This unusual and exotic looking plant is called the Houseleek and was known to our ancestors as ðunorwyrt or thunder−wort. As the name suggests it is sacred to Thunor. The German name Donnersoart translates into English as Thunderbeard. The plant often grows on roofs were it is said to protect the building from lightning strikes!
Līn-wyrt or flaxon
Līn-wyrt was one name used for Flax. Līn gives us the word linen, the fabric made from Līn. However this may have been a borrowed word. Flax on the other hand has a Germanic root. Jacob Grimm viewed Frau Holla as being associated with flax. It's also sacred to Frêo (Freya) – the Flaxen-Saxon goddess! And like so many other plants it symbolised her hair. When you prepare flax for spinning it turns a very light blonde colour and looks just like hair. The root word for flax comes from the Germanic *fleh meaning 'to plait'.
Līn-wyrt was one name used for Flax. Līn gives us the word linen, the fabric made from Līn. However this may have been a borrowed word. Flax on the other hand has a Germanic root. Jacob Grimm viewed Frau Holla as being associated with flax. It's also sacred to Frêo (Freya) – the Flaxen-Saxon goddess! And like so many other plants it symbolised her hair. When you prepare flax for spinning it turns a very light blonde colour and looks just like hair. The root word for flax comes from the Germanic *fleh meaning 'to plait'.
Forwarded from ᛉ Sagnamaðr Stark ᛉ
This early Anglo Saxon pommel appears to have an interesting bindrune consisting of an early Ear rune, with the Tir and Æsc runes facing down towards the blade, and more Tir runes on the other side. If it is indeed the Ear rune, this pommel could be its earliest appearance.
ᛠ ᚨ ᛏ
Book is Elder Gods by Stephen Pollington.
ᛠ ᚨ ᛏ
Book is Elder Gods by Stephen Pollington.
Forwarded from The Chad Pastoralist
A solid post worth reading by Dan Capp from The Fyrgen.
Modern Pagans should develop altars, form kinship networks via friends or family - or a combination of both - enabling group worship.
Create daily personal practices, read historical European literature and the source material on Paganism, and with a reverential eye, worship the Gods and your ancestors, coupling personal gnosis and divine revelation with an understanding of the attested sources.
Modern Pagans should develop altars, form kinship networks via friends or family - or a combination of both - enabling group worship.
Create daily personal practices, read historical European literature and the source material on Paganism, and with a reverential eye, worship the Gods and your ancestors, coupling personal gnosis and divine revelation with an understanding of the attested sources.
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The Fyrgen • ᚫᛚᚢ:ᚢᛚᚫ
I'm curious about Pagans who talk about 'winning'. I suspect they would elaborate by saying that they want Paganism to become the dominant religion. Dominant where? Nationally? Among their ethnic kin exclusively? Globally?
And which Paganism, exactly, should…
And which Paganism, exactly, should…
My good friend Dan done a great job with his latest Fyrgen chat with Wulf Ingesunnu. Wulf’s work is highly esoteric, and I’m not always a fan of this type of approach. Those who followed the Æhtemen will know my path has become exoteric and very English (Anglo-Saxon) based, but this is by no means an attack on Wulf as I owe him a great deal. I’ve known Dan for 14 years however I’ve been friends with Wulf for about 30 years now and it was Wulf who introduced me, by and large, into Wodenism when I was in my early twenties. We’ve learnt a lot from each other over the years and I always look forward to raising another drinking horn with him. I strongly suggest those interested in esoteric Wodenism to follow him here.
A little plant dedicated to Thunor. This flower is called Bugle, a common plant found across Britain. It's believed that the old English name for Bugle was Ðunorclæfre or Thunor's Clover. In English folklore the Bugle was also known as 'Thunder-and-Lightning' which certainly makes the connection with the thunder God Thunor.
The Rowan tree had a magic which was once known to keep evil magic and witches at bay and there was even a name for a wand made from Rowan, ON reynivǫndr. It takes it’s name from the root word for red (h₁rewd) after its berries. We also know this tree by its other names, Mountain Ash, Witchbane and Quickbeam.
To reach Geirröds home, Thunor had to cross the Vimur River, but Geirröd’s daughter Gjalp tried to drown him. She urinated into the river creating a great rapid. Thunor was able to stem the flow of the river with a huge boulder he flung into the current, but the river was swollen and still too wide to cross, that is until a Rowan on the other bank held out a branch and aided Thunor across the water, hence the tree is also known as Thor’s Helper.
To reach Geirröds home, Thunor had to cross the Vimur River, but Geirröd’s daughter Gjalp tried to drown him. She urinated into the river creating a great rapid. Thunor was able to stem the flow of the river with a huge boulder he flung into the current, but the river was swollen and still too wide to cross, that is until a Rowan on the other bank held out a branch and aided Thunor across the water, hence the tree is also known as Thor’s Helper.
In the patrice (one half of a stamping die) image above we can make out the Wodenic figure to the right of the rider. This figure appears to be guiding the warriors spear. The die was probably used to make helmet plates as similar imagery can be found on helmets from England as well as Scandinavia.
Other examples of this Wodenic figure (most likely Woden himself) from the Sutton Hoo helmet and two from the Valsgärde helmet.
Trust gut feelings. The saying refers to intuition, that feeling of instinctive understanding. Where does it come from? Perhaps the feeling is the connection we have with our orlæġ or wyrd, guiding us on our path. Today the word yarn is wool that has been spun for weaving but we also use the word to describe a tale or story, so an association here with Wyrd and the Weavers of fate. The origins of the word yarn (from the PIE *ǵʰer) means guts or intestines! The intestines of animals were often used for weaving. This is where we get ‘catgut’ from. Not the guts of cats, but short for cattle-gut. And the Waelcyrges were even known to weave fate with human guts. According to Njal’s Saga, before the Battle of Clontarf a Caithness man named Dörruðr spied twelve Waelcyrges weaving the fates of the fighting men. Their loom was made of bloodied spears – their loom-weights were severed heads and the yarns they wove were the intestines of men. Trust gut feelings.
Wyrd, Scyld and Weorðende. Three OE names that correspond with Urðr, Skuld and Verðandi, the Norns (OE Wyrd) who determine our fate. They weave a single thread called the Weft (our life-thread) back and forth between the Warps, all the folk, places and events we will ever encounter, which is probably why the OE word needle (nædl) was used as a kenning for the soul.
Mistletoe was once called Donnerbesen in Germany, meaning Thunder Broom (thunder besom). The name is shared with a stylised form of brickwork that was incorporated into Saxony houses designed protect against lightning strikes. The church later renamed this pattern teufelbesen or ‘devil’s broom’. Grimm stated that a kenning for donnerbesen was alpruthe ‘elf-rod’ whilst alpgeschoss ‘elf-shot’ was a kenning for the thunderbolt, which is somewhat different to the Anglo-Saxon idea that elf shot were the tiny flakes of flint arrows known to cause cramps and other inflictions.