This course will prepare the student for their work as an Initiate by examining the myths both within their primary hearth culture as well across Indo-European cultures. The student will also reflect on how mythology affects their personal practice, and how it can be applied to ADF ritual structure.

For this course, in all cases where you are to use your primary hearth culture, if you have not chosen one, please choose one that you would like to learn more about and use it for all the questions.

Research

1.    List and discuss the major primary sources for the mythology of three Indo- European cultures, one of which must be your primary hearth culture, including their dates of origin and authorship (if known). Discuss any important factors that may cause problems in interpreting these sources, such as the existence of multiple revisions, or the presence of Christian or other outside influences in surviving texts.

In Vedic mythology, there are the samhitas of the four Vedas, which date from between the second to the first millennium BCE: The Rgveda, which is used for recitation; the Sama-Veda, which is used for chanting; the Yajur-Veda, which is used for liturgy; and the Atherva-Veda, which is named for a group of priests. These documents are the foundational texts of the Vedic religion, but they are also cited as foundational texts of Classical Hinduism, and are almost always translated through that lens. Unfortunately, according to Puhvel, “classical Hinduism… is worlds removed from the cultures of the early Vedic period” (Puhvel, 46). In fact, many “serious” scholars of the Vedas have problems with non-Hindu translators like Wendy Doniger, leading to an increase in bias. This is especially true with movements like Hindutva (the Hindu nationalist movement), which, over the last ten years, have led to an increasingly strict and conservative reading of the ancient texts and are actively trying to subvert or destroy other versions.

Greek texts include the Iliad and the Odyssey, both by Homer, but the only written copies of these epic poems are from well after his death, so their compositional age is unknown. As well, works by Hesiod (Theogony and Works and Days – 7th to 6th century BCE) and the Homeric Hymns (Hymns in the style of Homer, also 7th to 6th century BCE for composition) are considered foundational texts. There is some discussion to be had about all of these texts, as they were typically carried in the oral tradition for a long time before being written down, so changes almost certainly occurred over time. Generally speaking, the Greek texts are better translated and have less cultural baggage, as they were not translated by conquerors or religious people who overtook/replaced the original religion, but were preserved, and often studied, in the original language. Since they are still studied as part of the regular education curriculum, many modern translations seek as much as possible to reflect (what best we know of as) ancient Greek culture as accurately as possible. Even for scholars who do not read ancient Greek, there are often many translations that can be compared to gain better understanding of the original texts.

The foundational texts of Norse mythology are the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century in Iceland by a Christian monk named Snorri Sturluson, the Gesta Danorum, written in the 12th century in Denmark by Saxo Grammaticus, the Poetic Edda, a collection of earlier poems and sagas collected in the 13th century in Iceland, and various Sagas, mostly from Iceland as well, that were collected over the course of Iceland’s Christianized history. These texts are both well preserved and dangerously full of bias – because they were written by Christian monks, they often have layers of Christian morality and meaning layered over older stories, and there is a good deal of euhemerization that goes on (especially in Saxo’s work), turning the divine stories of the gods into stories of kings and other mortals. Complicating the matter, most of these texts were (of course) written as Old Norse poetry, and so English speakers must often choose between comprehending the text itself and understanding the complexities of the written poetry styles common to that era.

2.    Summarize, then compare and contrast the myths of at least two Indo-European cultures with respect to the following topics. One culture should be your primary hearth culture, the other hearth culture can be any IE hearth, and does not need to be the same one throughout. In the event one of these topics does not appear in your primary hearth culture, what is the closest equivalent that is found in the culture?

TALES OF CREATION

The Vedic creation myth, as told in the Rg Veda, tells of a formless world in which there is neither existence nor non-existence. From that void came the life force, which may or may not have formed itself, and from this existence came the gods (Rg Veda 10.129). This one great god (who is called The Arranger in a later hymn) brings forth from the waters “the sacrifice” (10. 121.8), who is, in the next hymn, revealed to be the cosmic giant Purusa. The gods then create the world by dismembering Purusa in the ultimate Vedic sacrifice, and from his body came all the beasts in the air and the forests and in villages (10.90.8). As well, the four castes of Vedic society were created from the parts of his body: “His mouth became the Brahmin; his arms were made into the Warrior, his thighs the People, and from his feet the Servants were born.” (10.90.12) They also create the sun and moon, the gods Indra and Agni, and the Wind, as well as the various realms of the earth – his navel becomes the middle realm, his feet are the earth, and his head becomes the sky. In this one moment of ultimate sacrifice, this prime creator (who is referred to by many titles) brings the world into being.

