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A scene from one of the Merseburg Incantations: gods Wodan and Balder stand before the goddesses Sunna, Sinthgunt, Volla, and Friia (Emil Doepler, 1905). In Germanic paganism, the indigenous religion of the ancient Germanic peoples who inhabit Germanic Europe, there were a number of different gods and goddesses.
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]
Germanic paganism or Germanic religion refers to the traditional, culturally significant religion of the Germanic peoples. With a chronological range of at least one thousand years in an area covering Scandinavia , the British Isles , modern Germany, the Netherlands, and at times other parts of Europe, the beliefs and practices of Germanic ...
Ancient Germanic paganism was a polytheistic religion practised in prehistoric Germany and Scandinavia, as well as Roman territories of Germania by the first century AD. It had a pantheon of deities that included Donar/Thunar, Wuotan/Wodan, Frouwa/Frua, Balder/Phol/Baldag, and others shared with northern Germanic paganism. [13]
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.
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 .
This is an index of lists of deities of the different religions, cultures and mythologies of the world. List of deities by classification; Lists of deities by cultural sphere; List of fictional deities; List of goddesses; List of people who have been considered deities; see also apotheosis, Imperial cult and Sacred king
Scholars have proposed a variety of figures in the ancient Germanic record as extensions of this motif. Tacitus (Germania), mentions twin deities, the Alcis (PGmc *alhiz ~ *algiz), who he compares to the Greek Dioscuri. The deities are generally seen as a reflex of the Proto-Indo-European Divine twins. Their name either means 'elk' or 'protector'.