A Modern Name for an Old Ambition

Heathenry designates a family of modern revival movements seeking to reconstruct and practice the pre-Christian Germanic religious traditions of Northern Europe, drawing on the same historical source base, primarily medieval Icelandic manuscripts such as the Poetic Edda, discussed in relation to Norse paganism elsewhere in this atlas, though Heathenry as a modern organized movement is generally treated by scholars of contemporary paganism as its own distinct category of revival practice, with its own specific organizations, terminology and internal diversity developed particularly from the later twentieth century onward across North America, the United Kingdom and continental Europe.

Different Heathen organizations vary considerably in emphasis, ranging from those focused closely on historical reconstruction based on documentary and archaeological evidence to others incorporating more explicitly spiritual or mystical approaches less tied to strict historical reconstruction, a genuine internal diversity that makes generalized description of Heathenry as a single unified practice inaccurate. As with Norse pagan revival more broadly, the underlying historical source material available to modern Heathen practitioners is itself mediated through medieval Christian scribal transmission, a limitation this entry treats as relevant background for understanding what any specific Heathen organization's modern practice can and cannot claim direct historical continuity with.