Can Norse Mythology Be Reinterpreted for the Future?

[Hrodnand]

There is much to clean up when it comes to the Norse faith. Paganism, odinist, mythology, and more are words created by Christians, Jews and Arabs. They do not fit.

Exactly, it is an issue that is apparently skipped by many when they try to approach ancient germanic culture. It should be noted that most attempts which try or tried to reconstruct the "old germanic faith" lack that very specific objectivity which would help people to understand the old germanic worldview first. The "old germanic faith" is not a technology system that can be borrowed by anyone but originally it was the very product of a worldview that was free of foreign influences and mysticism. It is the worldview first that should be understood properly to be able to rightly interpret the culture and the "faith" further.

Viking Age society was regulated by law and order through the system. Every free man was standing under the law and it was also true of the chief and king. The community was steeped in religion, but the Vikings did not have a separate word for religion, but used the word Sidr, which means custom or practice.

Yes, to most pre-christian germanic societies the community life was the next and most important and a "religious practice" was only occasionally and rarely performed on an individual level. People who turned to the gods above the community were viewed dubiously and were treated partly as traitors. The concept of an individual religious practice in heathenism was/is a christian (i.e a foreign) influence.

The moral codex of society, was not linked directly to the divine faith. The social system was based on an unwritten honoursystem. Right and wrong, gender and sexual morality, daily life and holidays, in all conditions was the free man's actions and judged by the concept of honor.

Yes and I think this is the most important aspect that is worth to be taken in account when one tries to understand in its right context the culture of our ancient ancestors.

The new Christian cultural values collides on a number of fields with Norse faith, for example were Norse pride ideal pushed out when the Christian ideal of humility convenience was introduced.

Also the attitude towards the divine has been radically distorted and influenced by christianity and not only. To the old heathen any close or personal relationship with the gods was almost impossible or something that is too far to be reached. It was one of christianity's main tool of conversion to grant a close relationship with Jesus, with the possibility of an individual prayer. However, this was all alien and unknown to the common heathen man.


So yes we should definitely reinterpret the whole concept of heathenism and old germanic culture, including mythology. There are multiple layers of foreign influence and misinterpretation which need to be deconstructed if we don't want our native culture to become similar with any of the new age fantasy movements.

[Timberwolf]

A religion should form a sacred bond amongst the people (Folk) for when all political means of persuading our people to stick together fails. It shouldn't just exist so people can worship trees and wear Mjolnirs because they look cool. If we've learned anything from the Jews it is the power a religion can have at unity a people and keeping them committed to each other. The idea that Odin breathed his breathe of life, his essence, into us and only us is a very powerful concept.

My earlier ideas of merging the European mythologies into one was poorly worded. It seems obvious to me that European men and women constructed their views of the gods as symbolic anthropomorphized representations of the forces of Nature. The Jotuns clearly represent chaos while the Aesir represent order. They intermarry because Nature and life is filled with the duality or chaos vs order, as opposed to the Abrahamic good vs evil. Without the constant threat of the Jotun the Gods would grow weak and fat, just like the constant threat of natural and societal forces can make us grow stronger as well. Nothing could be more Germanic than Nietzsche's famous quote, "that which does not kill you only makes you stronger".

European mythology forms a stark contrast to Abrahamic traditions, especially Christianity, which preaches a slave morality. What the Norse and Greeks had in common was a worldview of heroism. Both were honor bound. Instead of teaching to "love your enemy", "turn the other cheek", and "resist not evil", they encouraged people to stand and fight. I can pick up any European mythic text and feel a deep connection with it, knowing it was conceived from the minds of our race, inspired by the divine. If I venture outside of that terrain I find myself scratching my head in confusion or rejecting it outright. Nietzsche also pointed this out in his works.

I believe the same European logic that inspired the Norse can be found in Greek mythology. One way of explaining this in theological terms would be to say that Greek mythology is how the forces we call "gods" revealed themselves to the Greeks. Zeus is merely the Greek name for the same force that inspired Odin. So while we don't have to directly follow a Greek religion, when we come across the Greek mythos, we shouldn't brush it off as "nonsense", or "just myths". A much better description would be to say it is divinely inspired. The "Iliad and the Odyssey" is just as worthy a story as Siegfried the dragon slayer and the Ring of the Nibelung. They both depict Master morality Heroes that inspire and invigorate the European soul. It would be similar to how Muslims, who don't believe Jesus was the son of God, still consider him a holy prophet.

I think in the end people should follow what they want and what they feel the deepest connection to. But I don't see what's wrong with recognizing the divinity found in other European religious beliefs and teaching our children about them if we want.