Sunday, September 30, 2012

Hammerhof: A Deeper Look at Our Beliefs



Ragnvold Thorsson
For those who have looked over our blog-web and read what we, Hammerhof, are all about you may have seen a somewhat disconnected fusion of mixed beliefs and ideas. Do not be alarmed, there is good reason for this. We are a Fokish-tribalist kindred with a Saxon-Norse Theodish base. Here I was thinking this was a simple concept! What I will attempt to do here is explain each of these parts in full, without rambling, to better explain what we are all about.
Hammerhof – a compound word of Hammer and Hof. Hammer being Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor, and Hof being Old Norse for temple.
Let us take Folkish. - Folk; people descended from a common ancestor; used especially of the ancient clans ish; somewhat, to a degree, in the nature or style of, approximately – Therefore Folkish would be; in the nature or style of people descended from a common ancestors. We are a group of people who have descends from a common line of ancestral people which collectively are known as the Germanics. The Germanic Tribes are composed of those peoples, who are of the Indo-European family of languages that were once spoken by the ancient peoples of Northern Europe including England, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Northern Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, North and central France, North and Lowland Scotland. Within the Ásatrú religion Folkish has other meanings. Folkish is the rekindling of the old ways, the reawakening of the Gods of our ancestors, and a revival of family, honor, cooperation, and community.
Essentially tribes are a group of like people living together who are related by blood or marriage. The idea of the tribe or being tribal comes out of the old ways where our Folk lived, worked, fought, and worshipped together in the same ways. They were bound by blood, oaths, marriage, and a higher sense of honor that anything we know today. Our goal is to try and build these bonds and bring back the old ways and values of our people. Though I may not see the results of this ambition in my life I hope that my children and their children will reap the rewords of our efforts.
This brings us to the Saxon-Norse Theodish platform of Hammerhof. Theodish Belief is the old world Anglo-Saxon religious system. It is the belief of the tribe and the triabal system of governance, religion, and life. It is as Garman Lord, the modern founder the Theoish religious tradition, says "the journey is not into the self... but community." This may sound a bit redundant after discussing tribes and tribalism; however there is a reason for this. For one Theodism was intended to be strictly Anglo-Saxon. The folk of Hammerhof are not all Anglo-Saxon but they are Germanic in ancestry. Secondly though we follow the Heathen Saxon ways we do not use the Saxon names for our Gods, Goddesses, and other wights, we use the Old Norse. Due to the nature of the Lore (Eddas, Sagas, etc.) being mostly Icelandic and from the Old Norse and that our Folk are a mix bag of Germanic decent we have opted to use the most common names found in literature to day. For example Thor would be called Thunar by Saxons and Donnar in Old High German. To some this who follow the Theodish way this would be wrong. They believe that a tribal revival should be a pure, a one tribe way. To the purist this could be Anglo-Saxon or one of the other Germanic tribes, but never a combination.
The Kindred Hall of Hammerhof is a kindred and a tribe. We have taken the different ways of our religion and ancestors and forged them into a way that works for our Folk. Our members span from associates who worship and socialize with us to those of the innergarth who have taken the oath to be a part of the tribe. We are not trying to re-create the past, we are trying to bring the past to life and make it one with our modern world. The ways of our ancestors are vital to our future.

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