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Can you tell me more about the Norse realms? Always wanted to hear someone's summary here.

That's complicated. It's late and I'm not going to go into it right now. But I'll get back to you tell me if you want to know about the classical legend in myth, or the modern interpretation of what they mean.

In other words, do you want to know what is in the sagas / eddas, or do you want to know how we apply the allegories to be useful in modern life?

As a kid (German), one of my most cherished school stories is my art teacher telling us about the story of Siegfried.

Video game symbolism made me really curious about Yggdrasil and how the concept came to be; it seems a very common thing in religions, but what exactly is its purpose?

Is it the entire universe, a different dimension, what are the realms?

Especially Vanaheim I'm curious about, AFAIK it is the realm of the wise humans closest to Asgard, the gods; if sages were seen highly back then, what is the deal with the "savage" claims?

[–] [deleted] 1 pt (edited )

OK, I'll tell you about the purpose as far as I can tell.

Our ancestors didn't have the mental tool set to understand the world we live in. We call this mental tool set "science", but they hadn't invented science yet. All they could do is look at the world and wonder why things are the way they are. Over time, these became stories and the stories became our Heroic-Epic.

A Heroic-Epic is important because it's a narrative that binds a people together. The Greeks have the Iliad. The Vedics have the Bhagavad Gita. The Australian Aborigines have "Dream Time". The (((Jews))) have the (((Bible))). Every culture has a Heroic-Epic wherein they are the Hero of their own story.

Now, here's the problem... Race-Traitor (((White Christians))) also have the (((Bible))). Why are the (((Christians))) race-traitors? Because they've adopted a Heroic-Epic of a (((Foreign-People))). In such a situation, Whites are no longer the hero of their own story. They are slaves to a (((Foreign-Power))).

So, this is why we have Heroic-Epics in general. Their purpose is to unify a people, help them understand their place in the world, and give them a purpose.

Now, to get granular on certain aspects, like Yggdrasil. I can't say why Yggdrasil is a tree. The origin of the myth is lost to time. But, we can talk about it's purpose. Yggdrasil seems to act as a map with directions to certain places. Branches are paths to different areas.

What are these different areas? Well, they are areas which may as well be different "relms" because they describe places so far away, for the average person, they might as well just be a story. An occasional trader might go as far as "Jötunheim" which is described as in the root of the tree. But, in "Hárbarðsljóð" Thor describes it as in the "East". And there are many other places on this "tree map", but I won't go into them.

So, what is Jötunheim then? It's the place where the Jötunn live. Who are the Jötunn? They are a separate pantheon of Gods from the Æsir and Vanir. Their defining trait is that they are agents of chaos. Which is why Loki, who isn't an Æsir, but a Jötunn, causes so much trouble. He's naturally an agent of chaos and can do nothing to change his nature.

Now, this is the interesting thing about Heathenism. Chistians/Jews are Monotheistic. Their Pantheon is one God. Or at least that's all they will admit to despite mentioning plenty of other Gods in the Bible. The Greeks had a true Pantheon. But, even they don't recognize more than one Pantheon.

Heathenry is interesting, because we recognize a multitude of Pantheons. We say "Oh, yeah, the Greek gods are real as so far as the Heroic-Epic is important to the Greeks". We don't deny the Heroic-Epics exist. So, Heathenry is a multi-Pantheon system.

So, then we ask where to the Æsir/Vanir fit in and why are they "our" Gods? In the Legends, they represented were two separate peoples who met. One was a "Paleolithic-European" group. And the other were the "Indo-Europeans" descended from the Yamnaya culture. In legend, these two groups faught as represented in the Vanir-Æsir war. Eventually a truce through a series of marriages and exchange of leaders and they merged. So, the Vanir are considered "nature gods" and the Æsir are considered "war gods", but they agree that together they will become agents of order for the protection of their peoples.

So, who are their "peoples"? This merging between Paleolithic-Europeans and Indo-Europeans created a group called the War-Axe Culture. And that is us. The War-Axe Culture are Proto-Germanics. That is the Genesis of our peoples and why we are distinct from other peoples. The people of the Bible can't clam decendence from the War-Axe Culture. The Vedics can't claim decendence from the War-Axe Culture. The Greeks can't claim decendence from the War-Axe Culture. We have our own distinct Heroic-Epic.

So, what features make us distinct exactly? The whole point of a Heroic-Epic is to tell us why we have a future, right? So, why aren't we the same as everyone else? What makes us stand out? Well, the most obvious thing is our White skin. It helps us survive in high north latitudes and distinguish ourselves from other peoples. We also have lactose tolerance, which is a survival feature. High IQ. An instinct for personal-responsibility. Etc. These traits are not common in other peoples. We don't have "Commandments" from the Gods, because they embedded into our Genome traits which will lend ourselves to success.

So, how do we all tie this together into one common narrative? Well, most of the legends revolve around the Gods trying to maintain order against chaos. And usually, some form of chaos will embed itself into the story and the moral of the story is that when the Gods act chaotically, bad things happen, which is why they must be agents of order.

Which brings us to the "Prophecy of Ragnarök". In this story, we find Frigg trying to maintain order by obtaining an oath from every object not to harm her son Baldr. Everything likes Baldr, so it is obtained. Except she can't ask mistletoe for a vow because it is too young. But, now with the protections, the Gods slip into chaotic behavior. As a game they all start throwing things at Baldr because he is invulnerable. But, Loki takes advantage of this and gives an arrow poisoned with mistletoe to one of the Gods and it hits Baldr and he dies.

And this is where our nemesis is realized. It's not some Satanic figure like in the Bible. Loki isn't really "evil" so much as he is "chaotic". And Loki is just an agent of chaos. Our nemesis is Entropy itself. The death of Baldr sets off a chain of events in which Entropy builds and builds and builds until finally everything is destroyed.

EVERYTHING is destroyed... The Æsir are destroyed. The Jötunn are destroyed. The world is destroyed. Everything is destroyed... Except the Übermensch.

Who are the Übermensch? They are our descendants. The Gods are doomed to die, but they embedded in our genome the qualities which will make us successful. Eventually, we will become more powerful than them. They will not survive Ragnarök. But our descendants will. We will know how to tame Entropy. And we will survive.

The Gods abandoned the Greeks after the events of the Illiad. The (((Foreign-Jew-God))) will enslave every convert he can get his hands on until he is destroyed at Ragnarök.

But our Heroic-Epic tells us that we will be more powerful than even the Gods. And that is the story of us.

[–] 0 pt (edited )

For a short summary, here are a few audiobooks you could listen to while going to bed:

  • - A nice book which tells the stories in simple modern language
  • - There are lots of other sagas out there, which you can find by yourself
  • - One of the most important primary sources
  • - Another one of the most important primary sources
  • , for good measure, is one about the greco-roman religion, which was closer related to the norse one, than one might think.
  • 's what a roman historian wrote about germania, even though that was before what people mean by "norse" existed

In practice religion back then was ancestral worship, e.g. the focus was on highly idealized human-like figures, which kinda blessed those of one's own ancestors, that turned out to be exceptionally well, and therefore were to be emulated. Plus lots and lots of allegory that somehow connected to how people viewed the world back then.

Very nice collection, thank you.

I wonder if there are books comparing ancestral worship between religions; for example you have the whole lineage of Christ in the gospels; their whole royal family and all…

I bet Norse have a lot to say about commoner heroes.

Another faith I am curious about is Shintoism due to the treatment of nature, do they even recognize humans?

[–] 1 pt

Don't ask me. Do your own research. There's a thing called which tries to analyze differences between different religions and cultures, including the polytheistic ones.