Odinic Rite - History

History

In 1973 John Gibbs-Bailey (known as "Hoskuld") and John Yeowell (known as "Stubba") founded the Committee for the Restoration of the Odinic Rite or Odinist Committee in England. In 1980 the organisation changed its name to The Odinic Rite after it was believed that it had gained enough significant interest in the restoration of the Odinic faith.

In 1988 the Odinic Rite became the first polytheistic religious organisation to be granted "Registered Charity" status in the UK. While the charitable status did not bring much benefit to the organisation, they felt that it was a victory in their fight to have Odinism taken seriously.

In 1989 Yeowell resigned as Director of the OR's governing body, the Court of Gothar. The Court then unanimously elected Heimgest as its Director and he was officially installed in this position on 23 April 1989 at the White Horse Stone in Kent. Prior to his involvement with the Odinic Rite Heimgest had belonged to a small group known as the Heimdal League, a closed group which disbanded in the mid 1980s. Some members of this group joined Heimgest in moving to the OR as they considered it had "the potential to best present the ancestral religion of Odinism to the modern world". Heimgest remains the Director of the Court of Gothar.

John Yeowell resigned from the Court of Gothar entirely in 1991 and left the Odinic Rite. Also in 1991, an expelled member of the OR, Ingvar Harrison set up a rival Odinic Rite using the post office box name "Edda" as opposed to the official group's box name of "Runic" which is still in use by the OR today. In 1996 Yeowell was accepted back into the official OR. Shortly after this, Harrison asked Else Christensen if he could rename his group the Odinist Fellowship. This request was declined as Else was a close personal friend of Heimgest, however the group continued to use the name and the Edda post office box.