yes, marvellous show

Familiar with Old English, & that part that survives through Scots, I did double-take - does it mean what I suspect it means?

But then, I like to use 'worth-ship' for 'worship', wanting to side-step the accretion of meaning from centuries of a certain belief-system, in my own relating to gods.

Thank you.

Only to add that Ásatrú should NOT be thought automatically to show Folkish tendencies. Though in the US, the AFA has certainly smirched the name, it remains 1 of the 2 official religions of Iceland, where the term was coined, & in the UK forms part of the name of a major inclusive Heathen group.

I've still not managed to grasp this; perhaps I need to hear it, and that slowly. It'd help, I know, if I had some Welsh.
I've some skill with alliterative metres, & so hope that'd carry over, but it feels a march too far as yet...

I've been using 'Heathen' for so long to denote those Pagans inspired by Old English & Old Norse pre-Christian belief and practice, I get surprised often by people who have no knowledge of such, and use 'heathen' and 'pagan' in that oldest sense. :-)

Anyway, hale to the goddesses, hale to the gods!

The original meaning of 'Heathen' - people of the heath - echoes the original meaning of 'Pagan' - people of the countryside.

It's a Germanic word, rather than Latin.

It felt more apt.

Of course, both terms were coined by Christians to denote those who kept older, non-Christian ways.

If I read right, there are three dwarfs (at least) named for the dark or the new moon - Niði, Nyr, & Nyi - This from Simek's Dictionary. :-)

& these, their names:
North & South
East & West,
All-thief, Slow,
Corpse & Quaker,
Cadaver, Sad,
Filer, Fearless,
Fatty, New,

Dark-of-the-moon,
Died & Slayed,
Tiny, Wind-elf,
Wand-elf & Brave,
Man & Bean,
& Moody-wolf,
Wedge, New-rede,
Warrior & Found

(a few of them, anyway. Not in same order.)

Heathenry, in itself, is open to all; can be the heritage of all, if they choose it; can be practiced alongside other traditions too.

Any bigotry is brought in from outside; a sick person's sickness - may it shrink so small, it becomes nothing, nothing at all.

Such bigotry that exists with modern Heathenry, I believe, has been brought in from outside. It is not natural to Heathenry. Our core myths include the honouring of women, of crossing between genders, & the integration of different tribes, to the benefit of all.

(a bit more...

My own thought & feeling is that there is nothing innate in the lore that survives to support such bigotry. Sure, there is an erasing of women in the fragments recorded of the goddesses; but there is no such erasure in the groups I've known (often with majority women in them).

(more...

I'm in the UK, so the Wyrd differs some... in that I've encountered very little bigotry in my own Heathen encounters (and this despite the earlier 'Odinist' iterations). All the groups I've had involvement with have been pushing back against racism, sexism, homophobia and more.

(more...

'branches of phrasing' & 'branches of sound', or 'arrangements of letters' vs. 'arrangements of sounds'... distilling it to 'the words we use & the way we use them'?

Only realising belatedly that this was going towards Dróttkvaet specifically, with the other forms just tacked on at the end.

'distinguished by spelling'? etc.
Looking at the ON terms - 'Rétt ok breytt'. 'Tala ok grein'. 'Málsgrein ok hljóðgrein'. And wondering if I understood these better for having written in AV myself?
Not quite getting Snorri's use of terms, but thinking 'maybe he means...'

This piece prompted by not knowing what was meant by Snorri, nor in the English translation (by Faulkes): '3 kinds of verse-form'? 'with rule, or licence, or forbidden'? Then, 'kinds of rule' being 'normal and varied'. Then, 'normal rule' consisting of 'number & distinction'? 'Meaning' being...