Norse Gods vs. Anglo-Saxon Gods

[The Hammer]

I am curious as to what others know, and to help cut down on my own reading g as I don't have the time for research, what are the similarities and differences between the Deities of the Northmen and the Deities of the Anglo-Saxons. I have been told that there are a lot of similarities, such as Odin/Woden being the same God etc. I am looking intoy ancestry again and I am 8% Scandinavian (Norse) and 41% Western European (Anglo-Saxon). Any help, info and references would be appreciated. I am trying to figure out what God's my ancestors may have worshipped, I am think of trying to connect with my hereditary pagan ancestors.

 

[Nietzsche]

I am curious as to what others know, and to help cut down on my own reading g as I don't have the time for research, what are the similarities and differences between the Deities of the Northmen and the Deities of the Anglo-Saxons. I have been told that there are a lot of similarities, such as Odin/Woden being the same God etc. I am looking intoy ancestry again and I am 8% Scandinavian (Norse) and 41% Western European (Anglo-Saxon). Any help, info and references would be appreciated. I am trying to figure out what God's my ancestors may have worshipped, I am think of trying to connect with my hereditary pagan ancestors.

The AS variant of the Germanic faith is relatively close to the Norse one, with the biggest differences being it isn't quite as "fleshed out". There is no Loki, for instance. The best way to think of AS Heathenry is that it's the half-way point between the Continental Germanic paganism and the Norse Germanic paganism. Odin-Woden is the King of Asgard rather than Tyr-Tiwaz, so on.

Think you could be more specific about what sort of differences are most important to you?

 

[The Hammer]

The AS variant of the Germanic faith is relatively close to the Norse one, with the biggest differences being it isn't quite as "fleshed out". There is no Loki, for instance. The best way to think of AS Heathenry is that it's the half-way point between the Continental Germanic paganism and the Norse Germanic paganism. Odin-Woden is the King of Asgard rather than Tyr-Tiwaz, so on.

Think you could be more specific about what sort of differences are most important to you?

I guess I am the most curious about which Deities are similar/different/missing between the two? Are the cultural practices/tenets the same? Are there different myths about how the gods interact with a person if at all. I am basically trying to see which gods seem more "at home" in my views. I have already had a calling/worked with Odin-Woden and so that leaves me with one of those 2 worldviews based of fof my genetic ancestry, as I am trying to meld my practices around that. Really anything Germanic heathen fits.

 

[Nietzsche]

I guess I am the most curious about which Deities are similar/different/missing between the two? Are the cultural practices/tenets the same? Are there different myths about how the gods interact with a person if at all. I am basically trying to see which gods seem more "at home" in my views. I have already had a calling/worked with Odin-Woden and so that leaves me with one of those 2 worldviews based of fof my genetic ancestry, as I am trying to meld my practices around that. Really anything Germanic heathen fits.

While doing a bit of extra research for this, I found something that has done all the work for me;

This will help you out right here, the first post by UsurpedLettuce.



If you have any questions that are more specific after reading this, feel free to ask, but I think that'll give you most of what you need.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Nietzsche, I would like to mention that all Proto-Indo-European myths Center on one thing, whether Anglo-saxon, Celtic, Norse, Germanic, Greek, Slavic, Iranian or Indian - the annual fight between light and darkness in which Gods and demons/Titans fight. The fight starts at autumn time and end with spring. Finally the hero wins back light, spring, marries the princess but has to surrender her when autumn comes.

"The same traditions are also found in the literature of other branches of the Aryan race, besides the Hindus and the Parsis. For instance, Dr. Warren quotes Greek traditions similar to those we have discussed above. Regarding the primitive revolution of the sky, Anaximenes, we are told, likened the motions of the heaven in early days to “the rotating of a man’s hat on his head.” Another Greek writer is quoted to show that “at first the Pole-star always appeared in the zenith.” It is also stated, on the authority of Anton, Krichenbauer, that in the Iliad and Odyssey two kinds of days are continually referred to one of a year’s duration, especially when describing the life and exploits of the Gods, and the other twenty-four hours. The night of the Gods has its parallel also in the Norse mythology, which mentions “the Twilight of the Gods,” denoting by that phrase the time when the reign of Odin and the Æsir, or Gods, would come to an end, not forever, but to be again revived; for we are told that “from the dead sun springs a daughter more beautiful than her sire, and mankind starts afresh from the life-raiser and his bride-life.” If these traditions and statements are correct, they show that the idea of halfyearly night and day of the Gods is not only Indo-Iranian, but IndoGermanic, and that it must therefore, have originated in. the original home of the Aryans."
BG Tilak "Arctic Home in Vedas", page 72

"In short, the Dawn is supposed to have been everything to the ancient people, and a number of legends are explained in this way, until at last the monotonous character of these stories led the learned professor (Prof. Max Müller) to ask to himself the question, “Is everything the Dawn? Is everything the Sun?” - a question, which he answers by informing us that so far as his researches were concerned they had led him again and again to the Dawn and the Sun as the chief burden of the myths of the Aryan race."
BG Tilak "Arctic Home in Vedas", page 224

 

[Nietzsche]

Nietzsche, I would like to mention that all Proto-Indo-European myths Center on one thing, whether Anglo-saxon, Celtic, Norse, Germanic, Greek, Slavic, Iranian or Indian - the annual fight between light and darkness in which Gods and demons/Titans fight. The fight starts at autumn time and end with spring. Finally the hero wins back light, spring, marries the princess but has to surrender her when autumn comes.

Indeed, the 'Chaoskampf', though it is less pronounced in the Anglo-Saxon variant of Germanic paganism. The only one of the Germanic traditions to fully flesh out the whole "order vs chaos" concept is the Norse, with their notion of Ragnarok and 'Cycle' concept.

