Norse Revival: Transformations of Germanic Neopaganism

430 Pages·2016·4.264 MB·English

by  Stefanie von Schnurbein

Norse Revival
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SCRR
Studies in Critical Research on Religion
Series Editor
Warren S. Goldstein, Center for Critical Research on Religion
and Harvard University (u.s.a.)
Editorial Board
Roland Boer, University of Newcastle (Australia)
Christopher Craig Brittain, University of Aberdeen (u.k.)
Darlene Juschka, University of Regina (Canada)
Lauren Langman, Loyola University Chicago (u.s.a.)
George Lundskow, Grand Valley State University (u.s.a.)
Kenneth G. MacKendrick, University of Manitoba (Canada)
Andrew M. McKinnon, University of Aberdeen (u.k.)
Michael R. Ott, Grand Valley State University (u.s.a.)
Sara Pike, California State University, Chico (u.s.a.)
Dana Sawchuk, Wilfrid Laurier University (Canada)
Advisory Board
William Arnal, University of Regina (Canada)
Jonathan Boyarin, Cornell University (u.s.a.)
Jay Geller, Vanderbilt University (u.s.a.)
Marsha Hewitt, University of Toronto (Canada)
Michael Löwy, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France)
Eduardo Mendieta, Stony Brook University (u.s.a.)
Rudolf J. Siebert, Western Michigan University (u.s.a.)
Rhys H. Williams, Loyola University Chicago (u.s.a.)
VOLUME 5
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/scrr
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Norse Revival
Transformations of Germanic Neopaganism
By
Stefanie von Schnurbein
LEIDEN | BOSTON
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This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial-NonDerivative 3.0 Unported (cc-by-nc-nd 3.0)
License, which permits any non-commercial use, and distribution, provided no
alterations are made and the original author(s) and source are credited.
Cover illustration: Godafoss, Iceland. Photo: Rett Rossi
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Schnurbein, Stefanie v., author.
Title: Norse revival : transformations of Germanic neopaganism / by Stefanie
von Schnurbein.
Description: Boston : Brill, 2016. | Series: Studies in critical research on
religion, ISSN 1877-2129 ; VOLUME 5 | Includes bibliographical references
and index. | Description based on print version record and CIP data
provided by publisher; resource not viewed.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015045120 (print) | LCCN 2015041674 (ebook) | ISBN
9789004309517 (E-Book) | ISBN 9789004294356 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Neopaganism. | Norse cults.
Classification: LCC BP605.N46 (print) | LCC BP605.N46 S545 2016 (ebook) | DDC
293--dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015045120
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Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Series Editor Preface ix
List of Figures x
Notes on Translations xi
Notes on Previously Published Material xii
Introduction 1
Initial Encounters 1
Transformations and Key-Questions 4
Twisted Terminologies 9
What Others Say 11
Complicated Involvements 13
Receptions, Adaptions, and Goals 15
1 Creating the Paradigm: Historical Preconditions of Modern Asatru 17
The Search for a National Mythology in European Romanticism 18
The Search for a German Religion in Fin de Siecle Germany 28
German(ic) Faith and Ariosophy in the Early Twentieth Century 37
Post-War Revivals 48
Witchcraft and the Celtic Revival 51
2 Creating a Religion: The Emergence and Development of Late
Twentieth Century Asatru 54
In Search of Religiosity: Germanic Neopaganism 1970–1990 55
In Search of Respectability – Asatru after 1990 62
Asatru International 77
3 Believing and Doing 88
Finding Asatru 88
Heathen Beliefs 91
Heathen Practices 106
4 Contested Fields I: Race and Ethnicity 123
Asatru and National Socialism 123
The ‘Folkish’ Versus ‘Universalist’ Controversy 128
An ‘Ethnic Religion of Nature’? 133
Ethno-Pluralism and the European New Right 136
Cultural Essentialism beyond the New Right 140
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vi Contents
5 Contested Fields II: Concepts of Religion and Anti-Monotheism 146
Attitudes Towards Christianity 147
The Question of Anti-Semitism 152
Praising Polytheism 155
Anti-Monotheism in Asatru 167
Religion of Experience 171
Heathenism as Religious Secularism 175
