Latest / Random Heathen Ramblings / Random Heathen Ramblings: S6, EP36 [Monthly Live Stream, Sept. 29th 2025]
Transcript
- 0:40Music. The.
- 1:59The. The.
- 3:13Music. Picture a burning ship slipping
- 3:42beneath the waves, or a mound rising high over a chieftain's
- 3:46grave. From Tacitus to Ibn Fadlan, from
- 3:50Beowulf to Snorty, funerals in the heathen world were moments
- 3:55where the living at the mysteries of death.
- 4:05Hello everyone, and welcome to the Random Heathen Ramblings
- 4:07podcast where we discuss all sorts of things Germanic
- 4:11Heathenry related. My name is Jesse, I'm your host.
- 4:15Let's get into it. All right, everybody, we are
- 5:16live streaming across Facebook and YouTube.
- 5:19So Helen, welcome to all of you that are tuning in and watching
- 5:22this month's live broadcast of the Brandon Heathen Ramblings
- 5:25podcast. If you don't know, these are
- 5:28monthly live streams that I do usually at the end of every
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- 5:36OK because they get republished later on for that week's podcast
- 5:40episode. So this would be replayed on my
- 5:44Patreon and elsewhere to all would be fine, folks.
- 5:48So just a quick acknowledgement to some of my live viewers.
- 5:51Hello, David Klen, good to see you again.
- 5:54Always good to see you pop in on these.
- 5:55Man, thank you so much for taking the time just to stop in
- 5:57and say hi. And of course, Patrick Walsh
- 6:01there at the beginning was chiming in.
- 6:04We'll be dropping in again soon. Hopefully we'll see you again
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- 7:35So again, thank you all so much for being here.
- 7:37We got a a great topic that came in this week that we're going to
- 7:41be talking about from a Patreon supporter over there.
- 7:45He has been following along for quite some time and his name is
- 7:49Michael. So Michael, thank you for this
- 7:51suggested topic for this week. Speaking of which, here he is
- 7:57tuning in from Facebook. Michael Thacker Hale and good
- 8:01evening to you. Thank you again for this topic.
- 8:03And this is a topic that Michael had asked in our Patreon chat,
- 8:07which again, when you join Patreon and, and you have kind
- 8:10of like a Direct Line of contact with me through our our
- 8:14community chat there. So again, it's a great way to
- 8:16support you get some extra perks along the way.
- 8:19Plus you get acknowledgements like this and it helps with
- 8:22building content, subject matter, right?
- 8:25So I will be happy to take your questions or comments if you
- 8:28have them. But what we're going to be
- 8:30talking about today are funeral rites, burial rites, things
- 8:33pertaining to those customs surrounding heathens, Germanic
- 8:38heathens. So this is a question that
- 8:42Michael wanted to have, you know, talked about today.
- 8:46What's up there? Sculled, it works.
- 8:47Good friend there, Blake, over there at Sculled, it works.
- 8:51How's it going, man? Good to see you.
- 8:55So as you all know, or maybe you don't maybe you don't when it
- 8:58comes to these like questions or or or things about Heath and re.
- 9:02You know, I'm always keen on trying to find as many good
- 9:06source materials as we can find about particular questions, if
- 9:09any exist. And fortunately for Michael's
- 9:12question when he come when it comes to funeral rites and
- 9:15burial customs and things right. One of the things about the
- 9:23customs of, of the Germanic people is that while burial
- 9:28customs or, or burial, I don't want to say rites per SE, but
- 9:34yeah, like the, the practice of, of doing what you do after a
- 9:38body has, has, has has died. You know, there's a lot of
- 9:46source material that backs up the processes, so we're going to
- 9:51kind of go into some of those things.
- 9:52I've got a lot of notes, so I'm going to be looking back and
- 9:54forth just to make sure that I capture as much as I can.
- 10:01You know, we're going to try to talk a little bit about some
- 10:03archaeological things, mostly literary evidence such as, you
- 10:06know, sources that contain are contained in the Eddas, poems,
- 10:10sagas, any other academic work that talks about these things.
- 10:19But it's what what's, what's, what's really interesting to
- 10:22note when it comes to the like the funeral rites and the burial
- 10:25rites of the Germanic peoples is that the, the concept of the
- 10:29belief of what happens after death, right?
- 10:32Beliefs about the afterlife are somewhat inconsistent.
- 10:36And by that I mean, you know, you'll hear some mentions and
- 10:40some things in the stories that talk about, you know, going to
- 10:43Valhalla or, you know, being captured by, you know, and going
- 10:49to Ron if you're like in the in the ocean or if you're in the
- 10:53sea sort of thing. Hell is a big one.
- 10:59Of course, Hel going to Hell's Hall and and all of that.
- 11:05So while the beliefs about what happens in the afterlife aren't
- 11:09always consistent across dramatic sources, how funeral
- 11:14rites were done in the funerals themselves are pretty
- 11:17consistent. They do have a lot of mentions
- 11:21in some very important source materials.
- 11:26And just as a side note, you know, I'm not going to go too
- 11:29deep into what she writes about, but if you're ever really
- 11:32interested in exploring the complexities of a heathen
- 11:36worldview of death in the afterlife, specifically like the
- 11:40Norse and the dramatic views of things, there's a book written
- 11:44by HR Ellis Davidson called The Road to Hell.
- 11:49And it's a great source for you to it's an academic read, of
- 11:52course, but it's a great source. I highly recommend that you can
- 11:55find free downloadable PDFs online if you're not wanting to
- 12:01buy the book, the card cover book.
- 12:02And a lot of people prefer that. They let a lot of people like to
- 12:07purchase and have a book on their shelf to reference.
- 12:11But if you're not and you just like digital reads and stuff, it
- 12:13is a very extensive read. So it would be a it would be a
- 12:15very long, you know, PDF that you would have taken up a lot of
- 12:20space in your digital storage. But either way, it's accessible.
- 12:25It's easily accessible. So it's called the road to hell.
- 12:27It's by HR Ellis Davidson very important read reading material
- 12:34when it comes to understanding the the world use of death in
- 12:36the afterlife among the North. So always I always recommend
- 12:39that. But aside from the particular
- 12:42source, we're going to look at some, some source materials that
- 12:45are primary, considered primary sources, you know, written from
- 12:50like the age of when Tacitus was observing the behaviors and,
- 12:55and, and customs of the Germanic peoples in his Germania.
- 12:59We'll look at some examples of other, we might call observers
- 13:06or external parties, sites such as Ibn Fan LAN, when he has an
- 13:12eyewitness view of of the, the, the, the burial of a Swedish, of
- 13:19the, of a ruse, you know, of a Chieftain of the Swedish ruse.
- 13:23We're going to talk about a little bit one of the most
- 13:25infamous poems in, in Germanic sources, the old English poem
- 13:30Beowulf, because in that poem it is it, there's a very vivid
- 13:35description of Beowulf's funeral.
- 13:38And then of course, we'll also make some references and
- 13:41mentions in the Edas, right, some of the edict poems as well
- 13:49as some of the sagas. So plenty of stuff to go
- 13:53through. So I think it would probably
- 13:56just be good to start with our earliest known sources.
- 14:01And you're going to notice a theme when it comes to what the
- 14:05dramatic peoples did to their dead.
- 14:10First of all, you know what I mean?
- 14:11Like how they would properly dispose of the body in in a lot
- 14:16of cases, you're going to you're going to hear a lot of repeated
- 14:19themes, OK. And that is cremation.
- 14:25Bodies were burned, cremated, and then the remains were done
- 14:30with what they were done with. A lot of times they were buried
- 14:33in a mound. OK, Some of them were and, and
- 14:40that burial mound could be, you know, a, a family plot or, or
- 14:43family on family land on, on old Isle lands.
- 14:50And then if you again, if you read HR Ellis Davidson's The
- 14:53Road to Hell, you'll understand why that custom was so
- 14:55important. And it was believed that the
- 14:59part of the, the spirit of that dead person, that relative, that
- 15:03family member, by burying their remains on the family land, it
- 15:08afforded them the, the, the ability to continue to protect
- 15:12and watch over the family. You know, so later on in, in the
- 15:16sources, when you read about things like, you know, Valhalla
- 15:19being a place for the warrior dead to go.
