Asatru Folk Assembly - 6⧸17⧸26 Victory Never Sleeps, Ep 206 - Prose Edda： Gylfaginning, Part 11

00:00:00.000 We'll be right back.

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

00:03:13.700 I hope that everyone is gearing up to have a fantastic midsummer that is coming up this weekend.

00:03:22.000 I will actually, first thing in the morning, I will be getting on an airplane and heading out

00:03:30.940 to Sacramento so that I can attend midsummer at Odin's Hoff here this weekend. If you guys can

00:03:38.520 make it out, we would love to see you there. It's likely to be the biggest or certainly one of the

00:03:44.700 biggest events of the year um great time to meet afa members out in the western part of the country

00:03:53.600 also a good time to make my acquaintance if you have not yet and to meet our founder and his

00:04:00.860 lovely wife github sheila they will be out there as well celebrating i believe steve is slated to

00:04:07.360 to do an Oden Bloat on Friday night.

00:04:10.160 That's definitely something not to miss.

00:04:14.660 Yeah, Steve's Oden Bloat is, I don't know,

00:04:18.020 a pivotal moment in many of our solidifying our faith

00:04:22.820 and experiencing Alcetru for the first time.

00:04:26.620 So don't miss it if you can be there for it.

00:04:31.320 If you can't, go to your local Hoff, make the effort.

00:04:36.000 this is a really good one for you to make that effort to get to uh nick threw up the hoffs on

00:04:41.280 there but anybody who is listening to this instead of looking at it odenshoff is in brownsville

00:04:46.400 california thorshoff is in linden north carolina baldershoff is in murdoch minnesota njordshoff

00:04:55.040 is in white springs florida and phrasehoff is in austintown ohio i would highly encourage

00:05:03.600 everybody to make it to one of your hops this weekend if you can um other top of the show

00:05:12.080 stuff for you this evening so making good progress you guys are extremely generous and we appreciate

00:05:18.900 you um pavilion fundraising is coming right along we're doing awesome on that we are

00:05:27.160 um we're looking at 36 a person would pay for that pavilion which

00:05:35.740 trying to just calculate in my head here that gets us real close we are

00:05:40.500 23.3 percent of the way there so thank you guys and then to pay off phrasehoff and paying off

00:05:54.980 Frazehoff is kind of a key step in us progressing on establishing Tiershoff.

00:06:01.000 So we're hard to work on that, 42.5%.

00:06:04.400 We've got $71,904 to go, and that's just about $98 per member would pay off Frazehoff today for perspective.

00:06:16.360 Thank you, everybody who has donated.

00:06:19.140 Your generosity is much appreciated.

00:06:21.160 I should have mentioned it on the Sigurheim Pavilion Project.

00:06:24.980 So, once again, our apprentice folk builder Jill Gaffney in Pennsylvania has thrown out a Double the Timbers Challenge, round two for her.

00:06:36.500 She will match donations for the next $300 we get donated towards it.

00:06:42.840 So, if you donate, your donation will be twice as valuable in the next little year.

00:06:49.020 So, thank you for that, and thank you, Jill, for your generosity and support of the full project.

00:06:54.460 I look forward to celebrating with you under that pavilion in the months and years to come.

00:07:03.140 So, oh, this just in.

00:07:06.540 Thank you, Gilbert.

00:07:07.860 Gilbert, a steady donor, and it's much, much appreciated.

00:07:12.020 Gave $150 towards said pavilion.

00:07:15.840 So that is fantastic news and greatly appreciated.

00:07:24.460 I don't think if there's any other top-of-the-show news.

00:07:30.820 I don't think there is at the moment.

00:07:36.280 By my calculations, we are at section 49 of the Guilford Guinea.

00:07:45.460 So if you are following along, we are at thelispow.org,

00:07:50.160 and we are at section 49 the death of both of the good did we uh i thought we were at 48

00:08:00.940 the fishing trip no we covered that i think the way it went down is you were having a glitch

00:08:12.040 when i read that section ah right um i remember too it was just at the tail end things were kind

00:08:21.560 of getting dicey for me for a second there so as a note on that and i don't know if we mentioned it

00:08:28.440 last week but um thor's fishing expedition there is the scene that is depicted in the mural at

00:08:39.000 thors off which is the very first of our transcendent murals at these hoffs that our

00:08:48.040 very own speckner spawn painted for us so we appreciate that it is amazing if you haven't

00:08:54.040 seen it first they're all awesome the thor one really it really stands out just over the years

00:09:05.080 part of it is the structure of that building and the way that area is positioned but it just

00:09:11.960 dominates the space is spectacular if you haven't seen it you really should it's it's amazing yeah

00:09:20.200 there uh i'm doing work on it right now gold leaf and uh in the archway sections there's additions

00:09:29.080 um a lot going on in that but uh with uh thor's off i have time oftentimes when i go to another

00:09:39.560 half i only have a limited amount of time uh four to three days so sometimes five days and um i have

00:09:48.760 to just absolutely turbo burn and get everything out as much as i can but at thor's off i can just

00:09:58.840 slowly progress um but i am trying to get uh the gold leafing set equally for pictures for

00:10:07.240 midsummer so that it doesn't look like only one side is done and cross my cross fingers is i i'm

00:10:15.240 almost there but there might be some noticing on uh midsummer as far as the uh gold was being

00:10:23.240 kind of off kill first and and i i think too it should be worth noting you were the one that

00:10:31.320 instigated all of this um yeah you know for people that don't know i was a

00:10:40.040 amateur tattoo artist and i did calligraphy and artwork i had no painting experience

00:10:49.160 and it was just kind of i think at the whim when we uh finally got thor's off and we were looking

00:10:55.080 at that space and you were like you know can you draw something up there and i was fully expecting

00:11:02.360 there to not be anything there maybe some background decoration and maybe we kind of focus on

00:11:09.080 a statue or a relief or some wood carving or clay uh kind of paneling or something

00:11:16.200 And it just developed into this bright colors and the motivation towards medieval artwork in castles and in churches and in things that they had back then.

00:11:34.780 So that became the motivation, looking at all of these expressions of art in the medieval structure.

00:11:46.200 and i think that that a lot of folks don't realize but that's what we're going towards is

00:11:52.280 is um i think we'll have more leniency like at thorsoff i want to paint the in the interior

00:12:00.200 almost entirely but uh you know phrasehoff or or some of the other hafs may not

00:12:06.940 do that in relation to the way that they're built or or what have you but

00:12:12.960 i definitely want to do that i think we're all eager to see how just all of that develops i think

00:12:21.480 it's beautiful the murals are beautiful and they're really

00:12:24.900 i mentioned this before but our gods work through them in a really special way

00:12:33.620 um they very much serve as a portal to the divine to where the gods

00:12:42.240 inhabit them and see through them in a way and uh it's it's palpable so that's that's a really

00:12:51.760 special thing i hope everybody gets the opportunity to experience that um that would further reduce

00:12:59.700 fawn um would you like to take us into gilford getting 49 absolutely uh context for those who

00:13:09.520 might be catching up or have missed. King Galfi, who is disguised as the Wanderer Ganglady,

00:13:19.640 he is in the Hall of the Aesir, and he is talking to the three kings, who is the tripartite of

00:13:29.940 of the tripartite the dynamic lord lord odin um in his triplicate form that's why like at

00:13:40.300 baldershoff i mean no excuse me at odin's off um there is runic writing uh he is three but one and

00:13:47.780 one but three um so this uh connective mystery of the dynamic um and he is asking questions but in

00:13:59.700 this section of the poem the questions kind of stop and this is more an establishment for the

00:14:09.300 poet and it goes into huge chunks of other poems in reference so the front half of the

00:14:18.340 gill beginning i think is very important to establishing um religious concepts theological

00:14:26.500 framework the back half no less so it's just that it takes a little bit more work to try to look

00:14:34.100 into perhaps uh theological meaning a perfect example is uh the story of thor on the fishing

00:14:45.620 trip one of the reasons why the mural is done that way is because it's we're speaking about fear

00:14:53.780 uh withholding us from victory and that is one of the big concepts of that moment in the story

00:15:01.940 so every story is layered with theological meaning um cultural uh kind of time capsule

00:15:12.500 and other things it's like a rope so depending on what you're looking for in the mythos

00:15:18.740 you know the perennial truths or just cultural reference or some of that understanding i think

00:15:24.340 is very important why and what we learn from these sections so uh 49 the death of baldur the good

00:15:34.900 then spoke gangliri have any more matters of note befallen among the amongst the ice here

00:15:43.220 a very great deed of valor did thor achieve on his journey how it made answer now shall be told of

00:15:52.020 those tidings which seemed of more consequence to the Aesir. The beginning of the story is this,

00:15:58.900 that Baldr the Good dreamed great and perilous dreams touching his life. When he told these

00:16:07.300 dreams to the Aesir, then they took counsel together, and this was their decision, to ask

00:16:14.020 safely safety for balder from all kinds of dangers and frigg took oaths to this purport

00:16:25.140 that fire and water should spare balder likewise iron and metals of all kinds stones earth trees

00:16:35.220 sickness beasts birds venom serpents and when that was done and made known then it was diversion

00:16:44.680 of balders and the iser that he should stand up in the thing of course the thing is uh thing good

00:16:54.260 is a council or gathering that he should stand up at the at the congressional gathering of the gods

00:17:02.360 And all others would shoot at him, some hew at him, some beat him with stones, but whatever whatsoever was done to hurt him would not hurt him at all. And that seemed to them all very a worshipful thing.

00:17:20.900 so a couple of things in this of course is that this section is glossing over the the the poem

00:17:30.820 is is balder's trauma the dream of balder um and it it has to gloss over quickly and it's giving

00:17:39.460 you the very condensed version of it but i do like that it is um it for those of us that are

00:17:47.980 into old norse it gives you a list of words um oftentimes not placed within the context of the

00:17:55.740 sentence it's just a list and so there's some really cool chances to look there there's also

00:18:03.340 the concept that the gods and their dominion the way that there is the negotiation um about

00:18:14.780 say and even just in cosmic level the the gods are purporting that no thing of any uh tangible

00:18:28.900 substance do harm upon balder but what this really is is a is a uh a build-up to the caveat

00:18:37.420 yacht of the whole situation but the other poems go into far better detail as to why and to what

00:18:45.580 but ultimately the turning around there is the dream there is the oh thing and then there's the

00:18:56.560 fun of throwing the stones and the rocks or the the air you know the the spears or whatever to

00:19:04.180 overemphasize that this oath has been made and there is something uniquely Germanic and I would

00:19:14.400 say Nordic about this section. It goes from despair and trepidation to the result being

00:19:26.100 now we can throw stuff at him and it won't hurt him. And there is this concept of

00:19:33.120 even despite doom even despite darkness finding happiness finding joy in things and this was

00:19:45.520 a subject covered in multiple parts of our faith and in our literature so it's not it might seem

00:19:54.920 strange now, but the idea of our ancestors experiencing great amounts of trepidation and

00:20:04.820 yet still being able to find the kind of funny silver lining, we see it in the military a

00:20:12.800 lot. I think we see it in any sort of work where people are asked of themselves a great

00:20:20.020 deal and even though they're suffering in some way whether it's mentally physically uh they still

00:20:28.020 manage to kind of find the funny in it and i think that that's ultimately where this source is from

00:20:36.420 um it would resonate with the audience that was being told this story and the other important and

00:20:45.780 last thing that I wanted to bring up was the worshipful thing. I know that Al-Shergothi has

00:20:50.800 spoken about it numerous times. A lot of people don't understand the concept or the word worship,

00:20:57.920 and it has been eschewed by Abrahamic religions in which worship is groveling or making complete

00:21:10.080 and utter um prostration in front of some god that you know if you don't dance with his name

00:21:19.980 involved or sing a song with his name involved you shouldn't be doing it at all and so on and 0.50

00:21:24.840 we can see that in islam and and just judaism proper instead of christianity which is really 0.66

00:21:31.940 judaism light um this the the worshipful nature of this thing they found worth in it and the worth

00:21:43.460 was the humor of making positive of a bad situation that was so it's literally saying it 0.61

00:21:52.600 That the gods found worth in doing this to suppress the dark of it, to suppress the nature as the gods were worried with, I mean, if one of us dies, but balder to die.

00:22:14.680 and this again goes into a bigger concept about um divinity and death um obviously most people

00:22:24.360 in abrahamic faiths are like oh your gods can die that's not a god or or what have you but then

00:22:30.340 immediately crucifixion you know but they don't those those connections don't aren't made but

00:22:37.740 when we talk about the gods having fear or having trepidation, it's making divinity

00:22:51.780 real. It makes divinity something that we can relate to instead of something that we can't

00:23:02.000 relate to and then ultimately we we make it nameless we make it genderless and we disassociate

00:23:08.840 with it which could be a lot of people's intentions but now the divine becomes it's not

00:23:14.880 Yahweh it's not Yehovah it's not Elohim it's it's God and then God is this nameless shapeless

00:23:24.580 thing that's everywhere and everything but after a while divinity becomes impersonal

00:23:30.380 and disconnected our ancestors viewed the gods as deeply personal now in some cases in these

00:23:39.400 poems they did you hemorrhize the gods a lot you hemorrhizing means make overly human or mortal

00:23:46.960 um but i think it also speaks that they that that you hemorrhization wasn't something done

00:23:54.500 nefariously our ancestors connected to the gods intimately by seeing divinity in themselves they

00:24:04.740 saw that they were a reflection of the divine and that all of these dynamics that are speaking

00:24:12.760 being spoken of aren't that the gods are acting like humans it's like no humans act like like

00:24:18.920 lesser gods in a lot of ways with the way that they build things and create uh things that you

00:24:27.800 know are meant to last forever and have children and all of these things so we are a reflection

00:24:32.520 of the divine so just in that little section so i want to add on that for a second i think it's

00:24:38.920 really it touches on something really profound with our lore that i don't think a lot of people

00:24:43.800 understand that i think out of the best of intentions when they start to take lore elements

00:24:53.180 overly literal they miss the point and i think one of the biggest points is about relationship

00:25:02.460 we want to

00:25:06.480 there's a depth of relationship

00:25:13.960 that goes into our faith that I don't think

00:25:18.360 is the same in some other faiths

00:25:22.660 I think that if the position is

00:25:26.480 this is the all powerful God, you are

00:25:30.240 worthless do his bidding or else you need to know enough to be scared but you don't need to

00:25:41.760 flesh out a deeper picture because the point isn't for relationship and understanding the point is

00:25:50.560 more of a workplace master and servant relationship that doesn't require the same

00:25:56.160 emotional intimacy of understanding and relating to an empathetic like trying to relate to divinity

00:26:07.280 and for us to go too far and think that oh clearly we can relate to them just like they're our next

00:26:13.380 door neighbor that's ludicrous and I don't think our ancestors felt that way but to draw a

00:26:21.980 emotional picture that we can relate to, to relate to

00:26:26.620 the Allfather and to

00:26:30.780 Frigg, the Queen of Asgard

00:26:34.120 as parents dealing with the loss of a

00:26:38.700 beloved son. To see them in the depths of

00:26:42.960 emotional turmoil and deep

00:26:46.460 love and concern is

00:26:50.420 helps you relate to them it helps build the dimensionality so that you understand

00:26:56.980 these two you know this god and this goddess and their fellow gods the iser in a special way and

00:27:05.720 that's not necessary in different types of worship relationships it is necessary when we are building

00:27:13.360 relationships through gift cycle with the gods of our folk and i think that's a really special way

00:27:18.480 this is put out. And just while I have the talking stick for a sec, one thing I think

00:27:26.120 is a special, and I say this a lot, but I know we have an audience that may not listen

00:27:32.180 to every episode or it's maybe the first time chiming in or tuning in. The guilt forgetting

00:27:38.680 is so very important because it is set up in a expository way to present Alcetru to an audience

00:27:50.600 that doesn't know what it is. And it's set up through this layout of King Gilfey, but it's

00:27:57.600 presented in, you know, what is this that, you know, tell me about cosmology. These are the gods.