The Norse creation myth is exceptionally similar to the Vedic, in which, in the beginning, there is a formless void – Ginnungagap – between the realms of endless fire in the South and endless ice in the North (Crossley-Holland 3). Within that void fire and ice mixed to become a mist, and from that mist the first giant Ymir is born. The first man and woman are born from under his arms, and the race of frost giants is born from his legs rubbing together. A primal cow is also there, called Audhumla, and she licks a block of ice-salt to reveal Buri, the first man. His son’s sons, named Odin, Villi, and Ve, combine to slay Ymir and to create the world from his body. His flesh became the earth, his bones the mountains, his blood the lakes and seas, and his skull the sky, held up by four dwarves. They then create the nine realms, with mild Midgard being made out of Ymir’s eyebrows. Their own realm of Asgard can be reached via the Bifrost bridge, but all of the realms are connected by Yggdrasil, the great World Tree. In another version of creation (the Lay of Rig), it is Heimdall who fathers the races of men – the thralls, the karls, and the jarls, setting up a sort of three-caste society for the Norse people (Crossley-Holland 18).

The similarities between these two stories are remarkable, given the vast distances of time and space between their creation (and subsequently their being written down). In both tales a primal giant is slain, and from his body the world is created – he fathers the first people, but then is slain in the ultimate sacrifice to create the world. In the Vedic myths, however, the prime creator seems to disappear, and the gods later take its place, where as in the Norse myths Odin goes on to take a very primary role in the later tales of the Aesir (though Villi and Ve are mostly forgotten). The end result is an ordered cosmos, emerging out of a chaotic void, with the sky made of the skull of a giant, and several “castes” of people to populate the “middle world”.

I admit to being very curious about the significance of Ymir’s eyebrows. While it seems very sensible to create the middle world out of the middle of the giant (his navel), I don’t typically associate eyebrows with being the middle of anything.

TALES OF DIVINE WAR

The most recognizable divine war in Greek mythology is that between the Titans and the Olympians. The most complete version of this tale is told in Hesiod’s Theogony, where the Titans were the gods that came first, descended from Gaea and Ouranos. In this tale Rhea, the mother of the Elder Olympians, saves Zeus from being eaten by his monstrous father, Kronos. This begins the division between the Olympians and the Titans, and war breaks out that lasts for ten years, with neither side fully able to win. (This division is not always clear, as some Titans side with the Olympians, and there are other gods involved as well.) Eventually some of the Elder gods get involved to break the tie, and Zeus unleashes his full wrath upon the Titans, who are ultimately defeated and imprisoned.

In Irish myth, the wars between the gods are part of a whole series of invasions of the island of Ireland. Most famous is the battle between the Tuatha de Danann and the Formorians, after the defeat of the Fir Bolg. The monstrous and scary Formorians, whose name means something like “the undersea ones” or “the great under(world) ones” (places of primal ancientness), are the inhabitants of Ireland before the Tuatha de Danann arrive (Squire 48). They attack the (invading) Irish Tuatha, and bring out both heroic traits and destructive ones, thus fulfilling their role as agents of chaos. The Tuatha de Danann are eventually victorious, though some of the Formorians are incorporated into their ranks through marriage, and some even have children with members of Danu’s tribe.

In these two stories, as in many others, we find a very comparable tale of divine war that replaces an earlier race of deities (often deities of chaos) with the deities of order and civilization. “Just as the Olympians struggled with the Titans, the Aesir fought the Jotuns, and the Devas the Asuras, so there is warfare in the Gaelic spiritual world between two superhuman hosts” (Squire 47). While I’d argue that the Norse tale of the Aesir and Vanir war also has elements of this similar divine struggle, Squire’s point stands that in many Indo-European cultures a prior race of chaotic beings is displaced by the eventual gods of civilization. Unlike the Olympians, who were one generation descended from the Titans, the Tuatha de Danann are not descendants of the Formorians, but instead their successors as rulers of Ireland. In both stories, the older, chaotic race is not totally displaced, and some members are seen to either fight for, or eventually join up with, the victorious side.

