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Possible historical roots of pre-Christian Germanic/Norse gods?
by James Mayfield (Chairman, European Heritage Library)

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This is an essay both giving a brief overview of the major gods of the Pantheon worshiped by the pre-Christian Germanic peoples (Scandinavians, Germans, Anglo-Saxon Britons, etc.), and also an investigation into the possible historical roots of each of these "gods" as legitimate human figures in history. If you can contribute to this article with your theories in any way, please notify us!

Introduction - Mythology versus history: the possible legitimacy of mythological gods

The Germans, Scandinavians, and Anglo-Saxons all descend from a common Germanic genetic, linguistic, cultural, and religious stock that adhered to the same pagan religion, often called Odinism or Asatru. Recently, many acknowledged scholars of early Germanic and Northern European history have begun investigating the possibility that the "gods" venerated in the pre-Christian pagan religion were actual human historical figures who, upon their death, were posthumously elevated to divine status in a created mythology. The credibility of this archeological and historical approach has been hindered by a variety of factors. Firstly, the claim that the "old gods were real" instantly elicits the image of a New Age neo-heathen or immature "Wiccan" with far too great an imagination. Second, the re-evaluation of the old Germanic mythology has often been connected with far-right nationalist and racialist groups -- including the Nazis of the Third Reich -- who view the Germanic gods Odin and Thor as symbols of pan-German racialism. Third, it is completely impossible to prove or disprove any of this, and thus the potential legitimacy of the "mythological gods" as being actual historical figures cannot be verified from the scientific perspective of a historian or an anthropologist.

Despite these complications, the possibility should not be dismissed at all. In fact, the theological school of euhemerism has been used for over a thousand years. Euhemerism refers to the partial historical roots of mythology. Consider that Roman emperors Octavian, Julius Caesar, and Hadrian, as well as Jesus Christ, Siddharta Gautama Buddha, the Sikh Guru Nanak Dev, Alexander the Great, Cyrus and Xerxes of ancient Iran, Montezuma of the Aztecs, Huayna Capac of the Inca, and Chinggis Khan of the Mongols were all historically legitimate figures who were widely deified to varying degrees with their own corpus of mythology after their deaths. As a result, the focal figures of worship among all the Germanic peoples -- Odin/Woden, Tyr, Baldur, Freyjr, Freyja, and Thor -- may all have been legitimate Germanic chieftains in early Germanic history.

Written below are cursory overviews of the prominent gods of early German/Norse religion. Included are a number of euhemeristic possibilities of tracing these "gods" to legitimate historical figures. If you can any way contribute insight, possibilities, evidence, or perspectives on each figure, please contribute your research.

ODIN

The "Allfather" and leader of the Germanic Pantheon. He is the grandson of Ymir, the first humanoid created of ice, and son of Borr and the frost giantess Bestla. With his two brothers Vi and Vili, Odin killed his grandfather (Ymir) and created the Nine Worlds from his dismembered body, including Midgard, the world of men. For doing so, he is called the Allfather. He is also known for having seeded Yggdrasil, the World Tree that supports the worlds. In his quest for knowledge, he sacrificed his eye, throwing it into the Well of Mimir to acquire complete and universal knowledge. He also hung himself for nine days and nights from a tree, in some stories the World Tree itself, in order to advance his magical power and understanding of the world of the dead. He is also known for having created the first Germanic alphabet, Runic, whilst hanging from the tree as symbols imbued with magical power to be summoned by the divining user or godi (Odinic priest). He is the father of the foremost famous of the German and Scandinavian Pantheon, including Thor, Baldur, and in some sources Tyr. He rides a 6-legged horse, Schleipnir, and hurls a spear Gungnir, impervious to failure and unable to stray from its target. Two ravens, Huginn and Munin, observe the world and return to his throne in Valhalla to report on the moral and cosmic condition the Nine Worlds. He is revered as the god of poetry, war, the dead/afterlife, and corporal will. "Wednesday" is named after Odin by the synonym Weden/Wedne/Woden during the importation of Christianity into the Germanic British Isles. As foreseen in the "Voluspa" chapter of the Edda, Odin is to be killed at Ragnarök (the end of the world) by the Fenris Wolf, Fenrir.

