Yeah, I said that and I still stand by that statement, not just because I am born and raised asatru, but because I am an archaeologist by training, and also because I can recount my family's roots within the faith at least as far back as to the 1800's. And please don't say things like that in front of the families whose ancestor women were burnt at the stakes during the 1600's (mainly) for practising the religion openly (a k a "heatens"). They take offense on behalf of their ancestors.
The North American form of asatru as well as the name "asatru", however, is new. As far as we know, the Norsemen did not have a name for their faith. It just was. The name was invented later by necessity, and because North Americans are so far removed from the Nordic homeland with the ethnography and all that comes with that, there is a gap in the knowledge (they do not learn from their fathers what their granfathers had taught them and so on, but have to learn from books a lot, and things get lost in translation terribly easily), which some tend to fill in with "new stuff". I do not feel the need to do so myself, as I was taught all the things I need to know from my father, who learned it from his father, who learned it from his, and so on. That is not to say I am any better than any other asatruar, and it is not meant to offend anyone.
For any father discussion on this, take it to the proper thread - "Viking Mythology and all that goes with it".
LOLOL OK ok that was easy...
