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A scene from one of the Merseburg Incantations: gods Wodan and Balder stand before the goddesses Sunna, Sinthgunt, Volla, and Friia (Emil Doepler, 1905). In Germanic paganism, the indigenous religion of the ancient Germanic peoples who inhabit Germanic Europe, there were a number of different gods and goddesses.
Germanic mythology consists of the body of myths native to the Germanic peoples, including Norse mythology, Anglo-Saxon mythology, and Continental Germanic mythology. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] It was a key element of Germanic paganism .
[116] [118] The Indo-European word for god, *deiuos, is only found in Old Norse, where it occurs as týr; it mostly appears in the plural (tívar) or in compound bynames. [ 119 ] In Norse mythology, the Aesir are one of two families of gods, the other being the Vanir : the most important gods of Norse mythology belong to the Aesir and the term ...
Norse mythology has been the subject of scholarly discourse since the 17th century when key texts attracted the attention of the intellectual circles of Europe. By way of comparative mythology and historical linguistics, scholars have identified elements of Germanic mythology reaching as far back as Proto-Indo-European mythology.
Ask and Embla, the first human beings in Norse mythology, created from trees and whose names may mean "ash" and "elm" Dream of the Rood, an Old English poem describing the crucifixion of Jesus from the point of view of a sentient tree; Hlín, a Norse goddess whose name some scholars have suggested may mean 'maple tree'
[c] [d] This Old Norse religion can be seen as part of a broader Germanic religion found across linguistically Germanic Europe; of the different forms of this Germanic religion, that of the Old Norse is the best-documented. [12] Map reflecting the extent of Norse settlement and activity in Europe.
The substratum of Proto-Indo-European mythology is animistic. [103] [151] This native animism is still reflected in the Indo-European daughter cultures. [152] [153] [154] In Norse mythology the Vættir are for instance reflexes of the native animistic nature spirits and deities.
Anthropomorphic Iron Age wooden cult figures, sometimes called pole gods, have been found at many archaeological sites in Central and Northern Europe. They are generally interpreted as cult images , in some cases presumably depicting deities, sometimes with either a votive or an apotropaic (protective) function.