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  1. Only showing results from www.britannica.com

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  2. Dec 23, 2024Germanic religion and mythology, complex of stories, lore, and beliefs about the gods and the nature of the cosmos developed by the Germanic-speaking peoples before their conversion to Christianity. Germanic culture extended, at various times, from the Black Sea to Greenland, or even the North
  3. Dec 23, 2024Germanic religion and mythology - Norse, Pagan, Gods: The story of the beginning is told, with much variation, in three poems of the Elder Edda, and a synthesis of these is given by Snorri Sturluson in his Prose Edda. Snorri adds certain details that he must have taken from sources now lost. Defective as it is, the account of the "Völuspá" appears to be the most rational description of ...
    • Beliefs, practices, and institutions

      Germanic religion and mythology - Beliefs, Practices, Institutions: Sacrifice often was conducted in the open or in groves and forests. The human sacrifice to the tribal god of the Semnones, described by Tacitus, took place in a sacred grove; other examples of sacred groves include the one in which Nerthus usually resides. Tacitus does, however, mention temples in Germany, though they were ...

    • Thor

      Thor, deity common to all the early Germanic peoples, a great warrior represented as a red-bearded, middle-aged man of enormous strength, an implacable foe to the harmful race of giants but benevolent toward mankind. His figure was generally secondary to that of the god Odin, who in some traditions was his father; but in Iceland, and perhaps among all northern peoples except the royal families ...

    • Minor Aesir

      Germanic religion and mythology - Loki, Norse Gods, Germanic Tribes: There is no more baffling figure in Norse mythology than Loki. He is counted among the Aesir but is not one of them. His father was a giant (Fárbauti; "Dangerous Striker"). Loki begat a female, Angrboda (Angrboða; "Boder of Sorrow"), and produced three evil progeny—the goddess of death, Hel, the monstrous serpent ...

    • TYR

      Tyr, one of the oldest gods of the Germanic peoples and a somewhat enigmatic figure. He was apparently the god concerned with the formalities of war—especially treaties—and also, appropriately, of justice.It is in his character as guarantor of contracts, guardian of oaths, that the most famous myth about him may be understood: as a guarantee of good faith, he placed his hand between the ...

    • The end of paganism

      Germanic religion and mythology - Paganism, Gods, Beliefs: The Germanic peoples were converted to Christianity in different periods: many of the Goths in the 4th century, the English in the 6th and 7th centuries, the Saxons, under force of Frankish arms, in the late 8th century, and the Danes, under German pressure, in the course of the 10th century. The pagan religion held out longest in the ...

    • Guardian spirits

      Germanic religion and mythology - Freyr, Norse Gods, Paganism: Much more is told of Freyr, the son of Njörd. His name means "Lord" (compare Old English Frea), but Freyr had other names as well; he was called Yngvi or Yngvi-Freyr, and this name suggests that he was the eponymous father of the north Germans whom Tacitus calls Ingvæones (Ingævones).

  4. Dec 23, 2024Germanic religion and mythology - Beliefs, Practices, Institutions: Sacrifice often was conducted in the open or in groves and forests. The human sacrifice to the tribal god of the Semnones, described by Tacitus, took place in a sacred grove; other examples of sacred groves include the one in which Nerthus usually resides. Tacitus does, however, mention temples in Germany, though they were ...
  5. Dec 13, 2024Thor, deity common to all the early Germanic peoples, a great warrior represented as a red-bearded, middle-aged man of enormous strength, an implacable foe to the harmful race of giants but benevolent toward mankind. His figure was generally secondary to that of the god Odin, who in some traditions was his father; but in Iceland, and perhaps among all northern peoples except the royal families ...
    Author:The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
  6. Dec 23, 2024Germanic religion and mythology - Loki, Norse Gods, Germanic Tribes: There is no more baffling figure in Norse mythology than Loki. He is counted among the Aesir but is not one of them. His father was a giant (Fárbauti; "Dangerous Striker"). Loki begat a female, Angrboda (Angrboða; "Boder of Sorrow"), and produced three evil progeny—the goddess of death, Hel, the monstrous serpent ...
  7. Tyr, one of the oldest gods of the Germanic peoples and a somewhat enigmatic figure. He was apparently the god concerned with the formalities of war—especially treaties—and also, appropriately, of justice.It is in his character as guarantor of contracts, guardian of oaths, that the most famous myth about him may be understood: as a guarantee of good faith, he placed his hand between the ...
  8. Dec 23, 2024Germanic religion and mythology - Paganism, Gods, Beliefs: The Germanic peoples were converted to Christianity in different periods: many of the Goths in the 4th century, the English in the 6th and 7th centuries, the Saxons, under force of Frankish arms, in the late 8th century, and the Danes, under German pressure, in the course of the 10th century. The pagan religion held out longest in the ...
  9. Dec 23, 2024Germanic religion and mythology - Freyr, Norse Gods, Paganism: Much more is told of Freyr, the son of Njörd. His name means "Lord" (compare Old English Frea), but Freyr had other names as well; he was called Yngvi or Yngvi-Freyr, and this name suggests that he was the eponymous father of the north Germans whom Tacitus calls Ingvæones (Ingævones).
  10. Dec 23, 2024Germanic religion and mythology - German & English Vernacular Sources: Learned sources, such as those just mentioned, may be supplemented by a few written in vernacular in continental Germany and England. Among the most interesting are two charms, the so-called Merseburg Charms, found in a manuscript from circa 900, in alliterating verse. The charms appear to be of great antiquity, and the ...
  11. Germanic religion, Beliefs, rituals, and mythology of the pre-Christian Germanic peoples, in a geographic area extending from the Black Sea across central Europe and Scandinavia to Iceland and Greenland.The religion died out in central Europe with the conversion to Christianity (4th century) but continued in Scandinavia until the 10th century.
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