Radio 3Fourteen

00:00:00.000 welcome ladies and gentlemen i am lana thanks for joining us joining me from sweden is the

00:00:28.600 lovely alvi gunila to discuss all things related to norse culture and mythology you are going to

00:00:34.940 love it so welcome alvi thank you so much thanks for having me on i am very excited yeah i mean i

00:00:42.460 really just came across some of your videos that you posted what is a few months ago i think you've

00:00:46.660 been posting since just january of this year but i'm loving it i'm loving the vibe your delivery

00:00:52.500 the things that you're talking about it is awesome so give us a little background to yourself and what

00:00:57.720 inspired you to start making videos on norse folklore runes myths all of it yeah so i'm alvi

00:01:05.780 gunila gunila is actually my riddle my middle name uh my surname is mcgrath because i have an irish

00:01:12.220 grandfather actually but uh yes i am i began making uh videos on norse mythology and ancient history and

00:01:20.380 so on because i uh i actually grew up in england uh my parents met there in england and decided to

00:01:26.200 stay there for my childhood but i always felt quite disconnected from my heritage and felt that

00:01:33.360 um even though england is great i just didn't feel very home there uh ever so uh i became extremely

00:01:41.240 interested in scandinavia in general and being a spiritually interested person uh norse paganism was

00:01:49.380 the obvious way forward an obvious interest that would come to me so i uh spent a lot of time

00:01:54.420 researching about it uh too much time probably when i should have been out with friends

00:01:58.640 and then um and then when i moved to sweden three years ago i met a really great uh man you one who

00:02:10.700 is now my fiance and he uh yes he's as swedish as you can get his hair is basically white but he has

00:02:21.100 an arguably even stronger interest in um ancient scandinavian history than i do so it kind of

00:02:27.460 snowballed from that and he said um he said to me uh alvi you have to use your gen z knowledge of

00:02:33.400 technology to uh share this information with the world so um so that's how i began i began in january

00:02:40.160 before that i was just posting some paintings i was doing but i posted my first reel in january and it

00:02:46.300 exploded quite quickly that's awesome yeah one of the videos that we played one of the first ones i

00:02:54.180 saw of you was the origins of the word hello which i think we should get into since it's the beginning

00:02:59.960 of the show right so tell us about yeah yeah so uh that's that was one of the pieces of information

00:03:07.860 that my fiancee actually shared with me i didn't know this since before uh hello has very spiritual

00:03:13.300 origins that not many many people know about uh it is um it means literally uh the whole uh so when

00:03:22.820 you say hello or hi or in most indo-european countries they have a similar word ola for example

00:03:29.080 uh it means that you want them to be whole uh to be in the good health um and also hail has the same

00:03:37.560 origins uh so um uh i think that's just i think it's really beautiful that we have so many words

00:03:44.660 and small pieces of the past in everyday things we say now that have existed for over a thousand years

00:03:51.940 exactly we're just not even conscious of it we don't even think about that i mean i didn't really

00:03:56.540 start thinking about it until you know early days of red ice when henrik was exploring you know where

00:04:01.760 do words come from and the truth-seeking journey and it's like yeah we're not even taught to think

00:04:06.420 about i mean especially as americans like where do these words come from just like the days of the

00:04:13.300 week so let's get into that because some of the days of the week in english actually come from norse gods

00:04:19.560 right yeah actually all of the days of the week however you know not many people know about this but

00:04:27.120 uh most people know about uh friday uh the uh freya's dog uh most people know about this or like

00:04:36.160 thursday thaws is thursday but actually sunday which is the the first day of the week uh in ancient

00:04:43.400 history uh is literally the day of the sun a celebration of the sun's return and in honor of the sun

00:04:49.180 and uh monday is uh then the celebration of the moon instead uh modern dog in swedish uh the day of

00:04:56.860 the moon so uh every single day of the week has uh pagan origins isn't that interesting it's it's

00:05:04.940 never died out as i tell people oh paganism is dead no it's with us every day i mean the days of the

00:05:11.860 week a lot of the planets a lot of the the philosophies i mean whether it's a norse pagan

00:05:18.780 cultures we'll get into or graco-roman civilization this is really the uh the roots of western 0.95

00:05:25.820 civilization right it's it's still with us the pagan gods and ideas are with us every day

