Germanic mythology

Rudolf Steiner sketches in extensive coverage in a multitude of lectures how, through the process of tradition, the current of ancient wisdom about evolution of Earth and Man flowed through the various cultural ages of the Current Postatlantean epoch, and how we find the remnant of this tradition in ancient Nordic-Germanic myths and sagas. This can be seen as a form of ancient spiritual science, originating from ages where humanity had a very different consicousness, language, and culture.

The epicentrum of cultural development is usually sketched to move through the various ages from ancient India, ancient Persia, through Egypt to the Greek and Roman culture to the current cultural age. This can be called the Southern stream.

Throughout all this time, the culture in Europe also evolved and had its own tradition of knowledge transfer of which we can still find the remnants in the Nordic and Germanic mythology. Furthermore this is related to the ancient European Mysteries (Hibernian, Druidic, Trotten), see Mystery School tradition. This can be called the Northern stream, see more on Two streams of development

A foundational basis of this millenia-old heritage of the Northern stream is conveyed by remnants found in medieval texts (12-16th centuries), such as the Edda which contains Ragnarok or the 'Twilight of the Gods', the Song of the Nibelungen, and the Siegfried saga. A re-discovery of these texts and tradition took place in the 18th and 19th centuries (e.g. see examples Müller and Jordan on Nibelungen, as well as Richard Wagner. Rudolf Steiner sketches how they are all part of one tradition and flow of ancient wisdom in the Northern stream. Furthermore the themes of these sagas can also be found back in even older archeological records of before the 10th century.

The 'Northern' stream is illustrated by Schema FMC00.432 and described in its relation to the Southern stream in the 1905-GA090B lectures. Whereas the Southern stream developed the Postatlantean culture in the first four cultural ages, the Northern stream had a different evolutionary pathway preparing the future impulse of the consciousness soul and Christ Impulse. It is this different pathway which is the core subject of the Germanic mythology, leaving behind the old gods and traditions, waiting and preparing for what is to come. The spiritual scientific background can be related to the Atlantean migrations and the physiology and soul constitution of the people living in the different geographies.

What eventually followed after these long preparations for the European people and cultures, in the buildup at the end of the fourth cultural age before this new Current fifth cultural age, is described in another set of medieval texts, see Holy Grail and Parsifal. See also: Christ Impulse - meeting of two streams

Aspects

General

• Resemblance and conformity between the characteristic forms of religion of the Northern Germanic races and those of the Persians. (1904-10-25-GA051)
• geographical span of the northern stream with Nordic and Germanic myths and sages (re Schema FMC00.432)
  • Rudolf Steiner mentions a) Scandinavia and (Northern) Russia (even specific: Novgorod) in context Trotten mysteries, b) England and Western Europe in context of the Druidic mysteries, and c) Ireland in context of Hibernian mysteries. He also mentions Iceland, Scotland. On naming re a), see also: Druidic and Trotten mysteries
• this section is related to: Mystery School tradition, see coverage of 'ancient Northern European Mysteries: Hibernian, Druidic, Trotten mysteries'
• Richard Wagner expressed much of this tradition in his works, and Rudolf Steiner covered these extensively.

• the world creation as described by ancient Germanic and Persian cultures (1907-10-28-GA101) can be held against the Book of Genesis.
• concise descriptive of essential elements (1904-10-25-GA051)
  • The sparks which flew over from Muspelheim, gave rise, in the abyss, to the first race of giants, of whom Ymir was the most outstanding. Then arose the Cow, Audhumbe, which was overlaid by the ice, and brought forth a mighty human form.
  • From this human form sprang the Gods: Woten, Wile and We, whose names mean Reason, Will and Kindness. This second race of Gods was called Asen. Its descent was traced to the first race of giants.

