In a forest outside Stockholm as evening falls, a dozen people raise horns of mead toward the sky as a priestess invokes Thor. There are no skins or horned helmets —That’s a Hollywood invention.—. Here there are mothers, office workers in light blue shirts, young people dressed in black, retirees, tattoos with runes and cookies in the shape of the hammer of the god of thunder. The scene, described in a report by The Guardiandoes not belong to any historical recreation, but to a real ritual: a blótthe pagan ceremony that was celebrated in Scandinavia more than a thousand years ago and that, against all odds, has returned with a vengeance. “In the most secular countries on the planet, the old gods are returning,” writes Siri Christiansen in his article. And he doesn’t exaggerate. In Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Finland, thousands of people today identify with the pre-Christian religions of the north. It is not a hobby or a passing fad: they are officially registered religions, with priests, temples, rites of passage, their own cemeteries and an expanding community. Why, in the most modernized society in the world, is an ancient cult reborn? The answer is more complex, but it has a surprising sense of normality. An ancient faith for unstable times. The Nordic countries top all the secularization lists in the world. In Sweden, only 10% of the population attends Christian churches regularly. In Iceland 40% of young people believe that God does not exist. And yet, in parallel, religions that were believed to have been buried since the 11th century are growing. In Sweden, two state-recognized organizations —Nordic Asa-Community (NAC) and Forn Sed Sweden— have around 2,700 registered members, although their networks exceed 16,000 followers. They have twenty local subdivisions, hold seasonal blóts, and attract up to 300 people at their national gatherings. In fact, this year they have managed to get the Government to approve the first pagan cemetery in more than a thousand years, in the town of Molkom, with fifty burial requests already processed. They are also raising funds to build a temple in Gamla Uppsalathe ancient religious capital of the Vikings. A map of active minorities. In Denmark, the Forn Siðr organizationrecognized by the State since 2003, It has about 650 membersalthough it is estimated that there are some 3,500 practitioners in the country. Since 2009 they have managed a pagan cemetery in Odense where thirteen people have already been buried. In Norway, Bifrost and Forn Sed Norge They bring together hundreds of believers and publish materials on rituals, ecology and tradition. Both groups They openly declare themselves anti-racist and they have expelled members with supremacist speeches. Furthermore, Bifrost openly declares in its section Rasisme that any sympathizer of supremacist ideologies “is not welcome.” In Finland, the panorama is more dispersed, but it is also older. The community Karhun kansafocused on native Finnish religions, was recognized in 2013). For its part, the Lehto association, founded in 1998brings together practitioners of Wicca, shamanism, Ásatrú and Nordic paganism in general. Iceland: the heart of the renaissance. If there is an epicenter of the pagan revival, It’s Iceland. There the organization Ásatrúarfélagið, founded in 1972was officially recognized a year later and today is the second religion in the country, with more than 7,000 active members in a country of 389,000 inhabitants. In Reykjavík they are building the first pagan temple in a millennium, a circular building of concrete, wood and natural light entering through an open dome. The project—designed by architect Magnús Jensson, a member of the community itself—will complete work next year. In addition, it will house ceremonies, libraries, banquet halls and the sanctuary where the blóts of the solar calendar will be celebrated. What are the rituals like? The heart of today’s pagan practice are blót, seasonal ceremonies honoring the gods and forces of nature. According to an ethnographic studythese rituals are generally celebrated outdoors—forests, mounds, historic areas—and include poetry recitation, toasts, music, and a large communal meal. In ancient times, blót included animal sacrifices. Today, Nordic associations have radically transformed the practice: there is no blood, the offerings are symbolic (mead, bread, fruit, ritual burning) and often include the burning of a banner made among the participants, as the same study documents. It should be added that there is some micro-communities (unofficial) who have debated resuming animal sacrifices, but represent a marginal and controversial minority within the movement. In addition to blót, these religions celebrate weddings, funerals, baby namings, and coming-of-age rituals. In Iceland, a play based on in the Eddic poem Skírnismála solemn and surprisingly contemporary rite. Wedding celebrated during the 2022 spring ritual in Sweden Who is behind? The question is who is behind the new Norse pagan. According to research—collected at EUREL, sociologist Jane Haug Skjoldli or Heimskringla’s analysis—, the most common profile of current Nordic pagans is: adults between 25 and 50 years old, high educational level, stable employment or urban middle class, interest in nature, ecology and local culture. In addition to progressive values (most organizations are explicitly anti-racist). Many people do not identify strictly as “pagans” but as Heathens, Fornsedare, Animists, Nordic Polytheists, or Ásatrúar. It is a flexible, non-dogmatic spirituality, with an emphasis on practice and community rather than doctrinal faith. A rebirth with tensions. An inevitable topic is the relationship between paganism and the extreme right. During the 20th century, Viking iconography was instrumentalized by Nazism and, later, by white supremacist groups. Today, associations such as Forn Sed Sweden, Bifrost and Ásatrúarfélagið publish explicit anti-racist values and expel—as the NAC did in 2017, according to The Guardian— to members who express xenophobic ideologies. A member of Forn Sed Sweden put it bluntly: “If you’re a Nazi, you’re not a pagan. You’re just a Nazi.” Still, tension exists: Viking symbols have become mainstream on the internet, and some radical groups continue to use them. This forces official associations to position themselves again and again. Is the Viking religion really back? Yes, but transformed. It is … Read more