00:05:32.760 especially in scandinavia it's just uh everywhere you go most of the the words are still uh um

00:05:40.540 old norse words some have come from french and latin but still even in english i think it's

00:05:46.340 something like a 25 of the most common words we use such as thing or give take someone are

00:05:54.900 uh norse in origin yeah even england right you did a video on the pagan origins of england so tell us a

00:06:02.260 little bit about that the angles a germanic tribe came from the angolan peninsula and then when they

00:06:08.460 then moved to britain along with the saxons and the youths uh they uh went to go and to call it

00:06:15.200 england which went on to england and they were having a uh their god that was their most uh that

00:06:22.700 they were most devoted to is uh fray so uh this video was a little bit misunderstood by some people

00:06:28.760 i explained it in a very over complicated way but uh england you could argue today is still

00:06:33.880 under the patron uh patron god of fey uh so yeah so it comes it comes from the angles uh the the

00:06:42.440 pagan angles gave name gave the name england it's so cool i love that i also had pulled up was it

00:06:48.540 words that and this is kind of normie a normie website but still the 139 old norse words that

00:06:55.480 invaded the english language right it says without the vikings english would be missing some pretty

00:07:01.180 awesome words like berserk ugly muck skull knife die and cake and so i was going through some of

00:07:08.880 these and i was like oh wow of course berserk we know you know they're going berserk but even gun

00:07:13.920 uh ransack which my middle name comes from also yeah oh your middle name oh yeah yeah yeah that's right

00:07:21.660 which is which is which means uh war there you go war and hilder right battle so gun hilder war and

00:07:29.920 battle of course that's going to come from the vikings you know but then there were other things

00:07:33.560 in society and culture like bylaws and laws and skill and a lot of the times people think oh these

00:07:42.760 are just you know brutes who didn't have any kind of order and couldn't do anything it didn't have any

00:07:48.500 kind of uh organized you know civilization uh what can you say about that because i was looking at 0.98

00:07:54.560 i mean modern democracy sucks but the vikings actually had a smaller better version of it

00:08:02.780 i was just reading let me pull up a little passage here so how things worked in viking culture each 0.71

00:08:09.660 meeting would involve a specific person who operated as a law speaker and was in charge of keeping mental

00:08:15.060 track of all the previous legal precedents set by previous things there would also be a local

00:08:20.060 chieftain who was responsible for helping make the final decision a dispute would then be brought

00:08:25.040 forth and be heard in front of the entire community of freemen they would then get the chance to voice

00:08:30.080 their opinion on the matter and unofficially cast their vote as to who they thought should be held

00:08:34.940 liable for the trouble that had been caused so it was a smaller better local homogenous tribal version

00:08:44.120 of democracy which everyone always loves more democracy but i think vikings actually had a good

00:08:50.300 version of it right because if someone was causing trouble they could be um they could be kicked out

00:08:55.160 they could be dealt with severely right yeah they had a really uh if we went back to the viking version

00:09:02.240 of democracy i think it would solve a lot of things uh i am i really like the for example the direct

00:09:08.260 democracy they have in switzerland and i think a lot of the problems with democracy now is that

00:09:12.960 um we have one set of rules for millions of people how is that supposed to work how is it supposed to

00:09:19.980 be that that those rules can just suit everyone and i think that's the difference of um the democracy

00:09:25.260 they had in the viking times was first if um they're called things when they get together and they talk

00:09:30.640 about democracy and laws they were called going to the thing and uh then every every decision was

00:09:37.480 decided by uh basically when they said okay should we vote for uh this thing uh and then maybe

00:09:45.640 10 people in the room say yeah and they say okay or we have this option and then 100 people say yeah

00:09:51.640 and then that's how it's decided just whoever whichever side is uh more vocal and shouts louder and if

00:09:58.840 then they're uh the leader that decides um no you've got bad ideas i'm going to go against that

00:10:04.840 anyway and choose the other decision then they can be outlawed and that is a very big thing in viking

00:10:10.840 society if you're outlawed because you are banished from society so you have to live completely alone and

00:10:16.680 also it is completely legal to kill you so someone can just go out and kill you no consequences consequences

00:10:22.920 good old days so uh yeah so this would okay i don't say that we should kill anyone but i think that

00:10:29.400 this would solve all the problems if we just lived in smaller tribes and decisions were made for 100

