On this week's episode of Victory Never Sleeps, we conclude our seven-part series on the Saga of the Volsunga Saga. This episode was originally supposed to be about Michigan Folkbuilder Chris Savage talking about our Gothic heroes and their very important struggle against Christianity. We were very excited for that episode, and we will bring it to you exactly when we can, but for the best of reasons, we want to congratulate folkbuilder Chris and his lovely wife on the birth of their daughter.
00:11:54.020Unfortunately, I think I was reading ahead and it really threw me off.
00:11:59.960um because and i think people don't know this um so you and i have both read these but i've read
00:12:10.040like i've read them in a different format and then on top of that it's been many many
00:12:16.040years since i've read the volsung saga from beginning to end so i remember all you know
00:12:23.160just parts bits and pieces important things and i would go back and reference so like even last week
00:12:31.480i made a big snafu where i was kind of like thinking that the dialogue was going one direction
00:12:37.560and then i was completely wrong and it was going in another direction and that's really the the
00:12:42.200big thing i think that folks need to understand is that um we are coming from a religious perspective
00:12:50.760into the lore um and truth be told the lore isn't just religious it's historical there's
00:13:00.840inclinations by the authors and to try to make them um shine like the iliad of the odyssey so
00:13:09.240there's classical literature kind of sprinkled in there's some christian um overtone sprinkled in
00:13:15.880and all of these things kind of playing out. So when they do that on top of translational
00:13:23.500differences, the one that I read did not translate like this at all. Um, yeah, it ends up creating
00:13:31.800these conversational switches on me that are a little bit, and I like to come clean when,
00:13:37.120when i um kind of make a and mess up on this um so i was trying to read ahead in order to
00:13:48.080kind of not let that happen again and so i so that said i believe we are starting
00:13:56.240and uh producer nick check me on this if you have a different um recollection i think we are
00:14:05.040starting chapter 33. Okay, so yes, the death of Brynhild just happens. So I want to say this
00:14:16.860to start as well. We are, and everybody can find this while I yap at you here, we are looking at
00:14:23.540veluspau.org. That's where we're getting our text from. And it's really cool, the translators of
00:14:30.380this particular version interspersed a number of edict poems in here as well that are part of the
00:14:37.880story to kind of flesh it out. So they took kind of a, I think, very appropriate artistic liberty
00:14:44.160in combining pieces of the lore into the narrative. I think that makes some of our job in the next few
00:14:52.260poems Svon and I are going to cover or we're planning on covering. I think that pieces those
00:14:59.040all together very well. So that's going on. Something to kind of remind you guys on. There
00:15:05.120are pieces of our lore that as Gothar, Svan and myself, you know, go back to all of the time for
00:15:13.420different little, for different big cosmological things, for different little nuggets, if we
00:15:22.380remember a piece here or there. But when you first get involved in Ausatru, there is a perception
00:15:29.640that there's this endless, you know, lore horde of material for you to go through. And I think
00:15:38.440of the things that we consider like the primary pieces of lore,
00:15:46.900you're surprised if you really go at it voraciously, how fast you go through those.
00:15:52.380Now, I think if you start broadening your circles on what counts, then yes, to inform yourself and be a wise person in the beliefs and ways of our gods, our folk, and our ancestors, you should always be studying.
00:16:06.760But it means there's pieces of lore, there's obscure poems and stories and sagas that, you know, there are some that Svon and I probably haven't read in their entirety in 20 years.
00:16:21.020there's more than it's you know maybe been 15 or so there's a lot that we go back and read little
00:16:28.420snippets of but one of the things that i really really like about doing these lore episodes
00:16:33.520is i'm getting to uh getting to reread material that i haven't read in a long time and that when
00:16:42.920i read it was a very different season of my life i read a lot of this material when i was
00:16:48.480in my early 20s, and two decades of life adds a perspective and caused me to look at it from
00:17:00.360a different angle. So it's really nice to go through this stuff again with you guys and with
00:17:06.480my friends Fawn. And that's the other thing. It's cool to go through this with my friends Fawn as
00:17:13.420well as with my colleague Svon. So it's neat to, it's neat to do this and to get to share that
00:17:20.140whole process with everybody here. So I appreciate you guys going along with us on this because
00:17:24.480you know, I'm sure Svon feels the same, but I get a lot out of it. It's really,
00:17:29.740you know, it's a special opportunity. Yeah, I think the colleague side is,
00:17:34.080it would be interesting, only friends, how many strange and funny jokes we would be getting
00:17:41.300out of um a lot of this but um yeah and just to give a brief recap is that Brynhild the original
00:17:52.200source of love and inspiration for Sigurd and the one that he is uh there is a spell cast upon him
00:18:01.940so that he forgets Sigurd and or excuse me uh forgets Brynhild and marries Gudrun
00:18:10.020And then Gudrun's brother, again, uses magic to dress Sigurd up to pretend that he is him. And it's very, very convoluted, but it's coming to an end. Sigurd has passed.
00:18:31.600And now Brynhild has passed, and there's an interesting point of this is they lay the pyre out, and Sigurd is there with his three-year-old child, and that child was killed because Brynhild allowed it, encouraged it.
00:18:57.340But now he's laid there. His child is laid there. And then Brynhild is laid upon as well with a sword in between them, just like the night that they spent together when he was guised as Gudrun's brother.
00:19:24.700And again, I think this is really important to note how the poems and stories abbreviate so much that you might not, why is this important?
00:19:37.560And there must be or is some maybe either just kind of lost emphasis or a skipping over of why some of the folk around Sigurd and Brunhild know of their initial love and the secondary love where Sigurd was such a good man.
00:20:02.080And he kept himself away from her because he was married and betrothed to Gudrun, emphasizing his chastity, or not chastity, but his loyal and lawful nature.
00:29:21.140So, chapter 33, Gudrun is wedded to Atli, and there is a misspelling there if you're following the website.
00:29:32.240Now so it is, that whoso heareth, these tidings saith, that no such and a one as was Sigurd was left behind him in the world.
00:29:46.280None were so great as him. The world is now lesser for his loss.
00:29:53.360Nor ever was such a man brought forth because of all the worth of him, nor may his name ever minish by eld in the Dutch tongue, nor in all the Northlands while the world standeth fast.
00:30:10.160So I looked at this as the usage of the Dutch tongue, and I think that it's a direct translation with the idea of the Deutsch or the Germanic proper, and he translated it as the Dutch tongue.
00:30:40.160because in the in the old norse it's tungur og au nord london so the tongue of the of like the
00:30:53.320northern kingdoms and he translated it to that so i thought that was kind of odd
00:31:00.400uh the story tells that on a day as Gudrun sat in her bower she fell to saying better was life
00:31:12.880in those days when I had Sigurd he who was far above other men as gold is above iron
00:31:20.220or the leak over the grass of the field or the heart over the wild things this was that exact
00:31:29.160line was spoken earlier and you will see that our ancestors used anchor points and if you could
00:31:39.720remember how many times you've said that specific phrase you knew where you were at in the story
00:31:47.720while you were trying to memorize it and it is again very interesting to show iron is very
00:31:54.440important but gold is clearly the higher and more precious metal of the time um we also the the leak
00:32:05.080the the leaks holiness has been with our people since we left the home dale and went throughout
00:32:14.040the land and then lastly the heart the which is a deer um and i'm just saying that for anybody
00:32:23.080who might not know that but the word deer means in in old english it means the wild animals and
00:32:31.080the heart was specifically the antlered or uh the the animal we would consider like a doe or a or a
00:32:38.600deer um and the heart the the connection between the white heart or just the the heart in general
00:32:49.960as a noble animal as an animal that was um hard to be hunted and had um an essence of
00:33:02.360prophecy to it and of course they didn't hunt the deer like we do today um so i i think that's why
00:33:10.360that the challenge and the and the uh general regalness of that animal is it's much higher i
00:33:16.440think people now when sitting in trees is different story but um still majestic but uh so
00:33:29.880she speaks and says that none are as great as her last her her late husband and um
00:33:40.120she says that the leak over the grass or the field of the heart in the other wild animals
00:33:45.000until my brethren begrudged me such a man the first and the best of all men and so
00:33:53.160they might not sleep or they had slain him huge clamor made grani when he saw his master and lord
00:34:03.560sore wounded and then i spoke to him even as with a man but he fell drooping down to the earth
00:34:40.540Where Gudrun has taken up her abode and she calls her sons to talk with her and asks whether they will make atonement to Gudrun for her son and her husband and said that it was but meat and right to do.
00:35:01.880so it also you the utilization of meat uh meat would mean a meal not specifically just flesh
00:35:14.000but also to reach the proper level of things then gunnar spoke and said that he would atone
00:35:25.080for her sorrows with gold. So they sent for their friends and arrayed their horses, their helms,
00:35:34.220and their shields, their bairnies, and all their war gear, and their journey was furnished forth
00:35:40.960in the noblest wise. And no champion who was of great men might abide at home, and their horses
00:35:54.440were clad in mail coats see we've read this have we not they're they're uh they're wearing the short
00:36:05.560bernie coats and their their helms are strongly hammered but we've read this part
00:36:12.040um there they go and as they're moving they gather many great princes and kings or
00:36:24.940and remember the usage of king is uh leaders of the people they own the land and um they gather
00:36:33.560them uh including uh the longabards and the franks and the saxons uh i was here we read this part
00:36:48.360and we talked about in the poem here coming up all the kin of letters cut a right and reddened
00:37:23.680And they're going to bring gold, but the other element of the story is, is they're not going alone. They're bringing all of the absolute best from all of these tribes as they move forward and go to meet them.
00:37:44.940um so they went into the hall of king alf and there abode them the longobards and the franks
00:37:54.540and the saxons they feared with all their war gear and had over them red fur coats even as the song
00:38:02.780says bernie's shortcut strong helms hammered girt with wood swords red hair gleaming
00:38:10.700they were fain to choose good gifts for their sister and spake softly but in none of them
00:38:20.880would she trow and again that in none of them would she trust uh as she her brothers are the
00:38:29.840slayers of sigurd then gunner brought unto her a drink and it was mingled with hurtful things
00:38:37.700And this she must needs a drink. And with the king thereof, she had no more memory of the guilt against her. This is a plot point in the story numerous times in which the runes are placed onto the horn in which the victim forgets things.
00:39:02.460And I only bring this up because there are certain people on the internet who try to portray that Seder is strictly evil or malicious and that the runes given to us by Lord Heimdall are good.
00:39:20.880And there are many, many instances where it shows that the runes are tools and they can be used for good or they can be used for ill based on the one who has the knowledge.
00:39:38.880And that kind of trying to say, see there come from women feminine magic bad, runes come from male god good is, I think, a very kindergarten kind of style of thinking.
00:39:58.640Or, again, just the idea is nobody's going to read it so we can say whatever.
00:40:03.860Well, in this case here, we clearly see the runes are being utilized to wipe memory away.
00:40:13.880So in that drink was blended the might of the earth and the sea with the blood of her son.
00:40:23.020And in that horn were all letters cut and reddened with blood, as is said here under.
00:40:31.800So, to give better descriptions and for the Scalds to do metered poetry, they would put metered poetry into the stories.
00:40:44.540So, at this point, it's just reemphasizing.
00:40:49.940On the horn's face, we're there, all the kin of letters, cut aright and reddened.
00:48:32.540Gudrun retorts, give not this man to me for an evil thing shall come upon thy kin from him.
00:48:43.020So now she's also lending into, she's taking stock in Brynhild's prophecy.
00:48:49.900And to his own sons shall he deal evil and be rewarded with grim revenge thereafter.
00:48:59.180Then waxed Brynhild fell at those words and spoke.
