Strange Teutonic Vocabulary
Asatru — The word Asatru means oathing or trothing to the Asa. The Gods of the North were called the Aesir or Ase which became Aces, like the Aces in playing cards. The Aces in a deck of cards are the “gods” and they trump — out rank — all other cards. Unfortunately, the word Asatru is a limited one-sided term because it leaves out the Vanir, the other family of Northern Gods which includes such beloved deities as Frey and Freya, the original “Lord” and “Lady”. The word Regintroth, meaning troth (or betrothal!) to all the teutonic Gods of Northern Europe, called the Regin, is a more fitting word. We don’t use the word Asatru for several reasons. It is an Icelandic word, the Anglo-Saxon form is Asetro and the Dutch say it even differently. We’d like a term that encompasses all our Teutonic heritage including the germanica lands during the Roman Empire (France, Germany, parts of Spain, northern Italy, Switzerland, etc.), the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden and most important: Anglo-Saxonland–the British Isles. Face it, Britain is a land to which so many of us can trace our ancestors and to which all of us reading this can trace our language.
But worst of all, the word Asatru has been hijacked by the freakin’ neo-nazis and racist hate-mongers who just can’t understand that pride in your ancestors, pride in your “race,” clan or tribe does NOT mean all other races / cultures are inferior and need to be wiped out. THAT is white supremacy, not Asatru, but they have stolen the word. The founder of this Order has been a member of many many Asatru groups in the past decade and sadly many of them (like 90 %) are really white supremacists even though they hide it very well. You get higher up in these organizations and the dirty truth comes out. And I mean dirty—terms such as “filthy jews” and “dirty niggers” are used in the inner circles. Alfta Reginleif ran into this even more than me, being as she was a prominent figure in the United States Asatru movement. She reached the highest echelons of Asatru organizations in America and is now so disturbed by their hidden racist beliefs that she can’t bring herself to mouth the word Asatru or Folkish and even has trouble saying Heathen. It’s that bad. Here at the Mystery School we use the historical term Teutonic, just as the word Celtic is used for the other big tribe of Northern Europe. And luckily the words Vinland and Vinnish haven’t been turned ugly.
Blot — offering on an altar, like the Christian mass, and stemming from the ancient practice of dedicating animals one was slaughtering/butchering to the Gods and Goddesses of one’s Ancestors and then cooking the animal for a feast or simply for dinner. Slaughtering on an altar, dedicating and then cooking is what so-called “animal sacrifice” was long ago, even that practiced by the Hebrews. The offerings brought by the Hebrew people to the Temple for sacrifice were then eaten by the priests or returned to the family to be eaten. In many other cultures and especially in our Northern European ancestral cultures, the meat just wasn’t “right” to eat if you hadn’t first asked it for its life essence to feed your family then dedicated it to your gods. Blot is pronounced “bloat” and as you might have guessed, it is the origin of our anglo-saxon old germanic word, “blood.”
Frith, Frith! Peace, Harmony (with connotation of Friendship). Same root as the word “freedom,” so it means Peace and Freedom, or Peace thru Freedom. Often used to sign one’s name at the end of a letter (or email).
Gothi, Gythia, Gothard Priest, Priestess, Priesthood. Spelled various ways, such as Gythja (priestess), or Godhi (priest). All from the root, Godh or Goth, meaning simply “Goth.” Har-Gothi and Har-Gythia mean High-Priest/ess. For more, see the
Glossary at Irminsul.org
Hail, Heill, Heilsa
Heilsa has been (inaccurately) used by modern heathens who believe it is an authentic viking greeting. It is actually a corruption of the word Heil and Hail which mean, “to your health,” “health to you,” and simply “hail !” (hi and hello come from this root, as does the modern english word health). The word heil got a negative connotation because of the nazi phrase “Heil Hitler.” Many modern heathens are afraid to use heil, an authentic ancient German/Norse greeting, for fear of being branded a Nazi by the politically correct witch-hunters. Here is the true breakdown of heil as a greeting from the ancient Old Norse language:
The following forms can be used as greetings. This is actually an adjective that is declining according to gender and number but we’ll talk about that later.
Heill! – to greet one man
Heil! – to greet one woman
Heilir! – to greet a group of men
Heilar! – to greet a group of women
Heil! – to greet a group including both sexes
The Heil entry is taken from an excellent set of free lessons in Old Norse at:
http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/ , the specific section above is from this page: http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/olessons/lesson2.php?colors=0
Sumbel, a formal drinking ritual composed of three rounds of toasting, hails, oath-taking, the recitation of poetry or song, etc.
The Basics of Sumbel
Tru & Troth — Tru is like the word “true” but with no -e. It comes from the word “troth.” Both words mean oathing or giving your word, making a pact. Troth can be found in wedding terms such as betrothal and “plighting your troth,” a phrase commonly used even in modern wedding ceremonies. The word Asatru means oathing or trothing to the Asa (the Gods of the North were called the Aesir or Ase which became Aces, like the Aces in playing cards.) The word Regintroth, meaning troth (or betrothal!) to all the teutonic Gods of Northern Europe, called the Regin, is a more fitting word. So when we say Re-forming the Troth or renewing the Troth, we mean restoring that bond, that betrothal or marriage, to our ancient ancestral gods.
Vé The Vé is a sacred enclosure, a sanctuary, usually outdoors, like a grove or circle of stones. Celts call their rectangular stone edged enclosures a Nemeton. Alfta has a “virtual Vé” dedicated to Lord Frey on her website.
Vinland and Vinnish — Vinland is North America. The Vikings discovered North America first and that’s what they named it–land of the Vines of wild grapes. Very appropriate name. North American teutonic folk have taken on new characteristics of their own which make them different from their cousins back in Europe, and some Scandinavian and European “friends” look down their noses at North Americans trying to reconstruct what they consider THEIR ancestral religion. So to heck with them, we call ourselves the Vinnish Tribe. Many Scans, Brits, Hollanders and Danish folk are not so egotistical and gladly work with their north american kinfolk, even learning a thing or too because many North American teutonic reconstructionists have done far more research than the Europeans–who by the way were raised in a christian culture just like everyone else and can’t claim the teutonic ways of our ancestors are any more theirs just because they were born and reside in our ancient ancestral lands. We all speak English, a germanic language, and that means we descend from those traditions, too. (If English is not your mother tongue you may have non-Teutonic heritage in you, too, but that’s fine, you can still hang out and study with us. If the northern ways resonate with you, no matter what your tongue, you probably have the blood of the teutonics in you somehow. This is true even for African Americans–did you know the African Americans living in the USA for more than a generation or two are now 36% european genes? There has been much intermarriage in our melting pot which is the USA, so things and people are not always what their skin color seems to say. Down with racism!)
Wassail and
Prost!
Dirk Mahling dmahling@acm.org writes: Wassail is a short form of the Old English “Wes thu heal” meaning “be you whole”. It is a greeting used in old english times. As Asatruar of the various tribes work to reconnect with their ancestors and their beliefs, reviving parts of their speech is equally important, creating yet another link. “Prost” is modern High German for “cheers”. It is used at the end of a posting to evoke a cutesy cyber-feeling of raising horns in a hall, such as when your boast is done. German ‘Prost’ is derived from Latin ‘pro sanitas’ meaning ‘for health’. The ancient Germans would likely not have used it when raising their drinking horns in the halls, unless they had served in the Roman army as many did.