/asatru/ - Asatru / Heathenry / Paganism

It was believed among the Germanic tribes that by wearing the skins of sacred or powerful animals, such as bears or wolves and possibly other animals, the wearer could channel the powers of these creatures in battle. This is why in the Norse sagas the beserkers believed themselves invincible in war, they were channeling the powers of bears. Whether this is myth, truth or psychological triggering is up to you. Its a common theme among other tribal people as well, the Zulu wear leopard pelts in war and the Native Americans wore bison pelts.

It appears to be a very ancient warrior cult connected with Odin as well, as some of the oldest of germanic artifacts depict naked warriors clad in animal skins or wearing horns terminating in animal heads, as well as the fact that in the Heimskringla it claims that the historical Odin (a human thousands of years ago in Asia, according to Snorri, take this with a grain of salt but it might represent the Indo European migrations) the first warriors of Odin were said to be beserkers. It seems that by the later Germanic period however (the viking age) the beserks were becoming much rarer and more of an elite or specialized type of shock troop.

Learninchode thread detected

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>>8183

>LOL ODIN WAS A GOOK

Kill yourself learningchode.

>>8192

>implying I didn't say right after "TAKE WITH A GRAIN OF SALT"

>Implying it isn't obvious that snorri is embellishing or has his lore wrong

>implying even if he is right that he's referring to gooks and not Aryans from central Asia

>implying the medieval word Asia refers to gookland and not the middle east and the high steppes

and you call me a novice. Go read some fucking books walhaz.

>>8195

yes but lets be realistic here, if we formed an actual military made of dudes wearing animal pelts in the modern era it would be completely impractical. Maybe for elite or shock troops they could wear bear pelts over their armor, but that might cancel out the powers of it. Other than that the only way I see them being brought back is as a ceremonial position, done during rites or sacrifices to Odin and accompanied by spear dancing.

It is incorrect to say that they dressed like animals. Some of them, however, dressed as animals. It is unrelated to costumes.