Folkview Shift by Using Term Heathen

Wassail!

Today, when one thinks of the origin of the term 'heathen', using the etymology 'dweller on the heath', one often thinks of a quaint term the Christians used to describe our heathen ancestors. One often thinks they used the term 'heathen' as meaning nothing more than 'country folk' because we had no need to name our indigenous tribal ways. Cute term, but kind of implying they were country bumpkins, unsophisticated. Backwards and backwoods dirt farmers. Their religion outdated and silly. I am beginning to think that the use of the term 'heathen' by the Christians, in calling the folk who still worshipped our Gods and Goddesses and who still practiced the tribal ways, was much more sinister. I think it was more than just trying to label our ancestors as quaint oddities. While this certainly could help with the perception of the Christians as being more modern and thus more civilized, I think there is much more devious intent there. I think today, we are missing something. Our understanding is colored by the times we live in. Let me explain.

In our heathen ancestor's time, the heaths, while still a holistic part of the landscape and valuable in itself, were part of the utangarths, the outlands. They were outside the physical and spiritual frithgarth. The outlands is where the wild things, the monsters are. The moors, the fens, the swamps. One didn’t live there. The heaths were 'out there'. One went 'out there' to gather fuel, tend animals and such but one didn’t live out there. It was not the innersgarth. The innersgarth is community. Innersgarth is frith. Innersgarth is good and wholesome. This is where order and safety reign, the homestead, the village the hlaford’s hall.

This is your proof that you are human. You are a person in the innersgarth. The ones who dwelt out there in the wilds were savages. Wild men. Monsters. Non-humans. Creatures who wanted to destroy the innersgarth. Man and the Gods shunned an outlander. They are, after all and most importantly, outside of frith. This is where heroes and Thunar himself goes to smash the ones who would invade the innersgarth. Beowulf slew Grendel when Grendel brought the outlands into Herot and spoiled Hrothgar’s frith. Grendel deserved no frith.

The outlands is where Grendel’s mother took the head of Hrothgar's companion and friend Aeschere when she invaded Herot in vengeance of Grendel’s death. The outlands, the fens, the moors, the heath are where Beowulf went to slay Grendel’s mother in vengeance and to protect the frith of the innersgarth. Grendel's mother deserved and got no frith. Beowulf returned unfrith and death from the outlanders with unfrith and death to the outlanders. No one sheds a tear for the monsters, the ones who tore a hole in the shield wall of the frithgarth. The hero repays evil with death. The monsters deserve no tears either. In doing so, order was restored. The frithgarth was safe from the monsters.

I hope I have submitted enough thoughts to draw a connection between the monsters and those who are outside of frith, the outlands, with the wild places, the fens and heaths and mores. I think, that by choosing the word 'heathen', it was a carefully crafted plan to change the way the Christian people could now look at the 'heathens'. By calling people who still worshipped the Gods of our ancestors as 'heathen', they are now being associated directly with the outlands and the wilds. Calling them heathen may sound quaint to our ears, but by doing so, they are now no longer 'of one blood and one bone with us'. They are now, in an instant, shifting from friends and family to outlanders. Wild people. Deserving no frith and nothing but destruction as they are now the enemy. Not only the enemy, but monsters, non-humans and devils. The only way to make these former kinfolk human again is to bring them back into the innersgarth. Being thought of as 'heathen', of the heaths, of the outlands, the only way to bring them back into the innersgarth of frith is to convert away from their ancestors. Convert to the Christian faith and join the innersgarth and frithgarth.

Let me give another supporting example of how calling one a heathen meant more than just someone being a 'country bumpkin'. Let us look at Penda, king of Mercia (c. 632_ 654). He was without a doubt one of the last heathen kings of an Anglo Saxon kingdom. He was also one of the most powerful of his times. He flexed his military and political muscle across his own kingdom and surrounding ones. Mercia. Mercia was no small weak kingdom; it was a powerhouse and a center of civilization in itself. How could one characterize Mercia, or its leader as nothing more than a rural kingdom or king? No. Heathen, at the time, meant more. It meant outlander. No one at that time or this time could believe Penda was characterized as a heathen king simply meaning something as innocent as a country lad. The majority of the Germanic folk still lived 'in the country'. How else would one explain the violence that the Christian church railed against the heathens if it simply meant that one was from the country? It meant outlander.

The conception of heathen is also one way how I see the cruelty and total disregard of human life the missionary's and converting kings showed their heathen kinfolk justified, in their eyes at least. Charlemagne, the Saxon slayer, murdered thousands of Heathen Saxons for not giving up their troth to our Gods. I find it hard to blame it all on political footwork. Olaf the fat placed metal bowls full of hot coals on the stomach of a man until his stomach burst and he died who would not convert. Times were different then, but I firmly believe, that the simple play of words to 'heathen' caused the mind to shift in its view of the heathens from kinfolk to monsters. In this, I believe the Christian church was able to be at it's most effective against our ancestors. I think it was more effective than all the violence, preaching and trade embargoes ever could be in converting us. They made our ancestor’s monsters and non-humans, totally devoid of frith and life by calling them heathen. Thus, were they defeated.