Maybe that's how it was, maybe the songs and poems were all a part of the worship etiquette. "Dolf wrote a new song about Frigg. He's going to sing it at the next gathering." It all sounds so wholesome.
But the ground seriously buckled when Varus moved his legions to winter camp via a detour through Germania, and never left that region, as he committed suicide after having seen 3 whole Roman legions being slaughtered by combined Germanic tribes. Rome, militarily, was never the same thereafter. The ground beneath Roman sandals had indeed buckled.
@@jacobjonesofmagna I 100% credit psychedelics for being the thing that started me down the path that led me to heathenry. My parents were quite secular, so I was never really even a christian. Became a heart atheist early in my adolescence. A singular Salvia trip knocked me from hard atheist to agnostic. From there it's just a been journey trying to figure out what the fvck is going on.
1) I loved the nerding out. Never stop nerding out for us. 2) Calling the Poetic Edda a weird remix album is probably the best thing ever. I cannot now I think it and it makes me ache that we don’t have the original tales
Check out the Merseburg charms. They’re really cool, really short, and the only Pagan literature we have written in Old High German. One even preserves an ancient story not told in the Eddas, but shows up in Scandinavian folk stories all over the place (replacing Baldr with Jesus in the folk tales).
@@HobbitWarrior Problem is that they are COVERS of the original greatest hits :/ Granted that Manfred Mann's cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Blinded by the Light" was much better than the original, but this is rarely the case.
If it makes you feel better, neither do the Christians nor Muslims have the original tales of their respective founders. When you dig deep into the history of their texts, that's what you find
Beginning of the video: "this might be considered more advanced stuff" Three minutes later: "I need to pull out muppets, I'm just teaching you about the days of the week"
Modern german here. Tag = day Montag Dienstag Mitwoch Donnerstag (thunders day) Freitag Samstag Sonntag (Sunday) Well this days there is a disconnection to the meaning off the words we think Freitag means (free day) and dienstag (service day) 😆 Maybe Christianity is to blame here 🤔
No Freitag is actually from the goddess freya, the ones whom you cant form from the germanic gods you can derive from the roman gods, I remember discussing that in latin class once
German here aswell. Of course, not all days are of ancient origin I think. Mitwoch is just formed from mit- which probably comes from the german word mitte which means middle and woch from woche which means week. Donnerstag comes from Donar, which is the old high german name for Thor and also related to the german word for thunder which is Donner. Freitag comes from Frey probably who's german name is Freia or Fraia I think (might mix smth up here, Freya, Freyr, Frigg etc. Is all so confusing) . Dienstag is the only one that I don't know the origin of. As the commentator put out there, you might see the german word Dienst in it which means service but the ending t is the beginning t of tag so I don't know where the Diens- comes from. Samstag (Saturday) and Sonntag(sunday) are not so clear. Sonntag is, it comes from sonne, the german word for sun but Samstag makes no sense in modern high german. There is so such thing as Sams( except for a rather famous children's book character from the 1960s who was called Sams after samstag )
2 роки тому+1
Or maybe the Germans are more practical for their day naming... ;-)
Animism in Heathenry is definitely I topic I want to explore more in my future videos. I've mentioned it a couple times before, but I do think it's often ignored, and it shouldn't be.
@@OceanKeltoi Please do! I have a lot of questions about how heathens understand things like landwights and how such things might be dealt with or celebrated
A very nice perspective of Animism in the ancient times is given in a lot of Arith Härger's videos. While we wait for Splash Daddy to make his videos, I suggest you go check them out
@@UnleashedDaemon Regarding Tuesday, the god Týr or Tiwaz was also called Tiu. In modern German, Tiu would still be pronounced like the "Tue" part of Tuesday
German here, its funny that so many of the tribe names actually lived on. The one you mentioned called Swaebi sounds a lot like the Schwaben, people from a certain region of the country
The Suebi actually went on to invade Rome successfully a few hundred years later and settled in modern day Spain and Portugal. Though there's questions as to whether or not that's the same tribe or another tribe with a related name, or if the Suebi of Caesar even called themselves Suebi, or if that was just the name of a tribe that the Romans applied to the Germanic peoples generally. There's a lot of questions about this period of history as it relates to later history.
The suebi were a very large group of germanic tribes that were said to be so big that they would have almost become interchangeable with the term germanic. Even groups that we nowadays dont consider "schwaben" were suevi, for example the hermunduri who became the thuringi or the marcomanni who became the bavarians.
I never thought about the religous places in Scandinavia, but it makes sense. I live in Odense in Denmark, which is named after Odin. It's pretty fascinating to read about these places Love your videos, keep up the good work!
It's interesting to see how dynamic the old gods are. I'm currently reading how Hecate (one of my personal deities) could have originated from the middle east and traveled to Greece/Rome and beyond. She's even potentially equated with Isis.
Yassss! Have you read anything by Sorita D'este, or Cyndi Brannen? (Cyndi Brannen focuses more on Her in the Greek world/context, but does mention references, both known and possible, to Her in other cultures)
I would so dig a "part 2" to this video if you ever get the inspiration to make it. I feel like you only scratched the surface of this topic and it's a fascinating one.
If you look at the swedish and finnish versions of the word firday: swedish fredag and the finnish perjantai (this on might be harder to see, but the finnish translation for Freya is Freija so it's easy to see how freijan day could have become perijantai) I think it is safe to say that Friday is just the English trying to pronounce Freya's day
It's similar im modern german "Freitag", which seems more similar to Freia/Freiya/Freya but that's only if you look at the modern language alone. Old High German(OHG) and Old Norse(ON) paint a different picture. Friday/Freitag in OHG is Frijatag, which clearly comes from the OHG name for Frigg - Frija. -Well, I suppose Freya is never mentioned in OHG anyway and probably wasn't known to/whirshipped by southgermanic people (because she and Frigg/Frija were the same)- Interestingly enough we neither find Freyudagr (Freya's day) nor Friggjardagr (Frigg's day) in ON, only Frjádagr (or Frjádagur in old icelandic). Which either simply means "love-day" or ON simply adopted the term nearly unchanged from more southern dialects. These terms must have made their way from more southern/eastern germanic people that had extensive contact with the romans to the north after all. But also, in modern Faroese it actually IS Friggjadagur, soooo maybe Frigg's Day was used in old norse to some degree ??? We do not know. The old english Word, btw, is frigedeag, also from Frig. And while this is a bit off-topic: the Langobardic name for Frigg? It's Frea. Because that doesn't make all of this even more confusing. Anyway, I also used to assume that "Freitag" must have some connection to Freia, so I just wanted to share my research 🙃
In english there is thursday coming from thors day. In german there is donnerstag coming from donars tag. Donar being the southern/western germanic name for thor.
Perjantai does not come from that, but from Perkele (a derivative of the baltic Perkunas or the slavic Perun) which is depicted as male god of lightning.
@@dwarfbard6226 I've never heard this theory, and it would make sense if you look only at that word, but to me it would seem kinda off, as all the other names for the weekdays come from the old norse language
The Old Norse translation is fairly similar, Frjádagr, and English Friday comes from Frīġedæġ in Anglo-Saxon. (we must note that ġ makes a j [Modern English y] sound often in Anglo-Saxon)
"So you can imagine incredible rituals, in which the legends were sung by those leading the ritual in order to pass on their stories and familiarize everyone with these songs. This gives a whole new view of what we've lost over the course of time..." Meanwhile, at a local Rock concert:
I agree, the gaps in our knowledge are tantalizing, but also a bit depressing, considering how likely it is we won't ever know the answers to most of our questions. But, even I am a bit optimistic. There's nothing saying that a future archaeological discovery couldn't reveal more.
Ancient empires had a habit of burning any writing they found on the history or religion of people they conquered and also lots of people just didn't write things
I've also heard that seiðr in practice was often sung, or a musical chant, which lines up with how the Sagas may have been sung to preserve the oral tradition.
I loved this deep dive so much! I’d really love to see a video on the goddesses of the Norse and women’s role in Norse practice. I notice that that kind of information tends to not be discussed on heathen channels and that masculine deities take precedence.
You mean Germanic, not Norse. Norse only refers to the Vikings/North Germanic peoples. Germanic refers to all Germanic-speaking peoples, including the Vikings, along with the West Germanic (Franks, Lombards, and Anglo-Saxons) and East Germanic (Goths, Vandals, and Burgundians) peoples.
Your faith really has almost nothing to do with ancient beliefs. It's a modern creation using ancient symbols. Sort of like those who call themselves Druids when in fact they are simply aping ancient dress while performing ceremonies rooted in 19th century mysticism. Generally modern Pagans are a modern invention created as a reactionary movement against Christian hegemony. More power to you, but the incredible millenia long gap in practice, understanding, and belief between the ancient culture that integrated these beliefs as part of a larger culture zeitgeist counter any idea that modern paganism is in anyway reliant on the ancients. It's a modern religion using ancient symbols. Knowing more about ancient understanding really doesn't inform your understanding about your religion because it's pulled out of cultural context and built in modern practices.
