The Sacred Flame
The Sacred Flame Podcast is about the pre-Christian traditions of Northern Europe hosted by Mathias Nordvig and Amina Otto. It's available on Buzzsprout and most podcasting platforms. The Sacred Flame Podcast comes out twice a month with information and perspectives on Northern European traditions, mythology, history, and philosophy.
Mathias Nordvig has a PhD in Old Norse mythology and teaches Scandinavian studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
Amina Otto has an MA in Old Norse and Gaelic studies and is doing a PhD in Norse-Gaelic Viking culture at Glasgow University.
The Sacred Flame
Frey and Gerd: Growth of the Soil
In this episode I discuss farming from a historical perspective that goes back to the Viking Age and leads all the way to the present day. I work with the story about how Freyr, the force of fertility, desires Gerd, the protector of arable lands. I get into the historical aspects of farming technology in north-western Europe, attitudes, ideologies, and much more concerning land management and agriculture. As always, this episode goes deep into not just what people did but also what people thought when they were managing their lands. I extrapolate from that to some modern developments in land management and agriculture, which evolved from aristocratic land rule in the 1600s to corporate farming today.