Germanic Paganism - Sources

Sources

Most sources documenting Germanic paganism have presumably been lost. From Iceland there is substantial literature, namely the Nordic Sagas and the Eddas, but most of this was written long after Iceland's conversion to Christianity. Some information is found in the Nibelungenlied. The closest literary source may be Beowulf, which some scholars believe was composed as early as the eighth century, and therefore within living memory of Anglo-Saxon paganism. Limited information also exists in Tacitus' ethnographic work Germania.

Further material has been deduced from customs found in surviving rural folk traditions that have either been mildly superficially Christianized or lightly modified, including surviving laws and legislature (Althing, Anglo-Saxon law, the Grágás), calendar dates, customary folktales and traditional symbolism found in folk art.

A great deal of information has been unearthed by recent archaeology, including the Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo royal funerary site in East Anglia and the royal temple at Gefren/Yeavering in Northumberland. The traditional ballads of the Northumbrian/Scottish borders, and their European counterparts, have also preserved many aspects of Germanic belief. As York Powell wrote, "The very scheme on which the ballads and lays are alike built, the hapless innocent death of a hero or heroine, is as heathen as the plot of any Athenian tragedy can be."

Although perhaps singularly most responsible for the destruction of pagan sites, including massacres, such as the Massacre of Verden and the subsequent dismantling of ancient tribal ruling systems, the Frankish emperor Charlemagne of The Holy Roman Empire is said to have acquired a substantial collection of Germanic songs, which was deliberately destroyed after his death by his successor, Louis the Pious.