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There is a history of political controversy within organized US Ásatrú, mostly surrounding the question of how to deal with such adherents as place themselves in a context of the far right and white supremacy, notably resulting in the fragmentation of the Asatru Free Assembly in 1986.Įxternally, political activity on the part of Ásatrú organizations has surrounded campaigns against alleged religious discrimination, such as the call for the introduction of an Ásatrú 'emblem of belief' by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs to parallel the Wiccan pentacle granted to the widow of Patrick Stewart in 2006. Ásatrú organizations have memberships which span the entire political and spiritual spectrum. The majority had a college education, but were generally less well educated than the wider Pagan community, with a lower median income than the wider Pagan community too. Shaffer gained 60 responses from Heathens in the US, noting that 65% were male and 35% female, which they saw as the 'opposite' of the rest of the country's Pagan community. In 2003, the Pagan Census Project led by Helen A. From her experience within the community, Snook concurred that the majority of American Heathens were male, adding also that most were also white and middle-aged, but believed that there had been a growth in the proportion of Heathen women in the US since the mid-1990s. Most had at least an undergraduate degree, and worked in a mix of white collar and blue collar jobs. He noted that the overwhelming majority of individuals in the movement were white, male, and young. Demographics Īlthough deeming it impossible to calculate the exact size of the Heathen community in the US, sociologist Jeffrey Kaplan estimated that, in the mid-1990s, there were around 500 active practitioners in the country, with a further thousand individuals on the periphery of the movement. According to Strmiska & Sigurvinsson (2005), American Asatruar tend to prefer a more devotional form of worship and a more emotional conception of the Nordic gods than Scandinavian practitioners, reflecting the parallel tendency of highly emotional forms of Christianity prevalent in the United States. There are notable differences of emphasis between Ásatrú as practiced in the US and in Scandinavia. However, in practice, there is no such neat division in terminology. Within the community it is sometimes stated that the term Ásatrú pertains to groups which are not racially focused, while Odinism is the term preferred by racially oriented groups. Other practitioners term their religion Vanatrú, meaning 'those who honour the Vanir' or Dísitrú, meaning 'those who honour the Goddesses', depending on their particular theological emphasis. This term is favored by practitioners who focus on the deities of Scandinavia, although it is problematic as many Asatruar worship deities and entities other than the Æsir, such as the Vanir, Valkyries, Elves, and Dwarves. In English usage, the genitive Ásatrúar 'of Æsir faith' is often used on its own to denote adherents (both singular and plural). Taking an inclusive, non-racialist view, it soon grew into an international organisation. In 1987, Edred Thorsson and James Chisholm founded The Troth, which was incorporated in Texas. Meanwhile, Valgard Murray and his kindred in Arizona founded the Ásatrú Alliance (AA) in the late 1980s, which shared the AFA's perspectives on race and which published the Vor Tru newsletter. In the 1990s, McNallen founded the Ásatrú Folk Assembly (AFA), an ethnically oriented Heathen group headquartered in California. Stephen McNallen first founded the Viking Brotherhood in the early 1970s, before creating the Ásatrú Free Assembly (AFA) in 1976, which broke up in 1986 amid widespread political disagreements after McNallen's repudiation of neo-Nazis within the group. Heavily influenced by Alexander Rud Mills' writings, she began publication of a magazine, The Odinist, although this focused to a greater extent on right-wing and racialist ideas than theological ones.

In 1969, the Danish Odinist Else Christensen established the Odinist Fellowship from her home in Florida, U.S.A. Ásatrú grew steadily in the United States during the 1960s. Among the earliest American group was the Odinist Fellowship, founded by Danish migrant Else Christensen in 1969. Heathenry appeared in the United States during the 1960s, at the same time as the wider emergence of modern Paganism in the United States. Although the term 'Heathenry' is often employed to cover the entire religious movement, different Heathen groups within the United States often prefer the term 'Ásatrú' or 'Odinism' as self-designations.

Heathenry is a modern Pagan new religious movement that has been active in the United States since at least the early 1970s. Mjölnir, the hammer of Thor, is one of the major symbols of Ásatrú.

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