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Torvald Eriksen
@ravenfjord
Reflection

Post by Torvald Eriksen

Last Sunday my eight-year-old watched me pour mead on the offering stump and asked, very reasonably, why we give good mead to nobody.

I told her it isn't nobody. It's the land-wights, the ancestors, the gods, depending on the day. But mostly I told her about gifts. The Hávamál says a gift always looks for a gift in return. Our whole way is built on that: you give, they give, you give again, and over the years it becomes a friendship.

She thought about it, then poured a little of her apple juice next to the mead. 'In case the small ones don't like alcohol.'

Fifteen years I've been doing this and it never once occurred to me to offer the small ones juice. We do now.

Heathenry#offerings#land-wights#family#havamal
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Replies

4 replies
  1. Nikos Pappas

    That's a perfect theology of kharis from an eight-year-old. Reciprocity in apple-juice form. The gods are lucky to have her.

  2. Siobhán Keane

    My nieces leave milk out for the good folk and insist it has to be the fancy oat milk. Kids just know these things.

  3. Amara Fields

    Bes and Taweret, our household protectors, get the occasional sweet in my house. Now I'm wondering whether they'd prefer juice. Your daughter is a theologian.

  4. Mara Hollis

    Out of the mouths of babes. The small ones in my garden always get the last of the honey.

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