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06.04.202512:16
The Scandinavians referred to their religion as forn siðr, the old custom, and their conversion to Christianity as a change in customs, siðaskipti. This linguistic insight allows us to see the heathen religion as a set of social conventions, hallowed by age and derived from mythic antecedents. In this context, the rejection of the name Jákob by the Swedish farmers, can be interpreted as a rejection of the new faith. The name of one of the Biblical patriarchs was not acceptable to the pagan people as a name for their king. The same source states that King Ólaf had sent his other son Emund to Wendland where he was brought up by kinfolk on his mother’s side, adding he did not maintain his Christianity for any length of time. In Völundarkviða 2, the name Anund (Önund) is used as a byname of Völund the elf-smith. In verses 16 and 18 of the same poem, Völund is characterized as a “prince of the elves.” In Grimnismál 5, elves are closely associated with Freyr, who is given their realm Alfheim upon cutting his first tooth. That a Swedish king was required to carry a name derived from heathen lore associated with Freyr rather than the name of one of the Hebrew patriarchs demonstrates that heathenism remained a political force in Sweden even after the conversion. The Swedes themselves became pagan once more after the death of King Ólaf, and remained pagan longer than in Iceland, which adopted the new religion peaceably, but reluctantly, in 1000 AD.
06.04.202512:15
Despite the coming of a new religion, tradition prevailed in times of hardship. After the efforts of Harald Fairhair (880-930 AD) to Christianize the country, Norway returned to paganism under the rule of his son Hakon Jarl (936-60 AD). According to the history of the Norwegian kings found in the Fagrskinna “the sons of Eiríkr destroyed the rituals, but Hákon reestablished them.” He performed sacrifices more aggressively than before, with the result that grain and herring became more plentiful and the seasons more propitious. Under his reign, honoring the old gods, the earth blossomed. The poet Einar Skálaglamm remarks that “in the world there was never one who spread such peace, except Frodi.” As to Freyr himself, peace and plenty were also attributed to his heirs and descendants. Such pagan beliefs held political clout even after the introduction of Christianity. Ólaf Eiríkrson’s son, Jákob, was required to change his name to Anund (Önund) when he assumed the throne, because Jákob was not considered an appropriate name for a king of the Swedes. According to Heimskringla, Ólafs Saga Helga, ch. 88, “this name ill-pleased the Swedes,” as “no Swedish king had borne that name.” At an assembly of the Upland Swedes, one Freyvith (Freyviðr) made this impassioned plea:
“We Uppland Swedes do not wish that in our days the crown go from the line of the ancestors of our ancient kings while there is such good choice as we have. King Ólaf has two sons, and we desire one of them to be king. But there is a great difference between them. The one is born in wedlock and of Swedish races on both sides whereas the other is the son of a servant woman herself half Wendish”
The text continues:
“This opinion was received with loud acclaim and all wanted Jákob for king. …Thereupon, the brothers Freywith and Arnvith had the king’s son, Jákob brought before the assembly and had him given the title of king. At the same time, the Swedes gave him the name Önund, and that name he bore until his death. At the time he was ten or twelve years old. Then king Önund chose for himself followers and chieftains to have about him, and all of them together had as great a force as he considered needful. Then he gave the assembled farmers leave to return to their homes.”
“We Uppland Swedes do not wish that in our days the crown go from the line of the ancestors of our ancient kings while there is such good choice as we have. King Ólaf has two sons, and we desire one of them to be king. But there is a great difference between them. The one is born in wedlock and of Swedish races on both sides whereas the other is the son of a servant woman herself half Wendish”
The text continues:
“This opinion was received with loud acclaim and all wanted Jákob for king. …Thereupon, the brothers Freywith and Arnvith had the king’s son, Jákob brought before the assembly and had him given the title of king. At the same time, the Swedes gave him the name Önund, and that name he bore until his death. At the time he was ten or twelve years old. Then king Önund chose for himself followers and chieftains to have about him, and all of them together had as great a force as he considered needful. Then he gave the assembled farmers leave to return to their homes.”
06.04.202512:14
Forn Siðr ('Old, Heathen Custom') vs Ný Siðr (New Christian Custom)
From The Cult of Freyr and Freyja by William P. Reaves (2008)
The cult of Freyr, closely connected to that of Freyja, was associated with kingship throughout pagan Scandinavia, and therefore represented a viable threat to the encroachment of a new religion. The people of Scandinavia were often converted to Christianity only after the conversion of their king. The Norwegian King Ólaf Tryggvesson is considered the first missionary king of Norway, and credited with converting not only Norway, but Iceland and Greenland as well. Many monarchs struggled to keep their newfound faith, most often against the will of the people they governed. One of the Ynglings, King Ólafr Haraldsson was later canonized as Saint Ólaf for his effort. Backsliding in this environment was not uncommon.
