Reddit reviews Elves, Wights, and Trolls: Studies Towards the Practice of Germanic Heathenry: Vol. I (v. 1)

In his book Elves, Wights, and Trolls, Stephen Grundy talks about how particularly difficult it is to rid oneself of ill-willing house wights. Things that normally do well warding against malevolent wights such as iron, fire, trollwort, rowan wood, red ribbon, drumming, holy water, etc., have little use against house-wights.

However, he mentions an Old High German charm that was sometimes used against ill-willing house wights:

>Uuola, uuiht, taz tu uueist, taz tu uuiht heizist,

>Taz tu neuueist noh nechanst cheden chnospinci.


Modern German:

"Wohl, Wicht, das Du weißt, das du Wicht heißt,

Das du nicht weißt noch kannst sprechen 'chnospinci'."

Modern English:

"Well, wight, do you know that you hight 'wight',

That you do not know and cannot say 'chnospinici'."

_____

Whereas 'chnospinici' is a nonsensical word, the wight purportedly becomes angered at its inability to pronounce the word, and departs in a huff. It's possible that 'chnospinici' is actually a Zauberwort, meaning that it has mystical properties instead of just being nonsensical.

Start with this book

https://www.amazon.com/Elves-Wights-Trolls-Practice-Heathenry/dp/0595421652

There are collections of these folk beliefs but I don't think any of them deal with the pre-Christian origins of them. You might benefit from taking a look at material regarding landvaettir. I also strongly recommend Elves, Wights, and Trolls as a REALLY good place to look into this important, and sadly neglected, side of our faith. It's been a while since I read Teutonic Religion, but I do believe that it has some information on veneration of wights in it as well.

The reality is that our faith, our way of life, is very broad and there is a lot of different areas for people to focus on. Americans are most strongly oriented towards the gods of Asgard and Vanaheim, as this forum clearly shows. The Icelanders, as /u/Argit has shown us, are much more pantheistic and the landvaettir play a very strong role in their expressions. There are other variations as well, so if this is what appeals to you most, explore it.

Ok some terms you want to know if you are looking into Asatru.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unverified_personal_gnosis
Wiki on Asatru
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%81satr%C3%BA_in_the_United_States
Shows the three subsets
http://heathenry.wikia.com/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_Heathenry
Vanir
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanir
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86sir
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B6tunn
and now a book, it goes into detail about the Jotuns
http://www.amazon.com/Elves-Wights-Trolls-Practice-Heathenry/dp/0595421652/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420778200&sr=1-1&keywords=elves+wights+and+trolls

some other terms you will find
Northern Tradition(this will create a hellaballoo)
http://grumpylokeanelder.tumblr.com/post/55104170499/question-is-there-any-difference-between-asatru
actually knows a bunch of history lore, so lurk.
This actually contains a lot of terms you will want to know about after you do reading. http://grumpylokeanelder.tumblr.com/frp (yes it will probably make asatru grumpy I'm referencing a grumpy Lokean, but again he knows his lore so yanno.)
Rokkatru
http://grumpylokeanelder.tumblr.com/post/42877451550/question-jotnar-and-rokkatru
It has the history and shows the grumbles about it.
This is link that apparently goes over 101 stuff on Polytheism, with links in it. IT also describes wth a God Phone is, a term you will be familiar with later.

LEt me know if any of this has been any help. I'm going to find links to describe the different versions of Polytheism. Hard, soft etc.

Elves, Wights, and Trolls


The Tradition of Household Spirits


Demons and Spirits of the Land: Ancestral Lore and Practices


Theodish Houserites


Become familiar with reddit's search function, it will save you a lot of time! This sub has been around for a few years now, so there are plenty of very helpful posts archived.