What is Asatru? Series: Episode 4

[Masterless2012]

Hello Vinterulf. Here's an interesting theory; The Vikings that explored and settled Eastern Europe came to be known as 'the Rus'. Their center of operations was in Kievan-Rus, governed by a Viking ruling class, (modern day Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.) In the Ukrainian language, the number 1 is pronounced ' Odin '. My theory is because Kievan-Rus was established by the Viking warrior elite around 880 A.D. one of the oldest and truest definitions of Odin is ' Oneness'.

[Vinterulf]

You might want to check that out farther. Slavic languages are quite different than the basis for old norse. Probably more of a coincidence. Plus, the Rus were Swedish speaking a form of East Old Norse and would not have pronounced it with the Anglicized "d" sound you're thinking of. It is actually Óðinn..the funny "d" is actually not a "d" but a thick "th" sound to my knowledge. But re better linguists could explain better.

[Masterless2012]

@Vinterulf With all due respect, there is nothing I need to check out further, I need to explain it further. In the Ukrainian/ Russian language and Cyrillic alphabet, there is no sound or letter for "th" so I would imagine they used 'd' instead. Riurik was the Viking Lord who established Kievan-Rus, and was from Finland. I imagine Swedish Vikings were present, however Riurik held power and influence in Kiev. I wonder how 'Odin' is pronounced in Finnish? (Even though many Finns speak Swedish).

[pupsenok]

@Masterless2012

The word for "one" in Old Slavonic was /edinu/ or /odinu/. This word predated the founding of Kievan Rus by many hundreds of years and is present in the earliest Slavonic texts from what is now Bulgaria and Macedonia.

Accordingly, the word for "one" in the Slavic languages cannot be based upon the name of Odin. It is simple logic that the earlier word cannot be based on the later word...unless you are going to argue for some sort of time travel for the Vikings.

[pupsenok]

@Masterless2012

The Finns mispronounce the name Odin in much the same manner that they mispronounce any foreign name, like Smith or Jones. Equally, Americans mispronounce foreign names like Mao Ze Dong (Chairman Mao) or Iosip Dzhugashvili (Joseph Stalin's original name).

Lastly, I note that the native English form of Odin is Woden and in German it is Wotan, reflecting the original /w/ which was lost in Old Norse.

[00fatmat00]

Thanks so much man for your videos. Lately I've been getting into the religion of my ancestors after going from christian to deist, and now arriving at what feels right in my spirit. Other than my book on norse mythology ive had no help gotting info on the religion. Thanks for sharing this info with everyone.

[justintime4nothing]

Is that Barney in the background? lol Asatru and children's television go together like PB and J.

[SpykeVampyre]

Thank you, Vinterulf, for helping me understand this confusing terminology! Each of your videos is insanely helpful

[Damitarosie]

hamingja means happines,

Heppni is Luck ;-)

[Vinterulf]

I am referring to "hamjngja" in the Old Norse context within the videos. Although, indeed in the MODERN Icelandic it has come to mean "luck, good fortune, and happiness" the Old Norse context was more a of spiritual power that could be roughly called "luck" as in a spiritual, personal power context. This is in accordance with frankly every academic (including ones from Scandinavian countries) study to date.  .

[rhill666]

Thanks for all of the info..Very helpful..

[Yellothar4]

Informative. I had learned that Odin's name was derived from the ancient Germanic word "Othin", meaning "angry".

[Vinterulf]

Actually that is incorrect. "Odin" is just anglized form of the proper "Óðinn", which is sometimes translated in texts phonically as "Othin" due to being unable to easily utilize the proper characters. It actually means "Fury" or "Frenzy" generally in the tone of wild exhuberance rather that actual anger. (See various mythologists from Davidson to Orchard, to Simek.)

[Damitarosie]

No no he got it right ;-)

[daveprior666]

HAHAHAHAHA, i love these vids theyre really helping but i cudnt stop laughing when i heard barny in the background!

[cyko4]

thanks for your videos but this ones high pitched squeel ouch!

[seanlenny]

Vinterulf, I like how you dont use notes during your talk. Makes me feel like we are sitting down to a coffee and generally chatting bout all this thus making it more interesting.

[Oracurax]

In modern Norwegian the word for weekend is "helg" (from helgr). But I'm not sure how far back that usage goes, though.

[seanlenny]

Helse could also quite possibly stem from heilagr. Helse or health? And then a doctor is also called en helse.

[IrishMallard]

it's a lil fast but good job nonetheless.

[Scurck]

Interesting. =)

As a Swede I could not miss the obvious connection to modern Swedish words.

Your words phonetically connected to modern Swedish and then translated into English.

Heilagr > Heligt -- Holy.

Megin > Magi -- real Magic. (Fake magic: Bunny out of hat = "trolla/trolleri")

Mátt > Makt -- Might&Power. (the national police in Sweden is called Polismakten)

Önd > (ande = spirit) Andedräkt ("spirit garb") = Breath.

[Vinterulf]

It should make sense, since the words I was using is Old Norse of which separated into West Old Norse and East Old Norse. East Old Norse is where Swedish and Danish then sprung from. West Old Norse sprang Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese.

[gaukator]

It's important to note that, although the language spoken in Gotland at the time is usually considered a sublanguage of East Old Norse, it's different from the two main branches.

Also, West Old Norse is not the origin of the most common of the two Norwegian languages spoken today, which is Bokmål. Bokmål is essentially the result of Danish influence through the educational system a few centuries back. The other branch of Norwegian, Nynorsk, is a modern version of post-Christian Norwegian.

[Vinterulf]

I'm trying to stay kind of basic... most readers/viewers need to start with the basic most and work into the more details, as many have no real linguistic interest aside from wanting to try to pronounce some of the names somewhere in the ballpark of correctly.

[vandorenow]

Your doing a very nice job! I Hope your going to be making more of these!

[Vinterulf]

There will be many, many, many more... presently I have 5 more episodes already planned out....

[thedenise]

Strong work! Thanks for posting this.

[NordicJawa]

Would you equate haminja with today's version of a "guardian angel?"

[Vinterulf]

Hamingja is not an actual being. When I mentioned that in some sagas it was sometimes personified, I was referring to when characters had a dream that they lost their luck or some such event. Sorry, if I confused you. It is not conscious, it is an element of your being.

[Vinterulf]

No, hamingja is not an actual being. When I was speaking about how it was sometimes personified in sagas, it was in reference to characters sometimes having a vision or dream which symbolized their knowledge that their luck (hamingja) had or may fail. It is not a conscious thing. sorry for the confusion.

[croscream]

hamingja?, gaining attributes through association?

[EvolvedSaurian]

Yay! You're doing these again! Thank you so much! I wish I could stop yelling!

Ahem. Sorry about that. Glad you're doing this again though, thanks very much.