A question about Oaths

**Midnightrip** · 07-21-2012, 03:50 PM

Could someone please explain to me what it means about going to one of the "bad" places in Hel. I have read that murders and oathbreakers go there. I can understand murder. But Oathbreakers? Does that mean people who lie all of the time to hurt people? Or does it mean that it is someone who promises something and doesn't keep the promise? Or dedicating yourself to the gods informally in a prayer and then turning away from Asatru? Even if you came back would that label you as an Oathbreaker that would go to the "bad" place in Hel in the afterlife? I don't know how to interpret that part of lore. Please give me some advice if you are a Heathen. I am a Heathen, but I have not been for very long. I am still learning the basics about Asatru. Thank you in advance.

**Atridr** · 08-07-2012, 03:29 PM

As I see it, swearing an oath of doing or not doing something binds your spirit so that you must do what you have taken up to do. And if you willingly choose not to do such a thing, for any reason, the dissonance between your earlier will(taking the oath) and your later actions(working against the goals of the oath you took) harms you spiritually more or less, weakening your resolve and leading you astray from the path. In extreme cases, like betraying someone you had taken an oath to protect, the dissonance corrupts and mars your soul so much that it actually ends up in what is commonly known as Hell or Hel(Generally, extremely negative otherworldly existence). This is reason why Jesus tells people not to take oaths in any circumstances.

But it can get much more complicated than that. If you do follow what you sweared to do, it will actually make one stronger in the end. After all, fulfillment of oaths is the stuff legends are made of. It also seems to be, that once taken, oaths will be fulfilled in one way or another, if you don't actively work against them as mentioned above.

**Visigodo Español** · 10-08-2012, 11:05 PM

Originally Posted by Atridr

This is reason why Jesus tells people not to take oaths in any circumstances.

I don't think that it's a good idea to use any Christian concept to elaborate upon a Heathen principle. That's like utilizing a video game (in this case, I'll use the game Mass Effect) as an example to explain the nature of the macrocosm or something.

As for making and keeping or breaking oaths, if you can't keep a promise, don't make one. Plain and simple.

**Atridr** · 10-09-2012, 09:09 AM

Originally Posted by Visigodo Español

I don't think that it's a good idea to use any Christian concept to elaborate upon a Heathen principle. That's like utilizing a video game (in this case, I'll use the game Mass Effect) as an example to explain the nature of the macrocosm or something.

As for making and keeping or breaking oaths, if you can't keep a promise, don't make one. Plain and simple.

Well, I think that there are spiritual principles that are universally valid, regardless of religion or philosophy. Many things, like the nature of oaths, are mutually understood in different traditions, they are just seen in a different light.

**Svipdag** · 10-10-2012, 02:33 AM

A chieftain's men were bound to him by oaths of fealty.A man who broke his oath, therefore, was a TRAITOR. Breaking any kind of sworn oath cast a grave reflection upon a man's character. He was said to be "forsworn".

If a man could not be trusted to keep his given word, especially his sworn oath, what could be be trusted for ? No man dared trust him lest he be betrayed. Such a man deserved outlawry in this life, for he was unfit to live amongst honourable men.

Nor, after death, would he be entitled to share in the honors of the warriors in Valhalla. Forsworn, he was fit only for the realm of Hel.

"BONIS NOCET QVISQVIS PEPERCERIT MALIS. - PVBLILIVS SYRVS