Old Germanic mythology and beliefs (general outline).

Continental Germanic mythology is a subset of Germanic mythology, going back to Proto-Germanic polytheism as practiced in parts of Central Europe before gradual Christianization during the 6th to 8th centuries, and continued in the legends, and Middle High German epics during the Middle Ages, also continued although in a recharacterized and less sacred fashion in European folklore and fairy tales.

Unlike North Germanic, and to a lesser extent Anglo-Saxon mythology, the attestation of Continental Germanic paganism is extremely fragmentary. Besides a handful of brief Elder Futhark inscriptions, Mythological elements were however preserved in later literature, notably in Middle High German epic poetry, but also in German, Swiss, and Dutch folklore.

Gods and heroes The major gods can be identified by their influence on the English weekday names Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday which come from Tiw, Wóden, Þunor, and Fríge respectively, through the Old English names Tíwesdæg, Wédnesdæg, Þunresdæg and Frígedæg.

Sunday	OE sunne – the sun The first day of the week was named for the sun god
Monday	OE mona – the moon Was devoted to the goddess of the moon
Tuesday	OE Tiw – the war-god Named in honour of the Anglo-Saxon god of war (ON Tyr)
Wednesday	OE Wodan – the god of divination and the dead Was named for the chief god and the giver of wisdom (ON Odin)
Thursday	OE Thunor – the storm-god Was named in honour of the ancient Germ. God of thunder
Friday	OE Fri – the fertility goddess (ON Frigda), goddess of the household and marriage, Oddin’s wife. Later became as Freya, goddess of the Earth
Saturday	OE Setern – Saturn, Jupiter’s father, the god of agriculture and sowing of seeds in Roman mythology.

54. Old Frisian ethnic community: geographical, cultural, and linguistic evidence.

The Roman historian Tacitus, writing in Germania, mentioned the Frisians.
Geographical Frisian , as well as other inhvaeones living on the shores of the North Sea - between the rivers Scheldt and Weser, on the lower Rhine. In this area there were three Friesian formation - Western , Central and Eastern Friseland .
In the VIII century, after the creation of the Frankish Empire, all three friselands were added to the empire of the Franks . In the XIII century Western Friseland was conquered by the Dutch. Central and Eastern Friseland fall into dependence on Low Saxon aristocrats. As a result of the existened historical circumstances Frisian nation didn’t have their statehood.
In the 5th century, during this period of historical silence, many of them no doubt joined the migration of the Anglo-Saxons who went through Frisian territory to invade Britain, while those who stayed on the continent expanded into the newly-emptied lands previously occupied by the Anglo-Saxons. By the end of the sixth century the Frisians occupied the coast all the way to the mouth of the Weser and spread farther still in the seventh century, southward down to Dorestad and even Bruges. This farthest extent of Frisian territory is known as Frisia Magna.

Cultural (p.45)

Religious Beliefs. ( p.21) Christianity came early to Friesland with the dominion of the Franks in the eighth and ninth centuries, but it did not succeed in completely eradicating Indigenous tradition. Pre-Christian beliefs:Germanic folk tradition in rural areas and the forested region. They believe supernatural beings such as devils, "white ladies" who lived underground and kidnapped travelers in the night, witches, wizards, and trolls. Belief in oracles and predictive visions were common in the relatively recent past.
Paganism. The heathen Germans worshipped. Woden, sacrificed animals to Thor and Tiw. They also worshipped Freya and Nerthus. Their ancient songs tell of the earth-born god Tiusto and his son Mannus, ancestor of the whole German race.
Divination played great role in their life. They invented runic devination

55. Old English Heptarchy (seven kingdoms). The role of Wessex in unifying the country. (p.25)

Inhveonses– west Germanic tribes ( Angles, Saxons , Jutes , phrases ) lived on the North Sea coast between the Rhine and the Elbe and the Jutland peninsula , whose name derives from the tribal name of Juts
In the middle of V century tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes began to move to Britain. This was preceded by the following facts .

Britain was populated by tribes of the Britons , Scots and other Celtic nations.
- in the Epoque of Caesar began conquest of Rome against Britain in 55-54 years BC..
- In the next century the Romans conquered the Britons. Under the rule of Rome was major teritory However, Britain was never fully conquered by the Romans.
- ( 410 ) in Britain where were Roman troops, Celtic tribes of Picts and Scots attacked from the north, and on the southern shores of Britain raided the Saxons .
But at the beginning of V century the Romans were forced to withdraw its troops from Britain to protect Rome from barbarian attacks . Britain had to defend (against attack Picts and Scots ) by Britons as the Romans couldnot longer keep the British forces. Then the Britons ask for help in Saxons.
Angles, Saxons and Jutes, taking advantage of the weakness of the Celtic tribes , instead of protecting them , began intensive moving in the UK and pushed the local population to the north and west.
That part of the Saxons, not moved to Britain, and remained on the continent, known as continental Saxons.
VIc. – they were the allies of the Franks in war against the Thuringians. After the war the Saxons spread along the middle current of the Elbe
772-804 - lost their independence after the war with the Franks
In the year 852 was formed at the territory of the East Frankish Kingdom. It became a part of Germanic nation

EVENTS:
According to legend , the resettlement of Germans began in 449 , under two leaders, whose name Hengest and Horsa .
The time of resettlement the germanic tribes on the British Isles (V c.) Considered the beginning of the history of English language.
The Germans formed in Britain 7 kingdoms : three Saxon ( Wessex , Sussex , Essex ), three Angles ( Northumbria, Mercia , East Anglia ) and one juts (Kent) , which was created before the other kingdoms. After a long civil war supremacy among the Germanic kingdoms in Britain took Wessex. According to the political role of the Wessex - Wessexs dialect strengthened his status (in etymological dictionaries ets). In Studies typically used just wessexes forms of Old English language.
At the end of VI - in the beginning VII - Kent played a leading role. In the VII century – Northumbria. In VIII Mercia . Since the beginning of IX century. - Wessex . King of Wessex in 829 Ekbert he managed to unite into one state all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

58. Old Germanic peoples’ beliefs and mythology.

Continental Germanic mythology is a subset of Germanic mythology, going back to Proto-Germanic polytheism as practiced in parts of Central Europe before gradual Christianization during the 6th to 8th centuries, and continued in the legends, and Middle High German epics during the Middle Ages, also continued although in a recharacterized and less sacred fashion in European folklore and fairy tales.

