Continental Germanic mythology is a subtype of Germanic paganism as practiced in parts of Central Europe during the 6th to 8th centuries, a period of Christianization. It continued in the legends, and Middle High German epics of the Middle Ages. Traces of these stories, with the sacred elements largely removed, may be found throughout European folklore and fairy tales.
Tribes
The mythologies of the following tribes are included in this category:
- Lombards (source: Paulus Diaconus)
- Alamanni (see: Nordendorf fibula, Pforzen buckle)
- Franks and Thuringii (see: Frankish mythology, Donar's Oak)
- Saxons (see: Irminsul)
- Frisians (source: Life of Saint Willibrord)
Paganism
Compared to North Germanic and, to a lesser extent, Anglo-Saxon mythology, examples of Continental Germanic paganism are extremely fragmentary. Besides a handful of brief Elder Futhark inscriptions the lone, genuinely pagan Continental Germanic documents are the short Old High German Merseburg Incantations. However, pagan mythological elements were preserved in later literature, notably in Middle High German epic poetry, but also in German, Swiss, and Dutch folklore.
Texts
Old High German
- Lay of Hildebrand
- Muspilli
- The Merseburg Incantations
Middle High German
- Nibelungenlied
- Kudrun
- Weyland
- Dietrich von Bern
See also
- Mannaz
- Common Germanic deities
- Germanic king
- Norse deities
- Anglo-Saxon polytheism
- List of Germanic deities
Sources
- Jacob Grimm: Deutsche Mythologie. 1835.
- Wolfgang Golther: Handbuch der Germanischen Mythologie. Stuttgart 1908.
- Jan de Vries: Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte. Berlin 1956.
- Åke V. Ström: Germanische Religion. Stuttgart 1975.
- M. Axboe; U. Clavadetscher; K. Düwel; K. Hauck; L. v. Padberg: Die Goldbrakteaten der Völkerwanderungszeit. Ikonographischer Katalog. München 1985-1989.
- Rudolf Simek: Lexikon der germanischen Mythologie. Stuttgart 2. Aufl. 1995. ISBN 3-520-36802-1
- Rudolf Simek: Religion und Mythologie der Germanen. Darmstadt 2003. ISBN 3-534-16910-7