Norse Revival <UN> 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 <UN> Norse Revival Transformations of Germanic Neopaganism By Stefanie von Schnurbein LEIDEN | BOSTON <UN> 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 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1877-2129 isbn 978-90-04-29435-6 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-30951-7 (e-book) Copyright 2016 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. <UN> 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 <UN> 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 <UN> 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 <UN> 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. <UN> 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 <UN> 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 <UN>