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Germanic paganism was polytheistic, revolving around the veneration of various deities. Some deities were worshipped widely across the Germanic lands, albeit under different names. Other deities were simply local to a specific locality, and are mentioned in both Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic texts, in the latter of which they are described as being "the land spirits that live in this land".[15] The Ansiwiz similar to the Roman Dii Consentes appear as a limited circle of powerful beings, deities or remote ancestors. Teiwaz, god of war, "Germanic Mars", Norse Tyr, Old English Tiw, Old High German Ziu, continues Indo-European Dyeus. Wōdanaz, "lord of poetic/mantic inspiration", "Germanic Mercury", Norse Óðinn (Odin), Old English Woden, Old High German Wuotan. Frijjō, wife of Wodanaz, Norse Frigg. "wife", c.f. Sanskrit priyā "mistress, wife". Probably also addressed as Frawjō "lady" (Norse Freya). Fraujaz. "lord", c.f. Norse Freyr Þunaraz, "thunder", "Germanic Jupiter", Norse Þórr (Thor), West Germanic Donar, Old English Thunor. possibly Austrō, goddess of dawn and springtime. Heavenly bodies may have been deified, including Sowilo the Sun, Mænon the Moon, and perhaps Auziwandilaz the evening star. Religious practices Sites of worship Idunn and the apples of youth. Across the Germanic world, there was some variation in the places where pagans worshipped, however, it was common for sites displaying prominent natural features to be used. Tacitus claimed that the 1st century tribes of Germany did not "confine the gods within walls... but that they worshipped outdoors in sacred woods and groves",[16] and similarly there is evidence from later continental Europe, Anglo-Saxon England and Scandinavia that the pagans worshipped out of doors at "trees, groves, wells, stones, fences and cairns".[17] In some later cases, temples would be built on such sites, the most notable being the Swedish Temple at Uppsala which, according to Adam of Bremen, writing in the 11th century, was built around a grove which was "so holy that each tree is itself regarded as sacred".[18] Images of the various gods played a part in worship, although Tacitus noted that whilst amongst the early Germans "effigies" were used and even taken into battle, they were not "human [in] appearance".[19] Surviving examples of Germanic effigies, such as the phallic idol recovered in a bog in Broddenbjerg, Denmark, show that amongst some of the continental Germanic peoples at least, religious idols were naturally human-like wooden shapes that had been roughly carved to make their appearance more humanlike.[20] Sacrifice Further information: Blót Animal sacrifice As in Iron Age religion in general, an important part of Germanic paganism was animal sacrifice. Adam of Bremen stated that at the temple of Uppsala in Sweden: The sacrifice is like this: Of all the living beings that are male, nine head are offered; by whose blood it is the custom to appease the gods. Their bodies, however, are hung in a grove which is beside the temple. The grove is so sacred to the heathen that the individual trees in it are believed to be holy because of the death or putrefaction of the sacrifical victims. There, even dogs and horses dangle beside people, their bodies hanging jumbled together.[21] Among the Alemanni of the 6th century, animal sacrifice by means of decapitation seems to have played an important role; according to the testimony of Agathias of Myrina, writing in the context of the Gothic War (535–554), (Ancient Greek) « δένδρα τε γάρ τινα ἱλάσκονται καὶ ῥεῖθρα ποταμῶν καὶ λόφους καὶ φάραγγας, καὶ τούτοις, ὥσπερ ὅσια δρῶντες, ἵππους τε καὶ βόας καὶ ἄλλα ἄττα μυρία καρατομοῦντες ἐπιθειάζουσιν. » (English) « They worship certain trees, the waters of rivers, hills and mountain valleys, in whose honour they sacrifice horses, cattle and countless other animals by beheading them, and imagine that they are performing an act of piety thereby. » (Agathiae Myrinaei historiarum libri quinque. Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae, Series Berolinensis 2. Walter de Gruyter. p. 18f. ) Human sacrifice Human sacrifice was also practiced. Tacitus recorded that the early German tribes in the 1st century practiced public human sacrifices "in a grove hallowed by auguries of the fathers".[22] The practice of human sacrifice, often associated with sacred groves or trees, would continue amongst the Germanic peoples to the eve of Christianization. Ibn Fadlan famously describes the sacrifice of a female slave as part of a Viking ship burial which he witnessed in 922. In Iceland, the medieval author of the Landnámabók (presumably Ari Frodi, fl. 1100) describes a human sacrifice that had allegedly been performed at the Thorsnes thing in the 9th or 10th century.[23] Burial In certain cases, slaves were killed alongside their masters at death. Such cases have been found from Anglo-Saxon England,[24] and are also recorded in the 10th-century account of Ibn Fadlan, who witnessed a ship burial amongst the Rus tribe in which a willing female slave who had belonged to the deceased was treated like royalty, becoming drunk and having sex with whichever men she chose, before she was simultaneously strangled and stabbed to death and then burned upon her master's pyre.[25] Festivals There was no singular unifying set of festivals across the Germanic world. Despite this, these festivals likely all held a similar function and structure, described by Thor Ewing as being "a public celebration of the divine, where the local community or the nation renewed its bonds through sacred worship... In renewing the people's pact with the divine, they also renewed their sense of community".[26] Tacitus relates that the early Germans celebrated only three seasons, the equivalents to spring, summer and winter,[27] whilst the Law Book of Iceland, from a thousand years later, indicates that the Germanic Icelanders divided the year only into summer and winter.[28] Modern influence Elements of Germanic paganism have survived for centuries after Christianisation, partly within Germanic Christianity, partly as part of secular folklore. A scholarly revival of interest in ancient Germanic traditions arose as early as the 16th century, culminating in the "Viking revival" of 19th-century Romanticism, and by means of popular works such as Wagner's Ring Cycle, these traditions became part of modern-day pop culture. Germanic neopaganism in the sense of a new religious movement was influenced by Romanticism but arises later, in the early 20th century, apparently first in Germany in the years prior to World War I, but had mostly disappeared again by the end of World War II. A second, ongoing revival of Germanic religion originated in North America and in Iceland in the early 1970s. Elements of Germanic paganism also survive within certain Germanic given names, such as Alfred "elf-counsel", or originally theophoric names, such as Ingrid, Thorsten or Oswald. Traces of pagan mythology and worship are also found in toponymy. Theophoric toponyms in England include Woodway House, Wansdyke[disambiguation needed], Wednesbury and Thundersley. Scandinavia has many theophoric placenames, in particular named after Odin or after Thor. The names of the days of the week are based on a Roman scheme, introduced in the 2nd century (first attested by Vettius Valens; the pre-Christian Germanic calendar did not have a seven-day week). However, as the Latin names were translated into early Germanic still before Christianisation, the days remain named for Germanic deities according to their interpretatio germanica. |
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