Woden's Folk

Harken and respond to the call of the War-Arrow, that summons the host to defend the Kinfolk, or to avenge wrongs done to the Kinfolk. A warrior's death in the struggle for the freedom and survival of the Folk secures a place with the Gods in Walhalla. Woden awaits the brave in the Halls of Valhalla. I have to report that Grimwulf is fine and getting better after cutting his finger badly when preparing the Sacred Fire with a new and very sharp axe. Thanks must go to Uhtred for taking him to the local A & E.

Woden's Folk is a pagan English neo-Nazi cult which believes Adolf Hitler to have been a reincarnation of the god Woden. It was apparently started on April 23rd 1998 after its founder Wulf Ingessunu (who can't decide whether to spell his name "Ingessunu" or "Ingesunnu", bless) claimed to have "a series of mystical experiences centred around the appearance of the Hale Bopp comet in 1997".

The group claims not to be Odinist or Wodenist. "Our reformed religion is based upon the essence of our ancient Folk-Religion, but recreated in a new form suited to the times that we live in today", it says. "This is why we call our faith the Woden Folk-Religion rather than just 'Wodenism'". However, the group's sister site, English Movement, refers to Woden's Folk as "the leading Wodenist Movement here in England".

The reference to the group's theology being "recreated in new form" presumably explains why, despite its ostensible emphasis on the Anglo-Saxons, it's actually a weird grab-bag taking elements from Hinduism, the King James Bible, 1950s fantasy literature, 1980s television, the 2012 apocalypse scare and original writing by Wulf Ingesunnu. In particular, the group has lifted a significant amount of its theology from the 1980s fantasy television series Robin of Sherwood.

Woden's Folk should not be confused with the 'Woodcraft Folk', a vaguely leftist and pro-environment alternative scout movement also in the UK.

Political views
Woden's Folk opposes both international capitalism and international socialism — which it sees as "two sides of the same coin" and declares that "All forms of 'Globalism' will lead to oppression and the destruction of all peoples of the Earth." The group is concerned about the environment and promotes the use of solar, wind and water energy, along with an emphasis on local production as opposed to imports. It also advocates private ownership of firearms.

The Folk also promote a strongly racist ideology. According to their website, they "oppose the multi-racial society where various different 'communities' vie for a slice of the cake in a decaying and dying nation." They see multiracialism as an "evil system (which) has produced a hell-on-earth in which crime, violence, perversion and subversion are rife. This type of society has never worked – and never will! Multi-racialism or 'multi-culturalism' is the basis of a one-world state – a World Dictatorship!"

Wulf predicts grave times a-coming. "I would suggest that people start preparing themselves and their children for the catastrophic times that are coming to this planet, caused by the people that these people have been saying we should fight", he says. "I am well aware who's behind it, well aware who's behind all these things the same as everybody else is. But this infection will create problems that they can't control — they may centralise the whole of this thing in Jerusalem, and there it will be destroyed."

Wulf has spoken at New Right (Europe) meetings alongside such individuals as Dr. Sahib Bleher of the Islamic Party of Britain.

In the past, the group has called for "The revival of Herbalism and Natural Medicine" and "Restoration of the Feud right. The right of Blood Revenge for kin blood split [sic], for a woman violated, or a child abused."

Mystical stuff
The group's site contains a section on "Wodenic prophecy". This consists of inventive interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew (which "was rewritten in the time of King James, most likely rewritten by a group of Initiates who hid the secrets here, where they would never be destroyed", apparently) filtered through the Norse myth of Ragnarok and stuff about eclipses.

The site points out that "Ragnarok" spelled backwards is "Koran-gar", meaning "spear of the Koran", and interprets this to mean that "Islamic Militancy is the sign that heralds the Last Battle upon Middle-Earth". Spelling words backwards is referred to as "an age-old technique known to the ancients".

The page concludes with a poem called "Wulf's Prophecy":

The poem goes on like this for quite a while, eventually describing the coming of a messianic figure from the "Womb of England". A set of notes clarifies that 2012 "is a date much banded about within the Established Order" and that "Woden’s Folk has deliberately set this date as a pointer for change, and so that a set time-scale is made for preparation for change". Elsewhere Woden is associated with the Hindu god Vishnu, and his coming incarnation with Vishnu's avatar Kalki.

The group protested the TV series Trinny and Susannah Undress the Nation when its crew altered the hill drawing known as the Long Man of Wilmington by giving it breasts and a dress, something the group deemed to be sacrilegious. Wulf's poem mentions the "helmet of the Hunter-God", which the page connects to this incident:

Woden's Folk has a heavy emphasis on the power of runes. It has a sister site called Runic Warrior, which at one point had a page on "runic postures".

Wulf is a bit of a Tolkien fanboy: he claims that "Lord of the Rings was sent as a message to waken the English", while a pamphlet he put out brings up Gandalf while discussing the Book of Revelation. Tolkien himself said that Lord of the Rings is a very Christian story and the Ring represents industry, but you know, why listen to the author when interpreting his stories?

The prophecies of Gildas
Part of the group's theology is based on "the Prophecies of Gildas", described by Woden's Folk as an "Ancient Prophecy". It runs as follows:

Wulf claims that an altered version of this prophecy was given to him in a dream in 1993:

But how "ancient" is this prophecy?