00:28:06.860 well tell me about these guys okay I will tell you about them wow tell me more okay and it's

00:28:14.240 very much a presentation to an audience that does not know this is what Ausitru is this is the

00:28:22.580 religion of my forefathers this is what they believed now he had access to the material that

00:28:28.520 we have access to in the uh in the prosetta and the poems that he chooses to highlight and to

00:28:36.920 reference also show us a stratification of like what was felt to be essential and important of

00:28:46.460 those poems that was a collection of poetry and a collection of cultural things that simender wanted

00:28:53.660 to preserve but this is that distilled and presented as this is the framework of our

00:29:01.020 ancestral faith that's why it is so very foundational to alsatru in the 20th and now the 21st century

00:29:10.060 and why we are lingering so long on it and why we celebrate it in the way that we do

00:29:14.860 oh and i guess also while i got the talking stick um ronald thank you so much ronald blake donated

00:29:24.780 a hundred dollars towards the pavilion and that hundred is multiplied during this double or yeah

00:29:31.620 double the timbers part two event so thank you for that we appreciate you we appreciate your

00:29:36.440 generosity and uh yeah we appreciate everybody who's contributing to what we're doing and we're

00:29:42.480 very excited to you know get get some work done on that pavilion to show you that we're making

00:29:47.120 progress you guys are awesome thank you very much so as we move into uh the the fact that balder has

00:30:00.960 trepidation of his doom of his end um causes uh just a darkness to fall over the gods

00:30:11.120 and it's it's not so much that they it's about fearing death it's it is about the gods being

00:30:19.080 dismantled in the network of divinity that they have in particular the shining jewel of the of

00:30:26.460 the crown of the gods um it it could you know it would shock but the idea is that if lord thor is

00:30:36.640 presented as a great warrior and he goes out and he fights it's always known that he can and balder

00:30:44.360 does too even though there is i think some miscued perceptions by snorri about balder um

00:30:53.860 they he the bold one he is the the shining hero the the the young warrior who is up and coming

00:31:05.240 and just perfect in he's measured in every way as he's like a what we would call like a renaissance

00:31:13.540 man and so he has this dream which again also lends to the idea that dreams uh especially

00:31:23.060 dreams of great power have portents in in our culture so he has this dream and his doom is

00:31:34.900 uh nigh and then his mother takes to ensuring that all things cannot harm him and in the story

00:31:45.600 that's not really mentioned here is that there's a litany of uh interactions so it wasn't just

00:31:52.700 simply a decree like uh everything is now unable to no there is an interaction that the gods have

00:32:02.020 because the gods shaping and being in this world and it's not just simply i create everything

00:32:11.620 which means everything that's bad i created and everything that's good i created no there's a

00:32:17.860 development from the primordial that the gods are utilizing are a part of and so they interact with

00:32:29.780 the universe and they make these decrees that go against the natural law because they're the

00:32:39.660 gods of cosmic order they can order things outside of the rules if you will so they do this 0.97

00:32:49.460 and at that point they start throwing stuff at balder because it's warrior culture you know all

00:32:57.620 stuff i said um and they find this hilarious and fun and and it you know clearly reflecting nordic

00:33:06.420 culture that standing up at the alfinger or the thing good um and it but it continues and then we

00:33:15.380 see some turning uh of this situation but when loki lauverson saw this it pleased him

00:33:29.380 ill that balder took no hurt so he is a brooding venomous thing that over time

00:33:39.700 sees this and it wounds him. So he went to Fen Sallr, the hall of Frigg, and Fen meaning swamp, 0.88

00:33:54.580 or not swamp, but like a marsh, and Sallr meaning silvery or wispy, so it's the misty marsh,

00:34:02.860 where he meets with balder's mother frigg and made himself into the likeness of a woman

00:34:11.140 as soon as that would be said the audience would be like oh no because again anything that goes

00:34:19.440 outside of the natural and the cosmic it's it's seen clearly as being antagonistic and wrong

00:34:32.360 and and abnormal so he takes then the likeness of a woman then frig asked if that woman knew

00:34:40.840 what the icier did at the thing she said that all all were shooting at balder and moreover

00:34:48.280 that he took no hurt from it so if you try to rationale this section the story of course goes

00:34:56.120 deeper this is just a sampling but the uh woman amongst the gods there is this is reference to

00:35:08.840 guest culture and things of that nature so if anybody was reading this and being like why would

00:35:15.140 you let him in why this and you can easily pick it apart but that's because this is a sample

00:35:19.680 and also too there's a lot of context that's not being covered here but this woman comes in

00:35:28.520 and asks what uh you know or excuse me Frigg the goddess the the the queen of the gods

00:35:38.640 asks have you noticed everything that's been going on and she retorts yes then said Frigg

00:35:46.380 neither weapons nor trees may hurt balder i have taken oaths of them all then the woman asked have

00:35:57.720 all things taken oath to spare balder and frig answered there grows a tree sprout alone in

00:36:07.700 westward westward of of valhal so again also in heaven and it is called mistletoe i thought it

00:36:18.100 too young to ask of the oath of then straight away the woman turned but loki took the mistletoe

00:36:25.140 and pulled it up and went to the thing so immediately turning now it's interesting

00:36:32.580 later on balder turns into a woman again there is no direct reference to them being the same

00:36:43.240 visage but generally storytellers will present this woman as an old woman because later on in

00:36:50.620 the story there is an old woman who is loki disguised named uh thok or thanks uh or to to

00:36:59.000 give thanks which again there's irony in the name um is the same in this part of the story

00:37:08.200 so immediately he turns relinquishes his uh shape returns to his preferred and then um

00:37:18.360 goes and grabs mistletoe in the heavenly realm and begins to fashion it

00:37:26.260 Now, Hader stood outside the ring of men

00:37:33.640 Because he was blind

00:37:36.640 Then spoke Loki to him

00:37:39.680 Why dost thou now not shoot at Baldr?

00:37:43.320 And he answered

00:37:44.920 Because I see not Baldr where Baldr is

00:37:48.720 And for this also

00:37:51.520 I am weaponless

00:37:53.620 so you notice the secondary part of that what he's saying is is i can't join in because i

00:38:00.760 can't see him i'm blind it's the same reason why i am disarmed because i am not capable of carrying

00:38:09.620 arms and they're technically two separate points connected together but for context for those who

00:38:20.140 might not know. Hader is the brother of Baldr. He is the dark but blind and often depicted in the

00:38:33.820 sense of like his connection to his name being of strength. So strong but inert. Whereas there is

00:38:41.800 the radiant and very active and integrated power of balder we can see now there is clearly

00:38:51.640 mythological polarics being uh spoken of in this situation and

00:39:01.480 hother can't see his brother and so loki says he will help then said loki uh do thou also after

00:39:11.000 the manner of other men and show balder honor as other men do he's saying would you like to

00:39:18.520 participate in the game that everyone seems to be enjoying your brother seems to be enjoying it

00:39:24.680 it's again turning lightheartedness out of this dark situation 0.97

00:39:31.000 uh i will direct thee where he stands and shoot at him with this wand

00:39:41.000 So, again, a wand or a gondor is anything that's cylindrical, and it could be, poetically, it could be a staff, it could be a serpent, it could be a dragon, or it could be a twig.

00:39:56.200 So that's kind of nondescript, but yes, of this little wand.

00:40:01.260 Hothr then took the mistletoe and shot it at Baldr. Being guided by Loki's hand, the shaft flew

00:40:09.100 through Baldr and he fell dead to the earth. And that was the greatest mischance that has ever

00:40:16.440 befallen amongst the gods and men. So this is speaking to King Gelfi. That's why he says this

00:40:23.840 is the greatest uh mischance um this caveat moment is a distinct change nothing has pivotally

00:40:38.240 turned as much as the slaying of emir and so now they have passed through a threshold with

00:40:45.600 the death of the crown of the most sacred of the gods. 0.80

00:40:53.540 Then, when Baldr was fallen, words failed, all the Aesir, 0.53

00:40:59.160 and their hands likewise to lay hold of him.

00:41:03.300 Each looked at each other, and all were of one mind as to him

00:41:07.880 who had wrought this work, but none might take vengeance.

00:41:12.640 So great a sanctuary was this place. But when the Aesir tried to speak, then it befell first that the weeping broke out.

00:41:23.260 so that none might speak to the others with words concerning his grief.

00:41:32.680 But Odin bore that misfortune by so much the worst

00:41:38.580 as he had most perception of how great harm and loss for the Aesir

00:41:44.480 there was in the death of Baldr.

00:41:48.300 Well, one of those things that I think is very important,

00:41:51.400 And if anybody's familiar with Eyal Skalagrimson, when his son dies, he goes into this great extension of silence.

00:42:01.300 And there is clearly a cultural connection to speech and silence and grieving.

00:42:08.840 um but i also think it's very interesting to notice that the that lord odin is the only one

00:42:17.280 of full stock as to the situation and i would argue even beyond obviously being the dynamic

00:42:27.340 lord and looking at this uh simply as a story but

00:42:33.020 his knowledge and understanding of all that has led up to this and all that will proceed

00:42:41.340 from this threshold i think is what makes lord odin truly powerful and dynamic

00:42:47.220 um so the gods are unable to speak to each other their grief has taken them into silence and sorrow

00:42:58.040 now when the gods had come to themselves it was then that frig spoke and she asked if there would

00:43:07.360 be any amongst the iser who would fain have for his own all her love and favor let him ride the 0.80

00:43:16.400 road to hell and to seek if he may find balder and offer hell a ransom if she would let balder 0.80

00:43:25.800 to come home, back to Ásgar.

00:43:30.960 And he is named Herr Modr, which means battle strength.

00:43:36.960 Herr is a warrior or battle, and Modr is strength.

00:43:42.300 He is the bulls, Odin's son, who undertook that embassy,

00:43:48.240 and then Sleipnir, Odin's own horse, the Slipping One,

00:43:53.240 one uh was taken odin's steed and led forward and hermov mounted on that horse and galloped off

00:44:02.920 so here we have just deep dramatic the the queen of the gods is saying if there's any amongst you

00:44:10.560 who would ever be so graced by my heart in favor forever you must ride now there are other parts

00:44:19.000 in other other tellings of the story in which uh it's mentioned that lord odin is so full of grief

00:44:25.400 that he's unable to and he asks but at the end of the day one of the key things that i like to take

00:44:33.000 from this is uh hair mother there is a historical hair mother and hair mother may be evidence

00:44:42.840 to the exalted nature of folk residing with the gods or also the half um of being descended of

00:44:56.600 the gods with uh i know that some people know that about the kings of england they still

00:45:01.560 trace their lineage all the way back to the gods so um that's why i believe her mother is not

00:45:08.040 mentioned really anywhere else until we start to kind of see this interaction because right now

00:45:15.580 the entire network of the gods including the elves and the exalted souls of folk

00:45:22.720 and the gods themselves are all united in this loss and it's kind of shown

00:45:29.000 So he takes the slipping one

00:45:33.060 Again, the one that slips between lands or realms

00:45:38.160 The Aesir then took the body of Baldr 0.78

00:45:42.820 And brought it to the sea

00:45:44.620 Pringhyorni is the name of Baldr's ship

00:45:50.080 It was the greatest of all ships

00:45:52.960 The gods would have launched it

00:45:54.920 And made Baldr's pyre thereon

00:45:57.120 but the ship stirred not forward then word was sent to Jotunheim after the giantess who is called

00:46:05.500 Hyrokin when she had come riding upon a wolf and having a viper bridle then she leaped off the steed

00:46:15.620 and Odin called for four berserkers to tend to the steed but they were not able to hold it 0.81

00:46:22.920 until they had felled it. Then Hyrekin went to the prow of the boat and thrusted out the first push

00:46:32.080 so that the fire burst from the rollers and all lands trembled. Thor became angry and clutched

00:46:39.940 his hammer and would straight away have broken her head had not the gods prayed for peace for her.

00:46:46.060 so some interesting dynamics are going on here uh first off obviously the rollers are the

00:46:53.300 the lumber upon which the ship is laid on they call out why well they don't say say it in this

00:47:01.680 uh section of the poem but in the story uh the actual in balder's dream it is that

00:47:09.600 Thor is weakened from his sorrow, and he can't muster the strength to push Balder out.

00:47:19.180 And so the word passes that this has befallen the gods.

00:47:25.960 And the anger, I think, that's shown here with Lord Thor is sourced from his inability to push him out of sorrow.

