Customer Reviews

The Way of the Heathen: A Handbook of Greater Theodism

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

High Theodism is in many ways an extreme version of Heathenry/Asatru with an emphasis on the Anglo-Saxon side of things. In this book Garman Lord discusses what he terms "Greater Theodism" - in essence Theodism for those who are not quite up to the degree of committment that High Theodism requires.

The most striking difference between Theodism and most other forms of Asatru/Heathenry is the belief in "Sacral Kingship", i.e. that men are directly connected to the Gods through the appointment of a sacral king who also fulfills the role of High Priest. One can see that Theodism is a different sort of religion than the more common individualistic/family-based forms of Heathenry which often have social structures which are loosely based on the old Icelandic commonwealth.

The book describes Heathen notions of "good" and "evil" in a fairly standard way. Nothing new here.

Other terms which are common in Heathenry are explained, e.g. frith, orlog, wyrd, wigh!t. There are detailed descriptions of the blot and the symbel.

It also spends a fair bit of time detailing the workings of the Theodish Leode (essentially a Kindred in more typical Asatru terminology)

There is an interesting discussion of why so many people in our society are chronically alienated, "sleepwalking" through life, lost, and powerless, and how Theodish society counters that by providing power and significance.

A glossary of potentially unfamiliar terms is provided. Garman Lord also includes a well thought out reading list.

The book is fascinating. It has given me some things to ponder. I'll definitely re-read it.

Way of the Heathen is an excellently written instruction manual of Theodish Belief. Garman Lord takes great pains to explain step by step how to be an Heathen. Everything you need to know down to the smallest detail is in this book. There are explicit explanations of everything. Plus, he encourages contact if there are any more questions that may arise in your introduction to Germanic Heathenry.

It helps take the mystique of the word Heathen and explains exactly what that means.

This book is an excellent start to anyone wanting to start his pagan/heathen lifestyle with honour and ethics.

This book is a wonderful read. It challenges popularly held notions of community outside and *inside* heathenism today. I am also impressed with the Theodish reconstruction of the vertical relationships of the Anglo-Saxons, which stand in some degree of contrast with the family relation focus of the Icelanders. Although I do not completely agree with all of his assertions, I highly recommend Garman Lord's ideas for thought and consideration. It has deeply influenced me, and I recommend it to any other heathen.

Garman Lord's latest work is a must-have for any Heathen's bookshelf, whether they be Theódish, Ásatrú, or other. He explores in-depth not only topics specific to Theódish Belief such as sacral kingship and the role of the Luck of the Folk, but also more general topics such as the role of Heathenry in today's modern society. Garman Lord's style is direct and to the point, and the many words likely to be unfamiliar to the reader are defined in an extensive glossary. Definitely worthy to stand beside Thorsson's "A Book of Troth", Chisholm's "Tru Hearth", and Gundarsson's "Teutonic Religion". Very well done.

I am a long time Heathen, going on instinct and what I thought was right about my return to the Native Spirituality of my ancient European Ancestors, rather than adherence to a scholorly view of the surviving Lore.

Gárman's presentation in "Way of the Heathen" has wrought a large change in the Religious Expression of my inner Faith.

This is both a simple book, and a difficult one, worth the reading and re-reading.

It presents a view of religion which stems from the people and community, not one which is imposed by a church hierarchy; at once more honest, natural and meaningful. In Heathenry, one's religion is a part of one's being, not just that hour a week sitting in a pew, reacting to the ritual prayers and readings.

For those seeking an answer to what is missing in their spirituality, "The Way of the Heathen" isn't necessarity The Answer, but it is an excellent start to finding one.

"I hereby swear that, while I live, I shall never raise voice, hand or weapon against the Sacral Kingship of the Theodish Belief, excepting it be in self-defense, nor ever aid or abet any other who does so. And moreover that I hereby bend my life to rightful deeds with a Right Good Will, in Wisdom, Generosity and Personal Honor." -- This is the oath of the Theodsman - The followers of Theodism, the religious practice of the pre-Christian Anglo-Teutonic tribal folk. Recognizing the Gods, Woden, Thunor, Tiw, Frea, Heimdallar, and others of this vein.

Greater Theodism is, perhaps, a more structured following of the Old Gods, than say Asatru. It maintains a more tribal faith. In addition we see the concept of The Sacral Kingship in Theodism - connecting men directly to the Gods. Along with a discussion of the Gods, a detailed glossary, and a suggested bibliography - This book is certainly well worth reading.

I expected to find lengthy discussion of Anglo-saxon/Germanic lore, but that's not what this book is at all. It would have been more properly titled "Way of the Leode", a Leode being a heathen group (a Kindred in Asatru), since that's mainly ehat it's about. I'm not Theodish and the Asatru group I practice with is generally more left-leaning than I'm sure the author would approve of, but I still found lots of good information about running a group and why to be heathen.

If you're used to other works on Asatru, you'll have to relearn most terms because they've been given Anglo-Saxon versions here. The glossary at the back came in very handy, although being in the back close to the back cover it was hard to flip through to find the words just because of the structure of the book. A minor complaint.

