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Watlingstreet

by AElfric

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1.
Deor 06:01
2.
3.
4.
5.
Wuldor Beot 03:53
6.
Freanwendung 04:37
7.
Iringes Weg 04:22
8.
Neordes Full 03:33
9.
Freo Gebed 03:33
10.
11.
12.

about

Watlingstreet is best known as the long road across England that in Anglo-Saxon times separated the Danelaw from the territory still ruled by Anglo-Saxon kings such as Alfred the Great; however "Watlingstreet" had another, arguably earlier and more significant meaning in Anglo-Saxon England. Watlingstreet was one of the Anglo-Saxon names for the Milky Way – that arm of our galaxy which would have been very visible in the night sky in ancient times when there were no modern city lights.

The name Watlingstreet contains significant information about how our Anglo-Saxon ancestors understood the Milky Way in regards to our ancestral divine beings and their stories, a connection of which most people are unaware. Wat- is the name Wade, a Germanic "supernatural" being. Comparative research reveals that Wade is the same being who was known in the Norse as Ivaldi, and that he is the father of the three elf-brothers known from many ancient sources such as the Elder Edda poem Völundundarkviða, namely Weyland (Völund the Smith in the Norse) Egil, who is also known as Éarendel to the Anglo-Saxons (Aurvandil in the Norse), and Slagfinn, who also was known to the Anglo-Saxons as Iring. Like their father and almost all beings in Germanic lore, the three elf-brothers were known by many different names throughout the Germanic world – a fact that has often obscured their identity for modern scholars and heathen alike.

In Germanic languages, the suffix -ing or -l-ing means "children of." Therefore, a "Watling" is a child of Wade. The sons of Wade were great smiths – craftsmen who made treasures for the gods. The Anglo-Saxon conception of the Milky Way, then, is that it was "the road of the sons of Wade," and was referred to as such because the sons of Wade were considered to have built it and/or because it was considered to be the cosmic road which they traveled.

Most modern people consider the bridge of the gods, Bifröst, to be the rainbow because Snorri Sturluson described it as such in the Younger Edda. Few are aware, however, that the Elder Edda, a older and more authoritative source for Norse heathenry than Snorri, does not describe Bifröst as a rainbow. In fact, in the Elder Edda the bridge is not even called Bifröst, but rather it is called Bilröst. The meaning of this older, more original name of the bridge is "the way of Bil." We know of Bil and her brother Gjuki or Hjuki (Hóce in Anglo-Saxon, whose story is mentioned in Béowulf) from the Younger Edda, which associates the two siblings with the moon and its path across the sky. Comparative research reveals that Bil is Iðunn, the wife of the Ása-god Bragi. From the Elder Edda poem Hrafnagaldr Óðins we learn that Iðunn is a daughter of Ivaldi by a second wife. Therefore Bil/Iðunn is the younger sister of the three elf-brothers and is herself a Watling. Comparative research also reveals that Bil's brother Hjuki is the third of the three elf-brothers, also known as Iring. For this reason and others that are too lengthy to give here, Bilröst, the bridge of the gods, can be understood to have originally not been associated with the rainbow, but rather with the Milky Way: the cosmic Watlingstreet.

Before the time of Snorri, Bilröst was understood to be a bridge between Ésegeard, the world of the gods in heaven, to Wyrd's well in the underworld, which new research by Ælfric reveals to have been in the lower world portion Eotenhám, the home of the giants. That the Anglo-Saxons used the same name, Watlingstreet, for both the cosmic bridge that separates the land of the gods from the land of the giants, and for the road which separated the Anglo-Saxons from the Danes in England, would have been a double-entendre that would have had no small significance to the the Anglo-Saxons.

The great amount of comparative research that reveals these little-known facts of Anglo-Saxon and Norse lore is too extensive to go into further here, but this research is readily accessible. Anyone who would like to know more may feel free to contact us for further information.

Ælfric Hláford's Watlingstreet includes a number of god-gealdors and instrumental pieces. But perhaps most prominently, Watlingstreet tells some of the stories of the Watlings in various forms, through ancient poetry, modern poetry and music, from the woes of Weyland the Smith in the traditional Anglo-Saxon poetry of Déor and the Éarendel verse, to a modern gealdor written for Wuldor (Ullr) who, as the son of Éarendel/Egil, is one of several other important personalities in Germanic lore, needs to be recognized as a member of the greatest family of elves who are the Watlings: the descendants of Wade. Our hope is that knowledge of the true origin and lore of the Watlings be restored to their rightful place among us.

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released November 17, 2021

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AElfric Ashcroft, British Columbia

AElfric is one of the main pioneers of the revival of traditional ancient heathen folk music. This music is sung in the ancient languages of Anglo-Saxon and Gothic, using the traditional ancient poetic verse form such as that found in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf, that was used by the Scops (Bards) of old. He has also published 3 books about the Gothic tradition (see Lulu link below). ... more

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