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• History
of Christianization of Europe
• Soviet
Union, Communist influence
• Map
of European ethnic groups
• Map of Fascism
in Europe (1922-75)
• History
of Islamic conquest in Europe
• Religions
& ethnic groups in Russia
• Detailed
map of French colonization
• Detailed
map of British colonization
• Napoleon's
conquests & legacy
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NON-ENGLISH--

• Muhammad cartoon crisis in pictures
• Stalin's private summer home
• Ravenna: capital of Gothic empire
• Czar Nicholas II's Ukrainian palace
• European traditional costumes/dress
• Inside the Vatican, house of all wealth
--MORE
& NON-ENGLISH--

• Islamic Mujahidin
vs. Spain & El Cid
• Poland-Lithuania vs. Teutonic Order
• Nevskiy's Russia vs. German Crusaders
• Mussolini vs. Libyan Islamic fighters
• Qadafi: Europe will soon be Islamic
• Ivan the Terrible vs. Muslim Tatars
--MORE
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• The Gypsies in history and today,
Europe's public enemy
• History of Jihad in Chechnya & Caucasus vs. Russians
• History of the Muslim Tatars in Russia
• Ethnic & religious history of Serbs, Croats, & Bosnians
• Breakaway
states and independence movements in Europe
• The ancient Germanic Runic alphabet and
Runestones
• Inside Bulgaria, 1st Slavic nation, land of Thracian masters of gold
• Visual history of Yugoslavia
• 4,000-year-old white mummies of China,
bringers of Buddhism
--MORE
& NON-ENGLISH-- |
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Textual sources of
pre-Christian Germanic/Norse religion
by James Mayfield (Chairman, European Heritage Library)
Print
this Article • About
the Author • Bibliography/Sources
This is an introduction and
brief analysis of the ancient Edda texts written by Snorri
Sturlusson in the 12th century. It is the major source of
our knowledge regarding pre-Christian Germanic and Norse religion.
Also included is an excerpt and analysis of one of the few
other sources on pre-Christian Germanic religion, Gesta
Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum by Adam von Bremen.
Originally codified in the
8th century, the ancient Edda texts are the foremost significant
documentations of the pre-Christian, pan-Germanic culture,
religion, and its mythology. Much like the Judeo-Christian
Old Testament and the Muslim al-Qur'ān, the Edda were an assemblage
of ancient oral legends and traditions which had permeated
throughout the Germanic peoples and were likely old when Khufu's
pyramids were young. They were codified and documented by
Icelandic Skalds before Christianization in 34 “kenning” poems
as the so-called “Elder Edda”, and were reformed to a more
general style of literacy as the “Younger Edda” by lawmaker
and scholar Snorri Sturlusson (1179-1241). The Edda texts
reveal the foundations of the historic religious doctrines
and faith of the pre-Christian Danes, Norwegians, Anglo-Saxons,
Icelanders, Germans, Dutch, Swedes, and arguably also the
Germanized Scots and Finns. The Edda contain a large number
of myths and blatant fantasies, but, in contrast to the Holy
Bible, it was not presented as canon scripture nor Holy Word,
but merely the preservation of pre-Christian cultural faith
and values of the Germans and their descending groups.

Early artwork depicting Odin on his 6-legged horse, Schleipnir
The spiritual, ethical, moral,
and ritual standards of the Germanic peoples are conveyed
in these texts by primarily following the stories and life
of Woden/Wedne (Odin), the universally Germanic “Allfather”
and etymological source of “Wednesday”. The stories occur
in a variety of locations --supernatural or earthly -- from
the hells of Niflheim to the canopy of the World Tree in Valhalla.
The largely-mythological poems are effectively portrayed as
sentiments of wisdom to which Vikings and Saxons adhered.
It was likely that these once-divine texts were not treated
as religious and monastic scripture, also largely because
literacy was low. As the poetic Skalds of ancient Scandinavia
viewed Odin euhemeristically as the relative father of Germanic
civilizations, his ethics and rituals were recorded here to
transmit and define Germanic cultural and historic identity.