There was a historical Gildas, who lived in the 6th century CE, but he is unlikely to have written the above lines as they mention Herne the Hunter. The earliest known written reference to this character is in Shakespeare's 1597 comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor, and he appears not to have been mentioned in any other surviving texts until 1792.

There is speculation that Shakespeare's Herne (described as the horned, chain-rattling ghost of a deceased gamekeeper) is based on an earlier legendary character, possibly the Celtic god Cernunnos, but the name "Herne the Hunter" is not known to have been used before Shakespeare's play. Moreover it has been suggested that Shakespeare himself may have invented at least some aspects of the character &mdash; such as the horns, which provide comedy value when Falstaff comes to impersonate Herne in the play. Herne the Hunter may simply have been a 16th century Casper the Friendly Ghost.

Wulf Ingesunnu has said that the prophecy "appeared in the 'Robin of Sherwood' TV series of the 1980s" but seems reluctant to state where the prophecy appeared before its use in this series. The reason for this is simple: this "ancient" prophecy was, in fact, created by writer Richard Carpenter for his television show in the 1980s.

Ingessunu has also provided an interpretation of the prophecy:

Again, this is lifted from Robin of Sherwood. Although the swordsmith Wayland is a genuine legendary figure, the idea of him having made seven swords, with the seventh being named Albion, is an invention of the television series.

When the now-deleted Wikipedia article on Woden's Folk was edited to draw attention to the rather embarrassing details of the cult's debt to 1980s television, Ingesunnu personally added the following paragraphs:

This pile of garbled hocus-pocus is best summarised as something along the lines of "Whaddya talking about? The emperor totally has clothes!"

Related sites
Wulf also runs the English Movement, whose site carries similar material. This includes a guide to making rune staves and quarter staves; warnings against using Facebook as it is "merely there for the authorities to monitor individuals and groups"; and insistence that "English Menfolk must become real men once more, and embrace the ideal of the Virile Male Warrior" ("Stop dressing in pink", adds the page). The group has used music by the racist band Skrewdriver in a promotional video.

Wulf also set up the England Rising Blog which consists of a single post asking for replies ("positive feedback only"); at the time of writing, no-one's bothered to comment.

The group has advertised on the openly National Socialist website Blood & Honour, hailing the site's readers as "comrades".

Other people involved with Woden's Folk
National "anarchist" Troy Southgate is involved with the group and was reportedly one of two representatives who attended the Long Man of Wilmington protest. His poetry is featured on the Woden's Folk website.

A prominent Woden's Folk member is Wulf Veldasson, warder of the group's Yorkshire branch, Northlands Gemoot. Veldasson uses various other names online, operating several blogs under the name of "Wotans Krieger" (German for "Woden's warrior"), posting at Vanguard News Network as "Aryan Lord" and visiting the Apricity Forum as "Arahari".

Veldasson states that Hitler was the incarnation of the Norse god Heimdall and that he "did restore the Divine Order of Caste, albeit briefly for 12 years… Paradice was in our midst, only to be snatched away by a coalition of bolshevics, [sic] capitalists and jews. I often reflect on what could have been achieved if the Third Reich had continued beyond 1945. Only through great calamity will those days be restored." He has criticised the BNP for being too Christian ("[Nick Griffin] is out of touch with the beliefs of both genuine christians and genuine racialists. Christianity is the root cause of our present perilous predicament as an Aryan race"); capitalises pronouns when referring to Hitler ("Hitler on occasions in His speeches…") and has criticised the fantasy television series Merlin for having "niggers" in it ("According to the BBC Arthurian Britain had a nigger problem. I caught sight of an episode last night and counted somewhere in the region of half a dozen niggers in a crowd scene"). He also says that "In the age that is to come a 'woman's preference' will be irrelevant. The ancient ways will be reintroduced where a father will decide who his daughter is to marry and marriage by capture will be an option for the strong." In other words, he seems to think that it's okay to commit rape.

A now-defunct version of the site contains a section thanking "Katja,Ron for the friendship they have shown". This would appear to refer to Katja Lane, wife of white nationalist David Lane, and her former collaborator Ron McVan. The late Mr. Lane is popular with Woden's Folk: Wulf Ingessunu wrote a poem about him entitled "Son of Woden", which describes Lane sitting in Valhalla with the Gods, and hails him as a "hero" who "suffered like the Son of God". The end of the poem seems to describe him rising from the dead to fight in Ragnarok.

Clive Calladine (known online under the pseudonyms "Harold Godwinsson" and "Teutoburg Weald" ) is another Woden's Folk fan: "They were the one's who Married me and the Missus", he says. "Wolf was the one who did the ceremony, with the help of his group". He dismisses critics of Woden's Folk as "Brown all over", apparently believing that no white person could possibly see any flaws in Ingessunu's beliefs. Calladine has also praised Anders Behring Breivik as a "Nordic Hero" and has said that it is acceptable to murder Asians and liberals, perhaps giving us some insight into just what the group has in mind when it talks about Ragnarok.

Youngy, co-founder of English Shieldwall, is a member of the group. He runs the website of the Woden's Folk division known variously as the Heathen Wolves, the Hearth of Woden's Wolves and Woden's West Wolves. Steed, the owner of the blog Eye of Woden, is also a member of Woden's Folk.