00:10:37.080 people rather than millions of people yeah and it's it again it worked then too because you had

00:10:42.680 ancestral connections you shared a dna you know you share history you share a culture whereas now

00:10:49.320 multiculturalism all these people flooding in coming from all these different places different

00:10:53.720 interests different religions different and we're supposed to all be united under this democracy like

00:10:58.600 no way and everyone has a say all of a sudden no it's a nightmare it doesn't work yeah no it's just

00:11:05.960 not working out well right now i hope that we'll find out a better way to make it work yes and i think

00:11:12.200 talking about things like this is important just becoming tribal again right just thinking of your own

00:11:17.320 just being ethnocentric i'm a full believer of going back to tribal communities yes there was

00:11:23.720 another word that came up there's a couple other words i wanted to bring up here old norse words

00:11:28.200 hell you know we always i always thought growing up you know christian that hell was a bad place 0.78

00:11:33.400 i'm gonna burn in hell so what can you tell us about hell hell is actually the name of a goddess 0.83

00:11:41.720 in north pathology she is uh described as being half alive and half dead she is very similar to 0.98

00:11:48.120 persephone uh you know she is uh uh she is the ruler of this uh the underworld the keeper of the dead

00:11:56.920 and um uh she is uh not inherently good and not inherently bad uh and it also has the same

00:12:05.000 roots as hello for example it can also mean uh whole yeah some other words here let me pull up

00:12:12.760 ugly and happy and anger yeah anger comes from old norse happy i didn't know that ah but yeah it really

00:12:23.560 shows that they are having the exact same minds that we are having now that they have every they saw

00:12:28.920 things are ugly they were happy uh they they uh they were as civilized as we are now i believe i

00:12:36.520 really believe they have the same emotions the same uh fears and love and everything it's really obvious

00:12:44.280 when you go into that technology like yeah they were the same as us they were just raping and pillaging

00:12:49.480 i mean that's what i grew up always hearing like in american you know history class like the only thing you 0.59

00:12:55.880 learn about pagan or vikings is that they were just raping and pillaging that's it they wore these 1.00

00:13:01.800 cool helmets turns out they didn't really wear those either right no no and unfortunately even a

00:13:08.280 lot of popular media with vikings now for example i i really loved this series when i was younger but

00:13:13.640 the vikings tv show shows a lot of uh just violence uh over the top violence and is kind of glorifying it

00:13:22.680 also which i think is quite harmful to the view of the our pagan ancestors that they were okay with

00:13:28.520 doing things such as burning children alive and uh but basically completely polyamorous all the time

00:13:35.320 things like that it's just it's a real shame because a lot of people even i know believe that that is

00:13:40.920 the way things were in the past yeah they weren't just when people hear the word pagan or heathen and i

00:13:47.160 know these are our terms i want to ask your opinion on those terms but people have this view that's

00:13:52.520 like oh they're just out in the the woods having orgies you know having these mushroom trips like

00:13:58.680 all the time like that's all they did right yeah yeah there's uh uh definitely the stereotype that uh

00:14:06.680 pagans have and it is much due to media and also uh so as i mentioned i have respect for christianity

00:14:13.880 but uh it has come a lot of this stereotypes from christianity actually from when christianity took

00:14:21.320 over in europe that a lot of pagan traditions and the i the general view of pagans was very damaged

00:14:29.560 uh because of course they are like we have this much better religion uh this these guys that came 1.00

00:14:35.080 before they are they suck they're really bad they were doing awful things adultery murder so uh 0.97

00:14:41.720 uh yeah it's it's uh still living on today but um hey i forgot i was looking at the words here 0.98

00:14:48.040 freckles in english freckner so are you telling me uh vikings had freckles

00:14:55.160 yeah i think i definitely i have freckles myself but uh it's interesting freckles actually are more

00:15:01.480 common in england they are in sweden when i came to uh sweden i was surprised people oh why do you have

00:15:07.000 freckles and i was like oh yeah no one else no one else seems to have them but uh i guess it was

00:15:13.720 maybe more common in the past i'm sure and then uh henrik you didn't know this one we mentioned ugly

00:15:18.360 earlier but oogligger and old norse i like that one i don't know it just really hits it oogligger

00:15:24.280 did you really sounds offensive yeah it sounds bad it really sounds like it's harsh oogligger yeah i