TALES WHICH DESCRIBE THE FATE OF THE DEAD

The Greek myths take death – and the procedures for dealing with death – very seriously. Funeral preparations (such as coins on the eyes to pay the ferryman, Charon, to cross the river Styx into Hades) were extremely important, and it was the task of the living to ensure that the dead reached the proper realms. Once dead, there were several destinations. The truly wicked went to Tartarus, a realm below Hades, where the Titans are said to be chained up eternally. (This fate doesn’t seem to happen to many people.) Epic heroes go to the Elysian fields, where they will spend the afterlife in great comfort. Most people go to Hades, which, while reported to be dark and shadowy in some places, in others has enough light to grow a meadow of asphodels and pasture horses (Puhvel 138-9). Hades is both the name of the underworld and the name of the god who rules it.

The Rg Veda contains many different explanations of the fate of the dead. Both cremation and burial are mentioned as rituals for disposing of dead bodies (10.16, 10.18). There are also several different fates suggested for the dead, once they enter Yama’s realm (Yama is the lord of the dead). Hymn 10.14 speaks of heaven, and leaving behind all imperfections to join with those in the perfect realm. Hymn 10.16 speaks of a new body and possibly prefigures the later beliefs in reincarnation (where the body goes to the afterlife with Yama, but the soul is dispersed to the wind to join a new body, or, per Hymn 10.154, is reborn through sacred heat). There are many different groups of people addressed in the funereal hymns, including the ancestors of the dead man, who are already in heaven, the gods (particularly Yama), the dead person themself, mother earth, and Death itself.

Oddly, both of these myths have a lord of the dead who has notable dogs (see Hades and Cerberus, and Yama and his dogs, as mentioned in 10.14.11-12). All told, however, the Vedic view of the afterlife, with the body ascending to heaven after it has been purified, is much gentler, rich in friends and ritual nourishment, and a world of light and renewal. Hades, by most accounts, is at the very least a fairly dreary place, where the dead exist in a sort of limbo, fed only by ritual sacrifices (Puhvel 138).

3.    Describe the image of the Otherworld and/or afterlife in three different IE cultures, one of which must be your primary hearth culture.

The Greek myths take death – and the procedures for dealing with death – very seriously. Funeral preparations (such as coins on the eyes to pay the ferryman, Charon, to cross the river Styx into Hades) were extremely important, and it was the task of the living to ensure that the dead reached the proper realms. Once dead, there were several destinations. The truly wicked went to Tartarus, a realm below Hades, where the Titans are said to be chained up eternally. (This fate doesn’t seem to happen to many people.) Epic heroes go to the Elysian fields, where they will spend the afterlife in great comfort. Most people go to Hades, which, while reported to be dark and shadowy in some places, in others has enough light to grow a meadow of asphodels and pasture horses (Puhvel 138-9). Hades is both the name of the underworld and the name of the god who rules it.

The Rg Veda contains many different explanations of the fate of the dead. Both cremation and burial are mentioned as rituals for disposing of dead bodies (10.16, 10.18). There are also several different fates suggested for the dead, once they enter Yama’s realm (Yama is the lord of the dead). Hymn 10.14 speaks of heaven, and leaving behind all imperfections to join with those in the perfect realm. Hymn 10.16 speaks of a new body and possibly prefigures the later beliefs in reincarnation (where the body goes to the afterlife with Yama, but the soul is dispersed to the wind to join a new body, or, per Hymn 10.154, is reborn through sacred heat). There are many different groups of people addressed in the funereal hymns, including the ancestors of the dead man, who are already in heaven, the gods (particularly Yama), the dead person themself, mother earth, and Death itself.

