Stephen McNallen

Stephen McNallen is presented as an early catalyst of the modern Ásatrú and Odinist revival in the English-speaking world. His account links a personal attraction to the religion of the heathen Norsemen with the creation of rituals and a small fellowship, while the wider revival is described as emerging in parallel across several countries. The book distinguishes this religious movement from the Black Metal scene, despite public associations encouraged by figures such as Varg Vikernes.

Religious Interest and Early Organizing

In the late 1960s, McNallen felt strongly drawn to investigate the religion of the heathen Norsemen. What he encountered inspired him to compose rituals of worship for Norse and Germanic gods and to seek out others who shared his spiritual direction. The account identifies this development not as an isolated intellectual interest but as the beginning of practical religious organization.

McNallen founded the Viking Brotherhood, a small group that later evolved into the Ásatrú Free Assembly. The sequence—from investigation, to ritual composition, to finding fellow practitioners—makes his role in the revival both personal and institutional: he helped give an individual religious impulse a form through which it could be shared.

A Wider, Synchronous Revival

The book places McNallen’s organizing within a broader pattern. Groups devoted to the gods of Northern Europe appeared around the same time in England, Iceland, and the eastern United States, apparently without knowledge of one another. The text emphasizes that this convergence is difficult to explain, rather than claiming a proven common cause. It presents the Jungian idea of Wotan redivivus as one possible interpretation of the synchrony.

The revival also had a Nordic dimension. In Norway and Sweden, interest in ancestral religion was growing; Draupnir had been recognized by the Norwegian government as a legitimate religious organization, while Draupnir and Bifrost held regular gatherings that included blot, or symbolic sacrifice. These developments provide context for the revival but are not described as organizations founded or led by McNallen.

Distinction from Black Metal

The book explicitly rejects a specific connection between Nordic religious practitioners and the Black Metal scene. It notes that public assumptions linking them had become a serious liability for the religious groups, making it harder for them to counter negative impressions. Varg Vikernes’s frequent discussion of his own heathen beliefs in the press is identified as one reason the association persisted; it does not establish that McNallen or the organizations described shared the Black Metal scene’s activities or identity.

McNallen’s significance in this account therefore rests on religious revival and institution-building, not on Black Metal. His work appears alongside a wider, partly unexplained resurgence of interest in Northern European deities, while the book carefully separates that revival from the notoriety attached to the music scene.