Varg Vikernes
"Reflections on European Mythology and Polytheism" 2015

The European deities are treated very unfairly by the Christians who write or wrote about our mythology and religion. Some times because of ill intent, but most often because the Christians just don't understand them, what they are, what they represent or even what their purpose is. They call Freyja, our goddess of love and youthful health, a "whore" because they don't understand that she is not having many lovers; she is just a personification of the role of the wife. To call her a whore is no less stupid than it would be to call "Wife" a whore. Yes, wives sleep with many different men (their husbands), but each wife only sleeps with her own husband - so they are not whores.

The probably worst off in this context is still not Freyja, but the poor Loki, whom the Christians identified as "the devil" of Scandinavian mythology. Naturally these Christians were and still are unable to understand that other religions are in fact other religions and not just poor and delusional copies of their own magnificent Judeo-Christian cult. There is no "devil" in European polytheism, and why would we even need one?

Whenever a Christian writes about our European polytheism we see this. Loki becomes the devil, and his offspring different demons. Hel becomes a place for eternal punishment and damnation for sins committed in life. Âsgarðr becomes the Heavenly Paradise. Valhöll becomes the silly Paradise for those primitive barbarian warriors. The light elves become the angels (although, I can add that angels [Greek "messenger"] are actually also a pre-Christian thing; they were the messengers of the gods). The dark elves become the little imps. Baldr becomes Jesus Christ. And so forth.

The Christians blinded by their bible studies and other filters become completely unable to see or understand any aspect of European polytheism!

As a European polytheist I know that Loki is the anthropomorphised lightning of the sky.

Modern Scandinavian: Loke
Norse: Loki
Proto-Nordic: *Lukan
Indo-European: *Leuke

His name derives from the PIE root *luk- which means simply "lightning".

When our mythology talks about how he cuts the hair of the goddess Sif and because of that is chased by Þôrr, a Christian will think he is a bad man, but I know that he is the god of fire (the fire being handed to man from the gods via the lightning), used in the agricultural technique of "slash & burn" (No. svibruk), where they burned down the crops to fertilize the soil. After he did that, Sif, the goddess of the crops, grew even more beautiful and golden hair. In other words; crops. This was not surprisingly given to her by the dwarves/dark elves; the powers in the soil. When we know that Loki is the lightning and Þôrr the god of thunder we also understand why he always chases Loki; if you ever see lightning in the sky you can be sure to shortly after hear the thunder. So the thunder chases the lightning.

In Völuspâ, stanza 17 and 18, we learn that three gods gave life to some pieces of wood. Naturally this has been interpreted by the Christians as being "the creation myth" of Scandinavia, but it is no such thing. The stanzas talk about how the gods (i.e. actors impersonating the gods) symbolically revive the men and women who played the role of the Winter spirits in the yearly Ragnarök (our New Year's Eve). During this symbolic fight the Winter Spirit actors, known to us as Fenrir, is dressed in (mostly) wolf skins, and they are defeated when the gods (also just actors impersonating the gods!) rip their animal skins off and then trample on the skins - described in the mythology as the god Vîðarr placing his boot into the mouth of the Fenrir wolf and ripping him apart. After this the Winter spirit actors pretend they are dead, and are carried by the gods to the sacrificial tree, where their human clothes hang. There they are given warm beverage and food, and they put back on their clothes (their life force!) - by Ôðinn, Hlôðurr (Þôrr) and Hœnir (Freyr). They are symbolically brought back to life.

The Ragnarök is an annual event, that we still celebrate, every single year, and we even do it in a very similar fashion; we light bonfires and do our best to make as much noise we can. This was done to scare off the Winter spirits, so that Summer could return, by lighting bonfires and torches, by setting fire to wheels and let them roll down hills, with sparks flying everywhere, and so forth. Today we also use fireworks.

The deities are killed, but they return every year, like they have always done, so this is no big deal. That is what the Christians fail to understand; rebirth, reincarnation. Which by the way is funny, considering how their "saviour" himself was supposed to have returned from the dead.

There is no creation myth in Scandinavia! The Christian Scandinavians really wanted there to be one, because they had this perception that every advanced religion must have a creation myth, and they - after all - wanted their forebears to be advanced, so they desperately twisted and turned everything, and thus found their "creation myth" in Völuspâ. But like I said it is not a creation myth, and there is no creation myth in the European religion because the European world view is not linear - with a beginning and an end. It is instead circular, with no beginning and no end. Time, space, life and so forth are all eternal. Even to non-Christian modern men this is hard to grasp, because we have been deluded by the "Big Bang" nonsense, which is basically just the science-religion's attempt to justify the Judeo-Christian creation myth.

When I - arrogantly as some have claimed - said in the foreword to my book "Sorcery and Religion in Ancient Scandinavia" that there are no good books (at least not in English, German or Scandinavian) out there about our mythology and religion, to some degree save "The Golden Bough", by the anthropologist Sir James Frazer, this is what I mean; just about everything we know about our mythology from these books is seen through dense Judeo-Christian filters and interpreted in a Judeo-Christian light it is twisted and distorted, and is unrecognisable. The only alternative we have had to this terrible perspective is the equally terrible feminist perspective, which is no less Judeo-Christian and no less ignorant - and their sole purpose it seems is to find evidence of "woman power" in our European polytheism. The poor Freyja and other goddesses too becomes misused again and turns into "The Mother Goddess" of some horribly absurd matriarchal society (with no roots in real matriarchies whatsoever) ruled by women.

We are at a loss here. The books we read about our own culture fill us with lies and misconceptions, they distort the facts and turns our European polytheism into some sort of "Christian light" religion for nihilists, feminists and other mislead individuals. We see the ancient flower meadow in front of us, but when we run happily into it with open arms we trip and fall into a reeking bog. Another reeking bog created by "the enemy", often by help of their many deluded straw men.

So do not trust the books you read about our mythology. Do not trust what they say about our pre-Christian Europe. Do not trust anything they say! Most importantly; do not build your character and mind, your belief system and your rites on what these Judeo-Christians say about our mythology!

In this book, I will show you the true face of our forebears, and their roots - the Ancient Bear Cult of Europe!

I often hail Ôðinn, and I do not because he is "the true god", a European Jehovah, or anything like that, but because he is the god of the mind, of inspiration, of fury and our spirit. He is the force that makes me write these posts. So again; HailaR WôðanaR!

Varg Vikernes