Sweden was the last of the Scandinavian kingdoms to develop into a unified state. Christianity was slower to take hold here. Its people consisted of the Svear, centered in the region around Uppsala and the Götar to the south. The first king known to have ruled both the Svear and the Götar was Olof Skötkonung, who ruled until his death in 1022. Olof was the first Swedish king to actively promote the new religion there, establishing the first bishopric in 1014 at Skara. Olof was succeeded by his son Jákob, an ally of Ólaf Haraldsson the king of Norway, and reigned after his father until his own death in 1055 AD. After his reign, Sweden entered into a period of political instability for nearly a century. The pagan cult at Uppsala continued to flourish until the end of the 11th century. The country was finally permanently unified in 1172, but the Swedes themselves were not fully Christianized until the end of the 12th century.
In the Icelandic records, Yngvi-Freyr was long remembered as a divine king of the Swedes. According to Snorri’s prose account in Ynglingasaga, he was once a human king whose reign was one of peace and plenty. After he died, men began to worship him as a god, bringing him offerings of gold and other precious metals to ensure that their peace and prosperity continued. Subsequent kings of Sweden took the title Yngvi after him, and their descendants were known as the Ynglingar. Saxo confirms this connection when he says: “The most valiant of the Swedes were …kinsmen of the divine Frø and faithful accessories of the gods,” stating more clearly that they “traced the origin of their race from the god Frø.” In Ynglingasaga, the earliest successors of Yngvi-Freyr, like Freyr himself, are clearly mythical figures.
From The Cult of Freyr and Freyja by William P. Reaves (2008)
The cult of Freyr, closely connected to that of Freyja, was associated with kingship throughout pagan Scandinavia, and therefore represented a viable threat to the encroachment of a new religion. The people of Scandinavia were often converted to Christianity only after the conversion of their king. The Norwegian King Ólaf Tryggvesson is considered the first missionary king of Norway, and credited with converting not only Norway, but Iceland and Greenland as well. Many monarchs struggled to keep their newfound faith, most often against the will of the people they governed. One of the Ynglings, King Ólafr Haraldsson was later canonized as Saint Ólaf for his effort. Backsliding in this environment was not uncommon.
Sweden was the last of the Scandinavian kingdoms to develop into a unified state. Christianity was slower to take hold here. Its people consisted of the Svear, centered in the region around Uppsala and the Götar to the south. The first king known to have ruled both the Svear and the Götar was Olof Skötkonung, who ruled until his death in 1022. Olof was the first Swedish king to actively promote the new religion there, establishing the first bishopric in 1014 at Skara. Olof was succeeded by his son Jákob, an ally of Ólaf Haraldsson the king of Norway, and reigned after his father until his own death in 1055 AD. After his reign, Sweden entered into a period of political instability for nearly a century. The pagan cult at Uppsala continued to flourish until the end of the 11th century. The country was finally permanently unified in 1172, but the Swedes themselves were not fully Christianized until the end of the 12th century.
In the Icelandic records, Yngvi-Freyr was long remembered as a divine king of the Swedes. According to Snorri’s prose account in Ynglingasaga, he was once a human king whose reign was one of peace and plenty. After he died, men began to worship him as a god, bringing him offerings of gold and other precious metals to ensure that their peace and prosperity continued. Subsequent kings of Sweden took the title Yngvi after him, and their descendants were known as the Ynglingar. Saxo confirms this connection when he says: “The most valiant of the Swedes were …kinsmen of the divine Frø and faithful accessories of the gods,” stating more clearly that they “traced the origin of their race from the god Frø.” In Ynglingasaga, the earliest successors of Yngvi-Freyr, like Freyr himself, are clearly mythical figures.