- 15:22And, and if you died at sea, you were taken up by Ron and, and
- 15:28all of these sorts of things. These were more or less
- 15:31kennings. Valhalla, especially Valhole
- 15:35were kennings to describe this the place of of the dead to go
- 15:39that that died under those specific circumstances.
- 15:42It was as an example, right, If, if, if a warrior died in battle,
- 15:49it was not practical or, or possible for their remains to
- 15:52be, you know, picked up in the battlefield, brought back to
- 15:57wherever they were from or burned and then buried in a
- 16:01family mound. It was impractical for that.
- 16:04So these warrior dead were said to be chosen to go to either
- 16:12Folk, Wagner or Valhol, right? So these were later concepts
- 16:18that became something that not necessarily early on believed to
- 16:22be a thing, at least from what source material that we know of,
- 16:25right. So where we're going to start
- 16:29with that is in Tacitus's Germania.
- 16:32OK, So this is again one part of of of Germania where he says in
- 16:45performing their funerals, they show no state or Vainglory.
- 16:50This only is carefully observed, that with the corpses of their
- 16:54signal men, certain woods be burned upon the funeral pile.
- 17:00They accumulate neither apparel nor perfume.
- 17:04Into the fire are always thrown the arms of the dead and
- 17:07sometimes his horse arms meaning like weapons, right.
- 17:13With sods of earth, only the sepulchre is raised.
- 17:19The sepulchre meaning the the the sods of earth with this only
- 17:23with sods of earth. Sods of earth is the sepulchre
- 17:26race. It's a grave mound, right?
- 17:27No timber, no stone structure. This is sodden earth.
- 17:32The pomp of tedious and elaborate monuments.
- 17:35They contemn as things grievous to the deceased.
- 17:40So they wouldn't raise these big tombs and and then monuments
- 17:43because they didn't think that it was, it was it wasn't in
- 17:45alignment with their perception of things.
- 17:47OK, tears and wailings they soon dismiss their afflictions and
- 17:54woe they long retain. In women it is reckoned
- 17:58becoming, It is reckoned becoming to bewail their loss.
- 18:03We'll hear more about this later in Beowulf's funeral in men to
- 18:08remember it. So it was, it was befitting and
- 18:10it was becoming for the women to sing a dirge or wail and, and,
- 18:15and, and it is over sadness, right, to this lament and this
- 18:18wailing, whereas it, for the men it was, it was just be stoic and
- 18:21remember, and not to cry and all this stuff, right.
- 18:24So this is what in general we have learned in the original and
- 18:29customs of the whole people of Germany.
- 18:31I shall now deduce the institutions and usages of the
- 18:34several people as far as they vary one from another, as also
- 18:38an account of what nations from thence removed to settle
- 18:42themselves in gall. So then he goes on and he talks
- 18:45more about some of the specifics of the dramatic tribes.
- 18:47But as a general rule, this custom, this was done with
- 18:53regards to a funeral pile, right?
- 18:56So they were they were accumulated and and lit on fire
- 19:02because it says into the fire we're thrown this thing that and
- 19:04the other. So as as early as you know, what
- 19:08was it like 98 of the common era?
- 19:12So before the year 100, right when when Tacitus is is
- 19:15documenting his observances of the Germanic tribes, we see
- 19:21early examples that cremation, funeral pyres and and stuff were
- 19:26the were the method adopted by the Germanic peoples.
- 19:31And again, it was once they were burned down, then the mound was
- 19:35raised and their remains were put into the mound.
- 19:40All right, the other source and I don't have like a written copy
- 19:45right in front of me to go. But if you look up even Fadlon
- 19:48and the land of darkness, for those of you who are movie geeks
- 19:52and and, and like the movie called the 13th warrior, it has
- 19:56a very young Antonio Banderas in it.
- 19:58This is from like, I think like the mid 90s or, or or before
- 20:03that movie. The 13th warrior is a is a
- 20:06loose. Is based loosely on Ibn Fadlan
- 20:11in the Land of Darkness. His character in the movie is
- 20:14Ahmed Ibn Fadlan, right? So he's an Arab Arabic emissary
- 20:19traveling with the Swedish ruse at the time.
- 20:22And, and he witnesses a, the, the, the ship burial or the, OR
- 20:28the funeral practices of a Chieftain.
- 20:34And it's described as, you know, him being laid in a ship with
- 20:37belongings, things that were his.
- 20:41Even a, one of his slaves was, you know, ritually killed and,
- 20:48and put into the pyre with him. She was given an, a, a, a
- 20:53hallucinogenic or, or mind altering substance.
- 20:56So it's some sort of tea or something that she drank and she
- 20:58was sexually exploited by the chieftain's men.
- 21:04It's a it's a whole thing. Read about it in Ibn Funlan in
- 21:07the land of darkness. And anyway, this was another
- 21:09custom that was done by the Swedish ruse specifically for a
- 21:13Chieftain. Very important person has a high
- 21:15status in in their society. So it's not likely that funeral
- 21:21customs for the common folk were done with such elaborate means
- 21:25right there, you know, having this substance, you know,
- 21:29consumed by one of the slaves to alter their state of
- 21:33consciousness and then they are sexually exploited and then
- 21:36killed and then placed in the pyre with them to burn during
- 21:40the cremation process. But that is a source.
- 21:44And that is again we see cremation being the method
- 21:49adopted by these people. Now one of the most wonderful
- 21:56reads and I'm going to, if you guys don't mind, I hope you
- 21:59don't. I want to read to you the line
- 22:04from Beowulf about Beowulf's funeral.
- 22:09The reason why I want to do this is, is kind of twofold.
- 22:14Firstly, it is one of the most vivid and famous heathen
- 22:21funerals documented in any sources in any literature.
- 22:27Secondly, it is it follows the the alliterative meter of poetry
- 22:35of, of Germanic poetry, which I'm the kind of a nerd about.
- 22:38So I love following, I love, I love reading poetry that that
- 22:42adopts that alliterative meter. OK, so if you'll indulge me,
- 22:49this will probably just take a few minutes for me to to read.
- 22:52It's it's a section of Beowulf and this is the Francis B
- 22:58Grummere Grummere translation. And you'll notice very early on
- 23:03what I'm talking about with the alliterative meter.
- 23:05OK, and I'll do my best to maintain that meter as I read
- 23:09it. OK, so here we go then.
- 23:13The Baron of Veostan bade command Hardy chief to heroes,
- 23:18many that owned their homesteads.
- 23:21Hit her to bring firewood from far o'er the folk they ruled for
- 23:25the famed one's funeral. Fire shall devour and Wain
- 23:30flames feed on the fearless warrior who OFT stood stout in
- 23:34the iron shower. When speed from the string, a
- 23:37storm of arrows shot over the shield wall.
- 23:41The shaft held firm, featly feathered followed the Barb, and
- 23:47now the sage, young son of Veilstone 7, chose of The
- 23:52Chieftains things the best. He found that band within and
- 23:57went with these warriors, one of eight under hostile roof in
- 24:03hand. One bore A lighted torch and LED
- 24:06the way. No lots they cast for keeping
- 24:09the horde, When once the warriors saw it in hall all
- 24:14together, without a guardian lying there lost and little,
- 24:19they mourned when they had hastily hot hailed it out.
- 24:23Deer bought treasure the dragon they cast the worm over the wall
- 24:29of the wave to take, and surges swallowed that shepherd of
- 24:34germs. Then the woven gold on a wane
- 24:39was laden countless quite, and the king was born hoary hero to
- 24:45Crone's nest. Then the fashioned, then
- 24:48fashioned for him the folk of geets firm on the earth, a
- 24:52funeral pile, and hung it with helmets and harnesses of war and
- 24:57breastplates of bright as the boon.
- 25:00He asked. And they laid amid it the mighty
- 25:03Chieftain. Heroes mourning their master
- 25:06dear. Then on the hill that hugest of
- 25:11Bale fires, the warriors wakened.
- 25:14Wood smoke rose black over blaze, and blent was the roar of
- 25:19flame with weeping Till the fire had broken the frame of bones
- 25:24hot at the heart, in heavy mood their misery moaned, they their
- 25:29master's death wailing her woe. The widow old, her hair up bound
- 25:35for Beowulf's death, sung in her sorrow, and said full OFT she
- 25:41dreaded the doleful days to come.
