Asatru Folk Assembly - 7⧸19⧸23 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 54 - King Radbod of Frisia

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 We'll be right back.

00:01:00.000 Thank you.

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00:02:00.000 Thank you.

00:02:30.000 We'll be right back.

00:03:00.000 Hello, folk. Welcome to Victory Never Sleeps.

00:03:13.400 I am Witten Brandi Callahan filling in for the El Shiaro Godhi, Matt Flavel, as he celebrates Sigerbloat at Sigerheim.

00:03:21.440 We've got with us a Godhi Trent East tonight, one of my favorite people, not just in the AFA, but in the world in general.

00:03:28.680 there may be a lot of inside jokes and innuendo tonight that only we understand that's okay if

00:03:33.700 you have questions please ask in the chat so tonight who are we talking about go the east

00:03:38.720 we are discussing king red bat of frizzia one of my favorites of our heroes that we have a day of

00:03:45.260 remembrance for awesome in the uh backstage up there you were telling us a little bit about the

00:03:53.120 frisian heritage can you start with that just a little bit uh yeah so essentially i was going on

00:04:03.160 this rant with our producer nick rice because he mentioned that he has frisian heritage and

00:04:07.780 i like to bully nick for whatever reason just a little bit and i said ah that's kind of a bag of

00:04:14.900 nothing essentially because the frisians as we know them are a combination of danes franks and

00:04:21.240 Anglo-Saxons, all of which are just descended from the Danes anyway, as are any and all Germanic

00:04:28.120 people and even some Celtic people. So just genealogy nerd stuff. But yeah, Parisians are

00:04:36.680 just North Sea Germanic, same as the Anglo-Saxons, the Danes, whoever. Before we get into our hero

00:04:43.840 today, we do just want to remind everyone that Sigur Bloat is happening this weekend. Tickets

00:04:50.480 are still available at runestone.org. Please get your ticket spot if you'd like to go, but that is

00:04:56.720 still, that is happening now and tickets are still on sale. Go ahead and go to the website and get

00:05:02.540 registered for that if you'd like to attend. We've also got other events that are coming up here in

00:05:08.480 the next month or two. Our next event after this is going to be Freyfaxi at Baldursoft. Those tickets

00:05:16.800 are also available at runestone.org. This will be the national event for Baldursoff. This is our

00:05:22.400 main event of the year, so please come out and see us there. Contact folk builder Jason Gallagher

00:05:29.520 or folk builder Nathan Erlinson and they can give you all the details on where to stay, how to get

00:05:34.800 there, how to get from the airport, and all the interesting things that we've got going on. All

00:05:40.480 of our leadership from Baldursoff District will be there to entertain you, amaze you, and inspire

00:05:45.120 you so please come out and visit your leadership worship balder and have a great weekend

00:05:51.280 a couple other things that we got coming up shortly is going to be the texas harvest feast

00:05:55.360 contact folk builder justin day that is going to be at the end of august the 25th of the 27th

00:06:01.440 tickets also available at brunestone.org and following that we've got phrase harvest feast

00:06:07.360 contact folk builder tyler heineland and he can get you set up with that tickets are available

00:06:12.960 for that as well so as you see we've got a lot of things going on back to back to back to back so

00:06:19.760 get out see your folk worship your gods go the east can you tell us about our hero tonight yes

00:06:27.360 king uh or duke red bad uh we think he was probably the king of the frisians but the franks

00:06:32.880 called him duke because they didn't want to recognize his authority as a sovereign monarch

00:06:37.360 He is often considered the last independent ruler of Frisia before Frankish Christian domination.

00:06:45.320 He defeated Charles Martel, the grandfather, I believe, of Charlemagne at Cologne.

00:06:52.440 Eventually, though, of course, Charles and his line, the Carolingians, prevailed and made the Frisians submit to Christianity, as you are probably aware.

00:07:03.260 King Redbad died in 7-19, but his successor struggled against the Franks for a few years before finally giving in.

00:07:12.000 So a few things about him, and we'll get to the main story everybody knows him for.

00:07:18.160 He, despite us not knowing a whole lot about his life before, even during his kingship,

00:07:23.360 he is said to have been widely feared by the Franks.

00:07:27.500 They talked a big game because they were good at, you know, kicking everybody around,

00:07:31.640 But any time they heard Red Bad was raising an army, they started shaking in their boots a little bit.

00:07:39.320 There was a lot of, you know, tit for tat, fighting back and forth between Red Bad and Charles Martel and later Pepin.

00:07:47.900 But, you know, like I said, the Franks eventually won.

00:07:51.380 At one point, King Redbad decided he would submit to Christianity and get baptized to sort of just stop the bloodletting of Frisians and Franks, Christians and Asitra are alike.

00:08:06.420 and uh as he's stepping up to the fountain or tub or whatever he got was going to be baptized in

00:08:16.980 he asked the uh the monk uh grimwald if he would if he would see any of his ancestors

00:08:24.660 or his warriors that had been killed in the christian heaven and this angered the monk

00:08:31.400 and so he gave kind of a snarky answer along the lines of no of course not they were filthy heathens

00:08:37.620 and uh red bag kind of thought about that for a second and he said you know i would rather burn

00:08:44.820 in hell with my ancestors and my people for eternity than spend one minute in heaven with

00:08:49.500 a circle of beggars like you and that is unfortunately all we know of that story we

00:08:57.380 don't know if he like stormed out if he slapped the dude and then walked out or

00:09:02.120 what but he said that he left and he continued fighting the good fight for a

00:09:08.660 few years until his death and as I mentioned after his death his

00:09:12.940 successors fought a little bit more but eventually the Franks one go the East

00:09:19.340 can you give us some idea how we can celebrate the day of remembrance this

00:09:23.900 for this hero as well as the others um yes so typically what i recommend people do for that is

00:09:32.420 just um you know for dinner or whatever you know free meal you have that can be set up sort of

00:09:41.080 ceremonially i suppose just set a plate for that hero and uh speak to that hero as you would speak

00:09:50.660 to a god or goddess during bloat,

00:09:53.360 they will hear you from the other side of the veil.

00:09:59.040 And you can honor them in that way.

00:10:00.840 Just hail their name, tell your family about them, et cetera,

00:10:07.520 retell their story, and just share that feast with them.

00:10:12.540 Maybe even hold something of a bloat or a symbol afterwards.

00:10:16.680 It doesn't have to be anything too fancy, you know,

00:10:18.980 just saying their name, telling their story, the same thing we would want for ourselves when we die.

00:10:26.120 Thank you, sir. First question we have tonight is from Robert E. Bailey.

00:10:32.420 First question, how are you all doing tonight? How are you doing, Trent?

00:10:37.040 Sorry, I'm still laughing at that name. I'm doing great. I went to the gym to do shoulders right

00:10:45.000 before this, I'm still kind of riding that endorphin high rather than crashing like I normally

00:10:49.900 do around this time. Robert E. Boy Lee, I am doing fantastic tonight. I'm sitting here with my

00:10:57.600 friends enjoying the clever names that we have in the chat. Good to have you here. Thank you for

00:11:02.320 entertaining us and for your question. Sarah asks, what is the main lesson we can take away from King

00:11:09.280 rad bud is it his loyalty to his ancestors trent what do you think uh that's certainly one of them

00:11:17.240 i think the other lesson is to never ever ever give your adversary or enemy opponent whatever

00:11:26.480 never give them an inch don't because as soon as red bad said fine to stop the slaughter of my own

00:11:33.600 people and your people, I will convert. But then he realized, no, that was a mistake. If I do this,

00:11:41.120 they died for nothing. And yeah, I would say the lesson is to never second guess your morals.

00:11:49.320 This world will do that to you. It'll try to do that to you, make you second guess your values

00:11:55.340 and your morals. And that's something all of us are going to struggle with every day. But

00:11:59.940 I think King Redbad's a good lesson in not doing that because he did just for a split second and

00:12:06.460 it cost him a good bit in the end.

00:12:11.820 All right, next question we got from The Wolf Throne. Is it appropriate to pray to our gods

00:12:17.880 for someone of a different race who is struggling or afflicted with disease?