00:47:35.320 and this outsider comes in um she is kind of the epitome of uh the negative aspects the the troll

00:47:47.960 witch he's riding a wolf um and i've spoken about that a lot but it lends to an understanding that

00:47:55.060 i think a lot of people don't they want us to believe that the gods and the jotuns are a

00:48:00.440 different race or they try to run that idea to counter signal racial collectiveness no she's

00:48:11.780 coming in to aid them and there isn't a full understanding as to why she's doing it she might

00:48:18.520 be doing it to get first-hand looks then she goes back and tells everyone hey you know the the gods

00:48:25.300 up on the mountain on the heavenly mountains they just lost balder and and perhaps utilize

00:48:32.580 that information we don't know it's not really spoken of but there's a lot of this kind of

00:48:41.140 vicious emotions following this and what we really see is kind of the norm of funerary things that

00:48:51.220 our the audience would understand our ancestors would understand a lot of this going on in their

00:48:57.300 time it would be understood with the possibility of someone coming in who's been away for a long

00:49:05.300 time and there might there's old blood or there's bad feelings and so i think a lot of that is is

00:49:12.900 just layering in the story um so then was the body of balder born out on the shipboard and when his

00:49:23.780 wife nana the daughter of nep saw that straight away her heart burst with grief and she died

00:49:33.540 she was born to the pyre and the fire was kindled then thor stood by and hallowed the pyre

00:49:42.100 another reference as to why we use the hammer with Mjolnir and before his feet ran a certain

00:49:49.640 dwarf which was named Littr Thor kicked him with his foot and thrust him into the fire and he burned

00:49:58.760 people of many races visited this burning first is to be told of Odin and how Frigg and the

00:50:08.080 Valkyries went with him and his ravens. But Freyr drove in his chariot with the boar,

00:50:16.480 gold mane, gulenbursti, and fearful tusk and heimdallr rode the horse called Goldtop.

00:50:26.620 And Freyr drove her cats thither. Came also much people of the rhyme giants and the hill giants.

00:50:35.380 So, even the supposed enemies, but really, again, that isn't the case. It's the distant aligned, and some of them have come to pay their respects.

00:50:53.360 Odin laid on the pyre that golden ring, which is called Dropnir, the dripping one.

00:50:59.600 This quality attended it, that every ninth night they dropped from it eight gold rings of equal weight.

00:51:08.660 Baldur's horse was led to the balefire with all his trappings.

00:51:13.400 So another thing that's kind of going on here, the death of Nanna.

00:51:17.980 um the the horse being brought out a lot of people might not know this but this is old

00:51:27.640 funerary practices from the migration period and so they were often only instituted on very

00:51:37.860 powerful people in the nordic period the a lot of these things are kind of have an awe

00:51:47.480 even for the audience of the time of the of the late nordic period so there's this kind of great

00:51:55.420 building of the old ways being uh brought forth because of how severe this is um

00:52:04.540 so baldur's horse was led to the bale fire as opposed to the boon fire or bonfire

00:52:13.900 Now, this is to be told concerning Hermóðr, so while all of this is going on, Hermóðr is writing, that he rode for nine nights through the dark dales and the deep, so that he saw not before he was gone the river, Gjál, the river of mournful cries, and rode onto the Gjál bridge, the bridge of hell that crosses.

00:52:39.620 which the bridge is thatched with glittering gold and there stood

00:52:45.540 is the maiden called who guards that bridge she asked him his name and his race saying that the

00:52:57.880 day before there had ridden over the bridge five companies of dead men but the bridge thunders no 0.73

00:53:05.080 less under thee alone and thou hast not the color of dead men why ridest thou hither on hell's way

00:53:14.200 and he answered i am appointed to ride to hell to seek out balder has thou perchance seen balder 0.62

00:53:21.960 on hell's way she said that balder had ridden there over gills bridge but down and north live to hell's

00:53:31.800 way so uh one of the things too the translation here of the word race what is your race um

00:53:42.120 doesn't have to do with the contextual concept of race as we see it today but of the people

00:53:48.520 of your origin or where you come from um kind of it would be more akin to like the difference

00:53:55.000 between french and english or english and dane um the the source of your people and where you

00:54:03.000 you come from and she says that she has seen him the bridge to helgard which is an encapsulated

00:54:14.760 place within a bigger place just like ausgard is an encapsulated place within a bigger place and

00:54:22.440 And now we start to see mirroring aspects, poetically and cosmically important.

00:54:29.700 The bridge to Helgard is wide and thatched.

00:54:32.840 It's protected.

00:54:34.760 The bridge to heaven is a fiery, shimmering bridge that can disappear in an instant.

00:54:41.720 So access to heaven is clearly harder than death because all things die.

00:54:48.460 And yet, she also says, standing there as the guardian, and there's a poem that I wrote in a song specifically mentioning Mavgud, who is that guardian.

00:55:02.300 She keeps those who are not fit to return to their ancestors.

00:55:07.200 She points them in the direction of Gjol and they must cross the river Gjol and the river Sli. 0.96

00:55:14.380 And there they lose themselves and become detached from the connectivity of all things.

00:55:20.780 But if they are accepted by their ancestors, and usually it's again, it's the markings that we all bear with us as we go forth.

00:55:31.320 if the gods witness our deeds in good or in ill we carry those with us and the ancestors see that

00:55:38.360 we they know and they block passage so i look at this and every week swan and i get on here

00:55:51.960 this poem's got 54 sections

00:55:56.760 we've been on it for six months um i gotta pick up the paces what i'm doing no but but you don't

00:56:07.560 it's because so you guys may have tuned in on other programs sometimes we rip through these

00:56:14.900 the reason this one takes so long is that it's rich with lessons and meanings that are directly

00:56:23.900 relevant. So I wanted to stop here for a second and mention a couple of things.

00:56:35.940 And something is, I lament a bit that we have to compare and contrast on here,

00:56:45.700 but it is useful for communication and for getting people to understand. So this isn't to like dunk

00:56:52.340 on other faiths.

00:56:53.840 But sometimes it is to point out differences.

00:56:58.320 In the East

00:56:59.600 we have a

00:57:05.280 sea of

00:57:08.460 people that

00:57:10.880 get lost in the crowd

00:57:14.320 and their version of paradise

00:57:16.500 is an undifferentiated

00:57:18.700 fading into nothingness.

00:57:22.340 escaping the misery of existence. That is antithetical to our faith and our

00:57:29.660 aspiration. In yet another faith, in the Middle Eastern faiths, man is inherently 1.00

00:57:41.060 bad and sinful and they're saved only by faith in Christ. They're saved by faith 0.99

00:57:49.400 alone and not works that none might boast in our faith we are elevated through deeds and through

00:57:59.080 fame i don't mean fame like being youtube famous or being social media famous but fame through

00:58:11.080 deeds and through heroism so there is a common phrase bandied about that i think

00:58:24.440 some of us un unthoughtfully buy into without giving it the thought it deserves

00:58:32.520 about you know it doesn't matter what other people think no it really and truly does matter what

00:58:38.680 people think about it it matters on all levels and this talks about that you want to be recognized

00:58:48.920 you want to be known and you want to be recognized and known for the right reasons

00:58:55.480 you want for your kin to recognize you and welcome in beyond the veil you want for the

00:59:03.320 gods to know who you are and to have heard of you you want throughout the generations of your

00:59:11.720 descendants for your name to be celebrated for stories to be told for your name to be hailed

00:59:18.760 you want to be recognizable in somebody to spirits beyond you want that you want to be somebody of

00:59:31.080 note to your friends and your family and your colleagues. You want to be somebody who is

00:59:38.460 celebrated. When you go someplace, you want your reputation to precede you.

00:59:46.480 You want your enemies to know about you and tremble at the sound of you coming.

00:59:52.280 You want to be known and you absolutely care what everyone thinks about you.

00:59:59.280 that is fundamental to honor culture it's fundamental to our culture and anybody who

01:00:06.680 says different is uninformed so I think it's really important to point that out and I don't

01:00:14.340 know re-emphasize that as many times as we need to because well I don't care what people think

01:00:21.140 about me. So there's a thing that our people do, and I think it is a symptom of the soul

01:00:29.980 sickness that our people have been under for so long. We find ways to contextualize and

01:00:37.320 glorify losing. So we come up with different loser ways to put things. Well, it doesn't

01:00:45.880 matter whether you win or lose is how you play the game. No, it matters everything whether

01:00:51.040 you win or lose. On top of that, it certainly matters how you play the game. But nobody

01:00:59.120 says that who's winning. People say that who are going to lose. Well, I don't care what

01:01:04.960 people think about me. People who are celebrated don't say that. People who are bracing themselves

01:01:13.900 for infamy or for irrelevance to say that we've got a lot of those things it's like well quality

01:01:21.460 over quantity no you want quality absolutely but you want quantity you want to win this is why it

01:01:31.140 is so important why i talk as much as i do about victory we want to be winners don't stop trying

01:01:38.960 to win and already start contextualizing how to articulate your loss in a way that sounds cool

01:01:47.840 no you the the first thing is win don't lose once you've won when you're winning cool talk about

01:01:56.720 methods and in context of winning but so often we brace ourselves for losing and we

01:02:05.840 We trivialize winning because we see it as something we're incapable of.

01:02:13.540 We don't like to admit that.

01:02:14.900 We don't like to admit it to others.

01:02:16.300 We don't like to admit it to ourselves. 0.99

01:02:17.720 But it is true.

01:02:19.420 And it is something fundamental that we need to overcome within House of Truth and that

01:02:23.420 we are making efforts in doing so.

01:02:27.040 Also, while I've got the floor, thank you very much, Stephen in Japan, for his $10 donation

01:02:33.520 Frazehoff at $5 towards the pavilion. We appreciate you. Consistent donor to the program and to the

01:02:39.040 AFA's projects. Thank you. And Jeffrey in Texas donated $25 each to both Njordshoff and towards

01:02:46.400 the pavilion. Thank you for that. We really appreciate it. All right, so I'm going to carry on.

01:02:53.920 Oh, and I want to remind everybody because I see some great questions kind of building up.

01:02:58.480 um we cover the lore and then we answer the questions as we as we go or kind of towards

01:03:06.720 the end of things so this is a long section as soon as we are done with section 49 we'll go ahead

01:03:14.400 and clear the deck of all the questions and then we'll go back into 50 once we're done with that

01:03:19.120 so uh he's uh that there her mother says that he crossed the bridge and turned towards the

01:03:32.840 encapsulated space that is hell guard so then her mother rode on till he came to hell gate

01:03:41.700 He dismounted from his steed and made his girths fast 0.99

01:03:46.720 And mounted and pricked him with his spurs

01:03:50.420 And the steed leaped so hard it jumped over the gate

01:03:55.320 And that he came no wise to near it

01:03:58.140 Then Hermodur rode home to the hall and dismounted from his steed

01:04:05.060 And went into the hall and saw sitting there in the high seat

01:04:10.720 Baldr, his brother, Hader, and Hermother tarried there overnight.

01:04:18.520 So he sees them in the seats of honor, and he stays overnight.

01:04:28.080 In the morn, Hermother prayed Hel that Baldr might ride home with him,

01:04:34.800 and told her how great weeping was amongst the Isir.

01:04:40.720 But Hel said that in this wise it should be put to the test, whether Baldr were so all-beloved, as had been said,

01:04:54.560 If all things in the world, quick and dead, weep for him, then he shall go back to the Aesir.

01:05:07.800 But if he shall remain with hell, if any gainsay it, or will not weep.

01:05:18.320 So instantly there is the, and this happens in Arian mythos all the time.

01:05:24.560 there is the the kind of uh complete or total decimation if that completion that wholeness 0.68

01:05:36.580 is not made it's also worth noting too that hell is the daughter of loki but even though she is

01:05:47.600 seen as or is that she has given dominion over the encapsulation almost the um

01:05:58.800 protecting of the souls of the folk and also the gods and this part seems antagonistic but there

01:06:12.320 is an interesting kind of point to it and so she says if it is true that all things lament

01:06:20.080 then he can ride home with you this is also this part in the morning so he stays they feast they

01:06:29.680 have a good time it's not a terrible thing a lot of people have i think some misconceptions about

01:06:36.960 uh helgard being just this terrible thing or terrible place they they feast and then in the

01:06:43.440 morning he bids can balder leave with me you see a little bit of this old or late nordic period 0.85

01:06:51.920 traditions hall culture you don't go in there and immediately demand or or even ask that you

01:07:00.560 can take someone out but no you stay there for the night and then in the morning may he return with

01:07:06.720 me it was there was uh rules to be obeyed and he does so and she says if all things weep then he

01:07:15.360 may return so uh then hair mother arose but balder led him out of the hall so they walked

01:07:27.200 oh flag on the play i apologize i was not quick to uh get my unmute button

01:07:34.720 because i was it's like the gently my mimosa um

01:07:43.760 oh so what i want to make hell is not this evil malevolent force and i think this points it out

01:07:52.160 there is long-standing

01:07:54.740 also true taboo

01:07:56.360 against hell I have never been

01:07:58.620 one to hold strongly to that

01:08:00.420 because it is

01:08:02.580 noteworthy here that she is benevolent

01:08:04.860 or benevolent

01:08:06.500 I don't know I think that may

01:08:08.560 go a step too far but she is

01:08:10.440 dignified in her hosting

01:08:12.180 she is willing in

01:08:14.480 extreme circumstance to consider

01:08:16.900 in this

01:08:18.600 circumstance an option

01:08:19.940 she entertains the guests 0.97

01:08:22.360 and when she has Balder 1.00

01:08:24.220 in her realm she puts

01:08:26.480 him up in

01:08:27.680 a state fitting his station

01:08:30.460 and he is

01:08:32.120 treated well

01:08:33.100 you don't see

01:08:36.040 again I don't like to compare and contrast

01:08:40.320 but our audience is familiar with a 0.89

01:08:42.440 medieval Christian hell where

01:08:44.300 you know it's 0.99

01:08:46.240 sadism and torture

01:08:47.980 and

01:08:49.000 A horrible mistreatment

01:08:51.620 That's not this situation

01:08:54.360 It is

01:08:55.980 Clearly

01:08:57.240 Expressed in a negative light

01:09:00.560 Like

01:09:01.200 You know

01:09:02.200 Death is bad

01:09:04.020 But

01:09:05.760 She is not seen as

01:09:08.680 As

01:09:09.280 Ill-tempered

01:09:12.040 Or mean-spirited

01:09:13.160 Or sadistic

01:09:14.320 And she does 0.59

01:09:16.360 Treat one of our great gods

01:09:18.760 lord balder with honor when he is in her presence and in her uh custody and i think that's something

