08.980 to take care of and you're comfortable with this reality is different than theory so are you good

00:09:14.740 oh yeah absolutely i'm good 100 i'm behind it 100 i'll this will be great okay and then again

00:09:23.380 are you sure nope i'm sure 100 go forward we'll do it so we got in contract got the money down

00:09:30.820 got ready to get it and once reality hit once reality hit like that lightning bolt of four

00:09:38.900 um all of a sudden fear overtook people in the area and this gentleman in within i think a

00:09:51.780 succession of three or four days quit the gothar program quit being a folk builder and quit the

00:09:59.620 the AFA in general, along with his whole kindred, because they were terrified of the attention

00:10:04.840 that Thor's Hoff would bring to them. And he told me like, you know, hey, I don't know about this.

00:10:10.300 This is right down the road from where I work and where I live. And what are we going to do?

00:10:17.080 And this was after he gave his word on several occasions. But reality is much harder when

00:10:24.300 there's consequence, when there's weight. So we basically had to rebuild the entire state of

00:10:31.120 North Carolina and much of the state of South Carolina. Most of Thorshoff was saved and taken

00:10:37.640 care of and nursed there for that beginning period by people from Virginia, which is quite a

00:10:47.280 ways away if you're driving. And South Carolina. Stuff happened. Some of our South Carolina folks,

00:10:52.400 but uh north carolina and it's come back quite a bit we're more successful there now than we ever

00:10:57.980 have been but this initial group they let fear overtake them and the thor's fishing trip where

00:11:07.460 he tries to to pull in the world the world serpent it's all fun and games until all of a sudden that

00:11:14.880 serpent bites. And then the giant that was with him was overtaken by fear. And, you know, Thor

00:11:22.900 has victory in his grasp. He's got Jormungandr on the line and pulling him in. And the terror of the

00:11:30.680 reality of that was too much. And that giant cut the line and couldn't handle it. And I think this

00:11:38.200 piggybacks really well on our discussion we had last week about courage. Talking about a

00:11:46.220 theoretical that's distant in the future that you're not facing is very, very easy. But staring

00:11:52.860 Jormungandr in the face on the other end of this hook, reality is terrifying. And that's when you

00:12:02.740 see who's who has that courage within themselves and who just talks a big game and it's a it's a

00:12:13.780 it's a tragic thing and it's a beautiful thing depending on which way it cuts

00:12:18.580 and it often cuts both ways and it cuts differently on on people that you would expect much out of

00:12:24.660 let you down on it and people who you expect little out of blow you away with their character

00:12:31.560 So those thoughts were a lot of the things permeating the ether at that time.

00:12:37.120 Another thing to consider is, and Svan was bringing this up a little bit, and I'm not trying to take the air out of your story, Svan.

00:12:43.740 I apologize.

00:12:44.420 No, this is great.

00:12:45.500 I just think this is good background.

00:12:49.640 This was setting the tone.

00:12:51.540 Odenshof was our first Hof, but as far as a mural and really making the Hof focused on the worship of a god,

00:13:00.900 And this was that big first step. And it was scary because I tell you what, I didn't know what kind of art Svon could do. I saw some sketches, but I didn't know. So we're going to let this guy throw some paint on it and see what happens.

00:13:15.340 um get the primer ready i was okay so we didn't know how to do and secondly i was obnoxious and

00:13:24.660 like bugging him he kept sending me pictures of every stage of the process i'm really fortunate

00:13:29.880 in that every time we do a mural i harass spawn and he sends me all these different stages of

00:13:35.340 watching it develop and i that's one of the most special things as i'll hear your gothic perk i

00:13:40.900 suppose it's really neat watching those come come together but spawn out did himself on it and i'll

00:13:48.660 leave it with this and then it's then it's fun's turn i promise um i

00:13:59.060 so i went out there for the dedication and

00:14:05.540 again i saw this mural develop i saw pictures of it before anybody else did

00:14:10.900 When you walk into that vey, there's not good enough words to describe the power of that first sight of Thor and how it hits you.

00:14:25.660 And it hits you different than any of these other murals.

00:14:29.880 And it literally blows you away.

00:14:34.020 But I had that experience.

