Forn Sed – The Fennoscandic Perspective

Perhaps one thing i can observe in Scandinavian Forn Sed (exept for the temporal, non emphasis on the “Viking Age”) is a perspective that is more Fennoscandic.

To a Swede it is only natural that both Finnish and Sámi influences are very present in our language and culture since long back.

(Far from complete) List of reconstructionist polytheistic pagan religions

I reblog this because i want to add a few recon and / or etnic religions. 

Hope all links work.

Polytheistic reconstructionism (Reconstructionism) is an approach to Neopaganism first emerging in the late 1960s to early 1970s, and gathering momentum in the 1990s to 2000s. Reconstructionism attempts to re-establish historical polytheistic religions in the modern world, in contrast with syncreticmovements like Wicca, and “channeled” movements like Germanic mysticismor Theosophy.

Many practitioners of folk religions live outside of the original cultures and territories from which those historical religions arose, and reconstructonists consequently face the problem of understanding, and then implementing, the worldview of pre-modern rural societies in a modern, possibly urban environment.

1.

1. There is no attempt to recreate a combined pan-European paganism.
2. Researchers attempt to stay within research guidelines developed over the course of the past century for handling documentation generated in the time periods that they are studying.
3. A multi-disciplinary approach is utilized capitalizing on results from various fields as historical literary research, anthropology, religious history, political history, archeology, forensic anthropology, historical sociology, etc. with an overt attempt to avoid pseudo-sciences.
4. There are serious attempts to recreate culture, politics, science and art of the period in order to better understand the environment within which the religious beliefs were practiced

Celtic shrine

Asatru – Norse  (Please keep in mind that some practices of Asatru differ between Scandinavia and America, partly since the custom never really left here butb stayed in traditions, folklore, placenames and so on. The actual FAITH is the same though).

http://www.asatru.ca/?page_id=3

Hellenismos – Greek

http://hellenismos.us/b/

Religio Romana – Roman

http://www.novaroma.org/religio_romana/

Anglo – Saxon Heathenry – Anglo – Saxon

http://www.englatheod.org/anglosaxon.htm

Celtic Revivalism – Celtic

http://redbranchsociety.wikidot.com/celtic-revivalism

Natib Qadish – Caanaanite

http://canaanitepath.com/introduction.htm

Romuva – Lithuanian

http://www.romuva.lt/en.html

Finnish Paganism – Finland

http://www.taivaannaula.org/finnish_paganism.php

Estonian Paganism – Estonia

http://mysticwicks.com/showthread.php?t=162063

Kemeticism – Egyptian

http://www.inkemetic.org/Library/kemeticism.htm

Slavic Paganism

http://www.circe-argent.com/slavic_paganism.htm

 Chimariy Yüla ( Mari Traditional Religion- Finnic, Russia )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari_Traditional_Religion#Gods

Vattisen Yaly ( Chuvas Religion-Turcic, Russia )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vattisen_Yaly

Noaidevuohta (Sami-Norway,Sweden, Finland, Russia )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_religion

Romuva

These are only a few (the biggest) reconstructive religions out there, and dont forget that using terms like “Germanic, Celtic” or “Slavic” are simplifications.

There whyere several tribes of each of these larger ethnic groups and  time and geography would mean variations. Even within what is now Sweden there where differences in cult.

The biggest reconstructive polytheistic religion last i checked was Asatru.

Hellenists

There are about a 100 000 Hellenists in Greece, a country that only recently gained religious freedom (ie it was forbidden to be a Hellenist) and a whole lot in the US

Kylfings

The Kylfings (Old Norse Kylfingar; Finnic Kylfingid; Hungarian Kölpények; Old East Slavic Колбяги, Kolbiagi; Byzantine Greek Κουλπίγγοι,Koulpingoi; Arabic al-Kilabiyya) were a people of uncertain origin active in Northern Europe during the Viking Age, roughly from the late ninth century to the early twelfth century. They could be found in areas of Lapland, Russia, and the Byzantine Empire that were frequented byScandinavian traders, raiders and mercenaries. Scholars differ on whether the Kylfings were ethnically Finnic or Norse. Also disputed is their geographic origin, with Denmark, Sweden and the Eastern Baltic all put forward as candidates Whether the name Kylfing denotes a particular tribal, socio-political, or economic grouping is also a matter of much debate.

The Norslunda Runestone, bearing runic inscription U 419, which mentions the personal name Kylfingr

The eastern shore of the Gulf of Bothnia, proposed by proponents of a Finnic origin for the Kylfings as that group’s homeland

Estonians have also been identified as Kylfings.

Scandinavians

Barði Guðmundsson identified the Kylfings as an East Scandinavian, possibly Swedish, tribe that infiltrated northern Norway during the late ninth century. Guðmundsson connects the Kylfings with the Germanic Heruli who were active throughout northern Europe and in Italy during the fifth and sixth centuries. According to Guðmundsson, many of these Kylfings may ultimately have emigrated to Iceland during the ninth and tenth centuries.Other scholars have assigned a Danish origin to this tribe.

Some scholars have considered the Kylfings of Egil’s Saga to be a “conquering Germanic people”, or the Swedish king’s tax collectors. Holm (1992) considers such suggestions to be anachronistic due to the fact that the Swedish kings lacked any interest in northern Fenno-Scandia during the ninth and tenth centuries, and not even the later law of Hälsingland mentions any Swedish settlement north of Bygdeå in southern Västerbotten.

Pritsak identified the Kylfings as a “professional trading and mercenary organization” that organized expeditions northward, into the Saami lands, as distinct from other Varangian and viking groups whose expeditions focussed on lands to the west and east of Scandinavia. This interpretation is supported by such historians as Stender-Petersen.

A number of runestones in Sweden contain the personal name Kylfingr, which may or may not be connected to the Kylfings as a group.