(Odin in his quest for knowledge, and the prediction of his death)
”Far have I fared, much afield have I been, have oft striven in strength with gods: what wight will end Allfather's life, what draws near the dreaded doom?”
(The Poetic Edda, translated by Lee M. Hollander, “Lokasenna,” pg.92)

"...Othin, is the god of war, and he provides man with courage in the face of his enemies...Othin they represent armed just as [the Christian world] usually portray Mars...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."
Adam of Bremen's Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum

Possible Historical Roots: Odin's origins are difficult to determine. Votive figures showing a one-eyed god date back to several centuries before Christ in Scandinavia. No Roman god analogous with Odin was mentioned in Tacitus' Germania, but Tacitus may not have been able to discern between the war-god qualities of Odin and his role as a guardian of the dead or, especially, a vanguard of wisdom in this generally iliterate society. He does not cite any idols with one eye. Direct worship of Odin and any physical reference to mythological tales associated with Odin do not appear until after the 3rd century CE, when it increasingly became a practice to lynch slain enemies from trees in his memory. Tacitus argued that the Germans principally worshipped "Mercury." Since the Germans did not worship Roman gods nor adhere to Roman culture, this implies that Tacitus observed an analogue, a type of messenger god, as early as the second century BCE. This may refer to Odin as a medium between this world and the afterlife.

Odin as a figure of worship supplanted the previous emphasis on Freyjr and especially Tyr in Scandinavia. Among the Germans on the continent (in the Netherlands and Germany), representations of Odin very rarely appear, and when they do they may have been made by raiding Germans from Scandinavia. If Odin were a historical figure, he almost certainly lived in Sweden, where the great majority of votives and tales of his mythology appear. The Swedish kings of the Yngling dynasty proudly traced their heritage to Odin by the 6th century, although most Viking grandees of the Odinic faith likely evoked Odin as their ancestors in order to emphasize their divine mandate. The late Odinist Danish king, Harald Bluetooth (who was baptized before his death), thanked Odin for his blessings in war throughout the 9th century [1]. Because Odin and relevant mythological tales about him are not directly recorded until the Viking Age, it appears that Odin would have lived after the 4th century at the earliest. Icons missing an eye would likely have been described in Tacitus' thorough accounts of early Germanic religion. However, Odin may have been a worshiped historical figure before the 2nd century considering that Tacitus never traveled to Scandinavia. Despite this, the Germanic peoples enjoyed a rather uniform Pantheon, and therefore evidence of Odin in Scandinavia would likely have been available for Tacitus' viewing in Germany. Nonetheless, Odin became the chief god of the Vikings due to his role of a protector who took the war-dead Vikings to the realm of the dead, Valhalla. In 842 in the city of Nantes (then part of the German Empire of the Carolingians), raiding Vikings fulfilled their oath to Odin by lynching many of the inhabitants [2].

Thor Heyerdal, the famous geographer and explorer from Norway, initiated the "Search for Odin" (jakten på Odin) campaign just before his death. He used ancient Germanic textual sources to find the birthplace of Odin. He focused his search on Tanais along the Don river in Russia, where Vikings later were later known to settle to create the first Russian state. He found nothing, but claimed that the heritage of Odin was remotely expressed among the Caucasus peoples. This is likely no more than a retrojection and reconstruction, since the Vikings were nowhere near the Caucasus until the late Viking Age, centuries after Odin was likely born (if he existed).

