The origins of our pagan traditions are very old. They go further back than ancient times, and some believe we can claim that European and Scandinavian traditions are over tens of thousands of years old. For our own Scandinavian part, most of the sources are in our own and well-known saga literature, as well as in Germanic history and the sources related to these. But, they also lie in today's practice, in our holidays, customs and in our own folk stories, fairy tales and legends.
The Germanic and Norse tradition was not to write down customs, traditions, myths or beliefs. We have never had a tradition for this. In other words, the Norse communities are not known for their written words, but for their oral traditions. Originally from this time there are only fragments, in the form of rock carvings, bautas, various embellishments and the like. In the same way, the Norse communities were not what we today call a civilization. Today's significance of this concept is typical of societies with a high number of people in a limited area, where surplus food production on the outskirts enables the formation of cities and metropolises. These cities and metropolises are characterized by higher technology in the form of more sophisticated and vulnerable distribution systems for food, water, waste and other necessities of life. They are also characterized by a higher degree of specialization among people, professions and processes, as well as more hierarchical social institutions. As a result, written literature, rites and history will also occur to a greater extent in such environments. Humans in a civilization live farther away from nature and the daily ritual processes associated with the soil and nature-bound life. A civilization in the present sense, all the while being vulnerable, specialized and weak in its own symbiosis, has a much greater need for preservation and memorization. The inhabitants of civilization practice the rites to a lesser extent daily, so this is a logical consequence. The Roman Empire is a shining example of such a society, where many of our Germanic sources are among the Romans' detailed descriptions and documentation of their lives.
Civilizations travel through history, as surely as they fall. For our own part, no Germanic or Norse civilization has ever existed in the proper sense of the word. Our communities have been characterized by scattered settlements, and distinct tribal communities with decentralized institutions of power. The tribes the literature describes were probably regarded as tribes in the correct sense. In practice, a tribe was rarely more than 150 individuals living close to each other. This is logical for biological reasons, all the while this is the limit on how many people you can keep track of, relate to, and not least trust. A more correct term might be the extended family. These tribal communities were to varying degrees in conflict with each other, but above all they cooperated, were intermarried and formed various alliances. For alien enemies, they crowded together and fought like a "nation" or a "coalition [1]".
At the heights of the Roman Empire and especially during its fall, the tribes outside the vast borders of the empire were called barbarians. During the expansion wars that spanned hundreds of years, they subjugated tribes and large geographical areas. The Celts were some of the first to bark with the Romans in Central Europe, and later all the way up to the British Isles. The most important value of the Roman Empire, besides new lands and resources, were soldiers and slaves to carry on the expansion wars and military machinery. The barbarians were in constant conflict with the Romans for a long time, and the story can tell of slave revolts, rising and resistance struggles from occupied barbarians who were converted to pure slaves. The story of Spartacus is perhaps the most prominent we know today. History also shows that if a civilization becomes too vulnerable and too civilized, it will always collapse, as was the case with Rome. However, they left behind the documentation and insight of all levels, societies and history of antiquity. We can say with great certanty that our Northern European and Norse traditions were such an integral part of daily life that our ancestors never wrote these down. It was not necessary or practical. The argument that our ancestors did not have time for “the art of the written word”, with a life occupied at the bottom of the pyramid of need, also falls on its own unreasonableness. Our ancestors found time for the most sophisticated technology, shipping, art, music and decoration. The older Edda was therefore preserved in Icelandic parchment manuscripts from the 12th and 13th centuries. These were written down based on oral traditions, which had lived for thousands of years in the common people. That is why it was Asbjørnsen & Moe on their travels around Norway's settlements who collected and wrote down the orally delivered fairytales much later. The younger Edda was written down by the Christian Snorri Sturlasson, and other records were also writtendown after the Christinaisation, and written down by munks. Therefore, there is also a broad consensus that the material bears the mark of its messengers, and not least the views of life that lived among them, at the time they were written down. At the same time, Northern Europe's "barbarians" were portrayed as primitive, naked warriors without culture and education. Both examples we know today are wrong. It is in such a light that we have to read our mythology and our literature. We have to put on “pagan optics”. We need to be aware of the medieval times and the motifs, and not least our own contemporary, when the traditions, myths and Norse heritage are to be interpreted and made sense of.