- 25:44Deaths now and doom of battle and shame.
- 25:49The smoke by the sky was devoured, The folk of the
- 25:52waiters fashioned there on the headland of Barrow, broad and
- 25:56high by ocean, fares far described.
- 26:00In 10 days time their toll had raised it.
- 26:04The battle Braves beacon round brands of the pyre, a wall they
- 26:10built the worthiest ever that wit could prompt in their wisest
- 26:15men. They placed in the Barrow that
- 26:18precious booty, the rounds in the rings that they rent ere
- 26:22while Hardy heroes from horde in cave, trusting the ground with
- 26:28treasures of earths of Earls, gold in the earth wherever it
- 26:34lies, useless to men as of yore. It was then about that Barrow,
- 26:41the battle Kane rode ale thing born a band of 12 the meant to
- 26:48make to mourn their king chants their dirge and their Chieftain
- 26:53honour. They praised his Earl ship, his
- 26:56acts of prowess worthy, worthily witnessed.
- 27:00And well it is that men their master friend, mightily loved,
- 27:04heartily love when heroes he go when hence he goes from life in
- 27:11the body forlorn away. All right, so let me just catch
- 27:21up there. So Dave is going to work, I
- 27:23guess. Yeah.
- 27:24Time for me to give him to the plant.
- 27:25Have a blessed evening. Till next time.
- 27:27Thank you, David. All right, so there was the the
- 27:31section of Beowulf that beautifully portrays everything
- 27:36in detail that really echoes what was spoken about in Tacitus
- 27:44as Germania. Hey there, brother, what's up?
- 27:47Adam Cage? Good to see you, brother.
- 27:49Thank you for tuning in and watching.
- 27:50We just, I just finished reading the, the line from Beowulf of,
- 27:54of, of his funeral to, to display and to show the customs
- 27:59of the Germanic people in, in how a funeral would be conducted
- 28:03or held. So much like what we read about
- 28:05in Tacitus Germania, right, That, that his arms and maybe
- 28:11his horse were thrown in. So they, they, they threw things
- 28:13into the fire. We hear about, you know, women
- 28:15weeping. They sung his dirge.
- 28:19They, they commemorated him. They sung great songs.
- 28:24This is a great example of, of what a heathen funeral would be
- 28:29like in ancient times, right? So there it was.
- 28:33It was again cremation, right? The body is burned and the
- 28:38burial ashes are placed in a mound, right?
- 28:41So it's a very simple order to it.
- 28:44There's more to this story. I just gave you a section of it
- 28:47in the poem. But one of his, one of Beowulf's
- 28:53thanes Wigloff, you know, he gives a speech, talks about how
- 28:56great Beowulf was. Beowulf's then his, his, his,
- 29:01his retainers, then place him in the the pyre with all of his
- 29:07grave goods, all you know, his weapons and the and the
- 29:09treasures and all of these things.
- 29:12His queen obviously is wailing and and lamenting him, sings a
- 29:17dirge. The the you know, ashes are are
- 29:21once the body is burned and completely rendered down, they
- 29:24are placed into the mound. And then once that mound was
- 29:28built, 12 warriors circle the mound to again sing songs,
- 29:34right, and commemorate their hero and praise their Chieftain.
- 29:40So an example of the funeral rites of a very important
- 29:44person, highly esteemed, societally important, right?
- 29:47You know, you got a some somewhat of a noble presence,
- 29:53right? So these are how things would be
- 29:55done for for those types. There is some debate with
- 30:01whether or not there was ever like what we would consider
- 30:05awake prior to the cremation if the body was placed in view for,
- 30:12for, for for people to have time with, you know, to, to, to pay
- 30:19their respects to or whatever. There is a probability about it
- 30:24because even though it is not tested in any sources that we
- 30:31have available, there was a funeral that had a symbol
- 30:37documented in the Lacsa Della saga, which we'll get to
- 30:40shortly. But the in the Lacsa Della Saga,
- 30:42it it portrays a funeral stumble.
- 30:46So stumble is a drinking ceremony.
- 30:48There's there are there's very specific pattern to what stumble
- 30:53is in the historical heathen sense.
- 30:54But when stumbles are held is usually following a feast of
- 31:00sorts. And there is in the Lacsa della
- 31:02Saga Chapter 27, it was, you know, the the the funeral of
- 31:08Hoskeld was a pretty important and lavish affair.
- 31:12You know, he was a important guy, but it was, you know, it
- 31:15was done several moons after the actual funeral.
- 31:18So it wasn't like right then and there.
- 31:23It was something that was commemorated later on for for
- 31:28him. So aside from these sources, you
- 31:34know, you've got what's up there, Adam, We've got
- 31:41beautifully read. Oh, thank you, brother.
- 31:42Thank you, thank you, thank you. I appreciate that.
- 31:44Beowulf is is it's, it's one of the most awesome poems that
- 31:48exist for Heathenry. Even if you're not heathen, it's
- 31:52just a great poem to read. And again, I could, I don't know
- 31:57if you could tell, but like the alliterative meat or the pattern
- 32:00of things, you know, like with again, I'm I kind of nerd out
- 32:05with that stuff. So maybe I'm just feeling it,
- 32:08but I love it. So in, in, in addition to the,
- 32:13the sources that I've already cited, OK, so Tacitus being a
- 32:17primary source, they've been Fodlon in the land of darkness
- 32:20and his experiences with the Swedish Ruth.
- 32:22This is around the 10th century, by the way, they've been Fodlon.
- 32:25So, you know, you're getting close to that medieval period or
- 32:32in the migration of, of the tribes where they're, they're
- 32:36moving north and and, and stuff. But it's still, it is a external
- 32:40person, you know, not, not a dramatic person experiencing
- 32:44these things and documenting them as they see them.
- 32:46No bias. It is what it is.
- 32:49And a lot of the things that Ivan Fedlon writes about the the
- 32:52Swedish roots are not, are not very complimentary.
- 32:55So there's that it's it's it's truthful.
- 32:59All right. So then, of course, with
- 33:00Beowulf, that is somewheres around the 8th to the 10th
- 33:04century of the common era as well.
- 33:07And then we get into the the edit poems.
- 33:09OK, so we have guilt beginning. We that, that that famously
- 33:13writes, you know, talks about Balder's funeral.
- 33:16Balder is also burned on a funeral pyre and then ends up in
- 33:22hell, the realm hell right HEL not HE double hockey sticks like
- 33:28the Christians say, but the hell with the L with the 1L.
- 33:32So in guilt beginning boulders placed upon a ship, his body is
- 33:40placed upon a ship, his dead body is placed on a ship, and
- 33:42then that ship is burned. So here we, yet again, even for
- 33:45the gods, for the holy, have a representation of cremation, of
- 33:50fire being used to dispose of the deceased.
- 33:56All sorts of things are burned with him.
- 33:59There are goods of, you know, animals, possessions, even some
- 34:04dwarves get tossed into, into, into Balder's funeral pyre.
- 34:11And there is this, you know, the mythic reflection of his, of his
- 34:18existence. You know what I mean, 'cause he,
- 34:19he didn't, you know, he didn't. He was most loved, most beloved.
- 34:26Everybody mourned for him except for that one figure, right?
- 34:29We know about that in that, in that Loki in disguise did, did
- 34:33not mourn for Balder, which is why he was not surrendered.
- 34:38OK, he was not brought back from hell, but that is a famous
- 34:43mythical story of of another funeral that still shows the
- 34:52cremation, the burial goods as being a means and a method of
- 35:00how the Germanic peoples would execute their funeral.
- 35:06All right, so some other material sources or source
- 35:10materials outside of these poems and the Ettas, right?
- 35:13So the Ettas contain myth and sagas, but let's look at a
- 35:18couple of other saga references. I I mentioned briefly before the
- 35:26Loxa Della saga. That is a 13th century source.
- 35:30So again, we're talking the late Viking Age.
- 35:35And, you know, it gives examples of again, of a Hulk loaders.
- 35:42I think it was Hulk loaders. Am I saying it right?
- 35:46Hoskold, Sorry, Hoskold, his his rather, you know, lavish affair,
- 35:52but he's you know, again emulated cremated.
- 35:59It shows an airship, not airship, like not like Jefferson
- 36:04airship. I'm talking like air, like IOI
- 36:06inherited something an air HEIR airship stumble.
