AFA Reading List

The following books constitute a solid library on Asatru and related subjects. Many of these volumes are currently out-of-print but are worth the trouble of obtaining. Many can be obtained used through Amazon.com, and it’s international sites.

Eddas, Sagas, and Other Ancient Texts

The term “Edda” is used to describe two very different collections of lore. One is the Elder Edda, also known as the Poetic Edda. This is a compilation of manuscripts and fragments in verse form, dating from the pre-Christian period or shortly afterward. Various translations may be found in print at any given time

The other manuscript classified as an Edda is the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson, written in Iceland some two centuries after the coming of Christianity to that island. Sagas are stories, ranging from the semi-historical to the mythological, from pre-Christian or early Christian times in the Nordic lands.

We have also included here other early chronicles and histories by Tacitus and Saxo Grammaticus.

  • Poetic Edda
  • Prose Edda
  • Egil’s Saga
  • Grettir’s Saga
  • Heimskringla
  • Njal’s Saga
  • Saga of the Jomsvikings
  • Saga of the Volsungs
  • The Vinland Saga
  • Beowulf
  • The Agricola and the Germania
  • History of the Danes Saxo Grammaticus

Germanic Religion and History

Scandinavian

  • Cultural Atlas of the Viking World
  • Dictionary of Northern Mythology
  • Gods of the Ancient Northmen
  • History of the Vikings
  • Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe
  • Myth and Religion of the North
  • Myths and Symbols of Pagan Europe
  • Norse Myths
  • Nordic Religion of the Viking Age
  • The Road to Hel
  • Role of the Northern Goddess
  • Well and the Tree

Anglo-Saxon

The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Ango-Saxon England

  • Lady with a Mead Cup
  • Sword in Anglo-Saxon Europe
  • Wisdom of the Wyrd

Germanic

  • Essays in Germanic Religion
  • Germanic Invasions
  • Germanic People
  • Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity

Runes & Magic

  • At the Well of Wyrd: A Handbook of Runic Divination
  • Futhark: A Handbook of Rune Magic
  • Nine Doors of Midgard
  • Northern Magic
  • Runelore: A Handbook of Esoteric Runology
  • Rune Might: Secret Practices of the German Rune Magicians
  • Rune Song (booklet & tape)
  • Teutonic Magic

Contemporary Works

  • Book of Troth
  • The Odin Brotherhood
  • True Hearth
  • TYR
  • Way of the Heathen
  • Witchdom of the True
  • Shamanism and Tantra in the Himalayas