Along with centering the sacredness of the cycle of nature and our planet, one facet of the belief system of some Pagans is a connection to the pre-Christian beliefs of various cultures. Some of that connection is simply a fascination with history and the different ways people have been in relationship with each other and the divine. However, sometimes the motivation for this form of religious study is flat-out mystical. What do you do if you have a transcendental experience about a deity that is not part of any of the contemporary religious practices you know of? The answer for most of us is to hit the books.
My own fascination is with the beliefs and cultures of pre-Christian Scandinavia. I don’t have a logical reason for this connection. I’ve done one of those genetic tests and my bloodline is almost entirely Scottish. But here I remain, poring over the books, research papers, and archeological finds relating to Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, and other parts of Germanic Europe. I teach classes and lead ceremonies based on what we know of this part of the world, a form of Paganism sometimes called “revivalism.” I describe myself as a Heathen – a type of Pagan inspired and informed by ancient Scandinavian beliefs and cultures.
One of the things in my research that struck me as so different from the culture I live in is the pre-Christian Scandinavian view of what makes a good leader. Generosity is one of the main traits described in the written sources. A leader was viewed as effective if everyone they governed were thriving from the quality of the harvest to the health of the farmers and tradesfolk to the survival rates of children to the success of raiding and trading expeditions. When an entire settlement flourished, the leadership was considered good. Good leaders are routinely described as giving gifts to their people in many forms: lavish feasts and celebrations, livestock, gold arm-rings and other jewelry, casks of ale and mead, and more. The celebration of Yule, arguably the biggest holiday in the pre-Christian Scandinavian world, was essentially a multi-day feast offered by the ruler in a settlement that ran until all the ale had been consumed.
It’s fascinating to look at that culture from the perspective of the one I was raised in. Here in the United States, the widespread view is that a successful person is measured by the amount of wealth they’ve managed to accumulate. The pre-Christian Scandinavians didn’t really have a concept of sin that we know of, but hoarding wealth might come close. It appears that my ancient kin of faith had some very mixed feelings about wealth – it was desired but also viewed as dangerous, and best managed by sharing abundance with others. The culture of the time was rooted in this generosity – the gifting of resources was how those in leadership maintained their position.
In her book “Long Branches: Runes of the Younger Futhark,” scholar Ann Gróa Sheffield writes:
“[Wealth] was hard to win and easy to lose. It represented power and honor, yet to maintain power and honor it had to be given away. It was of enormous value, as important as one’s own kin, yet it was also to be disdained; skalds routinely praised the generosity of princes by calling them “ring-breaker,” “enemy of gold,” and similar kennings.”
A kenning is a way of referring to a person, place, thing, or idea without using the proper name. Kennings are used in skaldic poetry, some of the surviving written sources that allow us to see some of how this part of the ancient world worked. The kennings for wealth and money, like those for good leaders, are very telling. Money and wealth were called:
“Strife of kinsmen”
“Warriors’ dispute”
“Path of the serpent”
The image of a dragon, a giant serpent, curled up on a pile of gold comes to us from these sources – the link between the two only appears in Germanic stories and myths. This archetype remains in contemporary storytelling to this day.
This philosophy of generosity – the sharing of resources – impacted every layer of society in the ancient Scandinavian world. Hospitality was another way generosity manifested. The words “host” and “guest” originate from a single Proto Indo European root word: ghosti. It roughly translates to “someone with whom one has reciprocal duties of hospitality.”
Hospitality was not simply social niceties. It was providing shelter and food when a storm brought an unexpected traveler to your door. Remember that at this point in history in northern latitudes, becoming stranded in a winter storm could mean death. Hospitality also meant pitching in – to help with the harvest, to put out a fire, or to share stored food during a famine. Hospitality was a way of life. Contemporary Heathen practice describes this hospitality as “the gifting cycle.” It is the idea that a gift – of shelter, help, food, or anything else – should be met with an equivalent gift. It is this cycle – the gifting back and forth between two people or groups that forms very strong bonds. It’s also important to understand that gifting was and remains matched with ability and resources. This form of generosity isn’t about money. At its core, it’s about help, and about helping in the way that we can.
The United States is a culture with Germanic roots in language and customs. If we look to history, the very existence of billionaires is evidence of a large-scale moral and ethical failing in our culture. That’s a hard truth to live with, but we also know for a fact that we haven’t always been like this. There is such a strong historical precedent for shifting our ideas about what success means, what good leadership looks like, and what it is to be a contributing part of a community.
We can embrace the good parts of our Germanic cultural heritage by striving to be generous and hospitable. We can begin to shift our mindset about how we assess virtue. We can build a good gifting cycle with our friends and communities, and manage the “strife of kinsmen” by allowing abundance to flow through us rather than piling it into a dragon’s hoard.
This sermon was offered at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Frederick on Sunday, March 9th, 2025.
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