A Synopsis of Theodism

About the Heathen Rebirth

It is now common for most Heathens to agree that sometime during the early 1970s there developed a more powerful urge among individuals to find out more about their native ancestral Gods. Many say that the Gods themselves stirred the winds of change. The Germanic heritage found a common ground under the title "Asatru" in the United States. This is a loose organization of individuals around the country that have devoted themselves primarily to the more religious side of Heathenry. Asatru originally took its form from the Icelandic tradition of Heathenry because that tradition contains the most complete lore available and seemed to best track the American spirit.

The Christians had eradicated most of the other evidence of heathen traditions long before and what remained seemed a remnant of scattered ideas more than a body of lore. While Asatru was growing, another Heathen tradition developed in relative isolation from them, that of Anglo-Saxon Þéodism ("Theod" means "people, nation, or Theod"). Much of the ancient Anglo-Saxon material was destroyed, but what was left was generally older than the Icelandic corpus. In addition, modern archaeology, ethno-history, and comparative studies have provided a means to legitimately fill in the missing components of a far-earlier religious reconstruction, within a Germanic paradigm- that is the dynamic in which Theodism was begotten. The social structure that the majority of Asatru follows is a loose interpretation of Iceland, as a “democracy”. While such a definition is actually inaccurate, for Iceland was far more oligarchical and class conscious then such modern models suggest, it was a nation full of Heathen refugees from mainland civil and religious wars. It was composed of the folk who were outlawed when their kings and lords turned Christian, and in that vein it was the last outpost of Heathenry. At best, however, it was an attempt to keep the elder ways late in the hour of the demise of Heathenry, and long after most of the damage was done.

The oldest Germanic traditions are based on an aristocratic hierarchy, often heterarchical and partially a meritocracy, with kin-bonds and oaths of loyalty amongst all individuals, on up to a sacral king or chieftain. This, “sacral-leader and warband” model can be found through all of Germanic history; from its ancestry in Indo-European roots around 2,500 b.c.e, through the first migrations in the bronze age, unto the time of Tacitus, and through the Great Migrations, the Vikings, and theirs descendant civilizations post-conversion, such as in England at the Battle of Maldon in the eleventh century c.e.. From the Alps in the South, to Norway in the North, Russia in the East, and England in the West, the Germanic model of sacral leadership, and othal relations spans our folk’s entire tribal history. It is that model that the Theodish community has clung to as they work to restore the glory of our Gods, and the ways of our Folk. Today, the Theodish community is not simply the brave Anglo-Saxon reconstructionists we first were, it is now composed of many of our elder tribes- Mercians, Danes, Jutes, Alemann, Angles, Saxons, Frisians, Swedes, and yes, even Normans.

About Theodism

Of late, the Theodish community has experienced a growth and vitality that can only be considered Godssprung. Once again many of the tribes which were spawned from the first Theodish tree are in touch with each other and are redeveloping ties. Normandy, Frisia, and Wednesbury have reforged friendships and communication in an effort to work together in the next step in Theodism’s evolution.

The founding father of the Theodish rebirth, Garman Lord, Cyning of the Winland Rice, initially founded an Anglo Saxon realm. He set upon re-building the institution of sacral kingship, the web of oaths, and tether of thew. As a result of his efforts, today we have the emergence of many theods and in the spring of Greater Theodism (where we may even find a Vinnish Theod or two). While Gering Theod and the Winland Rice continue today, there are also many sovereign and independent theods throughout, lead by other lords, some of whom were once part of Winland, some who were not.

It is a time of great growth and diversity of thew. Whereas once Theodism’s folk stood in the tens, we are now growing into hundreds. Where once there were individual Theodsmen, now there are Rooftrees/families and cynns/clans, in thew within their respective tribes… and children… many Heathen children. It is indeed a time of frith and fecundity.

Two of the Theodish tribes at the forefront of developing the community were the Anglosaxon Ealdriht and the Normannii Thiud. Together they formed a Vinfengi to expand the interaction of their theods. By sharing pan-theodish guilds and accepting in common an “Affirmation of Thew” they began a process to shape the weal of the Folk by helping re-accustom today’s Heathen to traditional thews, which Theodism cleaves to. To that end, a pan-theodish e-list was established, on which the leadership of the various Theodish Aetts were invited to discuss the future of our religion in the round. Many answered the call- and now Anglia and Mercia, as inheritors of that Vinfengi work with Normandy in expanding the reach of theodism. We are growing, breeding, and becoming.

We are a tribal folk, reviving a cultural mindset in which to practice our faith of our eldern;

We hold Right Good Will and Freedom of Conscience as matters of necessity for
all Heathen;

We ward Sacral Kingscip as the gift of the Gods and expression of Luck, Might, and Main;

We develop a Web of Thew and Web of Oaths to bind the community high and low;

We struggle to build worth, that something will remain after we are gone, for kith and kin;

We hold to the three Wyns as the measure of a man: Wisdom, Generosity, and Honor;

We submit to Thing as the measure of Recht and abide its deemings

About Thews and Worth

All men, even the highest-born noblemen, are born worthless, for even the great Gods-gift of nobility is not purely a birthright. Rather, nobility is something that is defined by one’s actions. In elder times the lord who forgot this truth was not long for Midgard and the lowest commoner could attain renown and a Þaneship through realizing this sooth. The maxim “you are what you make of yourself” is the cornerstone of our elder’s thinking, and to Theodism, and more specifically thralldom, it is the key to understanding Wyrd. While everyone has an innate potential worth, not everyone will achieve a state of worthiness. You must be ever mindful, the Elder Heathen did not spend his life wondering what he should do, he simply went about doing, and in so doing, forged his Wyrd. What does worthlessness then mean? It means, the unaccomplished, untested, or in some cases, the unsuccessful man… ideally it is your state in youth, or at least in the early days of your journey into Heathenry.