00:49:05.500So the best way to think of this is Grimhild kind of, it says she waxes.
00:49:34.120She grows in might. Her hammer, the part of her soul that is her will manifest, grows forward, and she tells Gudru, you're going to do this.
00:49:53.140It's very similar to in The Lord of the Rings, if anybody's watched it, when Gandalf says, I am no conjurer of cheap tricks, and his whole demeanor and the very environment around him changes.
00:50:09.700This is, again, a part of the expression of the soul.
00:50:13.640So, then Gudrun spoke, thus then must it need befall, whosoever against the will of me or for little joy shall it be, and for great grief.
00:50:32.020So, I am. Terrible news coming for Atli. And hearkening back to the prophecy of Brynhild saying, and Brynhild hated Gudrun, but she said Sigurd's going to die. I'm going to die.
00:50:49.520And then when you are alone, you'll be married off to Atli and you will be the death of him and his sons.1.00
00:50:59.440And then Sigurd dies and then she dies.
00:51:02.280And now Gudrun is like, oh, no, this is this is all there.
00:51:30.960And yet four more again by land and road
00:51:34.780Till at last they came to a certain high-built hall
00:51:39.100Then came to meet Gudrun many folk thronging in groups.
00:51:47.220An exceedingly goodly feast was made there, even as the word had gone between either kin, and it passed forth in most proud and stately ways.
00:52:19.120And a general understanding is that oftentimes we did have Hoffs, but a lot of times it was about the Gothar going to the hall and performing the union there and finishing by placing the hammer on the lap of the bride at the table where everyone was eating and drinking.0.83
00:52:49.120So, they're there and they join them, but it says she just knows she's doomed.
00:53:01.120So, before we proceed, I'd like to acknowledge a $50 donation from Austin in Wisconsin towards
00:53:11.420the Baldur's Hoff Steeple Fund, and an additional $50 donation from him to the Fraeshoff Fund.
00:53:20.300So thank you very much. We appreciate that. And some of you may be aware we are currently building
00:53:27.160up a war chest to put a down payment on Fraeshoff when we find a suitable property. So thank you
00:53:33.180very much for that. Oh, I was needing, I was going to break off to the restroom real quick.
00:54:39.740so and i don't mean this to circumvent the question but it's a little bit of a sidestep
00:54:58.740one of the lessons or at least something i think is instructive
00:55:02.780of the saga is to be inspired inspired by it and inspired by the
00:55:12.620the example of nobility that's uh signified or that's exemplified in uh sigurd fafner's body
00:55:28.340I think that it is within him you see the nobility of character with his living up to his oaths, with his being loyal, with his having to be tricked in order to be part of the duplicity.
00:55:52.180But you also see a very prominent martial prowess.
00:56:02.220I think accompanied by, in a later period when you see a knight exemplified with those things,
00:56:14.660You see a certain amount of humility. You see a reluctance towards violence that you don't see here.
00:56:24.560What I think is really important is, yes, you see a sense of propriety in how he deals with kings and court, how he deals with ladies.
00:56:40.100but you also see that he, you know, wades through the gore of his foes. He is a killer0.94
00:56:51.680of men and worms. He, you know, in his death throes, he cleaves them in in twain by chucking0.99
00:57:02.280um you see a perfect match of civility where it's appropriate and of
00:57:20.200shocking violence when it's necessary without conflict or without guilt you see those things
00:57:29.960celebrated and made noble by him you also see the value especially when he talks about
00:57:38.760you know kind of his in his last words you see the value placed on
00:57:46.280and this may be kind of an extension that you got to go with me on because again i think that
00:57:50.920the lessons aren't like it this is not a morality tale of do this don't do that it is a tale of
00:57:58.200examples of good things and not good things but one of the things he points out
00:58:07.720is reputation and status and value of associating yourself with great heroes
00:58:16.040you know having one hero in your retinue of of allies and the significance that places
00:58:24.840in the view of your foes and everything else.
01:25:14.460And is fain that ye go to his house and home
01:25:19.460In all glory and take of him exceeding honors
01:25:23.640Helms and shields, swords and bearnies, chainmail armor, which again, extremely, the intricacy and labor of chainmail armor was reserved for royalty, along with swords.
01:25:44.820Um, gold and goodly raiment for your horses, hosts of war and great wide lands for, saith he, is, he is faintest of all things to bestow his realm and lordship upon you.
01:26:07.160Then Gunnar turned his head aside and spoke to Hogni, his other brother.
01:26:14.820And what wise shall we take this bidding? Might and wealth he bids us take, but no kings know I, who have so much gold as we have, whereas we have all the whore which lay once in Mithahith, where Fafnir lived.
01:26:37.800and great are our chambers and full of gold and weapons for smiting and all kinds of rainmen of0.72
01:26:47.220war and well I walk that amidst all men my horse is the best and my sword the sharpest and my gold
01:26:56.180the most glorious so why would we want to go do all of this when we have the dragon horde
01:27:04.340uh hogney answers in return a marvel is it to me of his bidding for seldom hath he done in such a
01:27:15.200wise and ill counseled will it be to to wend to him to to go his way lo now when i saw those
01:27:26.660deer bought things the king sends us, I wondered to behold a wolf's hair was knit to a certain
01:27:35.780gold ring. Be like Gudrun deems him to be minded as a wolf towards us and will have not of our
01:27:47.240fairing. So there is Gudrun places the wolf hair in the ring or bound around the ring and he notices
01:27:59.560it and he knows that's from his sister. So here we have two kind of the possibility that these
01:28:08.460royals, these nobles were taught magic tradition and he catches the symbol of it. So there were
01:28:17.220really not thinking that Atli is doing something out of kindness, but more so, this is a trap.
01:28:30.000But, so, excuse me. But withal, Vingy shows him the runes which he said Gudrun had sent.
01:28:40.700ah so at this point i i think this is where it's the the confusion was is that she placed the runes
01:28:48.840perhaps in all of the gifts coming to them and he sees the runes and the possibility is that he's
01:28:58.860simply reading a message written in runic the other possibility is is that he is trained
01:29:05.540in magical tradition and can interpret the meaning of them.
01:29:11.520But either way, there's a message being transferred
01:29:15.620that she knew the messenger himself would not know.
01:29:23.960but these two drank on still with certain others.
01:29:29.340There were, and Kostbera, the wife of Hogni,
01:29:33.300the fairest of women came to them and looked on the runes so this is the youngest brother i know
01:29:43.240it was kind of hard to keep track of but gunner and hogni are the two living brothers the eldest
01:29:50.060brother was slain of um gudrun who is now the wife of atli and um she comes over and is able
01:30:02.140to interpret the runes. But the wife of Gunnar, her name was Glaumvor, a great-hearted wife.
01:30:14.280So these twain poured out, and the kings drank, and were exceedingly drunk, and Vingi notes it
01:30:23.060and says. So the messenger is still there, but most likely this royal house is drinking up
01:30:33.700together. There is Hogni and Gunnar and each of their wives respectively kind of going over this
01:30:42.860while everyone else is at their tables, and then they start to go to bed, but the messenger is
01:30:49.680clearly still there, probably, you know, again, waiting for an answer.
01:30:58.000So, so these twain poured out and the kings drank and were exceedingly drunk and Vingy notes it and
01:31:09.720says, not may I hide that King Atlee is heavy of foot and over old for the warding of his realm.
01:31:19.680But his sons are young, and of no account now will he give you rule over his realms while they are yet thus young.
01:31:32.260And most fame will be that ye have joy thereof before all others.
01:31:39.660So I'd like to remind you, he's near death.
01:31:44.760His children are too young to run his kingdom.
01:31:48.460and you are the brothers of his wife so you would probably be able to put up the land
01:31:56.860first and gain the best of properties um well springs and rivers and
01:32:06.380defensible defensible positions would be first up to you and not to the little ones
01:32:12.460Now it so befell both that Gunnar was drunk and that dominion was held out of him, nor might he work against fate shapen to him.
01:32:25.120So he gave his word to go and tells Hogni his brother thereof, but he answered, thy word given must even stand now, nor will I fail to follow thee.
01:32:41.380but most loft am I to this journey. So again, another example of conviction in his drunkenness,
01:32:50.080he gives the word, and this is a warning. The story is not condoning this. The story is saying,
01:32:58.920don't give your word and your convictions while you're drunk. And he gets drunk and says he will
01:33:04.940go. And of course, Vingy is taking everything in and more than likely was the next day saying,
01:33:15.160well, you promised. And his little brother, Hogney, said, I don't want to go, but
01:33:20.440I'm not going to let you go alone. So two examples of conviction, if you will.
01:33:27.700chapter 35 the dreams of the wives of the gyukings so when men had drunk their fill
01:33:42.420and they fared to sleep then falls kostbara to beholding the runes this is the wife of hogni
01:41:09.440and swept a down the hall and drenched me and all of us with blood and ill shall that be token
01:41:17.840me but thought it was the double of king atli so she's just compares all of this
01:41:27.060to his visit that king atli is a bane or a bale coming down upon them the flood the fire and the
01:41:39.140bear. He answered, full off do we slaughter beasts freely and smite down great neat for our cheer0.69
01:41:51.560and the dream of the Erne has but to do with oxen. I, Atlea's heart hold towards us and therewithal
01:42:04.880they cease their talks so she tries many different avenues to say that this is a bad idea and he says
01:42:12.240no there's no reason atli is perfectly fine with us he's married to our sister and he's never shown
01:42:20.080any grievances towards us i'm not gonna go forth so that would make also to looking at the the
01:42:29.360conversation he had before is that he was more loathsome to the trip than perhaps seeing atli
01:42:40.080so chapter 36 of the journey of the gukings to king atli now tells the tale of gunner that in
01:42:49.040the same wise fared with him for when they awoke glom for his wife told him many dreams with which
01:43:01.040seemed to her like to betoken guile coming but gunner read them all in otherwise so his wife as
01:43:10.720well the little brother and the middle brother their wives wake up and say this is bad we've had
01:43:16.800dreams this none of this is good more or less it's really just establishing cultural tradition
01:43:25.680our ancestors would be hearing this story and saying like if you
01:43:29.520if your wife wakes up with a bad dream you should consider it you should uh go forth cautiously
01:43:37.840this was one of them she said me thought a bloody sword was born into the hall here wherewith thou
01:43:49.360were thrust through and either end of that wolves howled now it's another thing to bear in mind
01:43:57.320prophecy and dream in poems uh was extremely popular it was
01:44:06.640it was it was a thing that would get the audience on the edge of their seat like what's the dream
01:44:14.540what's the dream they kind of needing to know that poetic um placement of things outside of
01:44:23.740just the physical all right so i'm gonna deviate for a sec because i think it's important when
01:44:30.500we're talking about. It's come up a few times here at this
01:44:39.800part in the poem, but I think it's a thread we've seen
01:44:42.300throughout is the the nobility in their training in and use of
01:44:54.500magical arts. When talking about divination through rooms,
01:45:09.020through dreams, through horospex practice, what is the horos?
01:45:22.400reading of uh yeah yeah but like the act of doing is uh
01:45:32.560anyways so my latin's messed up on that but yeah anyways through playing with the intrals through
01:45:39.120you know getting meaning from the flight patterns of birds the moving of flocks
01:45:44.560um what i think is really important and something that folks can relate to is
01:45:53.200dreams are interesting and i think they're interesting in a bunch of different ways but
01:46:02.080those of you who have been fortunate enough to have a
01:46:09.520i hate to elevate it to the point of prophetic dream but those of you who have had a special dream
01:46:16.960know the difference between man i was watching a horror movie and then went to sleep but i had a
01:46:25.360really freaky dream and i kind of only sort of remember pieces of it but man that was crazy
01:46:30.380and dreams that you can remember years later in detail and stick out to you and are important
01:46:38.100And, you know, defining and attaching meaning to which of those is which is really interesting.
