Archive
For Nerthus
Prayer 1
Hail Holy Vanir of Fertile Fields
Whose Cart carries blessed seed and soil
to whoever’s home it visits
Hail Holy Vanir of Fertile Fields
Whose Bounty bring virility to Vanaheim
shared selflessly with kith and kin
Hail Holy Vanir of Fertile Fields
Whose Hands have graced our gardens
through Your reach, the roots grow deep
Hail Holy Vanir of Fertile Fields
Whose Body rides upon the roads;
Your veiled visage a holy Mystery
Hail Holy Vanir of Fertile Fields
Whose Ways wend to beauty and blessings,
let all live with You in good Gebo
Prayer 2
The loamy earth that welcomes the seed
The black soil that bursts with life
The tree who overgrows the bones
The ground who eats the bodies
The inundated ground that bears the rice
The sandy ground that bears the spears
The grove where the deer mate
The fields where their young are born
The ever-breathing forests
The ever-teeming swamps
The ever-eating earth
The ever-giving earth
All these things You are
Hail to you, O Nerthus!
Prayer 3
They sank down into the waters
Held down by iron grips
A sacrifice for seeing Your holy Face
They sank down into the bog
Their blood reddening the waters
A sacrifice for keeping the community clean
They were offered to You
O Holy Nerthus
That the ways between us
May be kept well
Where Does It End?
I ask myself every time I see a proposal like this from Graymont, or another Oil Pipeline repair or request from Enbridge Energy. Where does it end? When is enough money, resources, and ecological destruction enough?
What does Graymont want? 10,000 acres of land for open pit and underground limestone mining operations that will take place in 3 counties in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Public comment for the Canadian Limestone proposal from Graymont ends March 19th. Please make your comments here, at the email address, DNRGraymontProposalComments@michigan.gov, and at the public mailing address listed below:
Customer Service Center, ATTN: Kerry Wieber, 8717 N. Roscommon Road, Roscommon, MI 48653
Anyone who has an understanding of modern capitalism already knows the answer. There is never enough. Whether to feed the profit motive or the equally hideous beast of debt, like an unholy Ouraboros, there is never enough. Between the greed of the profit motive and the utter despair generated by the countless billions (whether personally or via their country) in poverty, there is no end. The only end is when the beast itself is dead.
Let us take stands wherever we can, however we can, for Jörð, for Nerthus, for Midgard our home!
To this end, I nið Graymont and their supporters, including political supporters, financial backers, and those who would speak on behalf of destroying the ecosystem of 10,000 acres of land!
Share this curse on your blogs, Facebook, wherever you deem appropriate. Let us not give one more inch to a corporation’s greed.
Three Isa and three Thurse I give
To Graymont and its board
May your projects fail
Your stocks plummet
Let the landvaettir be riled up
May They rise against you
Wherever you dig or set down
Your foul roots
May the people be riled up
May they rise against you
Wherever you dig or set down
Your foul roots
Leave the landvaettir be
Dig no hole, cut no wounds
Into Jörð’s flesh;
Let Her forests and fields grow!
Isa Isa Isa!
Thurse! Thurse! Thurse!
Isa Isa Isa!
Thurse! Thurse! Thurse!
Isa! Isa! Isa!
Thurse! Thurse! Thurse!
A Shovel Song for the Gods and Vaettir of Nifelheim
Inspired by the songs I learned as a child that miners and lumberjacks used to sing out here, I made one up for the Gods and vaettir of Nifelheim as I helped shovel the drive. While the shoveling proved rather fruitless to the whims of these Gods and vaettir, it did seem to please Them. In terms of how I sang it, think of an old song, with the beat on every two to four heartbeats.
Did the song sound exactly this way? No. A lot of it was made up on the fly, and so, what I am writing here is what I remembered and what makes sense. These aren’t set in stone, and a good, made-up song can be the perfect offering for a God, Goddess, and/or vaettir. Anyhow, here is the shovel song for the Gods and vaettir of Nifelheim:
Hail to the Sons and Daughters of Nifelheim!
Hail to Ice Itself!
Hail to the Sons of Nifelheim!
Hail to Ice Itself!
Hail to the Daughters of Nifelheim!
Hail to Ice Itself!
Oh hail hail hail!
Oh icy, frosty ones!
Hail to You who blow all around
Ice and snow has come!
Hail ol’ Jökull
icy bearded Jotun!
Whose frost hangs low and drips to snow
Hail you old cold Jotun!
Oh hail the frosted cold
Hail the elder Jotun!
Who come in with cold
and freeze our bones
and make our Great Lakes rise!
Hail to the big ol’ snowy one!
Hail to You, O Snaer!
Who freezes flesh and chills the blood
and freezes up our hair!
Hail to You oh frozen one,
Who blows all around!
From in the air and on our homes
and crunch beneath the ground!
Hail hail hail!
Hail the mighty Jotun!
Who comes from far off colder North
and visit us here at home!
Hail to the ground beneath my feet
The ancient one, Ymir!
Who forms the mountains and the clouds
The world that I hold dear!
Hail Auðumla’s adopted Son
Old frosty Ymir!
From Your blood the lakes and oceans flow
and bones the mountains speared!
Hail to You oh slain One
Who fell and made the world!
Whose body rose and made our home
All covered in the snow!
Whose body brought forth Goddesses,
good Jörð, Jarnsaxa, Nerth-us
Who gave our Ancestors form and flesh and
brought us to our birth!
Hail O hail to the icy gail, the Kari Northern wind!
Who cuts us with His coldest breath
and brings the snows again!
Hail to You who blows about
the frost and ice and snow
Who makes us glad for heat and home
and the feeling of our skin!
Hail hail hail!
To the Sons and Daughters of Nifelheim!
Hail hail hai!
To Ice Itself, Ancestor old!
Hail hail hail!
Be gentle with us, for we are cold!
Refrain placed wherever it feels right:
Hail hail hail!
Hail to the Icy Jotun!
Hail hail hail
to the frosted [frozen, icy, snowy] ones!
Hail hail hail!
You old cold Jotun!
[alternately]
Hail hail hail!
O Elder coldest Jotun!
Question 13: Frigg, Freyja, and Earth Goddesses
Thank you to Freki Ingela for this question:
Do you consider Frigg and Freyja to be one and the same great Earth Goddess (eg, Nerthus), or do you consider they are separate deities.
I consider Them to be separate Goddesses, and I do not consider either one a great Earth Goddess, either. They have particular roles in Their families and tribe. While etymologically we may be able to say They were one and the same at some point in the past, either They became two separate Goddesses or They were separate to begin with.
I really have no dog in this race. While it would be interesting to know how the people that worshiped these Goddesses developed their language and understanding of these Goddesses, I worship Them as separate Goddesses. I also consider Nerthus and Jörð separate Goddesses even though both are identified as Mother Earth Goddesses.
While I do believe syncretism has its place, unless I know for sure that a name is a heiti, or that this God or that Goddess actually is x as well as y God/dess, I tend to treat the God, Goddess, Ancestor, or vaettir in question as a separate entity. This approach is more cautious. I would rather find out later that I have been giving a given God or Goddess more offerings than I thought I had than to find out I have been treating two Goddesses as one.
