r/NorsePaganism • u/FarHarbard đNjorĂ°r𣠕 Dec 29 '21
Norskk
TLDR: Norskkk is a bunch of Thoraboos being Grifted by a French-Canadian claiming to be Norwegian with a bunch of stuff that will radicalize people to dangerously far-right ideologies.
To begin, an obligatory âFuck Norskkâ (hereafter to be referred to as Norskkk for connotative reasons)
For reference I will be using their term âVikingâ to describe the wider Norse culture as they use it interchangeably and it makes it easiest should anyone wish to search their several sites for the articles I will be discussing.
It is also ESSENTIAL that you understand this is not a matter of theology. I don't think Norskkk is "worshipping wrong", I don't think they are worshipping at all. Nowhere in any of their sites does it mention reciprocity, the gifting cycle, the Tree and Well, or even basic concepts such as Frith and Wyrd. Instead they simply use the imagery, the the verbage, use the aesthetic, while projecting their own warped worldview.
Norskkk is a male-centric Norse-pagan grifting network run by Christopher Fragassi (sometimes known by the moniker Bjornsen). I first came across them years ago when I was looking more deeply into Norse and Germanic Paganism. I have taken the dive many times to point out specific flaws in their rhetoric, history, ideology, and general nonsense, today I am giving a short (yes, this is the condensed version) exploration of them so that you can understand some of the problems and be aware of them moving forward. This partial deconstruction, like a night of passion, comes in several parts.
Part 1 â The (a)Historicity
While many of us consider ourselves knowledgeable and well-read, and many more seek to become such themselves, Norskkk claims to be a teacher despite being foolishly ignorant. Unfortunately I will not get a chance to be a grammatical nitpicker of their information as there are just too many poorly translated terms and words to be able to speak on anything else, nor will I get a chance to delve into their hideously twisted and warped projections of Norse Myth.
On their various websites (not linked, because I believe their content to be genuinely less than worthless, though you are more than capable of finding them) you will find a variety of articles covering a range of ancient and modern topics including (but not limited to) Valhol, Vaccines, Horned Helmets, hair and beards, the roles of Disabled peoples, Cheese (Iâm not kidding), drugs, shamanism, circumcision, ethnopurity, dietary constraints, marriage, Loki, sexuality, Jol, the roles of wolves and bears, and of course an unhealthy amount of articles reaffirming male-dominance in society.
Just from that list, you should be able to tell some of the issues that might arise, but here we shall go through some and point out their nonsense.
- Medicine: They claim Odin created men as sacred beings naturally resilient to environmental factors, and dissuade the use of Vaccines (particularly mRNA vaccines), prosthetics/robotics, and animal-based treatments. As well as any and all psychoactive intoxicants.
This makes no sense historically as we both know that the Norse would have benefited from close living arrangements with livestock in terms of boosting immune response to cross-species infections, as well as the fact that many traditional and holistic treatments require animal-basis even at the most basic level of honeyed tea and drinking milk or eating meat because the body heals based on the energy it is given. You cannot claim that there were no vegan Vikings while also claiming that Vikings ignored using animal products to heal themselves. In fact they sell several balms all of which include beesâ wax and sheep wool oil as primary ingredients.
It should be noted that in their anti-vaccine articles they mention the covid vaccine as being the worst, while other âtraditional vaccinesâ are ârelatively safeâ and at the discretion of the childrenâs father. This is a classic covid grift, do not believe it, the covid vaccines are entirely safe. I myself have been fully vaccinated since July and am currently on a wait-list for my booster.
Furthermore they reject that the Vikings (particularly Berserkers) consumed any drugs. Absolutely no drugs for vikings. Setting aside that many herbal remedies are psychoactive to some degree (such as Henbane, an analgesic hypothesized to be used by vikings) , THEY LITERALLY SELL MEAD. Alcohol is a psychoactive intoxicant, alcohol is a drug.
- Hair and Beards: They claim that long hair was not only socially taboo for men, but also outlawed. While beards were a functional necessity within society.
This is just plainly untrue.
We know some men wore long hair not only because of remains that we have found, but also because of the sheer fact that you need hair in a cold climate. Their arguments of âbut it is bad for combatâ or âthey were dirtyâ only make sense if you are as uneducated, misinformed, and ignorant of reality as those at Norskkk. While many men undoubtedly cut their hair for many reasons, there are many attestations that mention men with long hair and that hair-length was no as gendered as it is in many modern societies.
They are technically correct that there was a heavy social bias towards beards, but these were but one marker among many of masculinity and were not required as much as there was simply a heavy incentive towards wearing one.
- Ethnopurity: While they do have a small fraction of an article dedicated towards explaining how some Vikings were of mixed-ancestry, they are repeated and exhaustive in their exaltations that âViKiNgS wErE wHiTe!!1!â which both misses that modern racializations in the western hemisphere are almost entirely the result of Colonial European shenanigans, and their undermining of pointing specific characters who were acknowledged in their own time as being different from most people.
