On Germanic Identity and Religion

On Germanic Identity and Religion · Disagreeing with Jack Durand · Two Questions on Quora about Old English

I do not think Germanic peoples should care more about their "identity" than about Jesus Christ, but if they do, their identity points back to ... Jesus Christ.


The Young Turks | 14.III.2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neLczUW3ex0

LeviathanSpeaks1469

I can't believe that they are comparing this to Jediism... it's about HERITAGE! If you guys haven't noticed, Christianity was never a European religion. Germanic peoples have worshiped Odin much longer than they have worshiped the Abrahamic deity. And the so called "mythology" is MUCH older than the fucking comic books! Would they talk about traditional Native American religions as if it was all "Jediism"? I am not a bloody skinhead, but they could at least have some respect for their ancestors.

Hans-Georg Lundahl

"Germanic peoples have worshiped Odin much longer than they have worshiped the Abrahamic deity."

Odin lived 1:st C BC. No Odin worshippers before that. Odin worshippers quit Odinism between that Odin priest (and probable Odinid) in Northumbria (and Clovis, supposing he had worshipped Odin rather than Roman gods) and 1002, or sth, when Sweden's King was baptised. The only later paganisms were non-Odinistic, since non-Germanic.

So, 1:st C BC - medium 800 AD = 900 years of Odin worship, medium 800 AD to present = 1200 years of Christianity.

LeviathanSpeaks1469

@Hans-Georg Lundahl Odin was there first... and he was not the only Germanic god. You fail to see that this is about cultural identity. Christianity is a multi-cultural religion whereas Asatru is a religion which Northern Europeans can claim as THEIR OWN. Much like how some Native Americans are trying to revive their pre-Christian religion.

Hans-Georg Lundahl

• 1) Odin came after Nerthus. His rival Njordh was probably called Nerthus agfter the goddess, like a Demetrius is called so after Demeter.
• 2) Cultural identity, while important, is not more important than religious truth. It is accessible.
• 3) Attacking the Christianity of Scandinavians or of Amerindians in the name of their supposed cultural identity, is attacking their real cultural identity, what it has become through Christianity.

Although Catholic Christianity is multicultural, it is not so in a totally hotchpotch way (closest to hotchpotch : melding of Germanic and Romance and Celtic populations into Western Christendom, a new unity and a new cultural identity - unless it simply revives, excepting Celts who come from Gomer, the older one of descendants of Ashkenaz: Romans coming from Troy and Germanic languages showing similarities to very old languages very little preserved near Troy).

Everything in the cultural identity which is not opposed to truth as seen by the Catholic Church, or to justice as seen by Her, is preserved.

I suppose your own post-modern revival of cultural identities allows both Scandinavians and Amerindians to accept what you consider as scientific truth, like Evolution and Heliocentrism? I have been opposed by Asatru for actually believing Odin Thor and Frey were physically seated, and I mean as persons well before the statues, receiving worship in Uppsala as gods. Because such a view of the nature of old religions does not fit the Marxist paradigm which is your real religion - behind your supposed respect for "cultural identities".

Pagans up to St Olaf were counting Ynglings as physically descended from Yngwe Frey, from the stepson of Odin and son of Njorth, and this information, or lore as they used to say, was a part of their cultural identity which Christian missionaries had started out a bit suspicious of but came more and more to preserve.

I respect this more than the Asatru do whom I have met.

Gamer OZ

@Hans-Georg Lundahl then u have not been to iceland and ur wrong on couple of things talk to a real asatru priest and get informed

Will Kettle

@Hans-Georg Lundahl Christianity does NOT predate worshiping odin

Hans-Georg Lundahl

"talk to a real asatru priest and get informed"

I am going to Saxo and Snorri.

Ynglings and Scyldings descending from Odin obviously preserved traditions of him and they were not forgot (but reinterpreted) when their heirs became Christians.

Christianity (in Palestine and Roman Empire) predates the archaeologically attested Asatru sacred sites.

In late 1:st C. AD, Tacitus could inform that around the Baltic the goddess Nerthus was adored, and this had been (as far as archaeologists can tell) the case for a good part of the Bronze age.

So, Nerthus worship does predate Christianity, but Odin worship does not, except perhaps in restricted circles like family members of the Ynglings.

I tend to agree with Saxo, Odin soon got replaced by a non-Yngling dynasty, and arguably Odin worship has had a surge (attested by archaeology) at the time when Ynglings got back into power in Sweden.