Heathen and Asatruar, What is the Difference?

[ryynänen47]

Hello People

I was under the impression that Asatru and Heathenry was the same. Can someone tell me the differences between the 2?

Thanks,


Ryynänen47

 

[L.Keane]

Hello People

I was under the impression that Asatru and Heathenry was the same. Can someone tell me the differences between the 2?

Thanks,


Ryynänen47

Hello Ryynänen47,

The difference, as I understand it, is that while Asatru focuses on the Aesir (but that generally includes the Vanir and other beings not hostile to the Aesir), heathenism is a more general term which may or may not involve devotion to the Aesir. Asatru usually focuses on the Aesir in their Norse manifestation (as that is where the lore is mostly found) where a heathen perspective could be focused more on the German manifestations, for example. The way I view it is that Asatru is a branch of heathenism. But then again I have a pention to placing things in convenient containers!

Lloyd

 

[Ukonkivi]

According to the other thread in the Ásatrú section, the focus difference may be that in Heathenry there is less fixation on Nordic Racial and Germanic heritage than Heathenry.
Unless those people in the thread are basically saying that the non-Germanic do not have right to honor the Aesir and feel union with the Norse spirits.

They really haven't been very specific.

 

[Mikael]

Asatro is a modern revival of a religion based on scandinavian mythology.

Heathen is a name given by christian missionaries to those not yet christians.

Right?

 

[Werden]

I'm only posting here due to the length of my study and involvement with Heathenry of various sorts.

From my understanding the term Asatru is more properly confined to the 'modern' revival in Iceland and groups directly related to the same tradition and interests (ie. more Scandinavian and Norse oriented with regards to tradition, philosophy, and mythology).

I would then place Asatru within the larger scope of Heathen traditions/religions, which would include all the indigenous 'Northen' European traditions and religions of the Germanic and Uralic branches of the Indo-European culture group.

In such I would place any indigenous traditions from the non-Celtic Britons, the Teutons, Goths, Franks, Finns, Sami, etc.

The term 'heathen' just being a modern linguistic convention for taxonomic reasons, to distinguish these from other indigenous and reconstruction based religions (Kemetic, Hellenic, Celtic, etc) and to create a distinction away from the very diverse group related to as Pagan traditions.

These are only my thoughts on the matter after many years of research with such.

I recommend the following links for those interested :
Portal:Heathenism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Germanic Neopaganism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Folk religion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Finnish Neopaganism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Polytheistic reconstructionism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Mata]

Hello People

I was under the impression that Asatru and Heathenry was the same. Can someone tell me the differences between the 2?

Thanks,


Ryynänen47

As Werden touched upon Asatru is a form of heathenry that focuses on the Icelandic mythology.

Although, outside of heathenry, Asatru is used as a catchall term for various heathen beliefs. But the precise term is that it's the Icelandic branch.

So - Asatru is always heathenry/heathen but not all heathens are Asatruar. One can be Theod, Forn Sed, continental German, etc etc. But they all have the common thread of having many similar beliefs and (more or less) worship the same gods and goddesses; albeit under different names, i.e, Thor is Icelandic/Norwegian, while in Germany his name was Donar and in England it was Thunor.