I usually think of them for about 20s as i'm writing the script. Sometimes i come back to them. But I find if they make me groan, they'll probably make yall groan.
If deities were created by the people through a kind of common, universal unconsciousness, it would make sense that gods from different cultures would have similarities, because the problems people faced (food, natural disasters, sickness, etc) are pretty universal.
I believe the Rhine rather to be the "mixing" line, if you will. It's where Gaulish and Germanic deities overlap, and where it seems that they have not only lived on top of one another, but also intermarried. The Romans described some Gallic tribes in this region as being descended from Germans, and some in Germania as being descended from Gauls, some with a fusion culture, and some who's roots are obscure (possibly from so much and so long mixing).
As a part of warfare, the winning tribe took away the women of the losing tribe (in all lands), so yes, when Gaulish tribes were beaten by Germanic tribes, their women were folded into the Germanic tribes.
I'm supposing that Tacitus, et al., who aren't Christians at least have the advantage as observers of not holding the belief that there is only one true religion, which happens to be the one that the observer belongs to.
If we're on nerding out on language here; one of the Norwegian words for theft is 'ran'. Usually it's used if we're talking about a proper theft, like a bank robbery or in norwegian 'bankran'. Now isn't it interesting how the words 'ran' and the goddess Rán's name are so similar? For a seafaring culture, loosing your loved ones to the unruly seas would seem like a theft by the gods no?
I am astonished by how reasonably you discuss this topic. Here in Germany, significant (maybe even most) parts of the community identifying with old Germanic belief are ideologically tainted by remnants of the National Socialist reinterpretation and misuse of the subject. Others just like muscular, violent, manly men they can idolize. The more civil parts of the community are often willfully ignorant about this, providing safe spaces for neo-nazis, esoterics, and so-called "Reichsbürger[*innen]" - people who in short claim that the Federal Republic of Germany doesn't exist and we still live in the Kaiserreich so they don't have to follow any laws. (They recently formed a terrorist group that wanted to abolish democracy, it was all over the media internationally.) Anyway, I'm just saying from an "educated outsider's" perspective, you seldomly hear of people actually engaging in a scientific (as scientific as religion can be) and self critical analysis of the old Germanic belief system and its real history. Very interesting. Normally, I would steer clear of this topic because of the above. You might have caught my attention, though.
One thing I love about our faith is its fluidity. Not just in Heathenry, but in the pre-Olympic Greece also. The Poseidon worshipped at Athens and at Thebes were heavily localized, and thought they shared a name and associations with horses and the sea, I think archaeological findings are showing that the Greeks themselves understood that they were different but some how the same, and this ambiguity didn't bother them. It's this comfort with seeing the universality and locality of something, and not being upset if the two doesn't match, that I find beautiful and inspirational.
I do hold a slight disagreement with a notion of the gods being different. Natural phenomenon occurs across all cultures. Whether it be a feeling of rage, or the rain being needed, or stopped, to seeds being grown, to hunting and whatnot. Although variations between cultures and climate do influence perception of these phenomenon, humans gave these phenomenon names and, eventually, faces. Those names are what became the gods. Yes, the phenomenon was there, but mankind made the gods gods by giving them identity. So, I do maintain the theory the gods are the same across animistic cultures, just climate and social attitudes give them the variations. I do agree with the notion that practices vary from tribe to tribe even across fairly close distances. It bothers men when I hear, "The Vikings did this or that" or "Native Americans believe". There will be differences in how things are done and looked at.
4:50 Frigg and Freyja might actually be the same diety! In the Scandinavic languages, Friday is actually named after Freyja instead of Frigg. (Friday being "fredag" in these languages; "Frejas dag", Freyja's day) This might suggest that Frigg was the goddess of love in Germanic heathenry (since her named appeared in the name of the day in that region), while that diety was refered to as Freyja in Scandivia during the same time (e.g. Venus might have been translated to Freyja instead of Frigg in that region). It is possible that the written sources later reinterpreted them as two different dieties.
I wish I had read this previous to my comment ... I never heard - however - of any region in Germany referring to Freitag as Friggstag...? Do you have a source for me to read up on? Not for being an ass but for scholarly reasons.. I would like to delve deeper into this. I do agree to the theoretical idea of Frigg and Freya referring to the same deity.
@@gillesvanzeveren4981 im not that much of a history buff, but freitag sounds a lot like freya(s)tag, so if we assume freya and frigg are the same deity this would make sense i guess. also writing this i just did a quick search on freitag and came up with this: "From Middle High German vrītac, from Old High German frīatag (9th c.), from Proto-West Germanic *Frījā dag (“day of Frigg”), calque of Latin dies Veneris. Compare Low German Freedag, Dutch vrijdag, English Friday, Danish fredag."
One theory that I've come across frequently is that Frigg and Freya are one and the same Goddess depicted at different ages. Freya is the younger version before she became a mother and then became Frigg. Now I'm not saying this as a fact... it's just something that I've came across on multiple occasions.
The ambiguity of Freyja/Frigg as the same/different goddessess is maddening - for my own, I do see them as fully separate, as they each embody IMO very distinct archetypes. I think the historical concensus is that... there was no concesus amongst german and scandinavian people, and some saw them as the same, others as different, and as the years wen by they either merged into one or diverged into two - I cant remember what the current theory is of her/their path
There's also a theory that Freya's husband Oðr is really Oðin. I highly recommend the book Fornnordisk religion by Gro Steinsland to anyone who can read Swedish or Norwegian.
The Eddas does not confirm Freyja and Frigg are the same goddess! Frigg daughter of Fjorgynn(father) with an unnamed mother; and Freyja daughter of Njörðr and Nerthus(sister-wife). Also Freyja have daughters named Gersemi and Hnoss with Óðr!! Óðr must be a Sun god or a god of magic.
The Romans actually got the names of the weekdays from the Greeks, they just "translated" and simplified the Greek system. The Greeks, or Macedonians technically, in turn took the concept of a seven day week from the Babylonians (or descendants thereof, I guess) and (sort of) named the days after another Babylonian list of seven names, namely the seven wanderers that the Babylonians of old had observed in the sky, aka the classical seven planets (which includes the Sun and the Moon). The Macedonians/Greeks also changed the order slightly from the original Babylonian, so the result was: Sun, Moon, Underworld/War god, wise traveller and god of communication, king of the gods, goddess of love, older god associated with agriculture. After "translating" the result was (Greek/Roman/English) Helios/Sol/Sun, Selene/Luna/Moon, *Ares/Mars/Tiwaz, Hermes/Mercury/Woden, **Zeus/Jupiter/Thunras, ***Aphrodite/Venus/Frigg, ****Kronos/Saturn/???. * - They focused on the war part over the underworld part of the original deity, Tiwas/Tyr probably got in there because both he and Mars were guardians of the Thing (probably). ** - While the two first were leaders they were also gods of the sky and thunder/lightning, hence Thor. *** - Yep. Freyja wasn't really known outside Scandinavia. **** - Kronos had an agriculturel cult dedicated to him in days of old. Both of these are titans and thus enemies of the gods. For some reason they didn't translate this one in English. Scandinavian languages use a different name for saturday which probably derives from an old term meaning "washing day", but there is a (very thin) theory that it might derive from the mysterious Lóðurr, which also possily could be another name for Loki, another sometimes "enemy" of the gods. I meant to just write a little funfact. This got way wordier than intended. Ooops. 😆
Honestly I would love if you did a more in depth video on the celts. While it would feel a little off topic the celts (specifically in Ireland and Scotland) seem to be often lumped in with the norse on their cultural similarities; knotted patterns are a common one. Not only that but the celts are fascinating in general, and as another pagan religion it would be very interesting to hear more about them.
This video is incredible. I laughed, I cried, I felt hope, I got lost and had to replay a few parts. It has everything. AND I learned things! Honestly, your videos just keep getting better and how is that even possible.
You can read a little bit about the germanic tribes here www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsEurope/indexGermanics.htm Theres a lot of sources to read from as well as videos on youtube but take everything with a grain or two of salt because there's still a lot we don't know. Look for info on the germanic tribes or migration period. Most of which we know about germania came from roman sources and Tacitus's Germania. The period of the Germanic tribes also covers a long time period pre viking age.
I'm not a Heathen but I've been curious about the gods of my ancestors before Christianity (I have both Anglo-Saxon and Danish ancestry) this is a great video and I hope you keep making such great content! I've found it hard to find studies of this stuff without certain hateful ideologies worming their way in so seeing this video put a giant smile on my face.
