In a world gone digital, with the convenience of social media and around the clock access to the world wide web, it can sometimes be arduous to discriminate between what takes place online and in the real world. While this conundrum affects all aspect of modern life, it is especially noticeable among minority or niche communities whose members are relatively few and far between, such as Pagans and Heathens.
If the advent of the internet has indeed facilitated communication and cooperation between followers of the Old Religion in a way that physical newsletters never could, it has also, in a way, stunted growth. Numerous online communities have suffered or still suffer from becoming little but digital fora where nothing concrete happen besides the sharing of terrible, low-effort memes and links to dubious writings that generally remain unread.
Yet, there do exist some cases where an online-born communities can coalesce into something more than a mere digital echo chamber and bring about material change and growth into the real world. One such example is the AUK, or Asatru UK, which despite starting as an unassuming Facebook group quickly became one of the most dynamic communities within the British Pagan and Heathen scene.
Nine years after the beginning of their real-world activities, AUK is now poised to host Britain’s largest ever gathering of Heathens in modern times, the Althyng, in early July. The Wild Hunt spoke with Jack Hudson, event officer of AUK, to learn more about this upcoming event, as well as the history of the organization, and the importance of community.
Jack Hudson, Event Officer of Asatru UK [used with permission]
Growing up spiritual in a Christian household, Hudson always knew there was something more to life, something sacred. However, following the death of his mother when he was six, his faith was shaken and he started looking for something new. This was when his father gifted him The Complete Guide to Middle-earth by Robert Foster, which lead him to become fascinated by Tolkien’s Pagan influences. Many years later, now a young Heathen active on the internet, he became one of the very first members of a newly-established online community dubbed Asatru UK.
“The Facebook page of AUK opened in 2012 as a successor of another page I have forgotten the name of,” tells Hudson. “The following year, we had our first in-person meeting. It took place at the Golden Fleece, a pub in York. There were 13 people, including me.” When Hudson talks about the early days of the organization, there is a certain shimmer in his eyes, as if he just now realized all the time that had gone by and all the work that went through building it from the ground up.
Following that first, rather intimate, pub moot, AUK continued to grow, both online and offline, and an organizational structure was set up. In 2016, the UK’s first all-Heathen festival, the Asgardian, debuted. The following year, AUK grew to include its first regional kindreds, and it became quite clear that something was happening in the UK Heathen scene.
That year was also when, to manage the growth of Heathenism in the country, Jack Hudson, Dan Coultas, and Hamish Cronin established the Confederation of UK Heathen Kindreds in order to bring together and further cooperation and assistance with local Heathen organizations, both within and outside AUK.
Just as it seemed that AUK and British Heathenry in general were starting to see significant growth, 2020 happened. First the Asgardian festival was cancelled because of logistical and organizational challenges, then COVID-19 shut down society.
“We did not do a whole lot in 2020” says Hudson. “Geoff from Runecast Copper was going to host another event, the Sumarrblót Heathen Festival in North Yorkshire, but this had to be cancelled because of Covid.”
The Asatru UK Odin godpole, designed by Saxon Storyteller and carved by Twisted Viking [courtesy]
As 2020 came and went, the executive committee of AUK shifted their focus on the hugely important events of the following year. “We don’t have land yet, so we wanted to build a god-pole that we could take to events all over the country,” says Hudson. “We made a poll on our Facebook group, which has over 3000 members, about which God we should build a pole of, and the people chose Odin. Then we got the Saxon Storyteller to make a couple designs and those were voted upon as well. Finally, we asked the folks over at Twisted Viking to carve the pole itself.”
This three-meter (10 feet) high pole, which is made of three interlocking pieces to make transport and indoor setup easier, was first revealed in September 2021 during what AUK dubbed the Grimnirsmoot.
“We consecrated the pole during a nine-hour ceremony,” says Hudson. “We spent three hours chanting, then three hours reciting all the kennings and names of Odin, and then smudged the pole for three more hours before the ceremony’s start.”
This rather intimate and ritualistically-focused event which took place in the midst of a pandemic managed to gather close to a hundred people, a showing comparable to the final Asgardian festival in 2019, and strengthened the resolve of the organizers.