Germanic myths send people to a variety of destinations, depending on their function in life, their relationship with their families, and (in some cases) who wrote down the myth. The halls of the dead include Folkvangr, Freyja’s hall, where she takes her first half of the warriors slain in battle, Valhalla, Odin’s great mead-hall where the Valkyries (literally “choosers of the slain”) take half of the warriors slain in battle and where they will fight and feast until the end of the world. As well, there are the halls of the dead in Helheim, deep beneath the world tree (or perhaps far away to the North), across a river, where the dead live in a sort of misty, cool world. Hela, Loki’s half-beautiful, half-decaying daughter is the guardian and lady of the halls of the dead, and she looks after the hospitality of those halls. (Crossley Holland, Introduction) Modern beliefs also take cues from the fact that the sagas often describe special relationships between mortals and the gods they serve as a suggestion that perhaps those who are close to a particular god will go to that god’s hall in death. As well, there is the possibility of becoming one of the “mound-dead” – the ancestors who live in the mound and who look out for the lines of their descendants, and who are consulted in rituals like utiseta for advice.

4.    Explain the monomyth (aka “hero cycle”).

In narrative and comparative mythology, the monomyth, hero cycle, or hero’s journey, “is the common template of a broad category of tales that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, and in decisive crisis wins a victory, and then comes home transformed” (“Hero’s Journey”). The study of hero myth narratives dates back to the late nineteenth century, but was made most popular in the works of Joseph Campbell, who was influenced by Carl Jung’s view of myth. Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces describes the overarching pattern of this type of hero story, which can be applied to many heroes throughout the ages. Campbell describes seventeen stages in the monomyth, divided into three sections: Departure, Initiation, and Return. A very broad adaptation of this monomyth can be compared to hero sagas across many Indo-European cultures, as “hero stores” make for very excellent bardic retellings and are some of the best preserved tales that we have in ancient texts, though very often they too have been translated (and retranslated) from their original languages, often being passed along through the oral tradition for a very long time before being written down.

Application

5.    How does sacrifice and the idea of “sacred time and space” work to ensure in ADF ritual that the cosmos remains in order as described in myth?

Sacrifice is a key part of many Indo-European creation myths (including Vedic India, the Norse, and possibly the Romans). These transformations of Twin (the sacrifice) into the world itself (the cosmos) are recreated in the performing of sacrifices, though admittedly on a much smaller scale. As such, each sacrifice maintains the order of the newly created cosmos, taking an offering and distributing it into the cosmos itself – a practice that is supported by both Herodotus’ explanations of the Persian priests as well as by Indic texts. Sacrifice also allows for the reverse transfer to be true – for the power of the cosmos to be given to the people, usually through food or healing.

Sacrifice is performed to feed the cosmos, as well as the reverse, to regenerate life. The sacrificed animal gives food to the family, promoting life in another form. And as the pruned vines give new and stronger growth so does harvested grain, buried in the ground as seeds, give new grain. It’s all a continuing cycle (or circle, if you will) of life and death. (Thomas)

ADF ritual seeks to define sacred time and space through sacrifice; we make offerings to create the order of the cosmos and the sacred center/axis mundi, which helps to affirm the order of the cosmos and create order out of chaos.

(Thomas)

6.    The Gatekeeper is not a concept found in the IE cultures, but borrowed from the Afro-diasporic cultures. What characteristics are desired for Gatekeepers and how are they exemplified by at least one being within your primary hearth culture?

Gatekeepers are beings whose job it is, with our own power, to open and hold open the three gates of an ADF ritual, holding space for the transfer of energies that will take place. “The work is a joint act of worshipper and Gatekeeper, where powers are mingled and merged” (Newburg). Between the worshipper and the Gatekeeper, the energies raised by the ritual are communicated to the realms for which they are intended (Upperworld, Middleworld. Underworld, or Land, Sea, Sky, depending on the ritual context). As well, after the sacrifices are made, the Gatekeeper’s work is to hold open the gates while the return flow/blessings are poured forth from the otherworlds into the blessing cup (or directly into the worshippers).

While we always have the ability to access the Kindreds, working through a Gatekeeper “greatly enhances that power” (Newburg).

