Neil Legend - Norse Paganism: The Spirituality Guide of Norse Religion, Runes and Ceremonies

NORSE PAGANISM

The Spirituality Guide of Norse Religion, Runes and Ceremonies

Copyright 2022 by Neil Legend

COPYRIGHT & DISCLAIMER

All rights are reserved by law. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the authors. It is expressly forbidden to transmit this book to others, neither in paper or electronic format, neither for money nor free of charge. What is reported in this book is the result of years of studies and accumulated experience. The achievement of the same results is not guaranteed. The reader assumes full responsibility for their choices; the book is exclusively for an educational purpose.

INTRODUCTION

T he myths of the ancient Norsemen have seen a renaissance in the rise of popular culture. As you read through the pages of these books, you will see familiar sights, such as the mythical slayer of giants, Mjolnir, wielded by the Thunder God, Thor, or even the Rainbow Bridge Bifrost, which links the Realms of gods and men. Norse Mythology is more than just the enduring battles that the gods of the Norsemen face. There is a story in every rock formation, a tale to be told from the seas that are sailed. A whisper of a saga told over a stormy night.

Norse Mythology revolves around life and death. Unlike the classical stories of the Greek Gods who live immortal lives and are content to feast eternally on ambrosia and nectar in their hallowed halls, the gods of the Vikings are faced with the tribulations of old age remedied with the consumption of a golden apple from the gardens of Idunn. In the face of their mortality, Norsemen mythology contains stories and the glorious exploits that their gods have faced, and from these, they take to heart that their gods have lived like them, with their ultimate fate at the end of times.

With these legends told, men and women of the Viking Age embarked on their own stories and heroic exploits to face odds that would make lesser men quake in fear.

Throughout this book, you can journey through the fantastical halls of Asgard and the other eight Realms, and embark on an adventure throughout the cosmos, and read about stories that have traveled through time and how these have shaped modern society in ways that were right in front of your very eyes.

1 MIDGARD THROUGH THE EYES OF THE NORSE

T he Vikings were historically known to be a backward society, engaged in the practice of warfare and piracy, where more civilized societies universally feared their groups. Though the Roman Empire, among others, was large in that it encompassed what was then the known world, the Vikings took it a step further and ventured out into the vast expanse of seas. History will tell you that the first people to have reached what was then the North American frontier were Vikings, who established a colony in Vinland. This exploration of the unknown by the Vikings was fueled by their sense of adventure and showed the spirit and courage the Vikings had.

1.1 The Lands of the Norsemen

T he Atlantic Ocean was a challenge to the adventurous spirit of the Vikings, who sought to discover the lands beyond, while the traditional perspective of more advanced societies at the time believed that Vikings were no more than sea-faring marauders that did nothing more than loot and pillage communities along the waterways that they became the masters of, the Vikings were at par with them with the exploration of the known world at that time, with their eyes going westwards toward worlds unknown, rather than toward the antiquities from the Eastern kingdoms.

Present-day Norway, Sweden, and Denmark were the lands of the Norsemen in the Viking Age, and it is here that many relics identified the extent to which the Vikings have taken their explorations. From these explorations, they have crafted their stories about the denizens of the deep, as well as the deities that have gifted the Vikings with Gold and Amber from the depths of the sea. In mythology, what we know as our Earth is referred to by the Vikings as the Realm of Midgard (Middle Earth), the Realm given to humans by the Allfather, Odin.

1.2 Boundaries, Frontiers and What Lies Beyond

T he Vikings were later seen more as seafarers rather than the antiquated version of barbaric pirates and were able to travel as far south as the city of Baghdad in the Middle East, by way of the rivers that traverse the steppes of Russia, a journey across the Black Sea and the fabled city of Byzantium.

Within the empires of Western Europe, the Vikings were able to establish colonies in Scotland, England, Ireland, and France, and indeed have traversed the Strait of Gibraltar to brave the Mediterranean Sea and the domains of the Roman Empire and North Africa. It is no surprise that the greatest contribution of the Vikings to the Age of Exploration was that of the discovery of the New World when they settled in Vinland and in the islands that they have passed along the way. Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and, more notably, Iceland, carry the signs of having been settled by Vikings in their sojourns across the Atlantic.