The Concept of Scripture Within a Germanic Heathen Context

We often hear the phrase 'religion(s) of the book' and this is always applied to the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The 'book' referred to are the collective scriptures of the aforesaid religions. The Christian Bible incorporates the Hebrew Bible, referred to by Christians as the Old Testament and adds to this the four canonical gospels, the various epistles (letters) and the rather strange Book of Revelation. What is not common knowledge amongst non-Christians and even amongst many Christians is that there is a collection of other scriptural books known collectively as the Apocrypha. The original King James Bible which is also known as the Authorised Version contained the Apocrypha and this was sandwiched between the Old and New Testaments. The same can be said for the Geneva Bible which was published in its entirety in 1560, 51 years before the King James Bible. However this was not the first English Bible for that dubious honour belongs to the Great Bible, authorised by Henry VIII in 1539. Prior to this only parts of the Bible had been translated into English, namely the Tyndale New Testament (1525) and the Pentateuch (1530) which are the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

The Apocrypha consists of the following books:

1 Esdras
2 Esdras
Tobit
Judith
Rest of Esther
Wisdom
Ecclesiasticus
Baruch
Epistle of Jeremiah
Song of the Three Children
Story of Susannah
The Idol Bel and the Dragon
Prayer of Manasseh
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees

It is quite rare to find the Apocrypha in later revisions of the English Bible (and there have been many in recent years) and you will struggle to find a King James Bible with one but not impossible and some of the books make for very interesting reading when approached from the perspective of comparative mythology, especially Bel and the Dragon! Whilst the Apocrypha is recognised as deuterocanonical which gives them a secondary status below that of the Old and New Testaments by both the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches it is virtually ignored by those Protestant Churches which broke away from the Church of England.

What is interesting is that the quite well known Book of Enoch is excluded from the Apocrypha and did not form part of the canon of scriptures of either Judaism or most Christian Churches apart from the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Churches and yet part of the book is referred to in the Epistle of Jude, a book which Martin Luther did not accept as scripture along with the Epistles of James and Hebrews and the Book of Revelation. However his followers ignored him on this point! The Book of Enoch contains much that may be useful for us to study as Armanen or esoteric heathens along with the Epistle of James and the Book of Revelation. Many other initiates have come to the same conclusion including the late David Lane. The biblical books here and there do contain obvious plagiarisms from Indo-European writings, spiritual systems and mythologies which do not fit into a Semitic mindset. In addition to the Apocrypha and the Book of Enoch we have the relatively recent discoveries of gnostic gospels:

Gospel of Thomas
Gospel of Marcion
Gospel of Basilides
Gospel of Truth
Gospel of the Four Heavenly Realms
Gospel of Mary
Gospel of Judas
Greek Gospel of the Egyptians
Gospel of Philip
Pseudo-Gospel of the Twelve
Gospel of Perfection
Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians

There are also many other non-gnostic gospels that did not make it into the canon of biblical scripture but it is abundantly clear that the concept of what is 'scripture' amongst these so-called 'religions of the book' is a moot point and many of these writings are very far removed from traditional Christianity and reveal a gnostic and pagan influence.

As Germanic heathens we too have our own 'scriptures' although there is a general collective tendency to avoid use of this term but I believe that this feeling is more to do with our rejection of the Christian religion than any well thought through analysis. We have of course the Eddas which are divided into two collections of writings; the Poetic Edda also known as the Elder Edda, written down in the 13th century and ascribed to Saemundr the Learned although this is rejected by modern scholars. Apart from anything Saemundr lived from 1056-1133 and the Edda or Codex Regius (which forms part of this Edda) dates back to the 13th century. This Edda is older and distinguished from the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241) by being poetic in form. It is believed that Snorri either quoted from the Elder Edda or from a common and now lost source. The Elder Edda contains the mythological poems found in the Codex Regius but also additional material such as other mythological poems, e.g. the Rigsthula and also heroic lays such as those based upon Helgi and the Niflung Cycle. Sometimes one may find parts of the Elder Edda published in two volumes; one volume of mythological poetry and one of heroic poetry.