00:15:31.480 know i like it it hits hard you know so let's pull up your thread on beautiful old norse words we

00:15:38.040 should still use now there's some beautiful words here let's start with this first one how do i say

00:15:44.360 it rocker rocker am i saying that correctly yeah good and then yeah that's uh all of these words i think

00:15:51.320 are uh are really showing uh how deeply they thought in the past uh that these are words that we don't even

00:15:59.000 have today which is showing that we actually have a slightly worse vocabulary in some ways

00:16:03.800 than they were having and the other thing that i noticed it's just like the russian language is

00:16:08.440 what i noticed with old norse it's very soulful it's very deep it's very mystical so i always hate

00:16:13.160 when people say what is you know there's no spirituality in paganism or or you know the old

00:16:19.080 ways of the old i'm like what so we'll get into that later but i want to read a few more of these okay

00:16:24.040 you got to say the next one for me or log or log or log okay the deep etched fate of all beings woven

00:16:34.200 long before birth and binding even the gods to its unseen threads i mean that's beautiful now where did

00:16:40.840 you find these i think i think uh all of these i uh found uh i have a book that every time i have

00:16:48.200 uh find something interesting i always write it down so i have a very thick book with all this

00:16:52.840 information and now and i don't remember where i find all of it from but it's from a lot of uh a

00:16:58.440 lot of years of just uh researching reading books listening to people uh that have the same interest

00:17:04.920 as me talking to me uh things like that so i have a connection of a collection of favorite words that

00:17:09.880 i have written down in my book i love it or log okay and what's the next one you got to say these for me

00:17:14.920 oh you can't say hey the radiant glow of honor a name for the untarnished spirit of those who live

00:17:26.760 with integrity and dignity i mean am i going to remember i think this one is this one is especially

00:17:32.360 beautiful because it shows that uh they were having a lot of honor viking society was uh really based on

00:17:39.240 honor uh uh if you didn't have honor you could be banished from society and that is not a way that

00:17:45.560 we are living now now you can do whatever basically and you get away with it so it feels like it was a

00:17:51.400 concept of honor is that yeah it was an honor culture right and uh and i think that's why we're

00:17:57.320 scandinavians high trust society also originates from and now that that's being taken advantage but

00:18:03.160 yeah it's kind of paralleled with the japanese culture in that sense too of the honor culture

00:18:08.280 and both cultures take off the shoes before they go inside right well as you yeah exactly it's a

00:18:17.480 concept of uh uh doing things for others not expecting anything in return but you build up your

00:18:25.240 honor and then if people if you have high honor people trust you more the more willing to do things

00:18:29.480 for you i think uh this really works in small tribal societies where if money were to just stop

00:18:35.320 existing for example that people just they just help each other out of kindness and honor that's

00:18:40.360 rather than having to buy services all the time uh it's you know how the new agers always talk about

00:18:45.560 being an authentic person you know well that's what that was an honorable person is is a real person

00:18:52.120 who lives up to their word who who is a a moral person as well someone that you can count on and look up to

00:18:59.640 and this just again goes to prove that they did have a code of ethics and morals that they live by

00:19:05.000 i mean we learned these things long before the bible like you don't lie cheat steal you know steal your

00:19:12.760 friend's wife or whatever because you will get kicked out of the village and you will lose your honor right

00:19:20.040 yeah exactly or people will just dislike you and leave you alone and then you have

00:19:24.200 no one to help you in times of need yeah and then you can freeze in the winter

00:19:27.800 yeah so what is what's the next one let's see louver i saw louver it's so hard to see

00:19:37.000 liver okay liver liver okay henrik how would you say this i know henrik's in the control room he's

00:19:43.720 listening louver it says a word as soft oh it's soft a word as soft as a lover's whisper

00:19:52.680 meaning dear cherished or deeply beloved by the heart it sounds like love obviously right yeah

00:20:01.720 they probably have the same uh origins that makes sense the root and then let's see what's the next

00:20:07.320 one huger huger an old norse belief huger represents the essence of a person their thoughts feelings and

00:20:15.080 consciousness combined it's the inner self that perceives and experiences the world i mean this is

00:20:19.880 like this is prototype new age thinking too right i mean like spiritual transcendental yeah the new age

00:20:30.600 spirituality is rediscovering basically what uh pagans were believing in a thousand years ago i i know

