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
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
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!
"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:
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 ปีที่แล้ว +1
Or maybe the Germans are more practical for their day naming... ;-)
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.
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.
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)
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.
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'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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
Perhaps the most objective approach to historical analysis I've heard, which at the same time covers the subject in a wider range ΄΄so. congratulations.
I just have to say, i share your fascination of any and all things heathen, especially in norse mythology... And i particularly appreciate how you've begun to add humor, and small quips into your videos... Makes them so much more entertaining... Keep it up... Makes things easier to remember... ;)
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.
One of my most treasured memories is of teaching my younger daughter the derivation of the names of the days of the week. I can see in my mind’s eye the look of eureka on her face when it clicked in her mind: “Thor’s’ Day” That was 35 years ago, and it’s making me cry.
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."
Still new to your videos. And hearing you get nerdy and getting that giddiness from this kinda information is exactly what I do as well. It's refreshing to know that I'm not the only nutt gets so cought up on interesting little things and just showing the love and passion towords this realm of knowlage.
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
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.
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.
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).
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. 😆
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
I hate how these videos answer one question and then bring up 3 more questions. Good video. Nice and condensed information for beginners or people that are curious.
A frustrating dynamic indeed but satisfying frustration. Awesome nerding out session as always. I just want to say thank you, Brother. Your discussions always leave me(A norse pagan who recently stopped lying to himself about what I've always known at my core was true. Closet be damned, Ive been in the broom dungeon.) Always leave me with more questions that answers. Answers that are later shown to me if i want them bad enough.
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).
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.
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.
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.
god fuck how much ive missed chanels who dont bother me with "upbeat music"(according to subtitles appearently)and annoying cutting style(jump cuts and stock footage and such) just the facts and talking,you keep being you,your style is sadly refreshing,it should be the standart,not the exception,thanks for existing mate!
Reading Carl Jung's biography he talked about Wotan and how the Wolves carried the souls of humans from the land of the living to the land of the dead. I'm 75% from German speaking countries with a Norwegian maiden name. It is difficult to find information on Germanic Paganism. Sometimes doing searches in German and then translating the page has helped. It has helped in doing genealogy too. Thanks for the information.
You're an absolute nerd, O.K. I love it! A person after my own heart! I love history and the more ancient the better. Ancient history and human prehistory is my favorite, perhaps mostly because of the impossible puzzles we may never solve. The mists of time and the mystery of lost worlds holds me enthralled in wonder and curiosity. Someday I'd like to go on a tour of stone circles and ancient sites to maybe catch a glimpse of the world as our ancestors saw it. :-)
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.
Hello sir, thank you so much, you are a great teacher. I like your humor. This gave me a lot of insight on things that I am already familiar with. I almost must say, I think it is truly fascinating the wide influence Isis had on the world.
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 is 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.
Enjoyed this video a lot, and quite like what you're wearing as well. Great attempts at humour also, I likewise attempt to be funny a lot of times (much to the dismay of my audience). Cheers!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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 !!!
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!
"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:
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
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 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.
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)
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.
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.
Wolf head garb... Black sword... Hey, are we all Sokka? Count me in!
I’m just a guy with a boomerang!
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've been watching American gods and Odin goes by Mr Wednesday and now it makes sense
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.
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.
Keep nerding out. It makes for great and very informative videos.
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
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.
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 love the little Bear , lol.
The bear is the best. "Wednesday is Odin's Day, wheeee!"
This guy is great very knowledgeable easy-going he has a nice personality
I'm Christian but I have to admit I'm fervently interested in Proto-Germanic history and religion
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.
You are quickly becoming my favorite norse pagan source of knowledge lmao.
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
Tacitus approval? Well done, sir!
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
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.
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.
Perhaps the most objective approach to historical analysis I've heard, which at the same time covers the subject in a wider range ΄΄so. congratulations.
I'm really enjoying this channel! I love studying religions and mythology.
I just have to say, i share your fascination of any and all things heathen, especially in norse mythology... And i particularly appreciate how you've begun to add humor, and small quips into your videos... Makes them so much more entertaining... Keep it up... Makes things easier to remember... ;)
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.
First off, loving your new Mjolnir
My favorite opening pun so far. Keep up the good work.
One of my most treasured memories is of teaching my younger daughter the derivation of the names of the days of the week. I can see in my mind’s eye the look of eureka on her face when it clicked in her mind: “Thor’s’ Day” That was 35 years ago, and it’s making me cry.
Are you still tired of the giant tree like the Arabs?
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.
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."
