Vatni Ausa

Þóra ól barn um sumarið, og var það mær; var hún vatni ausin og nafn gefið og hét Ásgerðr.

"Thora bore a child in the summer; it was a girl. She was sprinkled with water, and named Asgerdr.

-Egils Saga

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A few days ago, the Idavoll Kindred got the rare pleasure of performing the Vatni Ausa rite on a newborn child. Vatni Ausa means "sprinkling with water", but the rite is also called a "Name Fastening". The Vatni Ausa ritual is very much a Heathen baptism rite, but it is ancient and grew up independent from the later Christian ritual of baptism.

The traditional basis for the Vatni Ausa rite comes from the ancient Rigsthula. In that great work, in which we are told more of the origins of different human beings as the ancestor-God Rig traveled among ancient man, we see the fathers and mothers of newly born children "casting water" upon their infant offspring and giving them names. In verse 35, for instance, we read:

"A son bore mother / in silk they swathed him,
sprinkled water on him / and called him Jarl
Was his hair flaxen / and fair-hued his cheek,
his eyes awfully / like an adder's, blazed."

It should be noted that "flashing eyes" were seen as a token of noble birth by the ancients, as Tacitus recorded.

In the Vatni Ausa rite, a child is formally accepted by its father on its ninth night of life, and sprinkled with water made sacred by Blots, and given a name. Of course, in the modern day, most children will typically have "mainstream" names and a separate name by which they are known in the Asatru faith-community. I sincerely hope that one day we have more children whose Vatni Ausa name is the same as the one on their birth certificates, but until that fine day, we go on as we are.

A member of our Kindred named Grettir welcomed a new son about two weeks ago. On his ninth night of life, we went out to the very large and forested property where our Kindred member lives, erected a harrow (pictured above) and performed the Vatni Ausa on his tiny baby boy. His boy's name at birth was Brendan, but the name chosen by his father for his Vatni Ausa was Eyarr.

I include a transcript of the rite we used. Before I give it, a few notes on it are in order.

The water we used for the sprinkling of Brendan/Eyarr was special- it was clean spring water mingled with some water from the Tobernault Holy Well in Sligo, Ireland. The last time Thorgrimmr was there, he got a bottle of it straight from the well, and carried it back here, and we use it now for various sacred work.

Our Kindred's Vatni Ausa works in two parts. In the first part, we set up a Harrow, which includes a horn and a hlautbowl, a bowl of the water, and a hammer (pictured above).

Then the father of the child and the rite leader (usually our Godi) go into the forest looking for a Hlauteinn, a sprig of some evergreen that will be used to sprinkle the child. The Father of Brendan and I found a holly bush that was more than able to offer a nice sprig, and I sang Algiz songs to it, to consciously communicate with the wight of the holly bush, and ask it for its donation. The father responds by giving a gift to it for the hlauteinn, then we return to the ritual site.

Placing the hlauteinn on the hlautbowl, the bowl that will catch the ale from the Blot, we are ready. For the most important Blots, such as the Blots that come before something as important as the Vatni Ausa, we use the best ale we know- Chimay Grand Reserve. As a rule, the Gods and holy Kindreds must always be given the finest ale or drink you have on hand at the place where the Blot or Rite is being done, for the same reasons that you'd break out the best ale for an honored human guest or relative that came to visit.


Our Vatni Ausa has two parts, as I said before: they are preparation and Blots, and then the Sprinkling and Naming. When we are ready, we use the Hammer to consecrate the area around the Harrow, and the Harrow itself, including all the items on it.

In this particular Vatni Ausa, our Steersman Thorgrimmr drummed slowly (30 beats a minute then 15 beats a minute) while the Blots were taking place. Jorhild acted as our Horn-dis, filling horns for me (I led the rite) and holding the hlautbowl when the time came to pour and sprinkle the gathering.

four Blots were made, one to the Allfather, one to the Disir or ancestral guardian spirits of the families of the mother and the father of the child, one to the Thunderer, and one to the Earth Mother.

To the Allfather we make a Blot and ask for wisdom and guidance on the child; to the Disir, we ask that a Fylgja-Dis or a protecting spirit attach itself to the child and follow him through his life, protecting him; to the Thunderer, we ask for protection from the designs and baneful powers of Ill-wights, and to the Earth Mother we ask for health for the child.

Each time a Blot is done (and the text of the Blot calls is given below) a few drops of the consecrated ale is sprinkled into the water that will later be used to sprinkle the child.


When the four Blots are done, the father (and mother if she is participating) carries the child up to the harrow and dips the hlauteinn into the water. Looking at their child, they say "I acknowledge you as my son/daughter and name you _____". As they are saying this, they sprinkle the water lightly over the child's head.

