The Teutonic Pantheons

Teutons were described by Romans to be a people living in some parts of Denmark, but more generally in Scandinavia; about a century before the birth of Christ. They spread across the northern parts of Europe and became the Germanic tribes. Not much is known about them, their culture and religion, or what was before. Eventually the Teutonic tribes in present day Sweden, Denmark and Norway became the Vikings.

Origins & Peoples

The Proto-Indo-European people emigrated from an area north of the Black Sea, probably from a time around 4000-1000 BCE; and brought with them a class of warriors, a patriarchal society structure, metalworking, brewing of alcoholic beverages, and a religion with gods of such nature. For this reason we can see a similarity between the Greek, Roman and Teutonic pantheons: they originally came from the same people.

In the most northern parts of Scandinavia there is the Sami people, they immigrated around 10.000 BCE; there are archaeological findings that old at least. There is also the Finno-Ugric people which may be among the oldest of the European peoples. Archaeologic findings in south of Sweden date as far back as 12.000 BCE, but there is no way of knowing which people it was; perhaps some unknown and now extinct paleolithic people?

The Worlds of Yggdrasil and the Races of Gods

Teutonic religion, also called Norse Mythology, consists of several races of gods; which comes from entirely different worlds, each world being part of a great tree called Yggdrasil. There are nine worlds in total: Midgard (Miðgarðr) is the physical world of humans; Asgard (Ásgarðr) is where the Æsir gods lives; Vanaheim (Vanaheimr) is where the Vanir gods lives; there is also the world of the light-elves (Ljósálfr), which is called Alfheim; and there are dark-elves (Svartálfar) and dwarves (Dvergar) in the world called Svartalfheim (Svartálfaheimr); there are three worlds where the giants (Jotunn, Thursar) lives: Jotunheim (Jǫtunheimr), Nifelheim (Niflheimr), and Muspelheim (Muspellsheimr); and there is the world of the fallen dead called Helheim (Helheimr), where the daughter of Loki rules: Hel.

Why is it that there are many races of gods in one religion; why did it develop in such a way? There have been some speculation concerning this, and a theory is that they were worshipped by different peoples who intermingled and so merged into one consistent religion.

The Æsir and the Vanir

The Roman historian Tacitus tells of a cult dedicated to the goddess Nerthus, which of course is a Latin spelling; during Teutonic times, around the first century AD. In the cult of Nerthus male slaves were sacrificed by drowning, and Tacitus described her as being Mother Earth. Some believe this early Mother Earth worshipping people were matriarchal.

Later the god Njord (Njörðr) appear, which is a male sea deity of the Vanir. The Vanir are primarily fertility gods, while the Æsir are primarily war gods. Njord was probably the non-Latin version of Nerthus, which Tacitus wrote about, but strange enough Njord was male while Nerthus was female; how come? Could it be that a matriarchal society changed the gender of their deity when they became patriarchal? What happened that made such a change?

In Norse legend there is told of the Æsir–Vanir war, and many believe it represents a real war between two peoples, with two different religions: the agricultural people worshipping the Vanir, and the invading warrior people worshipping the Æsir. Apparently the people of the Æsir won, and the gods Njord and his children Freyja and Freyr became hostages of the Æsir and moved to Asgard. Not many other gods of the Vanir are known, unfortunately.

Other Gods

Giants

The different races of the gods met and mingled and married and had children, so they were generally of the same kind. This also included the giants, the elves and the dwarves/dark-elves. Njord, Freyja and Freyr were not the only hostages taken by the Æsir, there were also a few giants, the most famous of them being Loki; and they were all considered equal to the Æsir.

If the Vanir and the Æsir originally were worshipped by two peoples, would it be reasonable to assume the giants were worshipped by a third people? The giants were powerful and magical nature gods, and often they represented an anthropomorphic personification of some natural phenomenon, or a physical object: such as a mountain. Perhaps the giants were worshipped by a nature people, of hunters and gatherers? The enmity with the giants perhaps came from that this people were not very cooperative and would not submit to the dominion of the people worshipping the Æsir gods?

Among the giants there were also several different types; the Jotunn lived in Jotunheim, the Rimthursar or "frost giants" lived in Nifelheim, and the "fire giants" also called Thursar lived in Muspelheim.

Elves

What then of the elves, were there a fourth people worshipping them? Possibly. As stated in the beginning of this text, there were many peoples who moved about for a very long period of time; many thousands of years. Their religions were polytheistic, which means they did not have to compete for superiority the way monotheistic religions has; because monotheistic religions say there is only one god, but which of them is it? And so they demonise all competing gods.

The elves were like the giants associated with nature phenomenons; unlike the Æsir and Vanir who were associated with more human activities. The lord of the light-elves was Freyr, a Vanir god. This means that if there were once a people worshipping the elves they would have mixed with the Vanir worshipping people, who became their masters; before the Æsir–Vanir war.