Education

Lore Program Sample Course

A sample of our Lore Program given here for free to all interested Heathens

Heathen Essentials Sample Course

Wassail!

Welcome to Heathenry (also known as Asatru). Perhaps you are beginning your journey as a heathen. Maybe you are an “interested bystander,” someone who may not be heathen but who knows heathens or is interested in learning more about our religion. Who knows, perhaps you are somewhere in between! In any event, this online, self-study program is for you. It is our hope that, as you work through the readings, essays, and sample questions, you will develop a fuller understanding of Asatru and what it means to be heathen in a modern context.

This course is designed to be both a stand-alone course. You will also need a copy of The Prose Edda, The Poetic Edda, Eyrbyggjasaga and one or more introductory guides.

It is our hope that working through both this online course will provide further depth of understanding.

The Heathen Essentials module is also the gateway to the Lore Program. The purpose of Heathen Essentials is to ensure that all incoming students possess a grounding in the Lore and basic Heathen concepts

After passing the Heathen Essentials test, a Full Troth Member may then enter the Lore Program proper. The Heathen Essentials module counts as 3 credits towards graduation in the Lore Program.

Again, welcome to Heathenry! Luck to you on your journey.

Frith-
The Lore Program

Readings:

  • Select one of the following introductory guides:
  • Essential Ásatrú, either edition
    • Prologue: Feasting the Gods at Raven Hammer Hall
  • Our Troth, third edition.

Volume 2: Chapter One: The Gods and Goddesses of the Troth

  • A Practical Heathen’s Guide to Ásatrú
    • One: An Introduction to Heathenry
  • The Way of Fire and Ice.
    • Chapter One: What is the Way of Fire and Ice?

Questions and Exercises:

1) How do you define “heathen”? What, for you, is the core of the religion?

2) What are the other names for heathens and heathenry? Where do they originate, what do they mean, and who uses them?

3) Have you attended a heathen ritual? What happened in it? Was it like or unlike the rituals described in your guide? How did it make you feel?

4) What attracted you to heathenry? Were you “recruited” by a god, goddess, or spirit? Were you interested in a historically heathen people, such as the Norse or the Anglo-Saxons?

Readings

Select one of the following introductory guides:

  • Essential Asatru, (either edition)
    • Chapter One
    • Chapter Two
    • Chapter Three
    • Chapter Four
    • Chapter Five

OR

  • Our Troth, third edition
    • Volume One: Heathen History.This whole volume is relevant to understanding heathen history, but it may be a bit much to read all 300 pages of it just for a Heathen Essentials lesson. I would suggest that if you are feeling overwhelmed, start by reading:
      • Chapter Six: The Viking Age, 153-174.
      • Chapter Seven: Medieval to Modern, Eddas and sagas, pp. 175-183.
      • Chapter Nine, The Heathen Revival, 251-299.

OR

  • A Practical Heathen’s Guide to Ásatrú
    • Two: A Brief History

OR

  • The Way of Fire and Ice
    • Chapter One, pp. 10-13
    • Appendix II: The Origins of the Pagan Revival

Questions and Exercises:

  1. Who were the Indo-Europeans? Why are they important to heathens and their history?
  2. What do we know about the Germanic peoples in the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and Classical Antiquity (the time of the Greeks and the early Romans)? What can we determine about their religion?
  3. What was the Migration Age? Where did the different Germanic tribes settle in and around the Roman Empire?
  4. Who were the Vikings? Why are they important to heathens and their history?
  5. When and why did the different Germanic peoples convert to Christianity? How does the long Christian period continue to affect our religion today?

Readings:

  • The Poetic Edda:
    • Hávamál (“Sayings of the High One”)
    • Vafþrúðnismál (“Vafthrúdnir’s Sayings”)
    • Skírnismál (“Skírnir’s Journey”)
    • Hárbarðsljóð (“Hárbard’s Song”)
    • Hymiskviða (“Hymir’s Poem”)
    • Lokasenna (“Loki’s Quarrel”)
    • Þrymskviða (“Thrym’s Poem”)

Select one of the following introductory guides:

  • Essential Ásatrú, (either edition)
    • Chapter Six: The Gods
    • Chapter Seven: The Goddesses

OR

  • Our Troth, third edition
  • Volume Two: Heathen Gods (Once again, reading all the relevant parts of Our Troth is itself something of a heroic feat, and perhaps too much for just a Heathen Essential Lesson. I suggest you start by reading as much as you can of the sections on Odin, Baldr, Tyr, Frigg, Njord, Freyr, Freyja, Loki, and Holle.)

