Our ancient traditions are many times older than the Viking Age. There is certainly a cultural continuity back to at least the Bronze Age, and most likely to our hunter-gatherers of the Eurasian Steppe or the "Great Steppe", a vast eco-region of temperate grasslands and shrubs. Our far-fairing people came from the Taiga, or boreal forests, which is an area characterized by coniferous trees. It spans from Karelia to the Pacific, from Alaska to Labrador Canada and from parts of the northern U.S. to Estonia, Sweden, Norway, and to the Scottish Highlands.
Our Folk built the first large structures, longhouses, 7,000 years ago, and Kurgan, or better known as burial mounds, found also in western Europe.
Our Folk have a culture that predates the Middle East. Our stories are not recorded with hieroglyphs or cuneiform writing but are found now through the sciences of DNA and archeology.
Our culture/religion is ancient. We have been challenged before. Be it climate upheavals, tyrants, or fools, we are resilient! Let us be like the pine tree of the Taiga, strong, be of rough bark.
I'm all of Rough Bark, a poem by Ivan Kharabarov
I'm all of rough bark
I'm all of pine branch.
I have come
to spread over this land,
to preserve it from sickness and aliment.
I have come from the Taiga,
my hands are heavy and dark,
my roots are tough, my branches resilient.
and to a strangers eyes,
my tears
are scalding and hot,
On my pine resin shoulders
black sables drowse.
I shall bring Spring time
to these sparse
and stunted forests;
I shall bring back coolness'
to these
warm , turbid rivers.
I shall do no harm,
I am merely
a green tree,
do not cut me down,
love me instead.
Gothi Thorgrun Odden