On a more basic level, the concepts of knowledge, wisdom, and poetry that Odin represented are a far more civilized and advanced set of ethics than the very simple concepts of war that the earlier god Tyr represented. The Odin-worshipping Scandinavians began to demonstrate degrees of artistic, literary, technological, maritime, and cultural civilization starting after the late 7th century during the Viking Age. Since Odin became mythologically revered for his political authority and creativity, Odin as a historical figure may be potentially identified as an early Scandinavian chieftain who was an impetus to this civilizing urge. The Edda sources attribute the creation of the Runic alphabet and ts holy symbology to Odin. The vast majority of Runes and Runestones appear in Sweden, as does the bulk of veneration of Odin. This implies that if Odin were a historical figure, he was a Swedish chieftain who laid at least the foundations of a developed society that was cultivated enough to create the Runic writing system in "barbarian" Scandinavia. The amplified focus on the characteristics of wisdom, knowledge, and Runes in Sweden may imply that Sweden possessed a nascent and primitive form of a literary and developed community from which Runes emanated throughout Northern Europe with the historic human Odin as its legitimate progenitor. This possibility is strengthened by many ancient sources' depictions (like Adam of Bremen) of huge centers of pilgrimage and worship with elaborate hierarchies, rituals, and gold-swaddled temples with a priestly cast of Godis (Odinic priests), especially in the Swedish temple of Uppsala. This may have been the birthplace of the Germanic peoples' independent system of writing. Adam von Bremen describes the ritual of hanging bodies in self-sacrifice on ancient holy trees in memory of Odin's suffering on the tree. Here, too, may be the home of Odin as a legitimate Swedish chieftain during the Viking Age.

An early illustration of Adam von Bremen's report of Odinic sacrifice in Uppsala, Sweden. Was Odin an actual king here?

TYR

The early god of war in Germanic religion, he is considered among the wisest, foremost faithful, and loyal of the Pantheon under Odin, often called "Tyr the Wise." Alternate spellings, including Tue, Tir, Tor, Tien, and Dien are also used. The English "Tuesday" and German "Dienstag" are named after Tyr. Very little is known of his origin and family. He is often considered the son of Odin. He is most famous for having only one arm, having sacrificed his right limb to chain the evil wolf Fenrir, bastard son or creation of Loki, in order to protect the Pantheon and the righteous of men. He is to be killed at Ragnarök by the hellhound Garm. During the Third Reich, Tyr was once again placed in high esteem in the Schutzstaffel (SS). Some mystics of the Nazi era are believed to have promoted the use of the dominant left hand in order to distinguish the "Aryans" from other civilizations and in recollection of the left-handed Tyr as the original monolithic war god of the Germanic race. At Ragnarök (the end of the worlds), Tyr slays the hellhound Garm, but is so wounded that he subsequently expires.

(in reference to Tyr's courageous sacrifice of his arm to subdue the [Fenris Wolf] for the gods' defense)
“I lost my hand, Hrothvitnir (“Famous Wolf”) thou, a baleful loss to us both: in bondage now must bide his time the Wolf, till the world is doomed.” (The Poetic Edda, translated by Lee M. Hollander, “The Flyting of Loki,” pg. 98)

Possible Historical Roots: as Tyr was traditionally the foremost worshiped of the Germanic peoples in ancient times and was certainly mentioned by Tacitus in his Germania as the war god "Tuisco," Tyr is surely one of the oldest gods of the Germanic Pantheon. Tacitus claims that the ancient Germans (and thus Scandinavians) worshiped Mars. Of course, this was the Roman analogue of the independent German form of Mars (the god of war) who evolved to be known as Tyr/Tue. Tyr is theorized to be represented as early as the 2nd century BCE on the Negau helmet, the very first evidence of written German [4]. One ritual that was common in Germany among the Saxons was to sever the arms of victims and hang them from trees in memory of Tyr's sacrifice. Although Tacitus does not mention any votive idols with one arm missing, this does not rule out the existence of Tyr as a historical war-chief in ancient times. The mythological tale of Tyr's lost arm may have easily been retrojectively added by the Icelandic skald poets who were creating a corpus of mythology perhaps a thousand years after Tyr was first worshiped. Tyr is believed to have been the supreme sky god of the ancient Germanic race. Modern reconstructivists have traced the word "Tyr" (or Ziu or Tiwaz) to the word "Deius," a proto-Indo-European word for "god" that was shared across all of Europe. These words, spellings, connections, and even the Indo-European commonality are entirely invented theory with no tangible certainty. Nonetheless, Tyr was surely one of the earliest Germanic chieftains if he existed. Since he was a target of veneration in Germany since the life of Christ (as reported by Tacitus) and until Christianization in the 8th century, Tyr the human man almost certainly lived in what is now Germany. Tyr was phased out in Scandinavia in favor of the god of poetry and war, Odin [3].