The following year, 2022, would be an even bigger affair.
“We actually plan to build and consecrate one god-pole every year,” says Hudson. “After the Grimnirsmoot, we asked our members again and this time, they voted for Freya, so we started to plan for the Freyasblot.”
Even before 2020, the idea to organize something special to celebrate the nine years of AUK was floating among the committee. Eventually, it was decided to bring the two events together in what could very well be the largest Heathen gathering in contemporary British history: the Althyng.
“We did not want to just have a small moot – we wanted to make something more accessible for the larger Heathen community,” states Hudson, who, as the events and project manager, is the person in charge of finding locations to host these kind of events, coordinating the building of the god-poles, and informing and interacting with the community about the festival. However, when asked if he should be considered the main man behind the Althyng, he shakes the idea off.
“The entire executive committee of AUK, 14 people in total, are involved in the project,” he says. “We don’t want the organization to be about one person, but about the community itself.”
Official artwork for the Althyng 2022 by Anglesdottir Arts [courtesy]
While, for reasons of accessibility, AUK tend to organize their events in the central English region of the Midlands, the Althyng will be taking place under the relatively septentrional skies of North Yorkshire.
“We had selected a site in the Midlands,” says Hudson when questioned about this somewhat novel choice, “and the owner seemed positive, but he was quite evasive about the price. When he finally told us the price, it was really expensive. We could have paid, but we did not want to drain the treasury as we wish to gather funds to ultimately buy land.”
Thankfully, Runecast Copper came to the rescue and put the committee in touch with someone in the north of country who owned a plot of land which had been rented many times for various Pagan and Heathen events. Hudson traveled there and found the place more than suitable. The planning for the Althyng could thus continue as projected.
When TWH interviewed Jack Hudson in the middle of June, the full program of the festival had recently been made public, and Hudson could already boast about the expected attendance. “We have already sold over 100 tickets, and if you count the speakers, artists, traders and family members, we are probably talking about over 300 people.” If this calculation holds up, this would make the Althyng the largest gathering of Heathens in Britain in living memory.
If the Freyasblot is designed as the focal point of the festival, the organizers made sure to offer a diverse array of events within the festival in order to satisfy everyone coming. Besides the ceremonies that will take center stage at the Althyng, one will be able to hear numerous presentations, join talks, and interact with representatives from various groups such as the previously-mentioned Confederation of Heathen Kindreds, but also the Asatru and Heathen Order, an online community very active on social media. Musical entertainment is also poised to draw quite a few people in, with acts such as Solfyr (dark Nordic folk), Bubamara (acoustic polka folk), Hilde (ritual chanting), and Seidrblot (shamanic viking folk).
Simply judging by the wealth of activities, entertainment, rituals, and more, the Althyng promises to be a memorable event in more ways than one and could introduce new people into the faith at the same time as it strengthens the bonds between attendees, the organizations, and the gods. This, according to Hudson, is the main reason AUK and the Althyng exist in the first place.
“We plan these events to grow the organization,” he says, “but AUK exists to facilitate the growth of Heathenry rather than controlling it.”
Hudson, a father of two, is particularly concerned with developing a Heathenry where new generations can be brought both into the faith, and in a welcoming, caring environment. “The only way we can progress as a religion and as a faith is to establish traditions for the future. I want the Althyng to one day become a historic event people remember for years to come, a feast lasting nine days and nine nights like in ancient Uppsala,” says Hudson.
If this year’s celebration will “only” last four days, there is no denying that it could very well mark the beginning of a new era for British Heathenry, an era where community, and the bonds linking people with each others, their Gods, and the land become strong and long lasting.
“I see AUK as a little acorn,” concludes Hudson. “We are still very small, and it will take time, and care to grow, but ultimately, I know we can grow to become a tall, proud, and strong oak.”
The Althyng will take place in Northallerton, North Yorkshire in the United Kingdom between July 1st and 4th. Tickets may be purchased online or at the door. For more information about the program, consult the event’s FB page.
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.