Hearthside

One of the groups that I am a part of challenged people to write the story of the marriage of Skaði, but wrong answers only. Naturally, many rose to the challenge. There were a number of witty results, and many that were well thought out. It was requested that I write a longer version of mine because it was quite enjoyable, so I will do that here. First, however, I wanted to talk about storytelling and how our Lore changes over time with different tellings.  Historically, there were many versions of a story. They would vary each time they were told depending on the Skald and the audience and what was being conveyed through the retelling. You could hear a story 100 times and each time it would be different. Part of this was your life experience, and part of it was what the Skald was trying to say through the story. When our Lore was written down often it was taken from multiple versions of the oral story, and mixed with the biases of the person who recorded it. Since then the bias o...

I have been writing a lot about Heathenry from a female perspective, but how important is gender (and also sexual identity) to Heathenry? The answer is, not very.  I am talking about Heathenry from a female perspective mainly because when I was starting this blog I was not seeing enough women creating Heathen content even though as a religion there are actually a fairly large percentage of women in leadership roles compared to broader society. I felt a bit strange stepping into this role, while people around me seemed to think I was a good fit for it. Additionally, I have found in other Heathen circles that sometimes I am put into a position where the discussion is very male dominated, to the point that I have joked on occasion that perhaps I needed a beard to be a part of it. So I am pushing back against that, but it is really only a start. Gender is a construct from the broader over-culture. We cannot know what the elder Heathens truly thought about gender and sexual identity....

Happy Winter Nights, all. I have not been posting much lately, and I am working on some more complex posts that require more time and research, but I am not quite there yet. My day job recently changed and I am still settling into my new role. However, I do have a bunch of other ideas typed up, mostly edited, which I could stick on here whenever. (If I remembered.) The following is one of them. Hopefully, my schedule will even out a bit more soon, and I can spend the necessary time to get more complex content out as well. If you have been following along for awhile you may have a burning question about the deities I choose to examine in this blog. Why am I focusing on male deities so much if this is supposed to be a blog about female perspective? And the answer is (clap with me) I. Don't. Care. For. Your. Judgements.  But more seriously, this blog is a female perspective. As in I am female and I am giving you my perspective. And which deities I choose to talk about come at a whim, ...