00:14:35.600 it was also very special at the first ostara that was hosted there which is their their national

00:14:41.840 showcase event um steve and sheila mcnalen were there and steve was blown away by it as well i

00:14:50.580 was with them when they walked in for the first time and uh you know swan said there's all kind

00:14:57.120 of different ideas about what we could have done or where it would have gone it's hard now after

00:15:02.220 the fact to imagine it going any other way because it was so perfect and so powerful and so uh with

00:15:09.980 that you can go back to your story i apologize for no no no here again the the folk watching

00:15:17.980 this don't know that like we don't prep for this so you know how what level we're gonna take it

00:15:23.340 but you just brought it in to very real point and i you know i'm i can kind of glance around

00:15:30.700 these things but you just kind of dropped it right into the ring what you were talking about is about

00:15:35.580 how you this has become a very intimate subject with a lot of history behind it and you brought

00:15:43.100 it into focus there when i walked into thorsoff with the intention of doing the murals because

00:15:49.500 this was where we were going to go with it all of what that was here ago they just said was in play

00:15:54.860 Um, I, there was only two people that were kind of on the ground doing work initially

00:16:01.520 for the Hoff, uh, all of, all of the groundwork, all of the real estate, everything that was

00:16:07.000 going on, uh, initially started out with two people and it was me and the, uh, leader of

00:16:15.060 that kindred.

00:16:16.340 And, uh, so words were spoken to me as well, uh, in front of the Hoff actually, that we

00:16:23.320 were going to do this.

00:16:24.140 it was time. We had talked about this for many, many, many years before the Hoff was even a

00:16:30.400 reality. Uh, we were talking about, man, it would just be great if we had a Hoff on the East coast. 0.96

00:16:37.660 Oh, it would be great if it was in Virginia or North Carolina, right in our backyard so that

00:16:42.060 we could really get this done when it became a reality. Uh, you know, when it's time to do

00:16:50.400 real stuff sometimes you find out who's really there and who isn't and um you know he left

00:16:57.160 everybody's a gangster until it's time to do gangster stuff right well and it it came on a

00:17:03.480 sunday night i think because i didn't find out till tuesday uh which perhaps has some

00:17:09.660 importance there too but i didn't find out till a tuesday that that he had left and um so suddenly

00:17:15.780 I was held by I was by myself holding the bag, if you will. And that was a real strong moment.

00:17:24.360 And instead of, oh, well, he's out, you know, I can't do this by myself. There's just no way that this is going to happen.

00:17:33.860 And then at the same time, we're having these conversations and you're asking me, well, why should we even do it there now?

00:17:39.380 because we have this kind of deficit and I was like please I think that the that the Virginia

00:17:45.440 folk and the South Carolina folk there's people around we can float this and I remember you saying

00:17:52.540 this is a huge risk like there's nothing there you're coming from a distance away uh you are

00:17:59.060 you willing to drive that to do that are you willing to put time in to do that and I was

00:18:04.600 pleading yes yes we can't if this is the case if this is what we've got and again there's a

00:18:10.920 fortuitous story about the nature of us attaining the building in and of itself and prayers to thor

00:18:15.900 i felt at this point if thor had sanctioned this to happen it it was it was incumbent upon me to

00:18:23.940 do anything i could to convince you and to convince everybody that this was worth the the

00:18:29.180 challenge. And so I did not step out. I did not back away. I went headlong in and you had faith

00:18:37.520 in me to, to do that. I remember you saying like this, okay, we're going to do this, but you got

00:18:43.520 to, you know, you got to make this happen. And it, it was a whirlwind of action and movement to get

00:18:52.540 the building and do everything that we were doing. And then of course there were people that were

00:18:56.000 kind of coming around and all of that stuff but that really was lost in the din of what we were

00:19:01.160 what we were going to start doing and one of the first things that we started doing was the mural

00:19:04.640 and the mural became the point of godstead this was we wanted it was such a focal point

00:19:12.080 that we wanted to do it and because of all of this stuff that me and the al-sir-go they had

00:19:16.620 been talking about. When I went in there, you know, the story of Thor's fishing trip. And I

00:19:27.780 wanted to do the point where it really kind of emphasized was when Thor starts to row out

00:19:34.760 further, and the fear in that story starts to build, and it culminates with the cutting of the

00:19:41.380 rope. That became the story that we needed to put up there. I was originally just thinking of doing

00:19:48.820 just an image, a godstead of Thor. But we added the element with Jormungandr and Rheim because

00:19:58.040 of the notion of courage and fear. And it was almost as if it was all happening with purpose

00:20:06.340 and that Thor was involved in that.

00:20:13.640 I believe that in a way that I can't explain without sounding kind of kooky,

00:20:18.940 but I really felt like we were in a mythos of our development as a church

00:20:24.780 because there were so many factors going on.

00:20:27.400 So the choice of Hynnsfydas, the fishing trip, where he cuts the line,

00:20:36.340 became the focal point and then from there the idea was how to position it how to do it and what

00:20:43.200 color schemes what were we going to do um you know the art of the afa is not art of uh you know like

00:20:51.260 it doesn't look like a black metal album that that was not something that and i think the

00:20:56.660 house here and i were talking about that like we want colors brightness life happiness we want to

00:21:02.760 see the boldness of colors that our ancestors wore when they went to the elthing or or or you know

00:21:09.300 when you go to nordic uh towns now and you see the the houses are brightly colored and and all

00:21:14.980 that stuff that that um that spirit that can't be broken not even by the land it's just happy and

00:21:21.600 filled with life and and so we started to form we had the story that we wanted to do and we had kind

00:21:28.660 of an idea of the dimensions of what we were going to do and then we started talking about

00:21:33.040 coloring and things like that and then there was this moment where the elsewhere ago the

00:21:37.420 kind of was like all right get get to getting it and uh i i had never painted a mural before

00:21:44.020 so like i've i've only done mediums of very small pictures so the first thing we started doing

00:21:50.160 i just had the notion or the idea of putting up painter's tape and basically doing the whole

00:21:56.360 um uh image on with painter's tape and pencil to get an idea of scope to make sure that things

00:22:05.980 didn't look too uh odd or out of place and when i was sending these tape pictures i i know it's

00:22:14.200 like it just looks like scraps of tape all over the place and uh sketches and and little scratches

00:22:20.800 all over the wall um and you know i knew the scope of it wasn't going to be caught but

00:22:27.600 i was here ago he was working with me he's telling me what he wanted he wanted to see

00:22:31.200 some of the elements of this he wanted to see the size he wanted to have gravitas and power

00:22:36.160 and that's where the development of the sonnenrod over the head really started to formulate and so

00:22:42.720 through this back and forth via calls and texts and i think you know because i can't be on the

00:22:48.160 phone while i'm doing it there's these moments where i think like how about this and i'd show

00:22:53.360 a picture and he no the eyes are they gotta look like this and i'm like okay i'll try it so i you

00:23:00.640 know i go in and i do it how about this nah and then we would angle it and i mean thankfully

00:23:07.760 you you didn't really it was very constructive criticism it was never about just tweaking it

00:23:13.760 out of, I think, strictly just a desire of something you wanted. You had constructive

00:23:19.360 points of where you wanted the eyes to look, the emanation of light, the positioning of the body.

00:23:25.500 There was real good constructive criticisms that kind of built out. And once we got that

00:23:30.480 foundation going, then it just took off. You know, guys, as a side point,

00:23:34.940 um Svon and I are able to do this on on a lot of different things and I think we we complement each

00:23:44.160 other very well in certain ways um I've got like I can see things in my head I have

00:23:51.440 a lot of thoughts about art but I can't make art like I can I know what I want but I can't

00:24:00.920 make that manifest and spawn has an amazing ability to be able to manifest these things

00:24:06.760 into the into the physical and make them beautiful and it was really cool to be able to be some part

00:24:13.400 of that process and i never want to overburden it not let the artist put it all out there because

00:24:20.680 the gods are working through spawn in a very special way um but yeah it's it's we were big on

00:24:27.400 on working with the metallics in the picture the metallics were one of those big things he

00:24:32.600 and i spoke about and then that uh that that black sun halo uh that now adorns all of our

00:24:40.680 all of our gods and will when we do arts of our heroes as well uh but red for the heroes and gold

00:24:47.240 for for the the icer um was really special to be part of that while this was developing and uh

00:24:55.160 I remember, I remember that also clearly, it really takes me back. I appreciate you telling

00:24:59.960 the story about this one. Yeah, that, that, that time. And I, and again,

00:25:05.220 Altshara Gauthier was not hitting, uh, uh, like backseat driver level stuff. He was,

00:25:11.760 he was basically giving honest criticisms about the way it would be more dynamic to do something,

00:25:18.840 or perhaps it would be better if we did it this way. And I would try it.

