Germanic paganism
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Germanic paganism refers to the religion of the Germanic nations preceding Christianization. The best documented of the Germanic Pagan religions is 10th and 11th century Norse paganism. Scattered references are also found in the earliest writings of other Germanic peoples and Roman descriptions. The information can be supplemented with archaeological finds and remnants of pre-Christian beliefs in later folklore.
The Germanic religion was a polytheistic religion with some underlying similarities to other Indo-European traditions. The principal gods are best known in English as Odin (from the ON: Óðinn, OHG: Wodan), Thor (ON: Þórr, OHG: Donar) and Týr (ON: Týr, OHG: Ziu).
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[edit] Sources
Most sources documenting Germanic paganism have been lost, and it is only from Iceland that there is a substantial literature, namely the Sagas and the Eddas. Some information is found in the Nibelungenlied and in Beowulf. Limited information also exists in Tacitus' ethnographic work Germania, although some preface is necessary due to context.
Further material has been deduced from folk customs found in surviving rural folk traditions that have either been mildly superficiailly Christianized or lightly modified, including surviving laws and legislature (Althing, Anglo-Saxon law, the Grágás), calendar dates, customary folktales and traditional symbolism found in folk art.
The majority of the evidence for Germanic paganism, both written and monumental, was likely intentionally destroyed when Christianity slowly gained dominant political power in Germania and later Scandinavia throughout the mediæval period.
Although perhaps singularly most responsible for the destruction of pagan sites, including purported massacres such as the Bloody Verdict of Verden and the subsequent dismantling of ancient tribal ruling systems, the Frankish emperor Charlemagne is said to have acquired a substantial collection of Germanic pre-Christian writings, which was deliberately destroyed after his death.
[edit] Pre-Migration Period
[edit] Caesar
The earliest forms of the Germanic religion can only be speculated on based on archaeological evidence and comparative religion. The first written description is in Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico. He contrasts the elaborate religious custom of the Gauls with the primitive German traditions.
The Germans differ much from these usages, for they have neither Druids to preside over sacred offices, nor do they pay great regard to sacrifices. They rank in the number of the gods those alone whom they behold, and by whose instrumentality they are obviously benefited, namely, the sun, fire, and the moon; they have not heard of the other deities even by report. — The Gallic War - 6.21 (or in Latin)
Caesar's description contrasts with other information on the early Germanic tribes and is not given much weight by modern scholars. More interesting is his note that Mercury is the principal god of the Gauls.
They worship as their divinity, Mercury in particular, and have many images of him, and regard him as the inventor of all arts, they consider him the guide of their journeys and marches, and believe him to have great influence over the acquisition of gain and mercantile transactions. — The Gallic War - 6.17 (or in Latin)
The worship of deities identified by the Romans with Mercury seems to have been prominent among the northerly tribes.
[edit] Tacitus
A much more detailed description of Germanic religion is Tacitus' Germania, dating to the 1st century.
Tacitus describes both animal and human sacrifice. He identifies the chief Germanic god with the Roman Mercury, who on certain days receives human sacrifices, while gods identified by Tacitus with Hercules and Mars receive animal sacrifice. The Suebians also make immolations to a goddess, who is identified by Tacitus with Isis.
Another goddess, Nerthus, is revered as the Earth Mother by Reudignians, Aviones, Angles, Varinians, Eudoses, Suardones and Nuithones. Nerthus is believed to directly interpose in human affairs. Her sanctuary is on an island, specifically in a wood called Castum. A chariot covered with a curtain is dedicated to the goddess, and only the high priest may touch it. The priest is capable of seeing the goddess enter the chariot. Drawn by cows, the chariot travels around the countryside and wherever the goddess visits, a great feast is held. During the travel of the goddess, these tribes do not go to war and touch no arms. When the priest declares that the goddess is tired of conversation with mortals, the chariot returns and is washed, together with the curtains, in a secret lake. The goddess is also washed. The slaves who administer this purification are afterwards thrown into the lake.[1]
According to Tacitus, the Germanic tribes think of temples as being unsuitable habitations for gods, and they do not represent them as idols in human shape. Instead of temples, they consecrate woods or groves to individual gods.
