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. . Garman Lord on Theodish Symbel
In Theodish symbel we follow the
Bauschatz thesis and, both by that and by
experience, think of the boast as "resounding," though not necessarily throughout the worlds. We think of it as resounding in the sense of being bound to be overheard, noted and remembered, by ears visible and invisible. One always likes to think that the gods come whenever they are invoked, even though you won't necessarily feel their presence any too strongly at the weofod unless it's on sacrosanct holy ground. Where you do feel their presence is aet symbel; they seem to love that, and always come, even though they won't stay if they happen not to fancy the quality of the boasting, the drink or the people. I think that throughout too much of Asatru one seems to find a notion that the gods just love us to pieces, just like Jesus, just for being whatever we are, and will cheerfully indulge us and put up with most anything that we say or do. Alas, nothing could be farther from the case. They are wiser than we, and often understand us better than we understand ourselves, but they do have their likes and dislikes amongst people, just like anyone else, and in general their love and respect for us has to be similarly earned and cultivated.
What is also bound to be present in
hall are all varieties of little wights,
generally of the better-natured kinds, of course, since you will have begun by blessing the hall, but always with big ears nonetheless. They do not always understand what is going on, but they are always curious, and they do carry tales, either to your advantage or disadvantage, depending, and they will indeed make mischief for men whenever they are offended. Nor is this without good reason. Because symbel is held under a rooftree, with the whole enclosure becoming in effect "the Well," men's words there are shaped, as mains or energies, in ways not only able to go into the Well, but also bound to "resound" throughout lesser invisible nature, which affects the ecology of the world of the little wights for good or ill. It is a sense in which the words of all in hall should be thought of as coming together to fashion or cast some sort of spell, for weal or woe. Obviously any falseness, hypocrisy or ill will is going to adversely effect that ecology for all concerned, and when that happens, there is bound to be payback against the offender, and sometimes against the whole hall just for entertaining it; that is why the Thyle must be there and vigilant, and be prompt to disavow the rest of the hall from any false or foolish boast that someone might make.
As to the gods, they too will be
easily offended, and will turn their backs
on any false boast, and whenever they do that, there goes the luck. As noted, the presence or absence of the gods is most strongly felt in symbel hall, but you don't necessarily have to be a spaewife or The Amazing Kreskin to perform this psychic feat; anyone with ears can tell it right away. Good hall boasting seems to energize the whole hall, inspiring everyone to outdo themselves in lofty flights of eloquence and fancy that may be well beyond their ordinary day to day selves, such that the boasting just keeps getting better and better as the horn goes round the board. When that happens, it means that the gods are pleased with what they are hearing, and are putting inspiration into the horn drink as it gets handed round.
By contrast, you know right away when
you are in a "dead" hall, and the gods
are not present or not pleased. Instead of feeling energized, the hall feels draining and enervating, and the boasting gets weaker and weaker as the horn goes round. Even the trappings of the hall begin to seem vain and false, and by the time the horn gets round to you, even if you are normally a good boaster, you may be feeling off your usual form, and may decide not to even give the boast you had thought to give, and may find yourself giving an inferior one instead, just to get rid of the horn. Another way you can tell is by the effect on time, which of course heathenry views as inherently a relative thing anyway, rather than the Augustinian absolute. In a quality hall, the night is fleeting, and by dawn you can only wonder where the time went. In the other kind, the boasting and the night just seem somehow to drag on forever.
Too often in Asatru halls symbel
seems taken far too lightly, and very often
not even indoors but around a campfire under the open sky. Too often not only are vain foolish things said over the horn, but even mockery or slighting words to the gods, in some cockeyed attempt to shock or embarrass one's friends, no doubt, by people who may think that it's all just a silly game or pose... foolish words which are, in fact, rarely challenged, by a Thyle or anyone else. One is put in mind of a rather silly fantasy movie in which someone, maybe Conan the Barbarian, puts his plea to his god before a battle and then ends his bedung with something like "and if you won't help me, then to hell with you!" Yeah, right! Good thing this superhero has a better way with a sword than he does with words, since it is easy enough to see by his ultimate victory in battle that, fortunately enough for him, whatever god he thought he was addressing didn't actually exist.
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