00:25:23.460 and then we'd sit back we'd take a picture of it we'd look at things and then yep no that's it

00:25:28.820 that's hitting it right there and then so it started to develop and once we got the groundwork

00:25:32.640 going there was this time where I really couldn't be on the phone and it was it was I was doing the

00:25:38.400 mural over a series of weekends because I was working and then I would come down around Thursday

00:25:43.440 and I would stay till Saturday night and so when it really got pitched it was kind of like our

00:25:48.860 communication was at the beginning and then a little bit at the end and then we would kind of

00:25:52.960 adjust. I would, you know, like take down kind of mental notes of what you were saying. And then

00:25:57.920 when I came back the next week, I would hit those notes and then send a picture and say,

00:26:02.620 how about now? What is, what are you thinking about this? And so there was an intimate kind

00:26:06.620 of conversation between us because we were hitting the first threshold of imagery of the AFA. And to

00:26:13.680 me, I was challenged with the task of it, but it was you that were, you were talking about an age

00:26:20.660 of art you were looking at something bigger than even i could understand was that you like you were

00:26:26.980 kind of like like swan think about this like there's going to be a time when people are going

00:26:31.440 to look back at this time and your hands are going to be involved in an age of like depiction of the

00:26:40.460 gods and no pressure so it kind of like oh but it helped it helped me it helped hone me and it

00:26:49.940 really did help me keep clarification during that time because of everything

00:26:53.700 that was going on on the outside like I said people were dropping out middle of

00:26:57.740 the weekend in the middle of the night and just kind of slinking back out of

00:27:01.180 this I'm not touching this and you know I've got my family to worry about it and

00:27:04.760 I have a family I have a job I have a lot to lose and I kept going forward and

00:27:13.520 the only thing I really super focused on was the threshold of creating the

00:27:18.420 mural. Um, so there's like a lot of different things in the mural that I would say to get back

00:27:26.360 to the question about Easter eggs or, or about the hidden meanings, really the colors are kind

00:27:33.060 of symbolic. Uh, they have intention and meaning also to, um, because we're pulling from a Nordic

00:27:40.820 myth I we were talking about like the appearance of Thor and and correlation to um uh tangible

00:27:51.080 historical context but more so than just the material so like there's little things like uh

00:27:59.220 even though the wool wraps around his legs have tiny little um like golden aglets or golden hooks

00:28:07.040 that that were that were used on actual wool wraps of the legs during amongst the anglo-saxons and

00:28:13.120 the nordic period so we i was trying to pay attention to some of the detail there uh the

00:28:18.480 other thing i really wanted to um every every mural has a seed that correlates to another hof

00:28:28.240 because like the elsewhere ago they said this was the beginning this was the second hof there was

00:28:33.120 going to be more so one of the things i really wanted to place in was greedable i wanted to

00:28:39.120 place in the iron rod in his belt because grida is the mother of vidar or vidar and so that little

00:28:49.280 nod there even though it's kind of hard to connect the dots i wanted it to be there

00:28:56.960 on purpose because it was you know we're coming down the line we're going to open a temple to

00:29:02.480 the vida. And I wanted that correlation to be there. And so every Hoff kind of has a little

00:29:10.080 nod or a lean to one or the other. You know, a lot of people don't realize that like I got a chance

00:29:17.300 to go to, to Odin's Hoff after Baldur's Hoff. So in Baldur's, there's a nod to Odin's Hoff because

00:29:23.920 I was going there next. And so everyone kind of correlates to one ahead of it or a one to proceed.

00:29:33.160 So Greedavull, the runes on Greedavull, the runes on his belt, this was before the Folk Futhark.