00:20:39.240 that there is a lot of uh judgment for the the new age community uh myself also sometimes it's a bit

00:20:45.320 silly yeah but uh it is i really like this quote that uh we have forgotten more than we will ever know

00:20:51.480 and uh it really feels like this is just uh uh rediscovering concepts that they already knew about

00:20:58.040 in the past um we if we if you dig deep you see that we have explanations for every new age concept

00:21:04.440 now there is explanations for it a thousand years ago in almost every culture i guess we could rename

00:21:09.320 that old age then instead of new age right they're just uh taking some some parts of it but then they're

00:21:14.840 leaving out the most important part which is the people right your folk that originated it came from

00:21:21.640 your folks soul and spirit and mind and and their essence that gave birth to these ideas yeah and it's

00:21:27.480 generally yeah that's why you see uh generally european people white people who like new age

00:21:33.880 ideas i think they're it's there it it speaks to something in them right from something old yeah and

00:21:41.480 i think it's a shame also that uh when for example scandinavians or people from the british isles that they

00:21:47.880 usually look uh out elsewhere to find spiritual answers they look into which i i think i i also have

00:21:54.920 uh uh respect for other uh for example hinduism there is a lot of similarities or buddhism for

00:22:02.040 example but you don't have to you can take examples from them and influence from them but you don't have

00:22:08.360 to look elsewhere when your ancestors have been having exactly the same insights and um if you dig deep

00:22:16.440 into it then you will find that you can find all of that in your own land at home oh 100 percent

00:22:21.160 all of that it's right and it drives me nuts when i see european people going to they're going to go

00:22:25.880 to an ashram in india or the buddhist temple or some you know african thing or some ayahuasca trip when

00:22:33.080 it's like it's right there on european soil whether it's slavic or celtic or or norse or you know greek

00:22:42.120 like we have so much to pull from so so much amazing mythology and and quite frankly a lot

00:22:48.440 of it has been ripped off and pulled and used in other cultures right yeah that definitely a lot of

00:22:55.720 paganism has been uh taken for example basically every uh holiday that we uh celebrate now halloween

00:23:03.960 christmas easter uh all of those are pagan holidays to begin with every single one of them

00:23:12.360 and midsummer which we'll get into but i wanted to read a few more of these let's see

00:23:16.120 eye gear the restless soul of the ocean an ancient giant who's tides cradle ships and swallow them

00:23:24.120 whole i like that one that one's pretty cool uh let's see yeah yeah you like that one kind of like

00:23:32.440 the idea of well that's kind of like water nymphs right and ocean gods and spirits and isn't there

00:23:39.960 a serpent in norse mythology a water serpent yeah yoga mother yeah yeah he is uh he is the the child

00:23:46.840 of loki uh we don't ask how that happened but he is the child of him anyway and he is uh the world

00:23:54.360 serpent there is there is a lot in the norse mythology to do with the sea which makes sense

00:23:59.560 because they were seafaring people so they were equally terrified of the sea as they were amazed by it

00:24:05.240 yeah so there is a lot of spirits and uh gods and goddesses in connection to the sea i love it it's

00:24:12.040 so fun now this is a good quote you pulled up from the hava mall speak only when you know that your

00:24:17.880 words are greater than silence that's something that we definitely don't adhere to today so what

00:24:24.600 are your thoughts on this yeah this this is uh this was something that i uh feel very strongly about

00:24:31.400 and when i saw this quote first on the hava mall i was thinking yes this is exactly what people

00:24:36.600 nowadays need to hear it's uh uh nowadays it's so much just talk and talk and talk and making yourself

00:24:42.920 seen making yourself hard without thinking very much before speaking um and uh we have created a

00:24:50.440 society that it needs to be that way you know if you want to build yourself up career-wise um if you

00:24:56.680 want to uh just be popular have friends you have to just speak speak speak all the time

00:25:01.960 and we've become quite bad at listening i think and listening is uh is uh uh is the most important

00:25:10.600 thing because that's how you learn you don't add anything you don't uh gain anything from speaking

00:25:14.920 you gain from listening yeah yeah there's a there's a time just to shut up but now everyone gets to be

00:25:22.360 heard they're online they are you know instagram influencers and all this stuff but there's a lot