An illustrative example of our contemporary misinterpretation is the period in Scandinavia from the late 700s, up to Stiklestad in 1030. Little seems more misunderstood than the Viking age. We are constantly exposed to the "cartoon version", where primitive Vikings sail out, like drunken bandits, ravage, steal, rape and destroy. It seems like an abyss between facts and narrative. It's the victory lord who writes the story, always - flanked by Hollywood and school education. Today, many people believe that the Vikings largely adhered to primitive activities, and that robbery and rape were part of everyday life. There do not seem to be any sources that support the claim that Vikings to a greater extent than any other did such degenerate acts – but rather the contrary. Throughout our known Norse history, the death penalty has been the consequences of rape. It was regarded as honorless and act of high-crime, with equally severe consequences. It seems that there was no acceptance for this in our pre-Christian communities.
Europeans and the people of the Nordic countries in particular, have throughout history fought hard against the dogmatic monotheistic religions of the Middle East, and the power consolidations that followed. This struggle began with Christianity and then changed its form to the "crusades" against Islam. The birth of Christianity, at first, seems to have been confined to a small Jewish sect, completely devoid of traditions. At least it did not contain anything similar in form or content to European traditions then, or now. A few centuries after our era, the pagan Roman Empire stood at the balance point of the civilization commute. As is well known, this empire collapsed, where the causes were, among other things, an excessive army of foreign mercenaries on foreign soil, currency manipulation, as well as vulnerability and internal corruption. The Roman Empire was in many ways eaten up from within, by falling morale, corruption and ever more forced converts. "Bread and Circus" was the emperor's means of keeping the inhabitants from revolting. Great resources were used to distract the people with gladiators, plays, juggling and cookery [2]. In this process, management embraced Christianity. Most likely not or because of ideological or religious considerations, but because Christianity, and by the rest of the other monotheistic religions of the Middle East, were regarded as effective means of power. They "condemn" the people, make it submissive, easy to dictate, and in their pure forms are very restrictive of liberty. The Roman Empire collapsed, and Christianity gained its entrance into Europe. Art, culture, science, philosophy and technology took thousands of years of backlash, in a relatively short time. The cradle of Western civilization was burned at the stake [3]. One of mankind's greatest losses is the burning down and destruction of the ancient library in Alexandria [4] in the late 200s. The pagan treasures of Hellenistic and Greek high culture were lost in the conflict. The remains and fragments of what was saved from this culture and the flames of the desert religions [5] are the very foundations of what we today call Western civilization. Our oral traditions are the very foundation of ours.
Emperor Constantine in Rome was central to the transformation from paganism to Christianity. Constantine the first, or also known as St. Constantine, was a Roman emperor from the year 306 to the year 337. Constantine ruled a collapsing Roman empire. He introduced major political reforms, expanded the military vigorously, and continued trials of expansive distant wars - especially against the Germans and "internal barbarians". He introduced the new currency of that time – “solidus" to fight inflation. Constantine was the first Roman emperor to become a Christian, and one of his many social reforms was apparently to Christianize everyone else as well, thereby consolidating power and control. The Catholic Church was born. Christianisation by brutal force began, first in the south of Europe, and later in the north. It followed the vast ruins of the Roman Empire. Missionary centers were set up throughout Europe to convert European kingdoms and tribes. It was a cruel inquisition, subject to a feudalistic recipe. It was carried out with coercion, murder, mutilation and genocide.
A descriptive sketch from the Spanish Inquisition.
It can be argued that, in general, European pagans were gullible people. Honor and justice were virtues above all. Therefore, it seems as if they were a light switch when the Inquisitors came up with flattering words, apparently as friends on the first try. The Christian betrayal and slaughter of thousands of Saxons [6] and the destruction of their Irminsul [7] under Charlemagne in the year 772 is a picture of how brutal this missionary struggle was in Europe. Snorri´s Edda also eases the veil on the process in our own country, where our ancestors were tortured, killed and entire villages burned down. Corrupted European leaders, and leaders who were given the choice, along with all their people, to either be slain or to bow their heads, and officially become Christians. This invasion, these killings, torture and atrocities, took place for hundreds of years throughout Europe. At the same time, the written literature, the cultural treasures, our sacred groves, were burned to the ground - and strange houses of a desert God were set over them. The European people were persecuted on their own soil, either by invading elements, or later in civil war-like conditions, fronted by power-consolidating kings, with direct support from Rome and the church power.
