Winternights 1999

Gathering:

Blot horn blasts thrice, that the participants may gather.

Hallowing/Warding:

We bid you Donar, doughty God of the Garths, to guard this stead for Winternights—
We bid you Heimdall, handsome sounder of the horn, to seek us in your sight—
May our words in the well be cast, our deeds in the layers be laid.

Explanation/Purpose:

We gather here as the Harvest ends, to thank the gods and goddesses for the gifts we've been granted. We find in these days the fruits of our furrows, no matter what our many fields may be. We have in our time planted true the seeds; sown our acres in work, sown acres in family, sown acres in study. For those who till the earth so have the sheaves been heaved into their winter homes and in these days the last been left to the Old one. We tally our accomplishments; we see how our works have waxed, and what has come of our deeds. May we now make our final work before the winter's coming chill, and may you, great powers, see fit to grant us the gifts of the year again, so good as they were in that which is passing, as we leave this, our work of holy words and gathered host in blessing, to you, our eldest kin. May we be strengthened for the coming of the hard season, may we show our might and main and gain good speech while we live.

Welcoming:

We ask you holy ones to witness these words, to reckon our rite, rightly done.

Hails:

We hail you, virile Freyr, Fro-Ing who brought great harvest to our Homes!
We hail you fertile Freya, great Frowe for the love and lust for life that we have known!
We hail you mighty Wodan, whose hunt, runs wild in the winter nights, that this speech
like the last sheaf may be held as sacrifice!
We hail all Ases and Wanes for all the wonders they have worked!
We hail all our ancestors, wherever they bide, those ones that have fared before us!
We hail the wights, of land and of home, may you be hailed and greeted well!

Hallowing of the Drink:

May the brew be blessed, the might of the many holy ones to make it so, that the hails over the horns may be spoken!

<The drink is doled out to the gathered host>

Personal Hails and Insights / Group Thought.

Here each may hail as he sees fit.

<Personal Hails>

<K.o.S.H. Hail>

Our Hall has now stood for two years amidst hard winds, our fellows have fared off, our friends both in both in boon and bane been busied, but it has yet been good. Though lessened in number, never are we lessened in heart. May we leave behind what must be left behind, and gain what must be gained. May we be strengthened in our plans for the heathen host's good, and forge on, ever forward, holding well the holy rites! May the hall stand as long as it should, and may it stand long in keeping the seasons!

Offering:

From the gods and goddesses to the earth to us it came,
from us to the earth to the gods and goddesses it goes.

Hail the holy ones all!

Closing:

Once again we have cast our words to the well,
once again our deeds into the layers are laid.

written by Erich Campbell

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