00:12:23.480 My answer to that question would be that person has their own culture, that person has their

00:12:29.660 own ancestry and that person has their own gods. So I'll ask Trent the same question, but I'm pretty

00:12:36.280 sure his answer is going to be very similar to mine is that all of the people of the world have

00:12:42.540 their own gods. They have people who have protected them, who have blessed them, who have gifted them

00:12:48.280 and who have cultivated their culture and their people for generations upon generations. So I do

00:12:55.520 believe that they should definitely be asking for help or assistance from the gods of their

00:13:00.820 people? Shred? Yeah, you guessed it. My answer is pretty similar. I mean, I don't think our gods

00:13:09.760 are going to be offended that we ask them to help someone that's not their people, but I do think

00:13:16.960 it would behoove that person to pray to their own god or gods. I think their god or gods have

00:13:25.140 much more of a vested interest in their health than our gods do that's one of the big misconceptions

00:13:34.580 about religions in general you know everybody always says that the afa is very racist because

00:13:42.980 we don't allow people of you know other other really are other races to come in but one thing

00:13:49.780 that we want to remind you is that you have a culture you have music you have food you have

00:13:56.020 language you have stories you have ancestors that date back from the beginning and you also have

00:14:02.260 gods that have protected your people so that is where we would recommend that you go all right

00:14:09.860 kevin asks how big is the following in south africa and does the afa charity donate to a

00:14:14.500 specific africana or board group or does the afa have its own just support its own to just support

00:14:21.140 members so if our producer could put up a link to our fund where we can donate to the south africa

00:14:29.460 fund you can donate to the south africa fund and that those funds are actually collected and given

00:14:36.260 um i believe it's quarterly correct me in the chat if i'm wrong there those are given to a

00:14:43.380 charity in South Africa that is there to help the displaced people there. So that's, it's not just

00:14:48.480 for our members. It's, it's for the folk there who are struggling and being persecuted there. So

00:14:53.800 we do work with a specific charity there. Um, and the El Shiro Godi has a few different options on,

00:14:59.400 on where that can go and who we can help or who we can give that to you to help with specific things.

00:15:06.760 All right. Also, if you are listening tonight, anywhere else other than YouTube, we are a

00:15:12.820 we can get us on odyssey vk twitter entropy um of course youtube um but check out rumble so rumble

00:15:20.740 is really awesome that is up and running um the super chats there are really great so definitely

00:15:25.860 check us out on rumble as well that is new that we added over there so check us out there um also

00:15:32.020 make sure that you are visiting the uh websites for each of the hafs for balder's uh balder's

00:15:38.020 Waldershof, Otenshof, Thorshof. Make sure that you check those out. There's all kinds of information

00:15:43.700 about who you can contact in your area, who your folk builder would be to be a point of contact.

00:15:48.500 There's all kinds of information, calendars and events. If you really want to know what's going

00:15:52.580 on in your district and what's going on around you, definitely check out those websites. Each

00:15:58.180 one has a little something special, so definitely check it. I'm going to go ahead and say make sure

00:16:02.980 you check Baldur's Hoff first. Go the East. I'm sure has a preference as well, possibly.

00:16:09.660 I would say check the Best Hoff first, which is that Njord's Hoff there, you know.

00:16:15.980 But everybody's got opinions on things, I guess.

00:16:20.400 We do. We also believe that leg day is important. Go the East.

00:16:27.880 I did legs yesterday.

00:16:29.260 I did see it. I did see it in the, I did see it in the physical excellence group that you did

00:16:37.660 do leg day. And I was super proud of you for that. That way you can, uh, you can definitely

00:16:42.240 catch up a lot faster to the bestest, bestest district welders hop. If you, uh, continue

00:16:47.880 with the leg day. Oh, whatever. We're looking at you guys in the rear view mirror.

00:16:51.600 speaking of me we so if you are a member of the afa and you have not yet joined me we please do

00:17:02.240 so and if our group producer could please put up the link for those who are not yet active on me

00:17:08.400 we so me we is where we do a lot of our um communications where we have a lot of our groups

00:17:15.200 so definitely get yourself involved in that i know we've had facebook groups in the past telegram

00:17:21.280 telegram groups in the past but mewe is definitely where you can keep in touch with your folk we have

00:17:28.320 groups that range from spiritual excellence to physical excellence we have parenting groups we

00:17:32.880 have um homesteading groups we have women's groups we actually have a women's sisters fitness

00:17:39.760 challenge group that's just for the ladies we have men's groups we have districts groups if you're

00:17:45.040 not on me yet you're missing out on a lot of information and a lot of networking and a lot of

00:17:52.800 frith and friendship that you can find with your folk there so please reach out to your folk builder

00:17:57.600 they will get you added over to the groups um we also have a few different pages the afa has a page

00:18:02.560 there as well as bouldershoff um not sure if any of the other hoffs have pages yet but there are

00:18:08.400 also public pages that you can follow so please check those out reach out to your folk builder

00:18:13.280 get connected. We are not just an internet phenomenon. We are not, you know, just pushing

00:18:19.280 that as our only resource because we are definitely going to still have our moots.

00:18:23.580 There's always something happening just about every day in the AFA. Definitely take a look at

00:18:29.420 that, get with your people. But if you're in an isolated area, especially, you can get the

00:18:34.240 information about unity calls, group calls, district member calls, and all that information

00:18:40.060 can be found on Mimi. So definitely go there. If you're not, if you're not there yet, you're

00:18:44.560 really missing out on a lot of, a lot of good information. All right. Monk has a question for

00:18:52.000 us. Is it inappropriate to ask our gods and goddesses to help our pets or livestock? I'm

00:18:59.800 going to let you take that one, Trent, and then I'm going to jump in afterwards. Okay. No, Monk,

00:19:04.860 don't think that's inappropriate at all uh our ancestors often did ask the gods and goddesses

00:19:10.220 to help their livestock because uh for i think it's probably safe to say most of our history

00:19:16.860 uh livestock was it was our everything you know it's what got us through the winter it's what

00:19:23.980 it's what kept us alive so i don't think that would be inappropriate at all as for pets um

00:19:29.020 um i would say you know that's not as serious as livestock maybe i guess but pets are our

00:19:36.500 companions they're our friends um the gods and goddesses have pets you know i mean four has

00:19:43.240 two goats odin has hewn and munan giri freki etc i am sure the gods are completely understanding

00:19:50.660 of why we love these furry little jerks so much

00:19:53.720 yes i agree with you trent um of course it's it's it's appropriate to ask them especially if

00:20:01.280 you're homesteading um especially if you rely on those animals for your livelihood or if you're

00:20:06.180 you know raising those animals for some sacred purpose um you know there are stories in the

00:20:11.480 in the sagas about animals being dedicated and and raised only for um a particular god and goddess

00:20:18.480 so that's how important that was to our ancestors they used to dedicate animals horses and things

00:20:23.660 that nature to gods and goddesses um but especially if you rely on those animals as a food source or

00:20:30.220 a source of income it is most definitely appropriate for you to ask for blessings of

00:20:35.580 protection of fertility um in in that nature i mean our ancestors before before the cattle were

00:20:41.500 moved out to the summer fields they were blessed and they were blessed when they came home from

00:20:45.500 the summer fields as well so it's definitely something that our ancestors have done um and

00:20:50.380 something that would be entirely appropriate. Heathen Hammer asks, is there a new AFA Book of

00:20:59.340 Blotar in the works? Yes and no. Yes and no is the correct answer. The correct answer is it's

00:21:06.080 something that we would like to get more established, but the official answer is no,

00:21:11.220 we don't have one coming out tomorrow. The old AFA Book of Blotar is not something that we

00:21:19.640 push anymore it's not something that we endorse anymore it's uh our views have changed just like

00:21:26.240 the views of the viking brotherhood that turned into the as true free assembly that turned into

00:21:32.140 the as true folk assembly of the 90s into what the afa is today how we do things evolve as our

00:21:40.780 understanding of as our understanding in our relationship to the gods and goddesses evolve

00:21:49.180 and strengthen how we do things will change as well so we might not always do things the way

00:21:55.020 we did it in the old book of blotar so if you have any questions or need an example bloat

00:22:01.720 um or just looking for ideas on how to write your own bloat definitely reach out to any of

00:22:07.980 our godhar you can email us directly at godhar at runestone.org um send us an email we can give

00:22:15.740 you some really great ideas uh some of us already have scripted bloats prepared when you ask us so

00:22:21.100 you can ask us hey do you have a thor bloat and we can send it to you we can send you an example

00:22:25.240 of one that we would use um just keep in mind when you're using these uh scripted bloats or

00:22:30.980 bloats out of books and things of that nature they're meant to inspire you more than they are

00:22:35.780 meant to be read as a script. So bloats should always come from the heart and from the soul.

00:22:41.620 When you are holding a bloat to the Aesir, you are exchanging gifts with that god or goddess

00:22:48.500 directly. You should be speaking to them, not necessarily reading off a book. If you want to

00:22:53.620 start with a scripted bloat just until you get your feet wet and you feel more comfortable

00:22:58.820 speaking directly to the gods, definitely do that. But the best and most powerful bloats

00:23:04.420 are ones that are spur of the moment inspiration when you are directly talking to the gods

00:23:13.120 themselves. But again, if you have any questions, want some inspiration, just go ahead and email

00:23:18.920 the Godar. Some of us have some we can send you. Otherwise, we can just give you some basic

00:23:22.820 outlines. Really just depends on what you're looking for, but we can help you with any aspect

00:23:26.840 of that that you like. Cody Clausen asks, why is Baldur's Hoff the bestest Hoff?

