I first met Jonathan Bowden at a conference in fall 2009. It was mostly a stodgy affair, attended by a lot of old Right Wingers. And there in the midst of it was this odd little Brit with piercing eyes, wearing a wooden Odal rune pendant around his neck. On the last night, he was introduced as our banquet speaker. There had been problems throughout the conference with the microphone. Jonathan swept it aside dramatically and asked in a booming voice “Can you hear me now?!” His unaided voice filled the large hall and he spoke for almost an hour. But it didn’t feel like it. It was the most rousing speech I had ever heard. And it was full of mischief. Jonathan had little use for the stuff shirt Christians and one-note race-and-immigration science geeks who made up the bulk of the attendees. He declared himself a pagan and went on the attack against Christianity! I was sitting at table with a number of like-minded friends, and by the end of the speech we were all ready to follow Jonathan over the barricades.