The concept of war was very basic in Germanic culture. This intimates that Tyr as a war god may have been mythologically invented very, very early in Germanic religiosity as an evocation of the natural function of war. However, this possibility that Tyr was not an actual historical figure is undermined by the fact that many earlier gods of war existed before Tyr. Mannus, Herthum, and Taisco are mentioned by Tacitus (in Latin pronunciation of course) in the early centuries after Christ. Tyr rapidly monopolized these earlier gods. As a result, Tyr as a historical figure could have been a war chieftain whose military triumphs were glorious enough to supplant the Germans' worship of these previous gods. Tyr must have been the archetypal and perfected warrior who became a deified paradigm for all Germans in this warrior culture much like Achilles, Alexander the Great, Chinggis Khan, and Hercules were. Tyr and Thor were worshiped as the main gods of the Germanic peoples in Germany and the Low Countries until Christianization.

THOR

Son of Odin and Jörd, Thor is the most famous of the figures in German/Norse pre-Christian religion. He is the god of war, strength, thunder/lightning, and physical battle, most iconified for his use of Mjollnir ("Mee-ol-neer"), the mighty hammer capable of destroying any target with ease, supporting such magnificent strength that none but Thor himself may yield it. He is famous for his quests in fishing, hunting, and poaching the vaunted Jormungänger serpent, peril of the world of men (Midgard). At Ragnarök, he is to die in combat with the serpent, mutually having released a fatal blow, with Thor poisoned. Also called Donar and Thur, he is the root of the German "Donarstag" (or Donnerstag) and the English "Thursday" following the creation of the English language by the Germanic Anglo-Saxon of England.

(in reference to Thor's Hammer, Mjollnir, in defense of the gods against Loki the Trickster)
“Hush thee, ill wight, or my hammer of might, Mjollnir, shall shut thy mouth: my right hand will hew thee with [Mjollnir], and break every bone in thy body.”
(The Poetic Edda, translated by Lee M. Hollander, “The Flyting of Loki”, pg.103)

"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...“Thor,” they say, “rules the heavens; he is the god of thunder, wind and rain, fair weather and the produce of the fields...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..."
Adam of Bremen's Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum

Possible Historical Roots: Thor was worshiped almost universally amongst the pre-Christian Germanic populations in Scandinavia, Germany, England, and the Baltic. Various analogous war gods wielding the power of nature (manifested in lightning) existed in most European cultures, including among the Balts and among the Finns and Estonians as Ukko. Because of the very basic psychological phenomena of war and the power of lightning, it is impossible to determine whether these gods were derived from the German variant or otherwise.

It is also impossible to conclude when Germanic war gods acquired the attributes of lightning and storms. No votive idols holding lightning bolts have been found. Nonetheless, it is certain that Thor existed as early as the 2nd century after Christ, as the Roman analogue (Hercules) is mentioned as being central to Germanic worship by Tacitus in Germania. Thor was easily the central god in Norway and Germany alongside Tyr. Intricate jewelry and amulets in the shape of hammers exist by the dozens in Scandinavia, England, and northern Germany during the Christianization process. For Thor, it is just as easy to argue that he was an invented figure of mythology as he may have been a historical figure due to the probability that a god of lightning could have been created by the very early Germans millennia before Christ whilst they looked to the power of the clouds. Despite these uncertainties, Thor is easily the most influential of all the ancient gods on modern Western societies, and English-speaking societies recall his influence every Th(o)rsday.

