Germanic and Anglo-Saxon Religious Beliefs

During the eighth century “Beowulf” was written down. Britain at this time was mainly dominated by Christianity, organized, and controlled by an aristocratic civilization. When both Germanic and Scandinavian tribes, invaded Britain, they brought such stories as Beowulf the story of a hero. Beowulf was the first British literature discussed. The heroes of his story were his peoples ancestors, before they conquered England. A hero both controls and transforms events, a coward does not as Beowulf shows : “a coward faced with a dangerous situation, such as an uncertain fate often presents, always gives way and fails to exploit the moment of crisis to his advantage.”. Anglo-Saxons and they were converted to Christianity by missionaries from Rome.

In the era of Beowulf the pre-christian Germanic gods venerated in actual human historical figures who, upon their death , were posthumously elevated to divine status in a created mythology. ODIN ; was The “all father” and leader of the Germanic patheon. TYR; the early god of war in Germanic religion , often call “tyr the wise” . THOR; son of odin and jord. Thor is the god of war, strength, thunder/ lighting, and physical battle , he is most famous for his use of mjollnir , the mighty hammer capable of destroying any target.
FORSETI; god of peace ,diplomacy ,truth , knowledge, and justice. FREYJA; god of wind and storms. FREYJR; god of love, sexuality ,fertility ,relationships and the harvest. HEIMDALL; god representing vigilance, the senses, perception, foresight/predicition and readiness. Fatalism played a role in the pre-christian Germanic beliefs. Pre-christian Germanic people saw fate s something that was not entirely something out of their control. Yet we will see that not only are human actins are very much a part of the equation of Germanic thought, but some can indeed escape their self-made fate. Such as the character honscio’s fate was woven outside of any control of his.

The various Germanic peoples were