00:25:27.640 of crap but you can find yeah i think yeah it's this is a social media is a really uh double-edged

00:25:36.360 swords it has really amazing things on there uh i've learned so much that i know from social media 0.95

00:25:42.120 there's so many uh problems that otherwise would never be talked about if it wasn't for social media

00:25:48.360 but also so much uh rubbish so much rubbish is so much it's it's dangerous when just everybody can

00:25:55.480 speak and uh everyone can be heard there are some people that yes you shouldn't be one thing i think 0.93

00:26:01.400 of when i hear this from havamal is thinking before you speak and maybe not saying everything that comes

00:26:08.680 to your minds kind of editing yourself a little bit um you know holding back a little bit having some

00:26:14.440 self-control before you spew out all your thoughts and all your ideas on people right which is smart

00:26:20.600 that's a smart thing yeah yeah exactly i think oversharing has become very common now there is

00:26:26.280 you know you see posts online of people saying way too much information about themselves saying about

00:26:32.360 their relationship problems and uh their if they're like in detail about their illnesses and things and

00:26:39.880 it's uh uh some things should be kept yes exactly so let's talk about some of your favorite norse

00:26:48.440 traditions what are those and then of course we'll get into midsummer if that's not your favorite

00:26:54.280 norse tradition yeah uh well i would say that actually my favorite norse tradition would be easter

00:27:03.000 uh because in the if if anyone who's lives in scandinavian or has been to scandinavia i think the

00:27:09.640 most beautiful time of the year in scandinavia is spring it just is when it when the when the ice

00:27:15.240 just melts away and it starts getting warm again like one of the few months that you actually have

00:27:20.680 warmth and it's it's blooming everywhere a lot of people have the view of scandinavia that it's just

00:27:25.880 kind of icy plains everywhere but it is extremely hot and beautiful and uh easter is the celebration

00:27:34.200 of the spring solstice when uh the sun is coming back and it's a really ancient uh tradition also

00:27:42.440 yeah when i lived up there i loved it after the long dark winters it's like ah things are coming

00:27:48.440 away it's even more special when you've endured the the cold long dark winter and you can really imagine

00:27:55.320 also a thousand years ago when they were just living in their uh wooden kind of uh simply built

00:28:03.720 houses and they had to just survive through the winter which many of them unfortunately didn't do

00:28:08.520 then when the snow starts melting the first flowers come it would have been you would have just been

00:28:13.640 on your knees praying this to the sun you know you can really see why so much uh uh norse paganism is

00:28:19.560 sun worship oh yeah when you've survived a scandinavian winter all about the season also easter is

00:28:26.360 easter is connected to phrya also uh the goddess phrya uh so uh yeah yeah i just i think it's just

00:28:35.320 it's the most beautiful uh tradition so what do you think about uh christians borrowing from that with

00:28:41.800 the whole easter egg hunt and fertility aspect still being alive or the jesus story how that connects

00:28:47.960 do you have any thoughts on that yeah both eggs and the idea of bunnies or has come from paganism actually

00:28:55.720 they're both signs of fertility and uh i'm uh how i feel about christians uh borrowing it i feel

00:29:04.600 i feel i guess i feel glad that at least it's surviving in some way because uh we don't know it

00:29:11.000 could possibly be that it would have died out completely unlikely but you know at least it's

00:29:15.240 surviving in some way and there is people uh like me and like others that are able to uh say remember

00:29:21.960 remember where this tradition comes from originally yeah you'll never kill the source ever so let's

00:29:27.080 talk about midsummer because that's coming up here it's literally around the corner and i saw you know

00:29:32.280 we're having a midsummer celebration and i saw the weather is going to be horrible which is very

00:29:37.880 unusual and henrik's like oh it'll be just like a swedish midsummer you take the table in you take it out

00:29:42.840 you take it in you take it anyways let's talk about what midsummer is yeah midsummer is a pagan

00:29:51.080 tradition that was always traditionally celebrated on the summer solstice now it's celebrated on the

00:29:56.600 closest friday to the summer solstice uh um but uh traditionally it was always on the summer solstice and

00:30:02.520 it is a real celebration of uh the sun uh really because it's the the longest day of the year which is

00:30:09.480 in sweden extremely long it's still it's uh what is it's nearly nine o'clock uh in the evening here

00:30:15.640 now and it's still bright outside on a midsummer it's the longest day of the year and then it is

