Lewis Stead

The Ravenbook

with Christ has wiped out a great deal

of lore about Balder and we are left to rediscover his place in our

modern practice.

Minor Gods

Of the other important Gods, Heimdall is the guardian of Asgard. He,

as Rig, is also one of the Gods who fathered mankind. Njord is the

God of sailing and sailors. Unless one travels on the sea, he is

probably of little importance to you, but if one does sail, he is your

natural patron. If Njord is the God of sailing and of mans use of

the sea, then Aegir is the God of the sea itself. He is married to

Ran who takes drowned sailors to her home after their death. Aegir is

considered to be the greatest of brewers, and our kindred honors him

in a special holiday due to the importance of mead in our modern

religion. Bragi is a much overlooked God who is the patron of

taletellers and bards. Other Gods more or less overlooked in the

myths include Forseti, who renders the best judgments, Ull, a God of

hunting who is the male counter to Skadi, Vithar, the son of Thor who

is as strong as his father, Vali, Odins son who will avenge his

fathers death at Ragnarok, and Hod, the blind God who was led to slay

Balder.

While we might say that certain Gods are more important than others,

this is in many ways not accurate. We would be better served to say

that some are more popular. The Norse concept of the relationship

between men and Gods was one of friendship. A man would honor all the

Gods as worthy and existent, but would usually find one as his special

patron. It is not surprising, considering this, that Thor is the most

popular of Gods. If the average person was searching for a God very

much like himself, Thor would be the obvious choice. Likewise, a God

such as Njord would have been extremely important to sailors and

fishermen, but would have been almost completely unimportant as a

patron to inlanders. The less well known Gods are just as powerful as

their more well known contemporaries, they merely have power over a

less well known aspect of life.

There are also many Goddesses other than Frigg and Freya, but we know

very little of them. Eir was said to be the greatest of healers, and

is for this reason very important. There is no healer God as the

ancients held that medicine was a craft for women and not for men, but

modern male healers should certainly invoke her. While Skadi has a

very small part in the myths, many modern Asafolk find her a

compelling figure. She is the snow-shoe Goddess, who travels in the

isolated mountains hunting with her bow. She is married to Njord, but

they are separated as Njord cant abide the mountains, and Skadi cant

sleep in Njords hall where she is kept awake by the pounding of the

sea. She is an excellent role model for women who work alone and who

are independently minded. Oaths are sworn to the Goddess Var, but

little else is known of her. Lofn might some day be of importance to

you, she is known to bring together lovers who are kept apart by

circumstance.

I have merely touched upon the Gods here. It is important for

everyone who would practice the religion of the North to get to know

the myths and the Gods. An appendix is included which outlines

various sources for more information.

The Jotnar

The Jotnar or giants are the sworn enemies of the Gods. While the

Aesir represent order and the Vanir represent the supportive powers of

nature, the Jotnar represent chaos and the power of nature to destroy

man and act independent of humankind. In the end, it is the Jotnar

who will fight the Gods at Ragnarok and bring about the destruction of

the world.

In essence despite being called Giants or Ogres, the Jotnar are Gods

just as much as the Aesir or Vanir. In many cases they correspond

very closely to the Fomoire in Celtic mythology. Most simply put, the

Jotnar are the Gods of all those things which man has no control over.

The Vanir are the Gods of the growing crops, the Jotnar are the Gods

of the river which floods and washes away those crops or the tornado

which destroys your entire farm. This is why they are frightening and

this is why we hold them to be evil.

The Jotnar are not worshipped in modern Asatru, but there is some

evidence that sacrifices were made to them in olden times. In this