Jeff Russell

Thanks for the kind words!

1) Well, the Younger Futhark is the odd man out, and Westcoat acknowledges that the "one Runestave, one sound" correlation was strongest in the Elder Futhark. The Anglo-Frisian Futhorc went for "more Runestaves!" and included stuff like Stan ("Stone"), which stands for /st/, which is not really one sound, but two. I haven't studied the Younger Futhark at all, but my understanding is that it definitely broke from "one sound for one Runestave," but in a way that paid close attention to the (then) sounds of the tongue (for example, when one stave started being used for two or more sounds, it was because they shared something important, like placement of the tongue. I don't know if the Younger Futhark does this, but an example might be using the same letter/stave for "t" and "d," since the only distinction between these sounds is that the former is unvoiced and the latter voiced, meaning the vocal cords are engaged or not). I also believe there were diacritics used to distinguish between sounds that were still distinct, but represented by the same stave, like putting a dot next to the stave. I have even less idea how suited this more complex approach is to today's Scandinavian tongues.

2) Agreed on liking to see projects like this and on the lesser value of strict reconstruction! I think that detailed academic research into how it was done back in the day is invaluable for getting ideas of what we might do, and as sanity checks to make sure we're not way off base, but the idea that someone today could worship exactly as a 4th century Saxon did (or 5th century Norwegian, or whatever) seems both hopeless and not worth trying for anyway, since we live in a very different world.

3) This is a topic I'm starting to noodle on, which you can see in some of my comments here, on MM, and over at causticus's journal - what would a truly "American Heathenry" look like? What might we do to help plant seeds of that and nurture them? I'd like to explore it more through blog posts, projects, and of course, my own practice, but right now I don't have much more than you mentioned - a feeling that there's some life there, and something worth exploring.

4) As an American, I'm completely disconnected from what is or isn't going on with Heathenry in Scandinavia, and barely connected with what's going on in the wider Anglo-sphere (I've read a bit about what English Heathens are up to, as there's quite a lot of overlap with my interests, and no language barrier). Not "Scandinavian," but still "Nordic," another name that comes to mind is the Youtuber Rune Hjarno Rasmussen, who is Danish, trained as an anthropologist of religion specializing in African diaspora religions, and is interested in looking at Nordic Religions as a local, "animist" tradition (his Youtube channel is "Nordic Animism"). I have my disagreements with him, but I really admire his commitment to the religion as something immediate and to be practiced right here and now, with relevance to the issues we're dealing with, along with a focus on embracing and reviving local customs and practices, like Krampusnacht.

I'm less sure on this front, but I suspect one complicating factor is that Germanic religion might have more nationalist baggage in Europe than in the US, and that baggage might be more strongly reacted against. Sure, there's a strain of white nationalists/supremacists trying to associate Heathenry with what they're about, but we have never had large popular movements that were like "this is who we have always really been and it should drive these cultural and political changes!" in the way that the Romantic revival of interest in ancient Germanic myth and religion did in European countries (though I know this was to different extents in different countries).

Anyhow, my last thought would be that if you're jealous of us having all the fun, there's nothing stopping you from making some of your own fun! I'm not a part of any groups and I don't know any other worshipers of the Germanic Gods in person, I just read stuff online and do my own thing, so if you're here, you've got the same sources inspiration and support that I do (well, besides whatever possible Astral/Spiritual currents might be flowing over here that aren't over there). So, maybe you can get something going, if you feel called that way.

Cheers,
Jeff