Unlike North Germanic, and to a lesser extent Anglo-Saxon mythology, the attestation of Continental Germanic paganism is extremely fragmentary. Besides a handful of brief Elder Futhark inscriptions, the lone genuinely pagan Continental Germanic documents are the short Old High German Merseburg Incantations. Mythological elements were however preserved in later literature, notably in Middle High German epic poetry, but also in German, Swiss, and Dutch folklore.

Gods and heroes The major gods can be identified by their influence on the English weekday names Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday which come from Tiw, Wóden, Þunor, and Fríge respectively, through the Old English names Tíwesdæg, Wédnesdæg, Þunresdæg and Frígedæg.

Sunday	OE sunne – the sun The first day of the week was named for the sun god
Monday	OE mona – the moon Was devoted to the goddess of the moon
Tuesday	OE Tiw – the war-god Named in honour of the Anglo-Saxon god of war (ON Tyr)
Wednesday	OE Wodan – the god of divination and the dead Was named for the chief god and the giver of wisdom (ON Odin)
Thursday	OE Thunor – the storm-god Was named in honour of the ancient Germ. God of thunder
Friday	OE Fri – the fertility goddess (ON Frigda), goddess of the household and marriage, Oddin’s wife. Later became as Freya, goddess of the Earth
Saturday	OE Setern – Saturn, Jupiter’s father, the god of agriculture and sowing of seeds in Roman mythology.

Paganism. The heathen Germans worshipped. Woden, sacrificed animals to Thor and Tiw. They also worshipped Freya and Nerthus. Their ancient songs tell of the earth-born god Tiusto and his son Mannus, ancestor of the whole German race.

Divination played great role in their life. They invented runic devination

…..P======= 36. Periodization of Old Germanic languages. Old North Germanic languages: general characteristics.

As a result of the expansion of the Germanic-speaking peoples, differences of dialect within Proto-Germanic became more marked, and we can distinguish three main branches or groups of dialects, namely North Germanic, East Germanic, and West Germanic

To North Germanic belong the modern Scandinavian languages – Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Icelandic, Faroese and Gutnish (the language of the island of Gotland). The earliest recorded form of North Germanic (Old Norse) is found in runic inscriptions from about AD 300;

It took approximately 5 centuries for the Old Germ. lang-es (dialects) to form the features of individuality to be definitely distinguished from one another, with the East Germ. lang-es having died away by the time the North Germ. lang-es manifested features of differentiation.

North Germ.
Old Norwegian	8-16th c
Old Faroese	9th c
Old Icelandic	9-16th c
Old Swedish	8-16th c
Old Danish	916th c

37. Periodization of Old Germanic languages. Old West Germanic languages: general characteristics. (p. 19,32)

Old Germ. lang-es (400 A.D./ 900 A.D.)

As a result of the expansion of the Germanic-speaking peoples, differences of dialect within Proto-Germanic became more marked, and we can distinguish three main branches or groups of dialects, namely North Germanic, East Germanic, and West Germanic

It took approximately 5 centuries for the Old Germ. lang-es (dialects) to form the features of individuality to be definitely distinguished from one another, with the East Germ. lang-es having died away by the time the North Germ. lang-es manifested features of differentiation.

West Germ.
OE	5th c
Old Frisian	5th c
Old Low Franconian	7th c
OHG	8th c
Old Saxon	9th c

The language most closely related to English is Frisian, which was once spoken along the coast of North sea, from Northern Holland to central Denmark, but which is now heard only in a few coastal regions and on some of the Dutch islands. Before the migration of the Anglo-Saxons to England, they must have been near neighbours of the Frisians. Here is a family tree for the West Germanic languages:

46. Pliny’s classification of the Germanic tribes.

Pliny the Elder,the Roman scientist and writer. (I century AD)

Made a classified list of the Germanic tribes grouping them under six headings in “Natural History”

He was the first who enumerated and classified the military tribes. It was proved by many scientists. According to Pliny there were several Germanic tribes:

· The Vindili. They lived in the eastern part of the territory inhabited by the Germanic tribes. They consisted of the Goths, the Burgundians and the Vandals.

· The Burgundians came to the continent from the island of Bornholm. It was in the Baltic Sea. Later they moved to the west and settled in south-eastern part of France in the area called Burgundia.

· The Goths first inhabited the lower coast of the river Vistula. Later they moved to the south and formed powerful tribal unions of Ostrogoths and Visigoths.

· The Ingvaenoes. They lived in the north-western part of the Germanic territory. They inhabited the Jutland peninsula and the coast of the North Sea. The tribes of Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians were formed later of this group.

· The Istaevones. They lived on the Rhine. Later they formed a very powerful tribal union of Franconians. The Herminones lived in the centre of Germany and later the German nation was formed of these tribes.

· The Hilleviones were isolated from other Germanic tribes. They inhabited Scandinavia. Modern Scandinavian nations are the descendants of these tribes.