OR

  • A Practical Heathen’s Guide to Ásatrú
    • Three: Gods and Goddesses
    • Appendix: The Problem of Loki
    • The Way of Fire and Ice
      • Chapter Three: The Norse Gods

Questions and Exercises:

  1. Who are the different gods and goddess of the Germanic pantheon? Which ones are most prominent or important to you?
  2. What is the Prose Edda? Why is it important to heathens today?
  3. What is the Poetic Edda? Why is it important to heathens today?
  4. Consider the connection between many of our gods and goddesses and the various forces of nature. How do our god/desses manifest themselves in the world? Write down your impressions.
  5. Our gods and goddesses operate according to the rules of reciprocity, as we all do. Make an offering to the gods and goddesses you feel closest to in your life, in order to thank them for their gifts. Then, reflect on the experience, and write down your impressions, any omens you noticed, feelings you had, etc.
  6. Examine the accusations Loki makes against the gods and goddesses in Lokasenna. How many are true, and how many outright lies? How many are truths that Loki twists to his own ends? Who defends whom, and why do you think that is important to know? Why do the gods and goddesses bind Loki at the end of the poem?

Readings:

  • The Prose Edda “Skáldskaparmál”
  • The Poetic Edda:
    • Alvíssmál (“All-Wise’s Sayings”)
    • Reginsmál (“The Lay of Regin”)
    • Fáfnismál (“The Lay of Fáfnir”)
    • Rígsþula (“The List of Ríg”)
    • Sigrdrífumál (“The Lay of Sigrdrífa”)
    • Helgakviða Hundingsbana II (“Helgi Hundingsbani”)

Select one of the following introductory guides:

  • Essential Ásatrú, (either edition)
    • No reading

OR

  • Our Troth, Third edition.
    • Chapter Fourteen: Jotuns, Trolls, and the Host of Muspell, pp. 459-478
    • Chapter Fifteen: Wise Women: Disir, Norn, and Valkyries, pp. 501-528.
    • Chapter Sixteen: Spirits of Land and Sea, pp. 529-575.
    • Chapter Seventeen: Wights of the Home and Farm, pp. 575-589.

OR

  • A Practical Heathen’s Guide to Ásatrú
    • Four: Ancestor Worship in Heathenry
    • Five: The Landvaettir and Other Wights
  • The Way of Fire and Ice
    • Chapter Two, pp. 26-31

 

Questions and Exercises:

  1. Write down as complete a geneaology of your family line as possible, including the living and the dead. If possible, include not just dates of death and birth but also locations, countries, and professions. Consider your own life, and how the lives of your family impacted you. Do you come from a line of teachers, or craftsmen? How does what you do now reflect what your family has always done?
  2. If possible, start collecting small mementos, photographs, or other treasures owned by or reflecting your family. If you are in a committed partnership, do this for both families as a way of bringing together both of your families under one roof. Create an altar, shrine, or other sacred part of your home for your ancestors to “live in” now. Use this as a focal point when you make offerings to your ancestors and ask them for their guidance.
  3. Consider researching a body of water (lake or river) near you. Using topographical maps, follow the line of a river upstream until you can discover its source – for a lake this might be a river that spills into the body, or it might come up directly from the ground. Prepare yourself and those who wish to join you for a hike, and go find the spring or headwaters from which the water flows. Once there, meditate on the importance of the local wight who lives in the spring and, when you can sense its presence, leave offerings of grain, milk, mead, or other gifts.
  4. Go outside near your home or on your property. Sit still and listen to the wights around you. Try to remember which birds called when, what insect noises there were, any animals calling or crossing the land, the sound of the wind through branches or across the grasses, etc. Recognize that we are surrounded by our fellow wights! Do this at the same time of day for several days. Then change the time of day (ie from morning to early evening) and do it again. Notice the differences, and the similarities, in the wights all around you. Write down your thoughts, responses, and any changes you notice over time.
  5. Working through the Eddas, list all the various halls of the dead. Who is “in charge” of each hall, and what kind of dead people go where? What does this say about the ways in which our ancestors viewed the afterlife/afterlives?
  6. Consider your family’s hamingja. Meditate on what it is to have that legacy within you, and write down your thoughts, inspirations, or findings. Later, meditate on how your life contributes to your family’s hamingja. Write down your thoughts, inspirations, or findings. If you have children, what parts of the family hamingja do you think will be passed down to them? If you do not have children, but have nieces/nephews/cousins, how does that change the family hamingja (or does it?)?
  7. Which gods and goddesses seem to have no connection to the afterlife/afterlives as seen in our Lore? What does that say about how our heathen ancestors viewed their soul-parts? Discuss this with a group or consider it on your own, and write down your thoughts.
  8. Consider the disposal of your body. Write down what you would like to be buried or burned with, and why.
  9. After reading Rígsthula (the Lay of Rig), consider Heimdal’s role in human society. Why is this such an important poem, and what does it say about the lives of our ancestors? Does Rígsthula have relevance for modern heathens? Why, or why not?