The northern and southern streams

• see Schema FMC00.432, for introduction see 1904-10-25-GA051, but also 1905-12-10-GA90B: two branches of the common main stock
• various perspectives: origin in previous epochs, which people, what characteristics
  • in the south:
    • tradition from Lemurian epoch (perished by fire), symbolically represented by 'Muspelheim', the 'warm land of the Sun' or 'kingdom of fire'
    • to the southern branch belong the Greeks, Latins, and Hindus;
  • in the north:
    • the tradition from the Atlantean race (perished by water), symbolically represented by 'Nifelheim', the 'land of mist and fog' or 'kingdom of ice'
    • to the northern branch belong the Persian and Germanic tribes.
    • preserved original unpolished qualities which the southern stream passed through and cast off after a transition

Correspondences of spiritual scientific concepts between streams

• .. and cultures in the current epoch
• correspondence between Edda and Veda: "Edda and Veda is the same word. The Edda is an echo of the immigration from Atlantis"
• elements of ancient spiritual science:
  • correspondence between the Giant Ymir and the Egyptian Osiris myth, stemming from a single source
  • Yggdrasil: the North Germanic legend tells how the three Gods found an ash and an alder on the seashore and from them created the human race (see also Persian myth which makes the human race come forth from a tree, and story of the Tree of Life in Paradise in the Jewish tradition. (1904-10-25-GA051)
• terminology-wise:
  • Asuras, the name of the Persian gods, suggests the sound Asen (1904-10-25-GA051)
  • Wotan <-> Wodha = Bodha = Buddha (Asia W, the sound V, becomes B) - see Wotan Impulse (1905-11-05-GA093A)

Myths and sagas

• Ragnarok or 'Twilight of the Gods' (or Götterdämmerung in DE)
  • Loki ('s children, punishment) - Hodur and (the death of) Baldur
  • Wotan, Thor and Tyr and the fight with the fire god Loki and his following Fenris wolf, Midgard snake (1907-10-21-GA101)
• Siegfried (or Sigurd) saga (see 1904-10-21-GA092)
  • appears in the first part of the Nibelungen Song
  • Siegried also appears in the Völsunga saga, and the Poetic Edda, as well as numerous other works from both Germany and Scandinavia
• Nibelungen lied or song - Siegfried & Brunhilde (1915-03-28-GA161)

• related
  • [Odin and Mimir, Odin's justice]
  • [Thor and Thialfi, Thor and Thrym, Thor and Hymir, Thor and Geirod, Thor and the giants]
  • [story of Frithiof, story of Kvasir], story of Idun, story of Sif's hair, the making of Miolnir]
• Parsifal - Lohengrin
• Green snake and beautiful lily (Goethe)
• Faust (Goethe)
• German fest-spiele (Schroer)
• Christmas plays - Oberuferer Weihnachtsspiele
• Walthari-song

Other

• German fairy tales - (o.a. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm)
  • Fairy tales contain attributes found in the great heroic sagas .. but the most significant ones are even older than the heroic sagas. (1913-02-06-GA062)

Inspirational quotes

1910-06-12-GA121

Germanic mythology... is in its pictures closely akin to the anthroposophical conception of the world ...

1910-06-17-GA121

.. in the Germanic Scandinavian mythology ... great occult truths are expressed wonderfully in its pictures, such as really is the case in no other mythology

1904-10-21-GA092

The northern saga-world is so interesting because it expresses something that is not to be found in the entire range of southern saga.

1904-09-30-GA093

All that we read in the Edda or can find in the ancient German sagas refers back to the temples of the ‘Drottes’ or Druids. The author of these tales was always an initiate. The sagas not only have a symbolical or allegorical meaning.

1905-03-22-GA90B

There is nothing that leads so deeply in to spiritual scientific thinking as the poetry of Northern sagas. When a European soul can work oneself into this [hineindenken], then from there Man can find the way to penetrate ever deeper into spiritual scientific knowledge. It is only for [people with] advanced stages of worldview perspective to long for such deeper understanding of these sagas of northern mythology.