01:09:26.920 that is if not due worship is certainly due respect i just want to make that point because

01:09:35.160 it is something that uh comes up periodically on the program yeah i would love to talk more about

01:09:42.840 that subject like if people want to know because we do find i mean the very fact that

01:09:49.720 christianity utilizes the name place and the the goddess's name in reference to

01:10:04.120 you also got to tell them why you like like uh

01:10:06.680 sweet drinks and stuff. But I was going to say the usage of the name, the fact that if you go

01:10:16.340 back to the Roman, if you go back to the Greek, they use Hades as the stand-in word. And then

01:10:24.720 you go farther back because ultimately Christianity comes from Judaism. It leads to 0.95

01:10:31.880 uh, Gehenna, the title of the, the, the kind of the burning pit, uh, or the trash pit, uh, that 0.83

01:10:38.740 is separated from, from, uh, Yahweh. So a lot of people carry this kind of just instant knee-jerk

01:10:47.960 reaction, hell, ah, you know, bad. And it's like, the name itself was stolen from us. It was a place

01:10:56.820 name, just like Hades was stolen from the Romans and the Greeks. So the problem is that

01:11:06.260 death is dark. Death is cold. Death is shaded and misty and not fully defined. And again,

01:11:18.540 they're trying this trope of oh when you die it's all hugs and light and goodness because your free

01:11:28.060 will and awesomeness but again if you don't worship me you're going to a bad place so

01:11:37.100 something else i want to say super quick because we've just got a little bit more we'll get to

01:11:40.860 questions here but it's worth noting death's scary and i think that it however bold somebody's faith

01:11:56.220 is our great heroes put on a brave face and they face the unknown with stoicism or even with a

01:12:05.900 degree of um almost in spite of it uh joy as a flex but no death's scary and it was always scary

01:12:19.580 and we know some truths about death and we try to tell you those in this program

01:12:26.460 but it doesn't make death not something scary and i think honest people will admit to that and tell

01:12:33.020 you that so i think that's true with our ancestors it should come as no surprise that they depict

01:12:39.740 death as a sad and scary thing you know we all talk and even the best of us and the best

01:12:46.300 intentions if we want to have a funeral that's a celebration of life and we put on a brave face and

01:12:53.260 talk about how great it is that you know grandpa will get to go and be with his ancestors and

01:12:59.500 closer to the gods and we mean that but we're still fighting tears and it's horribly tragic

01:13:07.020 because it's sad and it's different and it's different in a way that we don't know all the

01:13:13.420 ins and outs of and it's scary and i think there's no shame in admitting that that's

01:13:18.300 a truth that is reflected in the lore um hopefully it's awesome on the other side

01:13:24.780 hopefully everybody's having a great time we'll find out when we get there but while we're here

01:13:31.100 it is scary and i think that we all know that

01:13:36.940 well and what we're getting here is the

01:13:43.420 understanding of mythic reflection of cosmic balance if a chemistry event happens and there

01:13:53.580 are things that are mixed and then they explode and others solidify and then we were to talk about

01:14:00.300 that and in a story form we would show those measurements happening through the story and

01:14:08.540 that's what's going on here when loki produces a tripartite as there is tripartites all through

01:14:18.220 um uh our stories the one that of stasis is is in the underworld in the kind of place farthest away

01:14:31.660 and not definable but is in stasis then the catalystic is uh jormandr he's placed in the

01:14:39.580 the middle world and the most dangerous dynamic and wolfish is placed in heaven that is not done

01:14:48.420 accidentally but at the same time it's the story is describing the situation so

01:14:56.700 i think that our folk need to remember that need to hold that dear to them that every movement

01:15:04.520 in the mythos is a reflection of the description of these cosmic energy and forces moving so

01:15:14.260 she is stasis in the lowest realm and now not only are the the souls of the folk but the souls

01:15:23.000 of the gods themselves are taken down there and i just um saw one question and this is kind of

01:15:30.020 relating immediately um the question uh came up it's let me see here it was about um balder and

01:15:40.100 hother so um i can't quite find it it's about uh is hother kind of uh uh the yang to to balder's

01:15:54.060 Yin. And in reality, yes, I think that that's ultimately what is going on when you see other

01:16:01.660 descriptors. Baldr is bold and full of light, and where his horse goes, springs of water come out of

01:16:12.420 the hooves. And he is active and integrated and loved, whereas Hader is strong, but dark

01:16:23.380 and inert, kind of like just a force, an entity that is unable to interact because of its own

01:16:34.140 limitations his own limitations and the thing that a lot of people forget is that they they

01:16:42.180 are sourced from the same source so they are kind of the polarics of each other um and you know if

01:16:50.260 we're talking metaphysical theological ideas the idea of that in death they become one but

01:16:57.200 In the lore, it doesn't explicitly say this, but you can clearly see their natures being that.

01:17:07.480 So, it was then that Hermother rose, but Balder led him out of the hall, and he took from his arm the ring, Dropnir,

01:17:23.100 And he sent it to Odin, through Hermoder, in remembrance.

01:17:32.120 And Nana sent a gift as well to Lady Frigg, a linen smock.

01:17:39.560 And yet more gifts, and to Fulla, a golden finger ring.

01:17:44.640 So we clearly see this is Nordic, late Nordic tradition.

01:17:49.680 the idea again of of of giving these gifts but they're also purposeful to the story they are

01:17:57.860 confirming that he was here and the only way that drop near would be given to her mother is if he

01:18:05.960 physically saw balder um so we have this kind of gift exchange and that i think is just lending

01:18:12.940 towards more late Nordic period customs, but it's also worth noting that Fulla is mentioned along

01:18:23.500 with Frigg, and this may lend to some high cult power that the maidens of Fensoller, in particularly

01:18:37.200 fully might have had um but she is clearly mentioned as also being given a ring nana

01:18:46.360 too is uh she comes into the gods and she is well liked and brought in the the so this kind

01:18:55.760 of shows that interconnectivity nana of course for a lot of folks is in the mural at baldur's

01:19:02.720 and she is kneeling and she's laying her hand upon a wolf there's a message there in that

01:19:14.900 she being the goddess of devotion being the goddess of that drive that holds us beyond

01:19:24.220 uh our pleasures and our grievances um and she wears a brooch that has a heart with a soul rune

01:19:34.360 in it or uh suna or the um soul willow rune but it looks like a cracked heart um she is the

01:19:44.280 conduit and right now especially in in in this situation of of being through the through the

01:19:52.060 underworld is that devotion despite the highs and lows keeps you on track and she then has a horn

01:20:01.920 that we fill with our faith so that she can give it to her husband so that he will be strong for

01:20:10.940 the return it it it is a there's a lot of um religious and theological things that are not

01:20:21.020 explicitly written in the poems going on there and i think you know a lot of people don't catch

01:20:29.500 it or if we do bring it up there oh it's not in the poems it's not in the poems no that is a

01:20:36.600 developed theological uh faith as it is done through interaction because a lot of people

01:20:46.100 even go so far as to say like even ausatur people are like why do you pray to balder

01:20:52.420 and it's like you know that uh or you ask them is there a ancestral

01:21:02.340 uh process in which we build a relationship with our ancestors so why would we stop if

01:21:10.820 If the soul and the being of a person or a God moved elsewhere, it wouldn't stop.

01:21:21.460 But I just I noticed that a lot of it was very strange that Ausitre were perplexed and that somehow Balder became inert to them instead of that connection being made.

01:21:36.760 And then the fact that we actually had people coming there and protesting or trying to make a, I wouldn't even call it a protest. It was just a gathering of neck folds that gathered there.

01:21:53.720 And they claim to be Ausatru, and they're out there at a temple to one of their gods, but perhaps because they consider him inert, maybe that was easier for them to do that.

01:22:08.460 Did you finish the last lines of 49?

01:22:14.940 No, no, I have a paragraph and a section of poem.

01:22:20.360 Hit that real quick.

01:22:21.680 He gets the ring from Fulla.

01:22:26.240 Then Hermodur mounted Sleipnir and rode his way back and came into Ausgard and told all those of the tidings which he had seen and heard. 0.57

01:22:39.620 Thereupon the Iser sent over all the world's messengers to pray that Baldur be wept out of hell.

01:22:49.240 And all men did this, and quick things, and the earth, and the stones, and the trees, and all the metals, even as though must have seen that these things weep when they come out of frost and into the heat. 0.85

01:23:07.640 then when the messengers went home having well wrought this errand they found in a certain cave

01:23:15.320 that there was a giantess who sat there and her name was Thok which means thanks and I

01:23:23.520 spoke about her earlier they prayed would you weep for Balder and get him out of Helgard and she 0.98

01:23:32.060 answered fuck well weep waterless tears for balder's bale fire living or dead i loved not the churl's 0.99

01:23:45.260 son let hell hold to that which she has again the insult of calling him the son of a churl 1.00

01:23:56.300 is another point um and men deem that she who was there was loki lauverson who hath wrought most ill

01:24:09.260 amongst the icier so not only is he the kinslayer of his brother blood brother he is

01:24:20.220 the very instrument to keep him from returning and this is the these caveats that lay

01:24:31.980 at the feet for those who worship loki but yet claim to be true to the gods

01:24:40.140 and that's it uh that moves into section 50. all right so we're going to take a pause we're going

01:24:44.780 to answer a bunch of questions we got some good ones on to what spawn was saying a second ago

01:24:49.020 but i would be remiss if i did not first acknowledge uh charles in tennessee who

01:24:53.420 donated ten dollars to bns thank you charles appreciate you um

01:25:04.940 so

01:25:10.780 oh okay starting with the last one going back um

01:25:15.500 um it was strikingly ridiculous that people who

01:25:29.780 so I would say they LARP out so true and I know LARP gets thrown around a lot

01:25:33.920 but I I think that okay so outside of making fun

01:25:40.760 it is really important that we examine why we do the things that we do

01:25:45.500 and that we look at them with piety.

01:25:49.000 And there's a couple of points I wanted to make.

01:25:51.720 So we had a group of people.

01:25:55.360 When I say a group, and when I say people, I use both terms loosely.

01:26:01.500 It was five individuals that were of dubious appearance and sanity and physical condition.

01:26:12.380 they came to protest

01:26:17.320 the dedication

01:26:19.320 of Baldershoff

01:26:20.940 and they stood

01:26:23.220 outside and

01:26:24.920 you know made liberal

01:26:27.100 noises

01:26:27.660 there

01:26:33.880 there are people in this

01:26:36.860 there are individuals in this

01:26:39.100 world who have

01:26:41.260 diverging political

01:26:43.420 ideas. I get that.

01:26:47.160 Under

01:26:48.000 no circumstance

01:26:49.120 would I ever go

01:26:51.700 and do

01:26:53.880 harm to a temple

01:26:55.660 dedicated to one

01:26:57.860 of our gods.

01:27:01.420 If the universalists 0.98

01:27:04.300 were ever to be able to get 0.97

01:27:05.760 themselves together to where they

01:27:07.760 had resources and ability to make

01:27:09.760 a temple to one of the gods,

01:27:11.260 i would never ever think of desecrating that by trying to protest test it i protest those people

01:27:24.140 i would deal with them in another situation but i wouldn't go to a temple of one of our gods

01:27:30.480 and protest that no matter how much i wish it was different or better i may try to acquire it

01:27:37.740 or win it in some way, but it would never be impiety of standing in front of the first temple

01:27:47.780 to Balder in at least a thousand years and protesting his temple. I couldn't do that

01:27:56.360 and call myself Ausitre. Those people are not serious in their faith. Another note to not

01:28:07.280 seriousness it's come up on the program a number of times but this story is the um to borrow a

01:28:14.380 biblical term the genesis of it so when talking about animism it's been brought up but wait

01:28:25.420 frig went and spoke to mistletoe and asked mistletoe or chose not to speak to mistletoe

01:28:32.660 but spoke to every weapon and every thing in existence.

01:28:41.520 Sure, that is the poetic expression in this poem.

01:28:46.200 That was never meant to be.

01:28:48.280 She literally went to every possible plant.

01:28:52.180 Looking out my window, there are hundreds of thousands of plants.

01:28:55.960 no one really believes that they went to each and every individual house plant and rock and tree and

01:29:06.360 fern and mushroom and beetle and maggot and that's absurd the point was everything in creation

01:29:17.360 and one thing which was bitter and malevolent chose not to one thing was bitter and malevolent

01:29:29.120 chose to distract there was one thing that seemed so minor it was overlooked but this isn't meant to

01:29:37.040 be taken that the gods literally went and had a conference with every blade of grass or every

01:29:42.060 instance of the mistletoe plant i get that it has been said a bunch so people just take it

01:29:51.020 for granted oh yeah also true animism because they believe in the rocks and trees have spirits and

01:29:56.740 stuff i get that but it doesn't bear up under examination do they every time we encounter

01:30:06.860 rocks and blades of grass they came over and mowed my lawn yesterday

01:30:12.340 is that a horrific genocide of all of these souls i don't think there's any evidence of that

01:30:21.740 amongst our ancestors if they believed that every possible thing in existence had a soul to it

01:30:27.720 surely that would be self-evident in our history and our lore in all of these things and it's not

01:30:34.600 it's completely absent what you do find is particular things being sacred to someone

01:30:44.680 maybe that someone is a land spirit maybe there's a spirit that inhabits a special rock

01:30:51.400 or a special tree or a special natural feature they will inhabit uh river goddesses the rhine

01:31:00.200 itself isn't the h2o in it isn't a goddess there is a goddess that presides over and that the rhymes

01:31:10.200 her sacred domain certainly and i know that sometimes it's a distinction without a difference

01:31:17.320 but it does matter we believe that there are spirits that inhabit certain objects we believe

01:31:24.360 that when you name certain things like relentless the afa sword that sword's not a person but it is

01:31:31.640 a named thing that has a spiritual might attached to it it's because that has been bestowed on it

01:31:39.480 and imbued into it not because the actual steel of the sword has a spirit

01:31:47.240 but again humans have transformed it by giving it a name and putting a destiny to it

01:31:54.360 But that's always an external thing done by beings with agency and with consciousness.

01:32:02.820 To think that every rock and every tree and every blade of grass has a spirit to it isn't the same as there is a spirit of this land.

01:32:13.840 There is a special spirit of this tree or of this rock or this stone.

01:32:18.620 And I've explained, I think, over the last two episodes.

