Hi everyone! I'm originally from a region in Germany which would have believed in what is in effect similar to the Norse pantheon, with other influences and local legends.
I would like to ask if it is possible to honour certain gods, ideals, and nature, without necessarily believing in them literally. What I mean to say by this, is that though of course, I would honour the gods in the sense of respecting and being knowledgable about them, I would more so want to worship them as ideas and principles to put into practice through my actions and care for nature. I care deeply for nature, as well as morality and environmentalism. I also have a personal connection to the concept of the Weltesche, as trees were worshipped around the place I grew up (Specifically Thor's Oak, which is not far from my roots). The principles Odin lived by for example, the quest for wisdom, or those of protection and empathy of Syn, touch me deeply, and were I to worship, I would do so not in the sense of worshipping the literal gods, but their stories and the ideals they stood for. Would it be offensive to worship this way to others, or would it be disrespectful of me? I do not by any means wish to make light of other people's forms of practice.
Please don't take this as me taking paganism lightly or wanting to worship for the aesthetic. If this post is in any way offensive, please tell me, and I will take it down. Any opinions are welcomed and appreciated, have a great day! Also please know English is not my first language, so this post may be a bit strange, apologies for this.

Every day of prayer, the gods visit the sons of man.

To each of their homes, they sat for while.

Men gave, and men received.

Through honoring the divine guest,

They blessed them well.

Weden hanged from the tree

And a little bird sat above

And it sang "The truth I speak"

Then flew it to high heavens above

Weden rides over rock and hill;

He rides his horse out of writhe and into lith,

Out of unlaw into law, bone to bone, unlith to lith

As it was best, when it was whole.

We created these subreddits for people who wish to share their affection and interest in trees! Some of these might not look like much (for now), but we're really trying to aim for quality over quantity, and we are extremely ambitious! Our hope is to create wholesome, interesting and unique forums to share our love of the trees. We're pretty excited!

If anyone is interested in helping out, in any shape or form please let us know!

• r/YEW
• r/Bogwood
• r/Eldertree
• r/blackthorn
• r/elmtree
• r/Ashtree
• r/oaktree
• r/birch
• r/Rowantree
• r/Hawthorntree
• r/Hollytree
• r/Walnuttree

Thank you for your consideration, and if you have any questions I'll be happy to answer them!

Hi all, something I've recently been feeling was missing from the podcast community is a show that focuses on surviving mythology but also digs into the details and presents the material from a researched point of view without embellishing or adding in modern ideas that aren't present in the original stories. So I made one :)

Hopefully this can become a useful resource for you or maybe just a fun way to pass the time.

Currently available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Stitcher, with Google Podcasts coming soon:

• Spotify
• Apple
• Amazon
• Stitcher

I have been doing research into the side of my family that I am closest too and the one that had the most influence over my life. Primarily this has been my grandmothers side, which is a few a things, but culturally are mostly german. Specifically from north-eastern france near the border with germany who's pop and culture have heavy German influence.

The area was once under the control of a tribe called the Alemanni by the Romans but was not there actual name which was in fact Suevi. I have been looking for any clues about there culture & religion but I can find very little. They didn't write anything down not even futhark although they know how which doesn't help.

There is historical evidence that they worshiped Wodan (the Germanic Odin), like many other germanic tribes, before the franks forced them convert to Christianity but that didn't mean they only worshipped only Odin (or maybe they did I have no idea). Do any of you know what the full pantheon was or where I can go to find who might know?

I appreciate anything you can give me. :)

This is derived mainly from the Norse tradition as a lot of things probably will be since our most detailed information happens to be preserved in Norse literature.

We already know that there are a lot of details missing from the recorded myths and poetry, particularly when it comes to how the mythological details about the gods played a role in the lives of worshippers in the past. Fortunately, we sometimes get a cool hint here or there from someone a little more average than a skald who scribbled something down on an artifact that still survives. Such is the case with the Canterbury charm, the Kvinneby Amulet, and Sigtuna Amulet I (links to wikipedia for intro-level information).

