/asatru/ - Asatru / Heathenry / Paganism

That kind of sentiment is certainly embedded in the storylines of the myths handed down to us. Wotan's aspect pertaining to death, as the grim reaper, always struck me as having a humoristic side to it. "Come on, you're not scared… are you?" That kind of deal.

But that's just the mythopoetic level. Although it's important because it cultivates within the people a uniform habitual outlook on life, it doesn't get to the truths of the myths themselves. To understand those, one has to let go the interpretations of the gods as having personalities.

Well at least according to the Nordic creation myth, Odin is our direct creator and father. All-father isnt just a name. However do not assume Odin is a gentle god, he is very harsh and cruel to his children but he seems to do it for good reasons. He needs the strongest warriors in Valhalla. It's common in the sagas that Odin's Valkyries would choose to kill the best and most-suited to be king, when the king complains that it is unfair that he was chosen despite fighting the best, the Valkyries tell them that is the exact reason they were chosen. Odin has been preparing us for the great cosmic battle since the dawn of time.

Maybe thats why he took Hitler ;_;

>>6333

Agreed on the Grim Reaper aspect, Odin in his reaper aspect is very humorous and taunting, almost like Loki in some ways (although I am strictly against Rokkatru faggotry, the theory that Loki is just Odin's "Dark Half" is a very interesting one considering their parallels. Specifically I am referring to

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A1rbar%C3%B0slj%C3%B3%C3%B0

Although it is not directly stated in this myth, it took me a while to realize that Odin is in the death or reaper aspect. He wears a long hood, ferries a ship on a river leading to the afterlife, and most strangely he is extremely harsh to Thor in an amusing way, he basically just shit-talks him from across the river and doesn't let him on his boat, forcing Thor to walk

>>6336

I'm pretty sure he has at least Bismarck.

Considering Hárbarðsljóð, in a book I read the author suggests, that it's basically a parallel to the relationship between the simple folks, meaning farmers and other builders and their rulers. The simple folk represented by Thor, the rulers by Odin.

>>6341

Yes thats one of the layers of the story, but Paganism usually has multiple meanings in every story. The peasant and Jarl thing is true but you can't deny that Odin is taking the ferryman aspect, which makes alot of sense considering the Romans called Odin Mercury and Lord of Boats.