From: Manny Olds <oldsma@pobox.com>
To: pagan-clergy@onelist.com
Subject: Asatru & "Mother Earth"

On Sat, 10 Jul 1999, Andrew Campbell wrote:

 ) Manny, for those of us who aren't familiar with the
 ) Gods in your tradition and may not have access to
 ) research materials, perhaps you could explain who this
 ) deity is and how you understand the relationship of
 ) Asatruar to the Earth as deity?

The short answer is that Fjorgynn (Thor's mother and probably Frigga's
father) is also referred to as "Jord", which is simply a word meaning
earth.

The long answer for the audience you describe requires some background
explanation.

First, you have to recognize the different kinds of beings. In Asatru,
supernatural beings are classified primarily according to how they relate
to people.

"I recently was published in *Idunna* as comparing a Heathen's period
relationships with wights and such as thus: a Viking Age Scandinavian
would go to the wights (di'sir, a'lfar, landwights) on a daily basis, as
s/he would to a neighbor; to the god/esses occasionally, as to a chieftain
(and much more often if the two were close friends); and to the greater
beings (such as Earth) very rarely, as to a king or queen. This is a very
class-oriented analogy, which may beg a lot of argument on specifics, but
I think it makes my general point." -- KveldulfR Gundarsson

The disir and alvar are ancestral spirits. They are generally detected
only in aggregate ("The disir of this family", e.g.). These beings are
associated with human-human relationships and things that get passed down
in families (customs, goods, property, luck). When people form durable
groups (like tribes or nations), their ancestral spirits seem to draw
together to form more distinct "matrons", who play the disir/alvar role
for the larger group.

Etins are powerful individual beings with distinct personalities. They are
often quite interested in human goings-on, as well as various aspects of
the natural world and their own projects. The Aesir and Vanir are one
tribe or alliance of these beings. Other etins are in other alliances or
unaffilated. We call the Aesir and Vanir "gods" and the badly-behaved
etins "giants" or "thurses", but they seem to be essentially the same kind
of being.

Wights are associated with places or objects, from the Grand Canyon to a
lawnmower. We have a general sense that wights get "larger", more
powerful, and more distant from interest in (and awareness of) people as
they get older. The generally don't like to be pestered and are considered
to be protective of the thing or place they are associated with. People do
establish working relationships with their local wights.

This is not a static set of hard-edged categories. There are beings that
have some etin-like and some wight-like aspects, for example. And
Asatruers have a sense that beings can change categories as they develop
greater scope or change their interests.

Next, you have to understand what hard polytheism means in Asatru. The
gods are individuals with unique personalities. We find that the pantheon
doesn't fit well into any sort of "God/dess of X" kind of roster. They
each have a variety of interests, strengths, and skills. There is
overlapping and gaps. 

And generally we find that the gods are not associated with realms as much
as with *activities*.

Njord is associated with water primarily because that is how trade was
carried out in days of yore. Modern Asatruers associate him with commerce,
shipping, sailing, and fishing. Ran (who drags sailors down to their
watery grave), Aegir (who lives under the sea with his wife Ran, brewing
mead & ale), and even Heimdall/Rig (son of nine waves who came from the
sea to father our social order) have obvious water associations.

Similarly, Frigga is more associated with the small business aspect of a
household than with "the home" or "the hearth". She is now associated with
making things by hand, leadership, consensus-building, and frith. Her
sister and assistant Fulla is associated with confidentiality,
safeguarding goods, and managing accounts.

With that background, I can get back to the original question. There are
several beings ("gods" if you are speaking loosely) associated with what
other pagans might call "Mother Earth".

Fjorgynn is Thor's mother and Frigga's father. She/he is also referred to
as "Jord", which is simply the word "earth". Fjorgynn is associated with
*terrain*: dirt, rocks, mountains, canyons, etc. Fjorgynn would be classed
more as a the largest wight than as a god, primarily because she/he does
not seem to be particularly concerned with active interaction with us. In
a sense, Fjorgynn is "the Earth".

Nerthus is also strongly associated with earth. She is associated with
whatever gives the earth life: growth, death, fertility, decay, plants,
animals, people, etc. In earlier times, she had a very active cult but
almost all lore was lost. Modern Asatruers strive to understand her
better, but seem to sense that she is in the gray zone between goddess and
wight. In another sense, Nerthus is "the Earth". (Although there is good
evidence that Nerthus may have become Njord. See
http://w3.one.net/~dls/kspirits/ot/OT.html for more details.)

Frey is the son of Nerthus and Njord. He is a very powerful and active
god, associated more with what you might call "the land" rather than "the
earth". He is associated with human activities to gain prosperity, such as
farming, ranching or mining. He is also associated with wealth and the
mound-dwelling dead (and also buried treasure). He a patron of
nation-builders and those who engage in defensive war. 

But the roots of all these interests are his ties to the land itself. He
is *most* powerfully associated with growing things, natural cycles, and
wildness. I'm not sure, but I think that aspect of his personality might
be described as the closest Asatru equivalent to the Green Man.

Furthermore, all the gods are actively linked to the web of life and fate
that binds us all, not in a passive "we are all part of creation" way, but
as active participants--think of flowing, bubbling, weaving, and dancing,
rather than sitting or being. The all have involvement with earth,
fertility, and growing things. For example, Thor is associated with the
summer rain that makes crops grow, and local Matron goddesses are
associated with the well being of local crops and land.


Manny Olds <oldsma@pobox.com> of Riverdale Park, Maryland, USA

"Death doesn't mean you get a better personality, it just means you're
dead." -- J.S. Pereira