- 36:10That'd be crazy. Jefferson airship stumble.
- 36:15That'd be cool, but not that it is so in anyways the Laxa Della
- 36:19Saga. It records a burial and an
- 36:22inheritance feast. OK, so the stumble, the airship
- 36:27stumble, his funeral is, does have a mound raised for him, of
- 36:36course. And it kind of, you know, it
- 36:42kind of outlines the the, I guess, like social and legal, I
- 36:49don't know, dimensions of funerals, who gets what because
- 36:52they're so important, you know what I'm saying?
- 36:54So all of these things that we're talking that we're hearing
- 36:57about because they're, you know, they're documented in sagas or
- 37:00they're documented in poems or they're documented in myth,
- 37:03reflects the importance of the person that had this done to
- 37:06them, right. Beowulf this great king or Chief
- 37:09Balder best and brightest most loved of the gods, the folks you
- 37:15know the the the signal men, the chiefs of of in Tacitus as
- 37:18Germania. We go again here now to the
- 37:22Inglinga saga, which in the Inglinga saga saga, the inglings
- 37:26right the kings, the the kings of Sweden who traced their
- 37:30lineage back to Ingvi mentions a funeral assemble as well.
- 37:35In chapter 22 says King Agne had at the time a gold ornament
- 37:41which had belonged to Vispur. This is again, this is a line
- 37:44from chapter 22 of the Inglinga saga.
- 37:47He now married Scalf and she begged him to make burial
- 37:51stumble in honor of her father. He invited a great many guests
- 37:55and made a great feast. He had become very celebrated by
- 37:59his expedition and there was a great drinking match.
- 38:05So one could say that at, you know, at heathen funerals,
- 38:11stumble is definitely something that is has been documented.
- 38:14And you can even say that there's a drinking match, you
- 38:18know, So, so bring the booze for the for the, for the affair,
- 38:25right? Groovy man, says Adam Cage on
- 38:28Facebook. Yeah, it absolutely is.
- 38:29Man, I, I love finding stuff like this out.
- 38:32Later on in the England saga, there is a mention of a airship
- 38:37stumble. OK, this is later on in chapter
- 38:4040. Well, which is when?
- 38:42So when Inga Ingyeld took the dominions and the kingdoms of
- 38:47his father, there was, as before said, many district kings.
- 38:52King Ingyeld ordered a great feast to be prepared in Uppsala
- 38:56and intended at that feast to enter on his heritage.
- 39:00After King oned his father, he had a large hall made ready for
- 39:05the occasion, not one not less sumptuous then that of Uppsal,
- 39:10and his hall was called the Seven Kings Hall, and in it were
- 39:147 high seats for kings. Then King Inyald sent men all
- 39:20through Sweden and invited to his feast kings, Earls and other
- 39:24men of consequence. To this airship stumble came
- 39:28King Algout, his father-in-law, Ingvar, king of Fyodnir land.
- 39:36Fyodnir Land with his two sons Alf and Agner.
- 39:41King Sporfsnyol of Nerik. Listen, I'm not Swedish or nor I
- 39:46don't have I'm butchering these names so I'm sorry.
- 39:50King Sigvet of Aten Aten is the 8.
- 39:56Aten DeLand. Aten DeLand.
- 40:00But Granar, king of Sodom and Land, did not come.
- 40:05What a what a jerk. How you, how you going to not
- 40:07come to the to the King's feast, right.
- 40:09What, what a what a jerk. Anyway, so 6 kings were placed
- 40:13in the seats in the new hall. But one of the high seats which
- 40:16England had prepared was empty because Granard didn't come.
- 40:19He must have had something more important to do.
- 40:22All the persons who had come got places in the new hall, but to
- 40:25his own court and the rest of his people he had appointed
- 40:28places at Uppsal. It was the custom at the time
- 40:31that he gave, that he who gave an airship feast after kings or
- 40:36Earls, and entered upon the heritage, should sit upon the
- 40:39footstool in front of the high seat until the full bowl, which
- 40:43was called the Bragaful or Braga Beaker, was brought in.
- 40:49Then he should stand up, take the Braga Beaker, make solemn
- 40:52vows to be afterwards fulfilled, and thereupon empty the beaker.
- 40:58Then he should ascend to the high seat with his father, which
- 41:01his father had occupied, and thus he came to the full
- 41:05heritage after his father. Now it was done.
- 41:08So on this occasion, when the full Braga beaker came in, King
- 41:12Ingald stood up, grasped a large bull's horn, made a solemn vow
- 41:17to enlarge his dominions by 1/2 towards all the four corners of
- 41:22the world or die, and thereupon pointed with the horn to the
- 41:27four quarters. So just imagine, you know, he's
- 41:30got a, he's got a, a horn, probably a drinking horn, I'm
- 41:32assuming what it makes it sound like.
- 41:34And he's making these ascertations, these, these vows
- 41:37of increasing his, his reign and his dominion by half.
- 41:44So now when the guests had come drunk or had become drunk
- 41:49towards evening, King Ingwell told Sveeth Dog's son, Gautvid
- 41:55and Hilvid to arm themselves and their men as had before been
- 41:58settled. And accordingly, they went out
- 42:00and came up to the new hall and set fire to it.
- 42:03So they got them all drunk just to kill them.
- 42:06The hall was soon in a blaze and the six Kings with all their
- 42:09people were burned in it. So maybe Granar who didn't come,
- 42:12maybe he kind of knew, I think what's happening here, right?
- 42:14And he's, he's about to get all these people drunk on his wine
- 42:18and then his ale and stuff and he's going to off him, right?
- 42:21Which is what so happened. Those who tried to came out,
- 42:25those those who tried to come out were killed.
- 42:29And then King England laid all the dominion these kings had
- 42:33possessed under himself and took scat from them.
- 42:39So big big big move there by King Ingle and Grandma probably
- 42:46made the right choice by not going there because he would
- 42:48have been among the other 6 had he done so.
- 42:54So this is a stumble. OK, Be careful, I guess, if
- 42:57you're going to have a stumble with with relatives or with
- 43:01other people of importance following the funeral, things
- 43:05could be said about that. So what does this all mean to
- 43:10us, right? Why, why, why are these things
- 43:12so important? As I mentioned early on in the
- 43:13episode, the beliefs of what happened, the beliefs of the
- 43:18afterlife and, and the specifics of it, right?
- 43:20You go to hell, you go to Val Hall, you go to Bronze Hall, you
- 43:23go to the Volkwagner, you go to here, there and everywhere,
- 43:25right? It's inconsistent with many
- 43:28things, but what is consistent is the means in which the bodies
- 43:32are disposed of and and we see this in in multiple sources
- 43:40already. So for us in modern times, you
- 43:45know, if, if, if a heathen nowadays wanted to take on a
- 43:52practice or, or or have like, let's say, hey, when I die, this
- 43:57is what I want done. You know, this would be one of
- 44:01the historically accurate ways of going about doing it, right?
- 44:07Having your body cremated prior to the cremation is the body of
- 44:13the preparation of the body. OK, There is.
- 44:17I think it's the geese. La Saga talks about the figure
- 44:22who is who has died and is being dressed or prepared for their
- 44:30for their funeral. And the body.
- 44:32One of the things, one of the one of the things that the body
- 44:35has done is first of all they are they are dressed in their
- 44:38best clothes. The best garments that they had
- 44:43to put on ever is what they were adorned in.
- 44:46And in the geese. La Saga, for example, were also
- 44:49put on hell shoes or hell Skoger I think is the name.
- 44:54I forget the the the Norse word for it, but it's hell shoes that
- 44:58allow them to to walk the road to hell.
- 45:04You could So this this is all very similar to the way modern
- 45:10funerals are are conducted. If you think about it, right,
- 45:12if, if there's a burial, especially of a body, right, the
- 45:19body is, is prepared and embalmed and dressed and you
- 45:23know, good clothes, right now there's a suit or a nice dress
- 45:26or something that the, that the deceased is, is dressed in and
- 45:30the body is prepared for burial. But in these cases, right, for
- 45:35the Germanic people's cremation is always the the method.
- 45:43We have some sources that might suggest awake prior to that.
- 45:49You got to think about it though, in ancient times, the
- 45:51practicality of that there really wasn't that we know of at
- 45:55least the means of embalming a body to preserve it long enough
- 45:59to keep it out for a wake kind of a thing.
