Heathen Nation

Ethics of the Gods: One Heathen Woman’s perspective

Many modern Heathens study the stories and mythical histories of our eldest of ancestors to gain some sort of morals and ethics regarding how we should live our lives. One of the first noticeable perplexities a person may become aware, when reading the mythology of our ancestral spirituality, is what appears to be a paradox of virtues and what seems to be contradictory ethical and moral standards of the Holy Host. In one instance, we are told to uphold ourselves to a certain set of standards presented to us through the Havamal “Sayings of the High One” yet find that the Gods seem not too live up to those very standards. This begs the reader to ask what morals or ethics are the Gods held, if any? In this essay we shall examine why the Gods may be beyond the morals and ethics of mortal men and why some standards we have today are situational.

Ethics and Morals are what a given number of people in a social group agree upon. Consider the ideology of "thew" which means “habit, virtue or strength”. An individual will know they are "in" if they have the same inborn habitually taught ideology regarding what is right or wrong behavior. If you don't agree instinctively your not apart of the "in" group, which ever that may be. It may even be easy to suggest that ethics and morals arose from a learned behavior regarding our experiences not unlike Pavlovian dogs. I propose that the reason some of what the Gods have done in the Myths rings good or bad, right or wrong, is because we are placing ourselves in the story and can identify with one side or the other.

Let us take a closer look at some of the most obviously perplexing mythical occurrences which cause a good many of us to raise a brow. The most often referenced myth is the “Flyting of Loki”. Many people in our modern Heathen culture are aghast by the information Loki verbally hurls at the Gods with the desire to insult or enrage them. So many pay so close attention to the information they can gleam from Loki’s supposed half truths about the Gods that they forget to notice the response those insults receive. The retorts to Loki’s insults are akin to a repeated “Your nuts, or drunk, and we know better than that.” to “Who cares or doesn’t know about that?” to Frigg’s famous, and I paraphrase, “We don’t talk about that anymore, or in public.” which makes us raise the other brow. It becomes obvious that Loki’s pains are not felt by the others regarding who and what each of them are, and have done, beside the fact that he is apparently turning his nose up at them and airing their dirty laundry. Loki’s actions are similar to becoming angry and insulting when visiting another country because they value different ideologies and have what you consider a tainted history. The way the God’s respond is very much the same way families and close net friendships respond, or perhaps how they should. This is also a reason a family or tribe were responsible for the actions of their individual members. After all, we each are the company we keep. This kind of social behavior of who is considered “in” or “out” is also reflected in another myth regarding the building of the walls of Asgard.

At first glance, in a second most anatomized myth, the Gods appear to be taking advantage of a hapless Giant by breaking an oath to him. Many would agree that oath breaking is considered one of the most grievous sins of Heathenry. Yet, here is again a perfect example of someone on the “outside” dealing with an “in” crowd. In the Prose Edda a builder enters the scene bragging about his ability to build a wall to fortify Asgard against the Gods ultimate enemies; the Giants. Naturally, the Gods agree but only on certain conditions that they believed, after sly Loki’s rationalization, could not be accomplished within an appointed time. What latter happens is that the builder is able to accomplish his task only by means of his horse’s labor which is a sign of trickery and deceit. They then appoint Loki to rectify the situation because the Gods had offered the builder the Sun, Moon and Freyja as his wife unbeknownst to them that he was in fact a Giant who would, instead of becoming a part of the “in” crowd, take them away from their heavenly abodes and away from Asgard. The Giant proves himself to be a further “outlander” by going into a “Giant rage” when he realizes his plans have been thwarted. Once he proves himself to be a Giant and an outsider to the “in” crowd of the Gods they believe their oaths to such a deceptive enemy to be null and void. Contrary to the reactions the Gods have to the Giant builder is the relationship that they have with a few of the female Giants who have come to live with them. These Giantesses, such as Gerd and Skadi, due to their thewful behavior become a part of the “in” crowd.