1905-12-10-GA90B

In ancient times of the Druidic Mysteries, the druid priests taught by telling stories .. as a way to talk to the soul .. and this way we were prepared to understand contemporary spiritual science [theosophy, anthroposophy] .. which similarly is preparing for the realities of times to come

Note: the statement literally states that the initiate is not talking to the current person but to the soul. It takes a perspective of affecting beyond the current single incarnation. See also Individuality and not the Personality, this may be interpreted as the workings on Man's threefold soul and Man's higher triad.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.432 shows a geographical view on the Current Postatlantean epoch, with the center of culture over millenia moving across the Southern most advanced stream described extensively by spiritual science. Meanwhile the Northern stream developed differently, as expressed in the Northern Scandinavian and Germanic mythology and ancient Mystery tradition, with initiation centers such as the Hibernian, Druidic and Trotten Mysteries (see Schema FMC00.437).

For more on the northern and southern streams, see Christ Impulse - meeting of two streams#Southern and Northern streams

It is important to realize that the development of humanity was not limited to the key cultures highlighted in the descriptive labels given to characterize each cultural age. For example the Mayan and Jewish cultures also belong to the third 'Egypto-Chaldean' cultural age. Also the Chinese culture is not a focus in the descriptions of the development of humanity.

Also shown are for reference are the Gobi desert and Tibet, see the migrations on Schemas FMC00.205 and variants on Atlantean epoch. For the geographical movement of the epicentrum of cultural height across the globe, see Schema FMC00.211 on Human races.

Lecture coverage and references

General coverage overview

Unlike for Egyptian or Greek mythology, Rudolf Steiner did not keep a dedicated lecture cycle on the myths and sagas of the Northern Stream, the Scandinavian and Germanic mythology. Lecture are scattered across GA cycles in the period 1904-1907.

For a GA-based approach, in terms of coverage the best starting places are ost closely comes 1907-GA101 and 1904/5-GA092 oa with the lectures on Richard Wagner's work.

A good place to start are the two lectures in GA090B (start with first 1905-12-10-GA90B, then 1905-03-22-GA90B), as they start from a higher perspective to sketch the origin and evolution of the knowledge streams. This is a level above the usual description and explanatory coverage of the myths and sages themselves, by mapping their contents to the current contemporary framework of spiritual science.

Rudolf Steiner comes back to this in four lectures of 1907-10-GA101.

These six lectures provide a foundational framework in which to place the various storylines and individual symbolic characters and events described in myths and sagas.

Reference Extracts

1904-10-21-GA092

is called 'the Siegfried Saga'

In order to acquire a right understanding of the Siegfried saga we must first find its place in the great cosmic happenings in the world. Before our present root-race there were four others; we are in the fifth. The first cultural age of the present race consists of the Indian folk; we call this the Spirit-race, because the import of the fifth race was first given by the Manu in its spiritual form to this cultural age. The second cultural age we call the Flame-race, the race to which Zarathustra gave a religion. The third cultural age was the star-race, the race of the Chaldeans, Babylonians, Assyrians, from which later sprang the Israelite tradition. The race of the Greek and Roman peoples, whose first representatives are mainly to be found in Greece and Rome, became the fourth cultural age. It is the one in which Christianity first took root, in Asia Minor, Greece and Rome. But it is our fifth cultural age which was to be the most strongly influenced by Christianity and was to carry it over into the sixth.

Christianity came to our fifth cultural age as a tradition, after the beginning of the Christian era. But before this, for some centuries before Christianity was introduced into these regions, and even earlier, ancient Druid initiations were in existence. These were maintained until it became quite obvious that the evening of these preparatory Celtic races had come.

You must understand that all the streams I have named do not reach the northern world. None of the currents which passed over the Flame-race, the Star-race, the Greco-Roman race, got as far as the northern regions. In the north there still remained something from the culture of Atlantis which had been brought over by Atlantean initiates.

Wotan was an initiate of the northern peoples. He is none other than the bearer of the elements of Atlantean culture into these parts. Everywhere in these northern regions the Druid initiation was still practised.

I have already said that one of its founders, one can say its chief founder, was named Sieg.

And in these northern parts something happened rather like what happened later in Palestine at the Foundation of Christianity. Sieg renounced his body and placed it at the disposal of a higher individuality. Hence later the transformed Sieg was named Odin.