@@عليياسر-ذ5ب the Irminsul had a lot in common with Ygdrassil from Norse myth. The Tree which holds the World. Lots of cultures had similar ideas. The Cherokee in the United States believed that the world was on the back of a Giant Turtle. Greeks believed that Gaia and Ouranous' physical bodies made up the Earth and Sky and needed to be separated.
@@noahjohnson935 But the Germans have very many trees, so why do they worship them while the Arabs live in the desert except for the region of Yemen, and that is why they worshiped trees
This video reminds me of philology and Neitzsche. Basically a bunch of historical linguistics. Comparing words and cognates. Reminds me if his example of the Germans getting their words from the Romans like arcabalista (roman) to armburst (germanic).
My heritage is part frank part alemanni/suebi and to us, Thor was Donar. Hence the day of the week Donnerstag or day of thunder, eventually Thursday in the Angle/Saxon/Norman areas of GB
What makes our Germanic forebears Pagans, while the so-called Christians are not called Pagans. Grossly unfair. I have studied religions and find that these religions use the same basis of honesty and facts. Namely absolutely none. Truth in the bible? Don't make me laugh so loud. It hurts.
I'm so glad that your channel exists. Because I'm trying to find my beliefs but i have no idea where to start and have nobody to look to. Thank you for this.
I usually do a bit of swearing at my phone since I get the notification at work and can't get home in time. I'm not totally in the broom closet there, but it's not an environment conducive to actually focusing on what new pun-ishment Ocean's come up with this week.
Ok, I know this is SUPER reaching and probably (99 percent sure) not how people saw it back then, but the Romans calling Tyr Mars makes me think of Tyr's connection with the Thing (they literally called him Mars of the Thing) and how Mars was apart from a war god, to the Romans he was the father of the Roman State; so Tyr might have been some sort of God of Government. Again, this probably a reach, but its fun speculate about. Considering Tyr is such a misterious figure compared as to how seemingly of a big deal he was. From speculated big deal sky god, to Thors lesser known brother
Tyr's relation to the Thing and justice would justify him being a government deity. He is seen as a Kingly God similar to how Freyr was seen in Sweden.
Well, we do actually know what it looked like more pre-Viking age. Tacitus’ “Germania” as you state is an excellent account. Yet, some people in the Neo-Pagan movement are probably going to simply refuse it when you read for the simple fact it doesn’t culturally fit our Neo cultural perspective. Also, “States of Being” were what defined our people’s, which is why “Vikingr” means “To raid.” “To raid” was a state of being that we would now define in this 21st century culture as a “side profession,” or “second job” considering most Heathens were farmers and family builders, especially as the men got older. Just as “Drengr” is “to badass.” And is implied that “to badass” is aligned with Honor and integrity. Drengr culture was pre-Heathen culture that Vikingr culture lost sight of.
Well, depends on where you live. I'm from the Lake of Constance; the Vindelici lived in Southern Germany (BW and Bayern) - and they were a Celtic tribe, not a Germanic.
A huge example regarding placenames might be Frisia, named after Freya. In The Netherlands you will also find placenames referring to Odin (Woten/Woen), like Woensdrecht
There is actually a page on place names in the netherlands and Belgium but its in Dutch. TIL I learned that the Alphen part Alphen aan den rijn is literally just a modern name for Alfheim. That makes going to archeon even more fun!!! Still sucks to walk all the way from the station to it though... and the food options could improve.
Vriesland heeft niks met Vrouwe te maken. Werkelijk niet. Van Woensdrecht weet ik het niet. (Short English translation: This is not right as far as I know)
Regarding Freyr: It is interesting to note that the ancient Armenians (who were called 'Van') had a prince called Vreyr. Could the story of the war between the Æsir and the Van be an echo of the ancient war between Van's and Alans in appx. 150 BC? This war also ended in a royal hostage exchange. It is also noteworthy that the Saga's mention the Alan's as a kindred people to the royals in the Saga's.
Amazing video! Even though I am not a Heathen, but some weird young Pagan, focused right now on the Western Slavic Paganism, primary on the area of today's Poland, where the Slavic tribes had contacts with (and assimilated) some of Germanic tribes after the migration and the influence from Celtic tribes that lived iirc in today's Silesia. I take big inspiration and energy from your videos to seek and learn more not only about my own path and the beliefs of the lands I live in, from the sources (that sadly were written by the Christians, writing in Latin and using the Interpretatio Romana, but still a somehow useful and worth sources to check), from the post-Christian folktales that have the echoes of old Pagan beliefs, but also looking into the the beliefs of the neighboring tribes! Chwała i sława, and thank you!
fun fact, in German the word for heathen is also used for pagan. Its called being a "Heide". So I am an Atheist, but in Germany id be pagan but also a heathen
Memorizing to poetry or song is actually a learning technique for kids.Like singing times tables to a well known tune.So I can understand how history and stories would be related that way.In Australia the aboriginal people who are many differant "nations all use the same techniques not only for stories and history but wayfinding, mapping etc. I think people around the world came to similar conclusions through trial over many years
To the Friday deal, there is evidence to suggest Freya and Frigg are two iterations of an earlier deity, Frija, the two being included in the eddas would then just be an attempt to reconcile the two in a singular storyline
I think the best idea is to use the evidence we have the best we can as Ocean does but spend time in nature,as much as possible. The intuitions and ideas about heathenry will come.Even though I'm in Australia, some concepts can make sense here , we may not have the same relationship with the Sun here ,because we have too much sunlight all the time all year but we do have a country that has only been christianised for 230 years.The forests and quiet places are full of land wights.Aboriginal people had their knowledge and names for them but ,land spirits all the same.
One thing I like to point out, is that Heathenry as we know it, was interpreted through a form of Christianity… that is no longer practiced. Both religions are different from what we see today, but this allows us to expand on our own beliefs.
Vikings were a rare breed that were brought up with tales of the worlds doom. These sagas comes from an earlier time in history, around the year of 500. During this time Scandinavia were suffering from extreme cold, so cold that scientists have found fibers from trees that were frostbitten (im not sure about the spelling, but the fibers had exploded from water being frozen in the middle of the summer). So the Viking ancestors had it rough and a big part of the population actually died. So no wonder the vikings were a hard breed with a grim outlook on life. They really believed in their gods, and thats probably because their ancestors lived a particularly tough and unforgiving life, and because their whole world was literally dying, i think i can understand the viking mindset.
Do you want to shock the people that tribal regions are still used in way in roughly the same region? (I'm not kidding the suebi lived in present day Swabia, Lower Saxony is one of the states of Germany same with Bavaria who is named after the Baiuvari , Friesland (and its Language) are still where the friesian came from, not to mention Jutland and it peninsula Angeln. Heck the Region I live in were named after the Vangions.
I’ve seen several pronunciations for it. I havent heard anyone else the say it the way I was intuitively saying it, which I think is how you’re thinking of it too. But “Gaelic” seems to be the way a lot of people say it. Its referring to the Gauls. “Gaulish” is usually how people refer to the Gauls as well. But Gallic’s pronunciation was a question mark for me, honestly 😂
@@OceanKeltoi It doesn't really matter as long as you're understood, but the usual American pronunciation is /ˈɡælɪk/ (IPA); the word's still in general use as an adjective meaning "French," as in "Gallic shrug."
Much of the Hebrew Bible is meant to be sung too via canting in case anyone was curious. It's by no means necessary to understand the Parsha (portion), but it is an old tradition that helped break the monotony of large passages and helped with memory, much like we see in other cultures like Germanic ones.
Probably an obvious question but why apply the word heathen to these ancient cultures? Isn’t heathen specifically a word used by Christians to perjoratively describe nonchristians. It’s not a word or concept that would have meant anything to those ancient Germans .
heathen [ hee-thuhn ]SHOW IPADisparaging and Offensive. See synonyms for: heathen / heathens on Thesaurus.com noun, plural hea·thens, hea·then. (in historical contexts) an individual of a people that do not acknowledge the God of the Bible; a person who is neither a Jew, Christian, nor Muslim; a pagan. Informal. an irreligious, uncultured, or uncivilized person. adjective of or relating to heathens; pagan. Informal. irreligious, uncultured, or uncivilized.
Your comment about Odin's "love of humanity" early on caught me off guard, that doesn't sound like the character I learned about. In all the stories I've read, he is self-centered and manipulative. My professor even expressed that it was unlikely people prayed to him often, if ever, given his predilection for getting those he helped killed so he can harvest their souls for his own ends. What is this assertion based on?
thank you for “nerding out.” it helped a lot to understand how the mythology and history meet, as i am trying to connect my family tree from the 1500’s to these historical times.
