Over the last few months, both here and in real life, I have noticed Asatru and Heathenry questions abound. Not that I mind, I think it's great that people want to understand my faith....but regards!! Are we the next trend????
Dear gods........I will have nightmares.....
HC: I will have my revenge on your for that...mark my words woman
Amon Amarth actually are Asatru aren't they? Where is Ymmo when I need her.
my hubby has loved Asatru for years now ... although doesn't practise
but his metal head friends all wear the hammer and T shirts and have no idea what the religion is about
edit
there is a plus side though
I love viking metal ... and because of it , have started reading some of hubby's books though
so maybe some of them , like me .... will educate themselves
Hollister is about to come out with an Asatru line.
well not really...
but that would be hilarious
seriously speaking, i don't know. maybe they just have questions and you just happen to hear them, maybe it's some kind of cycle (it seems like every 2 weeks there's a flux of Catholic questions, for example). Or maybe it's getting more publicity. who knows? i sure don't
It's definitely growing here in Scandinavia.. sort of a "back to our roots" movement I think.. I'll be the first to admit that I don't know enough about modern Asatru like Forn Sidr..
Gods, I was hoping you were kidding but I don't think you are.
<sigh> Unfortunately, Ymmo reports that young metal heads in Europe are becoming "Asatru" because it's cool and war-like without any real clue what it's about. Some even buying into the stereotype that its a religion for whites only.
We'll probably find ourselves fighting that "trend" as well as trying to explain to fluffy types that we aren't racist jerks.
# # #
You're right - Amon are Asatru. Unfortunately a lot of young metal heads are becoming Asatru without exploring the actual religion.
How can we know if it's too trendy? When this happens...
"Now on the (fill in the blank) channel, a NEW Exciting Reality Show....
Five young people live in the same house...
While following different gods of the Norse pantheon! Yes, we have a wild young Thor who plays in a metal band and plays full contact paintball...without protective gear and a wacky paintball shoo tin' hammer...
...a wise Odin worship per who is going for his doctorate degree and deals with the prejudice from those who don't understand the tattoo of a patch over his eye...or his pet raven...
...two hot sexy ladies who follow Freya and Frigg, and their constant wildcat fighting for Valkyrie status of the home....
...and finally, a wacky jokiest of Loki, and his OUTRAGEOUS pranks he plays on everyone around him!!!
You just gotta see the next episode of 'The Berserkers of Berkley!' Next Thursday, yes Thor's OWN DAY, don't Miss IT!"
***Seriously, I do think you have a point, people are becoming attracted because they are searching for their roots and identity. Like you said, nothing to mind, and understanding is the key. It is great, actually.
You only have yourself to blame: with a hot chic like you as their poster child, it was bound to happen.
Ugly it up a little and maybe the fad will end.
Sadly, I think it is becoming a trend, I only say sadly because that's going to mean a bunch of people causing a stereotype that you really aren't going to want to deal with debunking....
You don't have to worry about me joining in the trend, I'm happy sitting where I am.
I really hope you guys avoid getting stereotyped based on a bunch of "followers" who know nothing about the religion.
As a matter of fact, I was away all weekend, being as "true" as I could (read: we had a medieval reenactment practice. For some reason, the whole time we fought, two ravens were circling above us...)
Anyway, back to the topic: yes, at least 2 members of Amon Amarth are Asatru. I'm not sure for the others. I'm pretty sure 1 isn't, though.
And I agree with you that it's been getting trendy lately. Well, we (me, you our Heathen bunch up here) are partly to blame for the surge in Asatru questions and answers. Also, we added each other as contacts, so we are notified when one of us asks a q, and all the others can answer. This makes it seem as if there are lots of us.
But on the other hand it's also true that folk metal is making it popular among the young people. I remember time when. Amon Amarth were by far the only band, and they were getting NOWHERE with their music. Then all of a sudden, their popularity skyrocketed and all these copycat folk/death bands started to appear from nowhere. There are tons and tons now.
Of course movies like 13Th warrior aren't helping
EDIT:
Frau Hunter is right, because of the surge of folk metal bands, teenagers seems to think it's "cool" if you run around with a wolf skin over your bare shoulders, with a drinking horn, a hammer round your neck and shout "Odin" at the top of your voice while headbanging. If anyone asks them, they'll claim their heads off they're Asatru while not knowing the smallest thing about the actual belief, apart from the fact that their favorite band seems to be that.
Also, it's true that lots of these young people seems to equate Asatru and Racism. I've been trying to set up a website and gather a group of Asatruar in my country, and I've already encountered prejudice ("you racist idiot, move out of the country if you don't like it here") on one hand, and on the other hand, 16 year old newbies who came barging in, claiming about how they hate all ****** and ********, therefore they are Asatru...
Minerva: Shut the H?l up, you'll give them ideas!!
Pray to all the Gods that some TV program manager doesn't read your post!
All forms of "paganism" show signs of increasing rapidly quite often spurred by poorly researched TV shows and some genuinely good musicians with good intentions being misunderstood.