00:30:20.040 light all night here in sweden the entire night um and uh there is uh in in pagan times they were doing

00:30:29.880 things such as uh sacrifices uh to the gods but they would uh despite what people think they would eat

00:30:35.800 the animals afterwards so it's not like a sacrifice and then waste um and light bonfires to uh resemble

00:30:42.440 the sun and to honor the sun's energy and now midsummer uh in sweden has become uh a little bit

00:30:49.720 less uh serious it's become a lot of people have somewhat forgotten the origins it's a dancing around

00:30:56.200 the maypole which by the way the maypole is a phallus symbol it's a silver to show uh fertility

00:31:03.560 is a fertility symbol so people dance around that and sing uh children songs and wear flower crowns

00:31:09.960 uh and drink a lot of uh schnapps uh too much schnapps mostly and um uh there is a tradition that

00:31:19.000 some people still do today which which is you pick seven different wild flowers from around uh your

00:31:24.600 house and then you put them under your pillow on midsummer eve and then you're supposed to dream about

00:31:29.640 your future husband i love that that's beautiful so are you going to do some maple

00:31:36.200 dances because we were practicing some of those yesterday yeah yeah i will i will definitely be

00:31:42.360 doing that i will be uh uh going to my fiance's countryside house that his parents are owning

00:31:48.520 and then the whole village that gets together and we have the the bear maple and we tie branches and

00:31:55.160 flowers to it and then we play music as we are lifting it up and then for hours we are dancing

00:32:01.000 around it and uh my friends my fiance will be playing nickel half of them also which is a traditional

00:32:06.360 swedish instrument so it's really nice to see it's uh a lot of uh families children everywhere

00:32:13.400 uh it's it's the best time of year i think yeah uh i have my fiance here so he can play a bit of

00:32:19.880 nickel halfa quickly it's a very uh the most traditional swedish instrument so he can play a

00:32:25.160 quick song perfect i love it what a treat thank you so much uh it's not very tuned probably uh this

00:32:35.240 is very spontaneous but here's uh a song that was played for the swedish king gustav the third when

00:32:42.440 he was um traveling around sweden in the late 1700s being a a prince and he was uh visiting different

00:32:51.720 cities and the foundries and such around sweden his uh soon-to-be kingdom and this was played for him

00:33:00.760 by a nickelharpa player uh on loves the book in the upland in a traditional style so this is

00:33:10.280 had you had uh that's went close

00:33:27.640 Thank you.

00:33:57.640 Thank you.

00:34:27.640 Thank you.

00:34:57.620 Thank you so much. That really takes me back. I like it. Gets me in an old mood.

00:35:03.440 Ancestral memory. Yeah.

00:35:05.620 Awesome. Thank you so much.

00:35:08.220 Thank you for listening.

00:35:09.720 Well, that was beautiful and a nice unexpected surprise. So thank you for that. I think that's a perfect way to end part one here. Join us in the member section for part two. We're going to talk about what paganism is. Young people turning to Christianity. Americans remembering who they are and how also how Marvel movies are appropriating Norse gods. So join us in part two. We'll see you on the other side.

00:35:37.300 Join us in the member section for part two.

00:36:07.300 And a very special thanks to our executive producers. Arctic Wolf. Thank you. William Fox of America First Books. Thank you for your support. Angry White Soccer Mom. Always nice to see you.

00:36:20.080 And Purple Haze. Love that picture. And Glenn. Thank you, Chinaman. 0.99

00:36:27.460 We also have Red Pill Rundown. Thank you so much.

00:36:34.740 President Obunga.

00:36:38.940 Teutonic Werebear.

00:36:43.280 Good Luck Lap.

00:36:44.720 And no one jeebs. Thank you all. We appreciate you so much.

00:36:51.660 And our producers, Charles Turner Jr., Johansson, Leroy DeMond, Eyes Open, Single Action Army, Lord H.P. Lovecraft, Trebor, Der Schwab, Shane B., Alcyon, The Boo Man, and Aurelian.

00:37:05.380 You can get a producer or executive producer tier. Help us grow. Get a special supporter tier and get your name in the credits. Head over to RedEyceMembers.com. We'll see you in the member section.

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Alvi Gunilla - Norse Mythology & Why Europeans Seek Ancestral Tradition

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