German (Norse) Myth & Folklore

Similar to the ancient Greeks and many other cultures, the Germanic tribes believed in and worships gods.  There are about fifteen “main” deities, and they are as follows:
    Odin: god of death, wisdom and magic
    Frigg: mother-goddess, Odin’s wife
    Balder: the good god, Odin’s son
    Wotan: god of war
    Tiwaz: god of the sky
    Thor: god of thunder and foe of giants
    Njord: god of the sea, fishing and prosperity
    Frey: god of fertility, Njord’s son
    Freya: goddess of love and beauty, Frey’s sister
    Loki: the troublemaker, half divine and half demonic
    Tyr: the one-handed god, giver of victory in battle
    Hother: the blind god
    Bragi: skilled in poetry and the use of words
    Idun: keeper of the apples of immortality, Bragi’s wife
    Heimdall: the watchman of Asgard (the German Mt. Olympus)
    Ull: the archer and skier

The Germans also believed in ghosts, revenants (those who return after death), witches, dwarfs, giants, wights (creatures with human qualities), and omens. 

There are two main historians who are repeatedly mentioned in contributing to the cultural, religious and mythological knowledge of Germanic/Norse folklore: Snorri and Tacitus.  Snorri Sturlson was an Icelandic scholar and politician who lived from 1179-1241 A.D.  He often traveled to Norway to negotiate peace with the Norwegian King Hakon.  This made Snorri the enemy of his own people and was eventually murdered—for political motives—by his own stepson.  Among Snorri’s many writings is Gylfaginning, which offers a scholarly portrayal of Old Norse mythology.  Although heavily influenced by Christian educations, Gylfaginning remains the most important source for North Germanic mythology. 

Cornelius Tacitus, who lived from 55-117 A.D., was a Roman historian who focused more on the religion of the heathen Germanic peoples.  Tacitus often referred to the Germanic peoples as the “noble barbarians”, giving an example to the increasingly uncivilized Romans.  Among the most important information Tacitus gives us in his Germania are the descriptions of the cult in the grove of the Semnones, the cult of Nerthus, and the myth of the descending of the Germanic peoples from Tuisto and Mannus (a mythical father and son). 
   
One story of the Germanic peoples that really stands out is the tale of Beowulf.  Beowulf features explicitly many other legendary figures from the Germanic past, including Heremond, Hrothulf and Sigemund.  Towards the end of the poem, the fight between Beowulf and the dragon is thought by some to resemble the epic encounter of the Norse god Thor with the Midgard-Serpent (an extra-dimensional dragon) in the battle at Ragnarok.  Ragnarok is the Fate of the Gods.  There is a grandiose battle of the gods, with the help of mortals, fighting cosmic monsters: the Wolf who chases the Sun, the Serpent who slithers around the Earth, and the fire-demon Surtr who ruins everything in its path.  At the end of this battle the gods and men are killed and the world is destroyed.  The universe is then “created out of death, out of the corpse of the giant Ymir, killed by the gods.  These gods themselves were descended from Ymir, from creatures born out of his great living body” (Dronke, 307).  In Norse mythology, monsters play two crucial roles: one is to disturb the peace of the gods and involve them in awkward situations (such like the character Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream), though this is usually left to the giants, and two, they are supposed to kill the gods at Ragnarok. 

“Three times in Beowulf a movement, or theme, is repeated: a stable, orderly, serene and virtuous state is broken up, and broken up from within” (Dronke, 305).  These are the times when Beowulf battles Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and eventually the dragon.  Some believe that these battles are written as a spiritual parallel.  Beowulf must guard his soul against the growth of evil, because one never knows when it will be “tested”.  Was it a sin of Beowulf’s that cause divine intervention and allowed the dragon to wreak havoc on the countryside?  Did the building Heorot reflect the king’s pride, vanity, and strength in such a way that it threatened Grendel? 

Or was it the confidence and camaraderie of the men that Grendel envied so much?  A fourth movement in Beowulf centers on the inevitability of time, which brings age and death.  Fifty years of peace had passed between Grendel’s mother and the dragon.  If the dragon had arrived earlier, would a younger Beowulf have survived? Dronke asks, “Would folktale alone…have suggested the seriousness and solemnity with which the coming of Grendel and the dragon are invested in Beowulf?” (311).  Here it is implied that we need the myths and folktales of the Germanic tribes and Norse people, especially the deities and religious sacraments, to fully appreciate what Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon truly mean. 



Bibliography:

Cavendish, Richard and Trevor O. Ling.  Mythology: an Illustrated Encyclopedia.  London & USA: Orbis Publishing Ltd. and Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1980.

Dronke, Ursula.  “Beowulf and Ragnarok”.  Saga Book, 17 (196-64), p. 302-325.

Jeep, John M.  Medieval Germany: an Encyclopedia.  New York & London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 2001.

Orchard, Andy.  Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend.  London: Wellington House, 1997.

Simek, Rudolph.  Dictionary of Northern Mythology.  Great Britain: St. Edmundsbury Press Ltd., 1984.