00:23:36.920 Baldur's Hoff is the bestest Hoff because we say that like there's some sort of competition

00:23:43.280 between the Hoffs. There is and there isn't. We are all one family, but a family will always pick

00:23:51.360 on their brothers and sisters and that is what we do. So it always started off with Baldur's Hoff

00:23:57.700 was the bestest Hoff and everybody else needs to catch up and then they started catching us and

00:24:01.900 then sometimes they passed us and we had to up our game and get out there as well. So when we talk

00:24:07.520 about Hoff districts, one better than the other, just remember it's we're always fighting over

00:24:12.300 who's the favorite child and we're all the favorite children. But why is Baldur's Hoff the bestest

00:24:17.780 Hoff. That would be because we have a beautiful Hoff with a beautiful kitchen and a brand new

00:24:24.840 beautiful floor. And we worked really hard on it. And the leadership is the best looking

00:24:31.980 and the most industrious. Go the East, would you like to comment on that? Or do you have a

00:24:38.800 rebuttal for that? I will comment on it. First, I'm gonna have to have a talk with my apprentice

00:24:47.280 Cody after this I'm not embarrassing me like that but um Baldur's Hoff is a good

00:24:55.720 Hoff because all the things you mentioned it is beautiful they're the

00:25:01.340 leaders there I don't know about the best-looking I mean your top clearly

00:25:05.360 has got it going on but um they certainly are some of the most

00:25:10.460 industrious people in the AFA Nate and Ashley are awesome James and Sarah are

00:25:15.300 awesome brandy's all right um steen and jamie are awesome it there's other names i can't think of at

00:25:25.700 the moment but yeah bouldershoff is a great place full of great people uh jason gallagher is like

00:25:31.860 the most hospitable and hilarious person you'll ever meet for example that whole district's

00:25:37.460 awesome i love it i wish i could uh be there more often than just once every few years

00:25:43.220 not the bestest half though just a good half it's like third bestest well okay so which is

00:25:49.880 the bestest half then and why is it the bestest half go the east uh njord's half because i said so

00:25:57.940 spoken it's whichever half i'm at honestly

00:26:02.620 no in all seriousness it's like you said they're all great i now that i've been to them all i can

00:26:09.380 say with certainty, they're all great. Um, there's not a best as Hoff. They're all the best as Hoff.

00:26:16.820 Right. Can you tell us a little bit about your visits to the Hoff? Because, you know,

00:26:21.780 you mentioned you've been to all of them. So could you give us a little bit of your, um,

00:26:28.460 your experiences at each one? What you thought, how it was?

00:26:33.660 okay so the first hop i'd ever been to was thorshoff because it's in this general area

00:26:42.380 on the east coast and i was at it for the dedication and um witten spawn witten young

00:26:48.620 and gothe stam and i uh were kind of the you know we were just the gothar for thorshoff pretty much

00:26:57.420 since the ericss were so far up north so we got to kind of watch that transform from

00:27:03.420 just a Hoff with three people to uh what it is now and it's Thor's Hoff specifically has a

00:27:11.900 great sense of piety and devotion to it and at the time I thought man I bet none of the other

00:27:18.980 Hoffs well at the time it was just that one and Odin's Hoff I guess but I specifically remember

00:27:24.500 thinking I bet Odin's Hoff doesn't do this and then when we got Baldur's Hoff I remember thinking

00:27:28.720 I bet Baldershof isn't like this. And then after that, we opened Njordshof, and that is now my hof, just by luck of being in Georgia. And it's also cultivated a real sense of piety and devotion and all the cool things I listed about Thorshof.

00:27:51.800 The week after the Njordshof dedication, I flew out to Baldershof, and it also has a great sense of piety and devotion and industriousness and all that.

00:28:03.140 As far as things specific to Baldershof, it does kind of shine.

00:28:09.420 I think that's pretty cool, considering it's, you know, dedicated to Balder, the shining one.

00:28:15.800 It's all the gold.

00:28:17.800 Yeah, yeah, the gold helps.

00:28:18.980 uh the stained glass windows had a nice effect as well there's something very special about it

00:28:25.200 when I walked in there for the first time it there was a really specific feeling that I can't quite

00:28:30.700 describe and all the Hoffs have something like that but Boulder's Hoff specifically felt felt

00:28:36.900 very strong to me um Odin's Hoff the first Hoff we got I uh I've been in the AFA longer than we've

00:28:46.320 had that Hoff, and I just got to see it this past midsummer. And like with the others, there was

00:28:53.360 just a great sense of piety and devotion and everybody caring about what they were doing and

00:28:59.820 caring about the Hoff and about Asatru and the gods and goddesses. And there probably are little

00:29:07.840 specific cultural differences I could pick up on at Odin's Hoff or Baldur's Hoff if I were there

00:29:13.700 more often. But with the way we kind of cross pollinate our leadership and our leadership

00:29:20.580 styles and the way we do things in the AFA, over time, it's going to get more and more difficult,

00:29:26.620 I think, to do that, to pick out differences between the Hoffs. And that's why we both said

00:29:33.000 all the Hoffs are bestest Hoffs because they're all very similar in the great attitudes and work

00:29:41.860 ethics they have and everything. So, yeah, not necessarily anything too special that I can point

00:29:49.780 out just from being to those two Hoffs once. So, one thing that's really good about having

00:29:57.580 Hoffs that are kind of spread out all over the country is those Hoffs really,

00:30:02.500 they really thrive on the personality of the folk and the leadership that are in them,

00:30:09.320 and they really become examples of those folk and of those leadership and of the gods that

00:30:14.440 they're dedicated to. But one of the really good things about having a, you know, having four

00:30:19.900 Hoffs is that they're accessible all over the country. But no matter if you go to Odin's Hoff

00:30:24.680 or Baldur's Hoff or Thor's Hoff or New York's Hoff, you're going to know what to do. You're

00:30:30.920 going to know how the food's blessed. You're going to know how bloat is held. You're going to know

00:30:35.740 how sambal is held because it's something that is going to feel familiar even if the faces aren't

00:30:42.340 so that is one really good thing about those who have been able to you know make the the

00:30:49.400 pilgrimages across the country to see all four hops is the faces will change um and the personality

00:30:57.060 might be a little bit different but the hospitality is going to be the same and the uh the ritual

00:31:02.760 structure is going to be the same. And you're going to feel comfortable walking into one

00:31:07.000 just as you would walking into the one that you go to on a regular basis. So that is one really

00:31:12.560 good thing about that. So I'm really proud of all the leadership of the Hoffs for making sure that

00:31:17.080 there is that continuity, that you feel comfortable, that you feel welcome, and then always bringing

00:31:23.280 something a little bit extra and a little bit of themselves to add to it as well.

00:31:26.300 all right we've got a mustard question mustard likely reached uh francia via romans over 1500

00:31:36.880 years ago any thoughts on this path for the master condiment to the phrygians

00:31:41.520 and if so would you call it the mustard war

00:31:44.900 trent do you have any thoughts about the uh the migration of the great mustard

00:31:53.280 because just like just like any great thing of history it's made its way across europe

00:32:02.880 and it has introduced itself to so many so many other of our folk and it is appreciated

00:32:09.760 so much so yes mustard is is definitely the superior condiment i just want to throw that out

00:32:17.120 there? It's like Baldur's Hoff. It's in the top four, you know. I will note for anybody who

00:32:28.740 visits Baldur's Hoff, there are probably 15 different mustards that you can choose from.

00:32:36.200 So when you come to Freyfaxi, make sure you try them all. And if there's any, I mean,

00:32:40.760 there's so many reasons to come to Baldur's Hoff, but we have an outstanding mustard collection.