In the chapter Havamal (The Words of the High One), the Allfather
Odin learns to control the supernatural Rune symbols, effectively
setting forth the written scripture and divine symbology for
all future descendants. Historically this may imply that an
actual historical German or Scandinavian king developed the
writing system of Runic from the 2nd century onward, when
the Runic writing first began to appear throughout the Germanic
world. These Runic symbols became a mainstay of Nordic ritual
and social practices, establishing a hierarchy of religious
institutions, including the Völva (pronounced wool-wah), equivalent
of a Runic shaman or a seer. For example, the Sowil Rune (later
used by the Third Reich and especially in the Schutzstaffel
military divisions) would be carved into walrus ivory or wood
and used in ceremonious divination to summon the defense of
the blood by Tyr, the Germanic god of war. Pan-Germanic reverence
and worship of this god is evident in the weekday “Tuesday”
via an Anglo-Saxon spelling change of the name. In the Edda,
we see the use of a ritual probably with Thörn (the “t” Rune,
which became “th” in English, and later the modern letter
“t”):
“I know a sixth [charm]:
it will save me if a man,
cut runes on a sapling's root
with intent to harm; it turns the spell;
the hater is harmed, not I”
Odin, the High One
In German and especially
Scandinavian versions of the common cultural and ethnic religion,
the creation phenomenon is bizarrely unique among religions.
A mighty female cow was the first-born from a dark plane of
absence. This cow licked a block of ice, from which the body
of Ymir was born, the grandfather of Odin. Ymir's procreation
with “frost giantesses” borne of the same ice led to the birth
of Odin and his two brothers, Ve and Vili. These three grandchildren
then assaulted and flayed their grandfather Ymir, and from
his body created the nine worlds. His blood created the waters
and oceans, his hair the grass and trees, and his body the
mountains and lands. Thus the worlds and its inhabitants were
created. Instead of in pre-Christian Greek religion, in which
a treacherous god Prometheus offered fire and knowledge to
men, it was Odin himself who taught language, Runic symbols,
and civilization to the Germanic peoples.
Through these Eddic tales
of the Allfather, and early Germanic legends, the evolution
of the Runic writing system and early Germanic symbolism can
be better understood. Such symbolic veneration is akin to
the development of religious oracle bones in China, which
were used by early dynastic authorities to evoke purity and
spirituality, often accompanied by early versions of the modern
Chinese writing system that were also revered as holy like
these Odinic Runes. This ritual and spiritual divination is
crucial in understanding pre-Christian religious life and
faith in the Germanic world, including pre-Christian Englanders,
Germans, Danes, Icelanders, Norwegians, Swedes, the Dutch
and Belgians, Austrians, and arguably with great similarity
the Finns and Estonians.
Again in the central Havamal
chapter, the Germanic faith doctrine of sacrifice and will
are codified in Odin's struggle at the Well of Mimir. With
the ultimate goal of achieving absolute knowledge and self-advancement,
the Allfather wandered tirelessly to drink from the legendary
well on his six-legged horse, Schleipnir. The giant guardian,
Mimir, demanded that Odin offer a sacrifice to him and place
it in the well for him to drink from its reserves. With undying
will to acquire knowledge and strength, the Allfather tore
out his own eye and acquired absolute brilliance. Thus, Odin
is depicted as the one-eyed bearded wise man on early ancient
wood and ivory artifacts throughout the Germanic world. This
endless will to thrive as well as the drive for perfection
and knowledge thus proliferated via the Edda throughout the
Germanic cultures as far away as the Finns and Estonians,
in whose Kalevala-Edda a Thor-like wise lord strove to acquire
the Säämpo cure-all. Further espousing the pre-Christian sacrifice
and transcendence in the Edda, the Allfather traveled to the
base of the World Tree, the legandary ash or yew that supports
the nine worlds and stretches to Walhalla. To gain the knowledge
of the dead, the afterlife, and all the worlds, he hanged
himself from one of its mythic branches for a week. This was
embraced by Germanic peoples largely for the purpose of inspiring
will in times of war, which was an integral ritual and blood
doctrine of the Vikings and Saxons. Early Gothic and German
warriors have been documented to have severed the limbs and
eyes of their felled rivals in order to hang them from trees
as sacrifices to Odin and Tyr, the latter of whom lost his
arm in order to protect the righteous and the holy from the
horrors of the Fimbul-wulf. This self-sacrifice is oddly similar
to the tales of the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, who
endured such hardship as death for the benefit of his constituents
and adherents. When demanding Christianization of their Germanic
brother cultures, the English missionaries such as St. Bede
emphasized this commonality of behavior between Odin and Jesus
as a source of accepting the highly-similar transcendent lord.
