Heathen gods are hard to find in Old English literature. Most Anglo-Saxon writers had no interest in them, and scholars today prefer to concentrate on the Christian civilization for which the Anglo-Saxons were so famous. Richard North offers an interesting view of Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian paganism and mythology in the pre-Viking and Viking age. He discusses the pre-Christian gods of Bede's history of the Anglo-Saxon conversion with reference to an orgiastic figure known as Ingui, whom Bede called 'god of this age'. Using expert knowledge of comparative literary material from Old Norse-Icelandic and other Old Germanic languages, North reconstructs the slender Old English evidence in a highly imaginative treatment of poems such as Deor and The Dream of the Rood. Other gods such as Woden are considered with reference to Odin and his family in Old Norse-Icelandic mythology. In conclusion, it is argued that the cult of Ingui was defeated only when the ideology of the god Woden was sponsored by the Anglo-Saxon church. The book will interest students interested in Old English, Old Norse-Icelandic and Germanic literatures, Anglo-Saxon history and archaeology.

A book of prayers, invocations, songs and rituals to the heathen Gods, Goddesses, wights and ancestors, written by members of Heathens of Yorkshire, and beautifully illustrated with original artwork. A useful resource for solitary practitioners, as well as groups looking for inspiration in putting together their own rituals.

Since the revival of Heathenry in the second half of the 20th century, much has been written about how the spiritual beliefs held by the people of Northern Europe in the early medieval period can be applied to our lives today. You will find books that explain the practicalities of modern Heathen ritual practices and how they compare to those conducted by our ancestors, books on the many deities and spirits and how they are still relevant today, and still more on how texts like the Hávamál can be applied to modern-day life. One area that has not been explored in as much detail up to this point is the relationship between Heathenry and the sea. This seems to be a glaring omission given how important the sea was to our Heathen ancestors. For many of our Scandinavian ancestors seafaring was a way of life. The sea was also important to others such as the Angles, Saxons and Jutes who took to the waves for a new life in the British Isles, and the Frisians who had an intimate relationship with the sea thrust upon them thanks to the low-lying lands they inhabited. This book explores many aspects of our relationship with water as humans and as Heathens. Drawing on sources from a wide range of disciplines, Heathenry & The Sea examines how water featured in the spiritual world view of our ancestors from the earliest humans, through the Heathen period and in to the Christianisation of Europe, whilst also bringing the discussion right up to date with the experiences of modern Heathens, as well as some of the scientific explanations for these intrinsic connections with water.

Vilhelm Grønbech was a preeminent professor of the history of religion at the University of Copenhagen in the early twentieth century. His vast breadth of knowledge of world cultures and religions had profound effect on Danish academic thought, and in The Culture of the Teutons, Grønbech turns his keen analysis toward his own culture, that of Germanic Europe. Grønbech draws upon a rich panoply of sources in the Norse sagas, legal rulings, and historical figures both living and mythological to deliver for us a compelling thesis of the tribes that harried Rome, of the Viking Age, of pagan rituals and later widespread adoption of Christianity as much more than the sum of bloodthirsty plundering, as less charitable historians have condemned them. Instead, we delve into a culture alien to that of Tacitus or the Greeks, misunderstood for hundreds if not thousands of years. In seeming contradiction, the pagan worldview is foreign compared to our own today, or to the culturally imperialistic Romans who documented their "barbarian" foes, yet one cannot be truly estranged from his own ancestors. The genius of The Culture of the Teutons lies in Grønbech's ability to weave together what at first glance appear polar opposites, but in reality are inexorably linked. The various Germanic tribes of Europe, the Teutons, place unshakeable value on honor, family, and religion to create a society perplexingly carnal yet sophisticated, advanced yet close to nature. And nowhere is this clearer than in their settlement of inhospitable lands such as Iceland or the Faroe Islands, in which they brought order to a seemingly untamable environment. The impact of the peoples of Northern Europe on world history today is so vast no amount of spilled ink can pay it justice. Antelope Hill Publishing is proud to bring this expansive tome back into the limelight for a modern English-speaking audience, now complete with a substantial glossary, index, and hundreds of footnotes to confer important cultural context that would have been assumed common knowledge to its intended Danish audience. This complete edition includes volumes I and II, published in 1909 and 1912, respectively.