01:46:48.460But I think, you know, those of us who are fortunate have had dreams that are of great meaning that we do remember years later that, you know, and we can see the difference.
01:47:02.160One of the things that is criticized oftentimes in navel-gazing circles is the lack of initiation in modern Alcitru.
01:47:19.800so in the traditional world of our ancestors you have
01:47:26.040you have skills and tradition and lore that's passed down to you through generations of
01:47:37.360adepts that have honed the practice and the understanding of these arts over a long period
01:47:45.460of time. In modern Ausitru, and rightly, you know, to the critics' credit, yes, that hasn't
01:47:56.980been the case and has been, you know, forcibly beat out of our folk over the last thousand years.
01:48:03.460i don't pretend as some i've seen do that there's some kind of authentic school of these things
01:48:16.480kept under wraps and some kind of secret code that we can recover to you know as some kind
01:48:23.840a cope that that hasn't been severed it has been but we can re-establish it through
01:48:39.520through listening to our elders and building upon tradition and
01:48:45.760i feel like i'm missing the right way to present this to you guys tonight and apologize for that but
01:50:21.580No, it's not a thousand years old, but, you know, we're like 50, 50 some odd years towards that. And the only way it gets to be a thousand years old is by continuing and keeping it up, which we're doing.
01:50:40.140But every time you restart, you lose that. And so something I was going to say is we see that now in a lesser way. And I think we're a little bit more connected because we're not sitting on the back of the school of understanding it with a context that runs that deep.
01:50:56.860but we do have you know three or four generations into it that some of our folk have taken knowledge
01:51:06.700from the more you synchronize your life with also true with our corpus of lore with
01:51:17.100interactions with the gothar interactions with your brothers and sisters within the afa
01:51:23.340the more you build a comprehensive worldview that you can see and recognize when it presents itself
01:51:31.020in your dreams and this is kind of what i'm getting at and i know it's a very long-winded
01:51:36.540way to get at this point but understanding dreams and i think that even even the atheist amongst us
01:51:47.500understands that dreams communicate something really important i think they may have a
01:51:54.380disagreement with us on what the source of that is but even the atheists will acknowledge that
01:52:02.460you know maybe the dreams sort out something from your subconscious and bring it to your conscious
01:52:08.940you work out thoughts that you may not be fully aware of in your waking mind that are clarified
01:52:15.900to you in uh in the dream state that you can you know learn from now we know that there's something
01:52:24.620much more to that but i think there is that i think there is your subconscious but i think
01:52:30.140there's your subconscious interpreting messages from the other from your ancestors from the gods
01:52:38.300from things that you subtly perceive around you and they take the shape in dreams
01:52:43.260the more you build a consistent context for that in your mind the more you will recognize
01:52:50.340things to pick up on in your dreams and the significance they have in your waking reality
01:52:57.160i think the same is the case with your understanding of the runes
01:53:02.340again the runes as we casually call them are just you know stick pictures on whatever medium we have
01:53:14.060the value they're in is the mystery or the the concept that that sigil represents
01:53:21.020the more you internalize it and you familiar with it and you see it and like calibrate yourself to
01:53:31.500the runes as a system to also true as a
01:53:35.340way of life and existence the more you will recognize those meanings when they're made
01:53:45.780manifest the more you will see how those core mysteries interact with and play off of one
01:53:52.720another when they're in a sequence or when they're you know drawn at certain periods of time
01:53:57.900The more you make your life consistent and holistic within the worldview and the Veltenschong of Ausatru, the more these different points stand out and things that might have seemed random, you can see the meaning within them.
01:54:19.180And as much as I talk about rune magic as being a lens to see the world or to see a problem or to see a situation,
01:54:29.080I think that our dreams are very much that, you know, expressed in a different way.
01:54:34.700And the more we internalize this, the more we see those images display themselves in meaningful ways in our dreams.
01:54:45.320And it's a really long-winded way to express that.
01:54:49.180but i do think it's something to point out during this because if people who lacked any of the
01:54:58.300the context had the exact same dreams but without the context to the imagery and to you know
01:55:07.100the story they would not get the same meaning that you get just like if swan and i both did
01:55:13.900a rune pole we would take different meanings from the different runes because a lot of
01:55:22.140the value in that is added by the person who is the practitioner of it and i don't doubt that the
01:55:31.660more we the closer to wisdom and understanding that myself and spawn are the more that even if we
01:55:41.260interpreted the individual runes differently we would come up with the same conclusions but through
01:55:49.180different routes i think at our current level of understanding there would undoubtedly be different
01:55:54.700deviation here and there but i think the more that we the more that we learn and the more that
01:55:59.660we grow that we more that we start seeing things leading us to similar paths the more we refine
01:56:07.660our process of of discerning wisdom through these more subtle things and at this time in the golden
01:56:17.020age our ancestors would have been very well acquainted and fully immersed in the context to
01:56:25.180recognize these meanings in their dreams in a very clear standout way
01:56:30.700i it's worth reiterating one of the big themes that i see played out here
01:59:31.020It's very hard to interpret all of this, is what he's saying to her.
01:59:38.200And none may set aside the faded measures of his days, nor is it unlike that my time is short.
01:59:49.340So, memento more, everything is impermanent, and he's again just kind of casting off her worries.
02:00:02.220So, in the morning they arose, and were minded for the journey, but some led them herein.
02:00:15.080Then cried Gunnar to the man who is called Fjornir, Arise and give us to drink goodly wine from the great Tuns, because may happen.
02:00:30.760And bear in mind, tun is a barrel, a measurement barrel, because may happen this day be the very last of our feasts.
02:00:43.180Belike, if we die, the old wolf shall come by the gold, and that bear shall no wise spare the bite of his war tusks.
02:00:56.640And again, the usage of the word tusk versus teeth is interesting, but his war teeth.
02:01:06.740Then all the folk of his household brought them on their way weeping.
02:01:11.660So now there is this element of they're going forth.
02:01:18.280Nothing's wrong, but everything is just laden with doom.
02:01:23.340And even to the point where he says, this may be the last time I see you guys.
02:01:28.020So let's have a great toast before I head off.
02:01:35.640Then the son of Hogni, who is the little brother, said, fare ye well with Mary Tide.
02:01:44.580The more a part of their folk were left behind.
02:01:48.660Solr and Novar, the sons of Hogni, fared with them, and a great champion named Orkning, who was the brother of Klosterber, the wife of Hogni.
02:05:08.680Then spoke Vingi, the original messenger.
02:05:17.480Well, might ye have left this deed undone.
02:05:21.520go not now by ye here while i go seek our gallow trees softly and sweetly i base you hither0.97
02:05:32.000but an evil thing abode there under short while to bide ear ye are tried up uh tied up to that same
02:05:43.360tree so he he in essence says stay here in this keep or in this walled place and i'm going to go
02:05:51.200find out what the heck is going on and be careful not to leave out of here because i don't know
02:05:57.840what's who's winning or going on and you might end up hung as well so hogney answers none the more
02:06:10.160shall we waver from that cause for little me thinks have we shrunk a back when as men fell
02:06:18.820to fight and not shall it avail thee to make us a feared or afraid as we use it today and an ill
02:06:29.940fate hast thou wrought and therewith they cast him down to the earth and smoked him with their
02:06:36.740axe hammers till he died so here we have um the the idea that no they're being trapped
02:06:48.820and that was the first start of the cunning but i did want to make point
02:06:55.380there is uh in the first annotation down at the bottom of the website here they he speaks of
02:07:05.220of parallel beliefs to those in preceding chapters and elsewhere in the book as to spells
02:07:13.200and dreams, drinks, et cetera. Among the English people, it may be found in the form of leechdoms
02:07:22.980and leech having that connection between leak and actual blood sucking worms. But the hospital
02:07:33.580nature or the nature of healing, wart cunning, the study of herbs, star craft. So now there is
02:07:44.760the mentioning there too of a deep understanding by our ancestors who were naval navigators going
02:07:53.780on the lamp, took stock in the stars, took stock in their placement, in their movement,
02:08:02.800even though it's not greatly written. So whenever you have people kind of say, oh, well, you know,
02:08:10.020there's just really no written evidence of it. One, there's common knowledge to look at it and
02:08:16.260say they're sailors. They probably, you know, know the stars. But every now and then you can
02:08:23.420see in these peripheral points, there's clearly things that are there that people just often
02:08:31.320don't think about. I often call it the owl of the sagas. Since the owl is only mentioned once,
02:08:40.640but we know that our ancestors knew what an owl was. But it's not in the lore,
02:08:46.560so it doesn't exist. And we got to get away from that understanding.
02:08:53.420So, back to, he says to Vingy that, no, you guys are trapping us here so that we can't defend ourselves or run.
02:09:06.520And he strikes Vingy down with their axe hammers, which was another cool, the word is axuhamrum.
02:09:19.280So it's a war hammer, but that has a blade and a blunt end.
02:09:25.480um so chapter 37 the battle in the burg of king atley in the in the keeper in the in the enclosure
02:09:42.560then they rode unto the king's hall so they they they leave that place and and ride in
02:09:51.380And King Atlee arrayed his host for battle, and the ranks were set forth that a certain wall there was betwixt them and the brethren.
02:10:03.280So now there's this dividing wall or something that's kind of been turned to where it's between the two, the host that traveled, which isn't very big.
02:10:17.720Um, though I would also argue that with the ship, there's, uh, perhaps, um, they were only naming big named people, but there were other people with them when they, um, left off with the ship.
02:10:33.840And Atlee turns his army to have a, an obstruction.
02:11:09.540never get us thou that wealth and men of might must thou meet here or ever we lay my life if
02:11:19.020thou wilt deal with us in battle ah be like thou settest forth this feast like a great man and
02:11:28.960would it's not hold thine hand from Aaron and Wolf and at least as long ago I had it in my mind
02:11:39.380to take the lives of you and be Lord of gold and reward you for that deed of shame, wherein ye
02:11:48.640beguiled the best of all your affinity, but now shall I revenge him. So he knows. He knows about
02:11:58.380Sigurd. He knows about their conspiratory nature against him. And he says, I've been thinking
02:12:07.520about killing you guys for a long time, and I'm going to get revenge for him.0.96
02:12:15.640Hogney answers back, little will avail to lie, long brooding over that reed, leaving the work0.68
02:12:22.560undone. So in essence, you should have jumped when you had the inclination, but long, you
02:12:31.780you toiled over the idea you showed hesitation um which may be kind of a veiled insult in and
02:12:39.820of itself if you were truly you know bent on being an a revenger of his death you would have done
02:12:48.880this immediately um and therewith they fell to hard fighting at the first brunt with shot so
02:13:04.640the first uh exchange is a volley of arrows a volley of um perhaps sling stones i don't
02:13:14.800i don't know how much sling stones were utilized but again it's kind of the owl of the of that
02:13:21.520the in the battle sling stone or sling um sling uh actual weapons are they they deteriorate and
02:13:33.120the the shot can look very much like just regular stones if they had didn't make specific stones
02:13:41.280So perhaps they're slinging at each other or throwing spears and javelins and arrows at each other in the first round, trying to soften up the ranks.