Before we dive into them, what do we know about the Thundergod? For one, his very name associates him with thunder in most germanic traditions. We also know that he typically wields a unique weapon that he uses for killing trolls/jotnar/thursar/etc. In the Norse tradition, Thor is usually not at home in Asgard at the beginning of a story. However, he often returns to Asgard when necessary to deal with some problem causer (i.e., the fortification-builder, Hrungnir, or even Loki in Lokasenna). When Thor is absent, and we are told where he is, he is always out east (the canonical location of Jotunheim) killing jotnar. But why does he do this? Is it because he's just some genocidal maniac? Given that Thor's own mother is a jotun, this would be an odd motivation.

As it turns out, the artifacts I mentioned above actually fill in some missing details here. Let's take a look at their inscriptions:

The Canterbury Charm

This is the text of some Old Norse runes found written in an Anglo-Saxon manuscript from 1073 AD. The normalized Old Norse reads...

Gyrils sārþvara far þū nū! Fundinn eʀ þū! Þōrr vīgi þik, þursa drōttinn, Gyrils sārþvara. Viðr aðravari.

And in my own translation, "Gyril sore-causer, leave now! You are found. May Thor use divine power upon you, lord of thursar, Gyril sore-causer. Against blood infections."

Next up–

The Kvinneby Amulet

This is the text of a runic amulet discovered in Öland, and possibly dating to between 1050-1130 AD. This one has proved a bit trickier to read in some places, but the overall message is similar in different translations. Here is what the runes say:

h(i)ʀiurkimsutiʀkuþiʀbirk bufimeʀfultihu þisþeʀuisinbral tilufranbufaþorketih ansmiʀþemhamrisamhyʀ hafikamflyfraniluit feʀekiafbufakuþiʀu untiʀhanumaukyfiʀhan um

And here is the Pereswetoff-Morath translation: "Here I carve (may I carve/carved) help for you, Bove, with complete assistance. Fire is safe for you (known to you), (the fire which) took all evil away from Bove. May Thor protect him with the hammer which came from the sea. Flee from the evil one! Magic (evil) achieves nothing with Bove. Gods are under him and over him."

In both of the above "charms", Thor is invoked to use his divine power for protecting a human being against attacks by some evil being. In the Canterbury charm, we see a direct association between the evil thurs (often used synonymously with jotun in the literature) and disease and it is therefore not a stretch to assume the "evil one" mentioned in the Kvinneby amulet is also a jotun or thurs. But is there any reason to believe that this "evil" one is attacking Bove by way of disease as we see in the Canterbury charm? Not directly, but the Sigtuna Amulet (which probably does not mention Thor) provides another attestation of this idea:

Sigtuna Amulet I

This is another 11th century runic amulet, this time found in Uppland. The normalized Old Norse reads as follows:

Þór/Þurs sárriðu, þursa dróttinn! Fljú þú nú! Fundinn er[tu]. Haf þér þrjár þrár, Ulfr! Haf þér níu nauðir, Ulfr! <iii isiʀ þis isiʀ auk is uniʀ>, Ulfr. Njót lyfja!

And in my own translation, "Thurs of sore-fevers, lord of thurses, flee now, you are found. Have yourself three torments, wolf (probably just meaning vicious monster). Have yourself nine needs, wolf. With these "i" runes, "iii" (used here as a magical incantation), the wolf is appeased. Enjoy healing."

Here we see again that a thurs is causing a "sore-fever" (perhaps a fever induced by an infected wound). Magic is invoked to curse the thurs and thereby heal the human victim.

What this information shows is that supernatural creatures were believed to be the direct cause of human ailments in Norse (and maybe more broadly Germanic?) religion and that Thor would be invoked to kill that creature and thereby save the human. So when we read that Thor was always out slaying jotnar, we can probably assume that he was constantly out dutifully answering prayers, rescuing humanity from the ailments caused by evil creatures.

"While like any god worthy of the name, Óðinn offered adherents an elevated image of themselves, his was a more realistic than idealized reflection. Óðinn was a god whose nature and experiences closely paralleled his followers’ own, up to and including the qualities of itinerancy and transience. The difference, in short, separating Óðinn from humans was quantitative, not qualitative."