• Odin is the highest initiate of the northern Mysteries. He is the bearer of the spiritual culture of that time.
• Sieg was the Chela of the north who placed his body at the disposal of the higher, more spiritual Odin. He himself lived later as an initiate Master. Sieg is a quite special case. He is not able to introduce a movement as Master Jesus did after the foundation of Christianity. Sieg had to lead this northern culture to its downfall. He is called upon to guide the northern peoples until the fifth cultural age of the fifth root-race reached them from the south. The ancient Chela Sieg is the one who had to lead the northern peoples into tragedy. Hence he is also called Sieg-urt, which means, “he who leads into the past.” ‘Fried’ is the same word; it means, “that which leads to death, to destruction.” It is still found in the word ‘Friedhof,’ (graveyard).

The very same Chela who had paved the way for the great initiate who is to lead the northern culture to its downfall. Its spiritual content declines and is replaced by the rising Christianity. What I am now saying is a prophetic augury which found expression everywhere in the later northern Mysteries. “We have to be a race that is led to its death”. That is the note which sounds forth in the various Mysteries of these northern peoples. The whole of the future event, which had been indicated in the scriptures since primeval times, and which was to take place in the future, was predicted in the northern Mysteries, and through this prediction arose what later became the content of the Nibelungenlied. The second part of the Nibelungenlied gives us the fulfilment of the Nibelungs' karma.

I must draw attention to one feature which we always find in such a situation in human evolution. Before a new phase takes root the earlier phases of evolution have to undergo a brief repetition. This repetition is plainly to be seen in the north. We are shown how all that has been experienced here in the north since the time of Lemuria and Atlantis has to be overcome before these northern nations will become mature, will really develop up to the level of the Christianised fifth cultural age. He in whom all that lives is the initiate Siegfried.

[Siegfried saga]

Let us briefly run through the salient points of the Siegfried saga.

To begin with, life at the Court in Worms revolves round three heroes: Gunther, Magen and Giselher. We are further told that the hero Siegfried is wooing Brunhild. At the same time we are told that Siegfried is acknowledged to be a personality out of the ordinary. This he certainly is, for he has slain the possessor of the Nibelung treasure; in the fight with the dragon he has made his body hard as horn; he has won the cloak of invisibility. Thus he has two qualities that are always shown by the initiates of pre-Christian times; they are invulnerable and they are unrecognisable. They are made invulnerable by something that has preceded Christianity, has preceded the spirit. In the Gospel it says: “And there are three that bear witness ... the spirit, and the water, and the blood.” [John, 5-8] [editor note: first line of the Nibelungenlied]

It is the blood which must be conquered, and it is the blood which made the heroes invulnerable in the times preceding Christianity. But these invulnerable initiates are always vulnerable in one spot. Achilles is an example of an initiate of these early times. He was plunged into the Styx and was vulnerable in his heel. Siegfried is bathed in the blood of the dragon and is vulnerable in the shoulder. The initiate can make himself unrecognisable to his own people. He can do that through the possession of the cloak of invisibility. It is this that makes the possessor of these higher occult faculties invisible to the outer world. The possessors of the Nibelung treasure had these faculties. They originated in Atlantis, Atlantean initiates in particular had them. But they were also retained by the initiates of the fifth race and hence by Siegfried. He came into possession of the Nibelung treasure. What is this treasure?

It expresses the fact that the northern peoples supplied the basis upon which the fifth cultural age could arise. We also call the race the race of the great discoveries and inventions, the race that has conquered the entire physical plane and that waxes great amid the harsh difficulties of the external world. It has both to possess things, and to develop its possessions. We shall see that ‘Nibelungenhort’ (the treasure of the Nibelungs) is merely a modification of the old word ‘Nifelheim, Nebelheim’ (land of mist). This it is what in the north is recognized as the physical earth, the earth in the moment of becoming physical. It is a firmer hold on the physical that this race of forerunners propagated and opposed to Christianity. Nibelung treasure represents earthly property. It is something that the forerunner possesses, which it is permissible for him to possess, because he can guard it in a suitable way.