"Way of the Heathen" consists mainly of two things, first is a discussion on how to run a Leode, and second is a critique on American culture explaining why Theodism is a good thing. There is virtually no discussion of Germanic history or mythology, in other words the lore, if you want heathen lore you should look elsewhere.

As someone who has been trying to help run a group for the past year, I found this book very useful. He describes several disruptive influences in a group that I could definitely relate to but hadn't been able to pin down like he has, even some tendencies in myself that became clearer once I saw it on paper. He also gives some advice on how to deal with those issues for a stable group dynamic. Our group typically works very democratically, which is something he generally argues against, but I have seen the problems he talks about first-hand and even if I'm not taking his advice completely it helped me see where the problems are and gave me some ideas to find solutions.

The other major portion of the text is a criticism of modern American culture, which I actually found to be mostly enlightening. There were some portions especially toward the end where I felt he was stretching, but on the whole I felt his assessment was pretty close to how I feel about it. Quite a bit of the book was dedicated to this though, probably a little too much. It seems that the purpose of the book is to give the basic structure of a group and then justify at length why you should start one, while deferring to other books to learn about the lore.

There is one small section at the back describing each of the gods, but it was only a brief outline and poorly presented. The names are inconsistently given in Norse and Anglo-Saxon, which is confusing. For instance, it names Frea, which if you're used to Norse names sounds like the goddess Freyja, however in this case it's actually the god FreyR, and Freo is Freyja. That would be no problem if all of the names were Anglo-Saxon, but then it lists NjordR which is Norse, and Mimir also--which it notes in the description is Meomer in Anglo-Saxon! It should be reversed and instead giving the Anglo-Saxon name while noting the Norse name, given what Theodism is. I don't know why they list some Norse names and some Anglo-Saxon, I suspect they took a text originally written about the Norse gods and just converted some of the titles to Anglo-Saxon, but it will likely confuse newcomers. This section is the weakest in the book, and I would personally recommend skimming it quickly or even skipping it unless you already know who the gods are, in which case you wouldn't need it anyway.

Some other reviewers have claimed that there is no historical evidence of sacral kingship, which is central to Theodish philosophy. However, every noble line traced their family tree back to one of the gods, that much is obvious to anyone who takes a few minutes to look it up. Whether it was exactly as Theodism treats it is impossible to know, but even a cursory scan of the lore and the relationships between thanes and their lords makes it clear that at least it's not completely bogus.

On the whole I found the book valuable to me, since I already have a strong foundation in the lore and am in a situation where advice on group management is useful. That's not what I was expecting to get, however. I expected, given the title, to find a description of Greater Theodism, what it is and how it's different from other brands of heathenism like Asatru. What I found is that Theodism is basically the same with different terms, and if the section on the gods is any indication it also has a disconcertingly relaxed approach to the lore. I suspect the last is only half-true, because in other ways Theodism seems to more strictly adhere to ancient traditions than other groups are willing to, but given only this book to draw my conclusions I wouldn't have gathered that.

If you are looking for a perspective of Heathenry that is outside of the old norse viewpoint and geared more towards the Anglo-Saxon viewpoint then this is what you need to read. It is not just an education of Anglo-Saxon pagan tribalism but delves deep into its philosophies. This book has made me take things into consideration that I have not ever really considered and has helped me open my eyes to things I was previously blind too. I experienced first hand what he meant by "going into the woods". It was a great read and I reccomend it to all Heathens; Asatru and Theodish alike.

I bought this based on the multiple high review and was utterly disappointed in the text. This book reads like stereo instructions for setting up a conservative religious system of government based on the completely unsupported belief in a historical Sacral kingship (ruling based on having direct descent from the Gods). This text claims to be based on historical information but does not have a single foot note or end note nor does it have a bibliography. Major criticisms I have are the tendency to drift off of topic and to spend a huge portion of the book trash talking about "American Leftism" , modern paganism's liberal view on homosexuality and other topics that this text clearly should not be focusing on. The simple fact that less then 14 pages out of 228 on actual descriptions of the various Gods and spirits of the heathen pantheon. The rest of the book (that not spent on political ideas and historically unsupported systems nobility) is all about how to run a few rituals that you can easily find on the internet for free (more historically accurate as well). In general the whole book suffers a serious case of christian backlash syndrome and reading all the Sagas Eddas and such is just to hard disease. Do your self a favor and buy either the Our Troth books (Volume 1 &2) at this link Our Troth: Volume 1: History and Lore and Our Troth: Living the Troth or Essential Asatru at this one Essential Asatru: Walking the Path of Norse Paganism

I am of the opinion that Theodism represents an English expression of Germanic lore. Theodism, while Germanic in nature, gets lost in English tradition and speaks a different language when trying to express an ideal rooted in a separate culture. I am sure there are those who will find the Theodish expression something that speaks to them. I, on the other hand, do not. I struggled various Theodish expressions that speak of the same things found in Asatru (Icelandic), but yet come across speaking a different language. I respect Theodism as a part of the Heathen belief system, but find little in it that speaks to the fiber of my being as does the Icelandic expression of Asatru.