Continental Germanic mythology

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.

Germanic mythology

Germanic mythology is a comprehensive term for myths associated with historical Germanic paganism, including Norse mythology, Anglo-Saxon mythology, Continental Germanic mythology, and other versions of the mythologies of the Germanic peoples. Germanic mythology ultimately derives from Indo-European mythology, also known as Indo-Germanic mythology.

South Germanic

South Germanic is a term used for a number of proposed groupings of the Germanic tribes or dialects. However, it is not widely used and has no agreed definition. The following uses are found:

As a straightforward synonym for West Germanic with the exception of its exclusion of those of the British Isles. This usage is particularly found in the study of Germanic mythology and culture, where it covers continental German sources in contrast to those from Scandinavia, which are termed North Germanic. (The East Germanic are generally ignored because there are no pre-Christian texts.) But it is also found in the work of linguists (for example, Stefan Sonderegger).

As a term in Ernst Schwarz's theory of the Germanic dialects. He divides Germanic into a North Germanic and a South Germanic (or Continental Germanic) group, with the Scandinavian languages and Gothic in the former. A feature of his grouping is the intermediate position of two other groups, Elbe Germanic and North Sea Germanic (Anglo-Frisian and Old Saxon), with the latter viewed "floating" being initially part of North Germanic (in the 2nd Century BC), but moving closer to the more southerly dialects in the subsequent five centuries. This view has received some support, although a number of those who share Schwarz's view, such as Lehmann, use instead the terms Northeast Germanic and Southwest Germanic. Nowadays the five linguistic groups of his definition are mostly considered separate and can be recognized in the division North Germanic, North Sea Germanic, Rhine-Weser Germanic, Elbe Germanic and East Germanic, all mutually linked into sets of two to four groups that share linguistic innovations, thus achieving to replace the late 19th century North-West-East model that tended to overemphasize "splits" and to obscure gradual transitions and cross relations.

Continental Germanic mythology

Tribes

Paganism

Germanic mythology

See also

South Germanic

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