Munson's Mead Hall - Eirene's Naming

Mail:
asaman at
destinyslobster.com

The Naming of
Eirene Liv Munson

On Sunday, Ooctober 19th, 2003, we celebrated the arrival of our daughter with a traditional naming ceremony. It was 9 days after her birth, held at our home with a large group of good friends and family. The ritual was based on the model suggested by The Troth in Our Troth Online. As usual, I find them a useful source for the newbie Asatruar. I am paraphrasing in some of the notes below as we improved a good deal of what we said.

We set up in our living room. Our altar candles were lit and we set up a coffee table with the blessing bowl (our Well of Wyrd) full of spring water, two birch twigs (one straight and one tied into a circle), mead in a pitcher, a mead horn and special mead horn (our blue glass one) for the Norns. Also some bread for them to eat.

I welcomed our guests, explained the Ausa Vatni and did a Hammer-blessing. Our Norns, three very close friends of ours, stood by in their cloaks with candles at the ready.

My wife, Jen stood by with Eirene.
After the hammer hallowing, she placed her on a sheep skin on the floor in front of us and said,
"Gods, goddesses and awesome spirits all,
Welcome to our home are you wise ones,
who blessings would give to our child."

And to me...

"Nine months has this child grown in the womb,
Nine days in light has she now lived,
Now the Nine Worlds would know our choice,
Shall she be one of our clan or cast out for trolls?"

I proceeded to "inspect" Eirene, noting that she had all her fingers, eyes and ears. Jen vouched for the toes since Eirene was in a footed sleeper. I made a glib comment about how last night she behaved more like a troll, but that she was certainly good enough to keep. I then lifted her up and said,
"Hear me, all of you kin, friends, Aesir and Vanir,
With a happy heart, I hold this child to be my own
And I will protect her under my roof."

Jen now placed our male and female birch twigs into the well and said,
"Be sound and strong as stock of tree
from which these twigs sprang forth!
Fruitful and joyous,
so long as your days dawn,
so long as life shall last."

Next, she held up my silver Thor's Hammer and dropped it into the well saying,
"I lay this sign in the depths of the well of wyrd,
it sinks, to shine from the world tree's roots.
Washed in these same waters,
May you be as pure and bright, our beloved daughter."

I took out the two wet twigs and proceeded to sprinkle Eirene with them, saying,
"In the name of Thor,
In the name of Freyr and Freya,
In the name of Njordr,
I bless you and name you Eirene Liv Munson.
A name that means "peace" and I hope that this will be one of many gifts you will give to the world."

Jen now gave the Norns their mead and bread and we passed them a candle (lit from our altar candles) to light their candles with. I guess we did this a little backwards. According to the orgininal "script," the Norns are supposed to get their meal later in the ritual. But oh well.

Now, each of our guests came forward one at a time to give their gifts to Eirene and say something to her about what they hoped for her future. Some blessed her right then and there. The gifts were great! They includes a paintbrush for creativity, a toy hedgehog for tenacity, a small carving of her name in runes for wisdom, and many, many others. We were once again blown away by how wonderful and caring our friends are.

Next, Jen welcomed the Norns officially, saying,
"Welcome are you, candle-bearers,
Noble weavers of men's fates.
I hail you in our hall!"

I knelt, still holding Eirene, and still with my pinkie in her mouth to encourage her to stay relaxed. The Norns came forward one at a time and gave their prophesies. Since they were also our guests (and since I sorta sprang the Norn-role-playing gig on them at the last minute) they also gave her their own gifts. The prophesies, which were very well spoken, included...

She shall have a desire to learn and a hunger for knowledge.
She shall have a compassionate heart with the wisdom to guide it.
She shall always delight in the world and what it will offer her as she grows.

After the spae-saying, I gave each Norn a small gift; wooden Thor's Hammers, each with a different rune on it, and thanked them.

I had handed Eirene off to Jen so I could give the gifts. Not wanting to do another hand-off, I broke tradition a bit by filling the drinking horn myself. I then spoke my invocation...
"Gods and goddesses of my people,
My ancestors down to the present day, all you mighty spirits,
I ask you to witness this naming and bless this child.
I also ask for the blessings of our kin and friends here."

I drank from the horn, then passed it around to the guests so they could voluntarily drink some mead and speak a blessing if they wished. Jen drank last, then, we both held the horn and dipped our free fingers in. We sprinkled Eirene with mead and rubbed a tiny bit on her lips. She wasn't too thrilled, but all in all, the little squirt was a good sport through the whole ceremony.

After the laughter and happy cheers dyed down, Jen closed the ritual saying,
"Now Eirene is named, in the sight of all the mighty ones. Let's feast!"

And there was much rejoicing.

After that, I took the horn, the well and the remaining Norn-bread outside and poured the remains over our family horgr as a blessing on the house and a gift to the Landvaettir.

That's it! We had a great party the rest of the evening with much food and laughter. To me, this is what Asatru, and folk religions in general, are all about. We marked a supremely important event in our lives by sharing it with our community in an intimate, direct way. We rejoiced in the unfolding of Nature that was going on right there in front of us - caused by us, and also affecting us and everyone around us. It was a very powerful experience and also a heck of a lot of fun.

You can see the rest of the photos here