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A place for Aryan (European) Folkish Pagans
Nevertheless it was not war but work that determined the trend of life and gave form to institutions, social as well as religious. A man asserted his gentility no less by tilling his land in luck and showing a generous hospitality, than by courage in action.
V.Grönbech
What some newcomers don’t get is that Germanic Paganism is not quote on quote a viking religion. Vikings are a product of Germanic culture, but dare I say they are not the best representatives. A typical Germanic Pagan was a farmer and most of his/her religious practices were focused on the herd and harvest.
Meanwhile viking culture is a distillation of raider-warrior mentality and would be destructive in a Pagan society because it’s not meant to exist inside, it’s always outside by it’s raiding nature. This sentiment is also expressed in V.Grönbech’s book I’m reading.
Though platonism lead to the collapse of traditional paganism, breaking free of it will restore the natural worldview of our forefathers.
It is said that there are two pillars of current western liberal civilization, the judeo-christian bible, and plato. Most of us have discarded the first pillar and only after the second is gone, will the natural state of European men and women return and flourish once more.
There are simple magic formulas children utter to summon a khorkha
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In Germanic faith, Draugr are the undead that are equal parts dreadful and cruel. Even after christianization, sightings and conflicts with Draugr are relatively common.
Not to be confused with the Norse Haugr, or mound-dwellers, Draugr are usually those that are discontent and upset with their fate. Hatred burning inside turning a mean man into a cruse upon the land and those who call it home.
The ancient view of life necessarily leads thought beyond the individual; one always looks about among the family to find the sources of his will and his fate.
The father's eye is gladdened when he sees himself and his kinsmen again in his sons, when, as the phrase runs, he can “see the luck of the family” in his son.
V.Grönbech
Sucellos and Nantosuelta
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Eventually the cauldron ends up in possession of Bran the Blessed, a giant who ruled the Island of the Mighty. Bran gifts it to Irish king Matholwch after an offense the latter received due to the actions of Bran’s half-brother Efnisien.
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Zombies in Celtic lore?
In Mabinogion there’s an exiting tale of Bran the Blessed. I won’t retell the entire story but we will delve into the part about a magical cauldron which could raise the dead called Pair Dadeni (Cauldron of Rebirth). It’s power was described as follows:
The dead were thrown into the cauldron, until it was full. They would rise up the next day-fighting men as good as before, except they would not be able to talk.
In 1927 folklorist N.Onchukov recorded the following about Chud:
The strange folk live in the Ural Mountains, they know paths in the caves. They come out…and have a good time between humans, but humans don’t see them. The folk have a great culture, and their light under the mountains is not worse than our sun. They strange folk are not very tall, they are very attractive and with beautiful voices, but only chosen ones can hear them. They foretell future to humans.
The reasons why Chud fled underground are not clear. Most tales tell about them being driven off. Chud did not leave empty-handed though and took all their vast riches with them. The latter is the reason one can sometimes dig up treasures.
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White-eyed Chud
In Slavic folklore Chud is an ancient race of magical creatures who had left the surface world and now dwell underground. According to the legends Chud are strange, white-eyed creatures who used to be incredibly rich and prosperous, but eventually hid in the mounds under the earth along with all their treasures after the christianization.
Speaking of clothes here are some nice 11th classics from H.Norris’ Costumes and Fashion
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Arthur gathered his host and marched into Gwynedd and encountered Rhitta. The twain fought on foot, and they gave one another blows so fierce, so frequent and so powerful, that their helmets were pierced and their skullcaps were broken and their arms were shattered and the light of their eyes was darkened by sweat and blood. At the last Arthur became enraged, and he called to him all his strength: and boldly angry and swiftly resolute and furiously determined, he lifted up his sword and struck Rhitta on the crown…Rhitta gave up the ghost, and was buried on the top of the highest mountain of Eryri, and each of his soldiers placed a stone on his tomb. The place was afterwards known as Gwyddfa Rhitta, Rhitta's Barrow, but the English call it Snowdon.
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Rhitta Gawr, King of Wales, hearing of the desolation wrought by these mad monarchs, determined to attack them. Having previously consulted the laws and his people, he marched against them, vanquished them and cut off their beards.
When the kings of the surrounding countries heard of the disgrace inflicted on all these disbearded kings, they armed themselves against Rhitta and his men, and tremendous was the conflict. But Rhitta achieved a decisive victory…After that he took up all the beards and trimmed with them a mantle for himself that extended from head to heel: and Rhitta was twice as large as any other person ever seen.
When the connection with daily occupations and obligations had been severed, as it had to be in armies settling on foreign soil, war filled the scene, and the truest, nay the only proof a man could give of his gentleness consisted in deeds accomplished with the axe. These gallant knights were sometimes fain to pour contempt on the patient toil of the bread winner as in the epigram of the Harbardsljod: “Odin owns the earls who are slain in battle, Thor owns the race of the thralls”.
V.Grönbech
For the Teutons, living implied fighting, man means a living being who keeps his weapons sharp by grinding them on his honour.
V.Grönbech
Usually a khorkha replaces a child’s tooth with a coin
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Carpathian tooth fairy is a mouse-like creature called khokha
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Lombard ruler with his guards
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World Serpent by Angus McBride
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The end of the cauldron
Later Paor Dadeni is used in battle. When Efnissiyen sees it he decided to stop the slaughter.
Woe to me - being the cause of this carnage of the men of the Island of the Mighty' he thought 'and shame on me if I don't seek deliverance from this.'
He crawls in amongst the corpses of the Irishmen, and two bare-bottomed Irishmen come to him and throw him in the cauldron, along with the others. He stretches himself out in the cauldron, until the cauldron breaks into four pieces, and his heart breaks [as well].
The origins of the cauldron
Where does Paor Dadeni come from? It was brought to the Ireland by giants. Here’s how the tale starts:
One day, while hunting [back] in Ireland, I was on top of a tumulus above a lake in Ireland, called "The Lake of the Cauldron". Then I saw a large, reddish-yellow [haired] man coming out of the lake with a cauldron on his back. Furthermore, the man was large and monstrous with an evil, anorles look about him, and [he had] a woman following after him. And large as he was-twice as big as him was the woman. They made their way towards me and greeted me.
I’ll get back to Celtic folklore and traditions for a while. Specifically great Mabinogion which is really underrated.
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How are Chud described?
In her research I.Feoktistova has analyzed ethnographic data and concluded that folklore refers to the mysterious Chud folk as: white-eyed, wild, unbaptized, small, hairy, giant, red-skinned, evil, dirty (black), raw-eating, rich, mining and dangerous.
Fig. 9 represents a Norman noble who is dressed in a some-what similar style. Here the wide-sleeved tunic has a design worked over its surface, in addition to borders at the edge and on the sleeves.
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Got this T-shirt as a gift from a relative. Got my size wrong, but it’s still a nice one.
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Then Rhitta sent a messenger to the Court of King Arthur to say that he had trimmed a mantle with kings' beards, and to command Arthur carefully to flay off his beard and send it to him. Out of respect to his pre-eminence over other kings his beard should have the honour of the principal place. But if he refused to do it, he challenged him to a duel, with this offer, that the conqueror should have the mantle and the beard of the vanquished.
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And as he was setting on his dogs he saw a horseman coming towards him upon a large light-grey steed, with a hunting horn round his neck, and clad in garments of grey woollen in the fashion of a hunting garb.
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