Now you all know how the Siegfried saga goes on in this old form. It is not the oldest form, but it is the one that concerns us.

Gunther woos Brunhild of Iceland. Twice Siegfried overcomes Brunhild, who believes that it is her suitor Gunther who has conquered her. Gunther woos her, but Siegfried in the cloak of invisibility fights at his side, and is glad that she becomes Gunther's wife. Now Kriemhild later in a weak moment betrays to Brunhild that in reality it was not Gunther who had vanquished her, but that Siegfried was there invisibly. Brunhild is incensed by this and plots to kill Siegfried. But she has yet to learn how she can do it. She wins to her side Hagen of Trony, who dwells at the court.

We can recognise the figure of Hagen as deriving from the ancient Druid Mysteries. Hagen is a significant name among the ancient Druid initiates. Not only is he an initiate who represents the highest streams of spiritual life, but, what is more important here, he illustrates the fact that the predecessor always comes into conflict with his successor.

Siegfried is the immediate predecessor of Christianity. Hagen belongs to an earlier Druid stream.

Hagen therefore is sent for to bring about Siegfried's ruin. To this end Kriemhild must betray that he is vulnerable in one place. Here the significance of this place is revealed. Kriemhild betrays that he is vulnerable between the shoulders, in the very place where the Cross will have to be borne. He has not yet got the Cross. These early peoples have not yet got Christianity. To this spot the Christian initiate will have to come — so says the Siegfried saga — because it still lacks Christianity, because the place where the Cross has to rest is still vacant. Hence Siegfried is still vulnerable in this spot. Siegfried, who brings the Sieg-initiate to ‘Fried’, to rest, is vulnerable in the spot which Christianity will later render invulnerable. There Siegfried too is overcome by the powers which have remained over from earlier stages of northern culture. Hagen kills him and thus illustrates the supercession of the preceding northern races by the fifth cultural age. The import of this transition finds expression in the Siegfried saga.

What are these northern races, the forerunners of Christianity, fighting against?

They are fighting against all the old that has remained behind from Atlantis. They have continually to be on their guard against it. Thus in the northern races there still lives something against which the soul of the northern peoples has to protect itself, something that still forces its way in from the remnants of Atlantean culture. An earlier stage of culture has been preserved into the fifth cultural age. But those who have remained behind in the Atlantean culture are a hindrance to further development, they have to be overcome.

Hence the struggles that followed are represented by Gudrun. This Gudrun is the soul of the northern peoples. In an older version she wages war against the great initiates who continually come over from Asia from the remnants of old Atlantis. The initiates, the remnants of the Turanians, come over from Asia in a series of incarnations. This is why we also meet there the famous Attila, identical with Etzel, who was initiated in the Atlantean culture.

In fact the historic Attila, who was called ‘the scourge of God’ by his own people as well as by the Europeans, was an initiate who fought at the head of his people with quite outstanding occult forces. Hence a battle with the Huns was quite rightly described as a fight in the air. To anyone who knows these things it is quite clear what is meant. Attila shrank from nothing that he encountered in Europe; from the Pope alone, of his own free-will, he drew back. The races of northern Europe knew that they had to beware of the influence from the East. Christianity knew that this influence could do it no harm.

Now in the later saga we are told that Kriemhild plotted to take revenge on those who had killed Siegfried. She achieves this by throwing in her lot with these Atlantean elements and succeeds in wooing Attila's following to her cause. She becomes Attila's wife. Before that she had lived for a while at the Burgundian court. She came into possession of the Nibelung treasure and had been a great benefactress in her use of it. But the inevitable enemies, who belonged to an earlier culture, and who were represented by Hagen, had sunk the treasure in the Rhine.