Both Eddas should be studied by heathens and it is advisable to study more than one translation of each Edda. It is even better if one were to study the Eddas in the original Old Norse language. To this end I have recently embarked upon a study of Old Norse as well as Modern Icelandic on which it is based. It is clear to me that from my analysis of various translations of the Eddas that there is at times a clear guesswork involved by the translator and for this reason I prefer to make my own best guess!

We are left with the important question of how do we view the Eddas? Do we view them simply as a  useful collection of old writings from which we may gain important information about our Gods or do we ascribe a certain sanctity to them? I have mentioned before in earlier articles on other blogs that there is a certain blasé attitude amongst some heathens today in terms of how they approach the Gods, as if they somehow have less power or deserve less respect that that of the Judeo-Christian god and I believe that this attitude may be explained in two ways. Heathens associate the Judeo-Christian god with a monotheistic, all powerful and universal god. However monotheism does not have its origins in Judaism but in Indo-European religions such as Hinduism and Zoroastrianism and Akhenaten's Great Hymn to the Aten (See A Son of God: The Life and Philosophy of Akhnaton, King of Egypt and Joy of the Sun: The Beautiful Life of Akhnaton, King of Egypt, Told To Young People, both by Savitri Devi). Secondly there is in these modern times a tendency to reject all authority whether this be the authority of the Gods or of man. Consequently the Eddas are seen to lack the authority of the Judeo-Christian scriptures. This may be attributed to a general trend towards the atomisation of individuals who divorce themselves from the notions of community and society. This idea is echoed in the words of the late Margaret Thatcher: "And, you know, there's no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families." Whist individualism in itself is not a negative thing it has to be balanced towards our duties towards clan, tribe and race.

When heathens embrace the ancient Gods of their ancestors they do so with an attitude of conscious rejection of the Christian god and all aspects of the Christian religion. This is understandable and to an extent necessary. However we need to consider that the Christian religion underwent fundamental changes when it encountered our ancestors and certain accommodations were made to embrace heathens apart from the use of force, violence and law. This whole subject is analysed very thoroughly in a remarkable book which I read many tears ago by Dr James C. Russell-The Germanization of Medieval Christianity: A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation, 1994. This work has been referred to by Edred Thorsson in his writings and I recommend this book to all my readers. The process of the Christianisation of the Germanic peoples was (contrary to the perception of many heathens) a two way process and ironically we can discover remnants of our pre-Christian beliefs in some of the rituals and practices of the mediaeval Christian Church if we know where to look! Another work which may be useful in this regard is Christianity: The Origins of a Pagan Religion by Professor Philippe Walther, 2006. On the issue of the Christ figure we have the much older work, Aryan Sun-Myths: Origin of Religion by Sarah E. Titcomb with an Introduction by Charles Morris, 1899. The more recent Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled by Acharya S, 2004 is also in my opinion required reading on the subject.

Much of what is written in the Eddas is composed in the third person about the Gods and heroes but some elements of the Eddas, most notably the Havamal and elements of Gylfaginning are in the first person and spoken by All-Father Odin Himself. The Havamal (Sayings of the High One) contains wisdom that has been learned by the God, in part through His many wanderings in Midgarth and thus this part of the Elder Edda deserves special study by the Wodenist/Odinist.

Within Hinduism there are many scriptures or sacred writings and the oldest are to be found in the Rig Veda which I have often quoted from in my blogs. The Hindu approaches these scriptures with reverence and rightly so for they are the oldest Indo-European writings and the oldest religious text in use! I leave you with this one thought to consider as heathens: do not the words of Odin deserve our reverence or is this attitude to be reserved only for the Christian 'god'?

Some Observations about Bilskirnir, Folkvang, Valhalla and the Germanic Caste System

The Grimnismal of the Poetic Edda makes reference to the 540 doors of Valhalla, something which is widely know amongst heathens:

"Five hundred doors, and forty eke, I think, are in Valhall. Eight hundred Einheriar will at once from each door go when they issue with the wolf to fight." (Grimnismal 23, translation by Benjamin Thorpe)

What appears to be less known or commented on is that just one verse later it is noted that Thor's hall Bilskirnir has 540 floors:

"Five hundred floors, and forty eke, I think, has Bilskirnir with its windings. Of all the roofed houses that I know, is my son's the greatest." (Grimnismal 24) 

Why this important verse (Grimnismal 24) is ignored I do not know but it is worthy of exploration for it cannot be a coincidence that whilst Odin's hall has 540 doors his son Thor's has 540 floors. What could be the significance of this?


