>>4779
>How does this quote make you feel?
I'm mixed on it, so I'll deconstruct it line by line.
>Icelandic Ásatrú has nothing to do with those paths that engage with politics or the doctrines of racial preservation.
Realistically, I don't think Asatru specifically is about politics, nor about racial preservation…not in a "1488" sort of way, that is.
>In fact, I get more hate mail from American so-called Ásatrúers than anyone other religious groups.
I can believe this too, and I do think american asatru has a lot of groups in it that are more "nazi mysticism" than "folkish asatru". Not that racism or folkishkeit are bad, but literally groups that are broadly nazis that simply appropriate heathen symbols without actually performing reconstructed religion.
>I think that’s telling. If you think about it, we had no conception of nationhood back in the 9th century, when our values began taking shape.
Eh, Hilmar, if your folk had no concept of nationhood, why did they write islendingabok rather than nordmennsbok? Why could they distinguish the skraelingjar from the icelander and the greenlander?
>If you read Hávamál, it’s about how to meet other cultures and be a good guest or host to the world around you.
only the first 79 stanzas, but yes, I agree, especially as someone who is well travelled. For every line of "be good to guests", though, there's a line of "spears may save your life". I mean, hell, the first stanza of havamal is basically a paranoid "check your corners, bruh".
>These are ancient sayings for the traveller – not for the guy sitting at home on his ass thinking his living room is the centre of the world."
This is also truth, but it needs to be known that most americans have lived in small towns with more people in them than the whole of iceland. I would dare say that it is the icelander who is in his living room acting like he knows the world.