The Chad Pastoralist: History

An interesting detail from the Rök runestone comes from the line ul niruþr sibi uiauari, which commemorates a man called Sibbi of Vé who had a son at the age of ninety. The runestone also features a battle in which twenty kings died: kunukar tuair tikir. This is considered by scholars to be the Battle of Brávellir c. 770 AD in which the Swedes from Uppland under King Sigurðr hringr fought the Gautar under the Danish king, Háraldr hilditǫnn. If it is commemorating that battle, it is significant because Sigurðr's forces included Starkaðr, who was blessed by Woden/Óðinn according to Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum. STJ made a cool video on Starkaðr a while back. The commemoration of Sibbi of Vé having a son at the age of ninety reminds me of the advice from Woden/Óðinn in Hávamál verse 72: "Better to have a son than not, even if he is born late in life, even if he is born after you die. You will rarely see gravestones standing near the road that were raised for men without sons."

Last night I had a very peculiar dream. I was on a rowboat in the middle of a raging sea, it was nighttime, and raining heavily. I was heading in the direction of a large peaked mountain, the silhouette I could faintly see in the distance as lightning cracked, lighting up the sky. Another mysterious hooded figure was on the rowboat with me (I couldn't quite make out who it was but could see their silhouette). I told them that we were heading "inside" of the mountain because it was a place where "Woden worshippers" went. I arrived at the mountain and entered the cave entrance, but when inside, a rocky path went upwards and required one to crawl on their belly as a trickling stream of water ran downwards, making the path slippery and hard to climb. I found an easier pathway to the top on the left side of the rocky path which had stairs all of a sudden. Various runes and ancient symbols were etched into the wall which I could read coherently in the dream as I took the path up. Then, I continued walking but woke up just before the dream finished.

Anglo-Saxon hours.

An alternative theory on the origin of Y-haplogroup I1 and its patrilineal descendants who would form the East Scandinavian genetic cluster has been proposed in this lecture by one of the scientists from the Steppe Ancestry in western Eurasia and the spread of the Germanic Languages paper. The lecture begins at 2:49:32. Around 3:19:30, one of the researchers from the aforementioned paper suggests that the East Scandinavian cluster possibly comes from Finland. According to Kerkko, pottery from the Kiukainen culture is found in the stone cist graves. The Kiukainen culture is a textbook fusion of both hunter-gatherer and Corded Ware culture. They practised seal hunting and pastoralism. If Kerkko's theory is correct, it would mean that the East Scandinavian cluster was from the Kiukainen culture in Southwest Finland and invaded Scandinavia by landing in East Sweden and then spreading from there. This would also fit with the strontium isotope analyses by Allentoft (2024), indicating a migration from East Sweden.

https://t.me/thechadpastoralist/2869 A thought I have been pondering recently is the idea that some Germanic myths originated with the indigenous hunter-gatherers of Scandinavia. Namely, the creation of man from trees, as explored in the Vǫluspá. We do know that pre-literate cultural groups such as the Anglo-Saxons were certainly capable of reciting 12 generations of ancestors (namely, King Penda), which is about 350 years if we assume that the average generational gap back then was 20-30 years. Thus, we can infer that their ancestors (who originated in Scandinavia and northern Germany) were capable of this, too. In the case of the East Scandinavian cluster, we know that they had emerged somewhere in East Sweden around 2600 BC and went on to replace the West and South Scandinavian genetic clusters in Denmark and Norway by 2000 BC. It is this population, the East Scandinavians, that formed the "predominant ancestry source for later Iron and Viking Age Scandinavians", and most Germanic peoples, as explored here. Given that the majority of ancient Europeans were primarily patrilineal (which we can infer based on archaeological and genetic evidence), it seems likely that the East Scandinavians were as well. Given that the predominant Y-haplogroup amongst them was I1, it seems possible that they understood themselves to have been directly descended from hunter-gatherers indigenous to Sweden about 400 years prior to their emergence (in the form of patrilineal stories of their ancestors, etc.). By 2000 BC, the East Scandinavian cluster was already admixed with steppe ancestry for about 400-600 years, but again, their male lineages were not of steppe origin and their burial customs were stone cists, not kurgans (until they incorporated them into their own tradition and became the elite of the Nordic Bronze Age). Their steppe ancestry technically came from their mothers while their main side came from their hunter-gatherer fathers. So I think it is hypothetically possible that they may have brought some form of myth of man's creation from trees with them into Denmark, which ultimately would have come from their patrilineal hunter-gatherer ancestors.

The Declaration of Tradition now has over 210 signatures. As one of the primary authors of the DOT, it is pleasing to see Germanic Pagans using this as an established pillar to take collective action as a whole. SIGN HERE: declarationoftradition.com

Environmental changes in Mesolithic to Late Neolithic Scandinavia An interesting observation in the Population Genomics in Stone Age Eurasia paper by Allentoft et al (2022) is the significant environmental changes that occurred based on the lifestyle of different cultural groups that existed in Scandinavia across time. In the Mesolithic, when Western and Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherer peoples lived, vegetation was dominated by primary forest trees (Tilia, Ulmus, Quercus, Fraxinus, Alnus, etc.). No significant deforestation took place, suggesting that the hunter-gatherer peoples of Scandinavia lived in a symbiotic relationship with nature. By the Neolithic, during the Funnelbeaker culture phase (c. 4300-2800 BC) and the onset of agriculture in Scandinavia, forests were repeatedly cleared by fire to give room for pastureland, followed by regrowth. This suggests that the Early European Farmer inhabitants of Scandinavia created temporary open spaces of pasture before allowing them to regrow. With the onset of the Single Grave culture (2800-2200 BC) and migration of semi-pastoral steppe herders into Scandinavia, permanent deforestation took place. Some forests did regrow, dominated by two primary forest trees, Tilia and Ulmus. This suggests that some forests were permanently cut down by these people to create open pastures for cattle. In light of new evidence, it is curious to note the subsistence strategy of the East Scandinavian cluster, the population of Late Neolithic Scandinavians who primarily carried Y-haplogroup I1 and replaced both the aforementioned Funnelbeaker culture and Single Grave culture (who were technically in their Flint Dagger culture phase). The East Scandinavian cluster relied on a hunter-fisher-pastoral subsistence strategy, which is interesting because it is a reflection of what we can infer their origin story is based on the most recent evidence: Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherer men primarily carrying Y-haplogroup I1 with Battle Axe culture wives, forming a unique culture whereby the men were patrilineal and followed the stone cist burial tradition of their fathers, who were ultimately hunter-gatherers (and, based on strontium isotope analysis, possibly from East Sweden. Perhaps Mälaren Valley).

An epithet of Woden-Óðinn is Yggr ("Terrifying"). In what sense is Óðinn terrifying? Some may call Óðinn a god of war, and there is some truth to that. However, Óðinn's terrifying intensity cannot be described in the sense of vengeful or malicious rage. Óðinn, when completely engulfed in spiritual awareness, what we call "divine madness", appears terrifying to us. Read the full article: Odin's Self-Sacrifice: The True Meaning of Enlightenment

An epithet of Woden-Óðinn is Yggr ("Terrifying"). In what sense is Óðinn terrifying? Some may call Óðinn a god of war, and there is some truth to that. However, Óðinn's terrifying intensity cannot be described in the sense of vengeful or malicious rage. Óðinn, when completely engulfed in spiritual awareness, what we call "divine madness", appears terrifying to us. Read the full article: Odin's Self-Sacrifice: The True Meaning of Enlightenment