Hammer of the Gods: Anglo-Saxon Paganism in Modern Times Second Edition

I absolutely love this book. It has everything you need to be properly informed regarding what Anglo-Saxon Heathenry is and how to actually practice it. It contains information on both how to perform a blot/husel and how to symbel, which are the basic building blocks of any Heathen practice. Two of my favorite sections involve how to make sacred space and a need fire since they contain the Need Fire song/chant and the Weonde (Making Sacred Boundary) song/chant, which I have adopted for my own practice.The book contains a section on special life rituals like weddings, funerals, and ceremonies of birth, and it also contains more commonplace rituals like how to do an altar dedication and a land-taking. The author also explains the social structure of both Asatru and Theodish belief. I especially enjoyed the Theodish belief section since this was my first introduction to it and found it totally fascinating.The section on the Holy Tides (holidays) contains both history and practical suggestions for activities. You also get an in depth section on the gods and goddesses as well as information on a large variety of wights. Other sections include what ritual tools you might need, the different parts of the soul, information on how the afterlife was viewed, and detailed information on wyrd and orlaeg. The thews or virtues are explored in depth from several different perspectives. Overall, I felt that the book has a mildly scholarly tone since the author really knows his material, but at the same time the book is fairly easy to read.I want to take a second to discuss some of the comments of previous posters. While I agree the book might be improved by a glossary, in reality I think it is meant to be more of a beginner-intermediate level book. It does have a few sentences where the sentence fluency is awkward. As to the complaint about inconsistent text formatting... Seriously? I buy books for the information they contain and not for someone's idea of personal aesthetics. The claim that punctuation errors are so rampant that every sentence contains an error is a hyperbole. Actually, I don't find the errors any more irritating than those that publishing houses editors subscribe to; for years they've been putting commas before coordinating conjunctions that are not linking two independent clauses, which drives me nuts and is one of my pet peeves. In fact, the last two "problems" seem to be just a listing of someone's personal pet peeves. Don't let it deflect you from this wonderful book.I've already found myself going back to this book repeatedly for the wealth of information contained within it. I've loved it enough that I've already ordered Mr. Wodening's Germanic Magic: A Primer on Galdor, Runes and Spa book and will end up buying his Þéodisc Geléafa "The Belief of the Tribe:": A Handbook on Germanic Heathenry and Theodish Belief book as well. I strongly recommend this book whether you are looking for help in establishing an Anglo-Saxon practice or if you just want some solid information about Anglo-Saxon Heathenry.

For those who have read other books on heathenry and been left feeling that they've just read regurgitated information from the Eddas, you'll understand my skepticism when approaching any heathen book. This one however takes a different approach and what a relief to find detailed accounts of heathen traditions, blots, lore references and insightful thoughts into actual scholarship that is out there, but rarely (unfortunately) discussed in modern books. You can't readily bring all of your scholarly papers with you when participating in heathen discussion groups but with this book, you can reference parts of it that make for thought-provoking group dialogue. Hammer of the Gods: Anglo-Saxon Paganism in Modern Times stays true to it's title in that it delves into heathenry from the Anglo-Saxon perspective. It even goes so far as to provide spellings and names in both Old Norse and Middle English to provide perspective on the language. Furthermore, it doesn't leave you hanging with terms you may be unfamiliar with. The author provides details on the terms provided, and does so in a professional way that still allows for smooth flow that isn't dry or uninteresting. Quite the opposite in fact, this book is written in such a way that it leaves the reader searching even deeper beyond what is provided, hence the reason I deem it as a work that is thought-provoking and makes for good discussion as I mentioned above. Initially, I purchased this solely for my Kindle but it will also be purchased as an addition to my personal reading library as well.

I am of Anglo-Saxon descent & very new to Heathenry. I decided to buy Hammer of the Gods, 2nd Edition, to discover the beliefs & customs of my ancestors. I've also read Norse-oriented literature; both Norse & Anglo-Saxon Heathenry come under the umbrella of Germanic Heathenry, & there are differences between the two. This book presents VERY detailed & thorough information that shows those differences (& the similarities): the pantheon of deities, customs for funerals & other ceremonies such as blot & symbel, holy tides of the year, the soul & the afterlife, lesser deities & wights, the multiverse, etc. Historical context & development is continually brought to the fore in a clear manner. If the person reading it is new to Heathenry it would seem like slow going probably but, like myself, they could learn about each topic gradually. My concerns are the typos, grammar errors & inaccurate page listings in the Index which make for awkwardness at times.

I'm tempted to at least partially agree with the people saying that the author draws excessive parallels with Norse paganism, but overall this book is an absolute wealth of information and my go-to resource for Anglo-Saxon Heathenry.

Swain is someone I've long admired in the heathen community and this book deserves a place in any heathen library, whether your interest is in Theodism or Germanic heathenry more broadly, this is a book that I recommend everyone should read. As an author, Swain gets straight to the point and puts his information forward without unnecessary fluff. Do yourself a favor and read this book, then read Swain's other books as well. (Jeff Wolf)

Read the first edition years ago and helped guide me in my early days of learning about Germanic heathenry. Loved the new edition and still learned or enhanced my beliefs after all these years. Highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in heathenry, history, or heredity!

I myself am a heathen but need to find out a lot on the Gods, Goddesses and how to cope in these modern days.