In the Norse context, the Viking Age is a very short period of time. It lasted for just over 200 years. This time was by no means any Norwegian or Scandinavian golden age. It appears to be a desperate struggle, against an invading, freedom-limiting and foreign power. Scandinavia was the last area to be Christianized, and Europe was historically in ruins, with ruined societal elements, poverty and death among the populations. At the same time, there was a huge consolidation of power for the church and the elites. It is not without reason that medieval Europe is called "the dark ages". In this short time, the average height of the population of Norway probably dropped several centimeters. What we respected and held dear was destroyed and attempted erased.
On a June day in 793, a few years after the Saxon confrontations farther south, the tribes of Western Norway, probably Horder (the tribe of Hordaland), Ryger (the tribe of Rogaland) and Egder (the tribe of Agder) formed a large army fleet. They sailed over to England, with the goal of the monastery of Lindisfarne. This seems to have been the main missionary center towards Scandinavia. They burned everything down to the ground and killed what was left of "scholars," monks and priests. This was the start of what we call the Viking Age. Those who believe that the Vikings first began their travels at this time, and only for the purpose of robbing and ravaging, probably have historical incompetence. Our ancestors had extensive and peaceful trade and conduct with England, all over the Mediterranean, Africa and far into Asia which can be documented since the early Bronze Age (long before Jesus claimed birth). We discovered America 500 years before Columbus. It should also be mentioned that the number of "Viking attacks" was greatest in their own territory - something that further substantiates the claim of civil war and deep division.
Lindisfarne, the missionay centre towards Scandinavia in the year 793.
During the more than 200 consecutive years, our ancestors established colonies on all the islands in west, along the Mediterranean and elsewhere in Europe. Common to all the locations was that they posed a direct or indirect threat to Scandinavia. Moreover, our country was in full civil war, since corrupt kings here at home had taken Christianity as a means of power in the 9th century. Norway was officially assembled by Harald Hårfagre, with force and feudal recipe, to centralize and weaken tribal and parliamentary power in the country for his own gain. He was a “Gentile”, but Olav Tryggvasson and later Olav the Holy betrayed their own people, and carried on the imperialist thought with forced Christianity from within, towards their own. Consolidation of power also seems essential to some of our own kings. During this time, Iceland was populated by Norwegians. These were freedom-loving Norwegians, who moved from the internal strife in Norway, and wanted to establish their own free society on this saga island. It is not without reason that Icelanders are who they are, a freedom-loving and hard-working people. Iceland is thus the place in the world where our traditions are best preserved. It can also be argued that it is precisely in Iceland that the remains of our original democracy stand strongest.
As a direct consequence, our original democracy was greatly weakened during these years, and the subsequent concentration of power around an almighty king and the church accumulated. Our laws were replaced by foreign new.
On Frostating it was written:
«AT LÖGUM SKAL LAND VÁRT BYGGJA
EN EIGI AT VLÖGUM ØYDA»
(WITH LAW OUR LAND WILL BE BUILT,
WITH LAWLESSNESS OUR LAND WILL NOT BE DESERTED)
From Håkon the Good's saga, we can read about how, among other things, the tribes of Trøndelag opposed the power:
“When King Håkon came to Frosting, a large number of peasants had arrived. When the Ting were set, King Håkon spoke, and he began by saying that it was his commandments and prayers to peasants and farmers - powerful as poor - and all the people as well - young as old, rich as poor, women as men - that all should let oneself be Christians and believe in one god: Christ - the son of Mary. And they should deny all sacrifices and pagan gods, but keep the holiday from all work every seventh day and fast every seven days. As soon as the king had presented this to the people, there was a great turmoil; the peasants murmured that the king would take their work, and they said that in this way the land could not be run, and the laborers and the thralls argued that they could not work if they could not get food - they also said that it was a deficiency with King Håkon and his father and their relatives, that they were miserly with the food, though generous with the gold.