FORSETI

The Germanic god of peace, diplomacy, truth, knowledge, and justice, Forseti is one of the less famous of the German and Nordic Pantheonic gods. He is the grandson of Odin, and son of Baldur -- god of moral purity and innocence -- and his wife Nanna. Like his father, he is portrayed as a wise, moral, and just member of the Pantheon bearing an incomparably radiant light of trust and flawlessness. By his hand oaths were traditionally sworn between kings as the highest sign of fulfillment, obeisance, and justice. A Viking who violated a pact sworn in the name of Forseti was said to never be forgiven and was often executed. He is seen as the god assigned to the maintenance of the laws of Odin upon men, the symbol of truth, legitimacy, and goodness. Besides his wise and praised name, he is seldom noted throughout the Edda, and did not appear at Ragnarök. Thus, it can be assumed that he was one of the few survivors of the Armageddon affair, or was killed beforehand.

Shining the tenth, which with gold is propped, and is shingled with shining silver; there Forseti unflaggingly sits, the god that stills all strife."
(The Poetic Edda, translated by Lee M. Hollander, “The Lay of Grimnir,” pg.57)

Possible Historical Roots: Forseti is one of the older Germanic gods, and was widely worshiped in Scandinavia and Germany proper. Despite his relative insignificance in the Edda and other sources, archeological evidence of veneration of Forseti is inordinately rich compared with other gods. No votive idols of Forseti have been found with certainty, although it would be difficult for us to determine one humanoid carved figure from another because Forseti had no blatant characteristics (like Odin's lost eye or Tyr's missing right arm). Diplomacy, which Forseti represented, must have been a significant theme of spiritual reverence in the intense warrior culture of the Germans. As a result, if Forseti were an invented mythological character, he must be among the oldest gods alongside the fertility of Freyjr and the war of Mannus. It is also quite possible that Forseti was a legitimate historical sovereign or foreign minister of ancient Germany who famously resolved a difficult peace or forged a highly auspicious alliance between two great powers and became posthumously deified upon his death.

The greatest concentration of archeologically-discovered worship appears among the Germans of northern Germany, the Low Countries (especially the Frisian tribes of Friesland), and Denmark. It appears that he enjoyed the primacy of patron god status in the island of Heligoland, a small island of under 3,000 inhabitants off the northern coast of Germany and Denmark. This island, whose root words translate to "Holy Land" (heiliges Land), may imply that it is the holy site of the actual historical king Forseti's kingdom that once forged a mythic alliance or diplomatic agreement that coalesced into the myth of a god of justice. In this sense and due to this direct archeological evidence of a localized king, Forseti stands alongside Odin, Tyr, and Thor as arguably the most possible legitimate mythological gods. He may be the most legitimate of all, especially because he was mostly worshiped in this local area instead of being a popular cultural legend widely revered across the Germanic world.

FREYJA

Sister of Freyjr and daughter of Njördr (god of wind and storms), Freyja is one of the most famous of the Pantheon of German religion. She was the goddess of love, beauty, fertility, sex, attraction, and relationships for women. "Fertility" is mutually applied to that of the field and harvest, as well as to that of virility for childrearing. Her name is also spelled as Freya, Frei, and Frea. There is much dispute over her connection with the goddess Frigg (the favorite wife of Odin). The two are often considered distinct, and equally to be the same person. As such, it is uncertain whether the English "Friday" and German "Freitag" originate in Freyja, Frigg, or Freyja's brother Freyjr. Though her role in historical social and religious veneration for the natural sexual phenomenon is significant, she is often rendered as the female opposite of Baldur as the symbol for moral purity of women. Fertility tends to represent childbirth rather than lust via intercourse.