06.04.202511:53
An eyewitness from the tenth century makes the relationship between these wooden idols plain. In the Rusila of Ibn Fadhlan, a firsthand account of Scandinavian merchants along the Volga river in Russia, the smaller icons surrounding the central idol, are said to represent its extended family:
“The moment their boats reach this dock every one of them disembarks, carrying bread, meat, onions, milk and alcohol, and goes to a tall piece of wood set up. This piece of wood has a face like the face of a man and is surrounded by small figurines behind which are long pieces of wood set up in the ground. he reaches the large figure, he prostrates himself before it and says, ‘Lord, I have come from a distant land, …And I have brought this offering,’ leaving what he has brought with him in front of the piece of wood, saying, ‘I wish you to provide me with a merchant who has many dīnārs and dirhams and who will buy from me whatever I want without haggling over the price I fix.’ Then he departs. If he has difficulty in selling and he has to remain too many days, he returns with a second and third offering. If his wishes prove to be impossible he brings an offering to every single one of those figurines and seeks its intercession, saying, ‘These are the wives, daughters and sons of our Lord.’ He goes up to each figurine in turn and questions it, begging its intercession and groveling before it.”
(James E. Montgomery translation).
That the gods form a family is self-evident in their leadership. Odin is the All-Father, as well as their ruler. The gods together are esteemed “Frigg’s progeny” (Friggjar niðja) in a skaldic kenning by Egill Skalla-grímsson in Sonatorrek 2. As previously demonstrated, numerous poetic references designate the Earth as Odin’s wife and Thor’s mother, and throughout Germanic history we find traces of a powerful Earth-Mother from the earliest records to the close of the ancient heathen era and beyond. Yet, despite the diverse designations for this figure, Odin is consistently shown to have only one legal wife. Whenever he appears, Frigga most frequently stands at his side. Moreover, while evidence for Odin’s wife Frigg and his wife the Earth are contemporary and congruous— occurring at the same time in the same places and genres— they are never shown together.
“The moment their boats reach this dock every one of them disembarks, carrying bread, meat, onions, milk and alcohol, and goes to a tall piece of wood set up
(James E. Montgomery translation).
That the gods form a family is self-evident in their leadership. Odin is the All-Father, as well as their ruler. The gods together are esteemed “Frigg’s progeny” (Friggjar niðja) in a skaldic kenning by Egill Skalla-grímsson in Sonatorrek 2. As previously demonstrated, numerous poetic references designate the Earth as Odin’s wife and Thor’s mother, and throughout Germanic history we find traces of a powerful Earth-Mother from the earliest records to the close of the ancient heathen era and beyond. Yet, despite the diverse designations for this figure, Odin is consistently shown to have only one legal wife. Whenever he appears, Frigga most frequently stands at his side. Moreover, while evidence for Odin’s wife Frigg and his wife the Earth are contemporary and congruous— occurring at the same time in the same places and genres— they are never shown together.
06.04.202511:53
THE FAMILY OF GODS Part 2
From Odin's Wife by William P. Reaves (2018): Chapter X
In the mythology, the gods function as both a ruling council (Völuspá 6, 9, R23, R25 and R50, among others) and as an extended family or clan, whose members intermarry with both allied and enemy tribes. The divine social order reflects the Germans’ own tribal structure. Rigsthula tells us that one of the gods, Heimdall, ordained the social order among the people, fathering the eponymous founder of each caste by sleeping between the man and wife in each of the three homes he visits. These bonds of kinship are also reflected in their temples, where we often find groups of idols representing gods among whom we can discern a family relationship where the evidence permits. In the eleventh century temple at Old Uppsala described by Adam of Bremen, we find Odin and Thor who are father and son, along with a male god named Fricco, whose name connects him to Odin’s wife Frigga or Fricca. Throughout the Icelandic sagas, we discover idols gathered in such groups. Kjalnesinga saga ch. 2 describes a temple at Hof, 100 ft. long and 60 ft. wide with windows and wall hangings everywhere. The inner sanctuary was circular like the hull of a ship. Thor stood in the midst of it with other gods on either side. In Eyrbyggja saga, in the account of Thorolf Mostrarskegg's temple at Hofstaðir, idols are placed around the platform in a choir-like structure within the temple. In Hrafnkels Saga Freysgóði, Hrafnkel raises a great temple to Freyr at Aðalbol, where he held great sacrifices to the gods. This temple stood on a rock above a deep river pool and contained images of the gods adorned with robes and ornaments, even though Hrafnkel loved Freyr above all the others and gave him a half-share in his treasure. In Olaf Tryggvason’s saga, Guðbrandr of the Dales, a good friend of Hakon Jarl, owned a temple dedicated to Thor, which contained figures of Thor and of Hakon's patron goddesses, Thorgerðr and Irpa. Thor was seated in his car and all were adorned with clothes and ornaments, including rings on their arms. As described, the idol of Thorgerðr stood as tall as a full-grown man and wore a hood on its head. In Jómsvíkinga saga and Þorleifs þáttr jarlsskálds, we learn that she and Irpa are sisters. This temple and Hakon Jarl's temple at Hlaðir were the two chief centers of worship. The Christian king Olaf Tryggvason systematically destroyed Hakon's temples and despoiled the idols. In his expedition to Trondhjem, Olaf desecrated the temple at Maer, which contained several fixed idols, in the midst of whom sat Thor, “an image of great size, all adorned with gold and silver,” which he burned.