6 Asatru – A Religion of Nature? 180
Nature Spirituality in Asatru 181
Environmental Protection, the Heimat-Movement and Völkisch
Religion in Germany 185
Nature Religion in England and the United States 198
Nature and National Identity in Scandinavia 204
Right-Wing Ecologism and Asatru 208
7 Gender and Sexuality 216
The High Position of Germanic Women 217
Masculinity and Männerbund 232
Queering Asatru? The Question of Sexuality 243
8 Asatru – An Academic Religion? 251
How Heathens Relate to their Sources 252
Völkisch Scholarship and Germanic Faith 260
Remnants of Völkisch Scholarship after 1945 273
Asatru Uses of Scholarship 286
9 Germanic Neopaganism – A Nordic Art-Religion? 298
Nineteenth Century Concepts of Germanic Art-Religion 299
J.R.R. Tolkien and the Nordic Art-Religion of Middle-Earth 308
Religious and Ideological Art in the German Faith Movement 314
Heirs of Wagner and Tolkien: Asatru Novelists 321
Dark Heirs of Wagner and Tolkien: Metal and Neofolk 336
Art-Religion – An Encompassing Paradigm? 347
10 Instead of a Conclusion 351
Interviews Conducted by Author 361
Bibliography 363
Index 412
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Acknowledgements
This book is based on thirty years of research and critical engagement with the
shifting scene of Germanic Neopaganism. In spite of my efforts to structure
and develop consistent arguments, it still teems with unmanageable details.
My hope for my readers is that they will not perceive this as a lack, but will
instead find pleasure in getting lost in quirky detail and meandering thought.
Sometimes, it is this getting lost itself that holds potential for new insights
beyond what is written.
There are multiple reasons that Nordic myth and its reception have occu-
pied my mind for so long. The most relevant of them are laid out in the chap-
ters of this book. Others are of a more personal nature. They have to do with the
convoluted threads that tie me, and Germans of my age group, to the thoughts,
activities, guilt, and suffering of the previous two generations, whose thoughts
and actions shaped the 20th century. It is impossible to do justice to these ties
here. But I want to give credit to them by thanking my late grandfather. His
erring enthusiasm and later his critical revision of his own passionate thoughts
have motivated much of my research without my being fully aware of it for a
long time.
During the course of my research, I gradually discovered how similar some
a-racist Heathens’ struggles with this history are to my own. My most sincere
gratitude goes to all of my interview partners, who have made it possible for
me to investigate these vexing problems in depth, and thus, to write this book.
Without their openness toward a researcher who they must have perceived
with understandable skepticism and suspicion, this book would look very dif-
ferent. I would also have missed a valuable opportunity to question my own
assumptions about religion, politics, and art. Engaging critically with their
positions, questions, and doubts has allowed me to revise my own relationship
to not only the discourse on Nordic myth and my own field and interests, but
also to religion, spirituality, the aesthetic, and politics in general – questions
that I will continue to investigate with the help of other materials. The work
with real, unpredictable, illogical, multifaceted, and contradictory people has
given me the opportunity to examine tensions and contradictions in my own
life as a researcher and beyond, and helped me be more relaxed about them.
On the other hand, it has alerted me to the fact that there is a significant gap
between the official image or ideology that is projected outward through pub-
lications and social media, and the lived experience of contemporary Germanic
Neopagans, their self-perception, and their intentions as they become visible
in interviews and personal encounters. I hope that this book reflects the fact
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viii Acknowledgements
that my critique is mostly directed at official statements and outward repre-
sentation, and that gratitude and the pleasant memories stem from the per-
sonal encounters with reflective and reflecting individuals who shared their
views and knowledge with me.
