Meet Our Folk

Mary Antonelli

My name is Mary Antonelli, and I'm a born and raised Midwesterner.  To 

make a long story short, my husband did not want to move to the freezing 

north so I moved out here instead and have been in Southern California 

for 9 years now.

 

I first encountered the Norse lore in school when we had a history unit 

on mythology sometime in late elementary school.  I was a stubborn 

student, not believing the teacher when she said that all of those gods 

we were studying were dead. 

 

When I was 19 I met some other pagans in my military unit and started 

studying whatever I could get my hands on at the time, mainly Wicca. 

Something was missing though, and after looking at other paths I didn't 

put my finger on it until I picked up a copy of Rites of Odin at a shop 

in Huntington Beach.  I read it, then it went on the shelf for a few 

years until I picked it back up and went to the sources at the back of 

the book. 

 

I'd been getting nudged in the direction of Asatru for a while but had 

been digging in my heels. Finally, in 2005, I started seriously reading 

the Poetic and Prose Eddas and the Sagas of the Icelanders.  The sense 

of rightness that I felt was unreal, so I started looking online 

occasionally as I continued to read. I was pointed to AFA's Bearclaw 

list by a person on the online game Second Life, and after reading the 

information on the website I decided to join.  So far it has been a good 

fit.  I'm currently volunteering as the Folkbuilder for Southern 

California and as the webmistress for the Asatru Military Family Support 

Program.