The Sacred Stew

The ideals that you promote are not necessarily the words that you speak, but more importantly, it is the way your ideas manifest themselves into your daily life. If your words and actions contradict each other, your words are just abstract ideas and not tangibly true. We are a faith and people of actions and deeds. Your life is a reflection of your true ideals.

“Even in the sheath, the sword must be sharp. So, too must the mind and spirit be within the body. " - Havamal

The PNW Wolfpack thanks all of the individuals who have contributed to the fund raiser for Samantha's son. We also want to express our gratitude for all of the organizations and channels that shared Samantha's story. A special acknowledgment to these groups: Norvestri Kindred Raven Folk United The Frithstead The Norroena Society Vidar Rising Pagan Revivalism Dave Martel We also thank those who shared her story that we do not know of. Without all of you, this would not be possible. With everyone's efforts, we have so far raised $3700 (at last check). While this is a good start, there is still a lot of work that needs to be accomplished. We have already disbursed $3370 to the family for immediate financial relief. Future disburstments will occur monthly. The family has expressed their gratitude for all of the help, and we extend that gratitude to all of you. This fund raiser is far from finished as we intend to keep this donation pool indefinitely open to help with the care and support of Samantha's son for the foreseeable future. This will be a living memorial to Samantha, and part of the legacy she leaves to her son.

The PNW Wolfpack Flys the banner of death and passing of one of our own. We hail and honor Samantha Deschenes. Let it be known that Samantha's name was called to the gods at 7:30pm, to this resounding horn! Samantha was a warrior in life, a mother, a daughter, and our sister! She is loved by many! We send her gifts, prayers, and love for her journey in the other world. May Thor hallow her, and may Odin receive her. Samantha was born in 1991 and passed at the young age of 33. She is survived by her 9 yearold son and many family and friends who love her! We have set up a donation page for her son and family. 100% of the donations go to the care of her surviving son and immediate family caring for her son. You can donate here: https://pnwkindreds.com/campaigns/samantha-deschenes/

Calling All Folk Far And Wide! One of our own needs your help! Samantha Deschenes, a beloved member of our community, has life-threatening injuries which IF she survives will leave her with life altering injuries and her family needs love and support! We have set up a donation drive specifically to benefit her young son and family to help them through this ordeal. Samantha has been a warrior in life and needs our support in this time of need. Donate and learn more here: https://pnwkindreds.com/campaigns/samantha-deschenes/

Concerning the subject of the "Goddess Hel" Hel is Urdr. The Goddess of Fate is the Goddess of Death. Not a big surprise! The being most people think of as “Hel” incorrectly is Loki’s daughter named Leikn. Leikn is the demon of Niflhel whose “bones Thor broke,” when he cast her down to Niflhel. Viktor Rydberg talks about this in his Germanic Mythology volume 2 Far down in Christian times the participle leikinn was used in a manner which points to something mythical as the original reason for its application. In Biskupas, (i. 464) it is said of a man that he was leikinn by some magic being ( flagd). Of another person who sought solitude and talked with himself, it is said in Eyrbyggja (270) that he was believed to be leikinn. Ynglingatal gives us the mythical explanation of this word. In its strophe about King Dyggve, who died from disease, this poem says (Yngling., ch. 20) that, as the lower world dis had chosen him, Loke's kinswoman came and made him leikinn (Allvald Yngva thjodar Loka mær um leikinn hefir). The person who became leikinn is accordingly visited by Loke's kinswoman, or, if others have had the same task to perform, by some being who resembled her, and who brought psychical or physical disease. In our mythical records there is mention made of a giantess whose very name, Leikin, Leikn, is immediately connected with that activity which Loke's kinswoman—and she too is a giantess—exercises when she makes a person leikinn. Of this personal Leikin we get the following information in our old records: 1. She is, as stated, of giant race (Younger Edda, i. 552). 2. She has once fared badly at Thor's hands. He broke her leg ( Leggi brauzt thu Leiknar—Skaldsk., ch. 4, after a song by Vetrlidi). 3. She is kveldrida. The original and mythological meaning of kveldrida is a horsewoman of torture or death (from kvelja, to torture, to kill). The meaning, a horsewoman of the night, is a misunderstanding. Compare Vigfusson's Dict., sub voce "Kveld." 4. The horse which this woman of torture and death rides is black, untamed, difficult to manage ( styggr), and ugly-grown ( ljótvaxinn). It drinks human blood, and is accompanied by other horses belonging to Leikin, black and bloodthirsty like it. (All this is stated by Hallfred Vandradaskald.) [13] Perhaps these loose horses are intended for those persons whom the horsewomen of torture causes to die from disease, and whom she is to conduct to the lower world. Popular traditions have preserved for our times the remembrance of the "ugly-grown" horse, that is, of a three-legged horse, which on its appearance brings sickness, epidemics, and plagues. The Danish popular belief (Thiele i. 137, 138) knows this monster and the word Hel-horse has been preserved in the vocabulary of the Danish language. The diseases brought by the Hel-horse are extremely dangerous, but not always fatal. When they are not fatal the convalescent is regarded as having ransomed his life with that tribute of loss of strength and of torture which the disease caused him, and in a symbolic sense he has then "given death a bushel of oats" (that is, to its horse). According to popular belief in Slesvik (Arnkiel, i. 55; cp. J. Grimm, Deutsche Myth, 804), Hel rides in the time of a plague on a three-legged horse and kills people. Thus the ugly-grown horse is not forgotten in traditions from the heathen time. Völuspa inform us that in the primal age of man, the sorceress Heid went from house to house and was a welcome guest with evil women, since she seid Leikin ( sida means to practise sorcery). Now, as Leikin is the "horsewoman of torture and death," and rides the Hel-horse, then the expression sida Leikin can mean nothing else than by sorcery to send Leikin, the messenger of disease and death, to those persons who are the victims of the evil wishes of "evil women;" or, more abstractly, to bring by sorcery dangerous diseases to men. [14] From all this follows that Leikin is either a side-figure to the daughter of Loke, and like her in all respects, or she and the Loke-daughter are one and the same person.

