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Old Norse religion, also known as Norse paganism, is a branch of Germanic religion which developed during the Proto-Norse period, when the North Germanic peoples separated into a distinct branch of the Germanic peoples. It was replaced by Christianity and forgotten during the Christianisation of Scandinavia.
Norse religious worship is the traditional religious rituals practiced by Norse pagans in Scandinavia in pre-Christian times. Norse religion was a folk religion (as opposed to an organized religion), and its main purpose was the survival and regeneration of society. Therefore, the faith was decentralized and tied to the village and the family ...
Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period.
The Temple at Uppsala was long held to be a religious center in the Norse religion once located at what is now Gamla Uppsala (Swedish "Old Uppsala"), Sweden attested in Adam of Bremen's 11th-century work Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum and in Heimskringla, written by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century.
The pagan Germanic peoples referred to holy places by a variety of terms and many of these terms variously referred to stones, groves, and temple structures. From Proto-Germanic *harugaz, a masculine noun, developed Old Norse hǫrgr meaning 'altar', Old English hearg 'altar', and Old High German harug meaning 'holy grove
Æsir (Old Norse; singular: áss) or ēse (Old English; singular: ōs) are gods in Germanic paganism. In Old Nordic religion and mythology , the precise meaning of the term "Æsir" is debated, as it can refer to both the gods in general or specifically to one of the main families of gods, in contrast to the Vanir , with whom they waged war ...
Old Norse sources describe burial mounds acting as places of religious activity, often with the aim of bringing or maintaining the fertility of the land. In some sources such as Saga Ólafs ens Helga, they are referred to as Old Norse: blothaugar (sacrificial howes). [54]
Scientists have connected 800-year-old skeletal remains found in a well at Norway’s Sverresborg castle to a mysterious figure mentioned in a medieval Norse saga, using advanced DNA analysis.