Still new to your videos. And hearing you get nerdy and getting that giddiness from this kinda information is exactly what I do as well.
It's refreshing to know that I'm not the only nutt gets so cought up on interesting little things and just showing the love and passion towords this realm of knowlage.
I sincerely believe this is the best video I have seen from you so far.
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
I love the answers leading to more questions. It makes me feel like I am being empowered by Odinn to search for more wisdom.
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.
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.
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).
Frigg and Freya used to be one and the same #Change my mind
PS great video as always
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.
Wish I could come to where ever your at and learn from u I definitely feel a connection and a good vibe from u. Keep up the great content skal
Also m9ving to Denmark eventually
@@Joe9923pagan Please just stop… with all of the ‘Playgan’ slang.
"I love history and comparative religion"
A man after my own heart 🤝🏻
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
I hate how these videos answer one question and then bring up 3 more questions. Good video. Nice and condensed information for beginners or people that are curious.
A frustrating dynamic indeed but satisfying frustration. Awesome nerding out session as always. I just want to say thank you, Brother. Your discussions always leave me(A norse pagan who recently stopped lying to himself about what I've always known at my core was true. Closet be damned, Ive been in the broom dungeon.) Always leave me with more questions that answers. Answers that are later shown to me if i want them bad enough.
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).
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.
You are soo great ,you explain it all with humor😁i love it ‼
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.
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.
Thank you for your insight. I do enjoy your videos a lot.
Great video
Amazing video, really makes the gears turn!
I'll happily listen to you needing out, you teach me a lot in a fun, engaging way.
god fuck how much ive missed chanels who dont bother me with "upbeat music"(according to subtitles appearently)and annoying cutting style(jump cuts and stock footage and such)
just the facts and talking,you keep being you,your style is sadly refreshing,it should be the standart,not the exception,thanks for existing mate!
Awesome video! Thank you! 👏🌱🌳💚
I think it would be wonderful to have someone write music to the sagas.
Love a history nerd sporting a Viking beard :) Thoroughly your vids, keep them coming!
Watching from my couch in Germany 😊
Oden's association with travel, reminds me of Zeus, he was the protector of strangers-travellers.
Stories being sung was common among cultures who didn’t write things down because songs are easier to memorise
Telling oral heritage in poem form, that is what they did in Finland also --> epos of Kalevala
Please make more content about things like this.
Heard. I’m planning on doing some more on this stuff.
Now you mention places named after the gods here in england we have wednesbury and you can find the sleipnir statue there
Reading Carl Jung's biography he talked about Wotan and how the Wolves carried the souls of humans from the land of the living to the land of the dead. I'm 75% from German speaking countries with a Norwegian maiden name. It is difficult to find information on Germanic Paganism. Sometimes doing searches in German and then translating the page has helped. It has helped in doing genealogy too. Thanks for the information.
You're an absolute nerd, O.K. I love it! A person after my own heart! I love history and the more ancient the better. Ancient history and human prehistory is my favorite, perhaps mostly because of the impossible puzzles we may never solve. The mists of time and the mystery of lost worlds holds me enthralled in wonder and curiosity. Someday I'd like to go on a tour of stone circles and ancient sites to maybe catch a glimpse of the world as our ancestors saw it. :-)
"Tacitus approval" - I lol'd
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.
Came for the puns, stayed for the nerding out.
Seek not the religion of your ancestors - seek what your ancestors sought.
Hello sir, thank you so much, you are a great teacher. I like your humor. This gave me a lot of insight on things that I am already familiar with. I almost must say, I think it is truly fascinating the wide influence Isis had on the world.
I was not ready for the Muppet voice 😂
You should nerd out more. This is damn good, great work as always
Muchísimas gracias!!!!!!!!
Friday I'm in love
I love this!
interesting and educational, it taught me a few more things that i did not know before, thank you ocean
The moment the muppet voice came out I was taking completely out 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. Hits subscribe
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 is 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.
Enjoyed this video a lot, and quite like what you're wearing as well. Great attempts at humour also, I likewise attempt to be funny a lot of times (much to the dismay of my audience). Cheers!
you forgot to mention the Kalevala a Finnish mythology book that is meant to be sung to be remembered and passed down just like the poetic Edda
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.
Ocean, nobody loves impossible puzzles unless they think there is a way to solve it.
the ones you can't solve are the best tho
7:16 That Commodus🤣 Perfect
New here, mostly a Gael, but I have some German ancestry as well, and always appreciate a fellowship of heathens! Slàinte mhath mo caraid!
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