Philosophy
THRYMSKAPR
Þrymskapr
In the old Scandinavian language, the word þrymr (or thrym) means noise, and skapr means creation. Scandinavians used the term skapr to describe the creation of different kinds of art, for instance skáldskapr, the creation of poetry. Þrymskapr means the creation of noise from drumming. Þrymr is closely related to another word that Scandinavians used to describe a thunderclap: þruma. It is probably the oldest word drumming in the Germanic languages. The modern words “drum” in English and “Trommel” in German likely originate in a similar word.
Þrymskapr is the primordial Nordic-Germanic art of drumming that sources its energies from creation itself. In the ancient Scandinavian stories about how the world was made, the giant Aurgelmir is said to have been the first living being. Aurgelmir means “the one who roars from the clay” and according to our stories his grandson was Bergelmir, “the one who roars from the mountain.” When we make þrymskapr, we are reaching back into the depth of our ancestry, back into the origins of the cosmos. We recreate the reverberant sounds that were part of the origin story of the world.
Ancient drumming - from the very beginning.
The story of the art of drumming is one that dates back millions of years. Our earliest ancestors realized a sense of expression through the sounds or beats created between their own limbs and body and their bodies upon the earth.
The echoes of these ancient frequencies resound through our bodies, concerts and drum circles today, connecting us to the memory of these most primal ancestors, the memory of what it is to be alive on our earth.
-Jacob Hee Lund
Ancient drumming is finding a way back to our roots, a path back to the drums and the rhythms that have always been here.
The sound of creation.
When we make Thyrmskapr, we use the magical techniques, song, drumming and runes to contact the spirits of the world. As Odin says in the poem, Havamal, runes are carved by “Odin among the Aesir, Dain among the Alfar, Dvalin among the Dvergar, Asvid among the Jotuns, I carved some myself.”
The songs that Odin tells us that he knows in that poem are spells for help, healing, war, wound-healing, to still flames, to soothe hate, for sailing, against evil witchcraft, for safe journeys, for immortality, for gods and elves, for the dwarfs and for love.
This is the repertoire of rune-songs any practitioner of magic should know and when we make Thrymskapr, we drum that healing into our lives. We connect with the spirits through the drums; we connect with creation itself.
-Mathias Nordvig
Let the drum speak, let your inner rhythm out.
The magic drum.
When we meet one another we create the conditions for a deeply magical exchange, which one might find surprising upon first hearing about it.
As we share and learn throughout our time together, different customs begin to interweave and flow together almost effortlessly, as animism and kinship with surrounding spirits make for a common thread through every practice, regardless of its origin.
Drumming is an initiation of sorts into a deeper understanding of your own path and an indication of just how connected we all are.
-Jacqui Alberts