From Odin's Wife by William P. Reaves (2018): Chapter X
In the mythology, the gods function as both a ruling council (Völuspá 6, 9, R23, R25 and R50, among others) and as an extended family or clan, whose members intermarry with both allied and enemy tribes. The divine social order reflects the Germans’ own tribal structure. Rigsthula tells us that one of the gods, Heimdall, ordained the social order among the people, fathering the eponymous founder of each caste by sleeping between the man and wife in each of the three homes he visits. These bonds of kinship are also reflected in their temples, where we often find groups of idols representing gods among whom we can discern a family relationship where the evidence permits. In the eleventh century temple at Old Uppsala described by Adam of Bremen, we find Odin and Thor who are father and son, along with a male god named Fricco, whose name connects him to Odin’s wife Frigga or Fricca. Throughout the Icelandic sagas, we discover idols gathered in such groups. Kjalnesinga saga ch. 2 describes a temple at Hof, 100 ft. long and 60 ft. wide with windows and wall hangings everywhere. The inner sanctuary was circular like the hull of a ship. Thor stood in the midst of it with other gods on either side. In Eyrbyggja saga, in the account of Thorolf Mostrarskegg's temple at Hofstaðir, idols are placed around the platform in a choir-like structure within the temple. In Hrafnkels Saga Freysgóði, Hrafnkel raises a great temple to Freyr at Aðalbol, where he held great sacrifices to the gods. This temple stood on a rock above a deep river pool and contained images of the gods adorned with robes and ornaments, even though Hrafnkel loved Freyr above all the others and gave him a half-share in his treasure. In Olaf Tryggvason’s saga, Guðbrandr of the Dales, a good friend of Hakon Jarl, owned a temple dedicated to Thor, which contained figures of Thor and of Hakon's patron goddesses, Thorgerðr and Irpa. Thor was seated in his car and all were adorned with clothes and ornaments, including rings on their arms. As described, the idol of Thorgerðr stood as tall as a full-grown man and wore a hood on its head. In Jómsvíkinga saga and Þorleifs þáttr jarlsskálds, we learn that she and Irpa are sisters. This temple and Hakon Jarl's temple at Hlaðir were the two chief centers of worship. The Christian king Olaf Tryggvason systematically destroyed Hakon's temples and despoiled the idols. In his expedition to Trondhjem, Olaf desecrated the temple at Maer, which contained several fixed idols, in the midst of whom sat Thor, “an image of great size, all adorned with gold and silver,” which he burned.
06.04.202511:51
According to the history of the Norwegian kings found in the Fagrskinna manuscript and Heimskringla, when Ólaf Eiríkrson’s son, Jákob, whose mother was a Christian, assumed the throne, he was required to change his name by the people. According to Heimskringla, Ólafs Saga Helga, ch. 88, “his name ill-pleased the Swedes,” as “no Swedish king had borne that name.” At an assembly of the Uppland Swedes, one Freywith (Freyviðr) made this impassioned plea:
“We Uppland Swedes do not wish that in our days the crown go from the line of the ancestors of our ancient kings while there is such good choice as we have. King Ólaf has two sons, and we desire one of them to be king. But there is a great difference between them. The one is born in wedlock and of Swedish races on both sides whereas the other is the son of a servant woman, herself half Wendish.”
The text continues:
“This opinion was received with loud acclaim and all wanted Jákob for king. …Thereupon, the brothers Freywith and Arnvith had the king’s son, Jákob, brought before the assembly and had him given the title of king.”
