In the world of 21st century Heathenry, one of the easiest ways to engage with likeminded people is, and likely will remain, the world wide web. When it comes to bringing the action into the “real” world, things immediately start becoming much more complicated. Certain communities never really end up stepping outside their digital comfort zone, forming the core of what some people call “cybertru,” while in other, rarer, cases we can see online communities slipping through the cracks and settling down in Midgard.
In recent years, one of the few communities that successfully made that jump is Asatru UK (AUK), which started out as a humble Facegroup group back in 2013. Soon after its inception, AUK members began gathering in various places in the United Kingdom. Members helped kickstart the Asgardian Heathen festival, which is where I first encountered them back in 2018.
The first time I met AUK, I was left with an overwhelmingly positive impression. These people seemed to be both truly passionate about the old religion and level-headed individuals who were easy to have a talk with. They also sold hats, which, in the wet British summer, was quite the blessing. Besides articles of clothing, AUK had a couple of books for sale in their festival stand, and while I did not take much heed to those back then, it seems that the group has been focusing more heavily on publishing in recent years.
While their first publications were casual editions and translations of the Old Norse texts Hávamál and Völuspá, AUK went further this February by publishing a short guidebook titled A Traveller’s Guide to Modern Heathenry. Thanks to contacts within the innermost circles of the group, I was able to secure a copy and felt it was appropriate for me to share my thoughts on the matter.
According to Hamish Cronin, the director of publication of AUK and editor of and contributor to the present volume, the idea behind The Traveller’s Guide to Modern Heathenry came to him early in 2020. Following several years of advising people online about what Heathenry was and was not about, sometimes going into minute details, he felt that there was a need for a publication that he and other AUK members could refer to if need be. The book, a collaborative effort penned by half a dozen affiliates of the group, incorporates ideas, concepts, and analysis from many more AUK members. This makes it, in some ways, a crowd-sourced documentation of what it means to be a Heathen in Britain in 2021.
Hamish Cronin, editor of and contributor to The Traveller’s guide to Heathenry [courtesy]
“Talking to people, you get a general feeling that they believe in quite similar things with a number of unique twists added,” said Cronin in a phone interview. Cronin says that work on the book began in earnest in the fall of last year, with Cronin sitting down to write about his many years of experience navigating the Heathen milieu.
While some chapters are written by individuals with expert knowledge of their field (Dean Kirkland for blóts, Jules Mackinnon for runes and magic, and Ross Downing for ancient prehistoric Heathenry), Cronin aimed at producing a document that would be very beginner friendly, and not pretend to be a definitive explanation of the religion. He aimed, instead, “at producing an overview of Heathenry without telling people what to do.”
While in some ways, this outlook could be said to limit the scope of the project, there is no denying that the finished product certainly gains in accessibility what it might have abandoned in authoritativeness. As it stands, The Traveller’s Guide to Modern Heathenry is a rather short pamphlet of about one hundred pages, eighty of which form the core ten chapters, which are expanded upon by a lengthy reading list and plenty of pages for note-taking.
Right from the start, the reader is met with quite short paragraphs and chapters written in a clear, easy-to-read language. Each idea presented is succinctly introduced, then elaborated on before preparing the stage for the following one. The reader will find neither the flourished, devotional language characteristic of many contemporary Pagan works, nor the dry and cryptic verbiage of more academic publications. The text is written such that any general reader, even a teenager, would probably be able to read and comprehend it, which represents a degree of accessibility not often encountered in the world of Pagan publishing.
When it comes to its content, though, The Traveller’s Guide to Modern Heathenry covers most of the bases similar contemporary Pagan publications do. Ancestors, gods, runes, historical religious practices, and more can all be read about in the book. Keeping true to the nature of the book, which was conceived as a reflection of modern Heathen practice, one can find a healthy amount of practical information regarding kindreds, blots, and background information about the AUK group.
In addition, one can also find, at the tail end of the book, a chapter focusing on depression in a Heathen context. While I cannot recall having ever read about this topic in any other contemporary Pagan publication, its inclusion here was well worth it and acts as a witness of a document created by and for members of a close-knit community.
