m00n-st0n3-deactivated20220311 asked:

Do you have any activities you would revoke to someone trying to connected to their Norse heritage?

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I assume you mean what activities I’d recommend?

Well, to be honest, heritage (in the sense of one’s ancestry) isn’t really important to me, so I may not be the best person to ask. I know it’s a starting point for many, but it has always felt superficial to me (even with Germanic ancestry). We don’t actually inherit anything beyond genetics, unless you had family members or a community sharing stories with you directly. But even then, Norse‘heritage’ is so far removed in time that anyone, no matter their ancestry today, would need to put in additional effort to truly reconnect with it. Hundreds of years have passed and much has changed as generations have come and gone, including old stories that have survived on the margins of their memory.

So if you meant “Norse heritage” in the sense of connecting with ‘Viking’ ancestors, you might struggle (and inevitably go down a rabbit hole that I personally find fruitless). The only activities I could recommend for that would be genealogical research and finding family members with stories to share—though I doubt any will remember the Viking Age and Norse paganism very well. You could, of course, try to connect with ancestors spiritually, but I don’t have much experience with that (since it’s not a part of my practice).

But if by “Norse heritage” you meant connecting with their culture and worldview, things may be a bit easier (and much more rewarding). Nevertheless, everyone’s needs are different, so what works for me or someone else may not actually bring you as much fulfillment. I’ll still share a list of things you can try, though:

• Read the myths. (But please read this free post about our sources first.) I usually recommend starting with the Prose Edda (here’s a free translation) because it’s easier to understand, but you’ll find an allegedly more ‘genuine’ worldview in the so-called Poetic Edda (free translation, but dated). (These things are explained in the post I just recommended, if you don’t know much about them.)
• Read their sagas. I recommend starting with the heroic sagas and eventually working your way towards the more ‘down-to-earth’ sagas of Icelanders. There are some free translations online, but I really do recommend getting better ones if you can spare the coin. It’ll make reading them way easier, and they often provide additional information to help you understand them. I have more on saga (of Icelanders) translations here.
• Read histories. I recommend this because manuscripts and translations aren’t the only thing we can learn from. The Norse often expressed their culture and worldview through physical objects and interactions with other cultures that are often only known through burials and other archaeological evidence. I have an incomplete (but growing) list of academic resources here, if you’d like to consult it. I also have the same for digital resources.
• Find a community. Reading stuff on your own and contemplating what it all means is great (if you’re able to do it), but having people to discuss what you’ve learned with is even more helpful. I’m always happy to help, and I know several others here on Tumblr as well who are kind and trustworthy. I also have a community of subscribers from my website, if you choose to learn in my Hall.
• Learn their language. Words contain much about a culture’s worldview, so if you’ve any interest in learning Old Norse at all, I highly recommend trying. Jackson Crawford has a large playlist of free videos you could watch, but there are also textbooks.

But anyway, those are the activities I’d recommend. They’re unsurprisingly academic and require a lot of studying, but since we’re dealing with a ‘heritage’ from hundreds of years ago that no longer exists as it once did, it’s just a fact of the field. Nevertheless, I hope something mentioned above helps you in some way!