Asatru Reading?

Question

Besides the sagas what is some good reading?

By the way I found a very good link for fellow newbie Heathens who want acess to the sagas but can't find them.

http://www.sagadb.org/index_az

There is translations of every saga available to read online,in multiple languages =).

Answer 1

Boar's Heart answered a similar question very well a while ago:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AqAkoHVsDqBt3XSSeXlCKTojzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20070709154803AAjq8gz

Answer 2

There is a wonderful section on all sorts of lore from the Icelandic region at sacred-texts.com:

http://sacred-texts.com/neu/ice/index.htm

They have the Eddas and the Sagas there as well as more modern retellings of all the lore.

http://www.northvegr.org has some great stuff as well. That site is a treasure trove of good Heathen stuff.

If it's books for newbies you want, I personally like "Exploring the Northern Tradition" by Galina Krasskova, "Essential Asatru" by Diane Paxson, "Living Asatru" by Greg Shelter, anything by Swain Wodening, and for Runes I love Diane Paxson's "Taking up the Runes".

For other books, Asphodel Press has a line of very good Northern Tradition devotionals:

http://www.cauldronfarm.com/asphodelpress/index.html

And they will be coming out with more. I myself will be coming out with a Skadhi devotional this summer, in addition to the Loki devotional I have out now (the one with the eye on the cover as opposed to "Trickster" which is written by someone else). There's also a smattering of Odin devotionals, another Loki devotional I know of coming out, a devotional to all of the Sea Gods coming out, a Vanir book, an Aesir book, and a Frey devotional all coming out. (I am aware that some Heathens might balk at all of this...I don't care).

So, cheers :)

ETA: Anything by H.R. Ellis Davidson is a must have also

Answer 3

I'm not into Asatru (I'm just obsessed with Norse mythology and Medieval Scandinavia in general), but on my shelf I've got:

a) A bunch of Sagas.

b) The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson (Faulkes translation; I hear it's among the best out there).

c) The Poetic Edda (Larrington translation, same).

d) H. R. Ellis Davidson's "Gods and Myths of Northern Europe" (a classic, superbly-written and very insightful).

e) Else Roesdahl's "The Vikings" (I actually haven't gotten around to reading it yet, but it's highly recommended by John Lindow.

f) The various mythological dictionaries of John Lindow, Rudolf Simek and Andy Orchard. Lindow's is the more accessible (and funny), but Simek and Orchard's version are jam-packed with lots of info.

g) Snorri Sturluson's "Heimskringla" (Lee M. Hollander's translation).

h) Ibn Fadlan's account of his time spent among the "Rus". Michael Chriton (sp?) used this account to write "The Eaters of the Dead", on which the movie "The 13th Warrior" was based.

i) Saxo Grammaticus's History of the Danes (translated by Davidson/Fisher). You'll find the Danish version of the Balder myth in here and lots of other good stuff, although the writing's not the clearest. :)

j) History of the Archbishops of Hamburg by Adam of Bremen. Haven't read this yet either but he's supposed to give a lot of good geographic/general information on medieval Scandinavia.

k) Beowulf (I have the Seamus Heaney translation).

l) "Runes" by R. I. Page.

m) The Germania by the Roman historian Tacitus. It contains a bunch of info on early Germanic tribes, so it's a bit before true "Viking" times, but it's great nevertheless.

I've also just ordered a hard-to-find copy of "Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia", edited by Phillip Pulsiano. It's pricy, but I've had a chance to look through a library copy, and I'm sure it's going to be worth it...

Answer 4

try essential asatru i cant remember the author right now though