00:32:44.780 so please come and try out the awesome mustard

00:32:48.120 kevin asks also does the afa have any future goals of advancing its presence anywhere else

00:32:55.500 besides europe like australia or south africa yes we actually do have members in australia

00:33:01.980 we do have members in south africa we do have members in south america so the afa exists where

00:33:09.280 our folk exist. Wherever our folk are, the AFA has the potential to be there. And that is up to

00:33:16.240 our amazing leadership and our amazing members who tell their friends about us, tell their family

00:33:23.280 about us, and also to the gods who continue to bless us with more and more folk that are coming

00:33:28.580 home. Michael asks, Brandy, what is your opinion of the fact that Odin, as well as Krishna and

00:33:36.300 Buddha and Jesus and others as well, all speak of the single I. So I don't make a habit of

00:33:45.780 lumping Odin in with other stories or deities. I just tend not to do that. I tend to keep them

00:33:55.040 a little bit separate because when we're looking at how things relate and how things are similar,

00:34:00.100 a lot of that is going to be based on the culture of the people who have adapted

00:34:03.900 those stories um and have adapted those ideals into their own culture so i do believe that

00:34:11.960 you know if you start looking at similarities between religions you're looking at similarities

00:34:17.560 and morals in a lot of ways um or similarities of the people who have absorbed those religions

00:34:23.820 into their culture. For example, when the Germans and when our people were Christianized,

00:34:35.000 we took a lot of our culture, traditions, our values, and our worship of the Aesir,

00:34:42.640 and we inserted that into the Christianity that our people were converted to. So I believe that

00:34:49.560 all of these things kind of mesh due to the fact that you're talking about a similarity between

00:34:54.520 people and cultures rather than a similarity between the gods themselves or the particular

00:34:59.140 stories themselves. Trent, do you have an opinion on that? You stated it perfectly. I mean, not

00:35:06.820 really anything I can add to that. But yeah, I would say to be careful not to go into the whole,

00:35:15.960 you know odin is the same thing as krishna as jesus as buddha that's a slippery slope into

00:35:22.840 universalism yeah and we we see enough of that already with with um with people online trying to

00:35:34.360 combine frigga and freya and saga and all of the handmaidens into one single goddess they're all

00:35:42.760 just different aspects of Frigga or, oh, there is just another aspect of Odin or everything is Odin

00:35:50.640 in this, in this way. We do not believe that. We do believe that the gods and goddesses of the

00:35:56.880 Aesir are their own, their own entity. They are their own consciousness. We do worship them and

00:36:02.820 honor them all separately. We do not believe one is just an aspect of another. So I, especially,

00:36:09.360 you know we have enough of that going on just as a show alone let alone trying to

00:36:13.400 see the similarities uh between all of the other religions as well um are there some of course

00:36:20.620 there is because like i said the you know religion is going to take from the culture

00:36:24.880 of the people who worship those gods so will you run into things like that yes but i want

00:36:29.700 to be very careful not to start start combining things just for the the purpose of grouping

00:36:37.600 them together for better for lack of a better way of putting that it doesn't it doesn't make

00:36:44.140 your list shorter it makes your it makes your spirituality more complicated in all reality

00:36:48.560 all right another question we got is speaking of baldersoff i've heard there is often dancing

00:36:57.540 at events there is there a reason for this yes people dance because witten callahan is amused

00:37:03.600 by it that's the real answer um our people have been dancing for thousands and thousands of years

00:37:12.480 and we've been singing for thousands and thousands of years and dance is very important to the

00:37:16.880 culture of its people um the slavs have their traditional dances the germans have their

00:37:21.120 traditional dances as do the scandinavians as do the celts um our people like to dance and i think

00:37:29.600 that we get self-conscious in the modern age because we're so worried about looking silly

00:37:38.400 we are so worried about what this person is going to think of me we're so worried that there might

00:37:43.360 be a cell phone pointed at me and it might get put on the internet that we have taken the spiritual

00:37:50.720 component out of dance movement was a gift from the gods right and i'll let i'll let go the east

00:37:59.840 take that one here in a second but movement was a gift of our gods and the act of movement and

00:38:06.400 celebration and worship is a use of that gift so that being said i'm going to transition to go the

00:38:13.360 east if you would like to talk to us about those gifts and how movement is a gift and where it came

00:38:19.040 problem okay so at the beginning of the cosmos after odin billy and vey uh his brothers had

00:38:29.120 slain ymir the primordial giant they fashioned the world uh midgard specifically out of what was left

00:38:38.880 of his uh his corpse and uh as they were walking along one of the beaches they happened upon a few

00:38:46.240 pieces of drip wood and uh they brought them to life they gave them life um so billy gave us the

00:38:56.160 gift of author which is consciousness more or less uh think of the mind uh they gave us the gift of

00:39:09.520 law which the sources say is a healthy color essentially so it's the blood in your veins

00:39:18.000 it's the body essentially physical health and odin gave us on the breath of life

00:39:24.720 which is the original spark of the divine we have that uh traces us back to the all father

00:39:32.320 and uh those three gifts uh correlate to mind body and spirit and it's a cliche in any faith

00:39:41.720 with any person you talk to ever you know they're going to say mind body and spirit are the three

00:39:45.800 most important you know that's the three things you need to take care of when taking care of

00:39:50.160 yourself you can't let one slide the other two will inevitably slide with it um and like i said

00:39:56.820 every culture has that, but you know, we're no exception. Ours come from Odin, Billy, and Bay.

00:40:03.520 Yes. So the movement, the movement of that body that you were gifted in celebration and in worship,

00:40:12.360 there's a reason that you have cultural dance. There's a reason that you can go

00:40:18.180 to a German dance hall and everybody knows the same dance. It's a way to bring your people

00:40:25.240 together. It is a, it is a courting ritual. It is a frith building exercise. It is a way to relieve

00:40:32.100 stress. It is, it's a really, it makes the soul happy. Let's put it that way. And it makes Witten

00:40:41.380 Callahan happy to make everybody dance at least once at Baldursof during the Baldur's Ball.

00:40:47.460 So I do it for my own amusement, but also as a form of celebration.

00:40:50.800 all right we've got another question here is there a particular god for say the eyes would

00:40:58.700 that be odin or someone else what do you think go the east there are two others that come to mind

00:41:05.660 uh heimdall for one because he can see i believe the gilford genning i think it's the gilford

00:41:11.840 beginning, says 100 miles. So he is a god of sight, clearly. And then Odin, yes, because of

00:41:22.420 the connection of his eye being in the well, as well as his seat, Flidskjalf, where he can see

00:41:28.680 everything. There is also a story, though, in Skernesmal, I believe, with Yngwie Frey sitting

00:41:36.540 on flid scalp so you could a little bit more loosely i think associate him with the eyes as

00:41:42.400 well if i were going to pick one though it would be heimdall what about air for the health and

00:41:49.400 making sure that you're healthy and you can see well okay yeah if you're praying for the health

00:41:57.120 of your eyes i suppose i was thinking just eyesight eyesight air makes sense as well yeah

00:42:04.700 all right nick this nick has a question for you go the east

00:42:10.940 how weird is it that we just found out we'd met years and years ago outside of the afa

00:42:18.680 that that was both kinds of weird with a y and an ei uh i i always look back on that little like

00:42:27.520 camping event pretty fondly even though most of the people in that picture are no longer around

00:42:33.940 And now that I know you were there, I think back and I'm like, oh, man, he was the guy with the bandana and the camping chair.

00:42:41.480 So that is very weird. And, you know, now we're we're pals and we're on the winning team with the AFA together.

00:42:50.060 It's definitely very weird. Awesome.

00:42:55.000 All right. Cody asked, Trent, you've been a member of your entire adult life.

00:42:59.580 How do you feel that's benefited you growing as an adult in the AFA?

00:43:03.940 um it was cool because uh i joined the afa the day i graduated from high school i came home

00:43:15.700 still in my uh my graduation gown and i signed up for the afa then and there uh so it's like

00:43:24.820 straight from high school into real adulthood i have always had the many many many fine examples

00:43:31.780 of good men and good women to look up to and to understand you know what a noble person is

00:43:41.540 supposed to act like i've always had cliff erickson alan turnage matt flavel uh steve mcnallan

00:43:50.020 sheila mcnallan and countless others to look up to i've never ever ever in my adult life been without

00:43:58.420 a safety net, so to speak. I've never been without good examples to follow.

00:44:09.400 I've always had someone to turn to for advice, and it's always been good advice.

00:44:18.940 Thank you, sir. That is actually kind of awesome. I found the AFA a little bit later in life,

00:44:25.320 But I wish I had had the opportunity, you know, to to be able to say that I've spent the entire the entirety of my adult life with the likes of Sheila and Steve McNallan and the Alshira Gaudi.

00:44:38.680 I don't know about the law speaker. That's a long time to spend with the law speaker.

00:44:42.800 Yeah, it gets a little much.

00:44:47.140 All right. Question for both of us, Trent.

00:44:49.440 when did you realize as a true was right for you and as leaders what future goals do you look

00:44:55.400 forward to most at your hofs in the afa in general trend i'll let you go first

00:45:00.500 um i realized also true was right for me when i learned about the ancestor worship portion

00:45:10.000 and uh because i was kind of a hardcore atheist coming into it but so you know at the time i

00:45:17.600 didn't know if the gods or any gods were real but i knew my ancestors were real i knew my granny

00:45:24.440 until she passed away when i was 11 and being able to hear that there were faiths and that they were

00:45:33.260 natural faiths and that this one in particular was our natural faith where we could still speak to

00:45:40.720 our ancestors really it was like the flip of a switch i heard that and i was like okay i

00:45:48.080 am an atheist at this moment but i will be asitru and uh i held up my end of the bargain on that i

00:45:55.600 guess as for um future projects or accomplishments at each of the hops uh i just want to see more of

00:46:04.000 them um i'd like to see as many milestones as possible at every half i want to see all of them

00:46:10.960 have a food pantry which they do but they can always be better i want to see us have as many

00:46:18.480 go thar as possible of all age ranges across any country where our folk are at

00:46:27.280 i i just want to keep seeing growth and progress i don't really have anything specific sorry

00:46:31.360 so i knew as true was right for me after i fought it for a while and i tried a little of this and a

00:46:42.960 little of that and it took me a while it took me a little bit to figure out what i wasn't until i

00:46:49.480 finally just came to terms with what i had been told forever ago that you know you're a little

00:46:56.460 german you need to go worship your little german gods is what i was told um you need to make sure

00:47:02.320 that you're connecting with your ancestors and you know not that i was doing anything crazy but

00:47:09.080 you know when i started um looking into slavic paganism in generally speaking i had an old baba

00:47:17.580 tell me that i was not slav enough to worship the slavic gods so um so i started looking into

00:47:25.680 Azatru specifically. And that's when I decided, yeah, this is definitely where I belong.

