[Main Blog Post] Eirik Westcoat and the American Futharch

[jprussell]

Eirik Westcoat is the modern poet from whom I have learned to craft verse in Germanish meters, and he has constructed a new set of Runestaves fitted to the sounds of modern English. Along the way to explaining why he did that, though, he just happened to drop a remarkable insight into one of the mysteries of Runic scholarship.

Comments

[causticus]

Eirik's American English Runes seem quite fascinating, to say the least. I really enjoyed the alliterations he used in his runepoems.

I do wonder if these are any good for divination though, given that he's changed the meaning of some of them.

[jprussell]

Well, he said in the interview that he crafted them with the intention that they would be, specifically they should be suitable for all of the work in Nine Doors of Midgard, which he has completed (along with being a master in the Thorsson-founded Rune Gild).

I suppose your confidence in that claim would come down to how much you believe the Runes' efficacy as a divinatory medium is due to their divinely-revealed nature, and how much is due to being a handy set of symbols that we can graft meaning onto, and how much confidence you have that that he is qualified in one or both of those approaches.

[causticus]

Ohh, then I trust he knows exactly what he's doing. Thorsson certainly knows his stuff and Runegild seems like a very serious system of occult training.

At any rate, I'm very glad to see a specifically-American adaptation of the Runes.

[jprussell]

It certainly looks like it from the publicly-available descriptions of the work!

And yes, I am too. It's a bit too early and too much at this stage to say I've been "thinking about" what Heathenry putting down real roots in America would mean and look like, but it's starting to bubble around in there somewhere. This strikes me as a good model of the kind of stuff I'd like to see - firmly grounded in the tradition (otherwise, why Heathenry?), but alive and relevant to here, today.

[causticus]

Another good one:

https://krasskova.wordpress.com/2020/04/16/odin-of-the-west/

[jprussell]

Thank you for this! Both for the food for thought on "American Odin" and for the linked playlist itself, which is much to my taste and jives with some of my own gropings toward what American Heathenry might feel like.

For what it's worth, I also get a distinctly Odinic vibe from a lot of 90s grunge and alternative music (for example "Wherever I May Roam" and "Low Man's Lyric" by Metallica are on my "Woden's Day" playlist).

Cheers,
Jeff

[causticus]

Agreed, I too think that both heavy metal and grunge convey an Odinic vibe. Metal in particular evokes a strong Germanic barbarian aesthetic, or at least what we modern people imagine that as being.

I think the wily old man might get a good chuckle out of the Alice in Chains song Them Bones. Heck, it could even be a devotional to Hel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFgAE5SgFnw

[jprussell]

Thank you for this as well! It certainly has the right vibe. I still think there's something to Jordan Peterson's observation that a lot of punk and post-punk music (including Grunge and Metal, I believe, though he doesn't mention them specifically) has seemingly nihilistic lyrics and themes that are belied by the music itself. "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden is maybe the pre-eminent example in my own experience, but this song hits the same vibe for me. It's lyrics read as a straightforward despair in the face of inevitable death, but the wryness and the up-tempo of the music and a few other things gives it an aesthetically meaning nonetheless.

That feels like a fairly Odinic mystery to me (at least for His "Dark Side" that we're also discussing over on your journal currently).