Gatekeepers are “usually a deity but could also be an ancestor or nature spirit” (Newburg). I have done rituals with all three types of Gatekeepers, and they were all successful. Regardless of types, good candidates for Gatekeepers are “liminal characters, associated with boundaries and passage between worlds. They may be guides, messengers, or psychopomps, such as Hermes, or keepers of boundaries, such as Heimdall or Janus. Gatekeeper deities are the easiest of all to contact, as they are already halfway into this world already” (Newburg). Hermes, as the messenger of the gods, makes sense as a Gatekeeper because his function is as a go-between – essentially the exact role we’re asking him to perform in an ADF ritual. As a keeper of the boundary between Asgard and Midgard, Heimdall is another good Gatekeeper, simply because guarding the boundaries between two places is what he does already, and asking him to extend that role to our rituals makes sense. Psychopomps (like Manannan Mac Lir) also make good Gatekeepers, since they are go-betweens between our world and the world of the ancestors, similar to how Heimdall is the go-between for our world and the realm of the gods. I have also done successful rituals with local spirits/guardians acting as the Gatekeeper(s), which works out well, since they are already acting as spirits of the place that we are gathering to worship. Making offerings to them (especially offerings that are of the type that local spirits usually like) and then asking them to extend that protection/area of affect to include our gates to the otherworld works out well.

7.    Choose a mythic theme or motif and explain how you would use it in a seasonal festival.

The idea of Fate (and the inescapability of it) is found in many Indo-European myths, whether it’s the Hellenic idea of Fate as an embodied deity as well as the force to which the Gods and Humans are bound alike to the Germanic ideas of Wyrd, where the actions that came before someone set them on a course that they could not stray away from.

You could easily choose any of the seasonal high days to associate with a fate-based motif, but I think the most appropriate for it is the Winter Solstice/Yule. On the Winter Solstice, the sun “returns” – it is the fate of the sun to return each year, but we are always on the edge about it (mythically) because what would happen if the sun did not return? So I would write a Winter Solstice rite that calls upon the sun to follow her fate to return from the darkness on the morning of the Solstice, to rise again and return to her strength, and to rise high in the sky again as is her fate to do until the world ends (if you believe Ragnarok to be a myth and not an invention of Snorri).

8.    Choose a mythic theme or motif and explain how you would use it in a rite of passage.

The mythic theme of descent, initiation, and return is common in many hero stories, and is part of Joseph Campbells’ monomyth. It is very appropriate to use as part of a coming-of-age ceremony or as a gender-affirming ceremony. For a coming of age, you would see the “stripping away” of the childhood self, ritually shown through the placing aside of something representative of childhood (possibly by burning it in a fire), a recognition of the change that is happening to the person through an initiation, which need not be anything more than a challenge for them to answer who they are and what their purpose is in embarking on this journey, and then a return to the community, where they are welcomed by the adults in the community as a new adult who will interact with the world as an adult and not a child anymore.

For a gender affirming ceremony the same steps would work, only the stripping away would be of the gender assigned at birth, followed by a questioning/challenge to define who they really are (and a chance to officially give themself a new name, if applicable), followed by a return to the community to be accepted as the gender that they wish to live as.

9.    Show how the monomyth applies to a single hero from your primary hearth culture.

Campbell describes seventeen stages in the monomyth, divided into three sections: Departure, Initiation, and Return. We can follow this story in the Anglo-Saxon story of Beowulf, as set forth in the epic poem of that name, as a sort of great pattern to the hero story. Beowulf does not always follow all of these steps, nor does he seem particularly interested in following them in order, but I found this exercise fascinating as I looked at an Epic Hero from my own chosen Hearth Culture.

Departure:

• The Call to Adventure – Beowulf hears that the Danes are in trouble with the monster Grendel
• Refusal of the Call – Beowulf refuses to become King after the death of Hrothgar
• Supernatural Aid – Beowulf is granted a giant-made sword Hrunting
• Crossing the First Threshold – When Beowulf first steps onto Danish lands after the guard allows him to pass
• Belly of the Whale – Beowulf sinks to the bottom of the lake

Initiation:

• The Road of Trials – Beowulf faces three great evils – Grendel, Grendel’s Mother, and the Dragon
• The Meeting with the Goddess – He fights Grendel’s Mother
• The Woman as Temptress – (This one doesn’t seem to apply to Beowulf, who is much more interested in fighting things with his mighty sword than he is in women, who barely grant any mentions in this story beyond Mead-bearer.)
• Atonement with the Father – Hrothgar warns Beowulf against having too much pride
• Apotheosis – The Danes think Beowulf is Dead
• The Ultimate Boon – After killing Grendel’s mother, Beowulf cuts off Grendel’s head and returns with it.