00:47:31.600 I don't want to try to be different. I don't want to try to be special and outside the box.

00:47:37.880 I just need to go home. And that's what I did. Side note on that, because I was told I wasn't

00:47:45.620 Slav enough for the Slavic gods. I will say the AFA is Pan-Aryan. So we do accept all of the

00:47:52.400 native Europeans into the AFA and we do honor all of the different names for the gods of the

00:48:00.680 Aryan people. So just putting that out there in case that question comes up later because you know

00:48:06.320 it will. All right and what do I look forward to most at the Hoffs? I really hope we have a good

00:48:17.960 Freyfaxi this year. I hope to see a lot of new faces. I hope to see a lot of old faces. I hope

00:48:25.180 to see a lot more children. So at our last event, if you look at our event picture, we had as many

00:48:32.880 children as adults at the event. And I would like to see that continue. I would like to continue

00:48:40.280 seeing so many children running around, screaming, throwing water balloons, running all over the

00:48:47.540 plays chasing each other i want to see more of the the little girls you know trying to herd the

00:48:52.860 little boys into behaving and them telling them no and running away um i want to hear more laughter

00:48:59.280 in the halls and in the feast hall and in the sanctuary i want to see more kids i do i want to

00:49:05.220 i want to see more kids come to the hof because that was a really good sight to see and that um

00:49:10.220 lets us know that we're doing it right and it lets us know that we're securing our future with

00:49:14.640 those kids being there and growing up with this. This is their religion without any confusion or

00:49:19.940 baggage in the background. So that's, that's what I'd like to see in general. Bodhi asks,

00:49:27.160 go the East. We speak a lot of, of piety, but what does that ideally look like for the average

00:49:32.700 Asituar? For the average Asituar, I would say it just looks like taking it serious.

00:49:40.120 um when people hear the word piety and other words like devotion or worship or whatever

00:49:46.540 i think we think back to christianity because most of us were raised with that and

00:49:51.440 it well i mean if we liked christianity we would be christians right so it's it leaves a bad taste

00:49:57.760 in some of our mouths but ultimately that's all piety needs to look like at its most base level

00:50:05.120 It's just taking it seriously, taking the gods seriously, taking your gothar seriously, taking the ritual seriously, and just realizing that what you are a part of, what you are choosing to be a part of, is sacred.

00:50:19.860 And even if, for whatever reason, if you were to sit in on one of my bloats and you didn't feel the presence of that god or goddess, that's fine.

00:50:31.540 But just take it seriously and understand that the people around you take it serious and for a good reason.

00:50:39.460 So that's all that needs to look like, I think.

00:50:41.700 timmy asks food is a cornerstone of culture with all of the exotic options available to us would

00:50:49.900 either of you consider proposing as a true dietary restrictions example refraining refraining from

00:50:56.120 fast foods or processed foods i'm gonna have to go no on that one um mostly because i'm a big fan

00:51:05.740 of adults making adult decisions so if i want to eat chocolate cake for breakfast i absolutely want

00:51:11.000 I have the right to do so if I choose to. That being said, food is absolutely a cornerstone of

00:51:19.400 the culture. And when you spend time in your kitchen with your grandparents and your parents

00:51:28.080 and yourself and your children passing down that food, that ancestral recipe, that is a huge form

00:51:37.740 of devotion for your ancestors that is making sure that your ancestors are never forgotten

00:51:42.620 that's making sure that you know everyone who came before you are remembered in that act

00:51:49.340 that is something i see that is very very important about conserving all of the recipes

00:51:55.720 that have been handed down to us from generations and in honoring our ancestors through that

00:52:01.440 but as far as like a dietary restriction no I wouldn't be a fan of imposing that

00:52:08.140 specifically because I do believe people should be able to eat what they like

00:52:12.140 but that being said I will remind everyone that there is something called physical excellence

00:52:19.280 so if you are like me and you do like to eat chocolate cake for breakfast please make sure

00:52:24.280 that you are doing leg day and some cardio go the east do you have any opinions on that

00:52:30.560 don't eat chocolate cake for breakfast

00:52:34.380 poor example right a little no um i i don't think there's any basis in the faith for us to make

00:52:44.280 restrictions i think we should encourage people to be as healthy as possible as often as possible

00:52:50.860 that being said uh your ancestors are not going to weep for you if you have a big mac you know um

00:52:58.640 Um, maybe if you have one every day, but no, there's no basis in our faith to, uh, impose dietary restrictions.

00:53:13.200 Next question we have is, is that an acorn?

00:53:19.640 I'm not sure what you're referring to on that because there's a lot of acorns in my house.

00:53:24.620 So I'm not sure if you see one in particular because they're in about every corner of the house.

00:53:30.020 So I'm not sure what you're talking about or if you see something over there with Go the East.

00:53:35.940 Do you have any acorns?

00:53:39.380 My wife enjoys acorns.

00:53:41.160 There very well might be one back on that shelf somewhere.

00:53:43.940 I'm not sure.

00:53:45.000 Gotcha.

00:53:45.940 I'm a big fan of the acorn.

00:53:47.680 So it's something very symbolic for me.

00:53:51.560 um i tend to pick them up everywhere um one of my first one of my first false fall fest i remember

00:54:01.080 i think it was my second fall fest i got a whole bunch of silver acorns that i gave out to the

00:54:08.720 to the leadership um before one of the bloats and you know just wanted them to have something that

00:54:14.660 was heavy in their pocket uh just to remind them that it is their responsibility to establish the

00:54:21.240 roots for their folk and make sure that the forest grows strong. So I'm a big fan of acorns. So if

00:54:27.120 you're asking if that's an acorn, the answer is probably yes, they are all over the place.

00:54:34.620 Sarah asks, go the east of all the responsibilities and duties to the folk and to the gods that come

00:54:39.960 with being a Godar. What would you say is the most vital? Being prepared to pick up a phone.

00:54:47.280 uh crisis happens all the time to anybody for any reason at any time of day and

00:54:58.400 sometimes you know someone has i don't want to say a favorite gothy or githia but

00:55:05.240 a favorite gothy or githia and they're going to call that person to lean on them to talk them

00:55:10.020 down from doing something or just to listen uh that's the biggest thing i think is just being

00:55:16.860 able to listen uh that's like maybe two-thirds of the counseling calls i've done the people

00:55:23.420 where it was they didn't necessarily want a solution to their problem they just wanted to

00:55:26.860 talk about their problem and have me hear it and understand it and say yeah that sucks

00:55:33.180 so yeah being able to pick up the phone is most important i agree all right monk asks go to the

00:55:42.780 east i recall if i recall you are a veteran how did as true help you with your time and service

00:55:48.140 thank you for said service as well uh yes i am technically a veteran i would probably say prior

00:55:56.140 service because although i was infantry i did not get a chance to deploy because my unit had just

00:56:02.700 gotten back from uh kandahar in afghanistan right when i finished boot camp but um as far as my

00:56:11.100 faith helping me. I actually, I joined the army because, um, of Asatru, I think I was a super

00:56:19.940 skinny, pale white kid that heard all these stories of Thor and Tyr and Odin, and I wanted

00:56:25.580 to be a warrior. And so I joined the infantry and my little 120 pound at the time self made

00:56:32.200 it through bootcamp. And there were, um, many nights at bootcamp where I knew the next day I

00:56:38.800 was going to have to lift something that weighed more than I did or go on a ruck march longer than

00:56:44.560 I've ever walked. And I would pray to Thor, uh, the night before. And, uh, I, I think that

00:56:53.100 is, uh, really about as much as it affected it because after bootcamp, I didn't really have to

00:56:59.220 do anything hard other than little gunnery qualifications for the 50 cal and tow missile.

00:57:04.560 Um, so yeah, just prayers to Thor, uh, during bootcamp is pretty much it.

00:57:11.800 I think next question we got is from Nathan go the East.

00:57:18.300 What is your favorite national event?

00:57:20.100 Hoff aside and why my favorite national event will always be a star.

00:57:25.300 That was my first event.

