# The Norse and Germanic gods The religion of the Germanic peoples, from Tacitus's account to the Norse gods of the Viking Age: Odin, Thor, Loki, Yggdrasil, and Ragnarok, preserved by Snorri's Eddas. Its shadow reaches us through four days of the week, Wagner, Tolkien, and the Nazi misuse of its runes. *This story parallel: Fascism: rise and fall* *This story part of: The old gods and their long shadow* *This story part of: Religion and ideology* *Paganism: the old religions, their fall, and their return parallel this story* *Nazi ideology was not unique: race myth, empire, and extermination parallel this story* ## 98 — Tacitus describes the gods of the Germans The Roman historian Tacitus writes Germania, the earliest account of Germanic religion, describing gods he equates with Mercury (Wodan), Hercules (Donar), and Mars (Tiwaz), and sacred groves without temples or idols. It is the first written window onto the faith that became Norse mythology. ## c. 400 — The Germanic gods name the days of the week Germanic peoples map the Roman planetary week onto their own gods: Tiw's day (Tuesday), Woden's day (Wednesday), Thunor's day (Thursday), and Frigg's day (Friday). Four days of the modern English week still carry the names of the Norse gods. ## c. 700 — The Aesir, the Vanir, and the world-tree Yggdrasil Pre-Christian Scandinavians worship the Aesir, led by Odin, Thor, and Frigg, and the Vanir of fertility, in a cosmos held together by the world-ash Yggdrasil and its nine worlds. Their myths would outlast their temples by a thousand years. ## c. 700 — The Irminsul and continental Germanic paganism The continental Germanic peoples, the Saxons and their neighbors, worship at sacred pillars such as the Irminsul, a great column upholding the heavens, and in holy groves. Their gods were the southern cousins of the Norse Aesir. ## 772 to 804 — Charlemagne forces the Saxons to convert Charlemagne cuts down the Irminsul and wages decades of war to convert the pagan Saxons by the sword, including the massacre of thousands at Verden in 782. The old Germanic religion was stamped out on the continent centuries before it fell in the Norse north. ## June 793 — The Lindisfarne raid opens the Viking Age Norse raiders sack the monastery of Lindisfarne off the English coast, the shock that opened the Viking Age. For nearly three centuries Norse seafarers raided, traded, and settled from Russia to North America. ## c. 900 — The Merseburg Charms preserve a pagan German spell Two short spells written in Old High German, the Merseburg Charms, are the only surviving record of continental Germanic pagan incantation, naming Wodan and other gods. Almost everything else of that religion was erased by conversion. ## 1000 — Iceland converts to Christianity At the Althing assembly, Iceland peacefully adopts Christianity while quietly tolerating the old gods in private. The conversion of Scandinavia slowly ended open worship of the Norse gods, but the sagas preserved their stories. ## c. 1000 — Leif Erikson reaches Vinland Norse sailors led by Leif Erikson reach Vinland in North America, five centuries before Columbus, as later confirmed by the settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows. The reach of the pagan Norse world spanned two continents. ## c. 1220 — Snorri Sturluson writes the Prose Edda The Icelandic scholar Snorri Sturluson compiled the Prose Edda as a handbook of Norse myth and poetry for Christian-era poets. Much of what we know of Norse mythology comes from his work. ## c. 1270 — The Poetic Edda is preserved in the Codex Regius The Codex Regius manuscript gathers the Poetic Edda, the old mythological and heroic poems, including the Voluspa that tells of creation and Ragnarok, the doom of the gods. It is the primary source for Norse mythology. ## 1876 — Wagner's Ring revives the Norse gods as high art Richard Wagner completes and premieres The Ring of the Nibelung, a four-opera cycle drawn from Norse and Germanic myth. It turned the old gods into a symbol of German national culture, for better and, later, for worse. ## c. 1935 — The Nazis appropriate Norse runes and symbols Nazi Germany adopts Norse and Germanic runes, such as the SS sig-runes and the sun-wheel, as symbols of a mythic Aryan past, and the Ahnenerbe institute mined the myths for propaganda. The theft still shadows Norse symbols, which modern white-nationalist groups continue to misuse. The symbols are ancient; this political use is a documented distortion. *Source: The History of the Swastika* *Source: SS Bolts* ## 1937 — Tolkien builds Middle-earth from Norse myth J.R.R. Tolkien, a scholar of Old Norse, draws on the Eddas for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: the very name Middle-earth is the Norse Midgard, and Gandalf and the dwarves come straight from the Prose Edda. Modern fantasy is steeped in the Norse world. ## 1962 — Marvel's Thor brings the Norse gods to the modern world Marvel Comics reinvents Thor as a superhero, and the later films make Odin, Loki, and Asgard household names for a global audience. The Norse gods reach more people today than at any time since the Viking Age. ## 1972 — Asatru is revived as a religion Iceland formally recognizes Asatru, a modern revival of Norse paganism, as a religion. Heathenry now has followers worldwide, most honoring the old gods peacefully and rejecting the racist groups that also claim the symbols.