You had me at the intro. I'm sick of people just quoting Tacitus and being like, "that's it, that's the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" then slamming the figurative book shut.
I’ve been exploring my lineage and I’ve found that a lot of it comes from the Rhineland area of Germany and mainland Britain with a touch of Scandinavia. I was wondering if anyone new of a spiritual practice that Healthily blended Celtic, and Norse beliefs. I was hoping Germanic spirituality would be a good pick however, a lot like Druidism, so much of it’s history is lost and I’d like to practice something more historical. Any input would be helpful.
I'm Swedish and I've never heard Friday or Fredag being referred to as Friggs day. Only Frej and/or Frejas day. Also in Swedish Saturday is Lördag, wich I belive is "washing day". Lör=lödder=lather, as in lather up with soap.
In Dutch the days goes as follows: maandag (moonday), dinsdag (thyrsday), woensdag (wodan/ odinsday), donderdag (donar/ thorsday donder means thunder), vrijdag (means free and in old Frisian Fri means free also, friday). And last we have zaterdag (saturday, saturn) and zondag (literally means sunday). In German it's quite similar to Dutch, a bit different. Makes you wonder tho... very interesting 🤔
The power of 3 is still used today as well as the other... not sure what the other would be called. However 360° in a circle almost the same as the number of days in a year divided 4 ways is 90° and each season is 1 of the 4 ways those seasons all differing about 9 degrees temperature fluctuations 27° give or take 9 either way depending upon where your at in the world as well as what season your in/ experiencing. 108° if you go by the 4 ways but instead seeing as we have how many months and have already split by 4 split by 3 and you've got the 81 also 9 squared.
81 being just shy of 90 by exactly 9 but that's to be expected cause we used to only use 9 numbers not 10 so every 10th digit would be irrelevant cause why would you have the number 0 in the first place idk ask the Greeks or Roman's I can't remember which decided that's something that should be considered. Either way, that same 81 now can be multiplied by 4, and you have the current number of days in the year. Oh wait, I'm missing the extra month, the 13th month being the unknown month, which has no definite number of days in it. If you didn't know about it you might be confused to learn that we used to also measure time based off of the stars and moon so the month I speak of is the 13th month of the lunar calender. It's pretty awesome.
Mathematics and language go hand in hand with magic and mythology, aka history that's more written and set in stone than most of the history we see today.😂
I'm still wondering if there is a reason that it's called history and not herstory or why there is one and not the other. Maybe I'm plucking at strings on that one. Either way, it makes for a funny joke.
Hi! Loved your analysis! One thing I read somewhere which might add something to the Roman "Isis" question is the Germanic belief in boats being vessels of travel to the next life. This practice seems to have been very widespread in the Nordic bronze age and was obviously well practiced by the Norse (and Angles at Sutton Hoo) later. Despite the lack of evidence from southern Germany, I wonder if Caesar or his informants saw something of this and made a connection? Stone ships, for example, have a strong connection to Freja.
Im just glad that you don't only talk about the vikings.. The biggest frustration is when they talk about "the germanic" but then only talk about the vikings.
In fact, there are a lot of places in Germany named after the goddess Frigg.She had many names in Germany including Hulla or Frau Holle. Frau Holle is also a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm and many places like woods and moores are named after her. But also hills and so far.
Keep in mind that while Greco-Roman syncretism with Germanic paganism definitely took place in these sources, the study of linguistics implies that both cultures and their myths have an actual shared Indo-European root. Also there is a case Wodan is simply syncretized with Mercury because of the attributes (staff/ scepter and cloak) associated with both Mercury and Wodan. It might be both Gods looked alike to a Roman.
I have a couple of suggestions. 1) In Egypt, Osiris is a fertility, agriculture AND death god, and he is brother/husband to Isis. Together, they are seen as the Mother and Father of Egypt. It feels very similar to how Sweden viewed Freyr. Isis is also the goddess of magic and fertility. The more you learn about them, the more similarities you see to Freyr and Freyja. Especially since one source says that Freyr and Freyja were married before Odin annulled that. It's possible Nerthus and Njord had a similar relationship with each other and their worshippers. 2) In German paganism and folk magic, there is Frau Holle, who may be a predecessor to Frigg and Freyj. That might be the "Isis" figure mentioned.
The fact that the context surrounding "Friday" may indicate an association of Frigg with love/fertility lends something to the scholarly argument that Frigg and Freya were once regarded as the same being, despite also being treated as two separate goddesses (also valid).
Roman soldier: "Who's your main god?" Germanic tribesman: "Wodan." Roman soldier: "Who?" *24 AD* : Roman soldier: "Who is your war god?" Frisian: "Come to the woods not far from your fort, and we'll introduce you to her." Roman soldier: "HER??? Your war god is a WOMAN???" Frisian: * evil grin * "Yeah... Her name is Baduhenna. You'll like her." If you don't understand the joke here, look up "The Battle of Baduhenna Wood".
Now imagining Celts and Germans going to scared groves to yell poetry at each other
Maybe that's how it was, maybe the songs and poems were all a part of the worship etiquette. "Dolf wrote a new song about Frigg. He's going to sing it at the next gathering."
It all sounds so wholesome.
Sounds like a family reunions minus the poetry
Ye Old Rap Battles
Given the similarity in guest relations/hospitality rules seems possible.
Lol‼
I found the most impressive thing in The Gallic War was that the ground never buckled under the towering mass of Julius Caesar's ego.
I don't care who you are, that's funny.
I mean, it's not really egotistical if you can back it up lol
Thank the biggest savior to the nordic tribes from the romans.....its the romans its also the romans.
This is next level history nerd humor and I love you for it.
But the ground seriously buckled when Varus moved his legions to winter camp via a detour through Germania, and never left that region, as he committed suicide after having seen 3 whole Roman legions being slaughtered by combined Germanic tribes.
Rome, militarily, was never the same thereafter. The ground beneath Roman sandals had indeed buckled.
In Swedish Saturday is called Lördag, which derives from the word for bathing. All the other days of the week have the same etymologies as in English.
If i don't make it today because today was such a busy ,stressful day than in the morning(our morning).Greetings from Germany 😁
Thank youuu❤ new subscriber
I thought frigg and freya were twins
Heathenry is one part religion and two parts University coursework.
One part psychedelic mysticism in addition depending on which aspect of heathenry you're into
This is so true that it makes regular truth appear false
@@jacobjonesofmagna I 100% credit psychedelics for being the thing that started me down the path that led me to heathenry. My parents were quite secular, so I was never really even a christian. Became a heart atheist early in my adolescence. A singular Salvia trip knocked me from hard atheist to agnostic. From there it's just a been journey trying to figure out what the fvck is going on.
And one part nerd who thinks they'd be accepted by ancient primitive farmers if they guess right what they believe
lushously sprinkled with fantasy literature and some Wagner opera.
1) I loved the nerding out. Never stop nerding out for us.
2) Calling the Poetic Edda a weird remix album is probably the best thing ever. I cannot now I think it and it makes me ache that we don’t have the original tales
What's even worse is that the original tales likely varied from region to region. I find it helps to think of what we have as a greatest hits.
Check out the Merseburg charms. They’re really cool, really short, and the only Pagan literature we have written in Old High German. One even preserves an ancient story not told in the Eddas, but shows up in Scandinavian folk stories all over the place (replacing Baldr with Jesus in the folk tales).
@@HobbitWarrior Problem is that they are COVERS of the original greatest hits :/ Granted that Manfred Mann's cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Blinded by the Light" was much better than the original, but this is rarely the case.
We can thank the White Christers for not having all the stories
If it makes you feel better, neither do the Christians nor Muslims have the original tales of their respective founders. When you dig deep into the history of their texts, that's what you find
Beginning of the video: "this might be considered more advanced stuff"
Three minutes later: "I need to pull out muppets, I'm just teaching you about the days of the week"
I loved this too!!!! It’s like ok please for the sake of Tyr use Animal when referring to the Gauls….. 😂 💕
Modern german here.
Tag = day
Montag
Dienstag
Mitwoch
Donnerstag (thunders day)
Freitag
Samstag
Sonntag (Sunday)
Well this days there is a disconnection to the meaning off the words we think Freitag means (free day) and dienstag (service day) 😆
Maybe Christianity is to blame here 🤔
No Freitag is actually from the goddess freya, the ones whom you cant form from the germanic gods you can derive from the roman gods, I remember discussing that in latin class once
German here aswell. Of course, not all days are of ancient origin I think. Mitwoch is just formed from mit- which probably comes from the german word mitte which means middle and woch from woche which means week. Donnerstag comes from Donar, which is the old high german name for Thor and also related to the german word for thunder which is Donner. Freitag comes from Frey probably who's german name is Freia or Fraia I think (might mix smth up here, Freya, Freyr, Frigg etc. Is all so confusing) . Dienstag is the only one that I don't know the origin of. As the commentator put out there, you might see the german word Dienst in it which means service but the ending t is the beginning t of tag so I don't know where the Diens- comes from. Samstag (Saturday) and Sonntag(sunday) are not so clear. Sonntag is, it comes from sonne, the german word for sun but Samstag makes no sense in modern high german. There is so such thing as Sams( except for a rather famous children's book character from the 1960s who was called Sams after samstag )
Or maybe the Germans are more practical for their day naming... ;-)
Dienstag from God Tiu=Tyr?
Thank Gods its Frietag
Key word; animism
Animism is the core of polytheistic belief systems
Animism in Heathenry is definitely I topic I want to explore more in my future videos. I've mentioned it a couple times before, but I do think it's often ignored, and it shouldn't be.
@@OceanKeltoi Please do! I have a lot of questions about how heathens understand things like landwights and how such things might be dealt with or celebrated
@@OceanKeltoi yes,! Do that, it's is SOoo to get looked
A very nice perspective of Animism in the ancient times is given in a lot of Arith Härger's videos. While we wait for Splash Daddy to make his videos, I suggest you go check them out
@@OceanKeltoi That would be great !!!
“Wednesday is Odin’s day” will forever live rent free in my head 🥰
It scares people to know this. Can confirm.
_Woden`s day_ ...as the Anglo-Saxons used to call him Woden, similar to other Western Germanic tribes on the continent: _Wodan_ or _Wotan_
@@UnleashedDaemon Regarding Tuesday, the god Týr or Tiwaz was also called Tiu. In modern German, Tiu would still be pronounced like the "Tue" part of Tuesday
@@UnleashedDaemon from Wikipedia
Old High German // English
Monddag // Monday
Tiusdag // Tuesday
Wodensdag // Wednesday
Donarsdag // Thursday
Fridag // Friday
Sambaztac // Saturday
Soldag // Sunday
Source: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wochentag#Deutsche_Wochentagsnamen
The tv show American Gods is definitely worth a especially on Wednesday.
German here, its funny that so many of the tribe names actually lived on. The one you mentioned called Swaebi sounds a lot like the Schwaben, people from a certain region of the country
The Suebi actually went on to invade Rome successfully a few hundred years later and settled in modern day Spain and Portugal. Though there's questions as to whether or not that's the same tribe or another tribe with a related name, or if the Suebi of Caesar even called themselves Suebi, or if that was just the name of a tribe that the Romans applied to the Germanic peoples generally. There's a lot of questions about this period of history as it relates to later history.
@@OceanKeltoi Thank, thats very interesting!
The name Schwaben (Swabia in english) go back to the Suebi. Maybe not every Suebi moved to Spain and a part remained at the alps
The suebi were a very large group of germanic tribes that were said to be so big that they would have almost become interchangeable with the term germanic. Even groups that we nowadays dont consider "schwaben" were suevi, for example the hermunduri who became the thuringi or the marcomanni who became the bavarians.
And what about Neu Schwabenland, the territory of Antarctica the Nazis claimed and allegedly had a secret aircraft base (anti gravity tech related)
I never thought about the religous places in Scandinavia, but it makes sense. I live in Odense in Denmark, which is named after Odin. It's pretty fascinating to read about these places
Love your videos, keep up the good work!
I’m a Heathen and a History teacher so I’ve found my spiritual home on two fronts. Please - never stop nerding out 💚💚
Heck yes! Also, I love your icon/avatar. One of THE best games of all time.
@@ladyraven3418 Thank you and YES! Totally the best game of all time! 😊💕
Well said
It's interesting to see how dynamic the old gods are. I'm currently reading how Hecate (one of my personal deities) could have originated from the middle east and traveled to Greece/Rome and beyond. She's even potentially equated with Isis.
Yassss! Have you read anything by Sorita D'este, or Cyndi Brannen? (Cyndi Brannen focuses more on Her in the Greek world/context, but does mention references, both known and possible, to Her in other cultures)
I would so dig a "part 2" to this video if you ever get the inspiration to make it. I feel like you only scratched the surface of this topic and it's a fascinating one.
there's a ton more to discuss, and yeah, I had to put out the disclaimer that it's not comprehensive.
I like to do my offerings to Odin on Wednesday. Well, from now on I'll have to ignore the voice in my head: 'Wednesday is Odins day'. 😂
I mean you still right tho. Lol
I still love Gaiman's choice to have Odin go by the name Mr Wednesday in American Gods.
If you look at the swedish and finnish versions of the word firday: swedish fredag and the finnish perjantai (this on might be harder to see, but the finnish translation for Freya is Freija so it's easy to see how freijan day could have become perijantai) I think it is safe to say that Friday is just the English trying to pronounce Freya's day
It's similar im modern german "Freitag", which seems more similar to Freia/Freiya/Freya but that's only if you look at the modern language alone. Old High German(OHG) and Old Norse(ON) paint a different picture.
Friday/Freitag in OHG is Frijatag, which clearly comes from the OHG name for Frigg - Frija. -Well, I suppose Freya is never mentioned in OHG anyway and probably wasn't known to/whirshipped by southgermanic people (because she and Frigg/Frija were the same)-
Interestingly enough we neither find Freyudagr (Freya's day) nor Friggjardagr (Frigg's day) in ON, only Frjádagr (or Frjádagur in old icelandic).
Which either simply means "love-day" or ON simply adopted the term nearly unchanged from more southern dialects. These terms must have made their way from more southern/eastern germanic people that had extensive contact with the romans to the north after all.
But also, in modern Faroese it actually IS Friggjadagur, soooo maybe Frigg's Day was used in old norse to some degree ??? We do not know.
The old english Word, btw, is frigedeag, also from Frig.
And while this is a bit off-topic: the Langobardic name for Frigg? It's Frea. Because that doesn't make all of this even more confusing.
Anyway, I also used to assume that "Freitag" must have some connection to Freia, so I just wanted to share my research 🙃
In english there is thursday coming from thors day. In german there is donnerstag coming from donars tag. Donar being the southern/western germanic name for thor.
Perjantai does not come from that, but from Perkele (a derivative of the baltic Perkunas or the slavic Perun) which is depicted as male god of lightning.
@@dwarfbard6226 I've never heard this theory, and it would make sense if you look only at that word, but to me it would seem kinda off, as all the other names for the weekdays come from the old norse language
The Old Norse translation is fairly similar, Frjádagr, and English Friday comes from Frīġedæġ in Anglo-Saxon.
(we must note that ġ makes a j [Modern English y] sound often in Anglo-Saxon)
"So you can imagine incredible rituals, in which the legends were sung by those leading the ritual in order to pass on their stories and familiarize everyone with these songs. This gives a whole new view of what we've lost over the course of time..."
Meanwhile, at a local Rock concert:
I agree, the gaps in our knowledge are tantalizing, but also a bit depressing, considering how likely it is we won't ever know the answers to most of our questions. But, even I am a bit optimistic. There's nothing saying that a future archaeological discovery couldn't reveal more.
Ancient empires had a habit of burning any writing they found on the history or religion of people they conquered and also lots of people just didn't write things
I've also heard that seiðr in practice was often sung, or a musical chant, which lines up with how the Sagas may have been sung to preserve the oral tradition.
Interesting, because last week Hel asked me to sing for her, and I always approach my Hecate candle with a song before I light it.
Frigg and Freya used to be one and the same #Change my mind
PS great video as always
I'm Christian but I have to admit I'm fervently interested in Proto-Germanic history and religion
I loved this deep dive so much! I’d really love to see a video on the goddesses of the Norse and women’s role in Norse practice. I notice that that kind of information tends to not be discussed on heathen channels and that masculine deities take precedence.
Agree entirely! I've been waiting for it since before I subscribed/joined the army.
Thats mainly because modern "pagans" are liberal degenerate redheads that can't admit that men and women had different roles for most of history
You mean Germanic, not Norse. Norse only refers to the Vikings/North Germanic peoples. Germanic refers to all Germanic-speaking peoples, including the Vikings, along with the West Germanic (Franks, Lombards, and Anglo-Saxons) and East Germanic (Goths, Vandals, and Burgundians) peoples.
Your faith really has almost nothing to do with ancient beliefs. It's a modern creation using ancient symbols. Sort of like those who call themselves Druids when in fact they are simply aping ancient dress while performing ceremonies rooted in 19th century mysticism. Generally modern Pagans are a modern invention created as a reactionary movement against Christian hegemony.
More power to you, but the incredible millenia long gap in practice, understanding, and belief between the ancient culture that integrated these beliefs as part of a larger culture zeitgeist counter any idea that modern paganism is in anyway reliant on the ancients. It's a modern religion using ancient symbols. Knowing more about ancient understanding really doesn't inform your understanding about your religion because it's pulled out of cultural context and built in modern practices.
Dude do you think of all these puns off hand or sit down and plan them out? I always groan audibly every video haha
I usually think of them for about 20s as i'm writing the script. Sometimes i come back to them. But I find if they make me groan, they'll probably make yall groan.
@@OceanKeltoi please do one on indo European india
Wolf head garb... Black sword... Hey, are we all Sokka? Count me in!
I’m just a guy with a boomerang!
If deities were created by the people through a kind of common, universal unconsciousness, it would make sense that gods from different cultures would have similarities, because the problems people faced (food, natural disasters, sickness, etc) are pretty universal.
I believe the Rhine rather to be the "mixing" line, if you will. It's where Gaulish and Germanic deities overlap, and where it seems that they have not only lived on top of one another, but also intermarried. The Romans described some Gallic tribes in this region as being descended from Germans, and some in Germania as being descended from Gauls, some with a fusion culture, and some who's roots are obscure (possibly from so much and so long mixing).
As a part of warfare, the winning tribe took away the women of the losing tribe (in all lands), so yes, when Gaulish tribes were beaten by Germanic tribes, their women were folded into the Germanic tribes.
I'm supposing that Tacitus, et al., who aren't Christians at least have the advantage as observers of not holding the belief that there is only one true religion, which happens to be the one that the observer belongs to.
If we're on nerding out on language here; one of the Norwegian words for theft is 'ran'. Usually it's used if we're talking about a proper theft, like a bank robbery or in norwegian 'bankran'. Now isn't it interesting how the words 'ran' and the goddess Rán's name are so similar? For a seafaring culture, loosing your loved ones to the unruly seas would seem like a theft by the gods no?
I am astonished by how reasonably you discuss this topic. Here in Germany, significant (maybe even most) parts of the community identifying with old Germanic belief are ideologically tainted by remnants of the National Socialist reinterpretation and misuse of the subject. Others just like muscular, violent, manly men they can idolize. The more civil parts of the community are often willfully ignorant about this, providing safe spaces for neo-nazis, esoterics, and so-called "Reichsbürger[*innen]" - people who in short claim that the Federal Republic of Germany doesn't exist and we still live in the Kaiserreich so they don't have to follow any laws. (They recently formed a terrorist group that wanted to abolish democracy, it was all over the media internationally.)
Anyway, I'm just saying from an "educated outsider's" perspective, you seldomly hear of people actually engaging in a scientific (as scientific as religion can be) and self critical analysis of the old Germanic belief system and its real history. Very interesting. Normally, I would steer clear of this topic because of the above. You might have caught my attention, though.
Cool. So you like him because he pressed all of your confirmation bias buttons. How scientific indeed.
One thing I love about our faith is its fluidity. Not just in Heathenry, but in the pre-Olympic Greece also. The Poseidon worshipped at Athens and at Thebes were heavily localized, and thought they shared a name and associations with horses and the sea, I think archaeological findings are showing that the Greeks themselves understood that they were different but some how the same, and this ambiguity didn't bother them. It's this comfort with seeing the universality and locality of something, and not being upset if the two doesn't match, that I find beautiful and inspirational.
I do hold a slight disagreement with a notion of the gods being different. Natural phenomenon occurs across all cultures. Whether it be a feeling of rage, or the rain being needed, or stopped, to seeds being grown, to hunting and whatnot. Although variations between cultures and climate do influence perception of these phenomenon, humans gave these phenomenon names and, eventually, faces. Those names are what became the gods. Yes, the phenomenon was there, but mankind made the gods gods by giving them identity. So, I do maintain the theory the gods are the same across animistic cultures, just climate and social attitudes give them the variations.
I do agree with the notion that practices vary from tribe to tribe even across fairly close distances. It bothers men when I hear, "The Vikings did this or that" or "Native Americans believe". There will be differences in how things are done and looked at.
4:50
Frigg and Freyja might actually be the same diety!
In the Scandinavic languages, Friday is actually named after Freyja instead of Frigg. (Friday being "fredag" in these languages; "Frejas dag", Freyja's day)
This might suggest that Frigg was the goddess of love in Germanic heathenry (since her named appeared in the name of the day in that region), while that diety was refered to as Freyja in Scandivia during the same time (e.g. Venus might have been translated to Freyja instead of Frigg in that region). It is possible that the written sources later reinterpreted them as two different dieties.
There is also mention of Freja having a love affair with a man named Odr, so I am not adverse to that line of thinking, myself.
I wish I had read this previous to my comment ... I never heard - however - of any region in Germany referring to Freitag as Friggstag...? Do you have a source for me to read up on? Not for being an ass but for scholarly reasons.. I would like to delve deeper into this. I do agree to the theoretical idea of Frigg and Freya referring to the same deity.
@@gillesvanzeveren4981 im not that much of a history buff, but freitag sounds a lot like freya(s)tag, so if we assume freya and frigg are the same deity this would make sense i guess. also writing this i just did a quick search on freitag and came up with this: "From Middle High German vrītac, from Old High German frīatag (9th c.), from Proto-West Germanic *Frījā dag (“day of Frigg”), calque of Latin dies Veneris. Compare Low German Freedag, Dutch vrijdag, English Friday, Danish fredag."
One theory that I've come across frequently is that Frigg and Freya are one and the same Goddess depicted at different ages. Freya is the younger version before she became a mother and then became Frigg.
Now I'm not saying this as a fact... it's just something that I've came across on multiple occasions.
I’ve seen this as well. There seems to be credence to it. But y’know. Lack of confirmation and all.
The ambiguity of Freyja/Frigg as the same/different goddessess is maddening - for my own, I do see them as fully separate, as they each embody IMO very distinct archetypes. I think the historical concensus is that... there was no concesus amongst german and scandinavian people, and some saw them as the same, others as different, and as the years wen by they either merged into one or diverged into two - I cant remember what the current theory is of her/their path
First time heard it. Very interesting theory !
There's also a theory that Freya's husband Oðr is really Oðin. I highly recommend the book Fornnordisk religion by Gro Steinsland to anyone who can read Swedish or Norwegian.
The Eddas does not confirm Freyja and Frigg are the same goddess! Frigg daughter of Fjorgynn(father) with an unnamed mother; and Freyja daughter of Njörðr and Nerthus(sister-wife). Also Freyja have daughters named Gersemi and Hnoss with Óðr!! Óðr must be a Sun god or a god of magic.
The Romans actually got the names of the weekdays from the Greeks, they just "translated" and simplified the Greek system. The Greeks, or Macedonians technically, in turn took the concept of a seven day week from the Babylonians (or descendants thereof, I guess) and (sort of) named the days after another Babylonian list of seven names, namely the seven wanderers that the Babylonians of old had observed in the sky, aka the classical seven planets (which includes the Sun and the Moon). The Macedonians/Greeks also changed the order slightly from the original Babylonian, so the result was: Sun, Moon, Underworld/War god, wise traveller and god of communication, king of the gods, goddess of love, older god associated with agriculture.
After "translating" the result was (Greek/Roman/English) Helios/Sol/Sun, Selene/Luna/Moon, *Ares/Mars/Tiwaz, Hermes/Mercury/Woden, **Zeus/Jupiter/Thunras, ***Aphrodite/Venus/Frigg, ****Kronos/Saturn/???.
* - They focused on the war part over the underworld part of the original deity, Tiwas/Tyr probably got in there because both he and Mars were guardians of the Thing (probably).
** - While the two first were leaders they were also gods of the sky and thunder/lightning, hence Thor.
*** - Yep. Freyja wasn't really known outside Scandinavia.
**** - Kronos had an agriculturel cult dedicated to him in days of old. Both of these are titans and thus enemies of the gods. For some reason they didn't translate this one in English.
Scandinavian languages use a different name for saturday which probably derives from an old term meaning "washing day", but there is a (very thin) theory that it might derive from the mysterious Lóðurr, which also possily could be another name for Loki, another sometimes "enemy" of the gods.
I meant to just write a little funfact. This got way wordier than intended. Ooops. 😆
I see youtube had issues with the number of *'s I used there. 😆
In my experience, Hel's name can replace the ??? on Saturday. She also appreciates her sun-facing side being aknowledged on Sundays.
Romans began with an 8 day week later this changed into a 7 day week.
Honestly I would love if you did a more in depth video on the celts. While it would feel a little off topic the celts (specifically in Ireland and Scotland) seem to be often lumped in with the norse on their cultural similarities; knotted patterns are a common one. Not only that but the celts are fascinating in general, and as another pagan religion it would be very interesting to hear more about them.
Gaels or Picts would probably be what you'd want to look into.
This video is incredible. I laughed, I cried, I felt hope, I got lost and had to replay a few parts. It has everything. AND I learned things! Honestly, your videos just keep getting better and how is that even possible.
Oh this is gonna be good. This is my favorite period of history.
Is there any credible sources for this history period? Love to know more.
You can read a little bit about the germanic tribes here
www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsEurope/indexGermanics.htm
Theres a lot of sources to read from as well as videos on youtube but take everything with a grain or two of salt because there's still a lot we don't know. Look for info on the germanic tribes or migration period. Most of which we know about germania came from roman sources and Tacitus's Germania. The period of the Germanic tribes also covers a long time period pre viking age.
Dude I love the history nerd jokes. You may feel a little bad for adding them to the script but I’m very glad you do.
I'm not a Heathen but I've been curious about the gods of my ancestors before Christianity (I have both Anglo-Saxon and Danish ancestry)
this is a great video and I hope you keep making such great content!
I've found it hard to find studies of this stuff without certain hateful ideologies worming their way in so seeing this video put a giant smile on my face.
You used to worship a big tree like the Arabs. Why does Germany have so many trees? What is special about a big tree?
@@عليياسر-ذ5ب the Irminsul had a lot in common with Ygdrassil from Norse myth. The Tree which holds the World.
Lots of cultures had similar ideas. The Cherokee in the United States believed that the world was on the back of a Giant Turtle. Greeks believed that Gaia and Ouranous' physical bodies made up the Earth and Sky and needed to be separated.
@@noahjohnson935 But the Germans have very many trees, so why do they worship them while the Arabs live in the desert except for the region of Yemen, and that is why they worshiped trees
Basically Anglo Saxon’s Germans and Scandinavians worshipped almost the same pantheon. But they named them different but similar names
@@Stoicsaiyan not completely. The Anglo-Saxons didn't have references to Loki for example
I've been watching American gods and Odin goes by Mr Wednesday and now it makes sense
This video reminds me of philology and Neitzsche. Basically a bunch of historical linguistics. Comparing words and cognates. Reminds me if his example of the Germans getting their words from the Romans like arcabalista (roman) to armburst (germanic).
My heritage is part frank part alemanni/suebi and to us, Thor was Donar. Hence the day of the week Donnerstag or day of thunder, eventually Thursday in the Angle/Saxon/Norman areas of GB
What makes our Germanic forebears Pagans, while the so-called Christians are not called Pagans.
Grossly unfair.
I have studied religions and find that these religions use the same basis of honesty and facts.
Namely absolutely none. Truth in the bible? Don't make me laugh so loud.
It hurts.
I'm so glad that your channel exists. Because I'm trying to find my beliefs but i have no idea where to start and have nobody to look to. Thank you for this.
I do a little happy dance whenever the notice bell dings for a new Ocean Keltoi video... Anyone else?
Same here, we love catching his premieres and enjoy talking to the community that follows his information too.
I usually do a bit of swearing at my phone since I get the notification at work and can't get home in time. I'm not totally in the broom closet there, but it's not an environment conducive to actually focusing on what new pun-ishment Ocean's come up with this week.
Ok, I know this is SUPER reaching and probably (99 percent sure) not how people saw it back then, but the Romans calling Tyr Mars makes me think of Tyr's connection with the Thing (they literally called him Mars of the Thing) and how Mars was apart from a war god, to the Romans he was the father of the Roman State; so Tyr might have been some sort of God of Government.
Again, this probably a reach, but its fun speculate about. Considering Tyr is such a misterious figure compared as to how seemingly of a big deal he was. From speculated big deal sky god, to Thors lesser known brother
Tyr's relation to the Thing and justice would justify him being a government deity. He is seen as a Kingly God similar to how Freyr was seen in Sweden.
Well, we do actually know what it looked like more pre-Viking age. Tacitus’ “Germania” as you state is an excellent account. Yet, some people in the Neo-Pagan movement are probably going to simply refuse it when you read for the simple fact it doesn’t culturally fit our Neo cultural perspective.
Also, “States of Being” were what defined our people’s, which is why “Vikingr” means “To raid.” “To raid” was a state of being that we would now define in this 21st century culture as a “side profession,” or “second job” considering most Heathens were farmers and family builders, especially as the men got older. Just as “Drengr” is “to badass.” And is implied that “to badass” is aligned with Honor and integrity. Drengr culture was pre-Heathen culture that Vikingr culture lost sight of.
So true. Love your input
Love the Christian university ad before this video. Nothin against y’all but they are targeting the wrong audience
Now you mention places named after the gods here in england we have wednesbury and you can find the sleipnir statue there
It's sad that I must watch English videos to learn my Faith - As a German. Especially WE should live THAT ❤️
Well, depends on where you live. I'm from the Lake of Constance; the Vindelici lived in Southern Germany (BW and Bayern) - and they were a Celtic tribe, not a Germanic.
You are quickly becoming my favorite norse pagan source of knowledge lmao.
A huge example regarding placenames might be Frisia, named after Freya. In The Netherlands you will also find placenames referring to Odin (Woten/Woen), like Woensdrecht
There is actually a page on place names in the netherlands and Belgium but its in Dutch. TIL I learned that the Alphen part Alphen aan den rijn is literally just a modern name for Alfheim. That makes going to archeon even more fun!!! Still sucks to walk all the way from the station to it though... and the food options could improve.
Vriesland heeft niks met Vrouwe te maken. Werkelijk niet. Van Woensdrecht weet ik het niet.
(Short English translation: This is not right as far as I know)
Regarding Freyr: It is interesting to note that the ancient Armenians (who were called 'Van') had a prince called Vreyr. Could the story of the war between the Æsir and the Van be an echo of the ancient war between Van's and Alans in appx. 150 BC? This war also ended in a royal hostage exchange. It is also noteworthy that the Saga's mention the Alan's as a kindred people to the royals in the Saga's.
This guy is great very knowledgeable easy-going he has a nice personality
Amazing video!
Even though I am not a Heathen, but some weird young Pagan, focused right now on the Western Slavic Paganism, primary on the area of today's Poland, where the Slavic tribes had contacts with (and assimilated) some of Germanic tribes after the migration and the influence from Celtic tribes that lived iirc in today's Silesia.
I take big inspiration and energy from your videos to seek and learn more not only about my own path and the beliefs of the lands I live in, from the sources (that sadly were written by the Christians, writing in Latin and using the Interpretatio Romana, but still a somehow useful and worth sources to check), from the post-Christian folktales that have the echoes of old Pagan beliefs, but also looking into the the beliefs of the neighboring tribes!
Chwała i sława, and thank you!
Ancom leanings too, I see? Based as hell. Luciferian ancom myself - but I definitely do find this stuff to be both fascinating and inspiring, too.
fun fact, in German the word for heathen is also used for pagan. Its called being a "Heide". So I am an Atheist, but in Germany id be pagan but also a heathen
Memorizing to poetry or song is actually a learning technique for kids.Like singing times tables to a well known tune.So I can understand how history and stories would be related that way.In Australia the aboriginal people who are many differant "nations all use the same techniques not only for stories and history but wayfinding, mapping etc. I think people around the world came to similar conclusions through trial over many years
To the Friday deal, there is evidence to suggest Freya and Frigg are two iterations of an earlier deity, Frija, the two being included in the eddas would then just be an attempt to reconcile the two in a singular storyline
I think the best idea is to use the evidence we have the best we can as Ocean does but spend time in nature,as much as possible. The intuitions and ideas about heathenry will come.Even though I'm in Australia, some concepts can make sense here , we may not have the same relationship with the Sun here ,because we have too much sunlight all the time all year but we do have a country that has only been christianised for 230 years.The forests and quiet places are full of land wights.Aboriginal people had their knowledge and names for them but ,land spirits all the same.
One thing I like to point out, is that Heathenry as we know it, was interpreted through a form of Christianity… that is no longer practiced. Both religions are different from what we see today, but this allows us to expand on our own beliefs.
I love the little Bear , lol.
The bear is the best. "Wednesday is Odin's Day, wheeee!"
Vikings were a rare breed that were brought up with tales of the worlds doom. These sagas comes from an earlier time in history, around the year of 500. During this time Scandinavia were suffering from extreme cold, so cold that scientists have found fibers from trees that were frostbitten (im not sure about the spelling, but the fibers had exploded from water being frozen in the middle of the summer). So the Viking ancestors had it rough and a big part of the population actually died. So no wonder the vikings were a hard breed with a grim outlook on life.
They really believed in their gods, and thats probably because their ancestors lived a particularly tough and unforgiving life, and because their whole world was literally dying, i think i can understand the viking mindset.
