Some advice

[kaosxmage]

Greetings everyone,

Recently a friend of mine passed away. He was a dedicated follower of Asatru. The long story short: his family, who is quite Christian, hijacked the funeral, and it was entirely a Christian proceeding.

Well, we made sure to have our own service for him. He was the only one of his kind in the area. I would like to raise a rune stone in his honor, but I'm not sure what runes or process this should take. I'm hoping you all could save me some massive time on google and reading. I could do this my way, but that way is definitely not his or Asatru.

He was very dedicated to Thor, if that hleps any.

Thank you!

--Kaos

[Malcolm]

Thats a cool thing to want to do for your friend but it isn't necessary. Just remember him and tell his stories sometimes. Maybe set out a picture of him in your home. That kinda thing. If you want, you could get his friends together and share and a drink in rememberance. Thats the big thing I feel, just don't let his memory die.

Besides, bural customs were pretty location/period specific. Some burned, Some buried.


If you want to know what runes to use in whatever text you decide to put on the stone. I could proably help with that.

[Rick]

Rune stones would typically read something to the effect of "I, Thorulf the Good, raise this marker in memory of my brother, Eric Skullsplitter, who went off to the East to seek his fortune and there fell in battle," or some such, written, of course, in runes. Often, but not always, the runes were carved within the body of a serpent that twined around the stone.

[kaosxmage]

Thank you for your replies. I will take all of this into consideration.

[Hærfest Leah]

Yep Rick is the one to go with on this topic.

[S_Wodening]

I agree. Rick has the right info. The only thing I can add is they sometimes gave information on where they died and such or maybe something important they had done.

[Rick]

That said, I wholeheartedly agree with Malcolm's thoughts. Donate a tree to the park in his name, or something similar.

[S_Wodening]

Another thing you can do is hold a symbel in their honor. This was called erfi or minni in Old Norse, and was usually done for the secession of the heirs, but could be done for anyone. For info on that go to: http://www.englatheod.org/funeral.htm

[Malcolm]

Thats kind of what I meant by have a drink with his friends in remembrace, but...and I don't mean to sound exclusive or anything....can you symbel if you aren't Heathen? Is it still a symbel? Does the act depend on the context in which it is performed or is it the intention of the action that maks it a symbel?

[S_Wodening]

Of course you can take part in symbel if you are not Heathen. Symbels continued after the Conversion only in a Christian context. My rule though if I host a symbel and a non-Heathen is present is that they boast no non-Heathen deity during the Gods round.

[Rick]

Yeah, that's how I generally approach it.

[Malcolm]

Of course you can take part in symbel if you are not Heathen. Symbels continued after the Conversion only in a Christian context. My rule though if I host a symbel and a non-Heathen is present is that they boast no non-Heathen deity during the Gods round.


I was wondering about that part, thanks. :mmm: