(This article is reprinted from the Summer/Fall 1997 issue of Wolf Age, published by the Warrior Guild of the Asatru Folk Assembly, P.O.Box 445, Nevada City, CA 95959.)
When I was younger, the image of the Viking was pretty uniformly that of the bloodthirsty slayer of monks. Clearly, this stereotype needed to be challenged with a view of the truly complex Scandinavian society. As so often happens, though, the pendulum has now swung towards the other extreme. A good many historians have in recent years portrayed warfare within these societies as peripheral, the occupation of a small minority and quite divorced from the lives of the majority. Taking a cue from this, those who prefer Asatru to be just another bland neopagan faith have seized upon these portrayals to justify their marginalization of the warrior element of the ancient faith. To these, the Asatru Folk Assembly's magazine for modern warriors, Wolf Age, represents a challenge to the passive spirit of their belief and presents the "wrong image". The PC Viking is a difficult fiction to maintain and they'd prefer such issues as Wolf Age raises be silent.
Our Gods, though, are not of the "kinder, gentler" variety. Where conflict is mandated or necessitated by circumstances, they meet it with relish and vigor. Odin with Gungnir, the stirrer of strife, and Thor with Mjollnir are not the sort of stuff of which passive neopagan religions are made. The Vanir, so often presented as a more peaceful sort, also were associated with battle. These are Gods that speak to the needs of the warrior, to the necessity of valor and honor. By extension, they speak to all of us.
War is the most extreme of human endeavors. For the individuals involved, the experience is of emotions on a scale greater than any other- fear, anger, loss, exultation, remorse, sacrifice, comradeship, love. Survival motivates, but often survival of another at the expense of oneself, survival of loved ones, of comrades-in-arms, of a Cause- survival that demands sacrifices like Tyr's sacrifice of his hand. In this experience the warrior comes to a point where courage is not a concept, but a test; where honor is no set of theories, but how one deals with great pain, boundless grief or defeated but honorable enemies. In the lesser challenges of our daily lives, there are lessons to be drawn from the warrior and the warrior faith.
The warrior spirit of Asatru was, of course, an essential element of Germanic society throughout history. The culture was multifaceted but in all respects reflected this ideal. Legal, political and social mores hinged on the warrior spirit. So key was this aspect of the culture that violating it excluded one from the faith and the socio-political order. Tacitus wrote, "To throw away one's shield is the supreme disgrace, and the man who has thus dishonored himself is debarred from attendance at sacrifice or assembly. Many such survivors from the battlefield have ended their shame by hanging themselves."
The Havamal, of course, reveals this spirit. "From his weapons away no one should ever stir one step on the field; for no one knows when need might have, on a sudden, a man of his sword." And juxtapose the famous "fame of a man's deeds" to this: "The unwise man thinks that he will live forever, if from fighting he flees- but the ails and aches of old age dog him, though spears have spared him."
Many of us have military experience. Many others can recount the deeds of ancestors with pride- my great-great grandfather, a Southerner who joined the Union cavalry and fought under Sherman; my great-times-five grandfather who joined the Army to fight Shawnees on the Ohio and instead found himself among the "whistling bullets" at Yorktown. And further back we read of the exploits of our ancestors with pride. Their honor and the glory they won stirs us today.
For all these reasons, Wolf Age is a publication I anxiously await and devour. From cover to cover- entertaining and informative, tapping into the lessons of our warrior ancestors, today's warriors, and our warrior faith. For some of us, it allows us to tap into our memories; for all of us, useful lessons learned the hard way!
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