Customer Reviews

Book Of Troth (Llewellyn's Teutonic Magick Series)

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This book is an overview of the practices and beliefs of modern Asatru, as well as a summary of how beliefs were applied in ancient times. It discusses history, modern history, rituals, moral and community standards. This should grace the shelf of any Asatruar.

It does contain some out of date information about the Ring of Troth, but that's not really a big deal. It also has a number of basic retuals which I have found to be a good basis as a guideline for writing your own rituals.

This book is must reading for anyone interested in Asatru. Although the writing style is difficult at times, Thorsson has a great summary of the aspects of the religion. Note that the address of the Ring of Troth is now out-of-date. Thorsson does blast Christianity and other "Middle Eastern" religions rather more than is necessary, but he does make a strong case that the Troth is the logical religion for Germanic-descended people, as it is based on what their ancestors worshipped. In Thorsson's view (and mine), religion is not "one-size-fits-all"--there is no universal religion. This is a good introduction to both the religion and the Ring of Troth as an organization.

The first half of this book gives the basics of modern Norse Pagan beliefs. Unfortunately the author does not provide notes stating where in the ancient sources (such as the Poetic and Prose Eddas, the Norse Pagan 'Bible') evidence for each of these beliefs can be found. Still, this is a good basic work, useful for both Norse Pagans and for students of comparative religion of any faith. It will NOT be particularly useful, however, to those people who call themselves 'Christians' but haven't yet got round to reading the words of Christ on 'love thy neighbour'. The second half of the book gives various religious ceremonies of the Norse Pagan religion. These are a good starting point--- but they are not engraved in stone, if one doesn't like them one needn't use them.

May Freyja and Forseti bless those who read these words!

This particular book has some useful information in it, such as

holy tides, but is wrought with christian damage throughout and

propaganda for the Ring of Troth circa the early 1990's when Edred Thorsson was running the organization. The whole anti-baptism ritual is completely rediculous, as it assumes that said person is 1)Christian and 2)That one's faith/troth is comparable to Christian belief. I absolutely hated this concept. The rituals have a very Ceremonial magick feel, not organically Heathen at all. I find this book to be somewhat overrated, and definitely not essential heathen reading...this work falls a bit short.