The Elder Troth: An Introductory Course of Study by Kveldúlf Hagan Gundarsson

Author:Kveldúlf Hagan Gundarsson
Language: eng
Format: azw
Publisher: The Troth
Published: 2014-10-07T16:00:00+00:00

LESSON 5—TROTH AND CULTURE

The word “troth” is the mainstay of the Northern religion. It is related to the Old Norse trú, trust or belief (as in Ásatrú, remember); it also carries with it a sense of honour and loyalty, as in “to plight one’s troth” or “to keep troth with someone”. It is the word which describes our relationships both with the god/desses and with each other. In modern times, the ideals of true behavior have been summed up by the “Nine Noble Virtues”, which apparently originated with a British Ásatrú group and have been adopted by most Americans as well. These virtues are:

1. Bravery—often seen as the most typical virtue of a warrior people, but going far beyond simple battle-bravery. Without bravery, the farmers who colonized Iceland and Greenland (and tried to colonize America) would never even have started out—more than half of the original Greenland colonists never reached their destination, some ships being forced back by bad weather and some being lost forever. Nor would the Northern merchants have been able to make their way down the Volga and along Europe’s coast; nor would any other thing of note have been accomplished. Today, bravery is especially needful for those few folk who openly practice a religion of which mainstream society is generally unaware and certainly not supportive, whether the individual’s chief risk is loss of job and family or simply the insidious difficulties of being viewed as a nutter.

2. Truth—speaks for itself. An accurate view of the world and oneself, maintained and presented with neither false modesty nor boasts that cannot be backed up.

3. Honour—the strength of your word; the name which lives on after death, and is the most important thing that you can leave behind yourself.

4. Troth—good faith and loyalty to friends, kinfolk, and gods; the practice of honour in the human realm.

5. Self-Rule—the self-control and maturity which separates adults from children, the will and judgement which make honour and troth possible.

6. Hospitality—a virtue necessary for survival in the cold lands of the North, where turning a traveller away from your door in winter could well mean his death. One of the mainstays of the Northern religion now, when groups must most often hold their blessings in someone else’s living room or backyard. Hospitality means being willing to host blessings or put up fellow true folk; it also means proper and polite behaviour from guests, who should repay their host’s generosity with generosity of their own, not only in terms of helping with food and drink costs, but also in preparation and clean-up duties.

7. Hard Work—without which the best ideas and most elevated ideals can accomplish nothing.

8. Freedom—the will to take full responsibility for all your own actions, to stand on your own two feet and take the blame for your failures as well as the credit for your successes.

9. Steadfastness—the stubborn refusal to give in; the realization that nothing of worth comes easily, but that you must hold fast in order to gain it. The tales of our heroes and heroines are full of folk who endured the worst of hardships and triumphed.

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