Speech of 2025/10/03 in Athens by Ingvild Linea Bråthen and Audun Mehl from Ford Sed Norge (Norway)

Honored hosts of the conference, The Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes and this year's participants – greetings!

Forn Sed Norge saw the light of day as a result of a schism from another Ásatrù community in Norway, which was considered to have become too pompous. The desire was to simplify things, to get away from dogmas, rules and what was beginning to resemble priesthood. A, "back to basics”, so to speak.

A small group of enthusiasts consisting of Norwegians and Icelanders living in Norway took the initiative in the summer of 1998 to start what was initially an interest association and an open forum for anyone interested in domestic traditions and Norse cultural heritage. In Iceland, knowledge of the Norse language and cultural heritage is kept alive, so the foundation for starting something new was very favorable.

The County Governor's Office in Oslo registered Forn Sed Norge as a publicly approved religious community on November 10th, 1999. The community receives state and municipal support for all members, and follows normal associational practices in operations, decisions and finances. Forn Sed Norge recognizes the Norwegian state as the supreme authority, and thus the laws of Norway.

Forn Sed Norge arranges blot-ritual four times a year, as well as rituals that mark important transitions in life. The religious community has officially approved the right to perform marriages, granted by the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs on February 14th, 2002.

The members live scattered throughout our long country, but we also try to arrange informal meetings from time to time.

At the beginning of 2025, Forn Sed Norge have 166 members, as well as some supporting members abroad. Guests are allowed to attend events and blots/liturgies, which is important in terms of potentially new members. One is allowed to provide information about Forn Sed Norge, but missionary work in the traditional sense should not occur. For people residing in Norway, membership in Forn Sed Norge is free. Supporting members abroad pay a membership fee.

The main purpose of Forn Sed Norge is to continue old traditions and customs, as well as provide insight into and interest in Norse religion, folk beliefs and Norse cultural heritage. Since its inception, Forn Sed Norge has been both knowledge- and experience-based, and these two constitute the bedrock to this day. The faith community rests on the belief that the old ways of doing things are not a reconstruction, but have survived through folk beliefs, traditions, fairy tales, ballads and various stories. They have functioned as a vital undercurrent for the last thousand years and are now showing up on the surface again as inspiration and taking on many different forms. A good example is music, with groups such as Wardruna and Heilung and their tours around the world, as well as our contributions to the metal genre.

Forn Sed Norge recognizes all gods and beings within Norse religion and folk beliefs. The members of the faith community practice their faith as it suits them, as long as it does not conflict with Norwegian laws.

Like ethnic religions in general, Norse religion is polytheistic, nondogmatic, and originally orally passed down. That is, it is not based on one God, holy scriptures, sin and salvation, heaven and hell; in short, things we can associate with monotheistic religions such as Christianity.

But for pagan people both past and present, there is certainly a code of recommended behavior; you can reap honor or shame according to strict criteria and, consequently, harvesting honor or shame.

As mentioned, Forn Sed Norge does not follow holy scriptures, but we have a fairly rich corpus of handed down texts in various genres that inspire. “Den Poetiske Edda” / “The Poetic Edda” in particular contributes poems that contain knowledge about rules of conduct and cosmology.

Nature has a very strong presence in Norway, and those who are open to it will have no problem experiencing the presence of the powers.

The conference has set aside time for lunches and a program that can potentially provide space for new acquaintances and interesting conversations. We who represent Forn Sed Norway hope to learn a lot of new things, but also to be able to contribute our own.

Thank you for your attention.