Readings:

  • The Poetic Edda:
    • Völuspá (“The Seeress’s Prophecy”)
    • Grímnismál (“Grímnir’s Sayings”)
    • Baldrs draumar (“Baldr’s Dreams”)

Select one of the following introductory guides:

  • Essential Ásatrú (either edition)
    • Chapter Ten. Living Tru

OR

  • Our Troth, third edition
    • Chapter Eighteen: The Nine Worlds

OR

  • A Practical Heathen’s Guide to Ásatrú
    • Six: Creation and Cosmology
  • The Way of Fire and Ice

Chapter Two: The Norse Pagan World

 

Lesson One Essays, Provided
~Musings on Fire, Ice and the Importance of Salt – Patricia Lafayllve

Exercises:

  1. Consider the importance of Auðumla in the creation myth. How does having a cow feed the first being play itself out in what was, essentially, a cattle-culture? How does the importance of cattle to our ancestors impact us in the modern day? Write down your thoughts.
  2. Meditate on the subject of wyrd. How do the patterns of others impact your life, and how does your life impact the patterns of others? As you meditate, look back on your own past actions, and try to see where they have made you what you are, and how they will impact what you would like to become.
  3. What are the nine worlds? Where are they located, and what are their aspects? Who lives where?
  4. What are the different halls of the gods listed in the Grímnismál? What can we learn about them?

Readings

  • Eyrbyggja’s Saga, Chapters 1-20
  • The Poetic Edda:
    • Hávamál (“Sayings of the High One”)
    • Guðrúnarkviða I (“The First Lay of Gudrún”)
    • Sigurðarkviða hin skamma (“A Short Poem about Sigurd”)
    • Helreið Brynhildar (“Brynhild’s Ride to Hell”)
    • Dráp Niflunga (“The Death of the Niflungs”)
    • Guðrúnarkviða II (“The Old Lay of Gudrún”)
    • Guðrúnarkviða III (The Third Lay of Gudrún”)
    • Oddrúnargrátr (“Oddrún’s Lament”)
    • Atlakviða (“The Lay of Atli”). (“The Greenlandic Poem of Atli”)

Select one of the following introductory guides:

  • Essential Ásatrú (either edition)
    • Chapter Ten: Living Tru

OR

  • A Practical Heathen’s Guide to Ásatrú
    • Seven: Weird and Orlog
    • Eight: Concepts of Time
    • Nine: Innangardh and Utangarth

OR

  • Our Troth, third edition
    • No readings.(It’ll probably be in Volume Three)

OR

  • The Way of Fire and Ice
    • Chapter Two, pp. 31-35
    • Chapter Five: Core Values

Exercises:

  1. What proverbial advice does the Hávamál present? Do these form an ethical system? Or are they merely practical suggestions for living life?
  2. Some scholars apply to the Norse material the concept of útgarðr (out-yard) and innangarð (in-yard). Do you find these concepts useful? Make a list of all the people in your life who you consider part of your personal in-yard (ie family, kindred, friends, community). Examine the way that some people fit into more than one category, and think about how this impacts your view of the world.
  3. How do you, as a heathen, hold true to your virtues and ethical system when faced with non-heathen situations? Consider the ways in which your behavior and actions model the virtues of our ancestors when at work, “out on the town,” or engaged with your non-heathen family and friends. Write down ways in which you can see the overlap, and ways in which you find yourself “different” due to your heathen value system.
  4. Make a list of all the oaths and promises you have made in your life, prior to becoming heathen and as a heathen. Which did you fulfill? Which did you not? Consider what your actions say about you, and then consider the promises other people have made to you in the past and fulfilled or not. What does this tell you about the importance of oaths in heathen society?
  5. What is the Nibelung/Niflung/Volsung cycle of poems and stories? How do they help inform us about heathen behavior?
  6. What is a saga? Why are the Icelandic Sagas important to heathens today?
  7. What does Eyrbyggja’s Saga show us about (alleged) pre-Conversion heathen beliefs and practices? Why is there reason to be skeptical of its information?
  8. How do the characters in Eyrbyggja’s Saga interact with law and the legal system? What role does law play in their lives and in shaping their behavior?
  9. Do the characters in Eyrbyggja’s Saga appear fated for certain destinies? How can you tell?

Readings:

  • Eyrbyggja’s Saga, 21-44.
  • The Poetic Edda:
    • Hávamál (“Sayings of the High One”)
    • Skírnismál (“Skírnir’s Journey”)
    • Sigrdrífumál (“The Lay of Sigrdrífa”)

Select one of the following introductory guides:

  • Essential Ásatrú, either edition
    • Chapter Nine: Germanic Magic

OR

  • Our Troth, third edition
    • No readings.(It’ll probably be in Volume Three)

OR

  • A Practical Heathen’s Guide to Ásatrú
    • Ten: Runes Charms and Magic
    • Eleven: Seidh

OR

  • The Way of Fire and Ice
    • Chapter Four: Developing Spiritual Practice
    • Chapter Six: Runelore
    • Chapter Seven: The Art of Seiðr

Exercises:

  1. Create a chart listing the various futharks, the letters associated with them, and their most general meanings. What insights do you have on each rune, based on your understanding of heathen ways?
  2. Define seidhr (seid). Is seidhr spae? Are they one and the same, or distinct parts of an overall whole? How were seidhworkers viewed by our ancestors (positive and negative)?
  3. What is the place of folklore? What charms do you use in every day life, and why do you use them?
  4. What supernatural events occur in Eyrbyggja’s Saga? Which characters use magic, how, and for what purposes? How do the examples of magic and the supernatural this saga illuminate or contradict the different categories of Norse magic as described in your guide?
  5. How are magic and runes described in the Hávamál? What are Odin’s various powers?
  6. How are magic and runes described in the Skírnismál? How does Skírnir use them to curse and uncurse the giantess Gerd?
  7. How are magic and runes described in the Sigrdrífumál? What spells does it contain?

Readings:

  • Eyrbyggja’s Saga 43-65

Select one of the following introductory guides:

  • Essential Ásatrú (either edition)
    • Chapter Eleven: Questions and Conflicts
    • Chapter Twelve: Hearth to Hof

OR

  • Our Troth, third edition
    • No readings.(It’ll probably be in Volume Three)

OR

  • A Practical Heathen’s Guide to Ásatrú
    • Twelve: Ethics, Hospitality and Oaths
    • Thirteen: Heathen Rituals, Heathen Ways
    • Fourteen: Blots for the Holy Tides
    • Fifteen Sample Life Rituals
  • The Way of Fire and Ice
    • Chapter Eight: Finding Community
    • Chapter Nine: Building Community

Exercises:

  1. Consider where you live in the world. Write down how your geographic location impacts the heathen holy days and their timing (ie Yule is in December in the Northern Hemisphere, but in June in the Southern Hemisphere). What do your local weather patterns indicate as seasonal changes? Consider how you may need to adapt your holy tides and practices to work with the world, and how that may be different than our Northern European ancestors experienced their world. What specific things can you do to include yourself and your worship as part of the seasonal celebrations in your area?
  2. If you are part of a group of fellow heathens, meet and discuss which holy days are most important to your group and why. Write down which practices your group resonates with the most and attempt to schedule a full year of meetings. If you are a solitary heathen, do the same thing, but consider within yourself which holy days are most important and why, then write your own schedule.
  3. After every ritual you perform, write down what worked, what didn’t, any omens that might have presented themselves, and any thoughts, feelings, or reflections that you and/or the members of your group felt/observed before, during, and after the ritual. Do this for the space of one year, then look back on the pages and see what stayed consistent, what changed, and what developed as you went along. How did your practice evolve?
  4. If you are in a group, discuss how you will define yourselves. Will you be bound by oaths to one another? Will you have a hierarchical structure, or be consensus-driven? Do you consider yourselves more like a family or like a religious practice group? Write down your decisions.
  5. If you are a solitary practitioner, consider ways in which you can be in touch with the larger heathen community. Are you the member of a large organization you can network through? Are there local events open to heathens in your area? Attend at least one local event, and then write down your findings, thoughts, and considerations.
  6. What are a few of the major variations within heathenry today? List them and briefly describe what you know about each.
  7. What codes of behavior do the characters of Eyrbyggja’s Saga follow? How do they different men and women, high-status or low-status characters?
  8. How do you evaluate the character of Snorri Goði? Does he act properly according to heathen ethics?
  9. What role do promises and obligations play in Eyrbyggja’s Saga? What bargains are made? What are the consequences?

If you have finished the lessons above, and read the sources to your satisfaction, congratulations!  You have finished the self-paced Heathen Essentials.  If you’d like to continue on to the Troth’s Lore Program proper, and you’ve been a Troth member for a year, email the Provost.  We can send you the test for the Introduction to Heathenry, which also serves as the entry-point to our Lore Program.  If you’re not a Troth Member, or you are but don’t want to enter the full Lore Program, you do not need to take the test.  (Although you can if you want to; just email us.)

Overview of the Essentials Course

For each week, read the selections given. The guiding selection will be from your chosen Introductory guide book; selections from historical primary sources will supplement the main reading. As you go, answer the questions and do the exercises for yourself and to your own satisfaction. When you have finished and feel ready, email the Provost for the final exam.

Introductory Guides

We have designed the Heathen Essentials course to work with any one of several guides (with the idea that many students will already have purchased one before starting the Lore Program.) Since each guide is slightly different, it may make sense to read it in order once first, before beginning the lessons of Heathen Essentials.

Choose one of the following guides to read (or reread) for this course:

  • Essential Ásatru: A Modern Guide to Norse Paganism, second edition (Citadel Press, 2021), is a short introduction to the religion by the Troth’s Diana Paxson.  (If you happen to have the older edition, the book’s structure and chapter numbers have not changed between editions.)
  • A Practical Heathen’s Guide to Asatru is an introductory work by Patricia M. Lafayllve one of the founders of the Troth’s Lore Program.
  • Our Troth, third edition. (The Troth, 2020- )This is the latest edition of the Troth’s comprehensive reference and guide to heathenry. Three volumes are planned; the first two volumes are released.  The third should be out sometime in 2022.  Due to its incomplete status, you may need to supplement it with another book for information on community, ritual, and esoterica.
  • The Way of Fire and Ice: The Living Tradition of Norse Paganism (Llewellyn, 2019) by Ryan Smith.

Recommended Translations

The best translation of the Prose Edda remains that of Anthony Faulkes from the Everyman Library (1995). The Penguin translation by Jesse Byock (2005) is also extremely good.

Carolyne Larrington offers an excellent prose translation of the Poetic Edda (Oxford 1996, revised 2014.) Lee Hollander’s translation of the Poetic Edda remains popular among heathens, because it is a poetic rendering in Germanic-style verse. Beginners may, however, find it difficult to understand, for that very reason.

There are two good, current translations of the Eyrbyggja Saga by Penguin; one by is translated by Paulson and Edwards and the other by Judy Quinn.

You should avoid the older, out-of-copyrights translations available on the internet. These are often repackaged and reprinted as inexpensive editions, but they reflect badly out-of-date scholarship. Be especially careful purchasing editions on line to be sure you’re getting the right thing.