00:29:42.400 Now, I wanted to bring this up because I've heard rumors, little birds telling me things that people are under the misconception that we somehow created a new Futhark.

00:29:53.680 No, that is – I'm insulted that they would think we would be that hubris.

00:30:00.040 Like, no, the idea, uh, I think it comes from their ignorance and the fact that they haven't developed art yet.

00:30:08.060 And a lot of these, the criticisms that are coming at us are coming from people that don't have established art or have the medium in which they're going to have large scale artwork being presented to the folk in representation of the gods.

00:30:22.040 And what kind of respect level that has, they don't have that.

00:30:25.620 So they're start shooting in the dark and saying, oh, they're making up this crap and they're making up these runes. 0.99

00:30:30.040 No. In actuality, the Folk Futhark was not even in process during Thor's mural, but what happened was I was starting to write things down to give context. I wanted Greedival to be on his belt, but if there was an iron rod with nothing on it, then the people wouldn't understand what that was unless they looked into the story, but I could give it right then and there, and then they would be like, oh, and then they'd go back and look it up.

00:30:55.340 but i wanted to do it in runic so if we're going to do it in runic how do we do it in runic and

00:31:02.160 what i was here go the and i sat down and we talked about it and we thought okay how about

00:31:09.980 we use all the futharks that have already been in existence every cell like all of them and

00:31:16.980 and and and pull some from each one to create a futhark that we will use for artistic expression

00:31:24.940 the idea is that we want to we want to pass on lore but some people are familiar with the elder

00:31:31.200 some people are familiar with the younger some people are familiar with anglo-saxon phrygian

00:31:35.900 others are you know with the armanin suddenly we realize there's people that have different

00:31:40.540 you know understandings of the runes so let's pull a little bit from each one that'll encourage

00:31:46.640 them to study cross and see see the symbols in different ways and also allow us to convey a

00:31:54.180 message in our artwork so that folk years from now can read it and understand it without having

00:32:02.240 some sort of confusion based on rules from other futharks. So we basically just created a

00:32:08.820 linguistical medium in order to better describe what's going on in the artwork. We weren't trying

00:32:16.540 to create a new magical system. We weren't trying to create some sort of, uh, uh, you know, AFA

00:32:22.680 super rune Futhark that we're going to use. Uh, it was like when I found out about this criticism

00:32:31.320 and it kind of like hurt my head at what level that would be levied at us or levied at me. Um,

00:32:38.960 no, it was about art. It's about expressing the spiritual. It's about things that were going on

00:32:44.840 at the time, being expressed through the painting in order to encourage the folk to learn a lesson

00:32:51.400 from it. And one of the big things is about fear along the edge of the boat. You know, it's clearly

00:32:58.180 stating there that Himmer is struck with fear while Thor is the lord of action. He's moving

00:33:06.000 forward. He's about to crush. He's going to take all of the power of earth and heaven and place it

00:33:11.940 right that in the middle of that which constrains the middle earth and it gets cut because him is

00:33:20.180 a coward that was what i was trying to convey and i couldn't just do it with just pictures i wanted

00:33:25.780 to add words and things so the folk folk food art was actually developed at the end of that so

00:33:32.340 there's pieces of it that aren't in the folk food ark and i'm deliberating right now whether or not

00:33:37.460 not to go back and adjust i have adjusted some things but i don't want to do it i'm approaching

00:33:42.440 the godstead with a sense of reverence i don't want to just oh you know we're gonna erase this

00:33:48.520 and do this it's more or less like okay i'm i'm gonna refocus on how i gotta plan this out because

00:33:54.220 runes have sizes and i don't want to overshoot or undershoot and create gaps and kind of mess with

00:34:01.260 the with the completion of it so we still have to edit some stuff with the with the folk truth

00:34:07.900 arc but after thor's off the folk the folk truth arc was in place and it was it was all about being

00:34:14.860 able to convey messages through art so i wanted to bury that kind of rumor or i don't know wind

00:34:23.280 that seems to catch people's tongues um we uh you know uh utilizing that the other thing that

00:34:31.920 i have never done a mural before thor's off so a funny little thing is um my my usage of i i have