(in defense of the Aesir [gods] in the face of insults by Loki the Trickster)
“Thy slanderous tongue, twill' thy sorrow be, and still will work thee woe; wroth are the gods and goddesses, thoul't fare sadly home from hence.”
(The Poetic Edda, translated by Lee M. Hollander, “Lokasenna”, pg.97)

Possible Historical Roots: Because of the difficulty in isolating the female Freyja from her brother Freyjr and Odin's wife Frigg (Freyj), it is next to impossible to determine any historical origin of Freyja. It is certain that the male Freyjr was one of the foremost salient and oldest of the ancient Germans in both Scandinavia and Germany. Tacitus proves that a male god of fertility with large phalluses was venerated alongside Tyr and probably Thor at least at the early century after Christ. The primacy of Freyjr endured until the very point of Christianization of the last pagan Germans in Scandinavia and even thereafter in the 14th century, implying over 1,400 years of consistent worship of Freyjr among all the Germans whether in the mountains of Germany or the glaciers of Iceland. However, it is incredibly difficult to isolate godly representations of male fertility votives and gods from female forms in archeology. Freyjr and his penis/phallus did not represent lust; they represented virility and successful reproduction. Many cultures depict fertility gods as androgynous due to the male-female interaction. As a result, statues of the male Freyjr may have been depicted with both genders. Ancient idols with exaggerated female genitalia have been widely found alongside those with male phalluses. We cannot trace Freyjr or Freyja as historical figures to any timeframe. It is likely that the literary myth-makers of Christianized Iceland simply invented new love tales of a new god and sister of Freyjr in the 13th century.

Like the characteristics of Tyr and Thor, the religious qualities that Freyja and Freyjr manifested (love, reproduction) are incredibly basic and natural. Therefore, ancient Germans may have simply invented the god and goddess of fertility many thousands of years before Christ at the same time as they abstractly constructed gods of war and the sky. The gods of such basic concepts like Freyja and Tyr seem the most likely candidates to be non-historical, invented mythological characters. Of course, it is always theoretical that ancient tales of a legitimate queen or princess' lionized qualities as a devoted mother may have elicited mythological tales posthumously. So too, an ancient and legitimate male figure of royalty (the real human Freyjr) who had dozens of wives and children may have embedded himself into popular urban legend as an intercessor with the powers of fertility.

FREYJR

Brother of Freyja, Freyjr (also called "Frey" or "Freyj") is the male equivalent of Freyja for love, sexuality, fertility, relationships, and the harvest. He maintains the thriving of agriculture and the familial descent and bloodline of his adherents. Fertility is defined in religion as the function of procreation and offspring, rather than pleasure and sex as we assume today. Freyjr is to die at Ragnarök by the hand of Surt, the fire giant who is to rally the forces of the giants and of evil against the Pantheon (Aesir) in the final battle between the gods. It is unclear from which of the two siblings (Freyjr and Freyja) the English term "Friday" and the German "Freitag" descend.

"The battle-bold Freyr rideth first on the golden-bristled barrow-boar to the bale-fire of Baldur, and leads the people."
Húsdrápa, Poetic Edda, Lee M. Hollander translation

"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...The third god is Freyr, who bestows peace and pleasure upon mortals.” Indeed they depict him as having a large phallus...To all their gods they have assigned priests to offer up the sacrifices of the people...if a marriage is performed, to Freyr."
Adam of Bremen's Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum

Possible Historical Roots: Like Freyja, Freyjr was worshiped almost universally across the Germanic societies, and was one of the foremost prominent and oldest benefactors and targets of worship. Read the above entry regarding his sister Freyja for more information. Freyjr was extolled as far back as at least the life of Jesus (long before the Odin), likely several centuries before the Common Era. Roman scholars compared Freyjr with the Roman god Priapus due to his parallel phallus [5]. Theoretically, he could equally have been an invented figure as he was a legitimate historical authority. An ancient king may have been lionized for his perceived magical ability to grow bountiful harvests, or as a result of his near-mythic tales of procreation with his many wives. Or, the ancient Germanic peoples may have invented a primitive god to propitiate their concerns of fertility as far back as the Paleolithic at the same time as other primitive forms of investigating nature began to appear.

The influence of Freyjr is significant. He was worshiped perhaps longer than any other god, and thus is least likely to be a historical figure. He was most likely an invented mythological derivation. The ritual of the "Christmas ham" (or Jul Ham), still practiced today in Germany, England, and Scandinavia, was originally intended to reflect the sacrifice of a boar or pig to the god Freyjr as described by Adam von Bremen, a key source of late pre-Christian Germanic religion. The cultural significance of the ham feast for Freyjr, universally practiced to varying degrees among all the Germanic peoples prior to Christianization, may intimate that this tradition descends from a historical feast and sacrifice ritual practiced by the true king Freyjr in ancient Germany.