Asbjørn from Medalhus in Gauldalen rose and answered the king in his speech; he said, "We peasants believed - King Håkon!" he said, "- that when you had held the first Ting here in Trondheim, and we made you the king and received again our allodial heritage from you, we would have got heaven in our hands, but now we do not know whether we have been granted our freedom, or whether you will again enslave us with strange conduct, when we are to reject the faith which our parents and all our ancestors have had before us - first in the burning age and now in the mound age - and they were much more honorable men than we are, and this belief has been of use to us. We have shown you so much love that we have let you decide our laws. Now it is our desire - and the peasants' decision - to abide by the law which you gave us here at the Frostating, and which we consented to; we will all follow you and keep you the king, as long as each of us peasants, now here at the Ting, is alive, if you - king! - will show moderation and only ask us for it, which we can give you and which we do not find indispensable. But if you hold on to this matter so hard that you will use violence and abuse against us, then we farmers have all decided to discard you king - and choose ourselves another chieftain, who will accept that we can have that faith in freedom, as we wish. Now you must - king! - choose between these terms before the Ting ends!”
Asbjørn from Medalhus speaking at Frostating.
We all know how the story ended, despite the fact that Norwegians have generally opposed most directives and centralization of power on external hands. Violence and abuse for transgression became final. The consolidation of power began with Harald Hårfagre, and was later taken over by the royals in his lineage. The resistance to this was great, and the old laws and the system of the Tings were still very strong in Norway. Håkon the good got his name because he eased the regime and gave the allodial heritage back to the farmers. He also allowed paganism to continue to some extent. Unfortunately, his succession to the throne was further concentrated around power, religion, anti-democracy and feudalism. In other words, the Norwegian/Norse Kingdom had its definitive end with the Black Death plague in the mid-1300s. The plague took its toll on the population, after over 200 years of decay. A time of free, cultivated peasants, direct government and democrazy by the tribes and decentralized power was over. The instrument of power above all in the compulsory process was Christianity.
For Europe, the Roman Empire was not an isolated enrichment. This empire's expansion led to widespread genocide, torture and annihilation throughout Europe. In addition, in the middle Ages, the Muslim expansion began, in which the Muslims and the Ottoman Empire expelled and wiped out Europeans all masses. They occupied lands and cities for hundreds of years. They had by far the most extensive and comprehensive form of slave trade in the history of the world, where hundreds of millions of people were slaves during the Caliphate. Few know this whole story, but Islamic ships took slaves throughout Northern Europe and were all the way up to Iceland during this period. A not insignificant number of people from Scandinavia ended up as labor or amusement slaves for the caliphate's masters during Europe's Middle Ages. The Muslims did - like the Christian inquisitors before them - burn down ancient libraries, and crush cultural treasures. They also burned down the library in Alexandria after the Christians had done it before them. Fortunately, when the Muslims defeated the old Austro-Roman Empire, not all books were burned, but they ended up defragmented across several places in Europe.
At this time, Europe lay with a broken back after the wear and tear of the Roman Empire, and the forced Christianisation that followed during the darkest Middle Ages. European resistance was definitely made in the Middle Ages, but this resistance was largely about differences within Christianity, such as the Battle of Constantinople. The fact that Islam was not neutralized more quickly in Europe was due to Christianity itself, which was no better than the other invasions, and which left Europe weak, and in ruins. The Mongol invasions in Europe were equally cruel to the European population, and disproportionately destructive in the East. Paradoxically, the clash between Islamic invasion and the Mongol invasion in parallel, resulting in the Mongols crushing of the caliphate's heart - Baghdad in the conflict, and neutralizing Islamic further grip on Europe – was the biggest reason for the outcome. Neutralization was not to blame for Europe's "brave knights templar" alone. But, there was definitely European resistance even before this, and one of our own kings was also central to this cultural struggle:
Sigurd Magnusson Jorsalfar was born in 1090 and died in 1130. He got his nickname “Jorsalfar”, of Norse Jórsalir - the Norse name of today's Jerusalem, and due to his travel there. Much has been written about Sigurd, but he ruled in a forcibly Christianized Norway from 1103 to 1130. During this period, Europe was under strong Muslim pressure. Sigurd was chosen as an eighteen-year-old to go on excursions, while his brother Øystein was chosen to undertake the interim governance in Norway. The trip to Jórsalir took a total of three years, with 60 longships with 6,000 men. They sailed from Bjórgvin (Bergen) on a fall day in 1108. On the way to Jerusalem, Sigurd and his men fought the Muslim occupants country by country. They attacked them in every town southwards. He liberated Spain, Portugal and all associated islands. All land past Gibraltar freed Sigurd. He conquered the islands of Formentera, Ibiza and Menorca in the Balearic Islands from the emir Mubassir ibn Sulayman al-Nassir ad-Daula. In the early summer of 1110, they arrived in Sicily. He left everything he conquered from the Muslims and the Caliphate, back to his European kinsmen. In the fall of 1110, Sigurd and his men arrived in Jórsalir in the port of Akko (of Nortse: Akersborg), after cleaning everything up on their way. There was a great deal of Muslim pressure, and the areas in the north were under Muslim control. Most of Sigurd's army, therefore, remained and fought against Islam. They were later admitted into the army of Emperor Alexios (Greek / Roman) as "Væringer" (Norwegian mercenaries). Alexios controlled the then Roman Byzantine Empire (today's Istanbul). Our ancestors called the place Miklagard, which is mentioned in our sagas on several occasions. Over time, the Norwegian “Væringer”, our Norwegian king, together with our Greek and Roman brothers managed to neutralize Islam in Europe, and fight back before it was too late. The Muslim Turks were also defeated there.
