Brewing Charms for Frey and Gerda

by Geordie Ingerson

beer(Excerpted from the book Ingvi's Blessing: Prayers and Charms for Field and Farm)

For Brewing Ale or Beer

Here’s Little Sir John in the nut-brown bowl

And brandy in the glass,

And Little Sir John in the nut-brown bowl

Proved the stronger man at last.

For the huntsman he can’t hunt the fox

Nor so loudly blow his horn,

And the tinker can’t mend his kettles nor pots

Without a little of the Barleycorn.

      — “John Barleycorn”, traditional

 

Brewing is a sacred act. It is taking the Barleycorn, the body of Frey, and making it into a sacred drink to give us joy. Therefore I give a series of blessings, because the brewer should see all parts of this craft as a ritual and treat it as such. While this book gives only the most rudimentary directions for brewing, there are far better books on the market if one wishes to learn home brewing, and I encourage the would-be brewer to seek them out.

The brewing starts with cleaning all the vessels, because foreign organisms can sneak in and ruin the brew. The first prayer is to Holda, for cleansing:

Hearth-goddess, Lady with the Broom,

Sweep clean all filth within this room,

This room of glass where brew begins,

Sweep clear and clean with snow and wind.

 

Then one blesses the malted grain in this way:

Hail Frey, our Lord of Grain and Goodness,

You who have sacrificed yourself for us,

Who have given us joy in the bread,

Give us now joy for heart as well as belly.

 

The next steps are to boil a vat of water and cool it, to add water and malt to the vat, to leave it overnight until it is quite soaked, to drain off the “wort” in the morning, and to add more water to the malt and repeat the process until you have however much wort your recipe requires. Then the wort is heated with whatever herbs you are placing into it for flavouring and preservation.

These days, the herbs are often hops, but this was not always the case. Hopped ale and beer became popular for political reasons in the mediaeval period, when the local abbeys gained a monopoly on gruit beer, or beer made with other herbs. For some odd political reason hops were exempt, so as an act of rebellion secular brewers made and sold hopped beer. Eventually the abbeys lost their monopoly due to price undercutting, but by that time everyone was used to hopped beer and had the idea that this was the best and only herbal flavouring.

However, old brewers — and many modern brewers — use a variety of traditional herbs to flavour beers, including nettle, juniper, yarrow, ground ivy (also called alecost), costmary, and bog myrtle. Since herbs are the province of Gerda, this blessing should be said over them before they are united with her husband’s gift of malted grain.

Bride of the Golden One, dearly sought,

By sacrifice of sword was bought,

Bless this green plucked from thy stead,

And go thee now joyous to thy husband’s bed.

 

The bag of herbs (or loose herbs, if you are to strain the wort after it has heated) should be lowered into the wort with the reverence given to a marriage. Remember that this act joins Frey and Gerda again in blessed conjugal joy.

The wort is boiled for an hour and then cooled, and the brewer’s yeast is added. Remember that yeast is a living being, a collective creature who works to turn your barley-and-herb soup into ale or beer, and who will sacrifice their lives in the process. As you add the yeast, bless it in this way:

My legions of farmers, turn earth and mud

And turn Frey’s body into Frey’s blood,

And feast you well in foaming tun,

The Golden Lord bless every one.

 

Next the brew is fermented in its carboy or vat. I draw an Inguz rune on the carboy to ensure Frey’s blessing on the brew. During this time no harsh words shall be said in the same room as its work. The brew should be treated like a guest and never subjected to loud and disturbing arguement. When it is time, it is drawn off and racked in bottles, each marked with the Inguz rune. The final sedimentary wort is returned to the earth as a libation for Frey.


For Brewing Mead

For the Vanic practitioner, the act of ale-brewing represents the sacred marriage of Frey and Gerda, and its dark and rich fruit is indicative of their earthy and domestic love for each other. For the Vanic practitioner, however, brewing mead represents the yearly sacred light-bringing union of Frey and his sister Freya.

This is in contrast to the Aesir understanding of mead-brewing as Odin’s quest for the Mead of Poetry. However, even that myth begins with the death of the Vanic god Kvasir, so brewing has always started as a Vanic mystery. (We do remember poor Kvasir here in these blessings.) The process of mead-making is similar to the one already delineated, with the same blessings on cleanliness and adding the yeast. However, the honey is blessed in this way:

Hail to the Lord and Lady,

Light-bringers both, you unfurl your rays

Of golden glow across the fields

And flowers bloom, joy of fair Freya,

And bees make busy in the blossoms

And nectar bring from nodding heads

To Beyla’s blessed hives of honey.

We steal their sustenance, with sorrow,

But gladly here we bring this sunlight

Captured in our very hands

And we would gladly drink it down

In memory of Kvasir killed.

Hail Freya, Lady of the Flowers,

Hail Frey our golden Lord of Fields,

May your union give us glory

And gleaming gold we drink in your honour.