- 46:04So but there could be that and then you know, the funeral rite
- 46:12that is reconstructed from like Beowulf would be a really good,
- 46:17I say good meaning like a really good like stable or strong means
- 46:23of passing the passing this along.
- 46:27So have to go to Maine for a Viking funeral, Adam.
- 46:30Why is that? Why would we have to go to
- 46:32Maine? What is so special about Maine
- 46:36that we would need a quote UN quote Viking funeral for
- 46:39brother? Because if you're talking about
- 46:42like being placed on a ship in a body of water and having arrows,
- 46:48flaming arrows set to to the ship to burn you, there is
- 46:53provisions for that here in the state of Tennessee.
- 46:56And our brother Wolf is one of the responsible people who made
- 47:01that thing. I'm sure he's talked about that
- 47:04before. So anyway, the funeral rite
- 47:06that's reconstructed in Beowulf, you know, you have the eulogy,
- 47:10right? The, the, the, the prayer or the
- 47:19story or like or the, the meanie, as it's called prior to
- 47:23in many symbols. You have the meanie like that,
- 47:25this prayer, this recounting of the person's date of their
- 47:29birth, when they were born, who their parents are, who is
- 47:33surviving their, that you know, who, who they are survived by
- 47:38major events in their life, things of noteworthiness and
- 47:43their accomplishments, you know. So the, the, the, the eulogy is,
- 47:47is certainly a Germanic practice within the funeral rites,
- 47:56placement of grave goods. Once, once the eulogy or the
- 47:59meanie is, is complete, you bring the heirs.
- 48:04OK, So the family members, those who would inherit what the
- 48:07deceased has left behind would come and place anything that
- 48:11they would want them with their, with their deceased to be buried
- 48:15with or burned with. So again, like it, let's say,
- 48:20you know, this is a, you know, let's say it's a modern burial,
- 48:26modern funeral, right, where you've got a, a wake situation,
- 48:30right? The, the deceased wished to be
- 48:32buried. So they're at a, you know, a
- 48:36viewing, whether it's in a church or whether it's at a
- 48:40Funeral Home or whatever, bringing things for the dead
- 48:46gifts. You know, I've done this with a
- 48:52dear, dear friend of my wife. Well, no, it's a brother,
- 48:56really, my wife's baby brother, not by blood, but by adoption.
- 49:01You know, at his funeral, he, he took his own life and, and at
- 49:08his, at his funeral, when we were there to, to say our
- 49:12goodbyes and stuff. You know, I, I brought a gift, a
- 49:15grave gift, you know, for him. I was a mule near.
- 49:18And he admired it. Like I remember him at one
- 49:22point. He never, I didn't know him long
- 49:24enough to, to know whether or not he believed in Heathenry or,
- 49:28or had any interest in following that path.
- 49:30But he always admired the imagery of the, of the hammer,
- 49:32you know, of Thor's hammer. And there was one particular
- 49:37hammer that I had that I remember him like saying he
- 49:40liked it, you know, he liked the look of it.
- 49:43So that was the gift that I gave to him in his coffin, you know,
- 49:47and I placed it with him in his hand to, to take with him.
- 49:51So this is again, also very historical in Aegil's saga, the
- 49:59saga of Aegil's scalograms. And there's there's mention of
- 50:03certain figures like Smith's, you know, Iron Smith's.
- 50:09These are these were important people at the time, but not as
- 50:12important as let's say the nobility.
- 50:13Yes, they would make tools and weapons of war and and things
- 50:17that were important for the warrior class and the elite.
- 50:21So they may have had a higher than average status societally.
- 50:26However, when they would die is mentioned in Eagle Saga that
- 50:32these Smiths would be buried or burned or whatever with their
- 50:36smithing tools, their hammers and, and, and tongs and whatnot.
- 50:41Clearly we've seen like through Beowulf's funeral stuff that
- 50:45that, you know, warriors were buried with their weapons,
- 50:48swords, Spears, Shields, whatever.
- 50:52Women. OK, let's talk about that 'cause
- 50:56we're, you know, we're talking about men and, and, and figures
- 50:59and stories that have, you know, a masculine representation.
- 51:04Women were even buried with important things too, you know,
- 51:08according to their status. So, you know, we have Volvas and
- 51:14and stuff having their ritual attire that they were buried
- 51:18with, even spindles, OK. Things that have to do with the
- 51:25keeping of the house. It's been documented and shown
- 51:29through whether it's archaeological finds that women
- 51:33were, were cremated or, or sent off with items that were
- 51:38important to them in their household status.
- 51:43Yeah. They allow you to put a boat and
- 51:44set it on fire in Maine. Yeah, they do in Tennessee, too.
- 51:47Talk to the wolf about that. He'll tell you all about it
- 51:52because he was, he was a, he was a, I'd say a guiding force.
- 51:57You know, he was on the phone with people or so he says years
- 52:02ago to get it done for a friend of his, you know, Coast Guard,
- 52:08all kinds of stuff on the Cumberland.
- 52:11So it can be done. It there's there's, you know,
- 52:13red tape or whatever that you got to get through it.
- 52:15There's a process for it all, if that's what you want to do.
- 52:19But it but it, you know, it can be done.
- 52:23So it went again. Once once the grave goods have
- 52:24been placed, there is a a dirge or a song sang a lament, you
- 52:29know, by a woman by by someone of the female gender, the Tutu,
- 52:36a female relative will sing a dirge, A lament, a a song, you
- 52:41know, to express the sorrow that's being felt.
- 52:47And again, historically that would be done by a woman.
- 52:52Then you've got the act of, of either burying the body or
- 52:56spreading the ashes. That's right.
- 52:59So like in Beowulf, it took them ten days to build the mound.
- 53:07Nowadays, you know, obviously burials happen, you know, within
- 53:13a week or less. So even if a mound were to be
- 53:19built with modern tools and equipment, it would take, I'm
- 53:26sure less than 10 days to do that.
- 53:29Once the body has been buried in the mound or the ashes have been
- 53:36dispersed and, and, and whatever, then there would be
- 53:40songs sung, songs of praise, right?
- 53:43Songs of of singing of their, you know, greatness to and to
- 53:51circle the grave right to to to be in a circle.
- 53:53And again, talking about like Beowulf saga, you're in in the
- 53:57Beowulf, in the poem of Beowulf there where his, you know, 12
- 54:00men would rode around and sung songs riding around his burial
- 54:04mount. Following all of that, you've
- 54:07got the feast, the funeral feast, bloat, sacrifice,
- 54:12whatever and stumble. Of course, the stumble would be
- 54:19very commemorative of the deceased.
- 54:21You know, of course a mini or prayer or anything primary boast
- 54:27to the deceased would be included.
- 54:30That should typically be done by, you know, whoever is the
- 54:34eldest or closest of that person who had deceased them being kind
- 54:41of like next in line. There's their status in the
- 54:43family societal structure. The eldest or the most closest
- 54:47to the person should conduct that part of the of the, of the,
- 54:53of the stumble. Then the brag, the Braggabeque
- 54:59or the Braggophel, as we talked about before, is the oath made
- 55:03on behalf of all the heirs. You know, usually done by the
- 55:09eldest who has kind of taken up that airship by taking up the
- 55:15position of, of the person who had deceased, right.
- 55:19So this is very specific, of course, like granted, we're,
- 55:22we're talking about airships, you know what I mean?
- 55:26So an elder of the family dies, whether it's the father, the
- 55:28grandfather, you know, at that point, the son is going to
- 55:33assume the responsibility of the head of that family after that
- 55:36figure dies. So this is a traditional
- 55:42Germanic heathen process for for these types of things.
- 55:49Obviously not all funerals are going to be like that.
- 55:51They're not going to consist of those things, OK.
- 55:57But I think to to to talk about this and to and to bring into
- 56:00light with what Michael had asked, you know, heathen funeral
- 56:04rites. These are what they were, OK.
