History Repeats Itself

 Something is happening in the Northland! Due to the mountainous terrain, settlements have always kept their particular practices with little regard to their neighbors across the fjords. Social  activities within the church are unusual with the exception of Christmas or weddings, etc. Norway is not known for religious attendance. Only a small percentage of the population attends services, although they are registered most often as Christian members at birth.

But there may be changes in the air.

Back in the Viking age, active raiders began finding areas they found desireable. Early explorers found one island to their liking.Iceland was still uninhabited long after the rest of Western Europe had been settled. Recorded settlements have  been found back in 874, although archaeological evidence indicates Gaelic monks had settled Iceland before that date.
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The land was settled quickly, mainly by Norwegians who may have been fleeing conflict or seeking new land to farm.  Towards the end of the tenth century, Christianity came to Iceland through the influence of the Norwegian king Olaf

Tryggvason. When the wily Vikings settled in, they decided  they would accept this “Christianity” thing and also keep their own pagan beliefs in their gods of Thor, Freda and the like.

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In time, Christianity overtook common beliefs and pagan practice became quietly practiced by the devout few. The Christians, mainly Lutheran and Catholic, became the norm, but the majority of the population was not responding well and the stories of Odin, Thor, and The Giants were still heard.

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Everyone of Scandinavian background knows of the incredibly strong Thor and his hammer Miollnir, that

was crafted by the dwarfs. He was the main defender of the gods against the giants. He was also the god of thunder, and  worshiped by seafarers who wore amulets of Thor’s hammer for good luck along with a dragon’s head on their ships to scare vicious seas-creatures. These items are sold today by visitors and tourists.

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 On land, dragon heads were mounted on high points of Norwegian stave churches to ward away the devil. These old stories and myths have not been forgotten.

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Some people think differently ‘Up North’.
Icelanders  and the Sami in Northern Norway have their own way of life and nature plays a large part in it.

Tree of Life

Sami, who had remained pagan long after the conversion of their neighbors see life as a circular process of life, death and rebirth and Vikings have tales of mythical gods that control nature. Sami beliefs and Viking myths are beginning to mesh as one. People have been talking about this!
                                            Now, This, just in!

       The latest News From Scandinavia reads:

 "Due to the resurgence of neo-paganism, Iceland is planning the construction of the first temple  to the Norse gods since the Viking Age.“A Norse temple for the 21st Century”. The planned Icelandic temple will be a domed, circular structure on a hillside overlooking Reykjavik, the Islandic capital . Worshippers will practice their belief called

                                  Ásatrúarfélagiðf "

The worship of Odin, Thor, Freya and the other gods of the old Norse pantheon has now become an officially recognized religion 973 years after Iceland’s official conversion to Christianity.In recent decades, membership in Ásatrú ( it’s shortened name)  has grown to about 2,400 in a country of only 330,000 — and has become the largest non-Christian religious community in Iceland.

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Followers are able to satisfy their spiritual needs within a framework that feels authentic ancestral identity, but at the same time, flexible enough to fit in with modern values and concerns. Not using a Bible or Koran, believers gain their knowledge in “The Edda”, the major source of ‘knowledge on Norse
Mythology’, written down in the 13th century as a collection of Old Norse poems from the Icelandic medieval manuscript “Codex Regius” (Royal Book)

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The Old Norse word Edda means “Great Grandmother”. It refers to the lore of the ancestors (or more literally, the ancestral mothers). In Asatru it is believed that we are not only the worshipers of the Gods but that we are spiritually and even physically related to them.

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 Included in rituals,Among accepted rituals,The Blót is the most common  within Asatru. In its simplest form, a blót is making a sacrifice to the Gods. In the old days this was done by feasting and drinking from an animal’s horn. Currently, the most common blót is an offering of mead or other alcoholic beverage to the deities.

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Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson

The leader and High Priest of Ásatrú, Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson, has been a sheep-farmer and writer of ‘rimur’, a form of epic poetry founded the association in 1972.Sveinbjörn is regarded with much respect and affection among  Ásatrú. Not only is  he a well- known rímur singer in Iceland with followers in Europe and North America, he sometimes performs at rock concerts and is the opening act in the film Rokk í Reykjavík.

          (This is for real!)

More, as details become available.