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    My Ancestors beliefs.

    Hi All!

    I know this is a very 'open' question as such. But would anyone be able to tell me what beliefs my ancestors may have followed? From my crappy searching skills I have come up with 'The indigenous pre-Christian belief system of the Anglo-Saxons was a form of Germanic paganism and therefore closely related to the Old Norse religion, as well as other Germanic pre-Christian cultures.' But from there I get a tad lost.

    Mothers surname
    This old-established and noble surname, widespread in Northern England and Scotland, is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from a barony of the same name in the parish of Chirnside, Berwickshire, and places so called in Northumberland

    The name SURNAME is of Anglo-Saxon origin and came from when a family lived in PLACE or PLACE, places found in Berkshire, Northhumberland, Sumerset and Wiltshire. The place-name is derived from the old English personal name Eadwynn or Eatha, and tun, a suffix denoting enclosure, farm, settlement, or town.

    Fathers surname
    The SURNAME surname was most likely originally created from a place name. There is a Gresley in Derbyshire and Greasley in Nottinghamshire both of which became habitation surnames.


    Any information is welcomed. I Should add that I'm from Australia, so tracing my European ancestry is a tad hard.

    Take Care
    EE

    #2
    Re: My Ancestors beliefs.

    I think your ancestors beliefs were that of the Norse, only with differently translated names and slight cultural differences.

    Their chief god was called Wotan (Norse Odin)
    So try looking up the religion with Wotan in it. Good luck on your path.
    White and Red 'till I'm cold and dead.
    sigpic
    In Days of yore,
    From Britain's shore
    Wolfe the dauntless hero came
    And planted firm Britannia's flag
    On Canada's fair domain.
    Here may it wave,
    Our boast, our pride
    And joined in love together,
    The thistle, shamrock, rose entwined,
    The Maple Leaf Forever.

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      #3
      Re: My Ancestors beliefs.

      Thanks Doc.

      So would I be right in thinking I should just read everything in the Heathen Traditions Sub Forums?

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        #4
        Re: My Ancestors beliefs.

        Yes, the Norse Odin is just Wotan/Woden translated to a different language. So you should get applicable information from the heathen forums, and any heathen, asatru or odinist resources.
        White and Red 'till I'm cold and dead.
        sigpic
        In Days of yore,
        From Britain's shore
        Wolfe the dauntless hero came
        And planted firm Britannia's flag
        On Canada's fair domain.
        Here may it wave,
        Our boast, our pride
        And joined in love together,
        The thistle, shamrock, rose entwined,
        The Maple Leaf Forever.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: My Ancestors beliefs.

          If your interested in something that covers all your bases there is Waincraft too. http://waincraft.org/

          Comment


            #6
            Re: My Ancestors beliefs.

            While I think it's wonderful to trace your roots in search of beliefs (I believe there's a lot of strength in blood-ties) you should also be mindful of whether or not that path actually appeals to you. It's a great place to start and you may very well stay within some form of Norse tradition, but don't be afraid to look outside of it every now and then. I've done a very similar thing in tracing to my celtic roots, but I also live in a country with a rich spiritual history of its own, and I have some norse blood-ties as well. Examining those cultures, while I don't necessarily practice within them, has been very rewarding for me and has taught me a lot that I bring back within my celtic practice.
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              #7
              Re: My Ancestors beliefs.

              My ancestors were Anglo-Saxon/Scottish Gaelic too. I haven't found a lot of worthwhile sources online or at Barnes and Noble about their religious practices before they converted to Christianity. To be honest neither of us should expect to find much of anything anywhere because the Anglo-Saxons didn't start writing things down until after their conversion. In fact it's near impossible to find the names of the gods. From what I've read only a handful of pre-Christian deities are clearly named. We have even less information about the religious practices surrounding those deities. One interesting thing to think about is how a Loki like god is never mentioned.