Around the same time that
the Edda were codified by the Icelandic and Scandinavian poets,
Adam von Bremen (Adam of Bremen or Adam of
Hamburg) depicted the religiosity of the pre-Christian Swedes
in the Latin text Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum.
The value of his first-hand depictions as a tool to describe
pre-Christian Germanic religion as a whole is dubious because
of a variety of factors, including Christian anti-"heathen"
bias, the fact that Odinic religion was very different in
Sweden than it was Germany or Anglo-Saxon England, and that
Odinic religion had already been vanquished and declared illegal
in most of Scandinavia centuries prior by Christian kings,
thus the behavior he saw at Upsala temple could be completely
the opposite of traditional Odinism. Adam von Bremen wrote:
"At this point I shall
say a few words about the religious beliefs of the Swedes.
That nation has a magnificent temple, which is called Upsala,
located not far from the city of Sigtuna. In this temple,
built entirely of gold, the people worship the statues of
three gods. These images are arranged so that Thor, the most
powerful, has his throne in the middle of the group of three.
On either side of him sit Othin and Freyr. Their provinces
are as follows: “Thor,” they say, “rules the heavens; he is
the god of thunder, wind and rain, fair weather and the produce
of the fields. The second god, Othin, is the god of war, and
he provides man with courage in the face of his enemies. The
third god is Freyr, who bestows peace and pleasure upon mortals.”
Indeed they depict him as having a large phallus. Othin they
represent armed just as our people usually portray Mars, and
Thor with his scepter seems to be the counterpart of Jupiter.
They also worship deified human being upon whom they bestow
immortality because of their outstanding deeds.
To all their gods they have
assigned priests to offer up the sacrifices of the people.
If pestilence and famine threaten, a libation is made to the
image of Thor, if war is immanent, one is made to Othin; if
a marriage is performed, to Freyr. A general festival for
all the provinces of Sweden is customarily held at Upsala
every nine years. Participation in this festival is required
of everyone. Kings and their subjects, collectively and individually,
send their gifts to Upsala; and a thing more cruel than any
punishment – those who have already adopted Christianity buy
themselves off from these ceremonies. The sacrifice is as
follows; of every kind of male creature, nine victims are
offered. By the blood of these creatures it is the custom
to appease the gods. Their bodies, moreover, are hanged in
a grove which is adjacent to the temple. This grove is so
sacred to the people that the separate trees in it are believed
to be holy because of the death or putrefaction of the sacrificial
victims. There even dogs and horses hang beside human beings.
(A certain Christian told me that he had seen seventy-two
of their bodies hanging up together.) The incantations, however,
which are usually sung in the performance of a libation of
this kind are numerous and disgraceful, and it is better not
to speak of them.
Near that temple is a very
large tree with widespread branches which are always green
both in winter and summer. What kind of tree it is nobody
knows. There is also a spring there where the pagan are accustomed
to perform sacrifices and to immerse a human being alive.
As long as his body is not found, the request of the people
will be fulfilled.
A golden chain encircles
that temple and hangs over the gables of the building. Those
who approach see its gleam from afar off because the shrine,
which is located on a plain, is encircled by mountains so
situated as to give the effect of a theatre.
For nine days feasts and
sacrifices of this kind are celebrated. Every day they sacrifice
one human being in addition to other animals, so that in nine
days there are 72 victims which are sacrificed. This sacrifice
takes place about the time of the vernal equinox."
In the above description,
the reverence of holy trees reflects the tradition of the
World Tree (Yggdrasil - "Oog-drah-siyl) as well as the
honoring of Odin's self-hanging sacrifice via the lynching
of human offerings.

An artistic depiction of the Uppsala temple sacrifice depicted
by Adam von Bremen. (Click to enlarge)

Believed to be the mounds on which the now-demolished Odinic
temples lay.
