Vilhelm Peter Grønbech (14 June 1873 – 21 April 1948), Danish cultural historian and professor of the history of religion at the University of Copenhagen, made one of the greatest contributions to heathenry old and new with his seminal work, The Culture of the Teutons. This four-volume masterwork seems to me required reading for all modern heathens. While it deals in small amounts with the “religion” of the Germanic tribes, it is for the most part the story of how the lived, thought, and behaved.
One of the oldest and most prominent of east coast kindreds in the U.S., Raven Kindred North, uses “Frith, Honor, and Luck” as its motto, and I feel it appropriate to give a nod to them whenever I use the three terms together (something I am wont to do). These are the first three major concepts dealt with by Grønbech in The Culture of the Teutons, and there is – at least to me – a sense that these are the foundation upon which all else in the heathen worldview is constructed.
Drawing heavily upon Grønbech’s own words and a few other sources, I’ll do my best to explain these fundamental aspects of the heathen worldview. (Wikipedia handles the topic rather nicely so I’m borrowing from them, too.)