Beside these subjects of my research, my thanks goes to all those whose
critical minds have accompanied my work in the last years: Stefan Arvidsson,
Mette Buchardt, Nina Trige Andersen, Florian Heesch, René Gründer, Bruce
Lincoln, Catharina Raudvere, Andreas Åkerlund, Horst Junginger, Uwe
Puschner, Heinrich Anz, and many others who have given me the opportunity
to discuss my theses at conferences, in class, or just in private.
I thank the Volkswagen and Thyssen foundations and their “Opus Magnum”
initiative, which financed an 18 month leave for me to do field-work and write
a first version of the manuscript. This grant gave me the rare opportunity to
concentrate on my writing, free of the daily obligations of teaching and admin-
istration, but also free from the pressure of delivering a specific result at a spe-
cific time. If this book turns out to be better than the first version of the
manuscript, it is due not only to the critical eye of my first readers but also to a
grant with no ties attached, which allowed me the time and freedom to use as
much space as was necessary for a thorough revision. Therefore, special thanks
goes to Gudrun Tegeder, who encouraged my application from the first phone
call onwards and saw me through most of the process, and to Adelheid Wessler
and Johanna Brumberg, who took over to see it to the end.
Jana Eder, Jan Schröder, and Heike Peetz assisted with transcribing the inter-
views, the latter also with background research. Rett Rossi and later Angela
Anderson extended invaluable help with transforming the text into a hopefully
readable English. Series editor Warren Goldstein’s thorough reading and sound
suggestions have improved the manuscript to the extent that I heeded his
advice. Paul Greiner and Kyle Greenwood braved the tedious work of copyedit-
ing. Maarten Frieswijk from Brill publishing house helped with all the practical
detail involved in the publishing process.
Finally, I want to thank all those around me who came to share my excite-
ment and suffering during the long research process. Sabine Meyer, who got
a close look at my joys and desperation in writing this book as did other
friends, family, students, and colleagues at Nordeuropa-Institut at Humboldt-
Universität. The deepest and thus inexpressible thanks goes to my fellow
traveller in life, Rett Rossi, for being there all along and for other ineffabilities.
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Series Editor Preface
Norse mythology has come to be associated with the extreme right in
Germany – particularly since its appropriation into Nazi ideology. Stefanie von
Schnurbein, who has had a decades-long interest in this topic, engages in an
in-depth exploration of Germanic Neopaganism. She examines its roots in the
völkisch movement of the late 19th and early 20th century as well as engages in
ethnographic research of the current movement. While parts of the movement
remain racist, anti-Semitic, nationalistic, and xenophobic, other parts of it
have emerged which are not. Von Schnurbein’s stance toward the movement is
critical in that she discerns by separating the regressive elements of
Neopaganism from those that are more progressive. With this, she raises the
question whether Norse mythology can be freed from its reactionary baggage.
Warren S. Goldstein, Ph.D.
Center for Critical Research on Religion
www.criticaltheoryofreligion.org
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List of Figures
6.1 Carl Larsson’s first sketch for Midvinterblot (1911). Source: Torsten Gunnarson,
ed. Carl Larsson (Stockholm: Wiken, 1992), 223. Work is in the public
domain 206
9.1 Portrait photograph of Guido von List (probably 1909/10). Published with
permission from the German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv). Barch, Bild
183-2007-0705-500/Conrad H. Schiffer 315
9.2 Fidus, Lichtgebet (1894/1924). © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2014 319
9.3 Painting by Hermann Hendrich, “Walpurgishalle,” Hexentanzplatz, printed on
postcard by Meisenbach, Riffarth & Co., Berlin. Published with permission from
Georg Jäger, www.goethezeitportal.de 320
9.4 Peter Nikolai Arbo, Åsgårdsreien (1872). Published with permission from the
National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Norway 338
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