Interior pages of The Traveller’s Guide to Modern Heathenry [courtesy]
While the neighborly flavor of this book that permeates its pages makes for an easy read, it also does come with a set of problems. To start with, the motley nature of the information presented in the book is apparent after just reading a few pages. While certain chapters go quite in depth and are therefore pretty substantial (like the 14 pages devoted to rituals), others remain woefully short (there are only two and a half pages covering ancestor worship) and will inevitably leave the reader hungry for more – sometimes a lot more.
This issue feeds into another potential source of distraction the reader might well encounter in their reading of The Traveller’s Guide to Modern Heathenry, namely the tone shifts found throughout. This slightly bewildering feature becomes apparent early on, when the chapter titled “Introduction to Heathenry” leaves way for a discussion of “Bronze Age Heathenry,” penned by Ross Downing. In just a few pages, the reader leaves the safe territory of an easy to read, jargon-free presentation of what Heathenry means, to be dropped into a much more academically-tinged chapter which bombards the reader with a high number of facts about the archeology, worldview, and international cultural context of Bronze Age Scandinavians. Even though the facts presented in this chapter are all worth discussing in a book about Heathenry, the information hereby presented is not given nearly enough space to truly make an impact and might just end up confusing some prospective readers.
A similar issue is that, while in many places this work presents religious beliefs and practices in a casual, non-authoritative manner, one can still find quite a few definitive statements that are clearly debatable or not discussed nearly enough in detail. One can find, for example, in the chapter on rituals, the statement that blóts in the Viking age “would probably be done in Skaldic verse,” which is a theory that, as far as I am aware, has never been widely discussed. Similarly, on the chapter “Runes, Seidr and Galdr,” one can read that “[practitioners of seiðr] travelled from town to town and were treated with great respect but also feared,” which is quite a generalization built on but a handful of written accounts that describe the practice.
All in all, I met statements in this book far too many times that were either unsubstantiated or critically lacked context. While the current publication does not pretend to be academic in any way, it would have been significantly enriched by discussing a number of topics more in depth. This would have had the advantage of providing even more interesting facts to the reader, all the while better reflecting the diversity of interpretations and understandings surrounding ancient beliefs and practices.
Still, even if The Traveller’s Guide to Modern Heathenry is somewhat lacking in the scholarly department, one ought not to be too critical of what it has to offer. Any casual presentation of just about any topic is bound to be fraught with simplifications, shortcuts, and omissions. For someone who is not yet versed in the complexities of Norse historiography, medieval Icelandic philology, or comparative mythology, this guide does a more than decent job at both presenting the burgeoning religious movement, as well as the history the myths are built upon. The fact that the book makes for a mostly smooth read that can be completed in under two hours also adds to its decidedly mainstream appeal.
While The Traveller’s Guide to Modern Heathenry will not answer complex theological and mythological questions a well-read Heathen might have, it is bound to work wonders as outreach material. I can very easily see this book being handed over to prospective members of AUK, interfaith associates, representatives of the civil society and much more. It showcases an earnest drive for community and knowledge stemming from one of the most dynamic young Heathen groups around.
What it does, it mostly does very well, and what it omits can easily be addressed by getting in touch with the group, consulting the book’s well constructed bibliography, or simply waiting for future publications which will undeniably satiate the curiosity of a growing number of Heathens, in Britain, and beyond.
Cronin, Hamish. Ed. 2021. A Travellers Guide to Modern Heathenry. An Introduction. Asatru UK Publications. £4,99 (Paperback), £2,49 (Kindle edition). Available on amazon.co.uk
Note: a second edition, featuring a new layout and the correction of a few typographical errors is slated to be released sometime in April.
THE WILD HUNT ALWAYS WELCOMES GUEST SUBMISSIONS. PLEASE SEND PITCHES TO ERIC@WILDHUNT.ORG.
THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS EXPRESSED BY OUR DIVERSE PANEL OF COLUMNISTS AND GUEST WRITERS REPRESENT THE MANY DIVERGING PERSPECTIVES HELD WITHIN THE GLOBAL PAGAN, HEATHEN AND POLYTHEIST COMMUNITIES, BUT DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE WILD HUNT INC. OR ITS MANAGEMENT.
The Wild Hunt is not responsible for links to external content.
To join a conversation on this post:
Visit our The Wild Hunt subreddit! Point your favorite browser to https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Wild_Hunt_News/, then click “JOIN”. Make sure to click the bell, too, to be notified of new articles posted to our subreddit.