00:34:41.960 done um i used to do tattoos and i have done tattoo work and usually you're you're dealing

00:34:47.520 with a single piece, strong borders, not a lot of space. Background was a big thing for me and

00:34:54.120 natural background and utilizing clouds and mountains and waves. I had no experience in

00:35:01.240 whatsoever. So I did a lot of studying a lot. I, you know, I went, looked in art books. I looked

00:35:11.120 at because i live on the beach at the beach and i looked at waves and in paintings i've even i even

00:35:17.040 went to i went to bob ross at one point because i couldn't quite make the waves look 3d or like

00:35:26.320 they were actually curling forward and i remember typing in uh waves on stormy ocean bob ross and

00:35:34.660 like looking at his technique and then trying it and i was fully assuming there's no way i'm

00:35:39.640 going to be able to replicate this this is bob ross we're talking about here and i felt like i

00:35:44.300 got i got in a good spot so that's some of the stuff the coloring the choice of the story the

00:35:50.860 usage of the folk futhark or runes in general to create uh an extension of um or uh to expound on

00:35:59.820 the meaning of things and then also to the establishment of the son and rod around the head

00:36:04.020 the uh establishment of Mjolnir and the runes upon his belt so you know and and making sure

00:36:11.040 that we have you know iron glove and iron grip in there and things because those were also gifts

00:36:16.600 given to Thor from Grida to hold breathable or excuse me no it's uh the gifts from the uh the

00:36:24.420 dwarves to hold Mjolnir and so I wanted to add this kind of idea of evolution of the toolage

00:36:30.840 of Thor because we see amongst no other god, and this kind of correlates back to that question

00:36:36.580 about why a symbol of Thor, the hammer, is because we see this evolution in Thor with imagery towards

00:36:44.240 him that directly correlate to the time in which we are in. We see our ancestors and we see the

00:36:52.100 Pan-Arianism of the club, and then the club kind of evolves into the axe or the bronze axe or the 0.60

00:36:57.820 hammer axe. And then we see by the time of the late Nordic period, which, you know, the last 0.82

00:37:06.960 vestige of our faith, the evolution of Mjolnir became a hammer. And, you know, understanding

00:37:16.900 that the gods evolved with us. So that was another big point I wanted to show with Gretheville

00:37:24.180 being in the belt. And there's some symbology there. But I mean, I think we could talk about

00:37:29.180 that a little bit later, as far as some of the intention there. But I just wanted to say that

00:37:34.280 was some of the things that we were trying to really get out there. And it was under when I

00:37:38.760 went in there, there was a ton of stuff going on around us that inspired a lot of this. That was

00:37:45.160 very long-winded sorry no no i and uh inside baseball these are organic but that's the one

00:37:53.940 thing i sent svan earlier today like be prepared to talk about the mural because i knew that was

00:37:58.460 going to be a big deal because it's such a special beautiful tribute that we've done

00:38:04.440 and that svan has done for us at thor it's um it really is worthy of myth and legend

00:38:12.960 and it's spectacular and it's, it's a really important thing to talk about.

00:38:21.700 So I had something I was going to say, but it slipped my mind. Hopefully I will think of it

00:38:25.620 later and be able to say something then. We have a $10 donation from Tyler Bethea.

00:38:34.620 Thank you so much, Tyler. We appreciate you. He says, great to see you two gentlemen tonight.

00:38:39.680 hail the afa we appreciate it there we go and uh hey bob ross we appreciate that bob ross

00:38:49.440 i think he's underrated as an artist but the stuff he's able to do on a canvas is really

00:38:55.300 magical and i'm i'm glad that was able to help you with the waves i either didn't know that or

00:39:00.320 didn't recall that yeah i i never even told you that and that's another point that i wanted to

00:39:04.860 bring you up to the focus that we don't pre-script this this is your sometimes i think you're

00:39:10.720 learning stuff that i haven't really talked about as we're doing these podcasts no i'm i i'm i'm a

00:39:18.240 bob ross fan not so much here but a fan of his art absolutely

00:39:34.860 We'll be right back.

Asatru Folk Assembly - December 15, 2023

4 Hofs, 4 Murals： The Real Story (from VNS Episode 17)

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