Now how wonderfully the events which followed are described; Kriemhild clung to her plan to destroy her enemies, her old northern enemies, with the help of Attila. They were enticed to Attila's court and on their way there they met the very spiritual power by which they were to be superseded. On the Danube, in Rudeger of Bechlaren and his wife Gotelind, they encounter Christianity. It is Christianity that is to supplant the northern European culture. Here we have an indication of the dawn of Christianity. Those who have paved the way for it go to meet their downfall. They are murdered at the court of the Huns. Kriemhild had her revenge but she herself must perish.

How is this brought about?

Kriemhild is really a metamorphosis of Gudrun, with the difference that in the earlier time the tragic outcome had not taken hold of men's hearts. It is Gudrun herself, the folk-soul who slays Attila. In the later version she unites herself with Attila. The soul of the earlier culture avenges itself on the culture which has brought about its downfall. Kriemhild herself perishes.

If you are studying the matter from the literary point of view, you will naturally ask how it comes about that, right at the end, at the court of the Huns, Dietrich of Bern, Hildebrand and all the Germanic heroes are introduced, for they belong to a period that has already gone over to Christianity. They are Christian heroes. Christianity brings death to the ancient folk-soul. First we have the dawn of Christianity in Rudeger of Bechlaren, and then Christianity reaches the essential element of the ancient folk-soul. This is not something told after the event, but something experienced as prophecy within the Mysteries long before the emergence of Christianity. These events were the subject of Mystery-initiation. Initiation into the Mysteries includes not only initiation into truths of the present, but also into truths of the past and of the future. Apocalypse always forms part of it. The Siegfried saga had long been the apocalypse of the northern peoples.

It is not a saga that has arisen somehow or other out of separate fragments, as philology supposes. ‘The folk’ does not make literature in this way. Only someone who has no clue to what goes on in a folk-soul could say this.

The sagas are nothing but an account, a rendering of what had taken place in the crypts of the Mysteries.

Just as in the south we have the word Mystery, so in the north a similar mystery event is called a ‘Mahr’, from which we get the word ‘Marchen’ (fairy tale). “Viele Wunderdinge melden die Mahren alter Beiten”.3) The ‘Wunder’ (wonder or miracle) is just a sign. There are things that must be regarded as events on a higher plane.

The northern saga-world is so interesting because it expresses something that is not to be found in the entire range of southern saga. The sagas of the southern peoples express a step up; in them the people have always received something which leads them upwards. Of course, the Indian, Persian, Babylonian, Chaldean peoples and those who succeeded them at later stages also had their tragic figures. We need only remind you of the Chronos saga.

But here in the north we have the thing in its most developed form, for these people had so long to wait, so long to live in a state of expectancy. Theirs was a culture of preparation, which lasted until a higher initiation evolved. And that is the important point. It was a culture that descended so low, that its initiate is human, is Man.

The Indian initiate is the Bodhisattva, then come the Rishis, later in Greece we get ‘the sons of the sun’, such as Hercules and Achilles, Only when the initiate had descended to the lowest rung of the ladder do we get, here in the north the initiated man who lacks only one thing, what is comprehended in the Christ. The Christ he has not got. Thus this culture has come so far that it has human initiates and the man-become-god. In the north we encounter the divine man — the divine Man who for us is the Christ — in an attitude of expectation, with the vulnerable spot which Christianity will have to cover.

Thus you have four levels which come one after another.

• First you have Wotan, who comes over from Atlantean times; then Odin.
• Wotan corresponds with what develops during the second cultural age of the fifth root-race.
• The last before Siegfried is Balder, the sun-hero. He corresponds with what develops in the Chaldean-Babylonian-Assyrian epoch. But whereas what developed in the south is an ascending, a progressive culture, here in the north we find a mood of suspense, of expectancy, of waiting for something to happen
• Then we come down from god to Man; and while the southern cultural age developed further, Siegfried became the initiator of this culture of suspense. It is steeped in tragedy. Because this northern culture is coming to an end you have the tragic deaths of Baldur, of Siegfried.

