The Nine Noble Virtues, NNV, or 9NV are two sets of moral and situational ethical guidelines within certain sects of Odinism and Ásatrú. One set was codified by former member of Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists and National Socialists, John Yeowell (a.k.a. Stubba) and John Gibbs-Bailey (a.k.a. Hoskuld) of the Odinic Rite in 1974, and the other set codified by Stephen A. McNallen of the Asatru Folk Assembly in 1983. However, others believe that the earlier set, the one the Odinic Rite claim they codified, were originally put together and labelled as the Nine Noble Virtues (the “9NV”) by Edred Thorsson during his time with the original AFA.
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They are based on virtues found in historical Norse paganism, gleaned from various sources including the Poetic Edda (particularly the Hávamál and the Sigrdrífumál), and as evident in the Icelandic Sagas).
Snook comments that, “one of the original lists, published by the Odinist Committee [old Odinic Rite], founded in 1972, was referred to as the “Nine Charges””.
Nine Charges
The Nine Charges were codified by the Odinic Rite in the 1970s.
- To maintain candour and fidelity in love and devotion to the tried friend: though he strike me I will do him no scathe.
- Never to make wrongsome oath: for great and grim is the reward for the breaking of plighted troth.
- To deal not hardly with the humble and the lowly.
- To remember the respect that is due to great age.
- To suffer no evil to go unremedied and to fight against the enemies of Faith, Folk and Family: my foes I will fight in the field, nor will I stay to be burnt in my house.
- To succour the friendless but to put no faith in the pledged word of a stranger people.
- If I hear the fool's word of a drunken man I will strive not: for many a grief and the very death groweth from out such things.
- To give kind heed to dead people: straw dead, sea dead or sword dead.
- To abide by the enactments of lawful authority and to bear with courage the decrees of the Norns.
The Six-Fold Goal
The Six-Fold Goal is another behavioral guideline discussed in A Book of Troth by Edred Thorsson (1989) and was adopted by certain Ásatrú groups in the USA like the Ring of Troth and the Asatru Free Assembly. The Six-Fold Goal is: Right, Wisdom, Might, Harvest, Frith and Love.