#nnv

OOF

Yeah they are, Rat. I’m sorry you didn’t know. The NNV were adapted from the Odinic Rite by Stephen McNallen for the Asatru Free Assembly (now the Asatru Folk Assembly or the AFA). 

Courage, Truth, Honour, Fidelity, Discipline, Hospitality, Self Reliance, Industriousness, Perseverance. At first, these seem like just ordinary values. Except when you look at them the way they try to apply them to Heathenry. 

Courage in all situations isn’t necessarily accessible to everyone. Courage becomes excessively harder the less privilege you are afforded. Honor and Fidelity are used in a manner to establish hive mind thinking to the group. When they talk about honor and fidelity they really mean unwavering loyalty to their kindred and the white race. Hospitality? Again only to THE FOLK. Self-reliance, industriousness, and perseverance are when we get into the reeeally gross ones that drive the message home that “only young, able-bodied, neurotypical people are welcome” as these aren’t accessible to everyone for their whole lives. Self-reliance is unattainable for many. What about people who are disabled? The elderly? Industriousness is just another word for “hard-working” which is another way of saying that people have to contribute to society or they’re a drain on that society. Sound familiar? It’s fascist. And perseverance... while it’s good to persevere... judging people or telling them they are a bad Heathen for ceasing fruitless effort in the face of opposition and oppression is pretty fucked up. 

All of these are used in the ways described above by neo-Nazis, I’ve seen it first hand. While these are great virtues to have on an individual basis and with appropriate tempering with compassion and common sense, holding up these as “principles of heathenry” mean that many are set up to fail or better yet... they’re designed to exclude anyone but the strong, privileged, and those loyal to their fascist values.

It’s really unfortunate but many of the things people initially come to associate with Heathenry is really just fascism rebranded to be more palatable. They get there through a lot of over-romanticizing the ViKiNgS and archaic values all in the name of “returning to traditionalism.” 

If you’re looking for a different set of Heathen values, I’d suggest taking a look at Forn Sidr of America’s humanist tenets that were written so that they are accessible and uphold the value of all people, not just the select few.