HEIMDALL

Often considered a son of Odin himself, Heimdall (also spelled "Heimdal" and "Heimdallr") is the god representing vigilance, the senses, perception, foresight/prediction, and readiness. He is the guardian and watchman of Valhalla and its Bifröst Bridge, the rainbow on which the members of the Pantheon are able to traverse between the worlds. He is to be the last of the prominent gods to die at Ragnarök, the end of the worlds. He is the one credited with having the task of finally slaying Loki himself, the trickster god of evil and concupiscence. He alerts the adherents of the Pantheon, the Einherjar (dead soldiers in Valhalla), and the Nine Worlds using the Gjallarhorn, which when blown is heard universally across the Nine Worlds to declare the coming calamities.

“...the downfall bodes when blares the gleaming old Gjallarhorn; loud blows Heimdall with horn aloft...”
(The Poetic Edda, translated by Lee M. Hollander, “Voluspa,” pg.9)

Possible Historical Roots: As with most of the Pantheonic gods, it is equally as possible that Heimdall was a legitimate historical figure as it is that he was simply an ethnocultural invention of creative mythology. The appearance of Heimdall in worship appears almost exclusively in Scandinavia, and much less so if at all in Germany proper or the Low Countries. No ancient votives or idols can be traced to Heimdall directly. Some scholars assume that Heimdall may have evolved from an original ancient sky god similar to Tyr, thus making him not only one of the oldest gods but almost certainly a non-historical figment of myth [6]. The original Heimdall may have been a watchman or guard of a charismatic Germanic king whose vigilance became espoused in religious myth after his death. So too, for a warrior culture like that of the Germans/Scandinavians, prescience and preparedness for battle and invasion were as significant as Freyjr's fertility or Thor's strength. Therefore, Heimdall was even more likely an invented character intended to propitiate fears of impending consequences. Some enthusiasts have asserted that Heimdall was invented by literary poets in Iceland as a god of readiness who derived from an awareness of an impending threat at a time when the old Odinist religion was facing extinction from Christian missionaries and their royal sponsors like Olaf Tryggvasson in Norway and Karl the Great (Charlemagne) of Germany. Heimdall, like Freyjr, seems unlikely to have been a legitimate hero.

BRAGI

Among the wisest and most knowledgeable of the gods of the Pantheon, Bragi is the god of poetry, writing and literacy, knowledge, and the transmission of the laws Odin and the Aesir Pantheon to the world of men (Midgard). He is often considered one of the sons of Odin, as with Thor. He is the husband of Idunn, the goddess of immortality and moral purity, whose apples allow the gods to maintain eternal life. Bragi is shown by Snorri Sturlusson's sources (the Edda) to be the finest expression of a higher tongue, eloquent speech, and articulate writing. He is thus associated with diplomacy, debate, and justice, and is often paralleled to Forseti (the god of justice).

(in defense of the Aesir [gods] in the face of insults by Loki the Trickster)
”My sword and saddle horse, I beseech thee, Loki, take and eke mine arm ring lest to holy hosts thy hatred thou showest: beware of the gods' anger!”
(The Poetic Edda, translated by Lee M. Hollander, “Lokasenna,” pg.92)

