Generosity in Asatru

In the heroic literature, few attributes are praised more than generosity, and few attributes more reviled than greed. Why do we value generosity so much in Heathenry? Why does it occupy such a central place?

The Heathens of old told stories about how greed twisted people into monsters, like in the lay of Fafnir where a man killed his brother over a treasure, and the greed transformed him into the fearsome dragon that Sigurd later would slay. Even more recent stories like the Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit (inspired partly by Germanic heroic literature) show greed in the characters of Gollum and Smaug.

The Heathen value of generosity is found at the center of our most important ritual.

Blot is our most important ritual: the sacrifice we make to the Gods. At the center of it is this idea that through sacrifice we send them a gift. A gift is something that is given without expectation of payment or favor in return. A gift given with the intention of creating an obligation on the part of someone else is not a gift at all. It’s a trap. It’s dishonest. It is, at the end of the day, still a transaction. A true gift is not part of a transaction or a negotiation of power.

The Gods show us generosity when they give us gifts, and we show generosity back through sacrifice.

This value in generosity is shown through the gifts the Gods give us in life. Our sacrifices to them do not pay for those gifts. They are not payments for services rendered. They are reflections of the benevolence of the Gods. Through sacrifice, we honor not only them but the part of ourselves that feels similarly compelled to give without expecting anything in return–the divine goodness that is within us.

Generosity towards everyone, not just for the Gods.

As Heathens, we not only reflect generosity back to the Gods, but we show it to the spirits in the world around us and our ancestors as well. We show it to all of humanity as well. We give as the Gods give. Not only to our family and friends, but to the neighbor and to the stranger. Some of us give our money, our time or share our prosperity in other ways.

There is forgiveness in Heathenry and it’s best to understand it as part of generosity. 

“Forgive” comes from Old English forgifan, which originally meant simply “to give; to grant.” It’s something you give freely—not out of abjection, but because you’re rich enough in spirit that you can afford it, or that the injury took so little that it was almost beneath your notice.

You may also know that in a certain situation, holding grudges and taking vengeance, however satisfying, will only weaken you in the long run. 

Hávamál 127 can be read as an endorsement of revenge: gefat þínum fjándum frið, “don’t give frith to your enemies.” 

But Hávamál 48 also reminds us that:

Mildir, froeknir men bezt lifa,

sjaldan sút ala. . .

Generous, bold men live best,

seldom nursing sorrow. . .

Not every wrong should be forgiven, and we have no mandate to offer forgiveness to absolutely anyone and everyone.

Forgiveness is also not a transaction. Imagine someone cheating on their spouse. Their spouse is hurt by this, so they work as hard as they can to buy them gift after gift. But no matter how many gifts they give, forgiveness doesn’t come. That’s because the forgiveness they’re looking for can’t be bought. No one’s forgiveness can be bought. It can only be given freely without expectation of anything in return.

Let’s say I have injured you. You take me to court and I lose the case and have to pay you some kind of damage for the injury. I pay them in full. Does that mean you have forgiven me? Do you have to forgive me now that I’ve paid what a court determined was a fair amount for me to pay?

No. That’s not how it works. I could have given even more than was fair, and you still may never forgive me for the injury I did. Society may be satisfied, but you’re under no obligation to give that gift of forgiveness to me. 

Forgiveness happens between people, because you can’t insult or injure the Gods.

A lot of people who come from other traditions come with this idea that they have angered the Gods and that they have to do something in order for the Gods to forgive them. People tie themselves up in knots trying to figure out what to do to set things right with the Gods because they sneezed in front of a statue of Odin. 

Let’s get clear here. A statue is a statue. Odin doesn’t live there. He doesn’t occupy it temporarily like a little hotel room. He doesn’t hop down whenever you invoke him. He is anywhere he wants to be whenever he wants to be there. He is just as likely to be there seeing you sneeze in the shower as he is to be there watching you sneeze in front of a statue. 

We need to get over ourselves a little bit. Your sneeze is not so powerful that it can injure or insult a God.

You may have grown up thinking that it’s possible to hurt a God with what you do, to sin and do injury to them rather than just against other people. That the littlest stray thought could cause irreparable damage. Put that out of your mind. You don’t need forgiveness from our Gods and even if you were to cause them some injury, to believe the Gods are of such miserly spirit that they would not forgive you is to add insult to injury.

Sneeze away. Though if other people are there you might want to cover your mouth. In fact, cover your mouth even if you’re alone. It’s a good habit to keep.

How can I redeem myself in Heathenry?

If it is generous to forgive, then what is it to seek redemption? Is it even possible? 

The emphasis in the literature is on forgiveness, not what someone must do to be redeemed. In the Sagas, oftentimes a settlement or reconciliation would be agreed upon by all parties, which would avoid a blood feud, but is that really redemption?

Forgiveness is an expression of generosity, but redemption is an expression of justice.

If you caused harm to someone, it’s their prerogative to forgive you. If you offer some kind of reconciliation and they don’t take it, that is no fault of theirs. The best you can do in this case is to reconcile yourself with society and move on. If someday this person you harmed wishes to forgive you, wonderful. 

But to demand someone forgive you, or to try to make the harmed person into the ‘bad guy’ for not forgiving you is just a continuation of the harm. If you cannot reconcile with the individual, then reconcile with society and move on.

Examples of forgiveness and redemption in Medieval Germanic Heroic Literature

The Saga of Hrólfr Kraki tells the tale of Hǫttr, a cowardly wimp at king Hrólfr’s court. Hrólfr’s mighty men keep throwing bones at him for fun—so many, that he builds a little fort out of the bones in a pathetic attempt to protect himself. 

But the hero Bǫðvar-Bjarki takes him to kill a troll, feeds him the monster’s blood and flesh, and Hǫttr is transformed into the mightiest and most fearless of all Hrólfr’s warriors, winning the new name of Hjalti. 

The saga adds that he became known as Hjalti the Generous, because he never tried to take revenge on the men who’d thrown bones at him, even though King Hrólfr would have found it excusable.

The sagas are full of revenge taken to a destructive extreme (an awful lot of Njáls saga, for example), and of touchy people who take offense, hold grudges, and seek revenge at the drop of a hat (Grettir the Strong, for example). They make for great reading, but not great role models; Grettir ends up outlawed, exiled, accursed, in agony, and dead, in that order. 

But those who are generous, not just with food and drink and gold rings, but with forgiveness are the ones who most enrich their own lives and their communities in the long run.

Saga characters who avenge any insult, no matter how slight, are generally not heroes, while the generosity and open-handedness of great kings and heroes sometimes extends to allowing even serious insults slide right off. The hero of Sneglu-Halla þáttr gets away with some rather outrageous (and funny) insults, because King Haraldr harðráði respects his poetic skill and quick wits, and simply refuses to take offense.