Divination and augury was very popular:
To the use of lots and auguries, they are addicted beyond all other nations. Their method of divining by lots is exceedingly simple. From a tree which bears fruit they cut a twig, and divide it into two small pieces. These they distinguish by so many several marks, and throw them at random and without order upon a white garment. Then the Priest of the community, if for the public the lots are consulted, or the father of a family about a private concern, after he has solemnly invoked the Gods, with eyes lifted up to heaven, takes up every piece thrice, and having done thus forms a judgment according to the marks before made. If the chances have proved forbidding, they are no more consulted upon the same affair during the same day: even when they are inviting, yet, for confirmation, the faith of auguries too is tried. Yea, here also is the known practice of divining events from the voices and flight of birds. But to this nation it is peculiar, to learn presages and admonitions divine from horses also. These are nourished by the State in the same sacred woods and groves, all milk-white and employed in no earthly labour. These yoked in the holy chariot, are accompanied by the Priest and the King, or the Chief of the Community, who both carefully observed his actions and neighing. Nor in any sort of augury is more faith and assurance reposed, not by the populace only, but even by the nobles, even by the Priests. These account themselves the ministers of the Gods, and the horses privy to his will. They have likewise another method of divination, whence to learn the issue of great and mighty wars. From the nation with whom they are at war they contrive, it avails not how, to gain a captive: him they engage in combat with one selected from amongst themselves, each armed after the manner of his country, and according as the victory falls to this or to the other, gather a presage of the whole.
The reputation of Tacitus' Germania is somewhat marred as a historical source by the writer's rhethorical tendencies. The main purpose of his writing seems to be to hold up examples of virtue and vice for his fellow Romans rather than give a truthful ethnographic or historical account. But while Tacitus' interpretations are sometimes dubious, the names and basic facts he reports are credible; Tacitus touches on several elements of Germanic culture known from later sources. Human and animal sacrifice is attested by archaeological evidence and mediaeval sources. Rituals tied to natural features are found both in medieval sources and in Nordic folklore. A ritual chariot or wagon as described by Tacitus was excavated in the Oseberg find. Sources from medieval times until the 19th century point to divination by making predictions or finding the will of the gods from randomized phenomena as an obsession of Germanic cultures. Or as Tacitus puts it "To the use of lots and auguries, they are addicted beyond all other nations."
While there is rich archaeological and linguistic evidence of earlier Germanic religious ideas, these sources are all mute, and cannot be interpreted with much confidence. Seen in light of what we know about the mediaeval survival of the Germanic religions as practiced by the Nordic nations, some educated guesses may be made. However, the presence of marked regional differences make generalization of any such reconstructed belief or practice a risky venture.
[edit] Reconstruction
Elements of Common Germanic mythology and religion may be reconstructed from elements common to North and West Germanic, see Common Germanic deities.
[edit] Migration Age
- See also Anglo-Saxon polytheism
During the Migration period, Germanic religion was subject to syncretic influence from Christianity and Mediterranean culture (see also Runes, Erilaz).
Jordanes' Getica is a 6th century account of the Goths. According to the Getica, the chief god of the Goths was Mars, who they believed was born among them.
Now Mars has always been worshipped by the Goths with cruel rites, and captives were slain as his victims. They thought that he who is the lord of war ought to be appeased by the shedding of human blood. To him they devoted the first share of the spoil, and in his honor arms stripped from the foe were suspended from trees. And they had more than all other races a deep spirit of religion, since the worship of this god seemed to be really bestowed upon their ancestor. — Getica
Saint Columbanus in the 6th century encountered a beer sacrifice to Woden in Bregenz. In the 8th century, the Saxons venerated an Irminsul (see also Donar's Oak). Charlemagne is reported to have destroyed the Saxon Irminsul in 772.
