THE GERMANIC TREFOT AND TRIFUNCTIONALITY
The number three takes a prominent numerical place in our faith, evidenced in our mythology, all Indo-European myths, symbols, theology and culture. The simple and organic numerology symbolised in the trefot symbol of the Odinic Rite serves to illustrate a basic theme of our troth and culture, that of functionalism, namely trifunctionality.
The great Indo-European mythologist and scholar, George Dumezil popularised trifunctionality in his writings; “The Tripartite Ideology of the Indo-Europeans;” “The two sovereigns of the Indo-Europeans;” and “Gods of the Ancient northmen.” Dumezil, as many of you will know, discovered a common tri-partite or trifunctional structure in most Indo-European theological pantheons.
The first function is the sovereign or kingly function, often shared by two divine functions, the judge and the priest. In German myth this would be Tyr and Odin. The Christians consolidated both to conform to the biblical deity Yahweh, but gave him the declined form of the Gothic name of Odin (which is Goden or godan, declined to ‘God’).The second function is the warrior class, ruled by Thor and the third function is the provisional class of fertility deities: for our faith this would be the Vanir.
>Cont. at odinic-rite.org/main/the-trefot-and-trifunctionality/