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Asatru Folk Assembly
The Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA) is a white nationalist international Ásatrú organization, founded by Stephen A. McNallen in 1994. Many of the assembly's doctrines, heavily criticized by most Heathens,[better source needed] are based on ethnicity, an approach it calls "folkish". Once headquartered in Grass Valley, California, with chapters worldwide, the AFA is recognized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit religious organization.
As of April 2025, the AFA had approximately 730 members.
The AFA's roots are in the Viking Brotherhood, founded by McNallen in 1972. McNallen was one of the earliest advocates in the United States of reconstructing Germanic Paganism. The Viking Brotherhood evolved into the Asatru Free Assembly in 1974, and was disbanded in 1986, splitting into two successor organizations, the "folkish" Ásatrú Alliance, and the "universalist" Troth. In 1986, the Asatru Free Assembly ceased operations, due to burnout and disputes about polygamous relationships within the membership. According to accounts by McNallen, it was not due to racial politics, but because administration was time-consuming and the membership rejected a request seeking pay for religious work.
McNallen founded the Asatru Folk Assembly in 1995 as the successor organization to the Asatru Free Assembly. The defunct Asatru Free Assembly and Asatru Folk Assembly are sometimes called the "old AFA" and "new AFA", respectively. From 1997 to 2002, the AFA was a member of the International Asatru-Odinic Alliance.
McNallen believes in an "integral link between ancestry and religion, between biology and spirituality"; according to Jeffrey Kaplan, the organization was founded in part to counteract rumored "universalist" tendencies he discerned in Ring of Troth.
In 1999, the AFA attempted to acquire land in the northern California, intending to create a communal project with room for agriculture and religious worship. But it never held legal title to the land. Upon promises that the land would be donated, some AFA members built a simple hof there, after which the land's owner chose not to donate it.[citation needed]
In the late 1990s, the AFA got involved in a protracted fight over the remains of the Kennewick Man: members claimed that these were the remains of a European ancestor; they were allowed to approach, but not touch, the coffin holding the Kennewick Man. Later testing showed that Kennewick Man is "very closely related to the Colville" tribe in northeast Washington.
In May 2017, Facebook deleted the AFA's primary social media outlet, citing hate speech as the reason. In 2018, the Southern Poverty Law Center added the AFA to its list of hate groups as part of a new category called "neo-Völkisch". The Anti-Defamation League lists the AFA as an "extremist group".
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Asatru Folk Assembly
The Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA) is a white nationalist international Ásatrú organization, founded by Stephen A. McNallen in 1994. Many of the assembly's doctrines, heavily criticized by most Heathens,[better source needed] are based on ethnicity, an approach it calls "folkish". Once headquartered in Grass Valley, California, with chapters worldwide, the AFA is recognized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit religious organization.
As of April 2025, the AFA had approximately 730 members.
The AFA's roots are in the Viking Brotherhood, founded by McNallen in 1972. McNallen was one of the earliest advocates in the United States of reconstructing Germanic Paganism. The Viking Brotherhood evolved into the Asatru Free Assembly in 1974, and was disbanded in 1986, splitting into two successor organizations, the "folkish" Ásatrú Alliance, and the "universalist" Troth. In 1986, the Asatru Free Assembly ceased operations, due to burnout and disputes about polygamous relationships within the membership. According to accounts by McNallen, it was not due to racial politics, but because administration was time-consuming and the membership rejected a request seeking pay for religious work.
McNallen founded the Asatru Folk Assembly in 1995 as the successor organization to the Asatru Free Assembly. The defunct Asatru Free Assembly and Asatru Folk Assembly are sometimes called the "old AFA" and "new AFA", respectively. From 1997 to 2002, the AFA was a member of the International Asatru-Odinic Alliance.
McNallen believes in an "integral link between ancestry and religion, between biology and spirituality"; according to Jeffrey Kaplan, the organization was founded in part to counteract rumored "universalist" tendencies he discerned in Ring of Troth.
In 1999, the AFA attempted to acquire land in the northern California, intending to create a communal project with room for agriculture and religious worship. But it never held legal title to the land. Upon promises that the land would be donated, some AFA members built a simple hof there, after which the land's owner chose not to donate it.[citation needed]
In the late 1990s, the AFA got involved in a protracted fight over the remains of the Kennewick Man: members claimed that these were the remains of a European ancestor; they were allowed to approach, but not touch, the coffin holding the Kennewick Man. Later testing showed that Kennewick Man is "very closely related to the Colville" tribe in northeast Washington.
In May 2017, Facebook deleted the AFA's primary social media outlet, citing hate speech as the reason. In 2018, the Southern Poverty Law Center added the AFA to its list of hate groups as part of a new category called "neo-Völkisch". The Anti-Defamation League lists the AFA as an "extremist group".