At this point, the father and mother make their parental vows to the child- in the name of the Gods, they make whatever vows to the child they feel the need to make; to protect the child, to love it all their lives, to always support the child, etc. As long as these vows are kept, the luck-force binding the parents to the child, and the luck-force that surrounds their family, cannot be defeated.


That's our Vatni Ausa; below are the calls we use. Bear in mind that the mother, who is not Asatru, was not present for the blots. She was, however, present for the sprinkling.



Five Hammer Hallowings:

VIH THONORAZ : HELGA VE THETTA OK HALD VORDH

("Sacred (or powerful) Thunderer, hallow and hold this holy stead")



Blot for Odin

(All invocations except for the last are given with the body straight and standing, and hands raised above the head in a "Y" shape, making the body conform to the shape of the Algiz Rune, the posture of invocation since time immemorial among the Indo Europeans.)


FIMBULTYR : GALDRSFADHIR : HANGATYR : ALLFADHIR ODIN
RISTER OF RUNES : EAGLE HIGH, WYRM DEEP
SHAPER OF THE WORLD IN ANCIENT TIMES
WITH THESE WORDS YOUR CHILDREN ROWN YOU FORTH
COME AND HALLOW THIS GATHERING WITH YOUR MIGHT.

BEFORE YOU STANDS A FATHER WITH A SON NEWLY BORN
LET HIS OFFSPRING BE BLESSED
LET ALL OF HIS SON'S DAYS BE BLESSED.
GUIDE HIM, FATHER MOST WISE,
AND PROTECT HIM.


(The horn is filled and handed to the Godi, who marks it with the hammer sign and with the ANSUZ sign, and holds it up.)

ALLFATHER, ACCEPT THIS HORN OF ALE AS A TRUE AND HALLOWED SACRIFICE. RECEIVE IT. FILL IT WITH YOUR MIGHT.


The Godi lowers it and hammer signs it again, and takes a sip. It is carried around to each participant so that they can take a sip.

What remains in the horn is poured into the hlautbowl, and the hlauteinn is dipped in, and a few drops are cast into the water bowl. The Godi then offers a silent prayer to Odin, sprinkles himself, and walks to each participant now, telling them:

(NAME), Under Odin's Eye, I blood you wise and protected.

And then he sprinkles them.

When all have been sprinkled, the remains of the bowl are poured out onto the ground, with these words:

HEILIR AESIR
HEILAR ASYNJUR
HEIL SU IN FJOLNYTA FOLD.

("Hail to the Gods, Hail to the Goddesses, Hail Earth, who gives to all.")



Blot to the Disir

All is done as above, but with these changes to the calls:


DISIR OF THE FAMILY REITER
DISIR OF THE FAMILY HOBDEN
FETCH-ANCESTRESSES
WARDING WIGHTS OF MEN'S LIVES
SHIELD MAIDENS
LUCK BRINGERS
WITH THESE WORDS WE ROWN YOU FORTH
COME AND HALLOW THIS GATHERING WITH YOUR MIGHT.

SEE BRENDAN THERE, THE SON OF GRETTIR AND CATHERINE
THOSE OF YOU WHO WILL WEAVE HIM A GOOD FATE
A SAFE AND HAPPY LIFE, ATTACH YOURSELF TO HIM
AND FOLLOW HIM ALL HIS DAYS.
DO THIS IN THE NAME OF WYRD THE MIGHTY
BY THE FORCE OF THE SPINNING NORNS
IN THE NAME OF THE ALLFATHER
AND THE EARTH THAT GIVES TO ALL.


(The horn is filled and handed to the Godi, who marks it with the hammer sign and with the ALGIZ sign, and holds it up.)

DISIR, ACCEPT THIS HORN OF ALE AS A TRUE AND HALLOWED SACRIFICE. RECEIVE IT. FILL IT WITH YOUR MIGHT.


(NAME), In the name of the Clan-Mothers, I blood you lucky and protected.



Blot to the Thunderer

ATLI : ASATHOR : OKUTHOR : THUNDERER
OLD REDBEARD : HRUNGNIRS BANE :
MIDGARD'S WARDER
SIF'S BELOVED : SON OF ODIN
WITH THESE WORDS YOUR YOUNGER KIN ROWN YOU FORTH
COME AND HALLOW THIS GATHERING WITH YOUR MIGHT.

BEFORE YOU STANDS A FATHER WITH A SON NEWLY BORN
LET HIS OFFSPRING BE BLESSED;
LET ALL OF HIS SON'S DAYS BE BLESSED.
ASATHOR, KEEP HIM SAFE FROM THE DESIGNS OF WICKED WIGHTS.
KEEP HIM SAFE EVERY DAY OF HIS LIFE.


