Freyja and the Dwarfs: Sex and Sexuality in the Viking Age

In this episode I explore what it means to give something to a community, to sacrifice something, a part of yourself or something you own. It is important to know just how much to give so that you can avoid losing too much. These are the words of wisdom from Odin. I have often found myself giving too much to a community, and when what you give does not come back in some form of reciprocal acknowledgment, we get disappointed. The last four months have been incredibly busy, and I thought that it was because of my being busy that this episode kept being pushed further into the future, but not so long ago, I realized that it was in fact because I needed some important lessons about community before I could publish it. 

In this episode I’ll take you on a trip through the historical components behind the idea that Vikings did mushrooms before battle. We will explore the context for why that claim emerged in the 1600s, when the Danish scholar Thomas Bartholin first put it out there, and why it’s the kind story that’s thoroughly a myth in the sense of something that's entirely made up. After that, I’ll offer some comments on the idea that psychotropic agents are helpful for the purpose of reaching a higher self, communing with spirit, ritual, whatever you’d like to call that connection we humans can make with the world around us.

In this episode I'm talking about Viking wolves and those manly men out there who think of themselves as "wolves." We're diving into the wolf's history in the Nordic story-world and how it relates to contemporary male fantasies about individualism, rugged masculinity, and being a protector. We will be learning about honor, legal codes in Scandinavian history, habeas corpus, and why Tyler Durden in Fight Club is an irresponsible fool.

This is the second part in the two-part series on rune magic. I cover the period from c. 700 CE to the end of the medieval period, discussing various kinds of magico-religious inscriptions that archaeologists have found. I also discuss the literary evidence a bit, centering on the Eddic poem Sigrdrífumál. Although there's a lot that could be covered from the period 1600-1800, I skip that period to talk about the origin of contemporary rune magic in the late 19th century. We learn about the Austrian rune occultist Guido List and what his rune "revivalism" was all about. We also learn about some of the people he associated with and how some of them went on to influence the Nazi movement's use of runes and occultism. Finally, we learn a bit about how List's type of rune magic has become the dominant strain in contemporary rune magic.SHOW NOTESAmazon.com: Hitler's Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich: 9780300189452: Kurlander, Eric: BooksThe Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology: Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas: 9780814730607: Amazon.com: Books

This episode is the first in a series about rune magic. There is a lot to cover on that topic, so I have decided to split it up in two parts. In this episode I cover the earliest inscriptions from c. 0 CE to the beginning of the Viking Age. I provide a rundown of the invention and development of the runic writing system and give an overview of select runic inscriptions that can be understood as magical or religious. Contemporary rune magic is far removed from what it was in ancient times. There is no evidence that people practiced runic meditation or divination with runes in the way that popular books on the topic suggest today. Most contemporary scholars will reject the idea that runes were used for magic at all, but that is usually because they are unfamiliar with the surviving inscriptions that clearly have magico-religious content. There are good reasons that the idea that runes could have been used for magic has fallen out of favor. I explain why that is the case in this episode, and I dig into what rune magic seems to have been about in the early period based on the available evidence.SHOW NOTES:Kragehul I - WikipediaKylver Stone - WikipediaOld English rune poem - WikipediaGummarp Runestone - WikipediaStentoften Runestone - WikipediaVimose inscriptions - WikipediaSvingerud Runestone - WikipediaVadstena bracteate - WikipediaRune poem - WikipediaAbecedarium Nordmannicum - WikipediaCodex Runicus - WikipediaRabanus Maurus - WikipediaGothic alphabet - WikipediaRing of Pietroassa - WikipediaBjörketorp Runestone - WikipediaGolden Horns of Gallehus - WikipediaEinang stone - WikipediaGothic runic inscriptions - WikipediaEngraving on 2,000-year-old knife thought to be oldest runes in Denmark | Archaeology | The GuardianJelling stones - WikipediaRock Carvings in Tanum - WikipediaMars Halamardus – Wikipedia (in German)Greek alphabet - WikipediaPhoenician alphabet - Wikipedia