01:32:21.340 but because it's part of this

01:32:23.260 and then the other thing I wanted to mention

01:32:24.760 and we can talk more about it

01:32:29.020 when we get in the end of this poem

01:32:31.240 but the idea

01:32:32.900 and I think this is worth noting

01:32:34.780 Balder exists 0.94

01:32:37.740 in the afterlife 1.00

01:32:40.180 beyond the veil

01:32:41.420 he is there

01:32:43.020 he is able to receive gifts

01:32:44.620 in exchange in the gift cycle

01:32:46.000 there were some old timers

01:32:50.280 that couldn't really conceive of like we got baldur's off man why would we want to have a

01:32:55.640 off to a god that's dead well we worship our ancestors and we engage in the gift cycle with

01:33:03.300 them and we believe completely that they share that with us that they can interact beyond the

01:33:08.480 veil and interact meaningfully in that gift cycle it's a fundamental to our faith certainly

01:33:16.600 balder can do that as well and we see that he's not you know in a in a stasis to where he's not

01:33:23.640 aware or to where he can't respond or interact and those of us who are faithful know that he

01:33:30.440 blesses us and very much participates in the gift cycle that we do at his hof

01:33:35.320 or when we celebrate him like we're all about to here at midsummer um we've got some questions

01:33:42.280 stacking up and i'd like to get to them because i think they're important

01:33:47.160 oh we have um some more donations coming in to ron boardman uh twenty dollars to vns and it looks

01:33:55.560 like he's got a question and his question gets to move it to the front of the line because he

01:33:59.880 threw some dollars behind it uh he says if you had to wear a twenty dollars to vns thank you ron

01:34:05.800 Svahn, if you had to wear one traditional Aryan folk costume, i.e. Balt, Slav, Swiss to Midsommar, which would it be?

01:34:18.920 Svahn, which traditional European, it's a small world costume would you wear to celebrate Midsommar?

01:34:28.960 i was gonna say uh technically the suit is because when you wear western attire in asia

01:34:37.280 you wear a suit and tie um but um you know what i'm gonna go

01:34:43.880 uh rus kievian um kievian rus uh attire because they had the big baggy pants um those guys were

01:34:57.660 influenced by um some of the eastern and as they moved down the volga and one of the cool things

01:35:05.420 that they really picked up was the baggy pants which i imagine were very very comfortable

01:35:12.220 yeah exactly exactly compared to the uh woolen uh the tight woolen britches or

01:35:20.220 or proctor that the Northern folk wore. 0.97

01:35:26.440 It always strikes me whenever I see

01:35:28.900 those historical clothing,

01:35:32.200 you can always tell when they're Eastern

01:35:34.500 and the kind of the Slavic-Germanic hybrid

01:35:38.360 is when they're wearing the big bag pants.

01:35:50.220 The OG proto-Indo-European He-Man fur underwear with the circlet-like head thing from Conan

01:36:01.740 Times. 0.86

01:36:02.360 That's what I would wear from Days of High Adventure.

01:36:08.160 Straight out loincloth.

01:36:10.460 Just the fur undies with some like woe animals painted on me and the like iron circlet.

01:36:20.220 So I can ride my cherry.

01:36:22.580 Given your affinity for wrap snacks,

01:36:24.460 all I can think of is the boots with the fur.

01:36:32.800 I mean, you did have furry boots, I suppose.

01:36:36.420 I don't know.

01:36:36.940 A real question in Europe, I don't know.

01:36:39.160 I think that, like, Bavarian stuff is cool with, like, later Ozen,

01:36:44.620 but I think that would be terribly uncomfortable come midsummer.

01:36:47.500 It seems very restrictive and very hot.

01:36:49.760 i think it looks kind of cool um the closest thing i have to like traditional european attire that

01:36:57.840 i've worn is for the highland games i've worn my family's tartan kilt and

01:37:08.720 that's nice because it breathes but it is heavy it's a lot of wool

01:37:14.000 i suppose that because it does get air circulation to areas so i'll take that if i got to

01:37:23.480 so yeah for a serious answer outside of my like conan clothes i would go with uh with with the

01:37:31.520 the scottish tartan because i think that would that would be nice and breezy i i do think too 0.68

01:37:39.620 the uh the slobs the modern slobs who have reconnected to their to the aryan gods of 0.70

01:37:47.300 through their culture um they do for especially for midsummer do a great job with the white uh 0.94

01:37:55.700 linen and red embroidery um that they kind of all do together which is really really good

01:38:05.300 um so i also want to uh give a thanks to gw farmsworth consistent donor on the program

01:38:16.020 stalwart in making stuff happen for us we appreciate you so much 25 each towards the

01:38:22.660 pavilion and to consider him itself so thank you for that um where else are we on some questions

01:38:32.180 Virginia asks, hello VNS, I just wanted to reach out again.

01:38:39.180 A friend of mine is giving away her late husband's Yamaha piano to an instrument lover.

01:38:46.180 It's a special piece with a lot of meaning, and she'd be so happy if it went to someone

01:38:52.180 who truly appreciates music.

01:38:55.180 Please let me know if you're interested or know someone who might be.

01:39:00.180 thanks for your time any suggestions would mean a lot best no if you reach out to your local folk

01:39:09.380 builder if interested we can get you in touch so yeah if anybody is a pianist out there and

01:39:15.660 has an interest in that please do uh let us know local folk builder or send it to vns at

01:39:22.800 runestone.org we can try to connect the dots and see that that piano goes to a good home

01:39:29.640 And thank you, Virginia, for sending that our way and hopefully helping out some of you in our audience.

01:39:38.700 Sarah asks, will you be doing gold leaf on all the murals?

01:39:47.560 Yes, absolutely.

01:39:49.380 You better.

01:39:50.600 Yes.

01:39:51.180 No, gold leaf.

01:39:52.240 We're both fans of the talents.

01:39:55.940 And it was a new technique developed.

01:39:57.820 i didn't know how to do it bear in mind i didn't know how to paint like uh yeah in the traditional

01:40:06.060 sense of the word uh when when i started this but as i'm developing and learning

01:40:12.140 gold leaf and other things i am open to all kinds of mediums um i'm taking on kind of an apprentice

01:40:21.500 at thor's off he's um already very capable in art and he was talking about airbrushing and things of

01:40:28.940 that nature so i am open to whatever but the gold leaf and i have to agree uh when it comes to holy

01:40:38.460 frere's hoff the pictures do not do it justice the light the gleamingness it always is subdued

01:40:48.380 in the pictures when you when you're there you should go there it's it's awesome so yes

01:40:56.140 once that happened and i got the process down i immediately started going to the other hoffs to do

01:41:02.140 it and i i need to go to uh bouldershoff and othenshoff so that's on the horizon excellent

01:41:12.460 From Sherwood, Yggdrasil is sometimes taken to mean the steed of the Terrible One, and Jager being an epithet slash my name for Lord Odin, how, if at all, does this connect with Sleipnir?

01:41:32.460 the connection

01:41:39.740 the connection is

01:41:41.740 that he rides

01:41:43.880 both of them

01:41:44.920 I think that

01:41:47.020 the point that's being made

01:41:50.380 and the true power of

01:41:52.240 Lord Odin

01:41:53.040 is that amongst the gods

01:41:55.700 he

01:41:57.200 synthesizes

01:41:59.960 with Yggdrasil

01:42:01.260 Yggdrasil is one of the three of that primordial tripartite, and I like saying it, I don't know

01:42:09.440 if you guys are drinking, but if you are, sip, sip. Yggdrasil, Adumla, and Yggdrasil, Adumla,

01:42:24.880 and Ymir form in the center, in the Gnungagap, in the gap of potential, and there is that

01:42:35.460 tripartite. And each of them follows, as the observations that I've seen, dynamic, static,

01:42:44.740 and catalystic. And out of that time, the only one that establishes itself and is kind of the

01:42:54.460 center of all things and the axis mundi and the center of heaven and that the roots descend into

01:43:02.360 all things is Yggdrasil. And it is that which Lord Odin, by slaying himself, he fuses his godly

01:43:18.220 essence into Yggdrasil and then travels down to the farthest depths that the roots can go

01:43:27.920 into the darkness into the stillness into the the waters of that which was and he finds the source

01:43:39.460 that everything is built on which he he finds the runes and he finds sound and so again being the

01:43:51.600 dynamic lord being the god of dynamicism is that he is able to pass through thresholds so the

01:43:58.640 connection is Sleipnir, being named the Slipping One, is reference to him being able to

01:44:07.600 step through the barriers that maintain the structure of our multi-cosmos. He can step

01:44:17.800 through these because he is the dynamic lord. He also rode the tree to step into the deepest

01:44:27.120 origins of time, space, and all things, the kind of murmuring of that is the vibrational

01:44:39.160 sound that kind of goes to the starting of all of this, and the continuance.

01:44:46.280 So they're both steeds separate, but what connects them is they have the same rider.

01:44:57.120 Apologies, a point I'd like to make, Eggdrasil connects all of the nine worlds, Slepnir has

01:45:25.240 eight legs, meaning that the rider is in one of the nine worlds, and there's a leg connecting

01:45:31.620 to each of the other worlds. I think there is symbolic overlap between the two things.

01:45:41.560 I don't think there is an actual tree connecting the nine worlds of existence. I don't think

01:45:47.440 there is an actual horse that Odin sits atop. I think that his point of connectivity to

01:45:55.100 all of the nine realms of existence is one and the same but displayed in one instance

01:46:03.100 as the world tree and another as his steed but i think they serve the same function

01:46:08.940 to transport the king of the gods to the different realms

01:46:20.220 do you think there are any positive and this is a good question and it was couched with

01:46:25.100 you know appropriate respect and whatever else i appreciate that but we never assume it was anything

01:46:30.140 other uh do you think there are any positive aspects of the christian religion that were not

01:46:35.900 part of the old religion is there anything positive from the christian experience that

01:46:40.780 is worth continuing it's fun what are your what are your thoughts to that question i think it's

01:46:46.140 particularly good one yeah um my knee-jerk reaction to it is that the things that i'm

01:46:56.060 about to mention were formulated um before the religion but and another context point

01:47:06.860 i'm talking about european christianity because there is christianity elsewhere and it is

01:47:16.140 not always the christianity that people think of there is this connection between european

01:47:23.400 people and christianity or it being western etc that's why so many uh like left-wing people hate

01:47:33.260 christianity is not because it's christian it's because it's almost synonymous with white western

01:47:42.420 civilization. But the reason why it is, is because the religion was not a religion where everyone

01:47:52.780 just understood, yes, this is the truth and we should hop on this and get together. Obviously,

01:47:58.760 we even spoke about that with the Saxons and so on and so forth. So there's lots of evidence,

01:48:03.680 but what it was, was a political machine. And that political machine had a benefit.

01:48:10.600 And its benefit was to organize the European people to some semblance enough to repel other religious organizational groups. 0.95

01:48:24.140 Repelling Islam and from invading in Europe, it took the political machine of Christianity to do so. 0.98

01:48:34.260 So I think that obviously was in great benefit. 0.99

01:48:37.180 the other is the advancement of education within uh concise circles there was a vast improvement

01:48:50.660 in architecture there was a vast improvement in art that was done following the same power system

01:48:59.440 the mechanics. Christianity was a political machine, and therefore it created pathways 0.94

01:49:07.860 for these points to be transferred between. So there is that, and what we get there is

01:49:17.380 the expression of the divine. Now, most of the stuff that we see in Christianity,

01:49:22.300 People would say, oh, this is Christian, but it's actually Greek, like angels and just the wearing of the togas and the halos, all of these things that are always kind of just, that's Christianity, is usually it's left out.

01:49:43.780 No, that's Greek. But the way that it was presented, the paintings, the formulation of and looking as the Christians in this political machine were looking back, they pulled things that they liked and they brought out key points about beauty, which I think is huge.

01:50:11.260 And they could have not have done this. Matter of fact, there was a time when they didn't do this. They rejected beauty. They rejected any sort of opulence. If they saw these things, they would tear it down. They would claw their hands in it. 0.81

01:50:29.300 So the fact that they turned and went back to it, I think, is a really good thing because that brought about the Renaissance and it brought about so much traditional artwork that I'm glad that that was a unifying factor and it made it far more pan-European.

01:50:52.240 So they understood that worship, giving worth-ship to beautiful things is a reflection of that which is inside you.

01:51:05.700 And I think that's really, really important.

01:51:08.000 And, you know, when we kind of see our religion paraded around as just being deer skulls and roadkill and face paint, I lament that because that's not the beauty of the gods.

01:51:24.180 I feel like that's almost kind of a narrative being placed where they want people, our people, to be primitive.

01:51:32.500 Um, but the beauty of the gods and the beauty of the divine would be one thing I think we would absolutely keep going forward. And so you could call that perhaps it's a Greco Roman origin that the Christians absolutely exacerbated, but there is that. 0.90

01:51:54.380 And I mean, I can't think, it's such a good question, but it's like very huge. 0.92

01:52:02.200 I can't think of anything off the top of my head other than that interconnectivity and organization in order to repel threats, which our ancestors didn't really formulate.

01:52:18.400 No, go ahead.

01:52:21.260 Oh, and the artwork.

01:52:23.140 So that interconnectivity of the political machine that is Christianity, I think, brought a great unification to Europeans.

01:52:34.280 But when we talk about theological stuff, or if you keep digging in Christianity and it becomes less and less European, I don't think any of those ideologies we would carry over.

01:52:46.820 So it's that transference when Saul of Tarsus and Simon, who is known as Petra, comes into Europe.

01:52:58.040 It would be after following the late or the Holy Roman Empire.

01:53:02.860 That's when we start to see these ideals that I would definitely think we should incorporate.

01:53:09.760 So I'm going to take a step back.

01:53:11.960 I want to answer this question.

01:53:13.260 I want to clear up my answer to the last question.