Return

• Refusal of the Return – (This also does not seem to apply directly to Beowulf’s story, though he is supposed to return at various points to the Danes, he keeps leaving again to do more heroic things, even after taking a many-year break from hero-ing.)
• The Magic Flight – The return home to Gretland with all of his treasures (though not expressly magical)
• Rescue from Without – Wiglaf helps Beowulf kill the dragon
• The Crossing of the Return Threshold – Beowulf crosses over the water – a difficult threshold – to return home
• Master of Two Worlds – Whether home is in Denmark or in Gretland, Beowulf is the master and hero to all, a great and mighty example
• Freedom to Live – (Unfortunately Beowulf doesn’t get the freedom to live, as he is mortally wounded in his final battle against the dragon, and ultimately is cremated and dies a hero’s death.)

(Goldsmith)

 

10.           When considering the Indo-European myths in general, discuss whether the common themes (such as tales of creation, divine war, and fate of the dead) are strong enough to seem like variations, or if the differences are strong enough that the themes are less important than the cultural variations.

The themes that cut across Indo-European myths are very strong. So strong, in fact, that I think they can be dangerous. It is easy to start to think of these works as all variations on a monomyth, or a single myth cycle, when, in reality, each variation has its own cultural flavor, its own history, and its own context.

While it would be tempting to create, for example, a Gaulish creation myth using the myths we have from Scandinavia, Greece, and Vedic India, that myth would not, in essence, be Gaulish. It would lack the context that growing up in a Gaulish culture would give it, as well as the essential Gaulish-ness that would come out of years of development within that context. So while we could certainly make some conjectures, and those similarities are fun to conjecture about, it think it is extremely unwise to go about making up myths because we know the cultures were similar.

In the same way that we approach Tiwaz, Jupiter, Zeus, and Dyaus Piter as different gods in different cultural contexts, I think we owe the Norse, Roman, Greek, and Vedic cultures the same level of respect when it comes to their myths. If we can discuss the similarities of the gods while still allowing that they are individuals, approaching them individually in our rites, I think it makes sense to do the same with the myths about those gods.

That said, I think the comparisons are also important, as it can help us learn what makes the Indo-European cultures part of one larger language and cultural group, as well as give us some interesting variations to discuss as we compare myths. Reading Puhvel’s Comparative Mythology, there is a strong argument for connecting these cultures, and perhaps a lot can be learned through comparing them. Knowing that the Vedas and the Eddas both contain a creation myth about a giant who is partitioned into the world is valuable – but reading the Rg Veda and seeing the ultimate holy sacrifice described as Purusa is dismembered has a very different feel than reading about Odin, Villi, and Ve as they kill Ymir to create the world. Perhaps that is merely a variation because of who was doing the writing, but I think the differences are important to remember.

11.           What is the use in looking at myths from across the Indo-European cultures for someone who follows a single primary hearth culture?

As someone whose primary hearth culture is Germanic (in general) and Anglo-Saxon (in specific), it’s particularly useful to be able to look at myths from across the Indo-European cultures to see where I can fill out what I know of my own hearth when the written sources are lacking. Obviously you have to be careful when you’re reading in that way, because not everything is cross-applicable, and (as mentioned in question 10), the differences between cultures are important. But if you have a culture where writings about religion are as sparse as they were in Anglo-Saxon England, it helps to be able to look first at sister cultures like Iceland, Sweden, Norway, and continental Germany and Denmark. But it also helps to see patterns of myths that exist across the IE cultures as a way to fill out your own cosmology, even if it is only something you use for yourself in personal practice.

12.           Describe the relevant works of at least 3 artists (writers, musicians, etc.) in the more modern (1400 CE to present) historical era who have engaged with the symbolism and ideas of your historical hearth culture.

