Up until a thousand years ago....the Scandinavian crowd had one local religion.....Norse Gods. When you count up the primary Norse Gods....it was fifty of them. The secondary guys? Various arguments will erupt when you discuss this matter. Some folks will talk about five or six....some forty.
Norse Gods all had a scripted story....some woven into long pieces....some interacted with other Norse Gods. Some Gods got killed (for a good reason, or just fate). This kinda meant that even Gods weren't perfect or long-lasting.
You had even a Goddess of Winter (Skaoi). She preferred snow....I would assume, and came with blizzards for a good reason.
What you can generally say is these Norse God situations developed around 2,500 BC (way before the Christian crowd appeared). Roughly a thousand years ago in central/north Europe....the Catholic Church arrived with some enthusiastic soldiers leftover from the Roman Empire, and declared all this fake religion had to stop because they had the real stuff. There were some arguments, and sacred shrines were torn down to emphasize the Catholics were in charge (kinda like the Roman Empire was in charge).
Oddly, they've been unable to stamp the Norse God religion out. It's not that simple that carve this religion out..
This week, there's talk in Iceland of a state-sponsored project to build a new temple for the membership. They didn't exactly need mega-bucks or go borrow hundreds of thousands for the facility.
The word is.....Ásatrúarfélagið....the Norse religion.....has almost grown to 2,400 members in the last year. Almost triple of what it was a decade ago.
Now, to be honest....Iceland only has around 330k residents and 2,400 doesn't represent a huge number......but it's apparently growing.
What's the cost of this temple?
Basically....some guy with a backhoe will dig around a dozen feet down into the soil of an area of a hillside there in Reykjavik. Some concrete will be laid....or some stones.....and there will be some type of dome (unknown substance) put on top with a window where light can shine down.
The Norse religion has this belief that certain dead folks have departed this planet.....but essentially....are stuck onto some rock, some boulder, some tree, or some stream. This causes folks to have respect and go out to talk to their rock, their boulder, or their tree. In effect, getting a load off their mind and feeling better later.
If you pulled out the map where the Norse religion was favored....it'd today involve at least a dozen countries....to include Germany as well. I'm not suggesting some growth pattern....but in a thousand years.....you might see some return to the old religion.
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