1904-10-25-GA051

Note: for broader background, see 1904-GA051 (Celts, Teutons, Slaves .. moving to the middles ages)

The picture of Central Europe has altered fundamentally between, say, the year 1 and the 6th century A.D. This change involves a complete replacement of the peoples who lived on the Weichsel, the Oder and the Elbe, by others; hence it is very difficult for us to picture those races, to learn anything about their customs and way of living. We must find a way of our own to form such a picture. Tacitus, in his Germania, gives descriptions of the country at that time. No other records have been preserved to us of those days, and we must enlist the help of the North Germanic legends to complete the account. What Tacitus says about these races is very significant, in contrast to the Roman conception of the conditions of those days.

...

If we compare this information of Tacitus' with the myths of another Aryan race, we find in Sanscrit, the sacred language of the Hindus, the same disignation Manu, for their supreme leader. This indicates a tribal relationship. Indeed, we can follow like deities in all the Indo-Germanic tribes. Thus Tacitus relates that the hero of Greek legend, Hercules, was also honoured by the Germani, bearing among them the name of Irmin. We know that there existed among the southern Indo-Germanic tribes a legend which found artistic elaboration in Greece: The story of Odysseus. Tacitus found, in the neighbourhood of the Rhine, a place of worship dedicated to Odysseus and his farther Laertes. So we see that the culture of the Germani at this epoch was akin to the culture we meet with in Greece in the 8th and 9th centuries B.C. Thus in Greece we see later the development of a culture which in Germany has remained stationary at a lower level.

All this points to an original relationship between these races. The peoples who lived, later in Germany, Greece and Russia, probably had their earlier homeland north of the Black Sea. From there one tribe wandered to Greece, another to Rome, and a third towards the west; the original culture of all these peoples was maintained in this form by the Germani, and further developed by the Celts. Tacitus tells us nothing of the manners and customs of that remarkable race.

By the songs and sagas collected later in Iceland, in the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda, we must conclude that what that race produced, persisted there. Tacitus tells us further of the customs of the Germans in their tribal assemblies, which, however, we must picture as deliberations of very small communities. To these assemblies came all the warriors of that province; the consultations were carried on to the accompaniment of beer and mead, and we are told that the old Germans made their resolutions when drunk in the evening, but revised them next morning when they were sober, and not until then were the decisions valid. As we learn from the Iliad, the same custom existed among the Persians. So we must conclude that there was an original Aryan stem, and hence a relationship between all these races.

Among the Germanic races in the north, a great similarity is specially evident in the characteristic forms of their religion, which do, indeed, fundamentally resemble those of the south, and yet show a much greater conformity with those of the Persians.

• According to the northern Germani, there were originally two kingdoms, separated from each other by an abyss: a kingdom of fire, Muspelheim, and a kingdom of ice, Niflheim. The sparks which flew over from Muspelheim, gave rise, in the abyss, to the first race of giants, of whom Ymir was the most outstanding. Then arose the Cow, Audhumbe, which was overlaid by the ice, and brought forth a mighty human form. From this human form sprang the Gods: Woten, Wile and We, whose names mean Reason, Will and Kindness. This second race of Gods was called Asen. Its descent was traced to the first race of giants.
• Here too there occurs an important connection between the languages, for Asuras, the name of the Persian gods, suggests the sound Asen, again indicating a relationship connecting all these races. We find another important indication in an ancient Persian formula or poem of exorcism, which has come down to us. It points to changes in the mind of the race, to ancient Gods, deposed and supplanted by others. The service of the Devas was forsworn, the service of the Asuras confirmed. Here appears similarity to the giants, who were overcome by the Asen.
• Moreover, the North Germanic legend tells how the three Gods found an ash and an alder on the seashore, and from them created the human race. The Persian myth, too, makes the human race come forth from a tree. We find echoes of these myths among the Jews, in the story of the Tree of Life in Paradise. Thus we see, from Persia to Scandinavia, by way of Palestine, traces of similar mythical ideas.

So we have proved a common fundamental character among certain races. At the same time there are again differences between a southern and a northern branch of the common main stock.

• To the southern branch belong the Greeks, Latins, and Hindus;
• to the northern, the Persian and Germanic tribes.