Europe's turbulent time in this period, therefore, began with the entrance of Christianity following the collapse of the Roman Empire, which left Europe in a very weak position, and with a weakened will and ability to defend itself. Internal disputes within Europe increased sharply, with fraternal wars over variants of foreign Christian faith and dogma. Similar to Islam, invading Christianity was completely devastating for Europe. Christianity, being forced upon us and invading, contained none of the traditions we "fill" Christianity with today and which are part of us. Traditions most of us are fond of. Those who claim that Christianity is part of "Norwegian culture" are not historically competent, or omit essential parts of history. Our original traditions, the pagan ones, stood so strong that Christians had to plagiarize them, transform them and present them as their own. To save lives, people officially became Christians. In the private sphere, the pagan rites were probably held in high esteem. A fundamental reason for this is that the pagan rites were so interconnected with daily life; they were seasonal and nature-based. When Christianity failed to remove the rites in its entirety, it had to make the rites "their own." This was done with hard and brutal coercion. Christianity's "morality", "goodness" and "charity" are not sudden inventions of the Middle East. It can therefore be argued with certanty that not only did paganism survive Christianity, but actually shaped it to a great extent. This is the fact in all areas of Europe Christianity came into contact with, but in Scandinavia in particular.
That Christianity in our part of the world underwent a reformation can only serve as evidence of this. The Reformation itself, from a European pagan standpoint, cannot be regarded as a positive thing. The reason for the Reformation was that Christianity did not fit into, or was not “adopted”, in the population it was intended for. The original European paganism was never totally defeated, and Europe eventually came into a renaissance beginning in the mid-1300s, where the pagan elements were found in spirit, art and culture. This led to the Reformation in the 16th century, which was a Christian counter-reaction, in which Protestantism sprang from Catholic / Orthodox Christianity. The latter is more harmonized with an original European mindset, and was more similar to the Christianity practiced before the counter-reaction / reformation. Protestantism is thus a more Judea-Christian variant, farther from the original European pagan tradition, and therefore the Reformation with pagan eyes was only a Christian “crackdown” on the European Renaissance and its attempts to revitalize the original European spirit. It spread to Northern Europe in the 1300s. It was just as cruel as the compulsory forced Christianisation process was at first. It was a systematic genocide of those who stood for the more original European values and ideals, and those who were involved in the Renaissance “business”. It was a fight against heresy, and Christianity was to be "purified" of the renaissance, with torture, murder, violence and burning of “witches”. In Norway we were given legal terms for "Sorcery", where it is documented that more than 300 people were burned or beheaded between 1570 and 1695. It is documented that 3% of Finnmark's population was executed because of "sorcery". This happened all over the country, where torture was in widespread use to get wanted confessions. Historians and scientists believe that these numbers can probably be doubled. In central Europe, the per capita situation does not seem to have been much better. This purification of the Inquisition back to Christianity's more pure Jewish roots is the backdrop of the 30-year war among Europeans, where brothers and sisters slaughtered eachother over Judea-Christian interpretations and facets of a forced desert religion. This, in turn, led to, among other things, Islamic emergence in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, while Europeans emerged divisive and weak in cicil wars.