- 56:07And, and this is the process that one could adopt or follow
- 56:12for doing such things. Once, once the braggophone is,
- 56:17is complete, right? It's, it's, it's then at that
- 56:21person's discretion to assume that role or take up the high
- 56:26seat of the deceased, you know, that, that, that torch, that
- 56:30flame, whatever has been passed on to the person who has now
- 56:35assumed that role. Certain things about like this
- 56:40are, are not going to apply, you know, but I don't, I don't
- 56:44necessarily think that like to Michael's point or, or Michael's
- 56:49question when he asked it is, is, is why would you want to
- 56:52know about funeral customs or or burial rites for, for, for, for
- 56:57anybody who is not close to you? You know, I wouldn't care what
- 57:01anybody else does that isn't close to me or I'm not close to
- 57:04them. So I guess what we could take
- 57:09away from all of this, right? Is that the, the, the, the
- 57:16practice of cremation seen across the board?
- 57:20OK, there's even and I don't remember where, but I feel like
- 57:28it's a a law that got passed later on, like in the Franks
- 57:36when the Franks were conquering the Saxons.
- 57:41I feel like they had a law that was passed to prohibit the
- 57:53burning of bodies because the Christians recognized that as a
- 58:01Pagan practice and they wanted to outlaw it.
- 58:04They wanted to make it that the pagans could not, you know,
- 58:10practice their their their, their ways.
- 58:18So if I find that I don't have it right in front of me, but if
- 58:22I find that source, I will come back and annotate it at the like
- 58:28the the show notes or whatever of this podcast.
- 58:30Cause again, these live streams get put out later on.
- 58:35So you always can re listen and re watch.
- 58:36This will be this will be airing on Spotify and everywhere for
- 58:39you to listen to this Thursday. And of course will will remain
- 58:46in video format on my Patreon on Thursday as well.
- 58:50So for that part of it, if, if I'm able to find that that
- 58:54section of that law, if I'm correct, where the cremation was
- 59:01prohibited, it was, it's outlawed because the Christians
- 59:05didn't want Pagan practices to be continued.
- 59:08It was, it was an eradication of those beliefs in the lands at
- 59:12the time. I will add it down there to the
- 59:14show notes. So, yeah, we, we went through a
- 59:21lot of things. You know, I think that pretty
- 59:26well covers everything that I had wanted to say.
- 59:30There were some. Let's see.
- 59:32OK, So we, we talked, you know, source material, right?
- 59:35Sagas, myths, poems, etcetera, The Eddas.
- 59:48What about archaeological funds? Like I mentioned before, there
- 59:52are some things in archaeology that we can look at that support
- 59:58the claims that we're that we're making here, right?
- 1:00:02So Sutton who? Anglo-Saxon ship burial.
- 1:00:09Look that up. That is again, that is
- 1:00:15continental. I guess you could you could
- 1:00:17probably say it's continental, but they it's it's my post
- 1:00:20migration, right. So, so the Saxons who migrated
- 1:00:22to Angle land Sutton who right, Anglo-Saxon.
- 1:00:26There's definitely evidence of of ship burial practices being
- 1:00:30done there. The Osberg and Golkstad burials
- 1:00:35there, Norwegian ship burials again.
- 1:00:37So that's Norway, Sweden, there are cremation cemeteries in
- 1:00:43Uppsala, Burka and Gotland, and we find plenty of again, remains
- 1:00:52of well to do and or important societally important individuals
- 1:00:56with grave goods. We, you know, talked about like
- 1:01:01with the certain vulvas being buried with their ritual attire,
- 1:01:05horses being buried with certain people so or buried with their
- 1:01:12remains because, you know, you got to figure funeral pyres.
- 1:01:16Yes, they got, they got hot, obviously, but they weren't as
- 1:01:21effective as like a Crematory nowadays, you know, there's
- 1:01:27there's there's going to be a lot of chunks, skulls, bones,
- 1:01:31obviously things that are going to be left not completely
- 1:01:36consumed by the fire. So those remains that can get
- 1:01:42found in these burial mounds have had plenty of of things
- 1:01:47found in those sites that make it clear that they are, that it
- 1:01:52was a burial site. So you know, ships as a vessel
- 1:02:01Pires as as as a as a means to to cremate the body.
- 1:02:08But ships the the shape of ships even when there's no water
- 1:02:11nearby. But ships as a vessel.
- 1:02:13This is very common and and seen throughout attic and and other
- 1:02:17parallels within archaeology. The ship is the, is the vessel
- 1:02:22to carry the deceased, you know, so to place them in a pattern or
- 1:02:30in or in, you know, the, the grave mound as as or the place
- 1:02:33in the shape of a ship, very historical.
- 1:02:38The pyres, of course, you know, it, it was, it was a, it was a
- 1:02:44important, it means of, of transformation, you know,
- 1:02:47transforming from one stage of existence to the next.
- 1:02:50It wasn't, you know, why, why go through all this motion?
- 1:02:54Why do all these things if if this is the end for them, you
- 1:02:58know, for the deceased? No, it's not it's it's a
- 1:03:00transformation. It's a transition.
- 1:03:02And to ease their transition and to guide that transition from
- 1:03:06one stage of existence to the next, these these methods are
- 1:03:11important. So to observe that and and and
- 1:03:14to note that is, is important. I feel airship stumbles.
- 1:03:19We talked about that before having, you know, the feasts to
- 1:03:25again, you know, any sort of familial inheritance that needs
- 1:03:28to be claimed or state claimed to this was an important part of
- 1:03:31the of the process. It it it solidified continuity
- 1:03:36of lineage. It honors the deceased in that
- 1:03:41way is again referring to what we read about in the Inglinga
- 1:03:44saga. What's up Dave Rice?
- 1:03:50It says indeed. Thank you for joining Dave the
- 1:03:55Black Wolf talking about funeral rites, burial rites, all these
- 1:04:00things. So I'm not sure I just now
- 1:04:02caught your comment and thank you for watching.
- 1:04:04Thank you for commenting. But you know, again, you know,
- 1:04:11the importance of the of of the funeral of that burial was to
- 1:04:16transition to to to get them to the next stage of existence.
- 1:04:22One of the things about like, you know, with the heathens is,
- 1:04:24you know, we're not we're not so concerned about death or the
- 1:04:28afterlife to the to the point of doing things that matter for a
- 1:04:36reward later on, right. Everything that is done now is
- 1:04:39to secure our honor, to secure the honor, to secure luck, to
- 1:04:45preserve the the flame, to preserve the fire, to preserve
- 1:04:49that which are descendants receive both physically and
- 1:04:55metaphysically. And to once our physical bodies
- 1:05:00have died, to to to be transitioned on to the next
- 1:05:04stage of existence by our surviving people.
- 1:05:09That's where the importance is. You know, we're not doing what
- 1:05:12we're doing to to make it to heaven or receive a reward in
- 1:05:18the afterlife or whatever. Now it's, it's, we just want to
- 1:05:20get to there. We're we're going to get there
- 1:05:22anyway. But it's the deeds and stuff
- 1:05:24that are done are, are to secure our, our, our reputation, our
- 1:05:29luck and, and what is passed down and inherited by our
- 1:05:34descendants. So the, the claiming of those
- 1:05:36things right in the the airship stumbles, right, claiming,
- 1:05:41staking claim to that inheritance.
- 1:05:46It's it's, it's part of the process.
- 1:05:53So like again, once, once the once these practices had become
- 1:05:57outlawed by the Franks initially, right.
- 1:06:01So Frankish rule, Charlemagne, he was a real asshole, put laws
- 1:06:05in place to, to prohibit certain Pagan practices, cremation being
- 1:06:12one of them. I'll find the source.
- 1:06:15I'll link it later on. I, I don't remember the which
- 1:06:18the Lex Sexonum, I think is the name of the Lexus sexorum,
- 1:06:22something like that. It's, it's Latin 'cause that's
- 1:06:26what they were speaking and they were, they were leaving their
- 1:06:30native languages and, and adopting the churches Latin to
- 1:06:34speak. But the, the, the laws were,
- 1:06:35were were to prohibit the use of cremation.
- 1:06:38So there was a shift at, at at a certain point in history from
- 1:06:42cremation to, you know, inhumation in, in consecrated
- 1:06:46burial mounds or burial sites, you know, church graveyards and
- 1:06:49such, etcetera. So, yeah, any of the sources
- 1:06:58that I, again, I'm, I'm, I'm streaming this live right now.
- 1:07:00So a lot of the things I talked about already up to this point
- 1:07:06are going to be added later on. Yeah.
