The Community of Forn Sed Sweden (), formerly the Swedish Asatro Community (''Sveriges Asatrosamfund'') is a heathen (Germanic neopagan) organization founded in 1994.

History

The Swedish Asatro Community () was founded in 1994 as an outgrowth of a group that studied Norse history and culture from a non-religious point of view.Fredrik Gregorius, "Modern asatro och dess historia," in Catharina Raudvere, Anders Andrén, and Kristina Jennbert-Spång, eds., ''Hedendomen i historiens spegel: bilder av det förkristna Norden'', Vägar till Midgård 6, Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2005, , pp. 133–64
p. 150; GoogleBooks numbering p. 50
It became a registered religious organization in Sweden in 2007.Ulf Törnberg

''Sydsvenskan'' February 14, 2007.Josef El Madhi
"Det våras för hedningarna: Efter tusen år av kristendom blotas det återigen vid högarna. Sveriges asatroendes samfund är numera officiellt erkänt av staten och det våras för hedningarna,"
''

Svenska Dagbladet (, "The Swedish Daily News"), abbreviated SvD, is a daily List of Swedish newspapers, newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. History and profile The first issue of appeared on 18 December 1884. During the beginning of the 1900s the pap ...

'' April 9, 2007, updated September 27, 2007 The Swedish Asatro Community became one of the most important heathen organizations in Sweden, and had grown from approximately 150 members in 1996 to approximately 450Gregorius
p. 151, GoogleBooks p. 51
when it formed the main subject of Fredrik Skott's study of neo-paganism in Sweden, ''Asatro i tiden'', published in 2000, at which time it was the largest such organization in the country. Skott found that the membership was two-thirds male, mostly in their thirties, and the most active lived in and around Stockholm, but that they represented a cross-section of Swedish society. In the 2000s, the organization was reduced by disagreements; some of the members who left in 2004 founded (literally "The Network Ancient Custom"). But later in the decade it was growing again, along with a general growth of interest in heathenry in Sweden; in 2009 it had about 300 members. At the May 15, 2010 Thing, the organization changed its name to Samfundet Forn Sed Sverige. In 2017, according to a spokesperson, the membership accounted to about 400. It had at that point been surpassed by the

Nordic Asa-Community The Nordic Asa-Community (; abbreviated NAS) is a Germanic heathen religious organisation founded in Sweden in 2014. Since 2016, it has been the largest heathen organisation in the country. History The Nordic Asa-Community (NAS) was founded in ...

, founded in 2014, making the Community of Forn Sed Sweden the second largest heathen organization in the country. As of 2023, the official website says that the organization has around 650 members.

Organization

Unlike some other heathen groups in Sweden, the Community of Forn Sed Sweden is conventionally organized. The annual Thing elects the Board, called the Council, as well as making major decisions. The Council includes a council goði and gyðja. The organization divides the country for administrative purposes into three regions or goðorðs, Götaland, Svealand and Norrland, each of which has a goði and a gyðja, and serves as an umbrella organization for local groups.Fredrik Skott, ''Asatro i tiden'', Småskrifter utg. av Språk- och folkminnesinstitutet, Dialekt-, ortnamns- och folkminnesarkivet i Göteborg 1, Gothenburg: Språk- och folkminnesinstitutet, 2000, ; Review by Morten Warmind, ''Chaos: Dansk-norsk tidsskrift for religionshistoriske studier'' 37 (2002
pp. 158–59
Anna Westin
"Blot utan offer men på fullt allvar,"
'' Upsala Nya Tidning'' March 29, 2005 The Community of Forn Sed Sweden publishes a periodical called ''Mimers Källa''.

Beliefs and religious activity

Members vary in their conception of the

gods A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

. Some perform offerings on their own in addition to the organization's collective

blót (Old Norse and Old English) or (Old English) are religious ceremonies in Germanic paganism that centred on the killing and offering of an animal to a particular being, typically followed by the communal cooking and eating of its meat. Old Nors ...

s, which, like those of the Danish Forn Siðr organization and in conformity with Swedish law, are not animal sacrifices as they would historically have been. The organization held a ceremony at the Kings' Mounds at

Gamla Uppsala Gamla Uppsala (, ''Old Uppsala'') is a parish and a village outside Uppsala in Sweden. It had 17,973 inhabitants in 2016. As early as the 3rd century AD and the 4th century AD and onwards, it was an important religious, economic and political c ...

in 2000 in celebration of the dissolution of the Swedish state church, the first heathen blót at the site in more than 900 years. It has since held open blóts there every spring and is perhaps best known for that. Goði for Svealand and former Chairman of the Board Henrik Hallgren has represented

Ásatrú Heathenry, also termed Heathenism, contemporary Germanic Paganism, or Germanic Neopaganism, is a Modern paganism, modern pagan religion. Scholars of religious studies classify it as a new religious movement. Developed in Europe during the ea ...

at the "Spirituality beyond Religions" international conference organized in

Jaipur Jaipur (; , ) is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the List of cities and towns in Rajasthan, largest city of the north-western States and union territories of India, Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had ...

, India, in 2006 by the World Council of Elders of Ancient Traditions and Cultures, presenting a paper entitled "Ecological spirituality and Forn Sed," and in 2010, 2011, and 2012 presented programs on heathenry in the ''Vid dagens början'' series of religious and philosophical reflections on

Sveriges Radio Sveriges Radio Aktiebolag, AB (; "Sweden's Radio") is Sweden's national publicly funded radio programming, radio broadcaster. Sveriges Radio is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, previously funded through a television ...

, provoking criticism from Siewert Öholm that Ásatrú was not worthy of broadcasting.

Politics and activism

The Community of Forn Sed Sweden requires its members to adopt a "non-racist and democratic" stance.Kennet Granholm, ''Embracing the Dark: The Magic Order of Dragon Rouge: Its Practice in Dark Magic and Meaning Making'', Åbo: Åbo Akademi, 2005,
p. 105
Its own statement is that while non-dogmatic, its value system is "based on a humanistic and democratic ethos that recognizes all human beings" and it "stand for religious tolerance and religious freedom in a multicultural society." It set up a níðstǫng on its site against racist and xenophobic misuse of Norse symbols, which has become "something of a marker" for the group. It is also establishing itself as particularly gay-friendly.Karin Hylander
"Svagt stöd hos forskningen,"
''Svenska Dagbladet'' November 4, 2009 , an interview with Fredrik Gregorius, author of a recent PhD dissertation on modern Ásatrú: " Även om hbt-anhängarna har ett starkt stöd i Sveriges asatrosamfund . . . . , mer nationalistiska nyhedniska grupper har lyft fram en mer negativ bild av homosexualitet." "Even though LGBT advocates have strong support in the Swedish Asatro Community . . . . , more nationalistic neo-heathen groups have emphasized a more negative view of homosexuality."

References

External links

Community of Forn Sed Sweden website
* Anna Lagerblad
"'Det bor en tomte i min lägenhet': Per Lundberg tror inte bara på Freja och Oden utan också på tomten—den nordiska hustomten. Hans asatro är en modern variant av den fornnordiska seden och han uttrycker sin andlighet genom bland annat riter, sång, dans, hantverk och sex."
''