02:13:54.200but therewithal came the tidings of Gudrun and when she heard thereof she grew exceedingly
02:14:06.700wrathful and cast her mantle from her and ran out and greeted those newcomers and kissed her
02:14:14.260brethren and showed them all love so this is again they originally they were in a castle
02:14:21.280uh off to the side or a building off the side they said no this is a trap they kill the messenger
02:14:27.440they go forward and atli is waiting outside with all of his men which i think was like the first
02:14:35.620tipping point of this now they have turned so that a wall is between them and then
02:14:42.480their sister guthrun comes running out of the hall
02:15:14.460But none may deal with his shape and fate, and withal, she said, will it avail Ott to seek for peace?0.86
02:15:25.740But shortly and grimly they said, nay, thereto, there would be no peace between Ottli.
02:15:33.760So she sees that the game goeth sorely against her brethren, and she gathers to her great stoutness of heart,
02:15:43.420and does on her a mail coat and take to a sword and fights by her brethren and goes as far forward
02:15:56.760as the bravest of men folk and all spoke in one wise that never saw any fiercer defense than in
02:16:04.460her. So this, again, is another audience pull. This is a big one where she's so convicted and
02:16:13.640loyal. She really wasn't loyal to Atlee. So she runs and bear in mind, you know, the battle's
02:16:23.280probably not stopping for her to don armor, but she goes, she dons armor, and then she runs to
02:16:31.100her brother's aid. And timing and logistics and even the reality of that might not have, again,
02:16:40.380it wasn't plausible, but it was something in which it was teaching about conviction. It was
02:16:49.040teaching about what men and women should do in relation to their families. It was a reinforcement
02:16:57.980of morality in a kind of subtext way that we see in, you know, movies or in books or
02:17:09.880mediums where the, you know, there's a reinforcement of things based on example that just gets
02:17:20.660the the crowd in um so she joins with her brothers and keep in mind too so
02:17:38.580machine gun engagements go really quick um yes they do hacking at people with swords and axes
02:17:47.220who have shields and other stuff there's a longer play of things here um
02:17:54.900you know even and again this is a fanciful retelling of things but even in in attila's
02:18:01.300day with with horsemen and stuff going on it's a long enough process and it's not like it's in
02:18:07.860the late medieval period where she needs to go and get you know have some squire
02:18:13.300buckle on all her armor she's throwing on you know a chainmail nightgown1.00
02:18:20.980it's heavy and it's kind of pain in the butt to get on but it's putting on a really heavy0.95
02:18:27.780short shirt and taking up a sword she can accomplish that pretty quick if they're in
02:18:33.060the back and you know the soldiers are out there making making headway in the battle and she gives
02:18:38.780them all a hug and they tell her what's you know what's going on it's plausible for her to like
02:18:45.600quickly like hey you give me that I'm a queen and put on her you know grab a sword from somebody and
02:18:51.840put on war gear to go there and be with her uh be with her brothers in the thick of it
02:18:56.460but I think this is also informative uh we were asked and rightly so kind of lessons to learn
02:19:03.840from this and i don't think gi jane we're all shield maidens thing is is what the story is to
02:19:15.520learn i think what's to learn is there is a resolve in the women in our lore and even though she is
02:19:27.540you know not the the good guy in this story um there's a strength of noble character that you
02:19:37.380owe it to your ancestors and your station in life to stand up and be counted and to be of character
02:19:46.900and to show you know to show what you are made of and even under great pain and great sorrow and
02:19:59.620great misfortune as to what's going on she's not you know swooning and you know falling on her
02:20:08.100fainting couch she is stealing she is stealing her resolve she is setting her mind and her heart to
02:20:16.900You know, what is her course of action and how she's going to let her story be told, and she is choosing to be an active participant in her life.
02:20:33.240I think that's one of the things that I think is often misstated as an over-resolution to fatalism.
02:20:45.600But you do see in our lore the example of knowing that doom is impending, knowing that bad stuff's going down, and choosing, you know, you can run and hide, you can be a crybaby, you can do a lot of things.
02:21:01.800but this is your hour to shine and you may not have many left so pick how you want to be remembered
02:21:08.900and we see the nobility and the people that we're supposed to think highly of people who are from a
02:21:16.980proud lineage going out and meeting their fate even if it's against great odds they're going
02:21:23.960to go out there and they're going to show up it reminds me this is a strange aside but i'll put
02:21:31.480it out there i remember when i was bouncing and i had this uh this kid working with me and you know
02:21:37.480i was running security and he was this you know 155 pound scrawny kid but he was clearing the
02:21:46.280smoking deck and they're you know telling everybody hey time to go everybody need to go inside whatever0.80
02:21:50.920we got to clear this down because we're closing this and that and there was this big samoan dude
02:21:55.560that just you know this big samoan gangster dude that just kind of scoffed at him and kept going
02:22:00.040kept drinking and smoking and whatever and he kept reminding the guy and he saved him till last0.64
02:22:05.720because this guy was not going to move and he was going to be the biggest problem he got rid of
02:22:09.800everybody else he's like all right man got to have you go in we got to close the smoking deck
02:22:16.040and the big dude looked at him he's like
02:22:20.760what are you going to do about it and he said my best and shrugged his shoulder
02:22:27.480And the Samoan dude looked at him, saw that he was serious,
02:22:32.540sized him up, gave him a chuckle, and went inside.0.99
02:22:36.940Because there's, you know, there's just something to be said for, like,
02:22:41.560I realize that I don't stand a big chance of winning here,
02:22:45.220but I'm going to show up, you know, and if you're going to, you know,
02:22:48.700if you're going to beat me, I'm going to make it cost you.
02:22:52.540it's going to cost you. And that there's a respect to that. And I think that's some of what we see
02:23:00.660exhibited in this and a lot of stories from our Lord. Well, this battle starts to rage. And I
02:23:12.280can tell you just as much as Gudrun donning her armor and going out and fighting with her brothers
02:23:19.500And the conviction is so strong there. Another thing that's going to happen in this engagement is there is some embellishment in range of like this battle took all day and oftentimes battles didn't take all day.
02:23:42.320The other is, is that you'll generally see in battles, the king of one army will fight the king of the other army.
02:23:51.980And the chances of this happening in reality, but for story, it happens quite often.
02:24:02.580fighting getting captured um fighting the champion of another king uh all of those are kind of on
02:24:14.100the checklist so guaranteed one of those is coming down the line um it's just interesting
02:24:19.320i don't quite remember how it goes with the two of them uh the two brothers but um we shall see
02:24:27.560Um, so she, um, they go forth and therewithal, there was, uh, a lull in, oh, excuse me.
02:24:46.320So now the men fell thick and far before all others was fighting of those brethren and
02:24:53.160And the battle endured a long while until midday, Gunnar and Hogni went right through the folk of Atli, and so tells the tale that all the mead ran red with blood.0.80
02:25:08.580The sons of Hogni withal set on stoutly. So Hogni and Gunnar are not easy foes.
02:25:18.960Then spoke Otley the king, a fair host and a great have we, again, this writing, the way it's written, you know, great heroes have we, mighty champions with all, and yet have many of us fallen.
02:25:38.820And but evil am I paid in that 19 of my champions are slain, but left six alive.
02:25:48.480And therewithal, was there a lull in the battle?
02:25:53.280So, you know, from historical standpoints, we normally see shield wall versus shield wall.
02:26:01.360and it could be 30 men versus 30 men with perhaps a small under 20 horse element kind of enacting
02:26:11.560here. They don't go into great detail. And one of the major reasons I think they don't
02:26:16.840is because by this time, these types of battles are not happening. Certainly not in Iceland.
02:26:31.360um but also in the mainland in europe actually the battles are getting bigger not smaller um
02:26:40.560so there isn't a ton of knowledge of militaria that would be fit in here um and again all
02:26:49.200ultimately none of that matters so long as the key players of the story get their say and have their
02:26:57.280points. So, Otley spoke, four brethren were we, and now I left alone. Great affinity I got to me,
02:27:08.540and deemed my fortune well sped thereby. A wife I had, fair and wise, high of mind, great of heart,
02:27:18.220but no joyance may I have in her wisdom, for little peace is betwixt us. But ye, ye have slain
02:27:26.380many of my kin and beguiled me of the realm of riches of the realm and of riches and for the
02:27:36.000greatest of all woes have slain my sister with all so uh this is uh king at least speaking to them
02:27:47.780um and hogni says why why babelist thou thus why are you talking so much now we're the first to
02:28:00.960break the peace so he's at least trying to make the case that his revenge is honorable it's justified
02:28:12.380And Hogni's, I just like the fact that it literally is.
02:32:53.820so he he says i've never turned away my heart is clear of of uh conspiracy of of any sort of
02:33:08.000poison when you take it out you'll notice it's a good heart um but alas you have the the control0.67
02:33:17.520And then a counselor of King Atli said, better read, I see, thereto, take we the thrall, Hyalli, and give respite to Hogni, for this thrall is made to die, since the longer he lives, the less worth shall he be.0.59
02:33:41.360the thrall hearkened and cried out aloft and fled away any there with either or any wither0.93
02:33:50.700where he might hope for shelter crying out that a hard portion was because of his strife and wild
02:33:58.020doings and the ill ill day for him whereon he must be dragged to death from his sweet life and his
02:34:05.980swine keeping but they caught him and turned a knife against him and he yelled and screamed
02:34:12.620or ever he felt the point thereof so now they're the slaying of this thrall and i think it's
02:34:23.820more important to notice the way that he takes death versus others others take death with
02:34:30.940of uh bravery and and uh an accumulation of desire and bravado forward whereas the thrall is0.99
02:34:42.180screaming and and squealing and much like the pigs he generally keeps
02:34:48.600then in such wise spoke hogney as a man seldom speaketh who has fallen into hard need for he
02:34:58.240prayed for the thrall's life and said that these shrieks he could not away with. And that is where
02:35:08.260a lesser matter to him to play out, the play to the end. And therewithal, the thrall got his life
02:35:15.760for that time. But Gunnar and Hogni are both laid in fetters. So at this point, and I'm just to not
02:35:26.080be confused because again this this detail is eluding me i believe the point is is that they
02:35:34.180kill the thrall and take his heart to ottley and not hogni's heart um so one ottley is not there
02:35:47.420to witness and the other is is that his his councilman otley's councilman is doing something0.83
02:35:57.260but remember he says bring me a bring me that man's heart and then they leave and or go and
02:36:04.460go their separate ways or he gets thrown in the dungeon and his man shows up with a heart
02:36:10.380heart. So, you know, there's a layer of conspiracy going on right there.
02:36:20.860Um, then spoke King Atli with Gunnar, the other brother, and bade him tell out concerning the
02:36:30.360gold and where it is. If he would have his life, you can trade your life. Tell me where the gold
02:36:37.000is but he answered nay first will i behold the bloody heart of my brother
02:36:42.920so now they caught hold of the thrall again and cut the heart from him
02:36:49.740and bore it unto king gunner and said this is your brother's heart
02:36:54.100but he said the faint heart of hyali may yet uh may ye here behold little like the proud heart
02:37:04.880of Hogni, for as much as it trembleth now, more by the half it trembled whenas it lay in the breast
02:37:12.320of him. So now they fell on Hogni, even as Atli urged them, and cut the heart from him. But such
02:37:23.240was the might of his manhood, that he laughed while he abode the torment, and all wondered at
02:37:31.300his worth. And in perpetual memory, it is held since thence. Then they showed it to Gunnur.
02:37:44.000So Gunnur even, he was like, no, that's not my brother's heart.
02:37:49.480So, I mean, even to that point, he's so strong that you could recognize his heart. His brother
02:37:57.780says no that's not my brother's heart and then they go back and they actually cut it out and he
02:38:04.180laughs at them the entirety of the time the mighty heart of hogni little like the faint
02:38:13.140heart of hyali for little as it trembleth less it trembled when as in the breast it lay
02:38:20.660But now, O Atli, even as we die, so shall thou die. And lo, I alone wot where the gold is, nor shall Hogni be to tell thereof now.