              My suggestion would be to research Heathenism. All the information you'll find will be based off from the Scandinavian/Icelandic beliefs but in theory they should be similar to the other Germanic tribes. I also suggest staying away from Odinism and other folkish groups. A lot of them tend to be neo Nazis in disguise. One thing I've found really rewarding when it comes to getting closer to my ancestors is learning Old English. Language is the medium that can cross the 1800 years that have passed since they lived.

              Good luck!

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                #8
                Re: My Ancestors beliefs.

                Don't forget there is also a strong "Danish" heritage in NE England. And if you have a noble surname, you might have some Norman-French-Bretagne going back to the conquest. Not too many Anglo-Saxon nobles kept their status, post conquest. And going even further back, before the Anglo-Saxons you might have a bit of old Briton too. Impossible to weed it all out. Usually after every conquest, the victors and defeated intermarried.

                Genetic tests are getting cheaper these days too. They let you trace your male and female lineages.

                But generally speaking there is a strong cultural affinity between between Anglo-Saxons, West Scandinavia, Frisia, North Germany. Wednesday = Woden's Day after all.

                If you haven't, I would recommend reading Beowolf as a start and various saga's thereafter. Look up the Sutton Hoo find. Very interesting. The wolf was an important totem animal to some early Anglo-Saxons perhaps.

                - - - Updated - - -

                Originally posted by wisp View Post
                While I think it's wonderful to trace your roots in search of beliefs (I believe there's a lot of strength in blood-ties) you should also be mindful of whether or not that path actually appeals to you . . . but I also live in a country with a rich spiritual history of its own, and I have some norse blood-ties as well. Examining those cultures, while I don't necessarily practice within them, has been very rewarding for me and has taught me a lot that I bring back within my celtic practice.
                Great advice! I always think it is important to think about the land you live on.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: My Ancestors beliefs.

                  From what little I know:

                  Once the AS immigrated they worshipped a new earth mother, Erd/Erce. This signifies tha they believed that new lands had their own local deities that they could worship within their tradition and customs. As an AS inspired pagan, you could follow suit and worship the earth mother of Australia with AS customs.

                  After immigration they also developed a new god, Saxneat. This signifies that, as a new civilization in new lands, they had need of a new tribal god that was unique to them. Like a spiritual banner or mascot, I suppose. As an AS pagan in Australia you could try to identify what sort of tribal deity has now followed and watched over you as an offshoot.

                  What this means, put together, is that worship and gods were tied to their local environment. You wouldn't need to worship Odin from Scandinavia but find the Australian version of his functions. I live in the desert southwest so my "Odin" has vulture hawks, not ravens. The wildhunt takes place during summer monsoons and not winter blizzards. Its a folk religion-- its based on what the living spiritual world that you can observe and are influenced by in your region.

                  Theodism is, iirc, the more English sect of heathenry and Asatru so that might be something you look into.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: My Ancestors beliefs.

                    Originally posted by Wednesday View Post
                    From what little I know:

                    Once the AS immigrated they worshipped a new earth mother, Erd/Erce. This signifies tha they believed that new lands had their own local deities that they could worship within their tradition and customs. As an AS inspired pagan, you could follow suit and worship the earth mother of Australia with AS customs.

                    After immigration they also developed a new god, Saxneat. This signifies that, as a new civilization in new lands, they had need of a new tribal god that was unique to them. Like a spiritual banner or mascot, I suppose. As an AS pagan in Australia you could try to identify what sort of tribal deity has now followed and watched over you as an offshoot.

                    What this means, put together, is that worship and gods were tied to their local environment. You wouldn't need to worship Odin from Scandinavia but find the Australian version of his functions. I live in the desert southwest so my "Odin" has vulture hawks, not ravens. The wildhunt takes place during summer monsoons and not winter blizzards. Its a folk religion-- its based on what the living spiritual world that you can observe and are influenced by in your region.

                    Theodism is, iirc, the more English sect of heathenry and Asatru so that might be something you look into.
                    I know I'm not the OP here, but thank you for such an interesting post. I've been considering looking into Heathenry myself lately and one of the things I've been thinking about is how I can actually follow a European religion that seems to me so tied to the land (I prefer the Vanir) in the US. It had never occured to me that you could even adapt deities to the land that you're living on.

