Nonprofessional translation from Russian: Sigurd, goðorð Skíðblaðnir,
Moscow 2011

Northern Tradition - the system that represents a combination of ancient traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices of people belonging to the Norse language group (the northern branch of the Germanic languages).

The word tradition comes from the Latin «trader» - to transmit, it is an ancient knowledge that is transmitted from generation to generation. First of all it is knowledge about the world, its inhabitants and its laws. It is important to understand what is it - Knowledge. The one who know the law which regulates the processes in the world and in a person can influence and modify these processes, so those who knows; in Russia we call them “vedun” (witch) from the word “veda” (knowledge). About Witchcraft, we'll talk next time, and now back to Tradition. Once the transmission line of the knowledge is terminated, the tradition is interrupted, and the ancient knowledge is forgotten. Northern Tradition – is a perfect example of an interrupted tradition. A few hundred years after the arrival of Christianity, traditional beliefs and religious practices were almost completely destroyed. Survived only part of knowledge as ancient manuscripts and images on runic stones, the national epic (later recorded on paper), folk customs and superstitions. Only Iceland, the home of almost all ancient manuscripts containing sagas, songs, witchcraft and runic grimoires, a country in which to the present day going to church on Sunday and the belief in elves living in the hills, does not contradict each other in the minds of the people, has almost uninterrupted branch of knowledge transfer. Exactly Icelandic Asatruar took the first step to the revival of the Tradition, created and legally registered the first and largest for today Asatru Community. That is how the Asatru appeared and began the process of revival of the Northern Tradition.

Asatru comes from two Norse words - ás and labor trú, troþ, literally translated as the belief in æsir; The word is a neologism. The modern world-view system, based on the Northern Tradition.

Thus, Asatru is a reviving Northern Tradition and it is a part of it, for this reason, terms Asatru and Northern Tradition, in fact, are interchangeable. Asatru applies only to the Northern Tradition, is not a neo-paganism (that is built anew, and not revived) and has no relationship to fascism, nationalism and racism. Using the elements of mythology and symbolism of the Asatru by followers of fascism do not mean the occurrence of these ideologies in the Tradition and is not supported by most modern Asatruar.

In the revival of traditions, there are two major extremes, which, unfortunately, are very common among many experienced and beginning followers of Asatru.

1. Reconstruction of the tradition. The main idea of the concept of reconstruction - a full and accurate recovery of something from the available sources. When it comes to reconstruction of material culture, this principle is undeniable must be respected. But when we speak about the rebirth of spiritual culture, such an approach will not be any good. This is a lack of understanding the very essence of the tradition and mechanism of its revival.
2. Combining the traditions. The second extreme - it's almost complete ignorance of the existence of any sources and using only the images and names. But the foundation of the spiritual system is completely borrowed from another tradition, or represents mixture of the traditions. Such an approach creates an entirely new spiritual or occult system, that has nothing common with the revived tradition, and thus kills it.

So, the definition of tradition has already been given above, now will give the definition of the word “revival” (in relation to the word tradition).

Revival - the restoration on the basis of extant sources and personal spiritual experience.
Thus, the interrupted tradition – is an interrupted transmission of ancient knowledge about the world and its laws, and the revival of the tradition - is the restoration of this transmission.

The revival of the tradition should be guided by three main principles:

1. Studying the sources. The first basic principle of the revival - the study of knowledge of those particles that have survived. Information obtained from the sources and treated properly (ie that does not allow profanity) must be the mainstay of the reviving tradition. By sources is meant mythology, material culture, sagas, poetry, documentary sources (manuscripts, governing the legal relationship, chronicles, etc.)
2. The use of spiritual experience. The second basic principle - using spiritual practices, received by processing information from the sources. Knowledge gained in this way, a more controversial and are subjective. Usually, criteria for assessing the information obtained in this way is the opinion of other followers of Asatru. It is important to understand that this method should be applied to explain fundamental concepts only if there is no mention of them in the sources. The method is more appropriate for a deeper study of one or another direction.
3. Protection and transfer of knowledge gained. The third principle - is the protection of the knowledge, received from sources and spiritual experience from the profanation, and its transmission to the followers by a system of initiations. As soon as the first transmission will occur, and generation will be replaced, tradition can be considered revived.

Sigurd,
goðorð Skíðblaðnir,
Moscow 2010