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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 deities are attested from numerous sources, including works of literature, various chronicles, runic inscriptions , personal names, place names, and other sources.
The most important sources on Germanic mythology, however, are works of Old Norse literature, most of which were written down in the Icelandic Commonwealth during the Middle Ages; of particular importance is the Poetic Edda. [1] Archaeological evidence, Runic inscriptions and place-names are also useful sources on Germanic mythology. [1]
As names in the Þiðreks saga typically adapt a German name, only figures that are not attested outside of the Þiðreks saga are listed under that name, even if most information on the figure is from the Þiðreks saga. Because the Þiðreks saga is based on German sources, it is counted as a German attestation. Excluded from the list are:
Odin the Wanderer (the meaning of his name Gangleri); illustration by Georg von Rosen, 1886. Odin (Old Norse Óðinn) is a widely attested god in Germanic mythology. The god is referred to by numerous names and kenningar, particularly in the Old Norse record.
Continental Germanic mythology formed an element within Germanic paganism as practiced in parts of Central Europe occupied by Germanic peoples up to and including the 6th to 8th centuries (the period of Germanic Christianization). Traces of some of the myths lived on in legends and in the Middle High German epics of the Middle Ages.
Ymir's name is etymologically connected to the Sanskrit Yama and Iranian Yima, while the creation of the world from Ymir's body is paralleled by the creation of the world from the primordial being Purusha in Indic mythology, suggesting not only a Proto-Germanic origin for Ymir but an even older Indo-European origin (see Indo-European cosmogony).
This category includes the most important and best-known gods of the Germanic world. For more, see the categories Anglo-Saxon gods , Æsir and Vanir . See also Category:Germanic goddesses .
List of Germanic deities; V. Vagdavercustis; Vihansa This page was last edited on 8 September 2023, at 18:53 (UTC). Text is available under the Creative Commons ...