01:53:16.820 it's not to say that i don't think that slepner is a real spirit horse

01:53:27.940 i'm not i don't think necessarily slepner doesn't exist as a spiritual animal of some sort

01:53:39.380 but i more mean that the kinning applied to the world tree is a reference to slepner

01:53:46.820 not that one or both doesn't exist i think that yggdrasil likens the world tree

01:53:58.740 to the all-father's horse that carries him between the worlds

01:54:04.020 you're quite with follow-up questions could one do bloat or whatever or like a participating gift

01:54:09.780 cycle with slepner that's different i think in the way that we perceive animals versus people

01:54:19.700 and it's not and i love animals it's not that animals can't display love back i don't think

01:54:25.860 they participate in the gift cycle in the same way because the level of sentience isn't the same

01:54:30.580 We see with the other children of Loki

01:54:38.420 Him mated with very sentient things

01:54:42.860 And yes, one has the form of a serpent

01:54:46.620 But it was the mating with a giantess

01:54:51.040 It was two sentient beings created a monstrous offspring

01:54:55.320 That had the sentience of a dragon

01:54:57.300 They have the personality and the sentience

01:54:59.340 and the sapience that you would see

01:55:02.580 in a human, for instance.

01:55:05.680 That level of cognition.

01:55:09.220 Same thing with Fenrir.

01:55:11.000 Yes, he's monstrous and wolf-ish,

01:55:13.800 but he's also a person.

01:55:18.940 I think that Slepmir is a horse at best.

01:55:24.300 If you follow the mythos,

01:55:25.480 he's made from a male horse as his father.

01:55:30.860 I don't think that he necessarily has the cognitive wherewithal

01:55:35.580 to participate in the gift cycle in the same way.

01:55:38.260 But I see what Sarah wrote, and that's something that's a tradition of mine as well.

01:55:43.320 I have, you know, I've made offerings to Freya's cats.

01:55:47.940 I've made just the same thing, like apple or carrots I've left out on Yule.

01:55:55.480 for Sleipnir as Odin and the Wild Hunt are going by.

01:56:00.180 I've left out offerings for his horse.

01:56:04.200 So I don't think that recognizing or giving respect

01:56:08.960 or giving gifts to Sleipnir is silly or inappropriate,

01:56:13.960 something I've done many, many times myself.

01:56:16.860 So I wanted to clear that up

01:56:18.540 because I absolutely get why it caused questions.

01:56:20.720 I don't mean like neither are real,

01:56:22.520 But I do think that the kenning of Odin's speed is a reference to Sleipnir, and I think the points of connectivity and the fact that the world tree reaches the realms in the same way that Sleipnir's number of legs allows him access to those different levels of reality and realm's existences.

01:56:41.280 I think the one is the reference to the other.

01:56:43.700 um but to the christian it's a strange question because it depends what you mean

01:56:52.580 and again this is something i will forever be thankful to um the jehovah's witnesses

01:56:59.900 they very consciously tried to take all of the paganism out of their christianity

01:57:07.320 and reduce their Christianity back to the fundamentals 0.78

01:57:11.420 of Middle Eastern schismatic Judaism that it was. 0.99

01:57:21.160 That's honest, and I respect that. 0.61

01:57:24.320 And it's also very informative,

01:57:26.180 because it takes away all of the cool stuff

01:57:28.620 that would be the answer to your question.

01:57:30.900 The affirmative answer to your question is all wrapped up

01:57:33.660 and the things that the Jehovah's Witnesses took out of their Christianity. 0.95

01:57:38.680 I think there are a lot of positives about Roman religiosity

01:57:44.740 that we can learn from and enhance ausitry.

01:57:50.200 I think none of those have to do with Rabbi Yeshua

01:57:56.840 and his reformation of Judaism.

01:58:01.340 so no i don't think anything in christianity is worth emulating except for the things that you

01:58:08.860 think of in the european expression and it comes with things that spawn mentioned the organization

01:58:17.660 the structure the um and the organization and structure i think are really important

01:58:26.060 and are very

01:58:28.060 meaningful to build upon

01:58:29.820 all the other

01:58:32.200 things that you see though

01:58:33.560 I don't think are

01:58:35.880 I think they take

01:58:40.020 the form that Christianity

01:58:41.680 it's like there was a

01:58:43.020 river of reverence and creativity

01:58:46.460 that were coming

01:58:48.160 from our full soul 1.00

01:58:49.360 and Christianity caused that 0.97

01:58:52.240 to divert in a different direction

01:58:54.280 or a different way

01:58:56.060 But I think the beauty and the impetus would have still been there, but looked different. So the culture that brought the great hymnal music of the classical composers and the cathedrals and the great beauty and art and the beautiful art of the Renaissance, I think all of that would be there.

01:59:22.040 but I think it would be depicting our sagas and our lore.

01:59:25.340 I think that the cathedrals would be shaped not in a cruciform fashion.

01:59:29.520 I think the hymnals would be Wagnerian pieces rather than devotional Christian pieces.

01:59:42.820 But I think the art and the beauty are a reflection of our folk soul,

01:59:45.840 And they're very dissimilar from Coptic Christianity or from Nubian Christianity or from Middle Eastern Christianity.

01:59:55.500 They're entirely different because they reflect our folk soul.

01:59:59.780 There's a lot of beauty within medieval and Renaissance Christianity.

02:00:05.460 But all of those things that are beautiful about it have nothing to do with Jesus or, you know,

02:00:12.560 the judaism of the levant that their source material comes from it's all cultural adaptations

02:00:19.080 towards our ancestors but the function of medieval christianity does have things to be learned from

02:00:26.480 i think those are all evolutions of you know different aryan expressions of structure and

02:00:34.260 form and order that our ancestors they caught us at a time when we were particularly fragmented

02:00:42.340 and disordered. And I think there's a lot that could be learned from some of the order and

02:00:46.300 function and structure. Can I speak a little bit? I know we keep jumping back and forth,

02:00:53.200 but I did want to go a little bit more about what you, kind of extending what you had said.

02:01:01.640 When the question comes out as, you don't believe that Slepner is a real spirit horse,

02:01:09.520 And then the question, could you give offerings to Slepnir?

02:01:14.720 Let's look at all of the animals, because as Al-Zhira Guthi said,

02:01:21.540 you know, animals are in a different sense than the personhood of a god.

02:01:27.840 So let's look at all the animals of the gods, particularly the named ones.

02:01:32.440 We know of the goats, we know of the horses of the gods, they're mentioned.

02:01:39.860 So one of the key factors is understanding vehicle to divinity.

02:01:46.560 It takes a lot to master, to bring to control.

02:01:53.060 Sleipnir is the key that allows the slipping one is this the vehicle that is that ability of Lord

02:02:04.560 Odin are they separate I would say they are seen as separate but completely unified and we can go

02:02:13.500 into germanic concepts of horse and rider etc but he brings slepnir into control the the the same

02:02:25.820 way uh a regular person bringing a horse into the dominion of usage as uh as a uh not a wild horse

02:02:36.140 um so there's there's the mythological language there as well that is very different the horse

02:02:44.680 is a a force a phenomena that is brought in and focused

02:02:52.060 So Svahn is frozen or I am?

02:03:12.420 Just seems Svahn or is.

02:03:15.260 All right.

02:03:15.700 So Svahn is currently on the throne of spaces, as it were.

02:03:22.060 So, Nick, do you remember the context of what does the sword look like?

02:03:36.420 What sword are they talking about?

02:03:39.680 We were talking about relentless, and somebody asked, the AFA has swords, and what's that look like?

02:03:44.660 Oh, one second.

02:03:52.060 Behold, I introduce you to Relentless.

02:04:18.860 It is a confederate-use heavy cavalry saber.

02:04:38.740 And of note, we also have Dauntless down at Njordtsov.

02:04:48.860 So, I'm looking at other stuff I'm going to answer while Svahn is collecting himself.

02:05:04.720 all right so there's a couple a couple few questions and i want to i guess i'll answer

02:05:18.920 them in the situation that they came in have you ever thought about how frig probably already knew

02:05:25.440 that mistletoe would cause the death um no and that's because i think that

02:05:39.040 knows the fate of all things overstates like one of the inherent things to our gods

02:05:47.120 there is not perfection or all and I think that all gets expressed sometimes

02:05:58.340 but one of the key characteristics of our gods is that they still face things there are things

02:06:07.900 beyond beyond them sometimes those things are concealed by magic but they're they're imperfect

02:06:16.040 So even if she knows the fate of all things or whatever, I think that that can be concealed by opposing forces and things.

02:06:27.900 I think when we look at all in the sense of determinism specifically, that evades the gods.

02:06:35.960 And I don't think, you know, even when you have things that are immensely powerful, they're still subject to certain forces within the cosmos.

02:06:47.480 And it's one of the things that makes them relatable is that there's always a certain degree of struggle.

02:06:57.180 I think that she knows in the sense that she has this dream and she's alerted to it.

02:07:05.020 And that goes to her power of knowing the fates of things.

02:07:09.000 But knowing in the specifics of it, I think, elude her.

02:07:14.700 And I think that's one of the tragedies of it is knowing it's coming and trying, you know, everything, you know, to try to forestall it.

02:07:23.900 and it's still coming to pass because the current in the weft is that strong

02:07:33.420 and the magic on the other side is that potent, that causes the tragedy.

02:07:39.540 So I don't think that she knew that mistletoe would be the cause.

02:07:43.840 Not in that way, but it gets a little bit ambiguous there

02:07:48.520 and I don't want to overstep.

02:07:53.900 How do you feel about practitioners of different Germanic traditions congregating at a singular

02:08:13.900 Hoff to worship the gods, ancestors, and whites. 0.89

02:08:21.960 I hope that I fully understand the question, and I'm not sure that I do. 0.96

02:08:27.780 I assume the question supposes, like, other versions of Asitri.

02:08:43.900 It is a complicated question.

02:08:49.740 Those other Germanic traditions should get on the team.

02:08:55.340 They should join the AFA.

02:08:57.080 And then we should all practice at Ausatru AFA Hoffs.

02:09:02.120 That's what should happen.

02:09:04.580 I realize there are those that don't.

02:09:06.980 If they are sincere in what they are trying to do, I certainly would not want to prevent them from worshiping the gods at their Hoffs.

02:09:21.160 But there's something fundamentally messed up with the fact that the AFA is the one that makes Hoffs.

02:09:31.220 These other groups don't.

02:09:32.820 they should get on the afa team so that we can all honor the gods in the best most orderly way

02:09:40.460 that said some guy showed up at one of the hoffs and said hey i'm not a member but i'm a

02:09:45.740 you know whatever i'm a um theodsman and i want to worship odin at odin's hoff can i join you

02:09:56.840 today and worship the All-Father, I'm not going to tell him no. But the right answer is those

02:10:05.340 people should get on the team that's providing the Hoffs. And I don't think that we're strong

02:10:10.200 having multiple Germanic faiths. I think that we are strong by getting behind those that are moving 0.94

02:10:16.420 our faith forward, everyone being on that team and making that as strong as it can be. That is the

02:10:23.120 only thing that has brought us hoffs the disjointed model has not brought us anything in fact this set

02:10:30.000 us back quite a bit from our potential um so i hope spawn returns to us but but it do um

02:10:44.240 With that, I would like to take a moment and go into, ah, go into section 50 of the Guilford

02:11:01.280 Loki bound. Then said Genglaria, exceeding much Loki is brought to pass when he had first been

02:11:12.400 been caused that Balder was slain and then that he was not redeemed out of hell. Was any vengeance

02:11:19.700 taken on him for this? Hauer answered, this thing was repaid him in such wise that he shall remember

02:11:27.940 long. When the gods had become as wroth with him as was to be looked for, he ran off and hid himself

02:11:35.780 in a certain mountain. There he made a house with four doors so that he could see out of the house

02:11:42.760 in all directions. Often throughout the day, he turned himself into the likeness of a salmon

02:11:49.100 and hid himself in a place that was called Fraunanger Falls.

02:11:57.220 Then he would ponder what manner of wild the gods would devise to take him in that waterfall.

02:12:04.300 But when he sat in the house, he took twine of linen and knitted meshes as a net is made sense,

02:12:12.540 but a fire burned before him. 0.74

02:12:15.440 Then he saw that the Iser were close upon him.

02:12:19.100 And Odin had seen from Hildskalf, Hlidskalf, where he was.

02:12:25.220 He leaped up at once, and out into the river, he cast the net into the fire.

02:12:32.120 Oh, but, okay, sorry.

02:12:34.280 He leaped up at once and out into the river, but cast the net into the fire.

02:12:39.220 When the Aesir had come to the house, he went in first, who was wisest of all, who was called Kvasir.

02:12:46.420 and when he saw in the fire the white ash fire the white ash where the net had burned

02:12:53.140 then he perceived that that thing must be a device for catching fish and told it to the

02:13:00.020 Iser. Straight away they took hold and made themselves a net after the pattern of the 0.96

02:13:05.640 one they perceived by the burnt out ashes that Loki had made. When the net was ready

02:13:11.480 Then the Aesir went to the river and cast the net into the fall. 0.96

02:13:16.060 Four held one end of the net, and all of the Aesir held the other, and they drew the net.

02:13:22.080 But Loki darted ahead and lay down between two stones.

02:13:26.520 They drew the net over him and perceived that something living was in front of him.

02:13:31.620 A second time, they went up to the fall and cast out the net, having bound it to something so heavy that nothing should be able to pass under it.

02:13:40.800 Then Loki swam ahead of the net, but when he saw that it was but a short distance to the sea,

02:13:46.720 then he jumped up over the net rope and ran into the fall.

02:13:51.700 Now the Isir saw where he went and went up again to the fall 0.85

02:13:56.060 and divided the company into two parts. 0.88

02:13:59.040 But Thor waded along in midstream, so they went out towards the sea.

02:14:04.760 Now Loki saw a choice of two courses.

02:14:07.020 There was a mortal peril to dash out into the sea, but this was the second, to leap over the net again, and so he did.

02:14:16.780 He leaped as swiftly as he could over the net cord.

02:14:21.380 Thor clutched at him and got a hold of him, but he slipped in Thor's hand, so that the hand slipped at the tail.

02:14:28.300 For this reason the salmon has a tapering back.

02:14:30.960 now Loki was taken

02:14:34.000 and was brought with them

02:14:36.680 into the certain cave

02:14:38.140 thereupon they took three

02:14:40.260 flat stones

02:14:41.400 and set them on edge

02:14:44.000 and drilled a hole in each stone

02:14:45.840 then were taken Loki's sons

02:14:48.620 Vali and Nari

02:14:50.340 or Narfi 1.00

02:14:51.520 and the Isir changed Vali 1.00

02:14:54.140 into the form of a wolf 0.83

02:14:56.740 and he tore asunder Narfi

02:14:58.400 his brother 0.95

02:14:59.820 And the Aesir took his entrails and bound Loki with them over the three stones. 0.98

02:15:05.880 One stands under his shoulders, the second under his loins, the third under his knees. 0.94

02:15:12.720 And those bonds were turned to iron. 0.74

02:15:16.100 Then Asgavi took a venomous serpent and fastened it up over him, so that the venom should drip from the serpent into his face.

