Iceland To Get First Pagan Temple In Almost 1,000 Years
The people of Iceland will soon have a shrine to the Norse pagan gods of Thor, Odin and Frigg to worship at, the first major temple to the pagan Norse gods built since the time of the Vikings.
Iceland To Get First Pagan Temple In Almost 1,000 Years
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
The people of Iceland will soon have a shrine to the Norse pagan gods of Thor, Odin and Frigg to worship at, the Guardian reported, the first major temple to the pagan Norse gods built since the time of the Vikings.
Pagan worship in Scandinavia was supplanted by Christianity about 1,000.
“I don’t believe anyone believes in a one-eyed man who is riding about on a horse with eight feet. We see the stories as poetic metaphors and a manifestation of the forces of nature and human psychology,” Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, high priest of Ásatrúarfélagið, a rapidly growing association that promotes faith in the pagan Norse gods, reportedly said.
Membership in Ásatrúarfélagið has reportedly tripled in Iceland over the past 10 years. 2,400 Icelanders were members as of last year. The total population of the country is 330,000.
The temple will host religious ceremonies, including weddings and funerals, and will be used by the association to confer baby names and initiate teenagers into the neo-pagan religion.
The neo-pagans reportedly still celebrate an ancient sacrificial ritual known as Blot, but do so today without actually sacrificing animals. Instead, there is music, special readings, eating and drinking, but no animal slaughter.
[Hat Tip: OCR.]
I was wrong, Shmarya: Habad is there already. The First Lady is a Jerusalem-born Bucharian Jew.
Posted by: Office of the Chief Rabbi | February 02, 2015 at 08:52 PM
"Norse pagan gods of Thor, Odin and Frigg"
We don't need any Frigg'n Norse gods.
I don't care what kind of frigg'n magic tricks they do.
We have our own seven frigg'n Rebbes who could free their frigg'n drunken asses out of any jail cell easier than Harry Houdini!
Isn't that enough frigg'n gods, and frigg'n messiahs, and frigg'n magic tricks, and frigg'n deity carp already?
"The neo-pagans reportedly still celebrate an ancient sacrificial ritual known as Blot, but do so today without actually sacrificing animals."
Wimps! Come to Crown Heights and our pregnant Chabad women will show you how to spill some serious sacrificial blood!
Our women are so holy they only need one bracha to make three chickens die!
Take that Thor and Odin!
Posted by: Chafraud-Depravitch | February 02, 2015 at 09:12 PM
I wonder if there will be a Pagan Sisterhood, a Pagan Hadassah, or a Pagan B'nai Brith.
Posted by: dapper danny | February 02, 2015 at 10:15 PM
CD if you Frigg too much you get Thor.
Posted by: Office of the Chief Rabbi | February 02, 2015 at 10:34 PM
Office of the Chief Rabbi,
Hahaha.
The Freedicker Rebbe always used to say: Frigg till you get Thor... then have eight or nine more.
Of course we were always hesitant to follow his advice until the RebbeHaMelechHaMoshiach™ later assured us that we could bilk the public for enough donations to pay for them all.
Posted by: Chafraud-Depravitch | February 02, 2015 at 11:16 PM
Mmm those Nordic men! Can't wait for the Shabbos smorgasbord. Pass the matjes herring....
Posted by: Gay Frum Jew | February 02, 2015 at 11:22 PM
For any new religion invented or any old one re-established, one has to ask what the situation is with a) sex, b) drugs and c) money. That will give an idea of the motivation of the practioners.
Posted by: David | February 02, 2015 at 11:24 PM
Tuesday: Tiw's Day.
Wednesday: Odin's (Woden's) Day.
Thursday: Thor's Day.
Friday: Frigg's (or Freya's) Day.
Just for the record.
I always wonder if these people really believe this.
Posted by: Nachum | February 03, 2015 at 02:20 AM
Iceland has an Israeli First Lady Dorrit Moussaief
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorrit_Moussaieff
Posted by: I-fuck-super-models | February 03, 2015 at 03:36 AM
There are already pagan gods and heroes in western society. They are called celebrities.
Posted by: Yochanan Lavie | February 03, 2015 at 06:52 AM
From this brief excerpt it seems this is just a variation on Western secular religions - a bunch o impotent gods who automatically approve of anything that makes the worshiper happy.
Posted by: Garnel Ironheart | February 03, 2015 at 07:02 AM
Garnel, all these months, I've been respecting our detant. You often say things that make me cringe, but I resist the urge to respond. I'm sure you could say the same about me from your side.
However, this is over the top. The fact that a man intelligent enough to earn a medical degree can say that other people's gods are "impotent", but imply that the Judeo-Christian god is not (which I assume is your position, as a couple of weeks ago, you lashed out at Shmarya for impugning God "after all he's done for us" - and I almost said something then) is just mind-boggling. How can you begin to justify such a statement? When other people's deities decline to act, it's because they don't exist, but when ours declines to act, it's because he won't interfere with our free will (which is what you told me several months ago)? Are you able to see how ridiculous a double standard that is?
And you can't use stories from a 3,000 year-old book, or a belief in "miracles" like the establishment of the State of Israel, to rationalize your position. Well, you can, but it's in no way respectable.
And this: "who automatically approve of anything that makes the worshiper happy". Right, because everyone knows that secular people are only looking for a way to behave licentiously without accountability. Seriously, have you spent any time talking to evangelicals? They back up their arguments with the same rationalizations that betray a complete ignorance of the workings of the minds of anyone outside of their cloistered world. In fact, if you take the apologetic arguments utilized by most frum people and throw in the word "Jesus" here and there, they become indistinguishable from the arguments of Christian fundamentalists.
(And the Icelanders don't believe the deities actually exist, btw. It's an attempt to create community while tapping into their shared cultural history.)
Posted by: Jeff | February 03, 2015 at 07:54 AM
Jeff, first calm down.
Now, let's look at this statement:
"I don’t believe anyone believes in a one-eyed man who is riding about on a horse with eight feet."
Now this post is about the building of a temple, a building for religious worship and, off the top, one of the practitioners says that he doesn't actually believe in the "gods" that the temple will be dedicated to. How am I supposed to take this seriously?
Further, yes, I do believe " secular people are only looking for a way to behave licentiously without accountability". Why was the birth control pill invented? Why are we working on treatments for HIV far more than prevention? Why are we treating smokers and obese patients when they show up with emphysema and heart disease entirely of their own making? Western society nowadays is entirely dedicated to hazardous behaviour without accountability because we feel entitled to either no consequences or someone else having to clean up our mess.
So a "religion" in which there is no belief in the gods, where rituals will be invented based on nostalgia, historical records and "feel good" motives is not one I can take seriously.
Posted by: Garnel Ironheart | February 03, 2015 at 08:34 AM
You know what? I didn't even read your response. I got as far as "Jeff, first calm down."
You always do this. Always. Your boilerplate response to me is always some variation of "Jeff, take your meds". I don't even know why I bothered trying to craft an intelligent set of statements.
Furthermore, in all of the years we've been encountering one another online, on all of the blogs you frequent, with all of the times you've been challenged, I have NEVER seen you back down or admit you were wrong. Not once. I don't believe you're capable of it.
Posted by: Jeff | February 03, 2015 at 08:40 AM
Jeff, why should I back down when you haven't even bothered to read the rest of my reply?
I want to take you seriously, I really do, but when you accuse me of boilerplate responses without even bothering to see what comes after how can I?
Posted by: Garnel Ironheart | February 03, 2015 at 08:56 AM
Am I the only one here who thinks this is a good thing? As long as it doesn't deteriorate into Nazi style racist paganism, let them be pagan.
Posted by: Miggo Wagga | February 03, 2015 at 09:26 AM
I say live and let live. But it's not my cup of tea.
My problem with European paganism, both Greco-Roman and Norse, is that the gods and heroes are amoral and live by their own rules, while mere mortals have to tow the line. This reminds me of today's cult of celebrity. (Plato also complained about the amorality of the gods in his Republic).
I do love the myths as literature, however. The Odyssey is one of my favorite books.
I have much more respect for Hinduism, which seems to me to have more of a moral code.
Posted by: Yochanan Lavie | February 03, 2015 at 10:07 AM
It may help them to keep immigrants out and stay out of euro.
Posted by: Yakov Minster | February 03, 2015 at 06:26 PM
Posted by: Jeff | February 03, 2015 at 07:54 AM
Why do believe that Garnel is a physician? Just because he/she says so proves nothing.
Posted by: Joseph | February 03, 2015 at 08:10 PM
"We see the stories as poetic metaphors and a manifestation of the forces of nature and human psychology,”
I like this guy. Hey, Hassidim lunatics (same goes for all religious literalist freaks no matter their club) take notice!
Posted by: skepticfrum | February 03, 2015 at 11:40 PM