00:57:27.480 Um, that's what got me to look into Austin true and join the AFA was hearing

00:57:32.320 about someone else's experience at ostara 2015 and so my first event was ostara 2016 the last

00:57:40.880 national event with uh steven mcnallan as ulcerer gothi and uh so i went to that event you know

00:57:48.720 super excited i loved asa true but i still wasn't sure if i believed the gods existed

00:57:55.120 and uh that first night of course uh steve did his uh botan bloat and i remember being

00:58:01.440 super hyped up and i was like okay i definitely felt something but that's just because we were

00:58:05.680 all yelling together right surely the gods aren't real and i'm just hyped up from all the yelling

00:58:11.840 and then the next day uh go thief lavel at the time did uh an ostara bloat and i felt a very

00:58:20.240 similar feeling and there was less yelling because it wasn't in hoden bloat and that's when i knew

00:58:26.560 okay this is definitely real this is where i belong i'm about to make this thing my entire life

00:58:32.720 and so i did so ostara will always always and forever be my favorite event

00:58:41.360 nathan has another question for us witten callahan and goni trent what are the

00:58:45.440 most important character traits for afa clergy i'm gonna start on that one yeah okay um

00:58:56.560 I would say patience is the biggest one, and maybe second, intestinal fortitude.

00:59:04.500 Because as clergy, you will get cried to, cried on, probably cried about, yelled at occasionally.

00:59:14.840 you have to be able to handle that without throwing your hands in the air and quitting or

00:59:23.160 yelling back or flying off the handle you have to accept that we're a church and that you're

00:59:34.020 a priest and that you will occasionally deal with broken people that just need a hand

00:59:38.420 um and you know if you haven't had too difficult of a life it's tough to kind of put yourself in

00:59:47.600 that position and remind yourself that sometimes people just need a hand but uh it's a very

00:59:55.480 important part of the job so I agree so I think I'd probably to add to Trent's list everything

01:00:03.940 that Trent said, but a level of piety to understand that, you know, piety is a habit,

01:00:15.920 is a continual act of devotion and worship, something that you do continually in whatever

01:00:22.820 way that you worship the Aesir doing that, whether that's going to the gym and working on your body

01:00:29.860 to honor the gods, whether that is putting your nose in a book for hours a day to learn your

01:00:35.940 lore backwards, forwards, and inside out, whether that is going through your entire genealogy

01:00:41.400 back to the 1400s to honor your ancestors, you know, whether that's the time that you spend

01:00:48.140 in meditation or at your altar to honor the gods, there should be that level of devotion to the

01:00:56.640 Aesir. And also to the folk. It's being a Gauthier at Githya is not just a master of services. You

01:01:05.240 know, they're just, they're not somebody who just shows up and does a pretty bloat and then goes

01:01:11.140 home and gets all the accolades for it. Being a Gauthier at Githya is a call to service, just as

01:01:17.320 it is for any other clergy in any other religion, you know, service to their gods and service to

01:01:23.700 their people. And that's, that call to service is very, very important. And I think Trent,

01:01:30.900 you did say patience. Patience is a very big virtue that we do need to have in the Godard.

01:01:38.020 Yeah. So I'll add those ones to Trent's list. If you are interested in becoming a Godi or a Githia

01:01:45.460 of the Astro Folk Assembly, your first step would be to become an apprentice folk builder.

01:01:50.020 So we get that question sometimes. The apprentice folk builders are really learning the ropes and learning what the basic belief systems are of the F2 Folk Assembly at that level, as well as helping the folk organize, do events, and they help with the background things, you know, the day-to-day operations of the AFA.

01:02:13.840 but becoming a folk builder really gives you that call to that calling to serve the folk it helps

01:02:20.400 you it helps you plan events it helps you do all the logistical things that come with the manage

01:02:25.280 managerial duties of being a godi or githya while still learning you know the culture and the

01:02:30.880 traditions and values of the afa so if you are interested in godar training your first step would

01:02:36.640 would be to become a folk builder um if you are interested in becoming a folk builder which if

01:02:42.240 If you are a member of the AFA in good standing, I would most definitely recommend that you reach out to one of your current folk builders or to any of your Godar or to any of the Witten or even to the Ashiar Godi himself.

01:02:56.020 let them know that you're interested in helping the folk and we could always use good people

01:03:00.940 to help get get folk together to help organize events to help with the day-to-day running

01:03:06.620 in operations of the afa as well as the many projects that we've got going on in the background

01:03:13.980 um there's always room for one more to help at the table so if you are interested in becoming

01:03:19.860 a go there you get the definitely definitely look into folk building um and get with your

01:03:25.140 Godar and they can kind of give you a rundown on what that entails. Um, you can send an email to

01:03:30.000 the Godar. You can send an email to the Alshira Godi and it can put, um, the Alshira Godi's email

01:03:36.440 up there. If you're interested in folk building, he can get you in contact with your folk builder

01:03:40.180 or any of the Godar. Uh, that's where you really want to start. So if you have a call to service,

01:03:44.780 start there. All right. So the acorn that he was asking about was on my pendant. Yes, that

01:03:52.740 is an acorn. That is actually an acorn made of amber and silver on a balder pendant. So yes,

01:04:02.360 that is an acorn. That's one of them, but they're all over the place. So

01:04:05.780 kind of have a thing for acorns. All right. Next question we've got is in relation to Friesland,

01:04:14.600 I cannot talk tonight, go to the East. What is the AFA stance on the Aura Linda book?

01:04:21.500 That's a great question.

01:04:23.740 It's also a really fast way to turn this from a one-hour episode to a six-hour episode.

01:04:29.220 Go ahead.

01:04:30.320 I'm here for the night.

01:04:32.220 Go ahead, sir.

01:04:33.360 Jeez.

01:04:34.780 Call my bluff.

01:04:35.500 I'm not doing that.

01:04:37.460 So the Aura Linda book is a thing I've been trying to get the Altera Gothi to look into for a few months now.

01:04:44.940 it's really interesting because at even if we take it as it's just a total fabrication there

01:04:53.520 are so many little nuggets of truth in it that at worst it's like well-aimed propaganda from

01:05:01.960 somewhere um i personally i haven't made up my mind about it i've read a couple little things

01:05:10.120 on it and i've uh watched youtuber asha logos is uh three-part series on it and i just can't decide

01:05:19.320 if it's real or not but like i said there are so many little truths in it that i can recognize that

01:05:26.280 and take those truths you know with me into life or whatever but it is interesting that it makes

01:05:32.920 that pan-arian connection that uh is certainly real it's interesting that it uh says one of the

01:05:41.240 progenitors of our folk was uh a woman or goddess named freya which is the uh it's one of the west

01:05:49.080 germanic names for frigga so there's lots of little things in there but it also kind of leans towards

01:05:54.600 monotheism in that uh ralda as it speaks of is you know the one god godhead whatever

01:06:03.720 so it's hard to say i don't think the afa has a hard stance on it because matt will not

01:06:10.360 read it like i keep trying to get him to do and i think even when he does i don't know that he'll

01:06:16.000 be able to really give a hardcore stance on it fair enough sir we've got a question any

01:06:25.720 bouldershoff folk going to make it to tennessee this weekend i am not sure who's all going down

01:06:34.600 specifically from the from the district but even though our producer nick has abandoned us and

01:06:40.880 made us all cry big sad tears. I'm sure he's going to be supporting a Baldur's Hoff t-shirt

01:06:47.580 at some point this weekend. Yes, he will because he's our favorite. I just want it known that

01:06:54.740 although folk builder Nick Rice may now reside in Thor's Hoff District, he is a native of

01:07:02.580 Baldur's Hoff District. So that's why he's so great. No, no, no, no. AFA of Baldur's Hoff

01:07:10.220 districts. You don't get to claim them just on that trip. All right. So yeah, I'm not sure who's

01:07:18.380 all going down there from the Baldur's Hof, the Baldur's Hof folk, but there is a lot of good

01:07:23.820 people going down there. I know Nick will be there. The Al-Shiro-Gothi's there. There is a ton

01:07:29.560 of people going. I know their numbers looked really, really good today when I talked to the

01:07:33.700 Al-Shiro-Gothi. He was very, very excited to see everybody. He was really excited to show off

01:07:38.420 Sigurheim and, and really, really have a good event there and, and, and see the folk and bring,

01:07:45.040 bring more to that area. All right. I don't know what's going in the chat, but they're talking

01:07:50.880 about me yelling at people. So I'm getting a little worried. I'm sure it's nothing. I was sure

01:07:56.040 it's nothing. All right. So just a couple of reminders, please get your tickets. If you do

01:08:03.860 want to go to Sigur Bloat and Sigurheim, I believe the main day is tomorrow. Is that correct, Trent?