Wyrd, a word loaded with modern connotations and meaning… what does it truly say? Wyrd is that which is spun together from all our deeds… it is that which is becoming, because it is rooted in the past and looks to the future with the direction and weight the past bears upon it. So then, best said, the future is what we make of it, because we have been making it all along. Perhaps no greater shift in one’s worldview can occur than to realize for once and for all just how inexorably linked to each other’s lives we are in the great scheme of things, and how much our past has shaped us. In the here and now we are creatures defined and dependant on an identity forged by all our past experiences and the ties of obligations that social, familial, and a host of other dynamic relations brings to our lives. To, our forbearers, this was of course, quite natural… they saw these ties and realized that we had best pull together, thus our inclination to be a “folk”. Certainly the Germanic warrior was a rugged and independent man? Or so goes the misguided view of modern pop-occultnik Heathen. Nary a single one understands the most important part of our religious weltesichten, namely that of thew. Whereas contemporary society is a leveled, individualized community regulated by codified law, Theodish Belief is a heirarchized interdependent lawless society regulated by troth and thew.

Thew is the unspoken law that binds our society together; it is composed of much the same elements as those that make up Glepnir, and has much in common with Glepnir in the strength of its binding. We would venture an answer to the question by saying that thew is a sort of fitting-in in the sense of fulfilling a needed function of one's Theod, or society. It's a self-less functioning, which is not really found in the American society in that people do things for themselves in American society, whereas thew seems to imply some greater, or extrinsic need and motivation, it is self-less action and yet self affirming.
The critical thing about thew is that it unspoken yet well understood by a member of a Theod. What makes thew so different from law, and so hard for modern people to get used to, is that in principle people may or may not keep the laws, but everyone always keeps thew, instinctively, and rarely breaks it. Thew is the special custom that a certain clique of people come to live by, through interaction over time, a bit like back in high school or college, perhaps, through a certain unspoken mutual consensus. It takes a lawyer to tell you what the law is, but any peer can always tell you what the thew is, because unlike law, thew is always taken personally. Not knowing the thew just means you're not inside the community. It doesn't have any loopholes, and needs little enforcement, and when you break it, unlike law, nobody ever thinks you're pretty clever and got away with something, they just think you don't know how to act; you can even lose all your friends and end up outcast from the group or clique.

For anyone in such a community as ours, there are two thewful ways of knowing the Gods. There is the personal relationship that each man has with the Gods on his own and under his own rooftree, which is a matter of personal conscience. Then there is the communal relationship that all have together expressed through a King, which is largely a matter of faith. The folk fulfill their part in that by means of selecting some one of their number whom they hope is qualified, and crowning him, to be their sacral interface with godhead as a community. Just as in the days of our forebearers, Theodism advocates restoration of tribal kingship. The Winland Ríce (Vinland Kingdom) of Þéodish Belief has a King, Garman Lord. A sacral King is chosen by a Witan, from amongst candidates whose family trees are known to go back to Woden, Tiw, or Frey. This Witan is composed of the wisest members of the community, and they are charged with protecting the Theod’s luck.

An Atheling or King, is considered the “first lord” amongst the realm’s peers [nobility]. Garman Lord, who holds the position of King in Winlandes Realm, was “raised on a shield” [presented as king by his folk] in 1995. He was the Atheling [Othal Lord] of an Anglosaxe Theod (Anglo Saxon sprung Theod) for many years before that. His coordinate was Ealdoraed Lord, of Moody Hill Thiud. Together they founded the first Theodish community in Watertown New York in 1976. In the Modern Heathen history there been three such Athelings, other than Ealdoraed and Garman Lord (who was finally set upon a shield and made King in 1995 in the Winland Rice); Gerd Hera Groenwald of Frisia, Swain Hlaford Wodening of Mercia, and Dan Heras O’Halloran of Normandy.

Normandy and Frisia are non-Anglo Saxon Thuids, Mercia and Anglia, Anglosaxon, yet each has set out from the Winland Realm, and now is a Reik/Rice/Realm unto themselves. There are other divisions within Theodism as well. A shire is a local community of Theodsmen presided over by a Heathen of the arrung of Lord, sometimes called a Mark, Ward, Hundred, Mot, or Mathel. In this sense Frisia and Normandy were also once Shires of the Winland Realm as well.

As can be seen, Theodism is not so much a cult of belief as it is a community of belief. As a "cult" of belief, it could be said that Þéodish Belief proper is simply "the King's religion". Gesiþas (followers), however, enjoy freedom of conscience, in religious and other matters. They have an obligation to support the King in the sacral exercise of his office, always. Aside from that obligation, however, a Gesiþa is free in the pursuit of any kind of religious persuasion that is not inimical to or at cross-purposes with his support of the King's religion. These beliefs usually range from God-cults that may have an air of henotheistic thought, to true pantheism, to a polytheistic agnosticism. The key is that, high and low, all Tribesmen strive to maintain thew and in doing so revere our ancestral ways, Gods, and folk.

Theodism can be described as three interlocking sets of thews:

A) The Votive Thews- sacral kingship, Theodish (tribal) affinity, web of oaths & troth, and worship of the Germanic Gods and Ancestors;

B) The Criterial Thews- Life as a process of Ordeal-Worthing and Becoming in the Context of the Three Wynns - wisdom generosity and honor; and

C) the Existensial Thews- Freedom of Conscience and Right Good Will.

It generally can be said that within Theodism, from Thrall to King we are all bound by thew and oath such that no one - high or low -is above them or beyond their reach. We are obligated each to the other by necessity.

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