At the same time, the Swedes renamed him Önund, the name he bore until his death. The rejection of the name Jákob by the Swedish people can be interpreted as a rejection of the new faith. The people rejected the name of the Biblical patriarch Jacob for their ruler and chose a heathen name “from the line of the ancestors” of their ancient kings instead. In Völundarkviða 2, Anund-Önund occurs as a byname of the elf-smith Völund. Although the name is typically emended to Völundar by modern editors, the Codex Regius manuscript at line 2/10 reads onundar. In verses 16 and 18 of the same poem, Völund is characterized as a “prince of the elves.” In Grimnismál 5, elves are closely associated with Freyr, who is given their realm Alfheim upon cutting his first tooth. And elves are closely associated with the gods as a whole through the alliterative formula Æsir ok alfar, “Aesir and elves”, which appears in both Old Norse and Old English poetry.
“We Uppland Swedes do not wish that in our days the crown go from the line of the ancestors of our ancient kings while there is such good choice as we have. King Ólaf has two sons, and we desire one of them to be king. But there is a great difference between them. The one is born in wedlock and of Swedish races on both sides whereas the other is the son of a servant woman, herself half Wendish.”
The text continues:
“This opinion was received with loud acclaim and all wanted Jákob for king. …Thereupon, the brothers Freywith and Arnvith had the king’s son, Jákob, brought before the assembly and had him given the title of king.”
At the same time, the Swedes renamed him Önund, the name he bore until his death. The rejection of the name Jákob by the Swedish people can be interpreted as a rejection of the new faith. The people rejected the name of the Biblical patriarch Jacob for their ruler and chose a heathen name “from the line of the ancestors” of their ancient kings instead. In Völundarkviða 2, Anund-Önund occurs as a byname of the elf-smith Völund. Although the name is typically emended to Völundar by modern editors, the Codex Regius manuscript at line 2/10 reads onundar. In verses 16 and 18 of the same poem, Völund is characterized as a “prince of the elves.” In Grimnismál 5, elves are closely associated with Freyr, who is given their realm Alfheim upon cutting his first tooth. And elves are closely associated with the gods as a whole through the alliterative formula Æsir ok alfar, “Aesir and elves”, which appears in both Old Norse and Old English poetry.
06.04.202511:46
As recorded in the twenty-sixth chapter of the Life of Anskar, The Apostle of the North (801-865 AD), when Anskar arrived at Birka and found the congregation backsliden in grievous error, a heathen man approached him, declaring that he had attended an assembly of the gods believed to own the land, who sent him to the king with this message:
“You, I say, have long enjoyed our goodwill, and under our protection the land in which you dwell has long been fertile and has had peace and prosperity. You have also duly sacrificed and performed the vows made to us, and your worship has been well pleasing to us. But now you are keeping back the usual sacrifices and are slothful in paying your freewill offerings; you are, moreover, displeasing us greatly by introducing a foreign god in order to supplant us. If you desire to enjoy our goodwill, offer the sacrifices that have been omitted and pay greater vows. And do not receive the worship of any other god, who teaches that which is opposed to our teaching, nor pay any attention to his service. Furthermore, if you desire to have more gods and we do not suffice, we will agree to summon your former King Eric to join us so that he may be one of the gods.”
Since gods commonly appear in royal pedigrees, we can conclude that King Eric was considered kin to them. We find an exact parallel in the case of Hakon Jarl. When the Norwegians briefly returned to paganism under his rule (c. 936-60 AD), after the efforts of his father Harald Fairhair (880-930 AD) to Christianize the country, Hakon performed sacrifices more aggressively than before, with the result that grain and herring became more plentiful and the seasons more propitious. In Ynglingasaga 9, a skaldic verse by Eyvindr Skáldaspillir informs us that Odin and Skadi had many sons after she divorced Njörd. Snorri adds that one of them was the sea-king Sæming, from whom Hakon Jarl reckoned his race. Under his reign, honoring the old gods, the earth blossomed.
“You, I say, have long enjoyed our goodwill, and under our protection the land in which you dwell has long been fertile and has had peace and prosperity. You have also duly sacrificed and performed the vows made to us, and your worship has been well pleasing to us. But now you are keeping back the usual sacrifices and are slothful in paying your freewill offerings; you are, moreover, displeasing us greatly by introducing a foreign god in order to supplant us. If you desire to enjoy our goodwill, offer the sacrifices that have been omitted and pay greater vows. And do not receive the worship of any other god, who teaches that which is opposed to our teaching, nor pay any attention to his service. Furthermore, if you desire to have more gods and we do not suffice, we will agree to summon your former King Eric to join us so that he may be one of the gods.”
