The Passing of the Old Gods

• Odin, god of inspiration, whether in the form of battle-frenzy, intoxication, or secret wisdom from the land of the dead.

• Thor, god of the sky and the thunderbolt, preserver of the community where men pitted their strengths and wits against the hardship of the weather and the attacks of their enemies.

• Freyr who with his sister Freyja brought peace and prosperity to men, the blessings of fertility in the home and field, healthy children and rich harvests.

This group of deities can be traced back to when the Germans were a heathen people and worshipped Wodan, god of inspiration and the dead, Tiwaz, god of the sky and of battle and a god of fertility, along with the Goddess of Many Names whom the Danes called Nerthus.

The symbols associated with these gods:

• Starry Heavens and the Mighty Tree.

• The unloosening of Fetters.

• The Hammer that shattered rocks and slew giants.

• The Ship and the Wagon that brought the deity to men.

• The Horse that galloped through the air.

• The Spear determined victory.

• The Women bearing gifts.

All these symbols of power appear to have been known to the Germans in the early period and to have retained something of their potency into the late Viking age. The background of these deities and the cosmic region surrounding the World Tree also seems to be of great antiquity. Above was the home of the gods, below the great depths, with middle earth, the home of mankind poised between them. The doors between the worlds were not hard to open, given the necessary knowledge and the courage to choose so perilous a path.

Many of the myths are concerned with the conception of a journey to the Other World, through the cold and darkness that acted as a barrier. The rich symbolism of roads and bridges, dark holes and caves leading to the underworld, the open burial mound, the journey through the air in bird form - all this emphasizes the belief in a passage between the worlds both for men and other beings. The underworld, either below the earth or the waves, is the abode of darkness and death, threatening always to destroy the ordered world of light and overrun inhabited earth. YET, at the same time, it is the place from which NEW life comes and to which the gods may look for their brides.

Above all, the Northern myths are clear-sighted in the recognition in the reality in the forces of destruction. The fight in a narrow place against odds, which has been called the ideal of the heroic literature in the north, is given cosmic stature in Ragnarok, the doom of the gods, when Odin and his peers go down fighting against the monsters and the unleashed fury of the elements. The depths of the subconscious are given full recognition and the greatest terror to be faced - the disintegration of the mind in madness or death - is not pushed to one side. At Ragnarok a rich and wonderful world was shattered and the monsters had their fill of destruction. After that, it was possible to see past the catastrophe and to imagine a new world built upon the ruins of the old.