JRR Tolkien is most famous for his fantasy worldbuilding and novels, but by trade he was a scholar of Old English and a linguist. His works were created around the idea of an “English” mythology (as there is not a lot of extant material about the Old English cultures), to the extent that even some of the Dedicant Path work in ADF has materials that reference or heavily rely on Tolkien’s interpretations of Anglo-Saxon mythology. Though The Lord of the Rings and it’s world are influenced by other cultural mythologies (especially the Finnish Kalevala and Catholicism), ultimately it is the Anglo-Saxon/English myths that define Middle Earth. This is especially evident in the languages of Middle Earth, where the language of the Rohirrim is essentially Old English, and the mead-hall culture is critical to the people who live there. As well, Tolkien has an exceptionally poetic translation of Beowulf that was published posthumously, and having read it, it’s one of my favorite tellings of that particular epic. Tolkien’s works heavily rely on his background as a scholar and linguist, especially of Old English, and his interactions with the Anglo-Saxon and Old English language and stories are critical to Middle Earth.

Seamus Heaney was an Irish poet in the 20^th century who was particularly concerned with the English language as it was spoken in Ireland and elsewhere. He also completed a translation of Beowulf which is (next to Tolkien’s) a favorite of mine for it’s use of poetic devices and ability to create vivid imagery – something that many translations of ancient works can lack. His Beowulf is considered groundbreaking for his ability to combine modern language with the original Anglo-Saxon poetic and musical devices. He explored Anglo-Saxon influences in his own works as well as other linguistic influences on the spoken word.

Kathleen Herbert is a British novelist who has delved deeply into Anglo-Saxon mythology and culture, both for her own writings and as a scholarly pursuit. Her Looking for the Lost Gods of England is one of my favorite resources for folk religion and information on the seasonal and religious works of the Anglo-Saxons, and her published lecture Peace-Weavers and Shield Maidens is a great resource on the position of women in Anglo-Saxon society. She has published a number of historical fiction novels set in the Anglo-Saxon era (which I own, but sadly have not yet read), and is a current lecturer at Rochester University.

Practicum & Reflection

13.           How do your ideas of the afterlife tie to images of the Otherworld and/or afterlife in historical IE myth? How have your ideas about the Otherworld and/or afterlife grown and/or changed since examining those myths?

I take most strongly after the idea of the Norse or Anglo-Saxon mound-dead. I want to be able to look after my family line, even after I am dead (and even though I am unlikely to have any children) – I want my wisdom to be valued and something that those who were close to me can still seek out. Of course, it’s just as likely that I will end up in a sort of grey, misty hall of the dead, or even simply cease to exist. By and large, questions of the afterlife aren’t something that have ever concerned me greatly – I’m much more interested in how I live this life, and living so that I leave behind a legacy that does not require me to have a certain afterlife, simply the fingerprints that I will leave behind on this world, as small or local as they may be. This is something that has developed as I have more deeply studied Anglo-Saxon mythology, certainly, but also is something that has developed out of knowing that the “question” that Christianity answers (“What will happen to me when I die?”) is something that everyone has struggled with, but that isn’t the fundamental question that my paganism strives to answer. I am much more interested in the question “What leads to living in right-relationship with the world and the people around me?” than I am in worrying about the afterlife. Whether this is an ancient understanding I don’t know, but I do know from reading hero stories in Norse and Scandinavian contexts, there is the sense that one must both live and die well, and there is an understanding of an afterlife, but it does not seem to have been the all-consuming question that modern Americans bring to it, I think because so many of us grew up steeped in a culture that expects Christianity’s extreme hyperfocus on what happens after death.

14.           Create a ReCreation of the Cosmos module that draws from the creation myth of your primary hearth culture. If a creation myth does not appear in your primary hearth culture, draw from the culture’s body of lore and/or the monomyth.

My Anglo-Saxon hearth culture does not have a creation myth, but the sister Scandinavian cultures do, and that is what I have drawn from here.

In the beginning, there was distance. The distance between South and North. The distance between Fire and Ice. The distance existed before the many worlds were born, and in it there was, licked from the ice by the great cow Audhumla, a giant. Ymir he was, and he was the progenitor of all of the Jotun. There in the great between, he drank the milk of the great cow Audhumla, until he was slain. Odin, Villi, and Ve slew him, there in the gap between, and from him they fashioned all of the worlds. They fashioned the earth from his flesh, the seas from his blood, the mountains from his bones, the stones from his teeth, the sky from his skull, and the clouds from his brain. Four dwarfs held up his skull, one in each of the four cardinal directions. His eyelashes became the fence surrounding Midgard, or Middle Earth, the home of mankind.