Since gods commonly appear in royal pedigrees, we can conclude that King Eric was considered kin to them. We find an exact parallel in the case of Hakon Jarl. When the Norwegians briefly returned to paganism under his rule (c. 936-60 AD), after the efforts of his father Harald Fairhair (880-930 AD) to Christianize the country, Hakon performed sacrifices more aggressively than before, with the result that grain and herring became more plentiful and the seasons more propitious. In Ynglingasaga 9, a skaldic verse by Eyvindr Skáldaspillir informs us that Odin and Skadi had many sons after she divorced Njörd. Snorri adds that one of them was the sea-king Sæming, from whom Hakon Jarl reckoned his race. Under his reign, honoring the old gods, the earth blossomed.
06.04.202511:43
THE FAMILY OF GODS Part 1
From Odin's Wife by William P. Reaves (2018): Chapter X
Rather than a pantheon of gods, the Nordic deities are more often portrayed as an extended family, a clan. This structure can be seen in mythological as well as historic sources. In the tenth century Second Merseburg Charm, for example, the gods named can be identified as a husband and wife, parents and a child, and two sets of sisters. The verse begins: “Phol and Wodan rode into the woods, there the foot of Baldur’s foal went out of joint.” From the context, Phol appears to be the rider of Baldur’s horse, i.e. Baldur himself. Wodan or Odin is, of course, his father. Nearest Phol-Baldur rides Sinhtgunt and her sister Sunna, the sun goddess. Then comes Odin’s wife Frija (Frigga), who is Baldur’s mother, with her sister Volla, whom we recognize as Fulla, Frigg’s handmaiden, in the Icelandic Eddas. In succession, they each attempt to heal the sprained leg of balderes uolon, until at last, Odin succeeds. The riding party is thus a family unit. Based on their relative positions, Sinhtgunt, being first on the scene, presumably because she rode closest to Phol-Baldur, may be Baldur’s wife, Nanna, under an epithet. Her sister Sunna, the Sun, accompanies her, suggesting a celestial procession. At the very least, a minimalist reading of the charm yields two sets of sisters, Odin and his traditional wife Frigg, along with the earliest record of their son Baldur’s name. Likewise, in the poem Lokasenna, the gods gathered together for a feast are acknowledged as husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. At Loki’s instigation, Aegir’s feast becomes a family quarrel with charges of cowardice, infidelity and incest until “Earth’s son” arrives to drive the accuser out. Throughout eddic and skaldic poetry, we are informed of the gods’ familial ties: Earth is Thor’s mother, Thor is Odin’s son, Frigg is Odin’s wife, Baldur is their son, etc. Even relationships that are no longer understood are enumerated. In Harbardsljóð 9, Thor is said to be Meili’s brother; in Hymiskvíða 5, we are told that the giant Hymir is Tyr’s father; and in Hrafnagaldur Óðins 6, we learn that Idunn is Ivaldi’s daughter. Bonds of kinship were obviously important to the ancients. Poems such as Hyndluljóð are overtly concerned with the genealogy of heroic figures and members of the god clan appear liberally in their family trees. In at least two Anglo-Saxon genealogies, royal lines descend from Odin and his son Bældægg, commonly recognized as Baldur.
Some sources make this kinship plain. When the heathen king Chlodwig, the first ruler of the Franks (c. 486 AD), rebukes his Christian wife for deriding his gods as nothing but feckless bits of stone, wood and metal, he responds: "By the will of our gods all things are created and produced. Evidently your god can do nothing, nor has it yet been proven that he [Christ] belongs to the genere of gods.” The word genere (from genus) is Latin for “family, house, ancestry, race, class, noble birth,” and again points to a divine hereditary monarchy, to which Jesus was an outsider.