The Anglo-Saxon springtime goddess Eostre is considered by some to be an invention of Bede, in spite of Jacob Grimm's 1835 claim of a continental goddess "Ostara" from whose name he derived Easter (German Ostern).
In the Old High German "Merseburg Incantations" (Merseburger Zaubersprüche), the only pre-Christian testimony in the German language, appears a Sinthgunt who is a sister of the sun's (Sol). She is not known by name in Norse mythology, and if she refers to the moon, she is then different from the Scandinavian (Mani), whom is male.
The Goths were converted to Arianism in the 4th century, contemporaneous to the adoption of Christianity by the Roman Empire itself (see Constantinian shift). Unfortunately, due to their early conversion to Christianity, almost nothing is known about the particulars of the religion of the East Germanic peoples, separated from the remaining Germanic tribes during the Migration period. Such knowledge would be suited to distinguish Proto-Germanic elements from later developments present in both North and West Germanic.
The Franks, Alamanni, Anglo-Saxons, Saxons and Frisians were christianized between the 6th and the 8th century. By the end of the Migration period, only the Scandinavians remained pagan.
[edit] Viking Age
Early medieval Scandinavian (Viking Age) paganism is much better documented than its predecessors, notably via the records of Norse mythology in the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda, as well as the sagas, written in Iceland during 1150 - 1400.
Sacrifices were known as blót, seasonal celebrations where gifts were offered to appropriate gods, and attempts were made to predict the coming season. Similar events were sometimes arranged in times of crisis, for much the same reasons.
The goddess Frijja seems to have split into the two different, clearly related goddesses Frigg and Freyja. In Norse mythology there are certain vestiges of an early stage where they were one and the same, e.g. husbands Óðr/Óðinn, their shamanistic skills and Freyja/Frigg's infidelity.
See also: Norse gods
[edit] Middle Ages
In 1000 AD, Iceland became nominally Christian, although continuation of pagan worship in private was tolerated. Most of Scandinavia was Christianized during the 11th century. Adam von Bremen gives the last report of vigorous Norse paganism. Sometimes, the subjects of a lord who converted to Christianity refused to follow his lead (this happened to the Swedish kings Olof of Sweden, Anund Gårdske and Ingold I) and would sometimes force the lord to rescind his conversion (e.g. Haakon the Good).
The attempt of the deposed Christian monarch Olaf II of Norway to retake the throne resulted in a bloody civil war in Norway, which ended in the battle of Stiklestad (1030). In Sweden, in the early 1080s, Ingold I was deposed by popular vote for not wanting to sacrifice to the gods, and he was replaced by his brother-in-law Blot-Sweyn. After three years, Ingold returned secretely to Old Uppsala and during the night the Christians surrounded the hall of the Swedish king and set it on fire. When the king ran out of the building he was immediately slain. This event is held to be the date of the burning of the Temple at Uppsala. It appears that one last pagan king was elected by the Swedes, Eric of Good Harvests. His cognomen refers to the pagan king's role as a high priest, and it is a lasting commentary about his short reign.
During the High Middle Ages, Scandinavian paganism became marginalized and blended into rural folklore. In folklore and legend, elements of Germanic mythology survived, and appears in the guise of fairy tales such as those collected by the Brothers Grimm and other folk tales and customs (see Walpurgis Night, Holda, Berchta, Weyland, Krampus, Lorelei, Nix), as well as in medieval courtly literature (Nibelungs).
[edit] External links
- Viktor Rydberg's "Teutonic Mythology: Gods and Goddesses of the Northland" e-book
- W. Wagner's "Asgard and the Home of the Gods" e-book
- H. A. Guerber's "Myths of Northern Lands" e-book
- Peter Andreas Munch's "Norse Mythology: Legends of Gods and Heroes" e-book
[edit] See also
Common Germanic
West Germanic
North Germanic
Paganism
