Re: Primary sources please?

It is not an Atheistic bias to claim that knowledge imbued through magik lacks a standing among historians. In fact, any scholar who cited gnosis in their CV, would be questioned. Or am I supposed to refute you by finding "scholars" who speak in tongues and "know" because "knowledge" was planted in them by the Holy Spirit.

Peer-review and primary-source scholarship are how popular misconceptions and bad scholarship eventually get weeded out. As magikal sources are non-falsifiable, anyone who cites such sources as "God told me" is not engaging in scholarship. The bias to privilege such information is purely religious and subject to different standards on a faith by faith basis; hardly something which can be counted on.

Freya Aswynn never said that she got her knowledge of Thor or the other deities via magickal means, and I certainly didn't say this myself. She is an able student of Norse culture and history, and she derived this knowledge through study and research. I'm not sure where you got the impression that I said she derived any of this knowledge through magickal or psychic means. As I said before, Grueber was neither a practitioner of magick nor did she ever claim to be psychic, and her research brought her to the same conclusion about Thor and his relationship to those who worshipped him in the past as did Aswynn's research. The point is, as I made before, both individuals, and others, have all come to the same conclusion and made similar statements regarding Thor being perceived as the protector of the lower classes in any given society or time period. Using his hammer as the symbol of the proletariat of today is simply updating that to the present.

thinks of the Eddas. All I need point out is that her intrusion of the notion that Thor treated Thralls as equals cannot be found in the verses she quotes from Chapter 8 of the Younger Edda to illustrate the point. But why even bother with her when you can read the original and see that your source is wrong? Why do you prefer not to read Norse mythology as your source for Norse mythology. This is most perplexing?

Her disrepute is known to Pagan scholars; the kind who prefer the Norse to their misinformed interpreters.

The Eddas were initially written in a foreign language and as such, numerous discrepancies arise as to what was intended or said in any given instance. In fact, the surviving Norse literature was saved by Christian scholars who are notorious in having re-interpreted much of the myths to their own personal sensibilities (such as portraying Loki as a satanic figure and changing several details of Ragnarok, as well as downplaying the importance of the female deities). A lot of what has been interpreted by modern historians has been changed or altered by the Christian scribes who initially translated the tales, so it's to be expected that several people will have disagreements over what a certain verse meant, what a certain myth was supposed to mean or what its message was, etc. People often make these interpreations according to their personal sensibilities. Usually, the best way to insure that a certain interpretation is valid (if not outright "correct") is if several individuals record the same thing. I provided evidence that several writers have in fact said the same thing about Thor and his relationship to the lower classes. You, in contrast, haven't given a single bit of evidence that many modern historians do not believe that Thor was the god of the lower classes or that the modern interpreation of his hammer as a symbol of the working class of today is invalid. This seems to be a personal interpreation of yours, and that is fine. A deity can mean to you whatever you want it to mean (if you view the deities as archetypes). The white supremacists interpreted various verses and the deities themselves to be supportive of racial superiority, and many historians deny that this was meant by the Vikings. Many modern Asatruar simply interpret this as racialism, rather than outright racism (i.e., that only people of a certain genetic bloodline may be permitted to worship the Norse deities).

My point is, numerous sources have said that Thor is the protector of the lower classes. I have yet to see a Pagan source that discredits Freya Aswynn, who is well-respected among Pagan circles (unlike Raven Silverwolf). The Eddas, particularly those written in poetic verse, are difficult to interpret and many scholars will disagree with each other about the fine points.