Abstract
Written from a Heathen perspective, this chapter presents first steps toward interfaith dialogue between Ásatrú and Hindu traditions – steps inspired by a comparative reading of prophetic material from the Old Norse poem Völuspá (“Prophecy of the Seeress”) and the Sanskrit Mahābhārata (“Great Epic of the Bhārata Dynasty”). The term Heathen is commonly used as a self-identifier by practitioners of Ásatrú, a new religious movement that revives, reconstructs, and reimagines Norse polytheism as a living religion in a modern context. Seigfried’s discussion of his “holy envy” of the rich and detailed literary and philosophical traditions of Hinduism leads to a close reading of the two texts, examination of analogues in other religions, reflection on a scholarly turn to non-Abrahamic traditions, and discussion of some implications for interfaith action.
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Notes
- 1.
Heathen (with initial capital) specifically refers to Germanic polytheism and should not be understood to mean heathen (without initial capital) in the generic sense of “non-Abrahamic.”
- 2.
Lindow, Norse Mythology, 319.
- 3.
Berg, “Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson,” 269.
- 4.
Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, email communication.
- 5.
Seigfried, “Worldwide Heathen Census.”
- 6.
Not, as stated earlier, by the racial connections asserted in older scholarship.
- 7.
For a discussion of this complex theological concept, see my “Wyrd Will Weave Us Together.”
- 8.
Lindow, Norse Mythology, 318.
- 9.
Abrams, Myths of the Pagan North, 166–7.
- 10.
Dronke, Poetic Edda, Volume II, 94.
- 11.
Pétur Pétursson, “Völuspá and the Tree of Life,” 313.
- 12.
Simek, Dictionary of Northern Mythology, 259.
- 13.
Seigfried, “Blond Thor.”
- 14.
Mahābhārata (Smith), xv.
- 15.
Ibid., 22.
- 16.
Poetic Edda (Larrington), 85.
- 17.
From this point on, all citations to the two texts are made inline; Mahābhārata citations give the page number in Māhabhārata, Book Six: Bhīṣma, Volume One, and Völuspá citations give the verse number in Larrington’s Poetic Edda translation.
- 18.
The Æsir are the major tribe of Norse gods.
- 19.
1 Corinthians 15:52.
- 20.
See, for example, Poetic Edda (Larrington), n284.
- 21.
Snorri Sturluson, Edda, 33.
- 22.
Ibid., 50.
- 23.
Mahābhārata (Buitenen), 146.
- 24.
Rãmāyaṇa, 63.
- 25.
Poetic Edda, 54.
- 26.
Snorri Sturluson, Edda, 53.
- 27.
Ibid., 54.
- 28.
Ibid.
- 29.
Poetic Edda, 58.
- 30.
Strabo, Geography, 245 (4.4.4).
- 31.
Davidson wrote this before the practice of capitalizing Heathen to refer to Germanic paganism began.
- 32.
Davidson, Gods and Heroes, 209–10.
- 33.
All information on Zöhre Ana and nefesler in the following section is from Dole, Healing Secular Life, 98–110.
- 34.
Lindow, Norse Mythology, 50.
- 35.
Dole, Healing Secular Life, 107.
- 36.
All information on itako and kuchiyose in the following section is from Ivy, Discourses of the Vanishing, 169–191.
- 37.
Sagas of Icelanders, 659n.
- 38.
Ivy, Discourses of the Vanishing, 178.
- 39.
Pétur Pétursson, “Völuspá and the Tree of Life,” 313.
- 40.
Ivy, Discourses of the Vanishing, 179.
- 41.
Ernest Gellner quoted in Fabian, Time and the Other, 39.
- 42.
Ricoeur, Symbolism of Evil, 354.
- 43.
Lincoln, Gods and Demons, 135.
- 44.
Seigfried, “Interview with Jóhanna G. Harðardóttir,” Part Four.
- 45.
Seigfried, “Do You Believe in Interfaith?”
- 46.
Doniger, On Hinduism, 139.
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Seigfried, K.E.H. (2018). Ásatrú and Hindu: From Prophecy to Dialogue. In: Gustafson, H. (eds) Learning from Other Religious Traditions. Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76108-4_5
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