Home
Culture
Germanic
Random

Germanic

Holle - Teich - Meissner

Holle’s kitten

Tidbits on the tale of  Frau Holle’s kitzen. There is a mountain in Hessen, Germany called the Meissner where one still can find traces of the central German goddess Holle, Holda or Helja. It’s a place where her cult seems to have survived for a long time. There are roads going to the mountaintop and there are many hiking paths. Close to the top is...
Gundestrup

The Grail Myths

Occult knowledge and ancient wisdom. What was Parsifal seeking in Wolfram Eschenbach’s poem that was referred to as “the Grail”? A stone ? The Lapsis exillis? It is also said that a pagan astrologer read the mystery of the Grail in the stars: ” Flegetanis, the heathen saw with his own eyes in the constellations things He was shy to talk about, Hidden mysteries that...
Hexen kommando

German Witches

It’s almost Walpurgisnacht, no better moment to have a closer look at our witches or Hexen. Where did this cruel hatred against women and the ancient pre-christian sanctuaries start? When Pope Innocent VIII (1484–92) professed his belief in witchcraft, he condemned it, and dispatched inquisitors to Germany to try its supposed practitioners and punish them unimpeded. Singling out Mainz, Cologne, Trier, Salzburg, and Bremen, the papal bull declared that “some parts of Northern Germany” were infested with “many persons of […]...
Skull cup

Skull Cups

In Sanskrit, skull cups are known as kapala, and they are generally formed from the oval section of the upper cranium. They served as libation vessels for large numbers of deities, which were mostly wrathful. However, they are also seen with gods such as Padmasambhava (India), who holds the skull cup, which is described as holding an ocean of nectar that floats in the longevity...
funeral

The greatest secret of the North that only two know.

The crime that finally turned the gods against Loki was his role in the death of Balder, however this event is also one of the great puzzles of northern mythology. Why were Odin and Frigg, with all their knowledge, not able to prevent the disaster? What did Odin say -before he climbed on bale-fire- into the ear of his son? This is maybe the greatest...

Children of Ash and Elm – A Vikings Story

Based on the latest archaeological and textual evidence, Children of Ash and Elm tells the story of the Vikings on their own terms: their politics, their cosmology and religion, their material world. Known today for a stereotype of maritime violence, the Vikings exported new ideas, technologies, beliefs, and practices to the lands they discovered and the peoples they encountered, and in the process were themselves changed. From Eirík Bloodaxe, who fought his way to a kingdom, to Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir, the […]...
background sword

The Arthurian Cycle

In every varieties of the Arthurian legend, the traditional reality of Arthur (who supposedly was the Warrior King of the Nordic Cimres as they definitely battled against the Anglo-Saxons between the 5th and sixth century C.E.), is less important in comparison to the aspect according to which we are led to see in his kingdom a sense of the fundamental regal function purely linked to...

The Nordic Apocalypse

The Vǫluspá, one of the most remarkable poems of the Old Norse tradition, stands as a monumental piece of literature within the Poetic Edda. Its narrative recounts the creation of the world, its eventual destruction, and its prophesied rebirth. Within this grand cosmological scope, the Vǫluspá is presented as a prophecy delivered by a vǫlva, a seeress who commands great authority and wisdom. The poem,...
infinity

Arthur’s Grail

The Hidden Wisdom in Arthur’s Grail – In the Celtic sources that are the assumed origin of the Arthurian legends, we are told that the Grail is a cauldron, a symbol both of fertility and immortality. The cauldron was a powerful religious icon of its day. As mentioned earlier in another post, it brought forth marvellous and magical feasts, revitalizing and resurrecting great and powerful armies. According to Gardiner, as he wrote in his book the Serpent Grail, it was […]...
Gudrun's sacred woods

The mysterious German forests

The German forest is immense, vast, dense, dark, and impenetrable. It is the refuge of the exiled and of outlaws. A site of lairs for terrifying and often monstrous animals. The dwelling place for brigands and marginal individuals. The woods thereby forms a natural frontier. The Bohemian Forest (or Nemus Boemicum) to the south connects with the Bavarian Forest and the Austrian Nordwald; the forest...
ilmarinen finnish folklore

Secrets hidden in Finnish Folklore

An enigmatic depiction of the golden fleece quest: an Athenian Red-figure cup discovered in 1834 and attributed to the Athenian painter Douris (c. 480 BC) shows in its interior the goddess Athena who watches as a huge serpent disgorges a man, alive. Behind them is a tree with a ram’s skin in its branches. These clues assure us that the hero is Jason. The artist...
Minnesinger at court

The Secrets of the Minnesinger

The writer Aventinus stated that the Minne and the Minnesingers did not have anything to do with love and constant courting. Minne means “memories”. The sonnets render last honors to old lords, to the proud history of a folk and their secrets. In these songs one can find a hidden knowledge … Troubadours or Minnesingers such as Wolfram von Eschenbach proclaimed Sibilla a prophetess, a pythia of the Grâl and she dwelled inside a magical mountain. Apollo A pythia was […]...
Maier files books