02:38:33.680And to and fro played the matter in my mind whilst we both lived, but now have I myself determined for myself, and the Rhine River shall rule over the gold, rather than the Huns shall bear it on the hands of them.0.89
02:38:53.200So now we have the cursed treasure being placed in the Rhine River as a way to keep it away from the Huns.0.79
02:39:03.680So the more important thing is, is it's, he says,0.55
02:39:08.880Hogni would not be able to tell you where it is.
02:39:11.320I'm not going to tell you where it is.
02:39:13.520But before we even left, we hid the gold.
02:39:19.480Then said King Atli, have away the bondsmen.
02:43:49.920And the adder is the native poisonous snake to Europe.
02:43:56.100So you'll hear the adder mentioned often, especially in the naming of spears and swords.
02:44:03.300So chapter 39, the end of Atli and his kinfolk.
02:44:08.620So, now that Atli had gained his mighty victory and spoke to Gudrun, even as mocking her greatly, because these are her brothers that he just killed, or as making himself great before her,
02:44:26.440Gudrun saith he, thus hast thou lost thy brethren, and thy very self has brought it about.
02:44:34.920so he tells her you you lost your brothers and you're the reason for it she answers in good
02:44:42.740liking oh and she answers in good liking livest thou where whereas thou thrustest these slayings
02:44:50.840before me but may happen thou wilt so you live in a you know in a world where you think you could
02:44:58.720Flaunt this to me, but you will regret this
02:45:02.780When thou hast tried what is to come hereafter
02:45:06.860And of all I have, the longest-lived matter shall be
02:51:06.020I will always think of your ill, and never will it be enough
02:51:12.040to shame you and to hurt you like you've hurt me.
02:51:18.820Worser deeds hast thou done than men have to tell of, Atlee says.
02:51:25.940And great unwisdom is there in such fearful reeds.
02:51:30.220Most meet are thou to be burned on the bale.
02:51:35.360when thou hast first been smitten to the death with stones.0.98
02:51:40.800So your body is going to be cast on a funeral pyre after we pelt you with stones.
02:51:47.940For in such wise wouldst thou have what thou hast gone a weary way to seek.0.94
02:51:57.600She answered, Thine own death thou foretellest, but another death is fated for me.
02:52:04.520So, no, the death you're speaking of for me is not to come. Mine has already been foretold. But your death is coming.
02:52:19.420And many words were spoken in wrath between them.
02:52:23.420Now, Pogni had a son left alive. His name was Niblung, and great wrath of the heart he bare against King Atli.0.55
02:52:38.740and he did and he did Gudrun to wit that he would avenge his father and she took his words
02:52:47.880well and they fell to council together there over and said would be great a good hap if
02:52:55.740if it might be brought about so that also kind of again proves that there is a great amount of time
02:53:03.320after the feast where she even gets in contact with her brother's son, her nephew, and he has
02:53:13.920grown into a strong and stout-hearted warrior and he wants revenge against Atli. Now she's helping
02:53:22.360him get there. So on a night when the king had drunken and he got him into bed and when he laid
02:53:32.360asleep thither, to him came Gudrun and the son of Hogni, Niblum. Gudrun took a sword and thrust
02:53:42.460it through the breast of the king, Atli, and they both of them set their hands to the deed,
02:53:49.560both she and Hogni's son. Then Atli the king awoke with his wounds and cried out,
02:53:57.220no need of binding or salving here who art thou that has done the deed Gudrun says somewhat have
02:54:08.000I Gudrun wrought therein and somewhat with all the son of Hogmi so again you see here's another
02:54:16.640example of the more the theatrics of it in the darkness of the night he wakes up and says you0.63
02:54:24.880know, who's done the deed? And she explains herself and her nephew. Atlee says, ill it be
02:54:34.080seen to thee to do this, though somewhat of wrong was between us. For thou wert wedded to me by the
02:54:41.500reed of thy kin, and dour paid I for thee. I, thirty goodly knights and seemly maidens,
02:54:49.740and many men besides and yet were thou not content but if thou should rule over the lands
02:54:58.480king butli owned and my my mother-in-law full of thou let us sit a weeping so she based or he
02:55:09.360basically says you know i the fault of you coming to me really is at the fault of your family and
02:55:16.080your brethren and yet i i paid the dowry i gave the for the loss of you from your family i gave
02:55:25.980over 20 men and 20 maidens um and yet you still were not content with the lot of your life so
02:55:39.200you can kind of see some of the dynamics there of of of marriage but gubern says many false
02:55:48.200words have you spoken you're lying and of all not i account them oft indeed i was i was i fell of
02:55:57.000mood but much did thou add thereto so yes i was i was saddened when i got here but you added more
02:56:07.280full oft in this thy house did phrase befall and kin fought kin and friend fought friend
02:56:15.780and made themselves big one against the other better days had i when i was abode with sigurd
02:56:22.660when he slew kings and took their wealth to us but gave peace to whom so would and the great men
02:56:31.220the great men laid themselves under our hands and might we have, might we gave to him of them
02:56:40.040who would have it. Then I lost him and all little thing was it that I should bear a widow's name,
02:56:50.980but the greatest of griefs that I should come to thee. I who aforementioned the noblest of all
02:56:59.700kings. While for thee, thou never bearest out the battle ought but the worser lot. So
02:57:08.380she's speaking about Sigurd's nobility. She's speaking about the fact that he was kind when
02:57:16.140people asked for his forgiveness and was wrathful for those who stood up against him. But Atli
02:57:25.120was always wrathful and encouraged discord amongst his men.
02:57:32.240And again, this is her accusations, and that he always backed the side that was going to win.
02:57:44.760So she's calling Craven and just a bad king.
02:57:48.760king atli answered not true are thy words nor will this our speech better the lot of either of us for
02:57:57.080all is fallen now to naught but now do to me in seemly wise and array my dead corpse in a noble
02:58:05.280fashion remember to seemly means honorable it's the germanic equivalent to the word
02:58:12.440honor or honorable. So he's asking, do the honorable thing and make sure at least
02:58:20.560to give my body a noble funeral. And she says, I, that will I, she says, and let make for thee
02:58:31.380a goodly grave and build for thee a worthy abiding place of stone and wrap thee in fair
02:58:37.720linen and care for all that needful is. So even despite all of this, she will bury him in a
02:58:49.580barrow, wrapping him in linens and doing as to accord. And I don't know if this is referencing
02:59:00.560to the accord of his people, which I don't think by this time is correct. It's just, again, the
02:59:06.740the barrow mound um in general so therewithal he died and she did according to her word0.61
02:59:15.780and then they cast fire into the hall and burned the hall and when the folk and the men of the
02:59:22.180estate awoke amid the dread and trouble not would they abide the fire but smote each other down
02:59:29.620and died in such wise so there atli the king and all his folk ended all their days
02:59:35.800But Gudrun had no will to live longer after this deed was wrought, but nevertheless, her ending day was not yet to come upon her.
02:59:47.620Now, the Volsungs and the Gyukings, as folk tell in tale, have been the greatest, hardest, and the mightiest of all men, as ye may well behold, written in the songs of old times.
03:00:03.120But now, with the tidings just told, where these troubles stayed.
03:00:11.660So this is kind of starting to come down into the ending.
03:00:17.640It's the post effects of a lot of these things as they happen.
03:00:27.280And again, the tragic figure of Gudrun, her kind of being the secondary wife to Brynhild and then her life.
03:00:38.340And we know historically Attila was not slain in his bed.
03:04:12.300Her name is Swanhild, and she comes to live with them.
03:04:23.100The wedding and the slaying of Swanhild.
03:04:26.540So, even though that last chapter kind of leaves pretty good,
03:04:32.700there's more that Brunhild said was going to befall her.
03:04:37.660chapter 41 of the wedding and the slaying of Svanhild
03:04:42.560Iormenrek was the name of a mighty king of those days this is the gothic king a manorik
03:04:57.480and it's just converted in in in Norse and it's worth noting that the j in the beginning of a word
03:05:04.720is generally a double e sound so it's not it's it's more like enormous and it it means a great
03:05:13.700king the great or powerful or large king he uh jorman rick was the name of a mighty king of
03:05:22.560those days and his son uh was called ronville now this king called his son to talk to him and said
03:05:31.340That shall fare on an errand of mine to King Jonakur, with my counselor Bicke, for with King Jonakur is nourished his princess or his daughter-in-law or stepdaughter is Svanhild, and she is the daughter of Sigurd Fafner's bane.
03:05:54.100And I know for sure that she is the fairest maid dwelling under the sun of this world.
03:06:01.320Her above all others would I have to wife, and thou shalt go woo her for me.0.73
03:14:56.240the King we will do after thy counsel.
03:15:00.600see this is where it gets a little confusing the idea being that his father lets loose
03:15:10.140his son but then Ranver is slain and then Bickey turns the king against Svanhild because she fell
03:15:19.300in love with him as well it's like he wasn't the only one a part of this it was her too she was
03:15:26.560supposed to be your wife uh you should kill her as well and he says yes we will do thy counsel0.98
03:15:33.740so she was bound in the gate of the keep and a horse there driven at her to tread her down0.99
03:15:41.480but when she opened her eyes wide when then the horse durst not trample her so this is the same
03:15:49.860thing the gallows he doesn't go to the gallows so he is slain and i'm assuming it means bicky
03:15:56.000kind of arranged it with us with um slayers and then here the horse is running towards svanhild
03:16:05.360and it doesn't presumably because of her her beauty or her countenance but it does not trap
03:16:12.320trample her so when bicky beheld that he may draw a bag over the head of her and they did so and
03:16:19.680therewith she lost her life so yeah there's the the countenance her beauty was so astounding that the
03:16:26.000horse couldn't trample her so they put a bag over her head to hide her beauty and thus she was trampled
03:16:37.520so now gudrun is going to find out that her daughter was slain all because of the0.99
03:16:46.080the machinations of this biki gudrun sends her sons to avenge swanhild now gudrun heard of the0.74
03:16:56.880slaying of swanhild and spake to her sons why sit ye here in peace amid many words whereas0.97
03:17:04.720jormen rick hath slain your sister and trodden her underfoot of horses in shameful wise no heart ye
03:17:13.920have in in you like to gunner and hogni my brothers verily they would have avenged her
03:17:21.520their kinswoman so another point is the the women folk for good or for ill are urging pushing
03:17:33.360forward a lot of the mass of nations going on as well they are very much behind the scenes
03:17:39.600kind of you setting standards and those standards create action this is my you know my daughter
03:17:47.860bear in mind too is the is the daughter of sigurd was just slain by this jormen rick and you guys
03:17:56.180are you know doing nothing you should go hamdian answered little didst thou praise gunnar and
03:18:02.740Hogney, whereas they slew Sigurd. So you speak a lot of praise towards your brothers, but you
03:18:09.740didn't when you were talking about how they slayed your husband. And thou wert reddened in the blood
03:18:15.680of him, and ill were thy brethren avenged by the slaying of thine own sons, yet not so ill a deed
03:18:24.220where it was for us to slay King Jormenric, and so hard thou pushest on this that we may not abide
03:18:33.600thy hard words. So ultimately, and also bear in mind as the audience, this is the overarching
03:18:43.420curse of the treasure the curse of the the name the very befallment of sigurd's line including
03:18:55.100his wife and everything it's again to our to the audience of our ancestors this was a great tragedy
03:19:01.820of deaths happening without being avenged brothers killing husbands and so it leaves her in this
03:19:11.740millstrom of where her loyalties lie i mean it's it's just it would be very very bad
03:19:19.500um in relation to the way our ancestors would would hear this and i keep bearing that in mind
03:19:27.580just as the single snippets of old norse on the side versus kind of this older english style
03:19:36.300translation. Um, so they say, you know, you were pushing this hard, but we can't take your words
03:19:47.060too, uh, harshly considering all the trouble that has befallen before. Guthrun went about laughing
03:19:55.840now and gave them to drink from mighty beakers. And thereafter she got for them great Bairnies1.00
03:20:03.360and or chain mail and good and all other weed of war so um
03:20:11.520weed is kind of like in relation to the word tweed it's the it's it means clothing or fabrics
03:20:22.260of war so the it's a poetic word for accoutrements helmets uh pauldrons bit bridal spear all of that
03:20:36.580then spoke hamdir lo now this is our last parting for thou shalt hear tidings of us
03:20:43.620and drink one grave ale over us and over swan hill so they are going to do this they're going
03:20:51.300to go and avenge their um their mother's daughter but they say we're not going to come back from
03:21:00.340this and so therewith they went their ways but gudrun went unto her bower with a heart
03:21:08.420swollen with sorrow and spoke to three men was i wedded and the first to sigurd fafnir bane
03:21:17.060And he was berayed and slain, and of all griefs was the greatest grief.