As Carolyne Larrington correctly points out in her notes to her translation of the Poetic Edda the reference to hundred could be that of a Germanic 'long hundred' of 120. Scholarly opinion is divided on the issue of whether a standard or a long hundred is intended here. Rudolf Simek likewise points out this uncertainty in his Dictionary of Northern Mythology. So Valhalla and Bilskirnir have either 540 or 640 doors and floors depending on which interpretation of a hundred one uses. Furthermore the 540 floors of Bilskirnir may be interpreted as 540 rooms! I should also add that the '800' warriors thus becomes 960 and the arithmetic changes startlingly:

540 x 800 = 432,000
640 x 960 = 614, 400


Likewise compared to the better known Valhalla, Bilskirnir is virtually unknown amongst non-heathens and probably is little better known within the heathen community! The interpretation of Bilskirnir according to Simek is "the one striking lightning with rays of light". John Lindow is uncertain about the meaning of the name but his interpretation is "suddenly illuminated [by lightning] or everlasting." (Handbook of Norse Mythology) Andy Orchard's interpretation is "lightning-crack" (Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend). From my rudimentary knowledge of Old Norse an interpretation could just as easily be 'shining crack'. Bilskirnir simply represents the lightning strike and of course this is a fitting name for Thor's hall.

Bilskirnir is mentioned three times in the Prose Edda; once in Gylfaginning and twice in Skaldskaparmal. Bilskirnir is situated in either Thrudvang (Gylfaginning 20, Skaldskaparmal 17 and Ynglinga Saga 5) or Thrudheim (Grimnismal). Simek interprets Thrudvang  to mean 'power-field' and Thrudheim as 'power-home'-essentially the same place. Lindow gives a slightly different translation of Thrudvang and Thrudheim-'strength-field(s) ' and 'strength-world'. Thrudvang/Thrudheim is of course located in Asgard.

So we now come to the question, who resides in Bilskirnir apart from Thor and his immediate family? One possibility is that this is the abode of thralls who have faithfully served Thor. My reason for saying this is the following passage:

"Odin has all the jarls that in conflict fall; but Thor the race of thralls." (The Lay of Harbard, Poetic Edda, Thorpe)

There is a dispute amongst scholars as to whether Harbard was in fact either Odin or Loki in disguise but the predominant theory is that it is Odin. It does beg the question that if the jarls go to Odin and the thralls to Thor then where do the caste of carls go? As discussed before in previous articles on other blogs the jarls and carls had far more in common with each other racially and status wise than the caste of thralls who are depicted as being an alien element in Norse society. It should be noted that unlike the jarls and carls the thralls being slaves were not freemen and were not allowed to own weapons so the likelihood of any of them ever dying in battle is a slim one at the very least. With this fact in mind one may theorise that Valhalla was the abode not only of the jarl but of the karl providing they showed their bravery and loyalty to Odin. The thrall would not have this opportunity but may if they were of good conduct dwell with Thor in Bilskirnir. That is ONE theory and I am not suggesting that this is correct.

The second theory is that there is indeed a connection between the 540 doors of Valhalla and the 540 floors or rooms of Bilskirnir. Whilst the feasting and battle play are carried out in the precincts of Valhalla could it be that Bilskirnir represents the actual sleeping quarters of the warriors of Valhalla? I am only suggesting this because of the numerical equivalency and for no other reason.

It should be remembered that only half of the battle slain are claimed by Odin; half are chosen by Freyja and go to Folkvang:

"Folkvang is the ninth, there Freyja directs the sittings in the hall. She half the fallen chooses each day, but Odin th' other half." (Grimnismal, Thorpe)  

This effectively doubles the number of warriors that the Gods will have at their disposal at Ragnarok. The 432,000 now becomes 864,000-something which is never commented upon by the exponents of the esoteric theories regarding the number 432,000 in Indo-European lore. I have discussed these theories before and do not wish to bog down this article in repeating them but I may revisit this in a future article. Furthermore if we apply the theory of the long hundred to the calculations then we have the following result:

432,000 x 2 = 864,000 (Einheriar of Valhalla and Folkvang)
614,400 x 2 = 1,228, 800 (Einheriar of Valhalla and Folkvang)


This would be a far bigger army in which to fight Ragnarok! The etymology of Folkvang according to Simek is 'field of the people' or 'field of the army'. The actual hall of the Goddess in Folkvang is Sessrumnir-'seat-roomer' (Simek). The life of the Einheriar in Folkvang is largely ignored by other commentators but I intend to discuss this in depth in the near future.

