Odinism

[lutondave]

Why do nazis go for odinism/nordic faith and not native british paganism.

[Red_Mackem]

They see themselves as Nordic and look to the So called Old God's, British Paganism has nothing to do with the Nazi Creed that they were trying to aspire to,

[Dean]

They see themselves as Nordic and look to the So called Old God's, British Paganism has nothing to do with the Nazi Creed that they were trying to aspire to,

That's true, and I would point out that the Nazis themselves used Nordic Paganism and Atlantis / Aryan mythology a lot. Hitler wanted Italy as an ally because of its artifacts and (apparent) link to Atlantis.

[palotin]

I would say largely because of their stupid, long-disproved notions of racial history that would have 'nordics', and by extension their religion, as the pinnacle of Western 'civilization'. But also because of their opposition to the universalism of Christianity. Paganism, which is a regional faith, survived longer in German and Scandinavian territories than in the British Isles. This results in both more records of that form of paganism and a sense that it was strong enough to last against crusaders and might have constituted a viable alternative had history taken a different route. I don't have a strong background in comparative mythology, but another thought is that Germanic paganism might have a more clearly defined systemization of socio-political hierarchy in its surviving myths. The easily-taxed "brains" of Nazis and fascists probably aren't up to the task of subtle manipulation of Anglo-Celtic myth to produce the justifications they want, if these aren't immediately detectible. If you are really interested in this stuff, check out Nicholas Goodrick-Clark's book 'Black Sun'. It goes over post-WWII neo-fascist paganism in more detail than I ever could.