03:21:24.620Then I was given to King Otley, and so fell was my heart towards him.
03:21:30.320I slew in fury of my grief, his children and mine.
03:21:35.620Then gave I myself to the sea, but the billows thereof cast me a land.
03:21:40.700And to this king then I was given, then gave I swan-hilled a way out of the land with mighty wealth, and lo, my next great sorrow after Sigurd, for under horse's feet she was trodden and slain.
03:21:57.680But the grimmest and ugliest of woes was the casting of Gunnur into the worm clothes, into the pit of snakes.
03:22:07.760And the hardest was the cutting of Holgny's heart, my little brother.
03:22:13.300Better would it be if Sigurd came to meet me and I went my ways with him.
03:22:20.320For he biddeth now behind with me neither son nor daughter to comfort me.
03:22:26.120oh mind it's thou Sigurd the words we spoke when we were when we went to bed together
03:22:33.040that thou wouldst come and look on me I even from thine abiding place among the dead and thus had
03:22:43.000the words of her sorrow an end so she does say why didn't I just die when he died why didn't they
03:22:52.060just kill me as well because her suffering just continues on and the latter end of the kin of the
03:23:04.340and now tell us the tale concerning the sons of Gudrun and what I was thinking too is the not0.94
03:23:13.940just the way this is written is that this may have been written in series in parts and only
03:23:20.060presented as what we would hear today as a page um and i know we're trying to finish the work
03:23:27.340so that we can move into other things but um i just find it very interesting that
03:23:32.620the most part that they might have heard was just a page worth of recitation from the skull
03:23:39.740so now tell it the tale concerning the sons of Gudrun that she had arrayed their war
03:23:49.340arraignment in such wise that no steel would bite thereon so more magic she puts magic upon
03:23:57.320their clothing and their battle arraignments that no steel could bite them and she bade them play0.98
03:24:04.680not with stones or other heavy matters for that it would be to their scathe if they did so so in
03:24:11.640essence she only has a protection upon them for steel but stone and wood could kill them
03:24:23.000and now as they went on their way they met erper their brother and asked him in what wise
03:24:29.640he would help them and he answered even as hands help hands or feet or foot helps foot but that
03:24:38.920they deemed not at all and slew him there and then then they went their ways nor was it long
03:24:47.240or ever hamdills hemder stumbled and thrust down his hand to steady himself and spoke therewith
03:24:54.280Not but a true thing, spake Erper, for now should I have fallen, had not hand been to steady me.
03:25:07.400So in this sense, he's saying, I'm here to help hand versus hand, but they don't trust him.
03:28:38.380I'm wondering how much we know about Odin's mom and her family.
03:28:44.540Svon was excited about this question when we first started, so take it away.
03:28:49.880Yeah, when I saw the question come in, I was like, ooh.
03:28:53.640So, it's worth bearing in mind, what I'm about to tell you is my theological and linguistic interpretation,
03:29:03.600which I think has some bearing, because when you look at other people's kind of shots in the dark,
03:29:11.380they're all over the place with this.0.89
03:29:14.600But through my gleaning of this, first off, a lot of folks think that there is only one Yotun,
03:29:24.920and that Yotun is the middle Yotun, the Yotuns of Ymir.
03:29:31.020And they speak about the deluge and that they even say the upper Jotuns were of a higher class and the lower Jotuns were of a lower class, but they were all swept away, save two.
03:29:48.660So upper or lower, whether that's true or not, Bergelmer is the only one with his wife that remains.0.50
03:29:59.400But there are other Jotuns, and it's better to think of the word Jotun to mean ancient ones.
03:30:07.580There is the Hrimthursa, or the Jotuns of Niflheim.0.64
03:30:15.960And there are the Jotuns of Muspelheim, ancient beings intrinsically tied with the realm that they're connected in.
03:30:24.580And when Av Umla, the cow, her name means without horns, so she is benevolent, she licks the ice, she's the first, she's the feminine, she's the creation, she licks the ice, and out of the ice, she shapes the first house.
03:30:47.420Now, he is, again, kind of portrayed as, he's proto in a way, and he is nudged up the ice and into the land of the ice giants or the ice jotuns.
03:31:02.860And remember, in a cosmic sense, Niflheim is proto-matter.
03:34:46.040There is Odin, Pili, Ve. Anybody wondering why Odin is different than the two others is because linguistically the WV was dropped off by the late Nordic period.
03:35:00.460So just as easily to state, you know, Vodin, Votan, Vili, Ve would not stick out. But that's more grammatical than anything else. It's not necessarily religious significance.
03:35:16.040Well, the three come down and slay Ymir and create the deluge, and all the jotuns upon him are flooded.0.92
03:35:29.640So we can already see this is bigger than just simply beings.0.84
03:35:39.260the at this point there is the general view i believe our ancestors saw was that the gods were
03:35:49.140living on a in the center in a heavenly mountain range him and baker they were living upon and
03:35:58.020above and Ausgarther is there with the tree. So of a general sense, Bor, I believe, is the one who
03:36:13.240lifts up Bestla and Bestla becomes the heavenly realm. So they cosmically sacrifice their being
03:36:23.780to extend further in a different form and they lift up the land and become the heavenly realm
03:36:32.400because the name best love if you look it up on wikipedia everybody says it means
03:36:38.120like bark or um i can't remember some of the other stuff it's nowhere near but
03:36:46.160to beset the the uh the indo-european word for yeah thank you nick besetiana the besetting of
03:36:57.440things and on top of that if you look even in old norse the the word bestie means to bast or like
03:37:06.400to bast in the sun to lay down in the sun um and there is also uh betra which means to improve so
03:37:15.440there's a lot of words kind of linking here but again we got to be careful you can't by sound
03:37:21.920alone can't do that but best law and to beset and how far it goes back as a proto-indo-european word
03:37:31.520i believe that she is the one who lays out her body to the heavenly realm she gives the abode
03:37:40.560to her children the tree is upon her and she is the upper world so at this point her soul and
03:37:53.360uh bore soul the one who is bearing up leave their place but turn into the hawk and the eagle
03:38:03.520on top of the tree to watch their children but another point that i i like to make is that
03:38:13.120the strut of heaven the ermine soul is shaped like a strut it's shaped like that which is lifted up
03:38:21.520and so the stasis of separation between the earth and the heavens needs to be maintained
03:38:30.320there is this lifting up or placement and i believe that the ermine an initial
03:38:39.920ermine designation is given first to bor all too often i think a lot of people just discount
03:38:47.280bor and besla and they don't look at them as they do in other aryan religions where there is
03:38:55.680a deus potter and deus mater and they pass away and then the tripartite the three
03:39:02.800are established and this happens in every single arian branch and people have just
03:39:11.680completely disrode that or laid it away and i think that that's that's not wise um i believe
03:39:19.120that the proto house of cosmic uh cosmic order and natural law are in war and best love but they pass
03:39:30.480on to allow their children to grow forth from there and manage the rest of creation from their
03:39:39.280place um the only one of the reasons why this kind of led to that in study and in prayer was that
03:39:47.360there was theorized that Bor was a mountain or an original mountain of the Caucasus or an
03:39:55.440original mountain of the place of where our folk presided. And again, the Aryan concept
03:40:04.320of a central mountain, a pillared place, a central axis, and this going along with0.95
03:40:14.640the the name of being bored up to carry up so it i am a belief that board and best law are
03:40:24.640a dynamic part that's not talked about in the stories but is again inferred to as
03:40:32.640they step away from their positioning and become structured part of the cosmos
03:40:40.640for their children to proceed but that's a a big point i wanted to bring up the other big point is
03:40:49.980the jotens of niflheim and the jotens of muspelheim and the jotens of emir are different
03:40:57.940and so for people to think joten bad or the gods mix with jotens so0.57
03:41:05.500So, no, Lord Odin descends with the blood of Jotuns from Niflheim in him, and he has that.
03:41:17.580Now, he's not with the ones in the middle, but later on, some of the other gods do take dominion from the middle world, from both the Vanir and the Jotuns.0.96
03:41:29.920And that's, again, a deeply symbolic reason when the heavenly realm starts to take up dominion from both of those sides in order to keep the middle under control.0.87
03:41:42.820And the only place that they don't have full control but create law under is with Ayur and Ran, the most proto-yotan base of the middle, which is the blood of Ymir.0.89
03:41:59.040it's the it's the one place in the tangible physical world where things are old as old as0.91
03:42:07.600emir they uh and have been around since from the down to the micro to
03:42:13.440many of the larger animals so this place is that untapped sense and the gods have pulled from
03:42:23.120vonaheim they pulled from jotunheim but then they lock the center of the ocean the swirling mass of
03:42:30.800chaos here in the material under uh oath with um in the stories it's you know they every every day
03:42:40.480they go and ride and share feast with ayur and he's obligated to take them so the divine are now
03:42:50.080in his hall and they have this obligation to each other so it's very interesting when you see the
03:42:56.320stories the way they're written and that's i'm saying this because this is how i come to a lot
03:43:03.280of my um insights is the way that cosmic energy moves the fact that when they do pull up from the
03:43:11.520west when they do pull up from the east but yet they don't from the middle but then they create
03:43:17.760obligation and that's why it's so important to do so so that way they can bring the dominion
03:43:24.640away from chaos and and more aligned with themselves it's it's a that's a very long and
03:43:33.840and i could go on and on and on but she i believe is the one who besets and is the body of heaven
03:43:43.760and that her soul resides now on on the beak of wind torn the the eagle and that they watch from
03:43:53.900the tree which is in heaven not with the roots down in hell guard or or what have you that
03:44:02.040some people are trying to say so i hope that was that that made no sense that was a big information
03:44:11.520So, what I, I don't know, what I'd like to add, the
03:44:41.520I'm trying to think of the best way to phrase it. We see a couple of kind of interesting parallels. When Ask and Embla are ennobled, they exist first.
03:45:03.520uh Othinville and they don't create them they transform them there is an existent
03:45:17.520thing that they find described as you know driftwood cast up on the shore by the by the
03:45:25.520Oceanside, and they see these two logs or pieces of wood or whatever that is, they see
03:45:39.200potential, and they imbue that with certain things.
03:45:47.940they imbue it with um with will with sacrality and with you know animating life force
04:07:26.940I think having wisdom and foresight before you pledge your loyalty is important.0.98
04:07:36.960But I think that sometimes you're going to find yourselves in spots where you are obliged to be loyal when people don't deserve it or to people that suck.
04:07:55.660And I think one of the things that is important, at least in your mindset, because some of that has to do with duty.
