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Sources about German religion?

Saint Frankenstein

Here for the ride
Premium Member
I don't mean Germanic in general, I mean German or Continental Germanic religion in general. I know that most of the surviving sources are Scandinavian and Icelandic in origin, but I'm most interested in the pre-Christian Germans and others around them, since German is probably the Germanic part of my heritage I'm closest to and the language is somewhat easier for me than the Scandinavian languages.

Anyway, any info helps. Thanks.
 

Nietzsche

The Last Prussian
Premium Member
I don't mean Germanic in general, I mean German or Continental Germanic religion in general. I know that most of the surviving sources are Scandinavian and Icelandic in origin, but I'm most interested in the pre-Christian Germans and others around them, since German is probably the Germanic part of my heritage I'm closest to and the language is somewhat easier for me than the Scandinavian languages.

Anyway, any info helps. Thanks.
Saxon? Frisian? Flemish? What would become Rhineland, Austrian..?
 

Saint Frankenstein

Here for the ride
Premium Member
Saxon? Frisian? Flemish? What would become Rhineland, Austrian..?
Now you have to make it all complicated! :p

Well, as I told you before, my German ancestors were from Heidelberg, so if you know about the people who historically lived in southwestern Germany, that would be a great start. I'm really getting into Heathenry lately and I would like to learn more about the flavor of it that my specific ancestors would've followed. I apparently have Danish, Dutch and perhaps English heritage, too, but I don't know much about those ancestors.

The Anglo-Saxon variant is also an interest of mine. I'm looking for book and website recommendations and such. :)
 

Palehorse

Active Member
My relatives are from ****ing, Austria. But RF doesn't like me talking about my family.

****ing (German pronunciation: [ˈfʊkɪŋ] ( listen), rhymes with "booking"[2]) is an Austrian village[3] in the municipality of Tarsdorf,[4] in the Innviertel region of western Upper Austria. The village is 33 kilometres (21 mi) north of Salzburg, 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) east of the German border.

Despite having a population of only 104 in 2005, the village has become famous for its unusual place name[5][6] in the English-speaking world. Its road signs are a popular visitor attraction, and they were often stolen by souvenir-hunting tourists until 2005, when the signs were modified to be theft-resistant.

I love talking about mother ****ing Austria.
 

Riverwolf

Amateur Rambler / Proud Ergi
Premium Member
Well, as I told you before, my German ancestors were from Heidelberg, so if you know about the people who historically lived in southwestern Germany, that would be a great start.

One thing you can do to figure out which Tribe or Tribes you might be descended from is to look at the history of the city, the region it's in, and the regions immediately surrounding it. You can also compare a map of modern Germany to a rough map of where the old Tribes roughly were said to be at various times. This is an area where Wikipedia is actually a pretty good place to start.

From there, you can look at various local folklores through the ages, what stories were told there, regional customs and superstitions, and compare those to the wider Germanic mythos.

When it comes to this religion and way of thinking, where so much has been lost over the years, it's up to you to do a lot of the work yourself. Heathenry is an ongoing process of discovery. It's not like other religions where other peoples' books will tell you everything what you want to know. (Incidentally, I'd be careful with the books by the Wodening brothers, since they have gotten some things VERY wrong when it comes to vocabulary.)
 
I don't mean Germanic in general, I mean German or Continental Germanic religion in general. I know that most of the surviving sources are Scandinavian and Icelandic in origin, but I'm most interested in the pre-Christian Germans and others around them, since German is probably the Germanic part of my heritage I'm closest to and the language is somewhat easier for me than the Scandinavian languages.

Anyway, any info helps. Thanks.
Although not primary sources you could do worse than obtain copies of Grimm's Teutonic Mythology which consists of 4 volumes although volume 4 just consists of all the footnotes that used to appear in the original 3 volume edition. Grimm does cover a lot of German material and the whole study has a German and comparative slant to it.
 
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