Reading the Sources

Why read the sources yourself

A great deal of what is said about Heathenry, online and in print, is somebody's summary of somebody else's summary. The only cure is to go back to the texts.

They are fewer and shorter than you might expect, and most are a pleasure to read. This guide lists the main ones in a sensible order and notes what each has to say about women, goddesses, and female powers.

Begin here

• The Prose EddaWritten by the Icelander Snorri Sturluson around 1220. Its first part, the Beguiling of Gylfi, tells the myths in order and includes the fullest list of the goddesses. Snorri was a Christian writing for poets, and sometimes tidies or explains away what he reports.
• The Poetic EddaAnonymous poems preserved chiefly in a manuscript of about 1270, many of them much older. Read first: Voluspa (the seeress's prophecy), Havamal (counsel on conduct), Grimnismal (the halls of the gods, including Freyja's), Thrymskvida (Freyja refuses a giant), Lokasenna (the goddesses answer Loki), Sigrdrifumal (a Valkyrie teaches a hero), and Hyndluljod (Freyja and her devotee).

The sagas

The Icelandic sagas were written in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries about events of the ninth to eleventh. They are literature, not reportage, but they are our richest source for how Norse women were imagined to live, speak, and act.

• The Saga of Erik the RedShort, and essential. Contains the detailed account of the seeress Thorbjorg, and the travels of Gudrid.
• The Saga of the People of LaxardalThe saga most concerned with women. It opens with Aud the Deep-Minded and centers on Gudrun, one of the great characters of medieval literature.
• Njal's SagaThe longest and greatest of the family sagas. Hallgerd, Bergthora, and Hildigunn drive much of its action. Includes the Valkyries' weaving song and the verses of the heathen poet Steinunn.
• Egil's SagaFor Thorgerd, who expects to sup with Freyja, and for a vivid account of a feast held for the Disir.
• The Saga of the VolsungsThe legends of Sigurd, Brynhild, and Gudrun in prose.
• The Saga of the YnglingsThe opening of Snorri's history of the Norwegian kings. Contains his account of seidr, of Freyja as priestess, and of the three great sacrifices of the year.
• The Book of SettlementsA record of the first settlers of Iceland, including women who claimed land in their own right and women who held the title of priestess.

Roman and Greek writers

• Tacitus, GermaniaAbout 98 CE. Brief and indispensable. Chapter 8 on the holiness of women and the seeresses; chapters 18 to 20 on marriage; chapter 40 on the goddess Nerthus.
• Tacitus, Histories, books 4 and 5For the story of the seeress Veleda during the Batavian revolt.
• Strabo, Geography, book 7For the priestesses of the Cimbri.

English sources

• Bede, The Reckoning of Time, chapter 15A single page, written in 725, on the months of the heathen English. Our only source for Eostre, Hretha, and the Night of the Mothers.
• BeowulfFor the hall, the symbel, and the queen Wealhtheow as cup-bearer and counselor.
• The Old English charmsEspecially the Nine Herbs Charm, and the field blessing that calls on "Erce, mother of earth."

Continental sources

• The Merseburg CharmsTwo short spells in Old High German, from a tenth-century manuscript. The first describes the Idisi; the second names the goddesses Frija, Volla, Sunna, and Sinthgunt.
• The Origin of the Lombard PeopleA seventh-century text that preserves the legend of Gambara, Frea, and the naming of the Long-beards.
• Jordanes, The Origin and Deeds of the GothsSixth century. Thin on religion, but our main narrative source for the eastern Germanic peoples.

Other witnesses

• Saxo Grammaticus, The Deeds of the DanesAbout 1200. A churchman's history, full of legend, including many shield-maidens of whom he disapproves.
• Ibn Fadlan's account of the RusAn eyewitness report by an Arab envoy in 922. Includes a harrowing description of a chieftain's funeral.
• The medieval Icelandic and Norwegian law codesFor marriage, divorce, property, and what the Church forbade.
• Runic inscriptionsThe only texts in which Viking Age people speak for themselves. Many memorial stones were raised by women.

Choosing a translation

• Prefer recent translations by specialists. Scholarship has moved on a great deal in the past fifty years.
• Look for notes and an introduction. You want a translator who tells you where the text is uncertain.
• Be wary of very old verse translations. Many nineteenth-century versions are free to read, but they are often loose, archaic, and shaped by the assumptions of their day, not least about women.
• Read two. For any poem that matters to you, compare translations. Where they disagree, the original is difficult.

Judging modern books and websites

When you move on to modern writing about Heathenry, ask a few questions of every author.

• Do they tell you which source a claim comes from?
• Do they separate evidence from their own interpretation and from modern practice?
• Do they admit what is not known?
• How do they write about women, and about people of other backgrounds?
• Are they trying to teach you, or to recruit you?

An author who passes those tests is worth your time, whatever their tradition. For company in your reading, join one of our Lore Circles.