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Liber XXXV · Witchcraft & Wicca

Liber XXXV · Witchcraft & Wicca · Chapter III: Heathenry & Runes

Ásatrúarfélagið: How Iceland Recognised Ásatrú in 1973

The Ásatrúarfélagið, Iceland's Ásatrú fellowship: its 1972 founding by Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson, state recognition in 1973, beliefs, rituals and temple.

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The Ásatrúarfélagið ("Ásatrú Fellowship") is Iceland's association of followers of Ásatrú, the modern revival of the pre-Christian religion of the Norse. Founded in Reykjavík in 1972 by a small group led by the farmer and poet Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson, it was granted official recognition as a religious organisation by the Icelandic state in 1973 — one of the earliest instances anywhere of a modern Pagan religion receiving such status. From a few dozen founders it has grown to several thousand members and has become a visible part of Icelandic religious life.

Iceland's Pagan Past and Its Survival in Literature§

Iceland was settled from Norway and the British Isles from the late ninth century, and its early settlers worshipped the Norse gods — Odin, Thor, Freyr, Freyja and others — alongside land-spirits and ancestors. Around the year 1000, according to Ari Þorgilsson's Íslendingabók (written in the 1120s), the Althing, Iceland's assembly, accepted Christianity as the law of the land to avoid civil conflict, while for a time tolerating private sacrifice and certain old customs. The religious background of this world is described in Norse and Germanic Religion.

What survived of the old religion was carried above all in literature. In the thirteenth century Icelanders wrote down the poems of the Poetic Edda, preserved chiefly in the manuscript known as the Codex Regius, and Snorri Sturluson composed his Prose Edda as a handbook of myth and poetic language. The family sagas recorded memories, often idealised, of heathen chieftains, temples and feasts. For modern Icelanders these texts are national classics, and their return from Danish collections — the Codex Regius came home to Reykjavík in 1971 — was a moment of public celebration. The Ásatrú revival grew in this atmosphere of cultural pride.

Founding the Ásatrúarfélagið in 1972§

The fellowship's founding meeting took place on the First Day of Summer (Sumardagurinn fyrsti), a traditional Icelandic holiday, on 20 April 1972, at the Hótel Borg in Reykjavík. The central figure was Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson, who farmed at Dragháls in western Iceland and was widely known as a poet and a performer of rímur, the long chanted narrative poems of Icelandic tradition. Among the other founders were Jörmundur Ingi Hansen and Dagur Þorleifsson. The group was small, and its aims were modest: to give people who felt drawn to the old gods a lawful community and a way to mark the passages of life outside the national Lutheran church.

State recognition in 1973§

Iceland's constitution guaranteed freedom of religion, and the law allowed new religious organisations to register with the state. The founders applied to the Ministry of Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs, and in 1973 the minister, Ólafur Jóhannesson, approved the application. A much-repeated anecdote says that a violent thunderstorm cut the power in Reykjavík while the decision was being considered — a story told with humour by members and the press, and best treated as part of the fellowship's lore.

Recognition had concrete effects. Registered religious organisations in Iceland receive a share of the membership fees (sóknargjöld) that the state collects on behalf of all recognised bodies, and their officiants can perform marriages with civil validity. The Ásatrúarfélagið's priests, called goðar after the chieftain-priests of the Commonwealth period, thus became legal celebrants, and the fellowship gained the same standing as other minority faiths. It was a striking step at a time when, elsewhere in Europe and North America, modern Pagan religions had no comparable legal status.

Leaders, Growth and the Temple at Öskjuhlíð§

Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson served as allsherjargoði, the fellowship's chief priest, from its founding until his death in 1993. He was followed by Jörmundur Ingi Hansen, and since 2003 the office has been held by the composer Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, known internationally for his film music and his collaborations with Icelandic musicians. Regional goðar lead local ceremonies.