01:08:09.780 I believe that's... No, the main day is Saturday. Main day is Saturday. That's right. It is Wednesday

01:08:15.240 today, isn't it? It's not Friday today. So the main day is Saturday. It's not too late to get

01:08:19.700 your tickets. Please go to runestone.org and get your tickets. It's not too late to sign up and go

01:08:25.500 and see all of the amazing leadership that has gone there for Sigur Bloat. El Shiro Godi is

01:08:32.200 there currently, as well as a lot of our other awesome leadership. Meet some of your folks. See

01:08:36.720 Sigurheim. It's going to be a great event. Also, a reminder about the As A True Academy. I believe

01:08:42.600 enrollment is pretty much year-round. Definitely take a look at that. The school is going to be

01:08:48.380 starting up soon for, you know, public schools and parochial schools and things like that. So

01:08:54.440 it's not too late to get started on the homeschooling train here. So definitely take a look

01:08:59.840 at as true academy.org contact any of the staff that are there if you have any questions um it's

01:09:06.440 never too late to to get your kids some real solid education that you provide so definitely take a

01:09:13.260 look at that and also just going to push uh fray faxie at balder soft coming up in a month contact

01:09:21.300 folk builders jason gallagher um nathan nathan erlinson and ashley mcstocker they can get you

01:09:29.280 guys all set up. If you're flying in, let us know. We'll figure out a way to get you from the

01:09:33.200 airport, help you find some accommodations, and celebrate with us there at Baldur's Hof.

01:09:39.440 Also got another event coming up in Texas. It's going to be the Texas Harvest, I believe.

01:09:48.060 Contact Justin Day. That is going to be coming up shortly after Freyfaxia Baldur's Hof, so take a

01:09:54.280 look at that as well. And then we've got Phrase Harvest Feast coming up after that. Contact

01:09:59.960 folk builder Tyler Heinlein. Get your tickets for that as well. There is so much stuff going on. We

01:10:05.480 have got events after events after events. Go to your local district websites, Odenshof, Thorshof,

01:10:13.860 Balbershof, and Yorthof. Take a look at the calendars. There is so much going on almost

01:10:19.900 every day in the AFA, whether it is a ladies book study or a men's unity call or a call

01:10:29.860 or a men's call or a sister's chat or a classic book club.

01:10:38.220 We have that. 0.99

01:10:39.500 We have got a ladies podcast that happens once a month just for our ladies to get together 0.99

01:10:44.920 and talk with some of the leadership of the AFA and some of our givias.

01:10:49.900 We have got a virtual recovery group for those that are working on themselves and their sobriety.

01:10:55.640 We've got moots that are happening every single weekend, all weekend long.

01:11:00.560 We've got a national event at every single one of our hops.

01:11:03.260 We've got district events in the hops.

01:11:04.980 We are busy.

01:11:06.320 And if you want to meet some folk, honor your ancestors and worship your gods, definitely take a look at those websites.

01:11:13.980 Also take a look at runestone.org.

01:11:16.880 Go there, take a look at what we've got going on.

01:11:19.000 we have got so many things happening in so many different parts of the world not just the country

01:11:23.880 so take a look join your folk and come home so if that is all we've got for questions tonight

01:11:30.680 go the east i think that's a wrap what do you think i've got one more thing uh we need to

01:11:36.760 finish paying off mjordshoff the real bestest hoff a few loans that were taken out for that

01:11:42.600 we paid off right if i'm not mistaken and we're some unbeknownst to me percentage of the way

01:11:49.800 through paying off the second one so help us get that paid off and we can start working on phrase

01:11:54.360 off looks like we actually have one more question it says whit and brandy during a book study on

01:12:02.680 beowulf you talked about the conversation between unfurth and beowulf as an example

01:12:07.000 of how to abide no strife can you share a little little bit of that here um i think you're talking

01:12:13.740 about my go home unfurth your drunk comment during the book study um so in beowulf there is a there is

01:12:22.680 a point in time when when beowulf is is presented to the king and sitting at the king's feet is

01:12:27.820 a man called unfurth right and unfurth is very unsettled that this amazing hero has come to take

01:12:36.220 care of this terrible monster which if Unferth was any kind of man he would have tried to do so

01:12:41.760 himself which he did not which is why he's still alive but he has a he has a go at Beowulf and he

01:12:48.160 says hey aren't you the Beowulf that uh you know you think you're gonna take on Grendel but you

01:12:52.700 couldn't even beat Breka in a swimming match but you're gonna come here and take on Grendel

01:12:56.820 Hans that the same Beowulf and Beowulf pretty much told him go home Unferth you're drunk

01:13:01.960 you must be drinking otherwise you wouldn't be asking me that question yep i'm that same beowulf

01:13:07.360 but uh let me tell you the rest of the story i was like shoulder to shoulder with brecca for a long

01:13:13.380 time and you know he did win but i got pulled down to the ocean floor beat up a couple of sea

01:13:19.100 monsters washed up on a shore but you know i'm gonna let brecca have that victory but don't worry

01:13:25.120 i got your grendel situation since you don't abide no strife man if there if there is somebody

01:13:31.520 that is on purposely causing that is purposely causing problems like unfurth where they are

01:13:38.040 constantly challenging you on your worth which by the way is determined by your tribe of people

01:13:43.320 not by unfurths you are more than welcome to go ahead and tell them the rest of the story

01:13:49.240 and tell them go home unfurth you're drunk that's my story there join us for our ladies book study

01:13:56.560 on Beowulf every Thursday

01:13:58.560 night.

01:14:00.720 We got another question for you, Trent.

01:14:03.540 How long have you been a

01:14:04.580 Taylor Swift fan, and why is your favorite

01:14:06.820 song, Shake It Off?

01:14:09.880 They're picking

01:14:10.640 on you.

01:14:11.980 Whoever you are, you must be glad you didn't use your real name,

01:14:14.860 although I've got a couple ideas

01:14:16.560 of who you are.

01:14:18.080 Go the young, or Whitney Young.

01:14:20.500 No, he wouldn't be brave enough to

01:14:22.380 use his name and face.

01:14:24.960 His bald head.

01:14:26.560 in the profile picture i'm guessing this is either go the stam or go the plured 1.00

01:14:31.520 oh that was fighting words there so tell us trend why are you a swifty uh no i i hate her

01:14:39.600 she's the worst she's everything wrong with everything i genuinely do not like her at all

01:14:46.080 as a person go the east bringing us new haters every week

01:14:50.960 although i will have to say if you take her music and put it to like some really hard

01:14:58.880 bass and some screaming lyrics like aka a metal cover it's not bad

01:15:05.920 i'm just saying i've got a collection of metal covers and i've got a couple of

01:15:09.600 taylor swift songs that are actually pretty good when they're not sung sung by taylor swift

01:15:14.640 all right ally has a question for us it looks like the questions are popping up just as soon

01:15:21.760 as we were ready to sign off here trent sorry it says i asked privately and got my answer earlier

01:15:26.960 but i'll ask here too what is the afa stance on name changes you want to take that one sir yeah

01:15:32.880 sure i um so your name is something that was given to you by your parents or legal guardian

01:15:41.600 It was gifted to you, right? And I mean, I'm sure you could, anyone could pick at that and find a reason to change their name. But for me, and I don't know, maybe it's, you know, easier for me to say this because I have a cool Anglo-Saxon name for all three of my names rather than anything biblical.

01:16:03.720 But for me, that like I said, that name was it's a gift for my parents and it's just a part of who I am.

01:16:14.820 And I frankly, I can't imagine going by any name other than the ones I have had my whole life, I suppose.

01:16:23.120 But I just, I think, again, context is king, but there is always the risk of doing something of a disservice to our ancestors when we change something that they gave us to better suit, you know, some superficial preference we may have.

01:16:46.320 And I'm not saying that's the case for yours, your issue or anything like that, but just broadly speaking.

01:16:55.800 So name changes as long as they're done, you know, for the right reasons.

01:17:00.720 So sometimes and this is where we start talking about the honored ancestors, right?

01:17:06.320 When we call upon our ancestors, we worship our honored ancestors.

01:17:09.780 um sometimes that that family name is something that you don't want for various reasons and you

01:17:19.660 may want to let's say you were adopted and you want to take your father's name back your biological

01:17:25.620 father that's honoring that's honoring your father um or you have you know take on your

01:17:31.540 mother's maiden name because you know maybe your father's side of the family was not

01:17:36.360 the best of people in a name that you want to share. You know, there's always a reason to do

01:17:40.680 those things. So we don't discourage name changes. Just, you know, please don't change your name to

01:17:47.840 like Saga Frigga's daughter's cousin's boyfriend's son. You know, don't do that. That gets a little

01:17:56.760 much. But yeah, always make sure you know the reason for it. You always have a good reason to

01:18:04.220 do it. And as a woman, make sure that you have to also have your birth certificate and your marriage 0.99

01:18:10.620 license and your name change documentation because you have to prove all of those name

01:18:15.960 changes. So think that through. I'll just throw that out there. All right. Timmy's got a question

01:18:23.180 for you as well. Go to the East. Could you talk about the three cauldrons for those that are

01:18:27.060 unaware uh yes um it's gonna sound like a bit of a ramble so just bear with me

01:18:36.340 so the three cauldrons comes from the story of odin stealing the meat of poetry

01:18:45.300 and as he's flying with it in eagle form back to uh osgard there are uh three bats or cauldrons

01:18:55.060 uh as the as our celtic folk would have called them i suppose set up for him to spit the meat

01:19:02.200 of poetry into and uh steve mcnallan has turned this into a runa gulder meditation ritual type

01:19:17.340 thing i believe he's going to have it published soon so i won't give away every single detail but

01:19:23.900 But essentially, you translate those three cauldrons, which they're called Son, Bowden,

01:19:32.500 and Odrerir, you would connect those to parts, areas of your body, as well as correlating

01:19:45.240 colors and attributes.

01:19:48.940 So for example, Son, the lowest cauldron, is in your gut.

01:19:53.620 It's your physical health, and it correlates to the color black, and it correlates to the

01:20:03.980 rune Uruz, because this also correlates into the Alu formula.

01:20:10.020 is Bowdoin, which is, I believe the color for it is red, and it's the cauldron of your

01:20:19.060 heart. It's emotion and feelings and all that. And it correlates to Laguz. And then

01:20:31.220 finally is Odreir, which is the name of the meat of poetry or the meat of inspiration.

01:20:36.200 It's the cauldron of the brain.

01:20:39.460 And so the idea that you would gilder onsous for that one and it correlates to the color white.

01:20:45.420 So the idea would be to start with Sohn gildering urus and picturing a specific thing and kind of imagining that you are mastering your health and telling yourself and willing that you are mastering your health.

01:21:01.640 and then you would move up to uh boden i believe the next cauldron you would gold or lagu's and

01:21:10.600 you would master your emotions and your emotional state and how you handle things

01:21:16.520 and then from there you would move up to uh odorier the top cauldron you would gold or on suz

01:21:25.560 and you would specifically

01:21:27.560 you would master all of these things at once the uh the health emotions and breath and then your

01:21:39.240 own thoughts and it's supposed to produce an effect similar to that of drinking the meat of

01:21:49.100 inspiration um i've run through the meditation a few times myself uh it it is very helpful for

01:21:58.160 suffering and just kind of keeping yourself spiritually minded it's very powerful stuff

01:22:04.640 and i look forward to uh founder mcnallan publishing that so more people can get their

01:22:09.560 hands on it so he's been working really really hard on his book we're all really proud of him

01:22:16.000 and we're anxiously waiting for this book to be in all of our hands.

01:22:19.760 I have a feeling it's going to be sold out very quickly.

01:22:25.340 Very quickly.

01:22:28.140 All right.

01:22:28.880 Well, I think that is it for the questions,

01:22:30.980 unless somebody's dumb enough to get me started on Beowulf again.

01:22:35.360 I think that's all we've got for tonight.

01:22:37.580 So if you don't have any other questions,

01:22:38.720 we're going to go ahead and wrap it up again.

01:22:42.180 Oh, no, there's one.

01:22:43.960 They're killing me, Trent.

01:22:46.000 It says, Brandy, now that we know you are a metalhead, I would like to know Trent's music taste as well. In all seriousness, what music do both of you listen to? Trent, go ahead.

01:22:57.820 um i typically don't call myself a metalhead because the metal i do listen to is uh dad rock

01:23:07.580 now it's all like 80s thrash um metallica and megadeth are my two favorite bands i enjoy slayer

01:23:14.800 uh black sabbath motorhead some iron maiden uh and then on the other side of things uh

01:23:22.480 I listened to Foo Fighters because I grew up with that.

01:23:26.260 The White Stripes, that was a really big one.

01:23:28.900 I grew up with them.

01:23:29.920 Anything Chris Cornell did.

01:23:34.540 In my angsty, atheist high school days,

01:23:37.940 when I was dating a fat Wiccan chick,

01:23:39.820 I listened to a lot of Green Day.

01:23:42.240 I mean, I pretty much just say I listened to rock.

01:23:45.700 i've got possibly the most uncomfortable playlist ever there will be like a a metal cover of a

01:23:58.640 taylor swift song okay so it used to be a game and then it got serious like it used to be just

01:24:05.020 a joke that me and my best friend used to have that we used to try to find the most

01:24:12.100 odd combination of music and it started it started with the odd combinations and then it turned into

01:24:19.120 i found a metal cover of the devil went down to georgia and then it turned into i found a cover

01:24:26.040 of umbrella umbrella by rihanna send that here's a metal cover of taylor swift here's a metal cover

01:24:33.520 of eye of a tiger that's how it started and then it turned into a whole genre so now i have this

01:24:38.840 whole playlist of like 200 songs of classic country pop in 90s soft rock songs that are now

01:24:50.860 metal covers and I'm not gonna lie it's kind of awesome um just saying but you'll have those

01:24:57.980 mixed in with like Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson so it's one or the other

01:25:06.740 we kind of you're either going to get old country or a metal cover of taylor swift at you just

01:25:14.280 never know there's going to be some johnny horton and boxcar willie in the mix of it so

01:25:21.520 ride with me at your own risk

01:25:24.520 all right so is this the book that steven went on white rabbit to talk about yes

01:25:34.480 Yep. All right. We got another question. Do you both share the Alshira Goethe's distaste for

01:25:43.280 Cookie Monster Metal? Yes. Yes. All right. Can you play any instruments yourself?

01:25:52.960 No, bud. I can't even hold a tune. I play clarinet, trombone, baritone, guitar,

01:26:00.360 and bass guitar, which is just an easier version of guitar. Yep. Mr. Dumas asks,

01:26:08.160 Wynton Callahan, do you feel Tolkien's translation is superior to Seamus Heaney's? Yes and no.

01:26:17.660 So we're going to move some stuff because I'm going to show you the obsession that I have with

01:26:22.920 Beowulf. Tolkien is amazing in his translation of Beowulf. The reason I like Seamus's version

01:26:32.040 is because in the book study for the women, we use the original Anglo-Saxon side-by-side with

01:26:40.120 Dr. Leslie Hall side-by-side with Seamus Heaney. And we read Leslie Hall first, and then we say,

01:26:47.840 let's read it in English with the Heaney version. But this is my Beowulf folder.

01:26:55.160 So this is a four inch binder full of Beowulf information. It's actually my favorite thing.

01:27:04.300 But the really great thing about the Tolkien translation is all of the really interesting

01:27:10.620 notes that he's got in the back. And he focused more, he focused less on the academic things

01:27:17.920 that we tear Beowulf apart for. We're tearing Beowulf apart for examples of some examples of

01:27:24.100 oaths. How, you know, what the women wore, how they acted, who was served first at the feast.

01:27:32.480 How do we answer, how do we answer to a kinslayer when he says, aren't you the guy who lost a

01:27:39.960 Brecca. We're looking for how the warriors acted, how they were shamed when they deserted Beowulf

01:27:48.200 when he faced the dragon. Those are the things that we look for. What Tolkien was focused on

01:27:53.300 was the actual beauty of the storytelling itself. So that's where Tolkien is superior to, I believe,

01:27:59.800 all translations is the beauty of the storytelling. But for understanding in plain English, if you

01:28:06.220 have never read Beowulf before, Heaney is good because it's going to give you a general in

01:28:11.020 English version of what's going on and you're not going to be like, what did you just say?

01:28:17.040 It's very much kind of like the difference between reading, I don't know, reading Bray's

01:28:24.380 translation of the Poetic Etta versus Jackson Crawford. Does that make sense? So don't get me

01:28:31.800 started on Beowulf. Beowulf's my jam.

01:28:33.920 Okay. Any other questions

01:28:36.040 tonight, guys?

01:28:38.560 One more plug for

01:28:39.700 Sigur Blode at Sigurheim, Mr.

01:28:42.060 Rice. Throw that up there.

01:28:45.580 All right,

01:28:46.080 you guys. Not too late to get your tickets. Go see

01:28:47.840 the Alshara Gauthier and all of the other awesome

01:28:49.900 leadership over there at Sigurheim

01:28:51.700 and celebrate victory.

01:28:54.780 Go the E.

01:28:55.140 If you are at Sigur Blode, I will

01:28:57.980 see you there, and I can talk your

01:28:59.960 ear off and anyone else within the vicinity about that yes please do all right guys until next week

01:29:10.100 go like share and subscribe for us nick is reminding me to tell you to like share and subscribe

01:29:15.200 until next week same time same place hail the gods hail the folk

01:29:21.020 hail the afa and remember victory never sleeps have a good night guys

01:29:29.960 Transcription by CastingWords

01:29:59.960 Thank you.

01:30:29.960 Thank you.

01:30:59.960 Thank you.

01:31:29.960 We'll be right back.

01:31:59.960 Thank you.

Asatru Folk Assembly - July 20, 2023

7⧸19⧸23 Victory Never Sleeps, Episode 54 - King Radbod of Frisia

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