02:15:25.920 But Sagan, his wife, stands near him and holds a basin under the venom drops.

02:15:33.020 When the basin is full, she goes and pours out the venom.

02:15:36.920 But in the meantime, the venom drips onto his face.

02:15:41.080 Then he writhes against it with such force that the whole earth trembles.

02:15:46.600 You call that earthquakes.

02:15:48.860 There he lies in bonds until the weird gods.

02:15:54.980 so there we have the meeting out of vengeance upon loki finally enough is enough

02:16:08.420 at the slaying of balder or the arranging for the slaying of balder justice needs be meted out

02:16:16.700 immediately quickly and we see this carried out literally bound by the entrails of his son

02:16:26.100 with venom dripping upon his face uh for the rest of this time cycle

02:16:33.520 um there there is something uh in there that i think we should point out too

02:16:43.440 um we spoke earlier in the series about the Voluspao and the translation of Vaoli and Narvi

02:16:55.040 and this is a compilation of all of those poems so one I think just fallacy of the Gilbeginning

02:17:09.540 and there are there are not many is I mean other than like say condense it condenses great stories

02:17:16.340 so it has to kind of omit details one of the things is is the poem uh that speaks of

02:17:24.940 Vaoli being um the son of the gods it's it's the the misinterpretation there where later on in the

02:17:36.820 compilation, it is that Vaoli is the son of Loki, and the confusion creates a great amount,

02:17:47.380 but the belief from the church is Vaoli is Vaoli, the god Vaoli, who is of the Aesir,

02:17:55.680 and that that misinterpretation from the prose, which was very small and didn't,

02:18:02.080 And people were trying to figure out, oh, okay, why are the two sons, they don't specifically say the two sons, they say Vali is turned into a wolf that breaks and rips the entrails and raps Loki.

02:18:20.780 But here, as it is compiled from that poem, there is the idea that there are two sons of Loki.

02:18:32.080 So that is a very interesting section of lore where the translation between writers, Simondr and Snorri, and all of the litany of people that were writing to compile the poems, there was a twist in there.

02:18:56.200 um so looking at that section when we talk about the net we talk about the salmon and the tail

02:19:10.840 being drawn down and pinched a lot of these parts of the stories I think are very very interesting

02:19:17.720 they tell different things another thing that's kind of uh is missing for some people

02:19:23.540 is the mention of kvasir and the story of kvasir being turned into the mead of inspiration

02:19:31.680 so if we're looking at timelines kvasir is often mentioned in the beginning after the war

02:19:40.660 of the gods that he the process of his whole story kind of goes from there so people have

02:19:48.120 a tendency to place kvasir in the beginning of whatever timeline they're constructing

02:19:52.920 instead he's here when loki is bound so i'm not saying that this is um

02:20:04.180 loki's binding is somehow close to ragnarok but what i am saying is that kvasir is generally kind

02:20:11.160 of the gods make peace they make kvasir kvasir gets killed by the earth dvergar and then the

02:20:21.180 mead of poetry. No, the binding of Loki takes place before the disbursement of the mead of

02:20:29.820 poetry or Kvasir's blood, as it is in what we could consider if we were trying to make a linear

02:20:38.740 timeline. So, and then when we look at the salmon tail and the net, the naming and the markings of

02:20:49.540 creations of items kind of being lended back to mythological source or story-based sense,

02:20:59.860 where that's how the elephant's trunk became long and so forth. I think a lot of these elements,

02:21:07.500 you can see it particularly right at the end here of this section, are kind of placed in,

02:21:14.620 And, you know, we see that on occasions, stars being placed in the heavens, certain mountains being shaped the way they are, biological creatures being shaped the way they are.

02:21:31.580 And ultimately, I've always taken that to the machinations of the divine are reflected in the material, but you kind of see as they're going at the very end here with the very fact that they're just uploading huge sections of the poems, that there is this attempt at the end to fill in as much information as possible from the collected poems.

02:21:59.440 And I think ultimately the Gilbeginning, in its positive sense, serves as a way to teach people about Ausatru symbolically through King Galfi.

02:22:12.560 the downside is it's a huge corpus of lore being kind of focused and honed down into one area and

02:22:22.600 it loses a lot of its um dynamicism when the questions stop and now it's like this is this

02:22:30.700 poem and this is this poem and this is this poem and i think that that was a logistical choice

02:22:35.320 by the writers to get as much of their lore as as they could into this buffet if you will

02:22:44.900 yeah it's a one-shot distillate distillization of also true for an audience this is what also true

02:22:55.420 is so it's taking the things felt most important out of the lore codifying them at the end and

02:23:01.860 and then weaving the narrative points that are very important.

02:23:05.520 But something I'd like to say on kind of a chat that's going on on the side,

02:23:09.260 and I really appreciate the chat.

02:23:11.840 And we go over this a lot, but there's always people that it's their first time hearing it

02:23:17.060 or whatever the case might be.

02:23:19.280 So English Outlander. 0.81

02:23:23.280 Um, the question, this goes further on the question about other Germanic traditions, all worshiping at some kind of a communal hof.

02:23:34.700 So, and, you know, there's a worry that wanting to unify everything under Norse terminology diminishes the specialness of individual people connecting to the gods through their ancestral names in, you know, German or in Anglo-Saxon or whatnot.

02:24:00.760 the gods have to be more important

02:24:07.060 than your individual

02:24:09.280 feeling of celebration of

02:24:14.260 England or Germany or of place

02:24:18.080 or whatever that might be

02:24:19.940 if our point of the Hoff is to worship the gods

02:24:22.380 does it please Thor

02:24:26.420 for us to be strong and unified

02:24:32.220 and for Englishmen and Swedes and Germans

02:24:35.680 and Icelanders and Irishmen

02:24:40.120 and all to worship him at Thorshof as Thor?

02:24:48.700 Or does it please him more for small,

02:24:52.420 less relevant non-unified groups to call him Dunor and Dunar and Thor.

02:25:04.640 I think that he cares more about unified people being strong in his worship

02:25:11.460 and united in their faith and united in their shared bonds

02:25:15.200 than, oh, that's cool, they're doing things in a funny old-timey English way.

02:25:21.060 Oh, that's cool. They're doing things in a German style.

02:25:24.560 All of those things are fine, by the way.

02:25:27.340 All of those things are great traditions that you can do at your house or with your kindred or whatever else.

02:25:34.780 But these are the gods of our race, and they have been the gods of our race since the beginning of our race.

02:25:41.780 The most unified corpus of lore is the Norse selection.

02:25:46.780 that brings us all together in how to worship these Aryan gods

02:25:52.060 that have been our gods since the beginning.

02:25:54.820 Doing it unified brings us together and makes us strong and successful

02:26:00.340 and moves us forward.

02:26:02.600 And I understand everyone wants to do it their way.

02:26:07.760 I get that.

02:26:11.620 Inherently, everybody wants to do it their way,

02:26:13.900 and it's going to eventually be somebody's way that wins out,

02:26:17.520 that takes prominence, and that gets moved forward under.

02:26:21.700 That means a whole lot of people aren't going to have it,

02:26:24.340 their particular flavor, and only one person gets to have it

02:26:27.960 exactly the way they want.

02:26:32.240 But that's how it works.

02:26:34.080 And I think that when our own individuality becomes more important

02:26:40.700 Then the success of our faith, the structure of putting our religion forward to the next generation, that's where we lose our momentum and our strength.

02:26:52.840 There is power in us unifying and moving forward together under a united understanding of our faith. 0.95

02:27:00.360 That could have been done under theodism.

02:27:03.560 That could have been done under a Germanic lens.

02:27:07.260 That could have been done in a lot of different ways.

02:27:10.700 but it was and has been done under the norse nomenclature it's under that banner that we're

02:27:19.080 moving forward and that we've found success it's under that banner that we've established

02:27:23.360 five hoss to our gods please get on the team get your kinfolk to get on the team you're so much

02:27:33.480 more effective doing this together and united and if there's ways to improve we do that by

02:27:42.060 all coming together and working through the system that works the system that has been blessed by the

02:27:48.400 with authority to move us forward let's do that together let's work together towards that cause

02:27:56.340 The idea of us having five Hoffs, these other traditions having no Hoffs, but let's all come together on some neutral territory hosted at one of your guys' Hoffs, it's offensive on the face of it. 0.65

02:28:13.900 Get on the team that's brought you the Hoffs. If you don't have a Hoff of your own and you've realized that the AFA does have Hoffs, that's a symbol that we're doing something right.

02:28:25.000 get on the team that's doing something right and if there's ways to make it better let's do that

02:28:31.700 together i think there is a um and i i don't say that with any stink on it i don't aim it just at

02:28:38.900 you for answering the question it's a thought that many people have i have to reiterate too

02:28:43.520 when i answer questions on here yes it is towards the person asking but it's also towards all people

02:28:49.340 listening that have a similar thought so some things i say don't apply to you please don't

02:28:53.860 take that personally it's for the whole audience um there is a tendency for everyone to want

02:29:03.340 to be the chieftain of their own little thing and you know we're northumbrian so let's do it this

02:29:12.060 way well we're you know from wessex let's do it this way well we're mercian so let's do it this

02:29:18.980 way there will always be somebody from a different place wanting to do it slightly different because

02:29:26.180 everybody deep down wants to be the king of their own little micro kingdom

02:29:30.260 i understand how i understand how it sounds because i am the theocratic autocrat of

02:29:41.980 the ouster true folk assembly asking everybody else to give up their little kingdom and come

02:29:47.000 join mine i get that i really really do but i believed this before i sat where i sit and help

02:29:53.800 i appreciate the blessings that have allowed me to sit where i'm sitting i do get how it sounds

02:30:01.240 but i've thought this since the beginning and it's why i joined the afa to begin with i was um

02:30:08.760 Um, before I was a member of the AFA, I was being eyed to be like number three in the

02:30:21.300 heathen folk revival, which was something that, um, Wyatt Kaldenberg, um, another guy

02:30:29.660 that was a friend of mine, uh, uh, Sean Ridland and myself were, were trying to build up.

02:30:36.740 and we were going to you know start our own group and do our own thing and i'm like hold on guys

02:30:44.860 the afa is already doing this and we're doing it very successfully why don't we do that

02:30:50.900 well no we're doing our own thing and we're gonna you know whatever i think everybody has those

02:30:56.640 ideas and i was like well you know i could be number three in this thing that we're building

02:31:01.680 where I could just be one of many folk builders,

02:31:05.980 but I could be the AFA folk builder for my area

02:31:08.500 and I could help build.

02:31:10.740 But I believed this then,

02:31:12.920 and by the benevolence of the Iser,

02:31:18.480 I have found myself in the position I'm in,

02:31:21.100 and I'm very, very grateful and aware of that.

02:31:24.340 But I believed this whether I was sitting here or not.

02:31:28.140 and it also affects that the afa doesn't want to hold anybody back if there are people who are

02:31:36.840 have their own groups and they're doing it their way and you know they're hesitant

02:31:43.520 join the afa nobody wants to hold you back you can be a very important person you can contribute

02:31:51.220 very significantly to the outstreet focus app if you're willing to be on the team and work within

02:31:57.760 our structure cool you can get you can become a member of leadership you can become a go-thee

02:32:06.320 you can move up you can contribute your voice will be heard there's no desire to hold anybody back

02:32:14.300 but there is a desire as was presented to our founder with the in-gathering of the folk

02:32:20.260 to bring all of our folk home and to bring all of our folk under the tri-horn banner

02:32:26.040 to serve the Aesir in the best way possible.

02:32:29.460 And this is an invitation to everyone who worships the Aesir. 0.99

02:32:34.500 Please come home. 1.00

02:32:36.700 Get under the banner.

02:32:39.720 Get under the tent of the AstroFolk Assembly.

02:32:42.940 Join, be part of the team.

02:32:44.640 Let's move forward together.

02:32:46.200 Let's make it happen.

