Now that the Thorshof website is big enough to get lost in, it must be time to introduce the ever industrious web smith Thorskegga Thorn.
To dispel a long standing myth Thorskegga is female. You will have to excuse her strange and unique name which she adopted at 13 because it has stuck. It means 'Thor's beard' and is an female adapation of the Norse priest's name 'Skeggi'. English readers will recognise this as the nickname of the beloved North Sea holiday resort, the infamously bracing Skegness. Skegness was named by the Vikings and means 'bearded headland' so it is a small world. By coincidence (or not as the case may be!) her family surname Thorn just happens to be the name of the Anglo-Saxon warding rune.
Thorskegga was handfasted in June 1999 to our Dragon Earthson, who is currently chairman of the Heathen Forum in the UK and a growing authority on Dragonlore and Heimdall. She lives in a very dusty Victorian cottage full of vertical book stacks and interesting junk, and keeps a well stocked culinary herb garden.
Thorskegga is devoted to her thundering namesake, and unlike most pagans she has taken all of her inspiration from the original source material (the Eddas, Sagas and pitifully scanty Anglo-Saxon records) and the works of academic scholars and historians such as Ellis-Davidson, Rudolf Simek and Magnus Magnuson. Having happily adopted the agricultural/fertility deities of the Germanic peasantry she has no time for the Victorian operatic image of the glories of Valhalla, and the annoyingly persistent idea that Odin controls everything.
She establised Thorshof (the temple of Thor) eight years ago to promote understanding of the other Northern deities, all more than capable of challenging Odin for position as 'head cheese'. Frey the great warrior, bringer of fertility and defender of the peace. Freya the goddess of sex and teacher of magic, who commands a heavenly hall which rivals Valhal. Frigg goddess of fate. Njord god of the seashore, wind and fire. Loki the trickster and breaker of rules. Heimdall the father and teacher of man. And last but not least, Thor the friend of mankind, who defends Earth from its enemies, sends rain for the fields, sunshine to ripen the corn, and consecrates every ritual, shrine and grave stone in the Northern faith. The Thorshof logo shows the symbols of Thor (hammer), Freya (necklace), Frey (ship) and Frigg (spindle) about the sheaf which links all these nature gods to the harvest and the yearly round.
Thorskegga's interests are wide ranging and if she cannot by gender by a 'Jack of all trades' she is certainly a 'Jill'. She has a passionate interest in crafts, customs and traditions relating to the heathen period and to later folk tradition. She runs monthly informal workshops to encourage religious debate and to keep the ancient arts and crafts alive. Projects include traditional cookery, carving, weaving, folk costume, banner making, painting, learning the ancient languages and even building a dark age style hof.
2001 and 2002 saw a couple of very disorganised years for Thorshof and several commitments such as the website and the journal Thunder got very little attention. This was partly due to the hosting of the first Nine Year festival in mid 2002 and a great deal of assistance that Thorskegga and Dragon offered to the newly opened Environment Centre in High Wycombe for its opening in late 2002. Thorshof members are still getting back on track and the website and recently almost doubled in size from the backlog! Thorskegga and Dragon both have full time jobs in the 'real world' and it doesn't take much to upset their hectic schedules.
Other groups Thorskegga is associated with include Chiltern Kindred (local private group), Hearths of the Hammer Kindred (London) and Midgard's Web. She is also the founder and avid supporter of the Heathen Forum in the UK.
Thorskegga can be contacted at skegga@thorshof.org