- 1:07:09Ahmed Ibn Fadlan, Dave I I did reference Ahmed or Ibn Falan in
- 1:07:15the Land of Darkness and his eyewitness account of the the,
- 1:07:20the the burial in the funeral, I guess probably more accurate say
- 1:07:25the funeral of the Swedish ruse Chieftain.
- 1:07:28Everything leading up to that point, including the ritual
- 1:07:32sacrifice to or the ritual death of, of his slave girl and, and
- 1:07:36how she was sexually exploited amongst his men and all this
- 1:07:39nonsense. So yes, that was definitely a
- 1:07:41source that I did mention early on in the show.
- 1:07:44But some of the other sources include Tacitus, some of the
- 1:07:49other sagas like the Loxadela saga, the England a saga, the
- 1:07:53Gisley saga, Baldur's funeral, Beowulf, one of my favorites in
- 1:07:59terms of the the vivid depiction of how they did it or what they
- 1:08:06did. So but yeah, thank you, Michael
- 1:08:12Thacker for raising this question to me and Patreon and
- 1:08:16asking for it to be a topic of discussion.
- 1:08:20These are great opportunities for people that have not engaged
- 1:08:23with me before to engage with me.
- 1:08:27Right? We're, we're streaming this
- 1:08:28live. So like, we got Dave, we got
- 1:08:30Dave Rice, the black wolf commenting there.
- 1:08:35Yeah. What we do in life shapes our
- 1:08:37ancestors place in the afterlife, which is why we pass
- 1:08:40our beliefs to our children so they can continue to lift the
- 1:08:45family station. It is.
- 1:08:46It's about passing things on. It's about transference.
- 1:08:50That's what tradition is. You know, it's, it's about
- 1:08:53preserving the flame. It's not about worshipping the
- 1:08:56ashes. It's about preserving the flame,
- 1:08:57preserving the fire and and what do you do when you are no longer
- 1:09:02the fire bearer is you, you, you pass.
- 1:09:04There has to be that transition. And and this is, this is a, a
- 1:09:08rich and and intricate part of our heritage.
- 1:09:14Many people's of course, I'm not, I'm not excluding anybody
- 1:09:16else, but in a, in a dramatic sense, it is passing things
- 1:09:20along, right, passing that fire, carrying this flame.
- 1:09:22Now this is your flame to carry and teaching them and teaching
- 1:09:26our, our children and our descendants what that means, you
- 1:09:30know, guiding them through those, those processes and
- 1:09:32giving them the, the, the tools to be able to carry that flame
- 1:09:35themselves as well. Because we're not going to be
- 1:09:38carrying it all the time. We, we carry it up to a certain
- 1:09:40point and then we give them the flame to carry on.
- 1:09:46And it's about feeding that flame, right?
- 1:09:47It's about, it's about nurturing it.
- 1:09:49It's about being wordy warders of the Bale right being, you
- 1:09:59know, giving those gifts to the ghostly halls.
- 1:10:03It's, it's, it's important, man. It is, it's, it's, it's
- 1:10:07intricate. It, it's, it's the backbone, I
- 1:10:11believe of, of our, our, our heritage as, as, as heathens, as
- 1:10:17dramatic people. But but definitely we see it
- 1:10:22echoed throughout through the stories, through the lore,
- 1:10:26through the sagas. This is so much about what the
- 1:10:30Germanic peoples believed in, you know, and what they held to.
- 1:10:34So how we continue to preserve that that flame and do so
- 1:10:39holistically do so do so well to honor their memory and to give
- 1:10:43our our future, our descendants something strong and something
- 1:10:47valuable and something beautiful to carry forth, not not isolated
- 1:10:53to, you know, hate and fear and bigotry or any of that nonsense.
- 1:11:02So, yeah, this is, I mean, this is, this is one of those things
- 1:11:07where I feel, you know, you can the death cults and, and, and
- 1:11:11thinking about death and in the afterlife again, it it's not so
- 1:11:14much something that was focused on by our ancestors as as a
- 1:11:17means of earning some reward later on.
- 1:11:22It's, it's, it's, it's what we're doing is, is shaping our
- 1:11:26place, you know, or, or shapes our ancestors place in, in, in
- 1:11:32our descendants place, you know, so we're, it is important, but
- 1:11:36we're not like dwelling on, well, what happens when I die?
- 1:11:39I mean, what happens happens, what happens while we're alive,
- 1:11:45right? That's what that's that's what
- 1:11:49really matters, right? Dave Rice Nostrand Yeah.
- 1:11:55You know, this is one of those things where punishment in the
- 1:12:03afterlife. You know, so much of this show
- 1:12:06was was focusing on funeral rites and burial rites.
- 1:12:11But how can you have that conversation without also
- 1:12:14including the, the concepts that that came through, whether it be
- 1:12:18in later sources or not, about a, an afterlife of discomfort,
- 1:12:26even punishment, right? So Nostrand and Neath and and
- 1:12:30and the, you know, these, these entropic figures, these monsters
- 1:12:35that get depicted in stories in the myths and Nostrand, right?
- 1:12:41The the that the the corpse shore and then and just where
- 1:12:46the dishonorable dead end up. I go back to right.
- 1:12:54I got, you know, we we looking at like the earlier sources,
- 1:12:56like the Tacitus, right and and and Germania, but also where the
- 1:13:02the conceptual world views of the afterlife.
- 1:13:06Very, very, I guess, deeply talked about through the road to
- 1:13:14hell, HRLS Davidson, which I mentioned early on in the show.
- 1:13:19Where did, where did those concepts come from?
- 1:13:23The the idea that there would be punishment to certain types
- 1:13:29because one of the one of the, the like one of the, the types
- 1:13:32of people that get talked about being banished to nostrum is,
- 1:13:39is, is the yeah, oath Breakers and kinslayers, right?
- 1:13:46And they were, they were outlawed in life.
- 1:13:52You know what I mean? Like they were like these these,
- 1:13:54these were societal taboos. You did certain things and you
- 1:14:02got yourself neathed. So did the did the did the idea
- 1:14:10or the concept of that transferring into the afterlife
- 1:14:15come from a pre Christian Pagan idea of that?
- 1:14:19Or was it something that got brought into with the church?
- 1:14:24I think the latter. Hello loland ah sign hi from
- 1:14:29NYC. Ah native New Yorker like
- 1:14:32myself. Welcome to the live stream.
- 1:14:34Thank you for commenting. I was, I was in New York, not
- 1:14:40New York City. I'm, I'm from Long Island
- 1:14:42originally, but I was in New York, Orange County just a few
- 1:14:46months ago, back in back in July to visit some family and stuff.
- 1:14:50So welcome to the show. Yeah.
- 1:14:52We're just talking about concepts of death in the
- 1:14:56afterlife. The, the, the, the funeral rites
- 1:14:58has been kind of the chunk of this show this week.
- 1:15:03But yeah, Nostrand, I don't aside from that, like what
- 1:15:09other, what other source material can we say had a, had
- 1:15:15any place in, in, in, in affirming that worldview?
- 1:15:22You know, I feel like they believe that everything was, you
- 1:15:25know, you, you, you, you, you, you did bad during life and that
- 1:15:29was that was it, You know, you were outlawed.
- 1:15:31You were, you were removed from society, from the cult, from,
- 1:15:34from, from the safety of your tribe, from the safety of the
- 1:15:38people and you were at the whim of the wild of, of bandits, of
- 1:15:47vandals, of, of any of those nefarious types.
- 1:15:53I said vandals like funny enough, like vandal is a is a
- 1:15:56they they are a tribe of of of Germanic people, which is where
- 1:16:01we get our word vandalism from. I'm not mistaken.
- 1:16:06The vandals were like kind of the go in and fuck shit up type
- 1:16:10of people. And that's where we get, you
- 1:16:15know, our our modern word vandalism from who else we got
- 1:16:21here. Hello skeet.
- 1:16:22So what's up? Says hi.
- 1:16:24I've been here the whole time. Was just doing some things while
- 1:16:27listening. Awesome.
- 1:16:29Well, I recognize the screen name, so Skeet.
- 1:16:33So thanks for tuning in and watching over here on YouTube.
- 1:16:39Believe I'm going to have you up on an upcoming episode in here
- 1:16:42in the coming months. Dave Rice says that is correct.
- 1:16:53OK. Well, yeah, so thank you.
