Well met friends
I am a Nordic pagan and with my faith comes misunderstanding I will list them shortly.
But I wish to make it clear that our faith is reconstructive by great definition and so strayed ones will use it for bastardized ways and justifications of unflattering ideas and actions.
1.(That we are exclusive) This is far from the case Scandinavians intermingled all over the world this knowledge tells us the Nordic pagans were not against intermingling and cultural exchange.
2.(Valhalla and Folkvangr)With the findings in Scandinavia and of a saga of a faithful woman.
You do not need to die in battle to go to these places.
She was a devout follower of the goddess Freya and starved herself so that she may dine alongside her beloved goddess and she actually ended up dining with her.
as we should not exclude the gods do not exclude the way we die but how we lived before we died they don't separate only dead warriors but good and productive people that bring something to the table.
3. (Helheim) If we are to believe Hel takes only bad and mundane everyday people, Gods will lose Ragnarök by sheer number(Hel rallies the underworlds dead from Helheim into Lokis army).
Findings show that many were farmers, traders, raiders, and voyagers and fishermen.
Another reason is in Poetic and Pros edda, we dont hear the deeds in detail of the gods/goddesses like Eir Njord Bokkr due to them being core gods of everyday life. It was left out on purpose.
I believe your actions defined who you sat across from. We consider our gods as great friends and ones who tried to earas it was trying to make it harder for people to tell it from word to mouth (it's more straightforward to read a book than believe a Skald), like how some people think Facebook is credible for information.
It also tells in the form of warfare, not heavy/and strategic quick and steady attacks, they concentrated on skills rather than warfare/army tactics. The authors of our sources did this to create a (My god is easier to practice and look how silly/complicated yours are tactic to convert more people).
Now remember this is my reconstructive understanding of my faith with more evidence we can develop a more accurate idea of how to worship. Skoll!!!
Faith with misunderstanding is a common issue for those on the Norse path. Most have decided to rely on the interpretations that academia present rather than to take ample time to learn the old Norse language. That decision only compounds the problem.
To truly understand what is in the surviving lore, one must first take the time to master the language so that one can develop their own personal understanding of what is there. When a person understands the written sources "firsthand" , then they have a better grasp of the material and the worldview becomes much clearer. Along with that, you will gain a better position of debate on the details. It's not an easy task but quite necessary if one has decided to put themselves on this path. Otherwise, you are at the mercy of what other are telling you to believe.
I agree on being at the mercy of others, but again, most practice from that time was practiced differently
from village to village and so we won't truly find a set standard of truth for other gods have been forgotten, but again, with practice in this faith, reading both universal and folkish views, and discussing with fellow heathens, this can also be a good way of having a rounded idea and philosophy on the faith granted the AFA is a bastardized ideology that a product of shallow research and or may I say nitpicking to their agenda as long as you practice with researching everything you can as it was back then it is up to the kindred community, unfortunately, our modern day odin cults get more publicity cause of its outraging effect but also back then where Disbanded due to only providing aggressive practices of faith
and yes learning the language would help to extend but with kennings they have multiple meanings most sources, even in that way, are still open-ended. Literature is the foundation, research is the core, and the shell is our individual practice.
and id suggest books that aren't translated by our practitioners or by Christian authors and if you do read equally on both sides and even research inconsistency of other Abrahamic religions.
Trying too scrape out the lore as a means of finding authentic practice is going to be an impossible task. The Northern Faith(s) were and are an evolving, living entity that changed with migration and assimilation of encountered cultures. It is not a doctrinal based faith. Why components of our body try to assemble things in that sort of model is beyond my comprehension. It seems to me they are trying to find validity as a faith from comparison and contrast to other faiths. An example would be making hammersignsover our breakfast because we read that some ancient in the lore made some sort of sign over his mead cup. Is this a practice? Maybe or maybe not? I personally would need many more examples in observations before I grounded it in practice. Some of the body find this to be a truth just because it's mentioned and it has a complementary usage in other faiths. Thus it must belong in our toolbox.
There are some things that are indisputable. We follow a path that is animistic, totemistic (sic) and polytheistic. Our core values and concentric folkish bonds to family, friends and community form the base of our practice. The lore confirms what history observed throughout our existence. The AFA in its early years had sects that tried to "nitpick", as you expressed, the view into something that didn't follow "all" the core values and thus failed and was abandoned. I think to the credit of our faith not being doctrinal and without a central leader. I think this is a very important part of our path, that if a sect becomes "diseased" we can easily prune it from the tree.
Good post, it's refreshing to see discourse on this forum.
It is also a common tactic of our enemies to nitpick. I ran across a snarky piece the other day. It started out from the claim that no surviving textual evidence proves the Valknut had aught to do with slain heroes. Which may (or may not) be true---I have not examined the corpus on that question. This, however, is taken as grounds for suggesting that present day Nordic pagans are nothing more that LARPer wannabees making up their creed as whim dictates. The perfectly reasonable counterclaim that creeds reinterpret symbols all the time is never considered. The so-called "Star of David" did not become a specifically Jewish symbol till round the 17th century.Hexagrams abound in any number of creeds, including the Hindu. The American peace sign hijacks the Younger Futhark's Yr rune, conveniently forgetting its suggestion of death.
Bottom line: creeds are organic. Meanings and symbols change all the time.