In this episode I discuss what ritual and magic are. We begin with the story about how Thorhallr procured a whale for Thorfinn Karlsefni's starving crew in Vinland, and what it says about attitudes to ritual and magic in the Icelandic sagas. Then we take a tour through medieval opinions on non-Christian rituals and magic that have influenced Nordic literature. After that, I go deep into the development of concepts around magic in the early modern period, the rise of alchemy, Hermeticism, and Solomonic magic. All this leads to some thoughts on the western esoteric tradition and some thoughts on how modern heathens think about ritual and magic today, not least my own ideas and attitudes to the subject.

This episode begins with the story about Gefion who created the island of Sjalland. I examine the story of her meeting with Gylfi in the form that it is represented by Snorri Sturluson in Edda. After that, I take a dive into the witch craze of the early modern period and discuss its impact on European-western societies, what role it actually played in social life, and how a goddess of the meadows was turned into a witch. I extrapolate some ideas from that, which hint at how we've created a society of the spectacle, a society where human life is framed, encased, and reduced to representations in the tiny boxes that we keep in our pockets, our phones.

In episode 8, I tackled sex and sexuality in a broad perspective. I would be remiss not to follow that up with a deep dive into what we today call queer sexualities and categorize with the LGBTQ+ acronym. Are there sources from the medieval period, the Viking Age, and before that, which can help illuminate these subjects? Some scholars and practitioners of Nordic paganisms suggest there are -but what does it look like with a critical eye toward the pre-Christian context; a period that did not (at least as far as we know) have a language for expressing queer sexuality like we do today? I'll unpack the stories that are often used as examples of pre-Christian attitudes to queer sexuality and take a deep dive into them. After that, I'll offer some additional thoughts on how we should approach the stories, the material culture from the Viking Age, and our current situation. Please NOTE: if you're looking to have biases confirmed in this episode, please understand that this is not how a critical perspective on our story-world functions. I do hope that you'll find inspiration from what I say. As always, I expect you as listeners to form your own opinions and interpret what I say as recommendations for further development of your own thoughts!SHOW NOTESExposure to continuous or fluid theories of sexual orientation leads some heterosexuals to embrace less-exclusive heterosexual orientations (nature.com)How Copenhagen Became The "Gay Village Of Northern Europe" - Jetset TimesValkyrie fra Hårby - Birka female Viking warrior - WikipediaViking warrior women? Reassessing Birka chamber grave Bj.581 | Antiquity | Cambridge CoreA female Viking warrior confirmed by genomics - PMC (nih.gov)

In this episode, I'm discussing sex and sexuality in the Viking Age --and far, far beyond. I departure from the story about Freyja sleeping with four dwarfs in exchange for the necklace Brisingamen. I discuss other, related stories, not least Ari Thorgilson's report that Hjalti Skeggjason was outlawed for calling Freyja a "bitch" in a poem that he composed in the year 999. From there, I consider other reports on Scandinavians' sexlives in the Viking Age, and what they mean for the general picture we get of pre-Christian attitudes to sex and sexuality. I relate this to factoids about human evolution, our physical configuration, and our inner hormonal processes associated with sexual activities. From there, I take it to a global level and discuss some aspects of other cultures' sexual practices. If you listen to this episode and feel that I don't give you a straight answer to what we can take from this knowledge of history in terms of applying it to our lives today, you'll have gotten the point: it's not for me to decide or even suggest how you should relate to this subject. 

In this episode we follow in the footsteps of Unn the Mindful, one of the few known women leaders of a settlement in Viking Age Iceland. We explore the reasons her family left Norway for Iceland and what we can learn from her example today. This episode is about family sovereignty: the difference between "family values," a talking point made up by people who want to control our lives, and a sovereign family that defines itself on its own terms without submitting to outside forces. What does it mean to be a member of a family? What does "family" even mean? And how was this all understood in ancient times in the North?