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                      #11
                      Re: My Ancestors beliefs.

                      Oh absolutely. Frau Perchta/Berchta/Holle/Hulda/Frigga are all similarly functioning goddesses but specific to a people of a region. There's a map online somewhere that shows the boundary lines of this. So, I worship a SW specific version of Perchta.

                      Shaw has a book out, "Eostre: Pagan Goddess of the Early Germanic World" where he discusses the goddesses names representing tribes and not universal deity. Each tribe had a unique representation of these female spirits that was specific to them and their region.

                      There's also the matron cults of Germany. Some of these votive stones are to "women who live on the Rhine", or "women who live beyond the wood". Goddess mothers of specific localities.

                      Regnator Omnium Deus (roman translation) was a god of the Suevi who lived in a particular grove.

                      Heathenry isn't really a religion. Its the relationship a person/family/community has with the actual living world *around* them and the customs they have for celebrating and maintaining that relationship. So naturally my customs here are different than those in Sweden, but I still see my land and customs through a heathen lens. Just as the AS did when they immigrated.

                      I have my own regnator, matrons, and local gods and goddess. And the Greater Gods, like Thor and Odin are different relationships than what someone in Holland would have with them.

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                        #12
                        Re: My Ancestors beliefs.

                        Thank you so much for expounding your ideas a bit more. I can't believe how much sense that makes. It's almost like I've been carrying around this idea from my (Christian) childhood that the deity that you read about in a book has to be the exact same one that you carry with you wherever you go and that there is no change that can be made. (I mean, I know that the idea of God and especially of Jesus in Christianity has changed throughout history, but according to what I was taught, it has never changed and should never change.) I think this explains why I've been having trouble connecting emotionally and mentally with some deities. It's one thing to read about them in a book, but who I worship today under whatever name shouldn't necessarily be the exact same as they were 1,000+ years ago in a different country, or even today in a different country.

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                          #13
                          Re: My Ancestors beliefs.

                          . It's one thing to read about them in a book, but who I worship today under whatever name shouldn't necessarily be the exact same as they were 1,000+ years ago in a different country, or even today in a different country.
                          Right!

                          The name "Wotan" isn't a name like we think of today with "Joseph" or "Mary". Wotan meant literally what it was "Fury, divine inspiration". Same with Thor which literally means Thunderer. These weren't *people * names, they were experiences and reality. I have Thor (thunder) here, I have Wotan (divine inspiration) here. If religion is the structure of belief and spirituality is the personal connection to that belief then heathenry doesn't have an orthodoxy and is left with the orthopraxy-- the expression and customs of the spiritual connection with the world around it. *My* Wotan is my spiritual and physical experience of that being here not what a structure from Germany tells me it is. And that's how it was with the AS, the Norse and the Germanic.

                          I'll c&p something I wrote elsewhere becaus its relevant: I was reading The One-Eyed Man Against Rome, in which Prof. Africa speaks of euhemerism, comparing the legends of Odin and the history of Hannibal. He admits that Odin existed before Hannibal but believes the two were merged in stories. To me, Odin and Hannibal represent the same thing-- beings that encapsulate the meaning of the real death shaman (a dark and magnificent power) through story. Something that our minds can latch onto so that we can create idols that capture the essence. The idols evolve, but the power/reginn/ god does not.

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                            #14
                            Re: My Ancestors beliefs.

                            Powerful post Wednesday

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                              #15
                              Re: My Ancestors beliefs.

                              Thanks guys. I wasn’texpecting to get so many replies.
                              I love trying tofind out as much information about my ancestors as possible, even though I’mhopeless at it. I’ve previously read a little about the Northern Traditions inPagan Paths by Pete Jennings. Spiritually I don’t think there’s a match. Fromwhat I’ve read most of the traditions seem to be very warrior like, which isthe complete opposite of me.
                              Still it will giveme something to think about and research for my family roots.

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