04:08:03.460Sometimes you're in a spot where you find yourself, you're on the wrong team, but you still got to do your part or whatever.
04:08:10.260There is a way to approach that stoically with knowing that you make certain choices and choosing to be loyal anyway,
04:08:21.720even when you realize that somebody is not worthy of it for the principle of the loyalty
04:08:30.120or for your personal example and your personal dignity
04:08:36.240and I think there's a measured way to do that I don't say you know a lot of our lore and I think
04:08:43.740that one thing that we say suffer from, but I don't think that's fair, cause and effect
04:08:56.740of when our lore is told the way that it is, in the heroic cycle, everything is written
04:09:07.220in absolutes everything is the most kicked up to notches beyond any form of reality
04:09:20.820every battle is the most epic struggle of whatever everything is in the most stark terms
04:09:28.740it's always the saga of not even the greatest hero that exists but of like the most pretend
04:09:37.500version of that we can do to exemplify a point that's very instructive for children
04:09:45.780it's instructive in a very broad way for all of us but I don't think that we stop and
04:09:54.480it dial it back to real things that real people do um there's you doing your job you doing what
04:10:06.060you signed on to do you doing it for a period of time that was agreed upon and then saying cool
04:10:12.060I'm out I served you well because we agreed that that's what I was going to do and now I'm done
04:10:18.660I don't want any part of what you got going on is a real thing you face in your life.
04:10:24.220You're not always in a to the death, die for your Lord, even though he turns out to be a dirtbag thing.
04:10:31.440And I'm not suggesting you extend your loyalty like that.
04:10:34.600But sometimes you make deals with people that you know may not fulfill their end.
04:10:42.880And you still do the right thing because it's the right thing to do.
04:10:46.820and because people are watching you and people are judging you and that's true
04:10:52.420there's a big difference between constantly feeling betrayed
04:16:05.600I hope that made some sense. I don't think it maybe did, made sense in my head. But yeah, I don't, what I would caution against is becoming jaded.
04:16:22.120It is very easy when you are surrounded by people that don't hold themselves to the same moral standards that you do.
04:16:31.420For you to take a jaded position and for you to become less than you ought to be because you are surrounded by people below you.
04:16:42.120And it's funny how I see some of these things tie in, kind of like I was talking with Bore and Vestla.
04:16:48.420there is a beautiful nobility in taking something with potential that's not there yet
04:16:58.420and helping to elevate them to their best self or to an actualized version of themselves.
04:17:05.140If you can do that with people, great.
04:17:07.580But if you're surrounded by people that don't have that Aryan nobility that you have,
04:17:14.380don't let yourself be drugged down to their level to where nah screw that nobody's loyal to me I'm
04:17:19.860not loyal to anybody else I'm just out for number one that's a shame if you allow the world to do
04:17:26.820that to you don't keep your loyalty keep an eye out for those worthy of wholeheartedly extending
04:17:34.960it to but also hold an open place in your heart for people that you give an opportunity to rise
04:17:42.220the occasion don't bet more than you're willing to lose on it but place those bets strategically
04:17:50.540in the hopes that they pay off and sometimes they do
04:17:56.940i hope that made some sense anyways um
04:18:02.860finwraith asks can being closer to the gods or being connected to ancestors or just being more
04:18:10.300spiritual help with self-discipline and succeeding at life spawn go for it uh yes and i i i think
04:18:20.140that's that one flows down from the other your your spirit helps you helps your mind your mind
04:18:28.380helps your body or or perhaps it could be seen as a triangle if you will with each one kind of
04:18:34.300needing their own catering in order to hold each other up i i think it is more one-sided for me to
04:18:40.380say that it's down one's downstream of the other um no yeah it's a stabilized triangle of three
04:18:48.540healthy things but your spirit is one of those and it and if you remove that it it crumbles
04:18:56.620You know, when I first got into Ausatru, I remember I was very young and my runic teacher was talking about giving prayers to Lord Thor before working out.
04:19:13.020Something as simple as that. And there was this culmination of spiritual mixed with physical and even in cultural events.
04:19:22.020And what it really is, is it's about bringing your three aspects into alignment, where you have your spiritual and it's not perfect.
04:19:34.120You're attempting to maintain alignment, maintain conviction, maintain truth and understanding and moving forward and trying to learn more.
04:19:45.100But it's the same with your intellect or your mental capacity. It's the same with your body.
04:19:52.020Trying to constantly hone or shape, and certainly just not letting it wither into misuse or neglect.
04:20:02.860I think it is a huge part of helping folks overcome things and understand things and clearly get better.
04:20:15.100And ultimately, it's not so much the spiritualism or, you know, that if you accept the gods into your heart, you're going to be healed of all woes.
04:20:32.160What it is, is that you start yourself on the road to improving yourself with the hopes that the holy gods, the great cosmic powers we were talking about, notice you and make worthy, like they note in worth your resolve.
04:20:58.900so uh i think a lot of people don't understand that or that you know the attraction that some
04:21:05.460religions have where they can say some words or do some things and they're instantly just
04:21:11.220absolved whereas our faith is like no now it's the beginning now you have to start maintaining you have
04:21:17.220to you want to hold true and as you do so you one you're not alone and two it starts to formulate
04:21:25.140your life around you you uh the the full moon that uh you know is coming to pass right now
04:21:34.340being the midsummer moon i don't see the though the the year is like oh what day is this it's july
04:21:43.30011th no it's it's midsummer moon and we're preparing to do this and we're gonna go there
04:21:49.140And I think it frustrates my wife to no end that I see kind of a lot in the mythical sense.
04:21:57.420But I think it's important for us to do that and that there is so much more meaning.
04:22:03.060I'm not saying that you shouldn't have the responsibility of seeing the calendar date and what you're doing.
04:22:09.880But when you start to integrate into it, it does tie you to other things and it does make you see the world in different ways and it does motivate you in different ways for the better.
04:22:24.320As long as you maintain troth to the Aesir and give homage and honor to your ancestors, absolutely starts to change and create and formulate yourself in a disciplined life.
04:22:45.600So the simple answer to your question is yes.
04:22:54.320But one of the aspects of that, first, I think those things help you in general.
04:23:01.100I think being aware of, appreciative of, and pious towards the gods, the ancestors, and your spiritual development generally, that's all to the good.
04:23:17.660That is obviously going to yield positive results.
04:23:21.320I think that everything else remaining the same, you being aware of that and you being respectful, your life will be better for it.
04:23:32.920I think everything remaining the same and you being respectful and you asking for help, you will get some help.
04:23:41.600But I think the best thing about it is you wanting to rise to the occasion.
04:23:46.360What I think is special is calibrating yourself to higher standards than just the people around you.
04:24:01.140What happens in a world without spirituality, without religion, without belief in afterlife or belief in the gods, your bar is set very low.
04:24:16.360And it's very hard to attune yourself to accomplishment, to things that are eternal, to honor, to glory, to all of the things that have advanced Western civilization since the very beginning of our folk.
04:24:33.380It's very easy to sit around and just live a nihilistic, masturbatory existence of whatever kind of makes you happy or you get the most fun out of in a given 24-hour period.
04:24:52.560You're eating and excreting, and you're not living an elevated existence.0.81
04:24:57.340when you check in with your ancestors and with the gods and you see yourself as part of a greater
04:25:06.040whole that is a continuous a continuum of divinity and of ancestry that's eternal back to the very
04:25:16.420beginning and throughout the rest of existence and you are trying to build the best place for
04:25:25.740yourself within that it forces you to set your standards higher and to calibrate higher0.99
04:25:31.500great people and heroes don't look at the churls around them to judge themselves against
04:25:43.200very quickly you find yourself the best of that lot and you can sit and get fat on on feeling0.98
04:25:49.880like you're better than you know you're the spartus kid in the special ed class that's not
04:32:00.000of trying to cope with, or not cope with things.
04:32:06.240Just, I realized there were different levels of things
04:32:11.920I needed to, hurdles I needed to jump over
04:32:15.980because my mind was defaulting me against
04:32:19.620or improperly to the way I needed to be.
04:32:23.980Or worse off, I was thinking that I was so broken.
04:32:27.160needed to remedy myself with alcohol or to go there's a lot of stuff there that needs to be
04:32:35.560understood and it's not so much about healing as it is about really coming into awareness of the
04:32:45.080way you're acting and then having the willpower to change it and that's the key i think that
04:32:51.160the holy gods and in particular the our senior um help in a in kind of clearing the way of
04:33:03.480seeing the cause or seeing the the root as to what your issues are and then you overcoming those
04:33:14.200traumas through re-correcting yourself and we see it people understand this completely when we say
04:33:21.720oh it ends with you you notice something's wrong and you decide i'm not going to pursue that further
04:33:28.520maybe with my children and what have you makes perfect sense but very rarely do people ever
04:33:35.320conceptualize the idea that you are the the person you should be saying that to it's not just about
04:33:42.760the next generation it's okay i see why i'm angry i i have anger or or what have you and i'm doing
04:33:52.840this as a result of it and that ain't that deed is causing problems or doing bad things i need to
04:34:03.080go to the source of it maybe talk talk to gothar talk to someone um and sort it out
04:34:14.280so that you can stop penting up anger or depression and and acting out in the willful
04:34:22.200manifestation of whatever those things are constantly breeding um that's a a big one and
04:34:30.200And I believe that our senior are very, very powerful in helping the healing.
04:34:41.740It's not just healing of the physical body and really taking a genuine attempt at healing yourself.
04:34:52.820Remember, in order to turn off the faucets of the willful deeds you're doing,
04:34:59.520if you are something bad has happened and out of that you are depressed so because you're depressed
04:35:07.520you do x that's that's the thing you need to kind of get to the core of and work through
04:35:17.760and that takes not it's it's not so much uh i'm going to overcome strength and and uh i'm just
04:35:27.040gonna crush all this no no this is much more subtle takes a lot more of a a softer hand and
04:35:35.440a way to kind of work through to calm down to piece apart and i do believe that the our senior
04:35:42.960are pivotal in in healing a lot of trauma but that trauma again is you're not broken
04:35:53.200it's that there are incidences in your life that have left you with emotional
04:36:02.400ghosts great rifts of emotion and those emotions have not been contended with
04:36:08.400and so then we oftentimes act out or we feel sometimes subconsciously things are happening
04:36:16.160and so it is best that we try to get to the core of what's causing these rifts or ghosts or
04:36:26.080fissures in us that lead us to willfully act out or shut down or hide or what have you
04:36:34.640yeah you're the first i don't know most obvious thing is it appropriate to ask the gods for
04:36:46.240healing if you have trauma absolutely absolutely and i saw in the chat and i heard what swan said
04:36:54.340i think that it is appropriate to ask any of our gods and any of our goddesses to help you
04:37:01.220to heal in something you're trying to heal i think in particular the asenior are a very good
04:37:10.560choice to reach out to i think that lady air is you know the most obvious choice for helping any
04:37:20.100kind of healing, physical, emotional, spiritual. And I think that what is unfortunate is getting
04:37:35.360past trauma involves confronting uncomfortable things. You know, Svon says you're not broken.
04:37:47.520I don't know you. Maybe you are broken. That's scary to think about. Having that conversation with yourself. Are you, you know, are you broken or do you just have some stuff you need to get over?
04:38:03.840If you're fundamentally broken, then cool. How do you work with your brokenness to maximize the rest of you that is whole? And how do you make that functional to work towards your goals?
04:38:20.880If you're not, how do you confront the trauma that you have in a productive way?
04:38:28.580I think something Svon said makes a lot of sense in the sense that overcoming trauma isn't a strength Herculean,
04:38:39.280like I'm going to endure this one thing, and if I slay this one demon, then I'm good.