The point to remember here is that these upsurges are not very often long lived, when young people (no of fence intended here to teenagers or anyone else) find something to latch onto that upsets their parents or simply seems cool they will latch onto it with unparalleled vigor, some will make a genuine effort and do their research and others will just wave the flags and shout a lot. The distinction between the serious and the not so serious becomes clear as they get older, you will rarely find men and women in their late twenties and older who retain any of their teenage rebelliousness, and if they still do it's because during their rebellious phase they found themselves.
I'm sure many of them are deadly serious about ?satr?, even the ones who may seem to us to just be irritating kids but some will grow up into our path and become worthwhile members of our community and others will grow up and return to the fold as it were. In the meantime those of us who came to our paths with genuine feeling and interest will still be here when all the others have moved on.
I'm sure you could ask the more serious satanists the same question (assuming they'll grace you with an answer of course) about how the rise of black metal in the early 90's bolstered their numbers significantly only for those numbers to reset sharply when all those teenagers grew up. I suspect a little patience and perseverance will show the score.
In my experience this tends to go in waves. Consider things like the Thor Comics, bands like Manowar, and all sorts of other modern references. These arrive, people jump on the band-wagon (sometimes literally), and for a while, there is a resurgence, and then another lull.
Typically, many are drawn to the Viking theme through the expression of violence, drunken debauchery and other simplistic viewpoints. Naturally, there are some whom stop, and wake up, but most grow out of it, and then move on to something else that might fulfill their fantasies better.
I don't see Viking Metal as being particularly problematic unless it perpetuates the typical imagery. Some of them come from different angles, which are very much in line with the traditional Folkways, for example, the band Tyr. Even those whom emphasis the warrior aspects, many of them are much more in tune with the lore in modern times, and so, depending on where people end up in the genre, you find that often they discover bands whom are outside the usual Viking imagery.
Suffice it to say that if Silver Ravenwolf jumped on the bandwagon, I'd be, um, let us say, preparing to put a cloak on the ground.
I do think the flood of questions and answers is far more due to the fact that we're connecting up within our contacts and hence where you might have gotten one or two responses, we're seeing at least a half dozen to each question and often more. I do like the situation as at least we get a wide variety of views, which I prefer as it helps to build up ones own ideas, as without challenge we stagnate.
Frankly though, I couldn't care less what the political correct crowd or fluffiest come up with, given that in my experience, they've been at it for years, even when we've been rather below the radar, they seem to pop up to attack some element or other of our Folkways for what-ever reason, and we have to fight to eliminate prejudice against us.
Typically we get the usual sort of racism accusations and young twits coming to us and blathering how they're Tru because they listen to Viking Metal or Volk Metal or what-ever. Sure, they are an irritation at times, but a little bit of education goes a long way. They are no worse than the fundamentalists within the mono faiths, and represent a fringe. The fact that mono faiths and the political correct lobby will attempt to cast us as the same is to be expected, and frankly, I relish the opportunity to provide level headed and factual responses to their outrageous claims, mainly because it infuriates them that I'm not operating to type
"Amon Amarth actually are Asatru aren't they? Where is Ymmo when I need her."
no they are not. They show respect for their heritage and they like and try to emulate the worldview, this coming from a) talking to them after shows and b) I am REALLY REALLY close with Johan's sister and I think she would know, according to her, Johan is atheist.
Oh no! This is a bad bad thing... We won't just have to explain to fluffs that we're not racist, it'll be the people they upset too. I don't know about Amon Amarth but Tyr definitely are Asatru
Vikings become trendy and then fall out of favor quite regularly. The first big revival of Viking culture was The Gothic Society founded in Sweden in 1809 who published a magazine called Iduna. In 1893 a full sized replica of a viking ship was sailed from Norway to Chicago for the World Columbian Expo. Wagner's Ring Des Nibelungen fired people in to viking interest, unfortunately this lead to Nazism in Germany and hence late 20Th century interest is often from the undesirables. The discovery of L'Anse Aux Meadows in 1966 inspired NASA to name their Mars mission Viking.
The massive interest in Noe-paganism and Wicca is obviously attracting both teenage males as well as females; when the lads discover the romantic Viking warrior and "battle gods" they will gravitate towards Heathenry but as is the way with rebellious teens they dint actually know what Heathenry is just call themselves it just as the teen witches call themselves Wiccan without ever reading Gardner or Sanders.
So maybe metal/rock is firing the Viking interest, maybe we are at a peak in the interest cycle described above or maybe it is because neo-paganism is shallow or unfounded and Heathenry is deep with a rich history that we have an up turn in interest.
Asatru has and is growing tremendously rapidly in Parisian. I also think that our share of the market in the larger Pagan community is growing, but nowhere near as rapidly.
Was brought up with my granddad telling me about how we're Anglo-saxon and Norse etc. Never been baptized or really followed a religion either, and I got to admit, listening to these bands preach about vikings etc, really does get the interest flowing. Heck I didn't even know people still worshiped the ways of the old, the way we were supposed to before our ways were brainwashed etc. Read the Edda, book of blot etc... I want in!
Dear gods, is Asatru becoming *shudder* trendy?