If we go back to our own record of our original Scandinavian literature, and look at our ancestors' view of, for example, Ragnarok as a rebirth at all levels, cosmic, earthly and on the human level, it gives a circular view of life and world. This was in direct conflict with all variants of Christianity, which in this case are purely linear. The view of Ragnarok after Christianity, as the downfall an end of the world, therefore appears to have been subject to the linear view of Christianity, thereby losing its true meaning and original symbolism. It seems obvious that during the forced Christianisation of our ancestors, only linear optics were implemented consistently throughout mythological doctrine, when it was later written down by the same Christians. The Church actively used this throughout the middle Ages, in a relatively slow indoctrination process. We find examples in Norse litterature, as well as in more hybrid-like symbols, embellishments, stave churches and other objects. It is also a part of the story that the first type of Christianity our kings adopted is not very similar to the Christianity that is practiced today. The first Christianity to gain a foothold in the north was Celtic Christianity. This direction of Christianity is associated with agnosticism and solar worship - a type of Christianity that is claimed to be a hybrid between paganism and Christianity, and far less submissive. Stave churches bear the mark of this, as our oldest church buildings. They are inspired by both pagan and Celtic Christianity, where the latter worshiped the serpent in the Garden of Eden. If this sun, serpent and dragon worship came from pagan origin, is very likely. In that case, it was a pendant that never let go. Later, the level of conflict became very high as the elites accepted Celtic Christianity (hybrid between Christianity and paganism), when the pope and Rome put pressure on the Norwegian kings. This is one of the reasons King Sverre of Norway spoke up hard against Rome.
King Sverre in a snowstorm over Vossefjellene. The story of Birkebeinerne and Baglerne is really about the conflict of religion in a civil war between Celtic hybrid Christianity and Catholic Christianity, following orders from the pope and Rome.
Today, Norwegians are generally not Christians. The country is de-Christianized. This is quite natural, seen with the cause of mainly two factors; for one, it is no longer associated with public compulsion to be a Christian, or to practice Christianity. To put it another way, most Norwegians were never Christian. After the Renaissance and Enlightenment, the people came back "out of the darkness". There was, after a long time, room for pagan science, logic and philosophy. Christianity has therefore, in many and involuntary ways, been constantly changing, and the pagan element in it has never really lost ground. The second factor is foreign immigration, and Islam. In recent times, the latter has gained more and more space, in a "tolerant and secular" society, where our very necessary pagan concept of honor and willingness for self-cultivation have also been lost and replaced by relativism [8]. Society suffers greatly from it, demographic, cultural and economic. Last but not least, Islam can never be compatible or reformable. It represents an all-encompassing ideology. It has historically been at war with Europe for nearly 1,500 years, and has essentially produced dysfunctional states, regressiveness and very bloody conflicts and borders.
Many claim that our Western civilization is based on Christian values. This is historically very imprecise; in fact it is directly wrong. Our Western civilization consists of and is built on pagan values, and these still shine through the thin makeup of Christianity. The makeup has only been hanging on for just over a thousand years. In this context, a thousand years is a short moment. In this way, there are undoubtedly positive elements of Christianity that we should take care of – those are the pagan elements.
Our Western civilization today has many parallels to Valentine's Roman Empire. In essence, culturally, we stand at the gates of the same cultural struggle. That struggle is only won by revitalizing and preserving our heritage, culture and ancestors. The cultural struggle is won with knowledge and self-cultivation.
[1] The Germanic tribes had no concept of a state, no thought of a state power. They did not distinguish between public and personal loyalty -only the loyalty of each individual or family to keep the tribe together and make it a political and military factor.
[2] Today we are distracted by mainstream propaganda, reality TV shows, sports and of course the fetish of “culinary arts”. Little has changed.
[3] The Islamic Caliphate is doing the same today, where the burning of books and the destruction of ancient treasures and culture are part of the warfare.
[4] The Royal Library of Alexandria is said to have been the largest library of antiquity. The library was linked to the Museion (Greek: Μουσεῖον), which was probably the largest intellectual institution of antiquity. Museion was a place for music and poetry, containing a philosophical school and a library in connection with Plato's philosophy school, as well as a gallery for sacred writings.
[5] When the word inquisition is used, I mean general Christianisation by force and violence. There is no specific reference to the Spanish Inquisition, for example, where this word is used in the description of the Renaissance persecutions of the middle Ages. I would rather call it the Germanic Inquisition – and it is the same thing we are talking about - the same means and crimes.
[6] Germanic tribe. During this period the Saxons populated parts of Germany.
[7] Irminsul was the Saxon Yggdrasil. - their symbol of the tree of life, only by a different name.