- 1:17:02What to say? Listen, I, you know, I don't,
- 1:17:05I'm not a I'm not a walking encyclopedia.
- 1:17:07I'm not a walking book. I will remember certain things
- 1:17:09and I and I know I've, I've read or seen certain things from
- 1:17:12somewhere. So if I can't provide an exact
- 1:17:14source, you know, that's, that's not how my mind operates.
- 1:17:19I, I do try to have something if I know that I'm getting into the
- 1:17:23conversation, I do try to come prepared like I did today with
- 1:17:28the, with the, everything that Michael had asked about with
- 1:17:31funeral rites, burial rites and stuff.
- 1:17:34But it is an interesting thing to, to explore right?
- 1:17:36With those, those, those topics almost go hand in hand.
- 1:17:41If you're going to be talking about death in the afterlife,
- 1:17:43then it would almost require you to to include the the notion or
- 1:17:54the idea of an afterlife for those who had lived dishonorably
- 1:18:02or hadn't had not retained their honor, had done things to lose
- 1:18:05their honor in life and would that transfer to them and
- 1:18:08through death. Now, one of the transference
- 1:18:10things that I believe can be seen is, is that, you know, luck
- 1:18:15is transferable, right? The Hemingia.
- 1:18:23So if the if if the person who had died did things that were
- 1:18:30dishonorable, that had that they had lost their honor in death,
- 1:18:36that could be something that is fed into their the family is
- 1:18:41weird, right, poured into the well and then and then inherited
- 1:18:47by the descendants. So it goes back to like what
- 1:18:51Dave was saying is what we do is is so important in life is just
- 1:18:54to give them good luck, strong luck, right to leave to live in
- 1:18:58ways that are are honorable because they will get all of it.
- 1:19:04They'll get the good and they'll get the bad.
- 1:19:05And if all we do is is bad things and and dishonorable
- 1:19:09things, things that are are going to we're going to lose our
- 1:19:13honor in the process. Our descendants inherit that
- 1:19:16they got to deal with that, at least so far as as what we
- 1:19:21understand the beliefs of, of the soul complex and, and, and
- 1:19:26what is what actually physically extinguishes versus what is
- 1:19:30transferred. You know, there's different
- 1:19:33parts of the soul. You know, HR Elis Davis in the
- 1:19:36Road to Hell talks about this as well.
- 1:19:39It's a very complex thing and it's a beautiful thing to to
- 1:19:42explore, but the complexities of the soul and the Norse or
- 1:19:45dramatic views of that what makes us who we are, our
- 1:19:52physical, our psychological, our spiritual, all of that things
- 1:19:57that could be really, you know, given names to luck is one of
- 1:20:03them the Hamingya right, That that that inherited luck.
- 1:20:06So what is done in life may not, may not, may not be something
- 1:20:12that we have to suffer with any, you know, in in our next
- 1:20:15existence, but it is something that will get transferred to our
- 1:20:19descendants and then they gonna have they're gonna have to.
- 1:20:22Addressed it or or or deal with it and you know, and that's a
- 1:20:27concept that that that's a world view that is adopted by certain
- 1:20:30people might not be something you particularly agree with or
- 1:20:33find a place in free within your beliefs.
- 1:20:37That's OK. Not trying to say that it should
- 1:20:39be, but it is a thing that is in place with the Germanic people.
- 1:20:47OK. So yeah, I think that's going to
- 1:20:56just about wrap it up here, guys.
- 1:20:57We've been, we've been going strong for a good, you know,
- 1:21:01what is it? Hour and 20 minutes.
- 1:21:03This is a solid episode, especially considering this is a
- 1:21:06solo run. So big thanks to Michael Thacker
- 1:21:10for challenging me to explore and and research this topic and
- 1:21:16present some things for for the listeners and for the viewers.
- 1:21:20This has been really enjoyable for me.
- 1:21:21I hope it's been enjoyable for you, the folks of you that have
- 1:21:25been listening and watching the live stream.
- 1:21:26Don't forget, I do these monthly, usually the last Monday
- 1:21:30of every month. So the next one will be at the
- 1:21:33end of October. Whatever that last Monday is, I
- 1:21:35will schedule it and announce it through a Facebook event.
- 1:21:39But if you're only watching these on YouTube, I will try to
- 1:21:42do my best and get you alerted about that.
- 1:21:44But that's more on the algorithm and more on the platform for not
- 1:21:49having those interactive ways of announcing these types of
- 1:21:53things. But just know that these monthly
- 1:21:54live streams do happen every month and the episodes, in case
- 1:22:01you missed the fullness of this episode, you can go back and
- 1:22:03rewatch it, I believe. But if you just want to ever
- 1:22:06listen, you know, driving down the road, doing your job, you
- 1:22:10know, I don't know, shaving your dog or, I don't know, feeding
- 1:22:15your possum or whatever it is that you do your chores.
- 1:22:17Alright. You can listen on Spotify.
- 1:22:19These episodes always get uploaded on those platforms
- 1:22:23later as well. What about the other parts of
- 1:22:29the self? Dave Rice's apologies coming in
- 1:22:32late. Yeah, we didn't.
- 1:22:33So this show was more for the, the, the topic of the, the
- 1:22:36funeral rites and burial rites. We didn't really get into the,
- 1:22:39the complexities of the, the, the, the, the soul complex.
- 1:22:43So yeah, I mentioned that Haminga, you know, OK, so you
- 1:22:46have the huger, you have the hammer, you know, you have your
- 1:22:48thought, you have the physical body, the, the, the physical
- 1:22:52shell, your shape, the huger. You have the hammer, you have
- 1:22:55your, the wit, the mind. You have the Filia, your
- 1:22:59follower that has been assigned to you from birth.
- 1:23:03And of course, the, the Hamminga, the inherited luck.
- 1:23:07So yeah, there's there's multiple parts of the soul and
- 1:23:09we didn't get into that wasn't the context of the show this
- 1:23:12week, but it has been something I've talked about in the past
- 1:23:16many, many times. Definitely might be worth
- 1:23:19revisiting. And these are these are, you
- 1:23:21know, Norse names of the of of the soul complex, right.
- 1:23:26So The Who got of the Hummer, the humming and the Fuga.
- 1:23:33And then we've also got Lowland says I'll try to catch you next
- 1:23:36one. Good show.
- 1:23:37Thanks. Thank you for being here and
- 1:23:39like I said, feel free to rewatch or or catch me on any of
- 1:23:44the listening platforms. You know, Spotify, Apple
- 1:23:46podcasts, the Amazon Music. I mean there's I'm everywhere.
- 1:23:51Just whatever platform you're on, just search for random
- 1:23:54heathen ramblings or Midgard musings, either one.
- 1:23:58You'll find it the video versions of the show besides the
- 1:24:02monthly live streams. So the monthly live broadcasts
- 1:24:05like this are only done once a month.
- 1:24:07If you ever want to watch any of the other video podcasts, please
- 1:24:11join my Patreon. You'll see it scrolling at the
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- 1:24:20It's not a big contribution monetarily.
- 1:24:23From from your angle ain't $1.00.
- 1:24:26What's that? You know, $12.00 a year,
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- 1:24:30You can do it month to month. You don't have to sign up for
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- 1:24:43you can go and get a dollar, get anything for a dollar, right.
- 1:24:47So I appreciate all of you do that that have showed up
- 1:24:50tonight, though. Dave Rice, great to see you.
- 1:24:53Lola. David Klenn, Michael Thacker, I
- 1:24:57saw you there before, Schizo. You've been listening, watching
- 1:25:00in the background there commenting.
- 1:25:01Thank you so much Patrick Walsh. I know you were there before
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- 1:25:50You know, I, I do have about 9 more episodes of season 6-7 or
- 1:25:59eight of which have already been booked with future guests.
- 1:26:02So in the next few months, you guys will be getting some guests
- 1:26:08coming on the show. My next live stream will have my
- 1:26:14dear brother Patrick Walsh. He'll be a guest with me on
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- 1:26:22Got some great stuff lined up for you to finish out season 6
- 1:26:25of the Random Heathen Ramblings podcast.
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- 1:26:40Thank you very much for all of your continued and ongoing
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- 1:26:45again, may the gods continue to notice you and may your
- 1:26:49ancestors smile upon you. See you in the next one.