I am not a racist. I do not knowingly associate with any group or individual that supports the belief that one race is superior to any other, especially, but not limited to the white race. FUCK those fucking fucks.
Why do I feel the need to say this? Well that’s because I have a great love for the Myths, History and Material Culture of the Viking Peoples. The kind of symbolism that comes from this culture has been recently seen tattooed on the bodies of some real fucking idiots, and I feel the need to disassociate myself with those twee-brained gluesniffers. I’d also like to reassure people of different cultures that my work is not aimed at promoting the foolish ideas of a few misinformed turds. I want folks of all cultures, races and backgrounds to know that my workshops and my forge is a place they are welcome. The only cultures not welcome are those of Hate, and Ignorance. I’d also like those people looking for me to craft them objects that promote the symbols of hate to know they can go suck asbestos, and not waste my time.
History is long and wide, and if we look back on our ancestors they all came from the same place, if you just go far enough into the past. Heck, I am proud to have 4% Neanderthal DNA. That’s a whole ‘nother frickin’ SPECIES!
As a kid I was fascinated with the vikings. I liked axes, I always wanted to have a beard. Berserkers are cool. As I grew I learned more of the stories and the myths, and the Norse world view really spoke to me. My love and fascination grew, my interest in the history, but mostly the legends and old stories began to mature. It’s my religion now, my spirituality. It is not just a culture that fascinates me, it is MY culture deep in my heart. The roots of Yggdrasil, the World Tree, have found purchase within me and have over the years taken nourishment in my soul. For real though, I am pretty serious about it. It hurts me to see people using the symbols of the spiritual journey I have been on to promote such petty concerns as racial superiority.
So I’d like to take a little look at what we know of the Norse Gods, what we know of the viking culture, and of course express my opinions on it.
First off, all the stories we have come from a few major poems compiled in Iceland in the 13th century, by monks, who were Christians. These are called the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda. So right away we’re gonna assume there is a little bias going on here. Even without a religious bias, we are looking at information passed down orally documenting stories that span 500 yrs or more. These Gods and Goddesses were worshiped from Greenland, through England, into France, Germany, really most of Europe at one point or another, and into Russia. All of that vast information across time and space is funneled into the pens of a handful of monks in the 13th Century. The point here is, from a strictly historic scholarly just the facts kind of a view point, there is no basis whatsoever for any of these myths to act as Dogma or Cannon. If you are a Pagan of any stripe you know this already, we’ve pretty much had to make all this stuff up as we go along. So if anyone tries to use the Eddas to cite some racist mumbo jumbo, you can safely tell em to stick it where the sun don’t shine.
Viking is more of a job description than a people. To go viking, is to go on a seafaring raid. They were essentially Pirates. Folks considered “vikings” would have been Danes, Swedes, or Norwegians. Although many of these Scandinavian folk permanently settled in many of the regions they would raid. At one time Anglo-Saxons were bitter enemies of the Vikings, even though they fought with the same weapons, had nearly the same runic script, and often worshiped the same gods. Most of us would look at an Anglo-Saxon of the time and see a Viking. There is the Slavic God Perun, who is very similar to Thor, in the same way that Venus and Aphrodite are similar between Greek and Roman Myth. If you look at Perun’s axe, you’d call it a Viking Axe. There is even evidence that the reason for so many warriors to go “viking” was to find women and make them brides, or slaves, or both. I mean listen, I know these guys did some really fucked up shit, but what culture hasn’t? These folks would trade, settle, and marry foreigners. There is evidence of quite a few of them being Baptized and becoming Christians. Most of them just adding the worship of Jesus to all the rest of the many gods. This to me doesn’t really speak to a culture that gave a shit about racial purity.
There are in fact three major races in the Eddas that make up what we would call Gods, the Aesir, the Vanir, and the Jotun. The Jotun are frost giants, and usually the bad guys, but not always. Skadi is a jotun, but also a revered goddess of the mountains and hunting. Loki is the son of both an Aesir mother and a Jotun Father. The Vanir are a seperate tribe that once warred with the Aesir, but then made peace and are very rarely differentiated as coming from one group or the other. Almost as if, once peace was made, nobody gave a shit who came from what race. Yeah I know, I am now citing the same “Scripture” that I told you in a paragraph above couldn’t be trusted. As a Pagan it’s important to be able to hold two Truths in your Mind even if they contradict each other. Try it.
Anyway I could go on, and if you want to discuss it further feel free to email me. I mean we didn’t even get into the stupid shit the nazis brought to the table. Suffice it to be said I am no kind of white supremacist. If you are one, kindly go sit on a razor blade, or a box of em. Better yet, take a deep breath, calm down, and make friends with people who are different from yourself. It’ll make you a better person.
Cheers
Jordan Borstelmann
Crooked Path Forge