• God on the Margins: Dislocation and Transience in the Myths of Óðinn by Kevin J. Wanner

Óðinn is a threefold(Þriggja) god of liminality. His threefold components are breath/spirit, self divinity/mind, and will. While being a god, he presents himself as components of the sum of the parts of the self. In this way, we all are driftwood blessed with breath, will, and divine intellect. Óðinn reflects what we all possess, but as an external figure. Heimskringla goes into some few details regarding Óðinn and his assumption as a mortal figure, in this way Óðinn's threefold may be seen as layers. Akin to Gylfaginning, High/Hárr/Hávi would be the lowest layer, being a man within a liminal space. As Hávi, Óðinn sacrificed himself to himself as Óðinn, the As-High or Highest, Third, for divine enlightenment. If Terry Gunnell's idea of ritualistic reenactment is to be believed, a priest or high class figure may take upon the guise or role of Óðinn in this form through ritualistic practice. This may include fasting between fires, or ritualistic hanging, or some unknown method. Óðinn as Jafnhár or "Even High" would be divine intellect, and Þriði or Third would be an underlying Will. The ordering or layers may have been different or may vary by region, but the premise of these three is far older than the Norse. In Proto-Germanic they all would have alliterated, and may have had a much larger role in the Óðinn cult than by the time of the late Viking Age, where Óðinn and all gods seem to take a much larger role as warrior gods. This threefold self complex itself goes as far back as possibly even the Corded Ware, Óðinn himself is extremely similar to Vedic Shiva for example, who is also the giver of breath to mankind, that represents a threefold reflection of the self. They are both weapon dancers, bound by fire in prayer and worship, angry gods, death gods, and gods of liminality. This threefold motif itself is nearly universal in Indo-European religion, being found in Celtic, Germanic, Vedic, Hellenistic, Far/Near Eastern Religions, etc.

One thing I've learned over the past little while is that not everyone is on the same page about what "Germanic religion" really means. There was a poll recently on r/Norse asking the community how they believed Norse and Germanic paganism were related and a surprising number of people weren't aware of the fact that Norse paganism is just a subcategory of Germanic paganism.

If you're interested learning about how these categories relate to each other, and in taking a look at some interesting possible variations in ancient Germanic paganism through the lens of the thundergod's weapon, I'm going to link to the first post in a 4-post series I wrote recently that delves into these topics:

When is a hammer not a hammer? Part I: Norse vs. Germanic

And now that r/germanic_religion exists, I've got a new place to start posting things like this!

Heil ok seil! I'm the main mod, Trevor. I have recently subscribed to north-germanic religion from an academic point of view, and couldn't find any subreddits I felt happy with, so I made my own! I have no problems with other subreddits on their own, they just aren't necessarily meant for what I personally follow, which is fine. I moderate on r/Norse, but I don't let any bias of any kind find it's way there when I moderate. I understand pure reconstruction of Pre-Christian Germanic religion is rather difficult, the Saxons and Norse being the only two cultures we really can vaguely grasp, but with enough research and practice, you can at least define and live within their worldview. The Eddas are not a bible, there are plenty of Catholic Theological applications to several of the stories, Gylfaginning seems to be quite old but imposes very blatant Christian views over Óðinn. But to be Anti-Edda is rather odd as well, I instead recommend learning to your best ability academic papers and learning more on influences in the Eddas to better assist with converting to this worldview.

List of Academic Reads:

H.S. Versnel's Faith, Hope, and Worship: Aspects of Religious Mentality in the Ancient World

Bill Griffiths' Aspects of Anglo-Saxon Magic

Ken Dowden's European Paganism: The Realities of Cult from Antiquity to the Middle Ages

Claude Lecouteux's The Tradition of Household Spirits: Ancestral Lore and Practices

Marcel Mauss's The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies

Karen Louise Jolly's Popular Religion in Late Saxon England: Elf Charms in Context

Anders Andrén’s Behind Heathendom: Archaeological Studies of Old Norse Religion

Luke John Murphy's Paganism at Home: Pre-Christian Private Praxis and Household Religion in the Iron-Age North

Luke John Murphy's Familial Religion in Pre-Christian Scandinavia: Ancestor-Worship, Mother-Priestesses, and Offerings for the Elves