h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just read your article on Asatru.

I found it very interesting and informative.

Do you know anything about the god Seaxnet? He was supposedly the founder the East Saxon royal dynasty in Essex and was also worshipped amongst the Old Saxons (those who remained in Germany) up to the 10th century. This makes the East Saxons unique amongst all the other Anglo-Saxon dynasties of England who all traced their ancestry to Woden. Seaxnet seems to have been the Saxon equivalent to Odin/Woden.

Also Eostre - (modern Easter) who may have been either the Saxon Goddess of Fertility or even the original Mother Goddess (no one is too sure).

Do either of the above deities figure in modern Asatru?

Wulfric

Hi!

Sorry, I hadn't actually checked my personal page for new conversations - for some reason, I tend to forget to scroll down.

Anyway, in modern Asatru, especially in America, there's less emphasis on the Saxon than on the Scandinavian/Icelandic, purely because there's less written about the Saxon pre-Christian worship. I know that there are organisations, worship groups and so on as a sub-set of Asatru who focus on the Saxons, and others who consider themselves to be non-Asatru but related.

In the end, there's a lot written about post-Christian Saxon society, and much written about their beliefs from a Christian point of view, but not a lot of indepth Saxon pre-Christian lit, as they were mainly pre-literate people.

However, while Saexnet/Saexnot isn't really much of a figure at all in most Asatru (to my knowledge), Eostre does get some attention. Though she's mentioned only once (by the Venemous Bede, I believe) in all the literature, the mere fact that the celebration of Easter is named after her pretty much guarantees a vernal equinox blot to her in many kindreds.

All in all, there's no real dogma or doctrine in Asatru, and though there are generally agreed upon ideas, the focus seems to be mainly on Scandinavian/Icelandic deities because we have more information about them.