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The Pagan Federation has chapters in Austria and Germany. There is no organized neopagan group in Switzerland, the Eldaring catering also to Swiss and Austrian members. A loose network centered around interest in Alpine paganism has been active in Switzerland under the name Firner Situ (the Old High German translation of Forn Sed) since 2006.
Based on Old Norse evidence, Germanic paganism probably had a variety of words to refer to gods. [115] Words descended from Proto-Germanic * ansuz , the origin of the Old Norse family of gods known as the Aesir (singular Áss), are attested as a name for divine beings from around the Germanic world. [ 116 ]
Old Norse religion, also known as Norse paganism, is a branch of Germanic religion which developed during the Proto-Norse period, when the North Germanic peoples separated into a distinct branch of the Germanic peoples. It was replaced by Christianity and forgotten during the Christianisation of Scandinavia.
Several foreign Heathen organisations also established a presence in the German Heathen scene; in 1994 the Odinic Rite Deutschland (Odinic Rite Germany) was founded, although it later declared its independence and became the Verein für germanisches Heidentum (VfgH; Society for Germanic Paganism), while the Troth also created a German group ...
A third group, Vigrid, makes racial teachings a part of their ideological framework, as well as using Nazi Germany's flag colors and structure in their banner. For this reason many consider them to be neo-Nazis. Vigrid has also influenced Norway's view on pagan symbols, causing many Norwegians to believe that the symbols are racist in nature.
The Midsummer maypole tradition dates from the Middle Ages, while the summer solstice celebration can be traced to Norse pagan times, when the culture revolved around the mystical natural world.
The pagan Germanic peoples referred to holy places by a variety of terms and many of these terms variously referred to stones, groves, and temple structures. From Proto-Germanic * harugaz , a masculine noun, developed Old Norse hǫrgr meaning 'altar', Old English hearg 'altar', and Old High German harug meaning 'holy grove, holy stone'.
In Germany, Richard Wagner borrowed characters and themes from Norse mythology to compose the four operas that make up Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), though he also utilized medieval German sources and Germanized the names of the Norse gods. In Germany, the rediscovery of Norse mythology became popularized by transforming ...