Viking — An Activity, Not an Ethnicity
Attested: víking names raiding/expedition by sea — a job description, not a racial or religious category. Farmers, traders, and mercenaries could "go viking." Modern media collapsed centuries of Norse culture into one aesthetic: horned helmets (mostly wrong), ubiquitous raiding, universal warrior identity.
Calling myself a "Viking" religiously is a category error. I did not raid Lindisfarne. I am not a ninth-century Scandinavian. If I use "Viking" at all, it should be for the historical phenomenon — or humor — not as my faith name.
Norse — Culture and Language, Not Religion
Norse names a linguistic and cultural sphere: Old Norse speech, Scandinavian and North Atlantic settlements, shared mythic corpus. You can study Norse mythology academically without practicing religion. You can be religiously Heathen without being an expert in Old Norse.
Einherjarhall is mostly about Norse sources because that is the record I am learning. That is not the same as saying every visitor must be a believer. Precision keeps the door open to seekers, scholars, and practitioners alike.
Heathen and Ásatrú — Modern Containers
Heathenry (Modern) is an umbrella for reconstructed Germanic polytheism — Norse, Anglo-Saxon, Continental strands. Ásatrú (Modern) usually emphasizes the Æsir and Vanir via Icelandic-lineage organizations with their own bylaws and rituals. Pagan (Modern) is wider still — any non-Abrahamic revival or indigenous religion context, depending on speaker.
None of these were what a tenth-century Icelandic farmer would have said in English. They are contemporary choices — some legally recognized, some fractured by politics. I read What Is Heathenry? before picking a word for myself because the communities behind the words are not interchangeable.
What I Call Myself — For Now
Right now: seeker, student, builder of this hall. Not Heathen, not Ásatrú, not Viking. I have not earned community labels and do not want to wear them as fashion. Modern practitioners often say the gods call you when you are ready. Maybe. I am not claiming that experience yet.
When I do choose language, I want it to match practice: who I honor, how I behave, what I study, who I stand beside. Terminology without conduct is cosplay of a different kind. This page is a guardrail — for me first.
In the Hall
This commitment opens into years of material. Start here — then walk where the sources lead.