(The horn is filled and handed to the Godi, who marks it with the hammer sign and holds it up.)


THUNDERER, ACCEPT THIS HORN OF ALE AS A TRUE AND HALLOWED SACRIFICE. RECEIVE IT. FILL IT WITH YOUR MIGHT.


(NAME), Under the Hammer of the Thunder God, I blood you warded and safe.




Blot to the Earth Mother

(the invocation to Nerthus or Iord, the Earth Mother, is given by the Godi as he kneels and touches the ground)


NERTHUS : IORD : GREAT AND GIVING EARTH : WIH-MIGHT GROWING
MOTHER OF MAN : MOTHER OF ASATHOR
FLOWERING AND FILLING WITH LIFE
WITH THESE WORDS YOUR CHILDREN ROWN YOU FORTH
COME AND HALLOW THIS GATHERING WITH YOUR MIGHT


UPON YOU STANDS A FATHER WITH A SON NEWLY BORN
LET HIS OFFSPRING BE BLESSED
LET ALL OF THIS SON'S DAYS BE BLESSED
KEEP HIM IN HALE HEALTH ALL HIS DAYS, MOTHER.


(The horn is filled and handed to the Godi, who marks it with the hammer sign and holds it up.)


GREAT EORTH, ACCEPT THIS HORN OF ALE AS A TRUE AND HALLOWED SACRIFICE. RECEIVE IT. FILL IT WITH YOUR MIGHT.


(NAME), by this Good Earth, I blood you lucky and healthy.


After these Blots were done, at our Vatni Ausa, the new father carried his son up to the harrow, and sprinkled the child as I described before. He named him Eyarr, the "luck bringing warder", and made very touching vows to him. We clapped; it was a fine time.

The most important thing for any parent (Asatru or not) to remember is this: blessings come from many places, but the best blessing a child can have is the unflinching and unconditional love of family and kin.

The Vikings: History, Fantasy, and Reality

Everyone knows about the Vikings. From popular fiction to historical accounts, we've all experienced the drama of heavily armed raiders splashing off their fierce Dragon-ships and raiding, burning, and looting villages up and down the coastlines of England and France. We all know that these vicious men were out to rape as many women as they could, carry off as much treasure as they handle, and were all prepared to die fighting, so that they could go drink and feast in Valhalla. The truth of the matter is, like with so many other things, quite different from this picture.

The idea of the blood-crazed Viking raider, and Valhalla as the prime warrior's paradise, a place for warriors to go if they die fighting, echoes long in the historical memory of the world. While modern Asatru is not limited to the Heathen religious ideas of the Viking era only, it certainly has roots in the rich tapestry of Icelandic Heathen lore, and Iceland was founded by the Vikings.

Many have mistakened Asatru today for a "warrior religion" or a "Viking religion". Many Kindreds and other members of the Asatru faith are working hard to overcome these stereotypes, for many good reasons. At best, the Vikings, brave traders and explorers that they were, only represent a very tiny part of Germanic Heathen history and tradition as a whole. At worst, historical propaganda and falsehoods told about the Vikings lead some immature people to assume that Asatru glorifies violence, rape, murder, or stupidity.

Asatru is far more than some excuse for childish machismo and posturing or "play Viking" nonsense- it is a living faith that keeps ancestral piety close to its heart, praises courage and steadfast behavior, and focuses on the value of human bonds of support and closeness, particularly between kin. The idea that anyone can think of guys running about dressed like fake Vikings and swinging axes and swords as the essence of the Asatru religion is a terrible distortion of the reality, to say the least.

The Viking Age, spanning roughly 790 and 1000 CE, was the last Heathen age of the Germanic peoples. It is closer to us historically than any other pre-Christian age of the Germanic folk, and thus, we happen to know more about it than any other age. Despite the fact that many of the written sources from which Asatru draws its theological basis date from Viking times (but were doubtlessly based on oral tales much older) the Viking Age does not capture the full essence of Germanic Heathenry.

The Vikings deserve a defense for who and what they were. To begin with, the Vikings were not as violent and bloodthirsty as most people think.

They also were not a unified people; the term "Viking" doesn't refer to a people; it refers to something people all over the Scandinavian world did- they "went Viking"- meaning they went sailing, raiding, and trading, during the summer. The word Viking appears on several Runestones found in Scandinavia. In the Sagas, "Viking" refers to an overseas expedition (Old Norse fara í víking "to go on an expedition"), and víkingr, to a seaman or warrior taking part in such an expedition. The crews of Viking ships were packed full of young men, the younger sons of farmers who could not inherit their father's land. The land passed automatically to the oldest son, so the younger sons had to find another way to make a living. Often, they got together with the other unlanded young men from their area and arranged a Viking expedition, to find wealth through trade or exploration.