Reflection on Rig of the Rigsthula

The Rigsthula is one of the most important sacred documents that has survived the onslaught of Christianity in the Germanic realms and I make no apology therefore in returning to it time and time again for there is still much to be gleaned and learned from this poem found in the Elder or Poetic Edda. 

The God Rig is credited with the formation of the Germanic caste system but this should not be confused with the creation of man which is dealt with as a separate event in both the Elder Edda and the Younger or Prose Edda. Rig's intention is to create an order of caste within Germanic society by the mixing of divine blood with that of mortal man. Of course we know that the caste system is to be found throughout the Aryan world. The Rigsthula is simply an account based on how the Germanic peoples thought of how the caste system came into being.

One question that we are faced with straight away is the identity of Rig and this is something which I have long pondered for several years now. The Rigsthula is prefaced with the following statement:

"In ancient Sagas it is related that one of the Aesir named Heimdall, being on a journey to a certain sea-shore, came to a village, where he called himself Rig." (Translated by Benjamin Thorpe)

It would seem from this that the Lay of Rig was already well known but it is possible that the writer of the lay may have repeated a mistake regarding the identification of Rig with Heimdall. Even  Miss Larrington states in her notes that "The identification of Heimdall with Rig is not absolutely secure, since it is based only on the prose introduction, but the beginning of the Seeress's Prophecy, asking for attention from all 'the offspring of Heimdall', seems to suggest that the god did have some connection with the creation of mankind."

Rig is said to be "derived from the Irish ri (rig in other cases) meaning 'king'." Why this term should be derived from an Irish source we can only speculate but I will leave discussion of that issue for another day. The important point to grasp is that the term is said to mean 'king' and this position was not Heimdall's but Odin's. Let us visit the line in question from the Voluspa in the Elder Edda:

"For silence I pray all sacred children, great and small, sons of Heimdall, they will that I Valfather's deeds recount, men's ancient saws, those that I remember." (Voluspa, line 1, translated by Benjamin Thorpe)

In Carolyne Larrington's translation's footnotes she interprets the 'sacred children' as being the Gods but this is not how I interpret the verse.  It appears to be referring to the 'offspring of Heimdall' as the 'sacred people' rather than the Gods and this makes sense when we consider that these people are divine offspring. In fact the translation of this verse by Benjamin Thorpe supports my contention:

"For silence I pray all sacred children, great and small, sons of Heimdall,"

 So it is clear then that it is the men and women who are descended from Rig are 'sacred' but without studying the original Old Norse (something which I intend to do) I cannot be categoric in this. It is simply my initial theory.

From my understanding the introduction to the Rigsthula may have been written 100 years or so later than the poem itself by way of providing some insight into who Rig may be and if this is the case it makes the contention that Rig is Heimdall stand on a much faultier basis. Rudolf Simek seems to share the view that I hold in his Dictionary of Northern Mythology and doubts that Rig can be identified as Heimdall. Rig is portrayed as a 'wandering God' who spreads runic knowledge. This activity fits better with Odin rather than Heimdall who is the Watcher-Guardian deity of Asgard.

My readers will note that Professor Simek states that the prose introduction was added later to the lay thus making it seem somewhat unreliable in my opinion. The whole picture of a wandering God who teaches runes to His son Jarl fits better with the qualities of Odin Himself who is known as The Wanderer and is the High Lord of the runes. Unlike Heimdall He is also the rig, the king of the Gods. Most ancient Germanic royal houses included Odin or Woden in their ancestry. Heimdall never appears in this way. Finally the main function of Heimdall is to guard Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge. For Heimdall to leave His post for extended periods of time thus leaving Asgard vulnerable to attack does not make an iota of sense to me.