My Understanding of Religion
Page 11
A large amount of giant stories come from Europe. By about 2500 BC Indo-European languages were distributed over much of Europe. Before their conversion to Christianity Germanic culture, on occasions, extended from the Black Sea to Greenland. Germanic religion was significant to the development of civilisation in Europe. However, as the Germanic peoples of Europe were converted to Christianity relatively early less is known about their religion than about the religion of Scandinavia, where Germanic religion survived into the middle Ages. The important gods of Norse tradition are Odin, Thor, and Freyja. The name Thor is related to the Germanic word for thunder. He was an enemy of the giants. Odin may have been the father of Thor. Odin and his brothers slaughtered the giant Ymir.
Ymir, also called Aurgelmir, is considered the first being and father of all giants. In one tradition he is formed from drops of cold water from the rivers known as Elivagar. Another tradition claims he grew from the drops of water generated when the ice of Niflheim (World of Darkness) came into contact with the warm air from Muspelheim - a hot
land in the south guarded by the giant Surt; he will lead the sons of Muspelheim in the destruction of the world by fire in the Ragnarok. Ymir was fed by four streams of milk that flowed from the cow Audumla. Her licking frost from stones brought Odin's grandfather Buri into existence. Odin had a mistress named Jord, a giantess. He also had a foster brother called Loki, whose father was the giant Farbauti (Dangerous Striker). The blood that spurted from Ymir during his slaughter drowned all but one of the frost giants.
Irish traditions declare Ireland to have been home to a race of giants called Fomorians. Bres, a descendant of the Fomorians, ruled over the Tuatha De Danaan for a time. In the 'Book of the invasion of Ireland' the Tuatha De Danaan arrive from the northern islands of the world already in possession of the spear of Lug. Lug is an important god known in Ireland, England, France, The Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Poland, and elsewhere.
Norse, Irish, and English traditions identify giants as indigenous to parts of northwest Europe. Norse and Irish mythi relate that gods entered territories occupied or previously occupied by giants. Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote that Brutus and Corineus encountered giants in England. These traditions suggest giants were in some sense native to parts of northwest Europe, and that at some time in the past areas of northwest Europe were inhabited by tall people to whom the term giant was applied by interlopers - who may have been labelled little people by the natives. In other words, stories about giants and little people could have been generated by contact between groups of tall people and groups of short people. Local mythologies place giants in northwest Europe before the arrival of the Germanic or Celtic gods. While it might not be possible to identify a people called giants, a survey of ancient European peoples might suggest some possible candidates.
In order to distinguish between any religions native to northwest Europe and Germanic or Celtic introductions, two more Indo-European speaking peoples (Slavs and Balts) become unavoidably mentionable. Slavonic speakers inhabited parts of the area between the Baltic Sea, Adriatic Sea, Black Sea, and White Sea. The Slavonic branch of Indo-European language is traditionally divided into three groups: South Slavonic, East Slavonic, and West Slavonic. Group one includes Church Slavonic, Slovene, Serbo-Croat, Bulgarian, and Macedonian. Group two includes Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian. The third group includes Polish, Czech, and Slovak. Balts live in Lithuania and Latvia, on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. The Baltic branch of Indo-European languages (many of which are now extinct) includes Lithuanian and Latvian - of those that became extinct only Old Prussian left any written records. Baltic is more closely related to the Slavonic, Germanic, and Indo-Iranian branches of Indo-European languages than to any other branches of Indo-European languages. Of the Baltic languages that still exist Lithuanian is of special note: its dialects are the most archaic of all living Indo-European languages.
Study of ancient Slav cultures is problematic owing to the late arrival of Slavs onto the historical stage and a scarcity of artefactual evidence and reliquiae. All available information on Slav religions is based on Christian observation. In his 'Chronica Slavorum' the 12th century missionary Helmold of Bosau reported a Deus otiosus (inactive god) tradition amongst some Slavs in the Baltic region and a Black God tradition amongst some Eurasian Slavs. In primitive Slav tradition spirits were significant. There was a lightning-wielding spirit called Perun, a forest spirit called leshy, a field spirit called polevoy, and domestic spirits called domovoy, ovinnik, and gumenik. The moon (mesyats) may have been the most important Slavic divinity. Some Ukrainian Slavs certainly thought of the moon as their God and Bulgarian children were taught to call the moon 'Uncle God' and 'Uncle Lord'. Although the moon was thought of as male the Sun was usually depicted as female, and the Russian word for Sun (solntse) is probably derived from an ancient feminine title conferred upon the Sun. Bog is the Slavic term for God. Some scholars assert it is an Indo-Iranian word meaning 'good fortune' which displaced from Slavonic languages the name of the Indo-European sky god: Deivos, Deus, Deva, Dievas, Ziu, etc.
The prime Baltic sky god is Dievas. The Balts envision Dievas as a king residing on a farmstead in the sky (or upon the sky mountain). He has two sons, the morning and evening stars, known in Lithuanian as Dievo suneliai. Balts also acknowledge a sun-goddess called Saule. Saule lives next to Dievas on the sky mountain. The daughters of Saule play, work, and fight with the sons of Dievas - when the sons of the sky god break the rings of the daughters of the sun-goddess, Saule becomes angry with Dievas. In Baltic art Saule is portrayed as a daisy, rosette, wheel, crown, red apple or ring. The Lithuanian name for the Baltic moon god is Menuo. Known primarily as the principal suitor of Saule, Menuo functions as a war god. In Latvian tradition Menuo is called Meness and is depicted as a rival suitor of Auseklis (morning star) for a daughter of the sun-goddess. In Lithuanian tradition Auseklis is Ausrine (goddess of dawn), with whom Menuo had an adulterous relationship. As punishment for his crime Menuo was cut to pieces by Perkunas (Thunderer), who is related to the Slav Perun, Norse Thor, and Greek Zeus.
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