04:38:47.020No, you have to have this slow, persistent, endurance kind of strength that's very different.
04:38:56.920You have to forge new habits and retrain yourself on how to respond to stimuli in a different way.
04:39:06.560That is a strength, but it's a very different strength.
04:39:10.020strength it's not a you know punch somebody in the face break through lift a boulder off yourself
04:39:18.820thing it is this endurance and this being able to hold up over very difficult things
04:39:26.100over a long time until it becomes something that you're accustomed to and that's hard to do
04:39:32.820it also more than just strength it takes courage takes courage to face and recognize uncomfortable
04:39:42.720truths about yourself and about your relation to things that you've dealt with in your life
04:39:49.880and as always these questions aren't aimed at the original poster i really don't know
04:39:55.260what your situation is but you mentioned trauma in childhood or otherwise
04:40:00.300okay so i'm gonna i'm gonna wax philosophic here because i think it does this on a couple
04:40:08.540of different levels childhood trauma is really tricky because i don't think it's easy to
04:40:15.480understand i think objectively it's easy to understand but if you are afflicted with
04:40:25.020childhood trauma. It's become a part of you at a developmental stage so early on, it's very hard
04:40:32.980to conceive of life differently than the way at a very fundamental stage it was baked into you.
04:40:42.060That's a unique kind of challenge. Trauma you've had as an adult, you can lean on like,
04:40:48.960i remember how i was before i had this happen to me i recognize when that changed
04:40:58.000you can at least have that touchstone of knowing something different
04:41:09.680very hard to deal with and it's going to fill in with our last question here we have a question
04:41:14.800in between that we'll get to but the question that just popped up you know what are your thoughts on
04:41:19.280mental health problems and therapy and i think that goes exactly into what we're talking about
04:41:25.120so yes it is completely right and appropriate to ask our gods to help you but with this caveat
04:41:33.600i don't think it is appropriate to ask our gods to help you if anything you are not willing to
04:41:39.280put yourself in to help yourself. Asking them to help carry you that extra bit of the way that you
04:41:48.700can't or to help aid you in something you are doing is important. Sitting there and like not
04:41:58.400even trying and just ask that they magically come and lift you up out of it. I don't think
04:42:05.760that that's the right place to be mentally to approach our gods and ask for their help
04:42:13.700you have to be willing to put forth the effort on your end and hope that they grant you you know
04:42:20.720a boon of their help on to get you get you through what you can't do by yourself
04:42:25.680um but as far as that rolls into mental health and therapy um you know what are my thoughts
04:42:35.560on mental health problems i they're terrible
04:42:41.300and they afflict us really different i've heard this expressed in far less
04:42:49.740sympathetic terms but i think there's a truth to it those are like first world kind of problems
04:43:00.220because they're problems that affect us differently than immediate survival problems
04:43:09.660so i think we are at a um point in civilization to where we have a lot of
04:43:17.900time to contemplate life, to have mental health problems affect our thinking because we're
04:43:30.180functioning on a different system. We're not fight or flight, just get by, find stuff to eat,
04:43:37.900procreate, and be able to not die by tomorrow. We're not in that kind of existence, most of us.
04:43:44.180So it leaves us a lot of time to sit and think.
04:43:49.780And sometimes when we're overstimulated all day, every day with infinite stimulus, and then we find ourselves alone, all of the mental health things come out to scare us.
04:44:06.280And I think it's kind of a place in human history that most people didn't always find themselves.
04:44:14.180there are a lot of mental health problems out there but i think once we label certain things
04:44:19.380as a disease we fall into a you know throwing our hands up there's nothing we can do this is a
04:44:28.100permanent condition that we can't fix like you can't will yourself out of you know having
04:44:35.140tuberculosis or something and i think i would caution against that there are certain things0.70
04:44:41.460to where you are fundamentally mentally ill to where you are dangerous and you are broken and0.86
04:44:45.940there is no fixing you that's unfortunate but i want to quarantine that section of the population0.92
04:44:53.700and not inflict that upon the rest of people but for a lot of other things if you are struggling
04:45:00.100with mental things i think by the way they categorize that and so here's kind of a
04:45:11.460All over the place on it is what it is. So. OK. We have extended our diagnosis of mental health problems so broadly now that I'm confident that everyone listening to this broadcast could go in and get diagnosed with a clinical diagnosis of some kind of mental unwellness.
04:45:41.460I think that's really good if it informs you of an angle of approach to fix a problem or to help
04:45:52.880you get past something that's hurting you, but not if it enables you to lean on, you know,
04:45:59.740oh, I'm a victim, I'm busted, you know, give me my disability and I'll just be mentally ill.
04:46:06.360so it brings a second part of the question mental health problems and therapy i think therapy is a
04:46:15.820great thing but i think we only conceive of it in the modern west as going to see a psychologist
04:46:25.860or a psychiatrist and getting that type of therapy i think likely helps a lot of people
04:46:36.340and i don't i have my own concerns about that in the political climate we live in because i think
04:46:43.300a lot of their advice and training is unhealthy but pushing i i don't think that's a you know
04:46:56.180i don't think that speaks to all people in mental health fields in fact i know it does
04:47:00.420and i know some very good people in mental health fields that don't subscribe to that
05:11:24.800She's wonderful and everything is fine.
05:11:27.440and you know 100 this is coming from within you and you need to to um address these issues and
05:11:35.440learn your ways to bind and and move past this especially in the age of um so you know social
05:11:43.840media or what have you where it's just it's everywhere and i really empathize with your
05:11:48.880question simply because i have sons who are on the precipice of kind of entering into this
05:11:55.360this world and it it purifies me at the um the fact that this this kind of
05:12:02.480poison this saliva of fenris can seep in and and this hunger can just kind of come out of nowhere
05:12:10.800and so i think one praying to the holy gods um and i i also now i'm just i'm thinking as i'm talking
05:12:21.040there there is no accident that fenris is opposed or counter in juxtaposition to lord tier
05:12:31.040noble virtuous and he is made unwhole by the chaos wolf the thing that was brought in
05:12:43.120There's so much poetic, spiritual, and cosmic messaging going on in that story, but praying to maintain and to break down, find the wholeness and reject the chaos and the poison of it, and that may take multiple steps, and I certainly wouldn't be able to roadmap it for you here, but I think it should be done.
05:13:11.060i think it's worth doing and i think the first step is noticing it and if you've noticed it
05:13:16.680then yes self-reflection on why where it's coming from and then moving from there so we
05:13:25.460you guys have reached the portion in the evening where
05:13:31.320you get you get some wild uh takes on some of these things
05:13:37.780um first fawn it's you know after two in the morning yeah me i'm i'm a bottle of chianti in
05:13:47.300um so but i think these things are related um in a lot of ways uh first kind of on the
05:13:57.960antidepressant thing i see a little bit of comments over in the chat um exercise is good
05:14:05.720helps. Getting your diet right helps. Getting out in the sunshine helps. Something I found in my
05:14:16.440life helps a lot. Going to the gym helps me. I think the chemicals of it help, but also just
05:14:27.400getting in a different environment to where I'm focused on something different takes me out of my
05:14:32.180stresses of the day puts me into something where I'm focused on something that I like around good
05:14:37.980looking people that are trying to do their best and make themselves, you know, succeed. It's a
05:14:44.400nice, healthy atmosphere that way for me. You know, getting out in the sunshine. I love my
05:14:52.920daughter to death, but I spend a lot of time with a five-year-old that there was a time in Aubrey's
05:15:00.220life where, you know, because she was born during the COVID thing, we're like, man, she's a little
05:15:04.020bit slow to start talking and stuff. Nope. Now we can't get her to stop. So there's like a constant
05:15:11.960stimulus and it's a lot. And I'm just saying like normal life stuff, it ends up being a lot going
05:15:18.000outside and being to where you do get the sunlight and that being outside, absolutely real. There's
05:15:25.520something to that. Somebody over in the chat mentioned this, their experience. I'm not
05:15:29.300this, counting it, so that they haven't known people who have been benefited by antidepressants
05:15:36.340that they tend to make them very strange and have problems. I don't know people that over the long
05:15:44.480term are necessarily benefited, but I do know people over the short term that are. And it's
05:15:51.560kind of what some of my advice earlier, if there's stuff that gets you over a hump or gets you through
05:15:56.340a tragedy or gets you through a rough patch i think that that there's a lot of room for that
05:16:03.940but i think that when you're fundamentally trying to recalibrate it it does different stuff so like
05:16:11.700with um stuff for adhd and things if your problem is you can't focus and you take special
05:16:20.340mental health drugs to increase your focus very often you hyper focus and you obsess
05:16:30.420you know somebody mentioned that antidepressants have a known link to suicidal thoughts and
05:16:36.100tendencies and they do because it's tinkering with brain chemicals for a consistent like trying
05:16:46.980to fundamentally alter it with permanency there's a lot of unknowns and a lot of unforeseen
05:16:53.780consequence that comes with it but i have seen you know them help immensely in the short term
05:17:00.100and we wouldn't ever presume here to give you medical diagnosis or whatever we're just giving
05:17:06.660you a little bit of wisdom that we have on it and hope you do the best i don't think you need to
05:17:10.980to find yourself feeling guilty, you know, try things out and find what's going to work best
05:17:16.960for you. And I wish you the best in it. There are some suggestions that we have that I hope that,
05:17:22.360you know, you consider, but, you know, everybody's brain chemistry is a little bit different. And I
05:17:27.380certainly don't look down on anybody for any medical help they may need to get right with that
05:17:33.000or for deciding that's not what they want to do. It's funny we're talking about that. It kind of
05:17:38.680leads into this question about the lustful thoughts. One of the things with Ozempic is
05:17:47.000we got fatties that don't know when to stop eating, because the natural tendency to know
05:17:53.760when you're full isn't there. Hunger as an indication of, man, I need to eat some food,
05:18:00.720that's extremely valuable. But the more we find ourselves in a place of unhealth to where
05:18:08.540ravenous desires for things go beyond what's useful, it's worth being aware of that.
05:18:22.620That's one of the problems. All of those things that helped us biologically when food wasn't
05:18:29.640readily available and calories were hard to come by, we needed that indicator to keep us out there
05:18:36.220on the grind getting healthy getting full and being big and strong and well nourished but then
05:18:43.180when it got so easy to get we also see that now our many of our folk have a struggle of like when
05:18:49.660to put the fork down because the same things that served us well in the past don't serve us well now0.95
05:18:56.380your you know hormonal drive to like need sexual gratification need the attention of women need to0.52
05:19:04.860to get that need filled makes a lot of sense. But now we live in a time where we're bombarded
05:19:11.040with, you know, infinite free pornography and infinite casual sex options. And I'm not trying
05:19:22.940to be vulgar. Please don't think that that's my intention. It's not. But our ancestors were in a
05:19:30.480time where if you were able to find you know a young lady that wanted to interact with you
05:19:34.980romantically you're fortunate and that's good and that's awesome and you can oh wait I found
05:19:41.500somebody this chick's all right this is cool well now we have infinite at your fingertips
05:19:52.100you know swipe left and have you know try to hook up with all these different people
05:19:58.340And it's very askew to any normal socialization that any of the prior generations of our folk have ever had.
05:20:09.480So it puts you in a very different spot.
05:20:12.240And I think that we are always, you want to stay hungry and stay ambitious.
05:20:20.460because in its best iteration, it makes you want to succeed, makes you want to achieve.
05:20:30.960It, you know, keeps you striving to be your best self.
05:20:36.100The same things that are the root of some of that are what make you want to be your best to attract a potential mate
05:20:42.960or to be your best version of yourself for the mate that you have.