02:32:47.120 You're doing amazing things. 0.98

02:32:49.860 And if everyone who claims to worship the Aesir 0.96

02:32:52.420 chose to do it with us, 1.00

02:32:54.500 the advancement would be exponential i think that's worth mentioning

02:32:59.920 um spawn while you were gone and you may want to add something to this uh it was brought up

02:33:07.080 that frig knows the destiny of all men but doesn't say things or but keeps it secret

02:33:13.540 and like you know have you ever thought that she knew that mistletoe would be the downfall of

02:33:18.740 her i had suggested no because there's no such thing as perfection or perfect knowledge or

02:33:27.620 infinite strength or infinite any of these things even amongst the icr there is tremendous knowledge

02:33:33.780 or tremendous strength there's always that sense of struggle and that even if she knows the fate

02:33:42.820 of things knowing exactly how it unfolds is still elusive and there's competing magics

02:33:49.860 by malevolent forces to cloud that or to make that harder to divine but no i don't think that

02:33:56.500 she knowingly knew this would be the case or surely she would have extracted the oath

02:34:02.820 um but i don't know if there was some a piece you wanted to add on that yeah i think you're

02:34:08.500 absolutely right especially with the the the spot where if she had known and she did nothing now

02:34:18.800 there is a deeper theory and perhaps it could apply to both holy frig and lord odin that

02:34:28.160 the necessity of balder returning after ragnarok completely relies upon being removed from the

02:34:38.140 cycle of, of, uh, conflict. And in so time capsule, or I made mention encapsulation, um, in

02:34:47.920 the, uh, underworld or the way the world away from, from things. Um, so if there was that

02:34:59.440 understanding, it is not presented in the stories, but it is specifically, uh, the love

02:35:07.060 of a mother is shown in her desire to do all of these things. And with Lord Odin, there is kind

02:35:18.260 of this distancing. Because I've heard people postulate too that Lord Odin has, which Lord

02:35:25.660 Odin is always trying to stave off Ragnarok. I know he's called a Faustian figure where he's

02:35:32.180 sacrificing stuff for himself but there's a lot of evidence elsewhere showing that he's not doing

02:35:38.580 it for himself he's doing it for the greater longevity of the gods so there is people that

02:35:46.020 have postulated that lord ovin realized that it's you can read the past but you have the only way

02:35:55.780 that you can ensure the outcome of the future which is another part of the whole reading the

02:36:01.220 fates of men understanding that those that concept is about understanding the past that you have to

02:36:10.500 angle things in a trajectory that is not yet defined and so that lord odin may very well

02:36:18.420 have been the one that understood the end result desired but not necessarily every step taken to

02:36:27.300 achieve it but i think that from and we only have the story to go on is that if she knew she would

02:36:37.620 have banned it and there is much to be done about her understanding of all things that are going on

02:36:46.900 all the the the fates or you could simply say the fates of men are different than the fates of gods

02:36:53.220 etc but i think from that standpoint if no action was taken while knowing would kind of

02:37:04.340 make her dubious and i don't think that that's the right um pathway to to look at um the gods

02:37:14.420 and i think remember too a lot of these stories are stories with intent of entertainment cultural

02:37:21.940 encapsulation so on and so forth so when we contemplate the gods and their interactions

02:37:31.220 with each other on a cosmic level it can separate from the stories that we have and the stories that

02:37:39.540 we have are the old nor stories every other group of also true in a cultural sense always goes back

02:37:48.020 to the old norse whether it's anglo-saxon or normani or whatever and it's the most complete

02:37:55.460 and defined theocratic or theological framework of the faith so what we end up

02:38:04.980 kind of doing is looking at how could this be in a cosmic sense but in the story

02:38:09.460 she is a mother who is losing her son and it and it is terrible the gods are saddened by the loss

02:38:21.380 there's all of this going on with true purpose is to make that interconnectivity um but i have

02:38:31.200 heard people postulate about lord odin like the very fact that he became blood brother

02:38:35.380 with an outsider was to ensure that the end result was that balder would be encapsulated

02:38:43.380 so that he could survive ragnarok i've heard that and um i don't necessarily think that's

02:38:49.420 wrong or or right it's just an interesting thing to consider but

02:38:55.020 yeah i i was here go the like stating the fact that if she had no it would have been kind of

02:39:02.980 dubious so spawn who do you think is the closest norse equivalent of apollo balder

02:39:12.960 yeah i think that one's i always want to test and see but i think that one's fairly obvious and

02:39:21.820 fairly well understood that that's the case there is something i um i'm not 100 um let me see there

02:39:29.940 is a connectivity to his name that I think is very interesting. When we talk about Pan-Arianism

02:39:36.740 and we talk about the God forms in different groups, but there is something very interesting

02:39:42.940 in relation to the etymology of Apollo. And one of them is that the name is linked to

02:39:51.400 destruction, to the breaking down and the return. So you can clearly see a connection between the

02:40:04.840 kind of falling and breaking down of the light of the gods and then his return. Whereas same,

02:40:13.440 The name and the etymology leans back towards this same meaning.

02:40:20.160 Let me see, Plato in Cretalis connects the name to Apollesis, meaning redemption or that, again, that rise and return, purification.

02:40:34.760 So we see in the name Apollo, there is a mythical function that is almost identical to the processes of Lord Balder.

02:40:52.100 Yeah, thus the Greeks most often associated Apollo's name with the Greek verb apolami, meaning to destroy, and also redemption and purification.

02:41:03.700 And this processes in which Balder goes into the lower world and then returns to the upper world after Ragnarok is a processes of purification.

02:41:20.620 And it's necessary in order for the gods to exist beyond Ragnarok.

02:41:26.020 And if that sounds too sterile or maybe that I'm reading too much into it, bear in mind, we were just talking about the processes of Lord Odin slaying himself and synthesizing with the tree, Yggdrasil, one of the original three of the primordial gap, to go all the way back to where the roots are unknown and learn the knowledge and understanding.

02:41:56.020 that the the inert and on the non-willful elements that create the the the ecosystem of the of the

02:42:08.500 cosmos so processes is a very important part of our stories um Golvey being burned three times

02:42:20.500 Or the Skirner jumping over the flame in order to speak to Gerder. There is deep Aryan story cycles and tropes, if you will, that go all the way back.

02:42:41.240 This is one of them. And so Apollo, by the name, is connected deeply to the very act of what is being done through the stories in that trope of the light being placed in a dark place so that it may return.

02:43:04.120 And I think that there is absolutely no doubt in my mind, actually, the connections that they placed that upon the rabbi Yeshua when Christianity came in. 0.84

02:43:16.400 We've spoken about the Trinity and the fact that there was no Trinity, and then they made a Trinity because it was amongst Aryan people now.

02:43:25.000 And there was other things that they clearly focused on. The fighting of a serpent or the fighting of a monster. That's another thing that they needed to connect to this new religion coming in amongst the Europeans. 0.96

02:43:45.540 that's why the the last supper which you know historically was passover for the rabbi yeshua

02:43:53.720 um is so deeply connected visually to look like a bacchanalia because they were in greece at the

02:44:01.620 time attempting to convert greeks into christianity so we have these cycles and there is a lot of

02:44:11.120 overlay of aryan concept where um and like even in christianity where jewish christians or

02:44:19.700 ethnically jewish christians believe that when you died you were in the earth and then you would rise

02:44:25.600 up and stand for judgment at the end of time that's a judaic concept still and was a christian

02:44:32.040 concept but over time they introduced the tri-level world of the upper world middle world

02:44:37.500 and lower world. That wasn't a thing in, say, Saul of Tarsus or the Christians and the disciples

02:44:46.380 and all the way back to Jesus. That wasn't the way they were looking at things. So a lot of these

02:44:51.740 processes that we are speaking of are not abnormal. And we're just slicing out of our own,

02:45:00.580 But you can see it across the Aryan branches that make up the total of our lore, the lore of all of our people.

02:45:12.740 We see it in the Slavs, in the Gauls, in the Nords, in the Anglo-Saxons, et cetera.

02:45:20.280 To speak a bit more on Apollo, though, another aspect of him is he's a god of music and song and poetry.

02:45:27.760 He's the father of Orpheus, one of the legendary human poets.

02:45:33.520 He was gifted the lyre from Hermes.

02:45:39.920 He had a flute contest with a satyr called Marcius and had a constant rivalry with the satyr god Pan.

02:45:53.300 he he so i would you can also describe him connected to bragi but as with anything any

02:46:01.220 of this sync uh secretism stuff it's never a one-for-one well in an interest not when you

02:46:07.460 deal with mediterraneans it's not you can find some pretty close one-for-ones uh with the slavs

02:46:15.300 with uh the celts once you get in the mediterranean things have become um

02:46:23.380 that climate that lifestyle is so different the deck is you find a lot of the elements

02:46:30.340 and a lot of the same stories but so much of it has been reshuffled and i think that's another

02:46:38.020 compelling reason why we do this in the way that we do it is what the gods have ordained that we

02:46:46.100 do and i think that it is because it is the most accurate evolution and carrying on of the torch

02:46:58.580 of uh divine truth from our most ancient ancestors into today

02:47:08.020 I think there are glorious things in Hellenism and the Latin expression of Hellenism.

02:47:16.080 But I think the fundamentals are best expressed and best sorted out and organized in the Norse lore.

02:47:31.160 And I think the truth of that does play out.

02:47:33.260 um spawn so another uh question that comes up

02:47:37.340 i am so confused why he would have knitted a net the thing that could catch him as a fish

02:47:44.780 in the first place and thrown it into the fire what's happening with that uh what's reaction to

02:47:51.620 that first off that's a very astute question i i like those kind of questions because you're now

02:47:57.940 pondering the movement of the mythos um you know but let's take go back just a little bit further

02:48:05.540 what he does is when he runs he goes to a house he builds a house excuse me and it has four doors

02:48:12.980 so that he can see in the four directions that when the gods are coming uh he will know

02:48:19.880 So that, you know, the whole process of that begins under that paranoia. And so what ultimately the net signifies is the culmination of every knot that he tied in the heavenly realm from the moment he was brought in to now has led to his fate.

02:48:45.760 So the net is analogous for fate, weird, or law, that every knot that he tied leads to the metaphysical net that is going to lead to his capture, if you will.

02:49:02.960 but even then he manages to avoid it only briefly and then is brought into dominion by the the son

02:49:12.840 of heaven and earth so that there is this kind of physical element that um even despite all of this

02:49:20.980 he may still be able to kind of escape nope thor's got him um but i you know that's what the net

02:49:29.700 means is it is intrinsic to the poetic meaning of every knot that he's tied to create has led to

02:49:40.780 the net that would become his own capture. And when he burns it, the gods then see the pattern

02:49:47.880 of it and they make their own net. But I think the entire point of that really is an analogy

02:49:55.720 analogy for our deeds kind of lead to our fates, if you will. I hope that answers the question,

02:50:03.400 but that's a great question because when we talk about mythos and how it works and why the words

02:50:10.640 are chosen and what the story is trying to convey does not always mean, I think a lot of modern

02:50:18.600 atheists and say, you know, Christians that are trying to look at or find critique will just look

02:50:29.520 at everything in an extreme face value and not look at mythos as what it, I believe, is truly

02:50:35.840 intended. It does have face value in culture and in ethics and concepts of the time, but it has a

02:50:45.760 far bigger meaning, and this one is. The very deeds that he created, the knots that he was

02:50:52.380 doing by all of the steps throughout his entire existence amongst the gods, was a net that was

02:51:01.820 inevitably tied to catch himself. He did this to himself.

02:51:15.760 see i thought it was for him to catch other salmon while he is hiding amongst the salmon

02:51:23.360 under the fall right i think that's the cultural yeah i thought it's like he's got this cabin and

02:51:31.280 he's subsisting off of fishing for salmon and he hides amongst them and so he's making a net so he

02:51:37.280 can get more salmon and he's like uh-oh they're coming quick i better burn this they don't even

02:51:41.920 get any ideas right um i think that's what would speak uh culturally to our ancestors

02:51:50.560 because that's what anyone would do if they were out on the outs or on the run or what have you

02:51:55.600 but i think the mythological point is oh sure i think that the net has a lot of symbolism

02:52:01.120 in trick in treachery and getting trapped and being ensnared by things um i just think the

02:52:08.880 specific like narrative like why did he make a net if that's the thing like that's a i think

02:52:13.840 that's why is so he could fish better for salmon um all right so we are approaching the three hour

02:52:34.960 mark and i have got to fly in the morning so i'm gonna i'm gonna go ahead and call it for this

02:52:42.720 evening i think it's been a good show appreciate you guys questions appreciate everybody showing

02:52:47.840 up i hope everybody likes the new um time that we're doing it i know that i enjoy it um

02:52:57.760 yeah spawn thank you for being here i appreciate i know we're making slow progress through this i

02:53:02.160 I know we're on part 11, and we've got a part 12 at least coming up.

02:53:06.160 But I think we're getting a lot out of it,

02:53:09.860 and I do think it expresses our faith in a really particular way

02:53:12.780 that no other piece of our Lord does in as complete or as expository of a sense.

02:53:20.780 So I really like it.

02:53:22.960 I would also, we are not sponsored by,

02:53:26.800 but I would plug the resting brunch face of Mango Mimosa.

02:53:32.160 It is delicious.

02:53:35.620 There you go.

02:53:36.700 I would gladly support them if they would sponsor the program because it is a fine beverage.

02:53:45.600 I also wanted to apologize for my cutoff.

02:53:48.960 We have a timer because of our children.

02:53:53.680 We make sure the screen time is controlled in a sense.

02:53:58.840 And I had an issue with the timer going off.

02:54:03.140 So that was the reason why I got cut off back there.

02:54:07.580 And thank you to everybody tonight who donated.

02:54:10.340 We're making awesome progress on getting a pavilion up at Sickerheim and on paying off Rayshoff.

02:54:16.120 You guys are tremendous.

02:54:20.600 I made the point to the earlier questioner who didn't agree with our stance on things.

02:54:28.760 left the chat we are so much stronger when we do this together and you guys are so generous that

02:54:37.000 carry a load that is disproportionate to our number we have been tremendously successful by

02:54:43.400 the favor of the icer but also very much by the generosity of our members

02:54:49.320 and thank you for everybody who's been a part of that you guys continue to impress and it is much

02:54:53.960 appreciate it I hope everybody has an amazing midsummer go to Odenshof if you can if you jump

02:55:04.680 in the car now most everybody listening to this broadcast can likely get there I understand if

02:55:10.240 that's a stretch but luckily we got four other Hoffs that you guys can try to get to if they

02:55:16.800 are closer but again because it's awesome I would encourage everyone to try to make it to their

02:55:23.200 local Hoff if they can.

02:55:25.280 And I know I use the term local 0.98

02:55:27.040 loosely, but the closest Hoff to

02:55:29.220 them, and those of you that 1.00

02:55:31.160 can make it to Odin's Hoff, I look forward to seeing

02:55:33.240 you here in just a couple of days.

02:55:36.360 Until then.

02:55:37.080 And or come out to Sigurdheim next

02:55:39.180 weekend for midsummer.

02:55:41.100 Yes, those of us, when I get back

02:55:42.980 next weekend, we're going to celebrate

02:55:45.140 midsummer at Sigurdheim.

02:55:48.660 You guys

02:55:49.300 are all invited. It's going to be

02:55:51.340 great. It's beautiful out there.

02:55:53.720 Nick just went out there and mowed

02:55:55.760 down the fields. It's

02:55:57.420 going to be lovely.

02:55:59.900 And the weather has not been

02:56:01.420 overly warm this year, so it should be

02:56:03.420 nice.

02:56:05.320 Oh, and the mowing

02:56:06.360 never is. I'll be out there this weekend, too.

02:56:09.480 It is

02:56:10.020 lush. It is a rainforest of sorts

02:56:12.440 out there, but

02:56:13.640 that's part of what makes it beautiful.

02:56:16.420 So, alright, guys. Until next

02:56:18.300 time, he'll be a seer, he'll be a folk,

02:56:20.340 He'll be AFA, and remember, victory never sleeps.

02:56:50.340 Transcription by CastingWords

02:57:20.340 Thank you.

02:57:50.340 Thank you.

02:58:20.340 Thank you.

02:58:50.340 Thank you.

02:59:20.340 We'll be right back.

Asatru Folk Assembly - June 18, 2026

6⧸17⧸26 Victory Never Sleeps, Ep 206 - Prose Edda： Gylfaginning, Part 11

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