From Odin's Wife by William P. Reaves (2018): Chapter X
Rather than a pantheon of gods, the Nordic deities are more often portrayed as an extended family, a clan. This structure can be seen in mythological as well as historic sources. In the tenth century Second Merseburg Charm, for example, the gods named can be identified as a husband and wife, parents and a child, and two sets of sisters. The verse begins: “Phol and Wodan rode into the woods, there the foot of Baldur’s foal went out of joint.” From the context, Phol appears to be the rider of Baldur’s horse, i.e. Baldur himself. Wodan or Odin is, of course, his father. Nearest Phol-Baldur rides Sinhtgunt and her sister Sunna, the sun goddess. Then comes Odin’s wife Frija (Frigga), who is Baldur’s mother, with her sister Volla, whom we recognize as Fulla, Frigg’s handmaiden, in the Icelandic Eddas. In succession, they each attempt to heal the sprained leg of balderes uolon, until at last, Odin succeeds. The riding party is thus a family unit. Based on their relative positions, Sinhtgunt, being first on the scene, presumably because she rode closest to Phol-Baldur, may be Baldur’s wife, Nanna, under an epithet. Her sister Sunna, the Sun, accompanies her, suggesting a celestial procession. At the very least, a minimalist reading of the charm yields two sets of sisters, Odin and his traditional wife Frigg, along with the earliest record of their son Baldur’s name. Likewise, in the poem Lokasenna, the gods gathered together for a feast are acknowledged as husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. At Loki’s instigation, Aegir’s feast becomes a family quarrel with charges of cowardice, infidelity and incest until “Earth’s son” arrives to drive the accuser out. Throughout eddic and skaldic poetry, we are informed of the gods’ familial ties: Earth is Thor’s mother, Thor is Odin’s son, Frigg is Odin’s wife, Baldur is their son, etc. Even relationships that are no longer understood are enumerated. In Harbardsljóð 9, Thor is said to be Meili’s brother; in Hymiskvíða 5, we are told that the giant Hymir is Tyr’s father; and in Hrafnagaldur Óðins 6, we learn that Idunn is Ivaldi’s daughter. Bonds of kinship were obviously important to the ancients. Poems such as Hyndluljóð are overtly concerned with the genealogy of heroic figures and members of the god clan appear liberally in their family trees. In at least two Anglo-Saxon genealogies, royal lines descend from Odin and his son Bældægg, commonly recognized as Baldur.
Some sources make this kinship plain. When the heathen king Chlodwig, the first ruler of the Franks (c. 486 AD), rebukes his Christian wife for deriding his gods as nothing but feckless bits of stone, wood and metal, he responds: "By the will of our gods all things are created and produced. Evidently your god can do nothing, nor has it yet been proven that he [Christ] belongs to the genere of gods.” The word genere (from genus) is Latin for “family, house, ancestry, race, class, noble birth,” and again points to a divine hereditary monarchy, to which Jesus was an outsider.
22.03.202515:39
While modern linguists estimate that an early PIE dialect, sometimes designated as pre-Proto-Germanic, was introduced into the region prior to 2000 BC, the earliest examples of the Germanic language are found in runic inscriptions that date from 300 AD onward. As mentioned above, Indo-European speakers are now thought to have arrived in southern Scandinavia with the Corded Ware culture by the middle of the third millennium BC, becoming the Nordic Bronze Age cultures by the early second millennium BC. Proto-Germanic, the last common ancestor of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages, thus most likely developed in southern Scandinavia, the original home of the Germanic tribes, characterized as a “hive” or “womb of nations” from which the Gothic people “are said to have come long ago,” by their sixth century historian Jordanes. Although we find no examples of the written language from the Bronze Age, linguists typically date the first Germanic sound-shifts, making the dialect distinct from its PIE predecessor, to 500 BC. Named for Jacob Grimm, Grimm's Law, also known as the First Germanic Sound Shift, describes in a series of three statements how the inherited PIE stop consonants developed into their Proto-Germanic forms during the first millennium BC. Remarkably, Proto-Norse from the second century AD, which shares other common innovations separating Germanic from PIE, is closely comparable to reconstructed Proto-Germanic, suggesting a common history of pre-Proto-Germanic speakers during the Nordic Bronze Age. Along with a common language, the people would have also possessed a common set of cultural practices, rituals, and a store of sacred knowledge, inherited from their forebears, which gave meaning to the world and their place in it. The common threads that connect distant Indo-European languages and mythologies with those of Northern Europe bear witness to this fact. Considered sacred and necessary for the survival of society, religious ideas are typically among the oldest preserved by a literate culture and the slowest to change.