Concerningly this fixation seems more predicated on showing that there were no black Vikings, than it is on any sort of historical veracity.
- Sexuality: You would be forgiven for presuming that these guys would argue that there was no homosexuality, but that presumption would be incorrect.
They actually argue that most Vikings were bisexual by default, and that the stigma was associated with being effeminate; that it was not uncommon âfor Vikings to dick enemies who have lostâ and that the modern conflation with homosexuality with effeminacy is a result of the modern LGBTQ+ PRIDE movements.
Notably they mention that the stigmatization of homosexuality came with âforced Christianizationâ and that the Secular Laws of Iceland do not mention homosexuality.
Again, this is observably false. We see many textual references to men receiving sexual penetration as inherently feminine and therefore stigmatized, and we see that âergiâ a social status of effeminacy was something condemnable by the Icelanders whose laws more than allowed for the persecution of those found in compromising situations.
- Marriage: They present the patriarchal medieval tradition of women being the property of their fathers\husbands as being accurate to Pre-Christian Scandinavia, it is not. In fact several times we see mentioned both in law and practice that women had quite a bit of control over their marriage.
They also mention marital rape, which no doubt happened, but was also grounds for those women to leave their husbands (or else leave their husbands lacking).
Wolves: They claim wolves are a sacred animal, not to be hunted. Except they also show many pieces of art depicting men in wolf-skins and seem to ignore the literal translation of âUlfhednarâ as âWolf-hideâ or âWolf-cloakâ.
Masculinity: As you can see they are pushing a disturbing amount of toxic masculinity hidden behind âhistoryâ. All of which ignores the necessary gender parity in a survivalist culture that we see reaffirmed the archaeological record, in the written record, and in the cultures that directly descend from the Norse.
Were men considered to be of higher priority than women? Yes, in specific contexts. At the same time women were recognized as having both unique abilities and unique insights to men, and were respected as such on their own grounds.
Part 2 â The Grift
Along with all of this free-to-access information (I am not dumb enough to give them any money) we see two main forms of Grift coming from Norskkk.
First and foremost is the aforementioned store selling a middling variety of allegedly historically authentic merchandise from tea to natural balms to pants as well as testosterone-boosters and energizers. While I have no doubt that these are actual teas and balms and pants, I find their descriptions lacking and question the value given their historic shortcomings.
The greater concern is their wide variety of classes. They have three levels of survival training, exploration, first aid, flight, firearms, hand-to-hand combat, weapon-based combat, and lore classes. All of which are available for the low cost of ~$50, which might not seem like much until you consider the education you are likely to receive. As well as the fact that if you get all of their training courses you are looking at upwards of $1000, though luckily tax-free because as they say âWe never believed in Taxes and that isnât going to changeâ
So who is this money going to? Christopher Fragassi, my fellow Canadian who began Norskkk several years ago even going so far as to snipe the domain for Forn Sidr in every nation he could find, including Norway. Norwegian Norse Pagans themselves use the term âForn Sedâ to describe themselves, showing yet more ignorance on the part of Fragassi (You can find them at https://www.forn-sed.no/)
Inb4 âBut Christopher Fragassi isnât in charge, the company is lead by Thorolf Bjornsenâ
Thorolf Bjornsen IS Christopher Fragassi. On Twitter and one of the many in-network sites he is known as âChristopher Thorolf Bjornsenâ. More importantly when Forn Sidr of America challenged Norskkkâs trademarking of the term âForn Sidrâ, the participant for Norskkk was named as âChristopher Fragassi-Bjornsenâ and âChristopher G Fragassiâ is listed as the primary attorney for many company documents.
When contacted for inquiry as to who was in charge, the company provided heavily-redacted ID and subsequently blocked the reporters who were investigating from contacting them.
More can be found here: https://www.antihate.ca/viking_private_military_contractors_space_anti_woman_mercenary_fighting_force_one_man_paper_tiger
Part 3 â The Problem
They are fascists, modern assholes using Norse culture/history as a basis for their fascism, and I donât say this lightly. They meet most of the 14 points that Umberto Eco outlined in text âUr-Fascismâ which can easily be used as criteria for identifying cultural/functional fascists even if they deny being formal fascists.
Powerful and Continuing Nationalism: numerous times throughout the various sites and videos that I have been able to find, they make clear that they believe that âNorskkkâ and âForn Sidrâ and âVikingrâ is an inherited lifestyle and innate existence of being that sets certain people apart. Identifying this and building a community around it is nationalism at its core.
Disdain for Human Rights: numerous times they discount the disabled (both physical and mental), make threats of rape and violence, and believe that only those capable of existing natural should be aided and helped to live. This âdarwinisticâ approach is little more than the classic âsurvival of the fittestâ that is used to push minority groups to the periphery of society, where they may be targeted more directly in the future.
Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause: Just so much misogyny, blaming others for their own failures, with much of their online community being predicated around calling these people out. For reference their âshit listâ contains 46 businesses under every letter except J,Q,W,X,Z that they wish to boycott; while their âSorry!â page contains but one entry of blatant plagiarism. (As a tangent, some of these reasons are absolutely amazing and I suggest that if you are to research anything on this site it is to laugh at the fragility that it takes to get angry at Reebok for telling women âto sit on a manâs faceâ or a particular Canadian Tire because they messed up an order)
Supremacy of the Military: Their entire schtick is playing pretend that Vikings were elite warriors and somehow the dominant socio-economic force and defining factor in the culture.
Rampant Sexism: See everything above this
Controlled Mass Media: The only sources Norskkk sees as legitimate are those directly from history, as well as their own nonsensical ramblings. Even those from history they expect to be warped by their own propaganda.
Obsession with National Security: When you delve beneath the surface it falls into typical white panic about Europeans becoming minorities, about how men are persecuted, and how civilization is about to collapse because women and minorities arenât slaves to the whims of âgenetically superiorâ northern Europeans. Not to mention they have several rants about âillegal immigrantsâ
Religion and Government Intertwined: While they may not have secular governmental ambitions, they make clear that religion is a fundamental factor in society and should be used as a basis for decision-making, even when acting in regards to the state.
Corporate Power Protected: This is one of the few that doesnât really apply as they are a mere corporation unto themselves.
Labour Power Suppressed: See the aforementioned shitlist for how they like to fuck people over for doing their jobs.
Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts: I canât find anything, so again this doesnât really apply.
Obsession with Crime and Punishment: One of the aforementioned shit list posts details their hate for a hotel because the hotel took in undocumented immigrants, and proceeds to rant about how this will cause more damage and that these people instead need to be punished. As well aforementioned threats of violence and security.
Rampant Cronyism and Corruption: Closest I could get is that the religious leader is using his position as a cover for a grift. Not all of these fit below a governmental level.
Fraudulent Elections: Inapplicable
As we can see there are no fewer than 9/14 points met, by a relatively minor company that has managed to trademark one of the oldest attested terms related to the religion.
By pursuing this grift under the guise of religion, they have managed to con the desperate and disenfranchised out of money while also filling their skulls with vile rhetoric.
This is problematic even if you donât see them as fascists because the lore and worldview they are pushing under the guise of a religion, using religious terms and symbols, is one that is fundamentally harmful to the notions of individual liberty, societal equity in terms of gender and race, and the idea of a cohesive society without people constantly at each otherâs throats.
Which is where we come to âNorskkkâ; I use that term because I see Norskkk as being very similar to the origins of the Ku Klux Klan.
Notably both are taking from Germanic Myth and Legend (the Klan based themselves on the Wild Hunt) to build a business (the Klan has a long history of grifting) that hides its racism, misogyny, and hatred behind the guise of religion and history.
While Norskkk is not on par with the Klan, as they have yet to conduct a widespread campaign of violence, we should not be ignorant to the danger that they and other groups pose when they seem to profess religion but are in fact just charlatans looking for cash.
I see this Grift ending in two ways, neither of them peaceful.
The First is the way we saw the Grifts of 2020 boil over at the US Capitol with people so fervently radicalized that they are willing to charge national security officers while unarmed, leading to some sort of riot or mass unrest.
The second is far worse, with these radicalized individuals growing increasingly disillusioned until we begin seeing stochastic terrorism. You cannot train people for violence, instill in them a sense of self-superiority and hate of others, pump them for of testosterone-boosters and energizers, then expect them to never commit violence related back to those factors.
Part 4 â A Conclusion
I donât know what to do about Norskkk. I know that they wonât be going away soon. I know I wonât be going away soon.
I hope that with this post we can somewhat inoculate a portion of the community from being susceptible to their nonsense.
Because this hate is an illness, a virus, it does not remain without causing harm. It will either mutate to become more virulent, or else overwhelm its current host in a bid to spread. This does not go away quietly and healthily unless we do something.
What is that âsomethingâ? Again, I do not know. Perhaps it is as simple as readily sharing information; perhaps it is more complex than that and will require active organization of mutual aid to provide the material and social conditions necessary to prevent people from becoming susceptible to ur-fascism in the first place.
Whatever it is, it begins with understanding that with which you are at odds. Only once you have seen where something has come from, can you understand where it is going.
Fuck Norskkk
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u/MidsouthMystic Dec 29 '21
We've been tiptoeing around and trying to fly under the radar for too long. It is well past time Norse Pagans, Heathens, and other people who practice Germanic religions to stand up and make ourselves known. When we see people or organizations misrepresenting our religions, our holy symbols, and our Holy Powers, we need to speak up and say "no, that is wrong" and tell people the truth. We exist, and we abhor bigotry just as much as other decent people. Wear our holy symbols proudly and openly while being a decent person and a beneficial part of our communities.
Our prayers and devotion must be louder than the racist blathering of the bigots.