Tag Archive for: anglo saxons

Traces of Germanic Deities in the “God” of Beowulf

By Jim AOR In examining references to the Christian god in Beowulf, we can discern the presence of pre-Christian Germanic deities. Many academics today minimize the etymology of certain terms found in Beowulf and many translators use their poetic license to dilute the Heathen meanings of these same terms. Yet we can see in many ways the presence of Wyrd, the Norns, and sacral kingship in Beowulf. These implied uses of pre-Christian deities reinforce the idea that the church had not “won” in England in the early middle ages and still had to compromise with the Odinic spirit of the Anglo-Saxons.

TYR – Father, Protector, Provider

TYR has often been misunderstood and even more often misrepresented. The Romans simplistically equated him with their god of war, mars. Consequently Tiw, as the Anglo-Saxons called him, has the honour of giving his name to Tuesday, but is otherwise neglected by many as being embarrassingly militaristic.

The Oak

We think of the Oak as the nost English of trees and it was, not so long ago, of immense importance in the daily lives of our people. When Britannia first ruled the waves it was the oak that furnished wood for her ships. Throughout the middle…