The reality of raiding is the aspect of the historical Viking tradition that most people associate with the act of "going Viking" as a whole. The reason why is because the first historical mention we have of Vikings is from the pens of Monks, who recorded the sack of Lindisfarne Monastery in 793. Vikings did sack Lindisfarne, and took its very large treasury of gold and silver for themselves. Needless to say, this attack, and several other attacks on monasteries, won the Vikings (who didn't help themselves by being Heathen) a nasty reputation in the eyes of the church. It was the Churchmen who wrote the history, and thus, the idea of Vikings being bloodthirsty Heathen raiders became not only common in written reports of the time, but in the minds of most people today who rely on history as it is written without understanding the deeper reality.

Monasteries were packed full of gold and silver and other riches- the Church wasn't poor, either then or now. While the common people sat sleeping in huts and struggling to make ends meet, Church buildings and Monasteries were filthy rich. They were relatively undefended, and so made tempting targets for Vikings. Sadly, the only people who wrote history back in those days happened to live inside the monasteries. That being said, I have a hard time rousing much sympathy for well fed, over-privileged monks who were rich (paradoxically while taking vows of poverty) while the common people were so poor.

The Vikings didn't set out to fight and murder and rape. They were prepared to fight in their voyages, of course- and they would certainly raid targets of opportunity, but in this respect, they were no more evil than any other group of people in the ancient world. Resource competition was "the name of the game", both then and now for most people. Getting money to eat and live is the bottom line. All the same, fighting is expensive and dangerous- even Vikings preferred to trade and make a fat profit that way. Despite what most people think, villages and towns in Viking times were not just helpless targets- they had armed men defending them and patrolling the coast. The chances that a crew from one longship or even several longships could attack a well-defended town or village and walk away without heavy casualties was not good.

Trading was, therefore, the primary way that the Vikings made their money. There was a trouble in trading with Christians, however. The Heathen Vikings were often subjected to unfair trade practices. It is said by some historians that Christian merchants who declared openly that they would not trade with heathens and infidels (Muslims and the Vikings) would get preferred status for availability and pricing of goods through a Christian network of traders.

It's not a stretch of credulity to think of Christian potentates making laws or rules regarding trade with Heathens and other non-Christians, and declaring either no trade allowed, or raising prices on non-Christians, in some feeble attempt to make conversion seem like a financially sound option. Vikings might have reacted negatively to what they would have perceived as dishonorable dealings, and raid just for good measure. Honestly, I can't blame them; I'd do the same.

The point of these historical facts is to remind people that the fictional "poor, scared villages of meek Christians" that we are led to believe were subjected to heartless and brutal Viking raids is just that- a fiction. It was a fiction created by Christian writers to vilify Heathen men. The historical realities show a more balanced picture.

One of the main activities of the Vikings was exploration- many of these expeditions sought new homelands. It is probable that Scandinavia lacked enough room for burgeoning populations, or that land for farming was all taken up, leading to an exodus-surge of explorers and settlers. The world of the Viking explorer was huge- they not only settled Iceland, but also Greenland and even dropped anchor off the coast of Vinland- North America. They explored the massive lengths of the rivers that cut deep into Russia and Eastern Europe, and served as mercenaries to the Byzantine Emperor. They founded the city of Dublin, ruled most of eastern England, and traded in Iberia, the Middle East, Egypt, and all over the Mediterranean. They even traded in Baghdad. Tribes of Swedes laid the foundations of Russia itself, including Russia's first and longest ruling dynasty.

Considering history, it seems to most reasonable people that the most amazing things the Vikings did were all related to exploration. So it's a little unfair (though given the nature of the Christian propaganda machine, understandable) that the Vikings are mostly remembered for raiding and killing.

Modern day members of the various branches of the Asatru faith are not Vikings. The reason why is simple: they do not live in a culture where financial pressures force them to "go Viking" every summer to trade, raid, or explore. Modern people all over the world probably have Viking blood in them, due to the nature of Viking exploration and expansion, and many members of the Asatru faith may claim literal or spiritual ancestry among the brave Vikings, but they are not themselves Vikings, at least not in the historical sense of the word. There's much to admire about the Vikings, and most good Asatruar always make it a point to show respect or admiration for them.

The most admirable thing about the Vikings is the spirit of adventure they demonstrated. Unafraid of the open ocean, their boats flew into dark, unexplored and dangerous waters that other European ships wouldn't dare- the other European vessels of their time hugged the coasts tightly. When politics became too annoying and untenable at home, the men and women of the Viking age took off- they built ships and sailed off to find a new land where they could live in peace, without interference. That is how Iceland came to be settled. That spirit of independence coupled with a zest for adventure is the main thing about the Vikings and their Age that most of us can truly get behind.