At 11/27/08 07:27 AM, sirtom93 wrote:
Was it the Pagans who originally came up with the foundings of Norse mythology?
Norse Mythology had influences from several older religions, and while some of them are somewhat unclear other are easier to spot. Some of the gods of the pantheon like for example Tor, Frey, Njord, Frigg and Ull are symbolical nature forces, and Pagan in their roots. Others like Tyr have distinct attributes that connects him to the Roman war god Mars (who in turn has his roots in the Greek war god Ares). Odin himself may be based upon the Persian deity Mithra, the cult was brought to the Germanic tribes of central Europe by Roman soldiers.
Njord who in the Norse pantheon became something of an side figure, may be the oldest of them all. His origins can probably be found in the Pagan Earth Goddess Nerthus who was the epitome of the life giving Earth.
Both Tor and Tyr is known to have been venerated by Germanic tribes around the Birth of Christ, under the names Donar and Tiwaz, although under somewhat different images. For example the base form of Tiwaz means two-handed, and Tyr as you might know was one-handed.
Odin is a late comer in the pantheon and replaced the older Ull. Odin was more of a king's god, while Ull was the hunters' god. Exactly when he came into the pantheon I can't say right now, but even under the 9th century the three icons in the temples were of Tor, Frey and Ull in many places.
Lastly one has to remember that the religion grew and changed over several hundreds of years perhaps even a thousand, and while some things stayed the same a lot of stuff changed.
Hopefully this answers your question, you want clarifications I might have to break out my books.