Now that we have spoken of trickery and the breaking of oaths let us turn back to the Poetic Edda. We can now shed a little light on what many have considered the trickery of Odin’s against the Giant maiden Gunnlod and the breaking of an oath to the Frost Giants inquiry if Bolvark. As we turn to the Havamal, which is considered advice from Odin himself, he tells a story of his winning of the magic mead. He appears to lament his leaving of Gunnlod after beguiling the mead from her care. He seems to agonize because she could not come with him, nor could he stay with her after finding her to be most pleasant to him. He mourns that she had to remain separate from the “in” crowd. What appears to be a further grievance regarding this situation is the fact that when Frost Giants come to inquire of his dealings with Gunnlod and her father he must swear an oath that it was in fact he who had swindled Gunnlod’s father out of his mead and “passed time” with his daughter in the manner of a wife. His distress is apparent by his admittance to the deception as he proclaims “Now who can trust in his troth?” This apparently seals or makes the final distinction between how one must deal with those on the outside of ones own people or goals. This cements the idea that a truce can only be held between people of like mind and goals. If the groups are so different from one another as to have different “ethics” then the truce or agreement is doomed to failure.

Now that the stage has been set, the lines been drawn, regarding how those viewed as outsiders shall be treated we can now look at a few examples of how this ideology is executed. The first example is Thor’s treatment of his new Giant traveling partner Skrymir. Skrymir’s first meeting with the God was his chastising of the seeming smallness of Thor and his other travel companions because they were able to sleep in the Giants glove. Skrymir also test Thor’s wits and strength by giving him a pouch of food of which he could not open due to it being sealed by magical means. Thor’s understanding of this deceptive and threatening nature of the Giant brings him to the decision to slay the Giant out right. It becomes a certainty of it only being a matter of time before the pranks and trickery lead to if not Thor’s demise, the demise of his more mortal companions. By the time Thor took action the Giant had already proven himself to be less than friendly and needed to be vanquished. This is the same result regarding the binding of Fenris the Wolf and Tyr’s betrayal and sacrifice. It is always been my understanding that Tyr’s role as a God is to implement and uphold pure justice regardless of rationalization. Therefore, if Finris the Wolf had grown large enough to devour the Gods it was only “just” that he did. However, the Gods felt differently and Tyr had to loose his hand for being apart of the Gods forestalling of their fate. This myth proves that the Gods are very powerful beings who are able to reshape the world and modify fate’s celerity to suit their own ideas, needs and desires. This alone is one of the strongest implications that the Gods are above and beyond ethics and morals. What are we to learn from this? How do we reconcile the apparent lack of ethics with the advice given to us by the Al-Father in the Havamal? We can learn from our elder kin’s mistakes.

Many in Heathenry would agree with me that the Gods are our eldest of kin. Understanding their existence extends beyond our concept of time they have quite a bit of wisdom to offer us. While it is true that one of the best ways to learn is to experience a situation, we can most often be spared heartache and suffering if we are to learn from the experience of those older and wiser than ourselves. The myths were provided to us for exactly this purpose. However we must be willing to consider all perspectives of the story and understand what has shaped our own prejudice. Considering a majority of modern Heathenry grew up in a highly Christianized culture could it be said we are unjustly comparing the morals and ethics of our Gods to the morals and ethics of the Christian God? Even it the Christian God exists there is strong reason to suggest he would be a Giant. With this in mind we could even say that we have grown up with “Giant” like or, dare I say, “Lokean” ideologies regarding our own ethics and morals, therefore; tainting our ability to understand which side we are to take when the Gods appear to counter our own culturally conditioned ethics. Instead of turning our nose up and performing our own flyting by proclaiming how immoral or unethical some of our Gods actions appear to be we should consider what we can learn from the experience that has been shared with us through the mythical history of the Holy Host. After all they are the ones who set the standard.