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During the Bronze Age, trade routes opened between Scandinavia and southern Europe, allowing for the influx of foreign goods, especially metals, into the region. As a result, the previously communal agrarian societies began to stratify, as groups who controlled trade, wealth production and distribution emerged and expanded their control locally and regionally. Religion during this era is often described as solar in nature and religious symbols reflected in artifacts of the period appear to be concerned with the motion of the sun and the cycles of birth, death and rebirth. Bronze instruments, ceremonial ornaments and headgear appear to have been used in rituals, and specialists must have spent considerable amounts of time etching sacred images into rock. In the Nordic Bronze Age, evidence exists for votive offerings, dependent on agricultural surplus and the importation of foreign goods, consisting of ceremonial weapons and jewelry being sacrificed by the social elite. In the latter half of the first millennium BC, however, a change occurred as the climate cooled and trade with southern Europe slowed. Scandinavia appears to have become poorer during this period as Central and Southern Europe entered the Iron Age and the flow of bronze to the North dwindled. This marked the beginning of the Pre-Roman Iron Age, extending from roughly 500 BC to the first century AD in Scandinavia and the Northern European Plain, which developed in close contact with the Hallstatt culture in Central Europe, causing the old Scandinavian elites to lose their grip on power as the iron trade developed and a new class of elite emerged. Around the same time, human bodies, animal bones and pottery began to be deposited in bogs at ritual sites, many of which would maintain their continuity for up to a thousand years. In the Danish region, Lotte Hedeager’s landmark archaeological study demonstrated that “in the earliest part of the Iron Age, ritual activities were normally a continuation of later Bronze Age practice.” Thus we frequently find similar sets of imagery and symbols across time within the region, suggesting a continuity of religious thought and practice. In this regard, it bears noting that the Scandinavians themselves referred to their own religious practices during the heathen era as forn siðr or “ancient customs.” This is not to imply that these customs did not change over time, however, for, as Catherine Bell, author of Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice (2009) observes, even if adherents believe that their religious traditions are unchanging, in reality they are continually being recreated through the process of ritual, which of necessity adopts new elements and discards old ones as the society evolves. She writes, “Ritual systems do not function to regulate or control the systems of social relations. They are the system, and an expedient rather than a perfectly ordered one at that.”
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It is widely held that a considerable continuity exists in both the archaeological and physical anthropological records of northern Europe, from the earliest appearance of the Germanic tribes back into the Bronze Age. Within these records, we occasionally catch glimpses of the religious practices of the Germanic peoples. While few concrete conclusions can be drawn from the available evidence of the pre-literate period, we can discern some common themes which recur in later heathen texts that establish the longevity and conservation of the associated religious motifs.
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“We have to be content with an imperfect and patchy understanding of the old [Norse] religion. But this does not entitle us to assume that the religion itself was correspondingly primitive or incomplete. We must bear in mind that no extensive direct information about the pagan religion was recorded until fully two centuries after the conversion to Christianity, and the generations which had come and gone meanwhile were, or were supposed to be, hostile to these pagan heresies.”
—Jónas Kristjánsson, Icelandic Manuscripts (1996), p. 27.
—Jónas Kristjánsson, Icelandic Manuscripts (1996), p. 27.
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A wide range of sources gathered from across Northern Europe from the emergence of the Germanic tribes in the historic record to the close of the heathen era and beyond attest that the Germanic people widely venerated a goddess personifying the Earth under a variety of names. A closer examination of these scattered accounts unveils many common threads which demonstrate the continuity of her character for over a millennium, indicating that these sources speak of one figure known by many different designations. Under whatever local title she appears, this goddess is most often identified as Odin’s wife and, as far as the records allow us to know, the mother of other prominent members of the Germanic pantheon. A broader comparison across the Indo-European diaspora demonstrates that this Germanic Earth-Mother bears much in common with her Indo-European counterparts, indicating that her persona and associated mythology have ancient pre-Germanic roots. This is not to suggest in any way that this thoroughly Germanic figure is identical to or even an aspect of the so-called prehistoric Divine Feminine, Universal Great Goddess or Mother Goddess figure widely acknowledged in scholarship today. Such speculation is beyond the scope of this investigation. To be clear, the present study is concerned only with the presence of a personified Earth-Mother within the historic Germanic territories.
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“Any wise commentator on Norse mythology ought to begin by acknowledging frankly that we know rather little about it. Many modern descriptions rely heavily on the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson, and especially on the fluent and persuasive account of the gods in Gylfaginning, its first major section. But Snorri was writing in the 1220s, when Iceland had been a Christian country for two centuries, and his Prologus begins with an unambiguous authorial statement of the Christian view of creation.”
— John McKinnell, Both One and Many (1994), p.13.
— John McKinnell, Both One and Many (1994), p.13.
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https://youtu.be/2mCHrl8XFl4?si=bL6u9qqPXIefJ1dK
An interview between Dr. Scott Shell and William Reaves on "THE MERSEBURG CHARMS".
An interview between Dr. Scott Shell and William Reaves on "THE MERSEBURG CHARMS".