Not sure if it's been said before, but in Danish Saturday is "Lørdag" which could've originally been "lokesdag" meaning loki's day
Lördag comes from lödardag which means the day you wash yourself.
We need that video on the Suebi. Poor Aalie is going to have more reading material.
Do you want to shock the people that tribal regions are still used in way in roughly the same region? (I'm not kidding the suebi lived in present day Swabia, Lower Saxony is one of the states of Germany same with Bavaria who is named after the Baiuvari , Friesland (and its Language) are still where the friesian came from, not to mention Jutland and it peninsula Angeln. Heck the Region I live in were named after the Vangions.
Maybe the marcomanni too
@@vassily-labroslabrakos2263 and the Franks at the Moselle, Rhine and in Franconia.
Best Christian tradition celebrating Pagan holidays
Youre pronouncing "gallic" as if it were spelled "gaelic."
I’ve seen several pronunciations for it. I havent heard anyone else the say it the way I was intuitively saying it, which I think is how you’re thinking of it too. But “Gaelic” seems to be the way a lot of people say it. Its referring to the Gauls. “Gaulish” is usually how people refer to the Gauls as well. But Gallic’s pronunciation was a question mark for me, honestly 😂
@@OceanKeltoi It doesn't really matter as long as you're understood, but the usual American pronunciation is /ˈɡælɪk/ (IPA); the word's still in general use as an adjective meaning "French," as in "Gallic shrug."
thumbs up for the opening joke😅
Much of the Hebrew Bible is meant to be sung too via canting in case anyone was curious. It's by no means necessary to understand the Parsha (portion), but it is an old tradition that helped break the monotony of large passages and helped with memory, much like we see in other cultures like Germanic ones.
Probably an obvious question but why apply the word heathen to these ancient cultures? Isn’t heathen specifically a word used by Christians to perjoratively describe nonchristians. It’s not a word or concept that would have meant anything to those ancient Germans .
heathen
[ hee-thuhn ]SHOW IPADisparaging and Offensive.
See synonyms for: heathen / heathens on Thesaurus.com
noun, plural hea·thens, hea·then.
(in historical contexts) an individual of a people that do not acknowledge the God of the Bible; a person who is neither a Jew, Christian, nor Muslim; a pagan.
Informal. an irreligious, uncultured, or uncivilized person.
adjective
of or relating to heathens; pagan.
Informal. irreligious, uncultured, or uncivilized.
Heathen is now used to describe Germanic faith believers.
Your comment about Odin's "love of humanity" early on caught me off guard, that doesn't sound like the character I learned about. In all the stories I've read, he is self-centered and manipulative. My professor even expressed that it was unlikely people prayed to him often, if ever, given his predilection for getting those he helped killed so he can harvest their souls for his own ends. What is this assertion based on?
thank you for “nerding out.” it helped a lot to understand how the mythology and history meet, as i am trying to connect my family tree from the 1500’s to these historical times.
18:07 Now That's What I Call Heathenism 1267
You had me at the intro. I'm sick of people just quoting Tacitus and being like, "that's it, that's the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" then slamming the figurative book shut.
I’ve been exploring my lineage and I’ve found that a lot of it comes from the Rhineland area of Germany and mainland Britain with a touch of Scandinavia.
I was wondering if anyone new of a spiritual practice that Healthily blended Celtic, and Norse beliefs.
I was hoping Germanic spirituality would be a good pick however, a lot like Druidism, so much of it’s history is lost and I’d like to practice something more historical. Any input would be helpful.
I'm Swedish and I've never heard Friday or Fredag being referred to as Friggs day. Only Frej and/or Frejas day. Also in Swedish Saturday is Lördag, wich I belive is "washing day". Lör=lödder=lather, as in lather up with soap.
I think it would be wonderful to have someone write music to the sagas.
Came for the puns, stayed for the nerding out.
7:00 Gallic is not the same as Gaelic.
First off, loving your new Mjolnir
Tacitus approval? Well done, sir!
Dad jokes? Really? 😛
Love this video, as usual it is chock-full of some good info. Thanks Ocean! BTW I laughed way too hard over "a Rhine in the sand" 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Keep nerding out. It makes for great and very informative videos.
In Dutch the days goes as follows: maandag (moonday), dinsdag (thyrsday), woensdag (wodan/ odinsday), donderdag (donar/ thorsday donder means thunder), vrijdag (means free and in old Frisian Fri means free also, friday). And last we have zaterdag (saturday, saturn) and zondag (literally means sunday). In German it's quite similar to Dutch, a bit different. Makes you wonder tho... very interesting 🤔
The power of 3 is still used today as well as the other... not sure what the other would be called. However 360° in a circle almost the same as the number of days in a year divided 4 ways is 90° and each season is 1 of the 4 ways those seasons all differing about 9 degrees temperature fluctuations 27° give or take 9 either way depending upon where your at in the world as well as what season your in/ experiencing. 108° if you go by the 4 ways but instead seeing as we have how many months and have already split by 4 split by 3 and you've got the 81 also 9 squared.
81 being just shy of 90 by exactly 9 but that's to be expected cause we used to only use 9 numbers not 10 so every 10th digit would be irrelevant cause why would you have the number 0 in the first place idk ask the Greeks or Roman's I can't remember which decided that's something that should be considered. Either way, that same 81 now can be multiplied by 4, and you have the current number of days in the year. Oh wait, I'm missing the extra month, the 13th month being the unknown month, which has no definite number of days in it. If you didn't know about it you might be confused to learn that we used to also measure time based off of the stars and moon so the month I speak of is the 13th month of the lunar calender. It's pretty awesome.
Mathematics and language go hand in hand with magic and mythology, aka history that's more written and set in stone than most of the history we see today.😂
I'm still wondering if there is a reason that it's called history and not herstory or why there is one and not the other. Maybe I'm plucking at strings on that one. Either way, it makes for a funny joke.
Hi! Loved your analysis! One thing I read somewhere which might add something to the Roman "Isis" question is the Germanic belief in boats being vessels of travel to the next life. This practice seems to have been very widespread in the Nordic bronze age and was obviously well practiced by the Norse (and Angles at Sutton Hoo) later. Despite the lack of evidence from southern Germany, I wonder if Caesar or his informants saw something of this and made a connection? Stone ships, for example, have a strong connection to Freja.
Im just glad that you don't only talk about the vikings.. The biggest frustration is when they talk about "the germanic" but then only talk about the vikings.
I love the answers leading to more questions. It makes me feel like I am being empowered by Odinn to search for more wisdom.
In fact, there are a lot of places in Germany named after the goddess Frigg.She had many names in Germany including Hulla or Frau Holle. Frau Holle is also a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm and many places like woods and moores are named after her. But also hills and so far.
Keep in mind that while Greco-Roman syncretism with Germanic paganism definitely took place in these sources, the study of linguistics implies that both cultures and their myths have an actual shared Indo-European root. Also there is a case Wodan is simply syncretized with Mercury because of the attributes (staff/ scepter and cloak) associated with both Mercury and Wodan. It might be both Gods looked alike to a Roman.
I'm really enjoying this channel! I love studying religions and mythology.
I have a couple of suggestions.
1) In Egypt, Osiris is a fertility, agriculture AND death god, and he is brother/husband to Isis. Together, they are seen as the Mother and Father of Egypt. It feels very similar to how Sweden viewed Freyr. Isis is also the goddess of magic and fertility. The more you learn about them, the more similarities you see to Freyr and Freyja. Especially since one source says that Freyr and Freyja were married before Odin annulled that. It's possible Nerthus and Njord had a similar relationship with each other and their worshippers.
2) In German paganism and folk magic, there is Frau Holle, who may be a predecessor to Frigg and Freyj. That might be the "Isis" figure mentioned.
In Dutch it is
Woensdag
Donderdag
Vrijdag
And in Frysian it is woansdei [wa:nzdi], [wɛ:nzdiə], tongersdei [to:nzdi]
freed [fre.t],
The fact that the context surrounding "Friday" may indicate an association of Frigg with love/fertility lends something to the scholarly argument that Frigg and Freya were once regarded as the same being, despite also being treated as two separate goddesses (also valid).
Rhein river flow trough my City😊It so interesting for me as German
Roman soldier: "Who's your main god?"
Germanic tribesman: "Wodan."
Roman soldier: "Who?"
*24 AD* :
Roman soldier: "Who is your war god?"
Frisian: "Come to the woods not far from your fort, and we'll introduce you to her."
Roman soldier: "HER??? Your war god is a WOMAN???"
Frisian: * evil grin * "Yeah... Her name is Baduhenna. You'll like her."
If you don't understand the joke here, look up "The Battle of Baduhenna Wood".
Lore of What was Germanic Paganism Like BEFORE the Vikings? Momentum 100