To determine the question whether they are identical, we must observe (1) the definitely representative manner in which Völuspa, by the use of the name Leikin, makes the possessor of this name a mythic person, who visits men with diseases and death; (2) the manner in which Ynglingatal characterises the activity of Loke's daughter with a person doomed to die from disease; she makes him leikinn, an expression which, without doubt, is in its sense connected with the feminine name Leikn, and which was preserved in the vernacular far down in Christian times, and there designated a supernatural visitation bringing the symptoms of mental or physical illness; (3) the Christian popular tradition in which the deformed and disease-bringing horse, which Leikin rides in the myth, is represented as the steed of "death" or "Hel;" (4) that change of meaning by which the name Hel, which in the mythical poems of the Elder Edda designates the whole heathen realm of death, and especially its regions of bliss, or their queen, got to mean the abode of torture and misery and its ruler—a transmutation by which the name Hel, as in Gylfaginning and in the Slesvik traditions, was transferred from Urd to Loke's daughter. Finally, it should be observed that it is told of Leikin, as of Loke's daughter, that she once fared badly at the hands of the gods, who did not, however, take her life. Loke's daughter is not slain, but is cast into Nifelhel (Gylfaginning, ch. 34). From that time she is gnúpleit—that is to say, she has a stooping form, as if her bones had been broken and were unable to keep her in an upright position. Leikin is not slain, but gets her legs broken. All that we learn of Leikin thus points to the Loke-maid, the Hel, not of the myth, but of Christian tradition. Everyone must go to the Thing of the dead. So when a source mentions disease taking one to Hel that is connected to this. But it is Leikn who is the wight of disease, and Hel is the blessed realm of the benevolent dead. It is Gimli "where all righteous men dwell" until Ragnarok.

Loki’s daughter is not clearly identified as Hel in any of the existing Eddaic poems. In light of this, it’s important to note that the description of “Hel’s high hall” stands in stark contrast to the hall of Loki’s daughter in Snorri’s Edda. In the Eddaic poem Baldrs Draumar, whereas the benches in “Hel’s high hall” are strewn with costly things and mead stands poured out in goblets awaiting a guest, the hall of Loki’s daughter (whom Snorri calls Hel) is a dismal place with its dish called “Hunger” and its knife named “famine.” The Eddaic poems clearly distinguish this place from Hel, the realm where “all men” must eventually come according to Fáfnismál 10. Vafþrúðnismál 43 separates those that come to Hel from those that pass through Hel into Niflhel. W.P. Reaves

If the purpose of the journey to Hel is to appear at the court by Urd’s well and wait for judgment and even warriors chosen for Valhalla must stop here before passing over Bifröst to Asgard and Valhalla, we must suspect that the gods have some involvement in the matter, since ultimately it is Odin and Freyja who decide who enters their halls Valhalla and Sessrumnir. According to both Eddas, Skuld, the youngest of the three Norns, is also the leader of Odin’s valkyries which explains why warriors chosen for Valhalla are allowed to bypass the Thingstead at Urd’s well. W.P. Reaves