Wolves of Vinland is a Norse neopagan group based in the outskirts of

Lynchburg, Virginia Lynchburg is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. First settled in 1757 by ferry owner and Abolitionism, abolitionist John Lynch (1740–1820), J ...

. In 2018, the

Southern Poverty Law Center The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white ...

added the Wolves of Vinland to its list of hate groups.

History

The Wolves of Vinland raised $3000 on

GoFundMe GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the ...

to purchase materials for a Viking-style longhall, and accepted donations from white nationalist organizations such as Counter Currents Publishing. Members of the group routinely post photos of ritual animal slaughter on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

. Prior to his resignation from the organization in late 2018, author Jack Donovan was an outspoken supporter of the Wolves, along with Kevin DeAnna, the founder of the now defunct Youth for Western Civilization. One member of the group, Maurice "Hjalti" Michaely, served two years in prison after being found guilty of attempted

church arson Church arson is burning or attempting to burn religious property, because empty churches are soft targets, racial hatred, pyromania, prejudice against certain religious beliefs, greed, or as part of communal violence or dissent or anti-religious ...

against the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, a historic Black church in Gainesville, Virginia. The fire did not injure anyone, but caused $1 million in damages to the building. The group has been compared to

Chuck Palahniuk Charles Michael Palahniuk (;, , born February 21, 1962) is an American novelist of Ukrainian and French ancestry who describes his work as transgressional fiction. He has published 19 novels, three nonfiction books, two graphic novels, and two ad ...

's novel ''

Fight Club ''Fight Club'' is a 1999 American film directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. It is based on the 1996 novel ''Fight Club (novel), Fight Club'' by Chuck Palahniuk. Norton plays The Narrator (F ...

'' and its

film adaptation A film adaptation transfers the details or story of an existing source text, such as a novel, into a feature film. This transfer can involve adapting most details of the source text closely, including characters or plot points, or the original sou ...

, and members have quoted the work as an influence, specifically the story's antihero

Tyler Durden The Narrator is a fictional Character (arts), character and the protagonist and Antagonist, main antagonist of the 1996 Chuck Palahniuk novel ''Fight Club (novel), Fight Club'', its 1999 Fight Club, film adaptation of the same name, and the com ...

. Members of the group have been associated with the white power music and

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with tr ...

scenes in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

, and elsewhere. In 2022, two men with ties to Wolves of Vinland and the Asatru Folk Assembly were arrested and charged with plotting to rob a bank. They reportedly ran a

Telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pi ...

channel that engaged in militant accelerationist rhetoric.

Controversies

The

lists the Wolves of Vinland as a "neo- Volkisch hate group"https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/neo-volkisch SPLC. "Neo-Volkisch". Online. Accessed 6 August 2018 and as a "

white nationalist White nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that white people are a Race (human categorization), raceHeidi Beirich and Kevin Hicks. "Chapter 7: White nationalism in America". In Perry, Barbara ...

group".

References

{{reflist, 30em

External links

The group's official website
White supremacist groups in the United States Germanic neopagan organisations Modern pagan organizations based in the United States Religious organizations based in Virginia White nationalism in Virginia