For two decades membership remained small, but it rose steeply from the 1990s onwards and especially in the twenty-first century, when more Icelanders left the national church and registered with other associations or with none. By the early 2020s the Ásatrúarfélagið counted more than 5,000 members, making it the largest non-Christian religious organisation in the country. Members are drawn from across Icelandic society, and many are attracted as much by the connection with Icelandic heritage and by the fellowship's liberal, tolerant stance as by any doctrine.

The fellowship long held its rites outdoors or in rented halls. In 2015 work began on a purpose-built temple (hof) on the wooded hill of Öskjuhlíð in Reykjavík, designed by the architect Magnús Jensson as a partly sunken, dome-shaped building aligned with the movements of the sun. Construction has proceeded slowly, but the project has attracted international attention as the first major temple for the Norse gods built in Scandinavia in roughly a thousand years.

Beliefs and Rituals of Icelandic Ásatrú§

The Ásatrúarfélagið has no creed or dogma that members must accept. Some members understand the gods as real beings; others see them as symbols of natural forces, as archetypes, or as expressions of a cultural inheritance. What unites them is respect for the Eddic and saga traditions, for nature and for the land, and an ethic of personal responsibility often illustrated with sayings from Hávamál, the Eddic poem of the High One's counsel. Many members also take an interest in the runic and magical lore discussed in Heathenry and the Runes and Icelandic Magical Staves, though the fellowship itself is a religious community rather than a magical order.

The central ceremony is the blót, a seasonal feast and offering. In the Viking Age, according to the sagas and other sources, blóts could include animal sacrifice; modern Icelandic Ásatrú celebrates them without killing, with readings, poetry, toasts of mead or other drinks to gods and ancestors, and a shared meal. The main festivals include midwinter (Jól), the First Day of Summer, midsummer and the Winter Nights in autumn, together with Þorrablót, the midwinter feast that many Icelanders observe as a secular tradition. Rites of passage — naming, coming of age, weddings and funerals — are an important part of the goðar's work, and the fellowship has conducted same-sex weddings since these became legal in Iceland in 2010.

Folkish and Universalist Heathenry: The Icelandic Position§

Modern Norse paganism outside Iceland emerged at almost the same time. In Britain the Committee for the Restoration of the Odinic Rite was founded in 1973, and in the United States Stephen McNallen's Viking Brotherhood, founded in the early 1970s, developed into the Asatru Free Assembly. Some of these movements adopted "folkish" positions, holding that the religion properly belongs to people of Northern European descent, and some fringe groups linked the old gods to white nationalism — a history studied by Mattias Gardell and others.

The Ásatrúarfélagið has taken the opposite course. It describes Ásatrú as open to anyone who wishes to join, and it has publicly rejected the use of Norse symbols and gods for racist or extremist politics. Scholars such as Stefanie von Schnurbein note that the Icelandic fellowship's grounding in a living national culture, rather than in imagined ancestry, has helped it present itself as a tolerant and inclusive religion. Its example was followed elsewhere in the Nordic world: Denmark recognised the Forn Siðr association in 2003, and similar groups have registered in Norway. For the wider landscape of modern Pagan revivals see Druidry and Gods and Goddesses of Modern Paganism.

Frequently asked questions§

When was Ásatrú recognised in Iceland?§

The Ásatrúarfélagið was founded on 20 April 1972 and received official recognition as a religious organisation from the Icelandic state in 1973. This gave it the same legal standing as other registered faiths.

Who founded the Ásatrúarfélagið?§

The fellowship was founded by a small group led by Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson, a farmer, poet and chanter of traditional rímur verse, who served as its first allsherjargoði until his death in 1993.

How many members does the Ásatrúarfélagið have?§

Membership grew slowly at first but rose sharply from the 1990s. By the early 2020s it had more than 5,000 registered members, making it Iceland's largest non-Christian religious organisation.

Is Icelandic Ásatrú connected to racist groups?§

No. The Ásatrúarfélagið is open to people of any background and has publicly rejected racist and extremist uses of Norse religion, distinguishing itself from folkish groups elsewhere.

Sources and further reading§