Books for a beginner, and questions!

[la tortuga]

Originally Posted by Newbieoffractals

Ah, thank you for your opinion. Admittedly, it's currently the Greek Gods who are pulling me, but they do seem to encourage me to consider Heathen rituals, so this should get interesting with the research. It could just be they're telling me to do that to connect to the Norse/German Gods, or it could be that they want to be honored in that way.

That's also good to know the racists are pretty rare! I didn't know about the prison people in it. Thanks for the link for the PDF. At the very least, after this I'll have a basic understanding of the religion. Thank you for your opinion about Icelandic vs Old Norse and groups of people. I understand there's a couple types of old Norse as well? Icelandic would be easier to learn because there are current speakers as well. I live pretty far from Texas, though I do know some of my Norse/Germanic pagan friends do know people in Boston, though they did say they were kinda mean, but that could be either that my friends are fluffy, or that the group they went to had mean people in it.

I do have an amusing story about a Norse pagan friend(unrelated to his faith) and his wearing a NAZI uniform around town, but that was for a school play and needing to buy makeup in the middle of it when he was one of the few people off stage. Let's just say I was with him, and we got some very odd looks in the drugstore,since some older women there recognized me and knew about my heritage, so it was very funny later on. Stage makeup can only do so much, if not making the situation more awkward. Heavy eyeliner, makeup, and bright orange foundation on a guy wearing a very fake looking blond wig, in a NAZI uniform with a woman who's dressed as a stagehand generally gets some odd looks. XD

Thankfully, it was explained later, but still. It was very awkward at the time. Anyone who wears it for a religious event might have some issues, and is probably a racist. Even for drama, the drama coach got a lot of flack out of making a kid who's grandparents had been in Germany during WW2 dress in that costume(my friend), and our school got a few calls about why the uniforms actually had to have racist symbols on them, even though the play was mocking Hitler and the racism of that era.

Haha cute story, reminds me of theater in general. I hope that the information proves to be useful, if anything. If you have any further questions, there are tons and tons of great resources available here at MW and we hope to see you around.

Regarding mean people, though, it seems like Heathens/Asatruar really do enjoy a good debate. People who are newer may not have as much experience with the lore or have as much to contribute, which could be a really big problem when trying to connect with others. Considering some kindreds/groups don't get new people interested very often, I'm guessing it's easy to forget what it was like to not automatically know what every character in every saga ever did, period. (I don't even have this information!) Some groups are more dedicated to outreach, like the Fellowship I am a member of. Others are not, it again depends upon the group. The only advice I can give is to keep your chin up and try to learn whatever doesn't fly miles over your head and even then, if it sounds interesting, get up the gall to ask because some people are just waiting for you to ask for more information. If they act like a jerk because you don't know, then well nothing was lost and you learned something about that person, I guess, though I've never encountered that.