Asatru Folk Assembly - September 01, 2024


Of Horses and Souls by Founder Stephen McNallen


Episode Stats


Length

6 minutes

Words per minute

110.22086

Word count

697

Sentence count

40

Harmful content

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 good evening everybody so
00:00:19.920 it's no great secret that i am a native texan
00:00:23.040 But despite that fact, I never had a connection with the horse, the cowboy, all of that scene, for whatever, I was building rockets or something like that.
00:00:37.400 But my ideas on horses have changed a lot, and I'd like to share some of them with you.
00:00:44.380 This is a little piece, a couple of you at least have heard it, called Of Horses and Souls.
00:00:53.980 We are the people of the horse.
00:00:57.640 Some thousands of years ago, on the vast plains of Asia,
00:01:01.800 members of our race whom we now call Indo-Europeans
00:01:05.140 and whom we once dared to call Aryans domesticated the horse.
00:01:11.160 Or more correctly, say the geneticists,
00:01:13.620 a single horse whose traits were such that it could be a partner with humans.
00:01:21.620 Fierce, but tameable.
00:01:24.380 Strong-headed, but cooperative.
00:01:29.280 Wild, but loyal.
00:01:32.780 From that horse are all the horses of our folk descended. 1.00
00:01:38.560 It is the Ur horse. 0.97
00:01:41.760 It has been a good partnership. 0.98
00:01:45.020 With the offspring of that horse, we ultimately conquered the steppe.
00:01:50.760 We, more than any other people, and this is important, were able to cover distance rapidly.
00:01:59.920 The horse gave legs to our ferocity.
00:02:03.380 In the centuries that followed, we flowed out into what is now Europe, shaping a new culture and a new way of being.
00:02:11.920 We rode our horses to the sea.
00:02:15.660 Men with horse names, Hengist and Horsa, conquered what is now England.
00:02:22.400 We sacrificed horses and gave them to the gods.
00:02:26.560 The gods themselves rode horses in their travels between the worlds.
00:02:33.240 Paused by the ocean, we lusted to cover still more space.
00:02:39.140 We built ships, and we poetically called them Sea Steed.
00:02:44.660 or wave steed or wave horse or wave charger or dozens of other tennings for horses.
00:02:55.060 Sailing toward the sunset past Iceland and Greenland, we found new worlds where grapes grew
00:03:03.780 and we made our homes there.
00:03:08.100 The descendants of these sailors reached the ends of Midgard, circled the globe,
00:03:12.500 But still, our intrepid race sought to cover distance rapidly.
00:03:21.980 The lust that was in our sea, perhaps even before we sat on a horse's back, now it impelled us upwards.
00:03:34.000 Did the stars that twinkled above the steppe know our fate, our lust?
00:03:40.020 Did Pegasus await us even then, or some other celestial horse whose name is forgotten by men?
00:03:48.080 We are the wandering race.
00:03:50.940 We seek the very stars themselves.
00:03:54.380 Our gods travel between the worlds on their horses.
00:03:57.700 So shall we, in imitation of them, seek distant worlds.
00:04:04.340 But there is more.
00:04:06.740 We have talked of the stars.
00:04:08.220 let us consider another journey, the journey into death.
00:04:14.440 It is said that men and women were born to the grip of the grave
00:04:19.960 or the purifying flames of the fire by four men,
00:04:24.960 a count of eight legs, like Othin's horse, Sleipnir.
00:04:30.120 Will we enter the other world with a horse to speed our way?
00:04:34.440 The Sybil is silent as the grave
00:04:38.200 But allow me a moment of musing
00:04:41.300 When I leave this world
00:04:43.600 Perhaps my steed self
00:04:45.720 Will come to me
00:04:47.400 And bear me to the realm of holiness
00:04:49.900 The hall of the ancestors
00:04:51.940 And I will quaff mead with them
00:04:54.280 And ride the worlds as I choose
00:04:57.240 Covering distance rapidly
00:05:00.700 If it is so, let us give that horse eight stout and speedy legs
00:05:08.040 To take us to our revered ancestors
00:05:11.280 Or to the realm of the gods
00:05:13.380 Or to Walhall itself
00:05:15.180 I will give my horse good deeds
00:05:20.020 That I will be remembered after my death
00:05:23.140 I will give my horse mighty runes
00:05:27.260 That I will wield power in all the worlds
00:05:30.460 I will give my horse open-handedness, that those gifts shall be returned.
00:05:38.720 I will give my horse sacrifice for gifts called for gifts.
00:05:44.300 I will give my horse laughter to glad the gods and my kin.
00:05:50.660 I will give my horse trust in return for trust.
00:05:55.300 I will give my horse honor and accept it.
00:06:00.460 in return i will give my horse speed that we may cover distance rapidly
00:06:13.100 one with my steed one with my kin and one with my folk