Summary in English

Samfälligheten för Nordisk Sed is the Swedish denomination for the Scandinavian indigenous religion known as "Hedendom", "Den Nordiska Seden" or Folktro. "Nordisk Sed" is a traditional religion, which means that it is a living tradition that is passed on from generation to generation. It is similar to other rural native religions in other parts of the world, but it´s of course a separate religion. It is not based on any scripture or on any form of reconstruction or construction. The religion has played a discrete part in modern urban society but has been present in the Nordic countries for as long as we know.

Background

Until 1974, Swedish laws did not tolerate our religion and it was not a subject of discussion. During the past decades as religious freedom evolved, we started to organise our religion. Due to problems caused by the New Age movements and so called neo-pagans, it was difficult to form a organisation that wasn't taken over by neo-pagans. But in the late nineties a network of folktro-people formed the Samfälligheten för Nordisk Sed. The Swedish word "hedendom" means the rural nonchristian belief, but it can also be associates with the belief of the ancient polytheism of the Vikings. This last interpretation makes it hard to be taken seriously. The translation to the English word pagan is therefore not relevant. A common misunderstanding on some internet pages is that we are asatruars. Nordisk sed is not another name for asatru but a name of a native religion of the Nordic countries. We see the idea of asatru as a misunderstanding of the national-romantics of the 19th century. In fact asatru has never existed until it was invented by New Age in the late 20th century. The interest in the historical construction of asatru is making it hard for modern urban people to understand our religion. The fact that some of our deities have similar name to those mentioned in historical contexts is due to the fact that there are some fragments of genuine beliefs, that might be found in historical sources. But since it's mainly misunderstandings, the historical interpretation will always remain speculation. Sometimes you find the use of the words "Nordisk Sed" as another name of asatru on some webpages - those pages are written by people without any knowledge of Scandinavian religion.

Our religion

We believe in a multitude of spiritual entities that exist in the nature around us. The names of these may differ from region to region, as the main gods of our religion are known by many names but are not refered to by name. We believe in a almighty, unchangeable fate. All, even the deities, are subordinate the fate. We believe that a persons identity is founded in the social context of the family and the village. Each one has an individual responsibility to follow virtues and to do what he is supposed to do.

Religion is a context of beliefs and traditions that is learned from the people around us. It is not created teachings or different existential ideas. Our religion is bigger than that. Therefore we have a lot of difficulties understanding new religions or other modern spiritual phenomenas. We have no fundaments, no old books or historical references - our religion is what it is, a living tradition.

We oppose the idea of reforming our religion to a supposed ancient form. We do not change our religion based on historical sources or new age ideas. We want to let our religion live on and evolve as it has been doing for a very long period of time. We don't need to construct or reconstruct anything, we need to maintain our religion. Those who want us to abandon our religion and convert to a neopaganism has not understood the strength of our tradition.

A traditional religion can not be "contructed" - not from any sources; not from historical sources, not from folklorical sources, not from distant inspiration. Such a construction would be based in the western-christian culture, not in our culture. The abnormality of neopaganism is a result of an identity chrisis within that culture, not within ours. We follow our tradition, we do not have any need to invent, contruct or reconstruct anything.

Organisation

Samfälligheten för Nordisk sed is the national denomination for Nordisk Sed, in fact the only Swedish denomination of our religion. That is, there is no other religious organisation of nordisk sed in Sweden, and has never been. We have members all over the country with only the religion in common. Samfälligheten is a religious community only. We do not deal with politics or any personal hobbies. There is nothing but the religion that is connected with membership. Samfälligheten was in 2000 recognised as a registrated religious organisation under the new Swedish laws. We perform religious service, weddings, funerals and so forth. Swedish citizens and people living in Sweden can become members.

This page is short and is only for the curiosity of foreigners. Since our religion doesn'tt exist outside of the Nordic countries and other followers understand Scandinavian languages the other material is of no interest. That is, our religion only exists among some people in the Nordic countiries, but of course they can move. Any way - they speak Scandinavian. The content of the site is either way not possible to translate in another language, since the words of our terminology does not have any correspondence in a language such as English.