 

[Treks]

Western European doesn't necessarily mean Anglo Saxon. It probably means Continental Germanic.

 

[GoodbyeDave]

"If these traditions and statements are correct, they show that the idea of halfyearly night and day of the Gods is not only Indo-Iranian, but IndoGermanic, and that it must therefore, have originated in. the original home of the Aryans. "...the monotonous character of these stories led the learned professor (Prof. Max Müller) to ask to himself the question, “Is everything the Dawn? Is everything the Sun?” - a question, which he answers by informing us that so far as his researches were concerned they had led him again and again to the Dawn and the Sun as the chief burden of the myths of the Aryan race."
BG Tilak "Arctic Home in Vedas"

Sorry, but anything from a man [Tilak] who believed in an "Aryan homeland at the North Pole" has to be taken with a pinch, if not a bucket, of salt. As for Max Muller's solar theories, the best treatment of those was by Andrew Lang, who used Muller's method to prove that Gladstone was really a solar myth!

 

[The Hammer]

Western European doesn't necessarily mean Anglo Saxon. It probably means Continental Germanic.

True, as what was shown as being "Western European" encompassed modern day Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Denmark etc. But, I also stated Anglo-Saxon as I am also a large percentage British. And the Angles and Saxons seemed to have merged into Anglo-Saxon on the British Isles if I am reading the history right.

 

[The Hammer]

While doing a bit of extra research for this, I found something that has done all the work for me;

This will help you out right here, the first post by UsurpedLettuce.



If you have any questions that are more specific after reading this, feel free to ask, but I think that'll give you most of what you need.

That was an extremely well written post, thanks for the link @Nietzsche . I think I may stick with honoring the Norse gods, even if, only because the myths and stories are more fleshed out. Plus being 8% Scandinavian/Finnish has to count for something haha.

 

[Treks]

Anglo-Saxon heathenry is taking off in the form of Fyrnsidu, as far as I can tell. They have quite an active Facebook group if that interests you.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Sorry, but anything from a man [Tilak] who believed in an "Aryan homeland at the North Pole" has to be taken with a pinch, if not a bucket, of salt. As for Max Muller's solar theories, the best treatment of those was by Andrew Lang, who used Muller's method to prove that Gladstone was really a solar myth!

I do not mind if what Tilak said is taken with a bucket of salt. We have given such treatment to Einstein and Planck as well. There is a difference between 'at the North Pole' and in the 'sub-arctic region'. 'Sub-Arctic regions' are not devoid of population and the climate has always changed. Movement of people from North to South in wake of last glaciation is a accepted fact. If humans (though surpisingly) had not been able to survive in glacial conditions, the Americas would not have been populated by humans.

 

[Confucian Mormon Buddhist]

Not a pagan here, but I am into history. Pretty sure Anglo-Saxons would have just practiced normal Germanic paganism, with added Celtic folklore. It wasn't very long before they converted to Catholicism.

 

[VioletVortex]

Not a pagan here, but I am into history. Pretty sure Anglo-Saxons would have just practiced normal Germanic paganism, with added Celtic folklore. It wasn't very long before they converted to Catholicism.

You're getting there. The Anglo-Saxons arrived on the British Isles after the Celts did. They each practiced separate religions, with the Anglo-Saxons practicing a linguistic variant of Germanic Paganism, and the Celts practicing Celtic forms of Paganism, like Druidry.

 

[Confucian Mormon Buddhist]

You're getting there. The Anglo-Saxons arrived on the British Isles after the Celts did. They each practiced separate religions, with the Anglo-Saxons practicing a linguistic variant of Germanic Paganism, and the Celts practicing Celtic forms of Paganism, like Druidry.

I would assume that the Anglo-Saxon warlords would have absorbed a lot of Celtic practices since they ruled over the Celts. The Anglo-Saxons only had about a hundred years in Britain before Christianization began.

So, unless we count the possible presence of Celtic influence, I don't think Anglo-Saxon religion had enough time to deviate into something distinct.

 

[The Emperor of Mankind]

You're getting there. The Anglo-Saxons arrived on the British Isles after the Celts did. They each practiced separate religions, with the Anglo-Saxons practicing a linguistic variant of Germanic Paganism, and the Celts practicing Celtic forms of Paganism, like Druidry.

Actually at this point in history the Britons would have been practicing Romano-British polytheism after centuries of Roman cultural hegemony. The only free Celts left at the time would have been the Welsh, the Irish, the Picts and maybe the Cornish. Most of whom the Saxons never settled among.

 

[Hildeburh]

Not a pagan here, but I am into history. Pretty sure Anglo-Saxons would have just practiced normal Germanic paganism, with added Celtic folklore. It wasn't very long before they converted to Catholicism.

Unfortunately, there was never anything that would qualify as ' normal' Germanic paganism, there never was a pan Germanic religion. The Germanic tribes were numerous and spanned a considerable time period, their customs, gods and ancestors varied through time and over geographical area.

There were basic ritual commonalities for sure, such as votive deposition and blood sacrific, but as T. Gunnell (2015) states, "religious beliefs and practices varied by time and space, largely in accordance with social practices and environments, depending on whether people lived in the mountains, or in the flat agricultural lands, by the sea, or on islands; depending on whether they were farmers, warriors or hunters; and also depending on the degree of social contact they had with people outside"

Pantheon? What Pantheon?

Conversion to Christianity in Anglo Saxon England was a drawn out process, penalties against pagan practices were still appearing in the Laws as late as King Alfred the Great. Plus, of course, Northern England was invaded and settled by Vikings in the 9th Century.

Celtic influences on Germanic mythology are best described as syncretism rather than "with some added Celtic folklore'. Syncretism is inevitable in regions were peoples of different belief systems interact and similarities in mythology are also present in peoples who shared a PIE heritage.