Possible Historical Roots: Bragi was a very late addition to the Germanic Pantheon, and appears exclusively among the Scandinavians and only after their German relatives on the continent had mostly been converted to Christendom. In fact, there is no evidence of the god in the forms of votive icons or any other expression until the late 12th century when Christianized Icelandic skald poets began to record the ancient Germanic religion of their ancestors. So too, the concepts of poetry, writing, and intellectual contemplation imply a high degree of civilization when compared with the simple concepts of war and love of Thor and Freyjr. As a majority illiterate culture (despite having a largely independent and ancient system of writing called Runes), Bragi was almost certainly a late addition to the Germanic Pantheon who was created when the semi-nomadic German tribes began to settle and create resplendent civilizations and literary monuments like the Edda. It is theoretically possible that Bragi was a legitimate historical poet and writer during the literary golden age of Icelandic saga poets (11th-14th centuries). However, this society of articulate poets only emerged after Christianization, and therefore a radiant poet would not have been deified at all. No skalds refer ceremonially or personally to any previous mentor or inspiration named Bragi. Therefore, it is almost certain that Bragi was an invented character in post-Odinist (Christian) Icelandic fiction who percolated back to Scandinavia and Germany through natural ethnocultural contact with their relatives.

BALDUR

Along with Thor, Baldur is considered the most majestic and magnificent of the sons of Odin. Also called Baldr, Balder, and Baldir, he is the god of moral purity, justice, peace, innocence, chastity, and flawlessness. He is portrayed with a radiant glowing white light, and thus the actual flower “Baldur's Brow” is named after him due to its bright white hue. He is the most beloved of those in Valhalla under Odin, the most trusted, and the most morally pious of all his sons. He is credited with building the most massive and advanced ship ever built, eventually to be used for his funeral in the traditional method of burning German and Scandinavian kings at sea by immolation. His death is one of the first and most foreboding signs of the coming end of this world, the Ragnarök, by his death at the hands of his own brother, the blind Hödr. Hödr had been tricked by the wicked and immoral Trickster god Loki to fire an arrow at the invincible god Baldur, killed by one of his own kin. Overwhelmed with grief, his chaste wife Nanna flung herself upon his funeral pyre to join him in Valhalla. Baldur is one of the few to survive the Ragnarök, and is to be reborn as a type of successor to Odin in the next realm of the gods (Asgard).

(in reference to the death of Baldur by the mistletoe poison-tipped arrow of Hoedir)
"I saw for Baldur, the blessed god, Ygg's (Odin's) greatest son, what doom is hidden: green and glossy, there grew aloft, the trees among, the mistletoe."
(The Poetic Edda, translated by Lee M. Hollander, “Lokasenna,” pg.92)

Possible Historical Roots: No evidence of votive idols, inscriptions, or etchings of Baldur have been found preceding the Viking Age, and almost all are exclusively in Scandinavia. It is arguable that no mention of Baldur can be historically traced back before he was mentioned by the Christian skald poets of Iceland. As a result, like Bragi, Baldur could have simply been another fictional character of these highly-imaginative romantic poets. Another crucial point that obviates the probability of a fictional origin by Christian literati is the blatant parallel between Baldur and Christ. The similarities between the chaste, immaculate, pious, and compassionate Baldur who makes a tragic sacrifice (and is often portrayed with a Jesus-like halo) intimate that Christian Icelanders retrojectively imbued pagan mythological characters with Christian characteristics. It seems that only Odin, Tyr, Forseti, and Thor may be candidates for legitimate historical origin.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

James Mayfield is a historian and the Chairman of the European Heritage Library. I have a Cum Laude BA in History with a Minor in Germanic Studies (language and history), am presently working for my Masters in History, and plan to immediately progress to my PhD Doctorate. I have a special academic interest in Europe's diverse ethnic identities, languages, and cultures, and the political struggles of native European and immigrant minority identities. See my staff entry for more information.

BIBLIOGRAPHY/SOURCES USED:

The Poetic Edda. Translated by Lee M. Hollander. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1962.

[1] Cotterell, Arthur, and Rachel Storm. The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology. London: Hermes House, 2005. Page 216.

[2] The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology, Page 217.

[3] Derry, T. K. History of Scandinavia. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1979. Page 27.

[4] Todd, Malcolm. The Early Germans. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. Page 103.

[5] The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology, Page 192.

[6] The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology, Page 197.

Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum.

Asatruarfelagid, official Odinist church of Iceland. See their website.

"Jakten på Odin," the campaign by explorer Thor Heyerdal to find the historical Odin.

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