Today we stand within those eyelashes, on the earth that was once the great sacrifice that brought the many worlds into being, and below it, we find that there are three wells. These three wells are the Well of Fate, the Well of Roaring, and the Well of Mimir – from them we seek wisdom, and we hallow this well that it may connect with the sacred Wells beneath Yggdrasil, that we may speak with the worlds below.

Above these three wells, we find a great tree – Yggdrasil – the steed upon which messages are transmitted from world to world. The dragon gnaws at its roots, the stag forages on its leaves, and the eagle soars in its branches, and around it spin the nine worlds of all of creation. We hallow this tree, that it may be Yggdrasil for us, that we may be the axis of the many worlds, the sacred center of all things.

And between these many worlds, up from the wells below, riding upon the tree, we find the bridge of Bifrost – shining and bright, the fiery way that leads from Midgard, where we now stand, to Asgard, the home of the Gods. We hallow this fire, that it may be the sacred fire that transmits our messages to the upperworld, that we may speak to the worlds above.

By all the mighty kindreds three
By fire and well and sacred tree
By land and sky and flowing sea
I recreate our cosmos.

15.           Create an evocation to a being in one of the following parts of the Core Order of Ritual that draws inspiration from your primary hearth culture:

• Earth Mother
• Gatekeeper
• Deities of Land
• Deities of Sea
• Deities of Sky
• Outsiders
• Nature Spirits
• Ancestors

 

Nerthus, Ancient Mother of the Earth

She from whose womb the green Earth springs.

She from whom we have all emerged, She who sustains us,

She to whom, in the fullness of time, Our bones will return.

May we always walk lightly upon your ways.

May we seek to give as freely as we receive

May we learn the meaning of true grace through your guidance

Come, Veiled One, and hear our prayer;

Join us in the warmth and light of our Good Fire.

 

Earth Mother, accept this offering!          (Make Offering)

All: Earth Mother, accept this offering!

 

Tiw, Ancient Mystery of the Sky

Boldest and most righteous of the Gods,
Bright Father of this middle world

As children of the Earth and Sky,

May we always walk the path of Justice

May we seek to do right by our kith and kin

May we learn the meaning of true sacrifice through your guidance.

Come, Just One, and hear our prayer,

Join us in the warmth and light of our Good Fire.

 

Sky Father, accept this offering! (Make offering)

All: Sky Father, accept this offering!

 

 

Works Consulted

Atsma, Aaron J. The Theoi Project : Greek Mythology. 2011. Web. 11 May 2016. <http://www.theoi.com/&gt;.

Crossley-Holland, Kevin. The Norse Myths. New York: Random House, 1980. Print.

Goldsmith, Nytedra. “The 17 Stages of Beowulf’s Monomyth.” Prezi. 2014. Web. 26 February 2018.
< https://prezi.com/ghypmdw-0oyy/the-17-stages-of-beowulfs-monomyth/&gt;.

Gundarsson, Kveldulf. Our Troth, Volume I. North Charleston, SC: BookSurge Publishing, 2006. Print.

–. “Hero’s Journey.” Wikipedia. The Wikimedia Foundation. Web 26 February 2018.
< https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey&gt;.

Newburg, Brandon. “Ancient Symbols, Modern Rites: A Core Order of Ritual Tutorial for Ár nDraíocht Féin.” ADF. Web. 21 August 2014. <https://www.adf.org/members/training/dedicant-path/articles/coortutorial/index.html&gt;.

Puhvel, Jaan. Comparative Mythology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989. Print.

–. Rg Veda. Trans. Wendy Doniger. New York: Penguin Books, 1981. Print.

Squire, Charles. Celtic Myth and Legend. London: Dover Publishing, 2003. Print.

Thomas, Kirk. “The Nature of Sacrifice.” Ar nDraiocht Fein. Web. 28 April 2020.
<https://www.adf.org/articles/cosmology/nature-of-sacrifice.html>.