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Published On: Apr 26, 2006 10:02 PM
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Published On: Apr 26, 2006 10:02 PM
Urban Legends of Asatru
Did you hear about the Asatru couple who were
parked out in the middle of nowhere, and they heard a noise, and the guy got
out, and then the girl heard a noise on the roof, and she got out and hit the
thing on the roof with her hammer and it turned out to be the guy hanging there?
Well, neither did I, but I'm sure there's a version of
it.
Urban legends flourish in a religious environment, but they're not those silly things like "Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light" or "Bubble Yum is made with spider eggs." Our urban legends come from wishful thinking, failure to check things through, and believing too much in the infallibility of authority figures. Here's an example:
Among the ancient heathens, only the godhis (or the higher classes, or fill in the blank here with a certain upper group) worshipped the gods. Everyone else made do with their ancestors, local disir, and landwights.
Really? I suppose it's possible, although I find it highly unlikely. The person inevitably announces that this is "historically proven." Woo woo. Show me. They can't; they were taught that by X, and they'll have to check with that person, but they'll get back to me.
Somehow, they never do, and I still haven't seen any evidence for this idea.
You've probably heard this idea passed around too. It's so common that there's even a stock response to it:
According to their standards, we are upper class, in that we are landowners or free men and women. Therefore we are able to worship the gods direct, rather than going through our ancestors, etc.
Problem solved? Sure, if there was ever a problem to start with.
Recently I ran across this gem:
The ancient heathen beliefs were very like the Universalist Hindu beliefs, in that they had no problem incorporating whatever religious figures came along into their religion. This is historically proven.
Funny how the claim of historical proof is always added but never backed up. This one is, though, a little more problematic. Tyr was almost certainly an addition to the heathen beliefs, after he wandered in from other parts. Or so we think. However, one must note that in historical times the only incident of religious mixing that we have is the takeover by Christianity. Christianity was not incorporated into the current religion; it replaced it. Not very Hindu.
So this is possible, but to my knowledge has not been "historically proven." If anyone has proof on any of these examples, then by all means let me know.
So why am I going on about this? Did I just want an excuse to rant? Well, yeah, that's partially it. However, there is a moral to this story.
You have to think.
If you hear something like this, check it out for yourself. Ask the person to supply proof. Otherwise you may be buying into somebody's personal gnosis that has been mislabeled as truth. I am personally of the opinion that someone should know when they are using Lore and when they are using UPG.
So next time somebody tells you that it's historical fact that the gods are tied to their othal lands and cannot be in any other place, question it. It doesn't matter where they're from and it doesn't matter how well-known they are. If it's Lore, then it can be backed up with documentation. If it's UPG, then you can take it or leave it, depending on whether it works for you.
Urban legends flourish in a religious environment, but they're not those silly things like "Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light" or "Bubble Yum is made with spider eggs." Our urban legends come from wishful thinking, failure to check things through, and believing too much in the infallibility of authority figures. Here's an example:
Among the ancient heathens, only the godhis (or the higher classes, or fill in the blank here with a certain upper group) worshipped the gods. Everyone else made do with their ancestors, local disir, and landwights.
Really? I suppose it's possible, although I find it highly unlikely. The person inevitably announces that this is "historically proven." Woo woo. Show me. They can't; they were taught that by X, and they'll have to check with that person, but they'll get back to me.
Somehow, they never do, and I still haven't seen any evidence for this idea.
You've probably heard this idea passed around too. It's so common that there's even a stock response to it:
According to their standards, we are upper class, in that we are landowners or free men and women. Therefore we are able to worship the gods direct, rather than going through our ancestors, etc.
Problem solved? Sure, if there was ever a problem to start with.
Recently I ran across this gem:
The ancient heathen beliefs were very like the Universalist Hindu beliefs, in that they had no problem incorporating whatever religious figures came along into their religion. This is historically proven.
Funny how the claim of historical proof is always added but never backed up. This one is, though, a little more problematic. Tyr was almost certainly an addition to the heathen beliefs, after he wandered in from other parts. Or so we think. However, one must note that in historical times the only incident of religious mixing that we have is the takeover by Christianity. Christianity was not incorporated into the current religion; it replaced it. Not very Hindu.
So this is possible, but to my knowledge has not been "historically proven." If anyone has proof on any of these examples, then by all means let me know.
So why am I going on about this? Did I just want an excuse to rant? Well, yeah, that's partially it. However, there is a moral to this story.
You have to think.
If you hear something like this, check it out for yourself. Ask the person to supply proof. Otherwise you may be buying into somebody's personal gnosis that has been mislabeled as truth. I am personally of the opinion that someone should know when they are using Lore and when they are using UPG.
So next time somebody tells you that it's historical fact that the gods are tied to their othal lands and cannot be in any other place, question it. It doesn't matter where they're from and it doesn't matter how well-known they are. If it's Lore, then it can be backed up with documentation. If it's UPG, then you can take it or leave it, depending on whether it works for you.
Posted: Fri - April 9, 2004 at 01:47 PM