Writings & Resources
A Glossary of Fyrnsegen
Words encountered in the tradition, with a plain-English beginning and a path to the fuller account.
These descriptions explain usage within Fyrnsegen. They are introductions, not exhaustive historical definitions.
- Cynn; plural cynnas
A community formed through shared worship, custom, hospitality, trust, and obligation. In Fyrnsegen, affiliation develops through participation over time.
- Ealh
The whole sacred enclosure in Fyrnsegen, comprising the hearg and the wíh. Its bounds and divisions give the work of worship an ordered place.
- Frið
Peace understood as the bonds, protection, and mutual responsibilities through which a common life can endure.
- Fyrnsegen
An Old English word meaning “ancient tradition”. The name describes the inheritance informing the modern tradition, rather than an institution surviving unchanged from antiquity.
- Gealdor
In the Wéohende rite, the spoken verses that accompany and give voice to the bearing of fire and the establishment of the sacred enclosure.
- Gerím
The live reckoning displayed on the Sacred Time page, showing the present night within the Fyrnsegen calendar.
- Gerímbóc
Fyrnsegen’s working lunisolar reckoning, reconstructed from Anglo-Saxon and related evidence and kept answerable to observation of Moon, Sun, and season.
- Hálig
The sacred condition proper to the hearg in Fyrnsegen. It is distinct in character from wéoh, rather than a lesser degree of the same condition.
- Hearg
The part of the ealh surrounding the wíh, where the gathered folk perform the communal work of worship. Its boundary is called the heargband.
- Heargweard
The keeper of the sanctuary. In Wéohende, the heargweard bears fire from the central flame around the surrounding hearg.
- Holy tides
Religious occasions with particular places in the seasonal year. Fyrnsegen’s four principal tides are Géol, Éostre, Midsumor, and Winterfylleð.
- Orleag
In Fyrnsegen, the first-laid conditions from which a life or undertaking begins, including ancestry and the circumstances of birth.
- Sōþ and Trēowþ
Related Old English words that help distinguish what is real or the case from trust, pledged faith, and reliability. Their historical meanings overlap.
- Tácen
A sign, token, or emblem. Fyrnsegen’s tácen expresses the relationship of central fire, sacred enclosure, and communities within the tradition.
- Thew
Customary ways and the conduct of those who practise them: habits, observances, character, and judgement learned through repeated communal life.
- Þyle
At its broadest historical level, a speaker or reciter. In Fyrnsegen, learned speech, memory, counsel, and teaching belong near the centre of this office.
- Wéoh and Wíh
Wéoh names the sacred condition associated with the central fire; the wíh is its locus within the ealh. Fyrnsegen distinguishes this from the hálig condition of the hearg.
- Wéohende
“Sacred precinct boundary.” The name of the gealdor and fire-bearing rite that establishes the appointed limit of the ealh.
- Weorold
In the account of the ealh, the ordinary sphere of mortal life beyond the sacral boundary. This does not imply that ordinary life is evil.
- Wyrd
In Fyrnsegen, what has come to pass and now stands among the real conditions of further life, accumulating as deeds and their consequences enter the world.