r/heathenry

I really want to read the poetic and prose Edda but I don't know which copy to read, are all of them ok to read, or do I need specific ones?

so I’ve been making offerings of mead and whiskey to Odin for several months now. I make my own mead which I feel is a more personal offering because the effort I put into making it. problem is I’m almost out of my home made mead and my next batch won’t be ready for another 3 months.

in the meantime I recently came into a rather large amount of scotch my late father in law left behind (he was a prepper and decided whiskey was apparently very important for TEOTWAWKI.

getting this scotch involved absolutely no effort on my part and I don’t really drink scotch that often so I feel like I’m not sacrificing anything by giving it to Odin. On the other hand whiskey is often said to be one of his preferred offerings.

so my question is, do you feel that offerings requiring sacrifices of time/money/effort etc are more meaningful than stuff you just have?

For context: I’m a 4th generation german-american. My mom‘s mother is half mexican, half native american. My mom’s father is bavarian german. My dad is full japanese…But I really did grow up connected to my german culture and side as much as I could living in the states.

Recently, I met another bavarian german who was raised over there, and still lives in germany. He practices traditional bavarian alpenbrauchtum. I started to get into the same practice a couple of months ago, but ONLY after I asked a few bavarian elders who engaged in the same tradition, if it was okay for me to do so. They all knew of my ethnic background.

However, this guy has told me I don’t have enough german blood or roots to the land in bavaria to engage in this practice. He said I’m "too mixed" and that the german spirits won’t recognize me? Thus, he also stated this practice is closed to me. But I’m so lost and conflicted because I was always told otherwise :(

EDIT: Not sure why I got downvoted but beyond that, I want to clarify that this post isn’t satire. The guy was being literal and serious about everything he said, and I’m being serious about my confusion. It’s hard being multi-ethnic and multi-racial when you encounter experiences like this where you aren’t "enough" of something to be accepted by your own community.

I was lucky enough to do a manuscript summer school at Reykjavik last month at the Arni Magnusson Institute (Árnastofnun). It was super helpful for my studies, but also, I realised, very useful for Heathens. (It was also very cool to visit Borgarnes and Reykholt etc, and to clearly see the places mentioned in the sagas, it helped me connect to my faith in a new way). I was also very grateful that there were heathens among the teaching faculty, as I know that several UK universities are not so welcoming.

https://clarino.uib.no/menota/catalogue/menota

https://clarino.uib.no/menota/catalogue/menota-rune (runestone/inscription database)

https://onp.ku.dk/onp/onp.php (this will be super helpful for trying to find attestations)

https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=skaldic (I imagine many of you know this resource already, but still).

https://msa.arnastofnun.is/

https://handrit.is/?lang=en

https://baekur.is/search

https://manuscripta.se/

I've been here for a few weeks, I'm of the Norse flavor, just got really into it and now is doing daily rituals to freyr and my time outdoors feels incredibly different, as if things I didn't enjoy, I now do, colors are more vibrant, I now enjoy the scorching heat which I despised not long ago, but I have a few questions about said rituals.

1. Can you enchant your jewelry/items in the names of the gods and what would it affect in your daily life to do so?

2. What language should I be reading out my prayer in?

3. When I do my rituals in english I for some reason auto fix to a gealic accent like thing, should I stop doing that or should I keep doing it as a nod to the gods I pray to/my ancestors?

4. I have a portable alter, is that alright or should I set up multiple house alters?

5. Why is there barely any people on this sub Reddit that actually post and why has it slowed down as of late compared to some posts of before, are we dying as a whole?

Last post asking for this was 5 years ago.

Looking for books I can physically have, read, and write in that are English. I’ve read the History of Krampus book so I’m fine with that level of material, but looking more stories passed down to read (like Grimm and Germania?) I have the prose Edda but I want to read further back first.

YT/Podcasts I’m very eh about bc I’m already finding a lot of them keep getting found out they are neos/ayrans, if you have a good POC podcaster that you can suggest to me go for it.

Edit: added first line

I think the ritual stuff is kinda cool and would like to dedicate one to freyr and/or Freyja, any specifics to make it?

Frith and greetings all

My playlist rolled around to Kalandra's version of Helvegen and it swept me up as it always does (Gods know this is going to be played when i go!)

but between Heilung, Wardruna, Sowulo and a smattering of other go-to heathen names, it started me thinking. there's more crossroads in life. Birth, coming of age, self discovery and realisation, (unrequited)love, marriage and perhaps other oath making and breaking, parenthood, coming and going of friends and, finally, death. And perhaps other profound high and low points on one's path.

What heathen/pagan/germanic songs or music do you link to the big moments in life? and why?