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Germanic mythology is the religious and supernatural beliefs of Northern Europe before Christianity. It includes gods, goddesses, heroes, and distinct worlds. Woden, Thor, and Freyja are some of the major deities. The study is complicated by the lack of written records and the influence of Christian or Roman authors.
Germanic mythology is the set of religious and supernatural beliefs shared by the populations of Northern Europe before their conversion to Christianity. The term “Germanic” usually encompasses cultures that speak a Germanic language and thus refers to modern Germany and Austria, the Netherlands, and parts of Belgium, Scandinavia, England, and Iceland. There are several main branches of Germanic mythology, separated by time and space, but they share some key elements.
Germanic cosmology appears to be based on the idea of a number of distinct worlds, each with its own inhabitants. The world inhabited by humans was at the center of the universe; this is the origin of the term “Middle Earth”. Other realms were inhabited by gods, the dead, or other types of supernatural beings.
Germanic mythology implies the existence of a number of gods and goddesses, each with particular powers and responsibilities. Some of these are unique to particular peoples or times, but others are shared. Shared gods include Woden – also called Wotan, Odin or Wotanaz – the god of magic and poetic inspiration. In Norse and Anglo-Saxon mythology, the god of rulers and divine ancestor of kings was known as Odin, or sometimes Woden. After the conversion of the British to Christianity, Woden remained part of the royal genealogies, reduced to human hero status.
Other major deities in Germanic mythology include Donar, Thunor or Thor, the god of thunder. Odin’s wife is known as Frigg or Frige, while Freyja or Freo is known as the goddess of romantic love and beauty. The classical writer Tacitus describes an earth goddess named Nerthus, who may be related to the later Norse god Njord, the god of the sea and father of Freyja.
In addition to the gods, Germanic mythology involves a number of human or semi-divine heroes, many of whom have supernatural powers of their own. One of the most popular is Weland, also known as Weyland or Volund, a blacksmith who could make items with magical properties, such as a pair of wings that allowed him to fly. Weland appears in Old Norse poetry and art, as well as Anglo-Saxon place names and engravings.
The study of Germanic mythology covers a large geographical area and a long period of time. To complicate matters further, writing was rare in Germanic societies before the introduction of Christianity. Almost everything we know about Germanic mythology comes from records written by Christian or Roman authors who may have distorted or misunderstood the religion they were describing. Consequently, it is difficult to say which elements of Germanic mythology were truly consistent throughout the Germanic world.
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