Why Idavoll?
In one of the holy poems of our faith, we are told that Idavoll is the heavenly plain where the Gods meet for their assemblies, and also where they engage in a measure of their Godly creativity- at Idavoll it is said that they “created wealth, smithed riches, forged tongs and made tools”. We also discover that Asgard- the great hall and enclosure of the Gods who are led by Allfather, is built there.
The scholar John Lindow gives three possible etymologies for the word “Idavoll”- he says that it can mean “eternal field”, “shimmering field”, or perhaps “field of the pursuits of the Gods”. Our holy stories and poems go on to tell us something else about Idavoll- that after the doom and end of this world, and of all the worlds, Idavoll plain will exist again, and the descendants of the Gods will dwell there again. At Idavoll, we are told, they will remember the great deeds of the world that had passed away, as they prepare for the whatever Fate the new world will bring with it.
We chose this name for many reasons. When we meet as a Kindred, we do so in a Ve or a hallowed place, which in a very real way becomes a “field” upon which we meet the Gods. At our sacrifices and Symbels, our hallowed places become fields where both our Kindred and the Holy Kindreds of the other worlds can assemble together.
But more than that, we feel that in a one manner, the “end of the world” has already come- the end of the Heathen or Pagan world was very nearly accomplished by the spread of foreign religions in Europe. Now, in the modern day, we are assembling like our Heathen ancestors once did, in the name of the same Gods- perhaps the field or the meadow of the Gods has been resurrected in us, and in every person or kindred faithful to the Old Gods. We are meeting again, in a holy place, to remember the past and to preserve the greatness it has to teach us.
As a Kindred, we are concerned with craftsmanship- our current Steersman and Hallwarder, þórgrímr, is a craftsman himself, a wood and leather-worker, as well as a visual artist, and our Godi Ule is a writer, crafting things with words: the fact that the Holy Kindreds carried on smithing and craft-work at the “shining plain” is another marker that connects us with the spirit of Idavoll. Like the Gods- and thanks to them- we create things, and we don’t see craft-work and creative endeavors as separate from our spiritual path.