The phenomenon of moral dualism
exists in a unique form in German religion, that is, the worldview
that the cosmos is divided on earth and in the planes beyond
into the polarities of evil and good. It is dissimilar to
Christian, Jewish, and Islamic (Abrahamic) religion in that
there is not a singular holy authority and a negative equivalent
as the devil. It is more similar to the Zoroastrian religion
and its dualism in pre-Islamic Iran dating before the foundation
of Jewish monotheism. Both religions are polytheistic, with
a high lord of many representing the holy (for Zoroastrianism,
Ahura Mazda, and for German religion, Odin) and a malevolent
lord of many leading evil, in the case of Germandom that of
Loki and his son the Fimbul-wolf. Qualification for “good”
as opposed to “evil” is not defined by abstaining from violence
or theft (as both the good and evil in the Germanic Pantheon
embraced violence as did German warrior culture in history),
but rather being an intentional creation and adherent of Odin
and his holy Pantheon from the body of his grandfather Ymir.
The famous concept of the
Ragnarök – the world's end – is also documented vividly in
the Edda. In this cataclysm, the nine worlds endure a dramatic
cascade of cosmic collapse before a Final Battle in which
the worlds are destroyed, the gods are slain (with few exceptions),
and the world is reborn anew in its purified and original
form of pristine perfection. This idea both fuels and reflects
the natural Germanic culture which historically has been noted
by the Romans and Byzantines as a rich warrior culture unparalleled
in will and strength. This concept of the end-time bears similarity
to the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish apocalypse with the exception
of a returning overlord. It can interestingly be more aptly
compared to the revival and world recreation of Shiva as embraced
in the Hindu faith of India, Bali, and Nepal, in which the
world of this time is merely a cyclic era that will inevitably
end and be recreated. Akin to the Revelations of the Holy
Bible, a seer is given morbidly grim visions from the Allfather
of an horrific yet distant end:
“Then said Ganglere: What
tidings are to be told of Ragnarok? Of this I have never heard
before. Har answered: Great things are to be said thereof.
First, there is a winter called the Fimbul-winter, when snow
drives from all quarters, the frosts are so severe, the winds
so keen and piercing, that there is no joy in the sun. There
are three such winters in succession, without any intervening
summer. But before these there are three other winters, during
which great wars rage over all the world. Brothers slay each
other for the sake of gain, and no one spares his father or
mother in that manslaughter and adultery. Thus says the Vala's
Prophecy:
Brothers will fight together
And become each other's bane;
Sisters' children
Their sib shall spoil.
Hard is the world,
Sensual sins grow huge.
There are ax-ages, sword-ages---
Shields are cleft in twain,---
There are wind-ages, wolf-ages,
Ere the world falls dead.”

pan-Germanic god of war Thor uses his Mjollnir hammer on the
enemies of Valhalla
Germanic religion has been
revived via nationalism of the Germanic peoples during the
late Middle Ages, and, especially, during the 19th century
Enlightenment as a source of ethnic pride and national cultural
awareness. The German religion was revived during the Third
Reich as a non-monastic mystic religion of Axis Germany as
a type of syncretism with Christendom: monotheism was embraced
and polytheism was rejected, but the myths and traditions
of the ancient Germanic religion were sources of resonant
pride and nationalism in the war era. Odin was portrayed as
a “German Christ” and became a type of transcendent holy lord
through whom faith in a singular God is established. This
cult-like religion that drew heavily from the Lutheran anti-Papal
model as a “true German religion” was also a convenient way
to part from the all-encompassing Catholic monastic faith
and other “Jewish” movements.
These ancient Edda are a
fascinating collection and play a large role in our current
understanding of the traditions and religious aspects of these
pan-Germanic cultures. They assumed the role of defining the
religious, social, ritual, and spiritual values of the Germans
and Scandinavians from early ancient antiquity until Christianization.
The Edda allow us to trace the Nordic and Germanic influence
in modern English history, and later, popular culture; this
in turn has allowed us to also study the British people and
their common heritage in a common descendant of the Germans.
The purpose of the Edda themselves is unique in vast contrast
with Christianity in the Old Testament: whereas Moses demanded
that his apocrypha be accepted as the Word of the Godhead,
the Edda were merely cultural myths which resonated with the
natural cultural development and rituals of pre- and post-Christian
Germandom.
________________________________________
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR:
James Mayfield is the owner
and Chairman of the European Heritage Library. I am working
for a doctorate in history, with a specific emphasis on Islamic
and European histories. I am well versed in all world cultures,
ethnicities, religions, languages, politics, and historical
evolution in relation to and against each other.
BIBLIOGRAPHY/SOURCES
USED:
The Nordic Edda.
Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae
Pontificum.
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