Neo-Heathen Practice
History and Organizations
Modern Ásatrú was formally established in 1972 in Iceland, when Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson and a group of like-minded individuals registered Ásatrúarfélagið as an officially recognised religious organisation with the Icelandic state. Beinteinsson, a farmer and poet, was deeply versed in the Icelandic poetic tradition and performed galdrar and Eddic poetry in an archaic style. The Icelandic organisation has since grown and consecrated a temple in Reykjavik, the first temple to the gods in the Nordic region in more than a thousand years.
In Scandinavia, the movement took the form of Forn Sed, a term emphasising custom and practice rather than belief in a Christian sense. Swedish Samfundet Forn Sed Sverige and Norwegian Åsatrufelaget Bifrost are among the organisations working to reconstruct and practise Old Norse religion with grounding in the source texts. These organisations often emphasise a strong connection to Nordic cultural heritage while generally welcoming participants regardless of ethnic background.
In North America, The Troth was founded in 1987 as an umbrella organisation for inclusive heathen practice. The organisation publishes the journal "Idunna" and conducts educational work grounded in scholarly source research. Alongside it exist numerous local groups, known as kindreds, with varying theological profiles. American Ásatrú displays a broad diversity, from strictly reconstructionist groups striving for historical precision to more freely interpretive communities that prioritise personal spiritual experience.
Relationship to Scholarship
The relationship between neo-heathen practice and academic history of religions is complex and multifaceted. Many practitioners are well-versed in the scholarly literature and actively cite works by researchers such as Hilda Ellis Davidson, John Lindow, and Rudolf Simek. Reconstructionist-oriented groups often place great emphasis on the reliability of the source texts and engage with sophistication on questions of source criticism and historical authenticity.
On the other side, academics sometimes approach heathen practitioners with reservations. A central difficulty is that the surviving sources are fragmentary, late, and marked by Christian influence, which means any reconstruction attempt carries inherent uncertainty. Researchers tend to emphasise that what we know of Old Norse religion constitutes a selection mediated by medieval writers with their own purposes. Practitioners seeking a unified theology or a complete ritual system risk filling the gaps with modern assumptions.
A productive dialogue also exists. Journals such as "Heathen Women" and "Hex" bring academic analysis together with practitioner perspectives. Conferences such as the Midwinter Moot in Britain offer forums where scholars and practitioners meet. Several prominent researchers in the field, among them Stefanie von Schnurbein and Kathryn Rountree, have studied neo-heathen movements with ethnographic methods and contributed to a more nuanced understanding of the phenomenon.