Let us see then what sort of races we have to do with in Germany now. As they confront us, we are bound to believe that they have traits of character which the Greeks and Italians have long cast off, and indeed, the Greeks after, the Romans during the conquest of their empire; whereas these northern peoples developed their essential characteristics and qualities before that conquest. They were the original, unpolished qualities, which these races had preserved. They had not experienced that transition-stage, through which, in the meanwhile, the southern races had passed.

Hence we have to do here with the clash of a race which has remained conservative, against one which, although related to it, has attained a greater height of culture.

1905-03-22-GA90B

is called 'About ancient Nordic mythology'. The free translation below polished some phrasing to make it more readable and understandable, rather then a strict literal translation.

The below has not been checked against the rsarchive online version.

quote A

One can distinguish between west-european and south-european mysteries. In Scandinavia and Russia one had the Trotten mysteries, in England and the West the Druidic mysteries. Both have totally disappeared.

The wise priest in the northern mysteries, the druide, was called 'oak'.

The replacement of the northern belief in the gods is conveyed to us through a beautiful mystery story, in the surmounting of the oak through Bonifatius, which represents the fight between Christianity and the ancient Druidic mystery [religion].

All myths of the middle or Europe and the North contain something tragical: the twilight of the gods represents the downfall of the world of the nordic gods. After this fall, a new sun god should make its entry, a new Baldur.

In the other (non Northern) mysteries on the other hand there is a typical positive treat of confidence and hope.

[Transition through four steps]

The fall of the Nordic gods is to lead to the new Christianity, and for this one had to go through four steps.

The first step represents the first Nordic culture in the first cultural age of the current fifth epoch. In the middle Europe, Christianity was spread in the fifth cultural age. The secret of the first four cultural ages is that they look ahead on how Christianity would supersede what preceeded in the fifth age.

quote B

... there was this fellowship of twelve great Initiates. The thirteenth was their leader, but at that stage he was not yet more advanced as the other twelve. This initiate was called Sige or Sig. At a certain age, he was able to leave his own Individuality to a higher Individuality, so to take into himself a higher Individuality. This is one of the highest mysteries, it also happens with Christ descending into Jesus at the Baptism. The Individuality of Sig was exchanged for the Individuality of Odin or Wotan, who already lived in the Atlantean epoch as a great adept.

...

Wotan goes through two incarnations: Buri and Bör, then he becomes Wotan through the chela-Individuality of Sig. All that was in the chela Sig, is generally taken together with the name of Sig.

In the first cultural age he is Wotan, confronting Hönir (or 'Wile') and Loki (or 'We'). Wotahn has to go through an important test. He has to hang for nine days on the gallows, wounded on the side where lies the heart. Then Mimir comes to teach him the Rune script, as an example of the fact of Christ. then comes his resurrection. This was initiation in the first cultural age of the fifth epoch.

In the Mysteries, Wotan gave expression to the creation and development of Earth and mankind. First the Earth came into being, without the mineral or plant kingdoms. All was enclosed in a large entity, the Giant Ymir. He was overcome by Wotan, Wile and We. And out of him came into being the Adam Kadmon, the whole Earth. From his brain bowl the firmament of heaven was made, etc. He was the macroscopic Man, from which the gods made the Earth. From the body of the giant also some dwarfs come forth, that lives in the inner layers of Earth.

Out of the plan-Man that the gods find, out of 'Ask' and 'Embla', or out of ash and elm, they build physical Man. The three gods build Man's bodily sheaths:

• Wotan or Odin (gave spirit) - sthula sharira
• Wile or Hönir (gave life and lawfullness) - linga sharira
• Wi or Loki (gave warmth and colour, kama) - kama/karana sharira

Hnece these were the bodily sheaths built by the gods. The dwarf represents the small spiritual in Man. That was the spark that came to fructify humanity in the middle of the Lemurian epoch, so as to develop manas, budhi and atma. The human 'I' first has to shape itself in the depths [of the soul], else it would immediately be transformed into a numb mineral by the sunlight.

In the second cultural age initiation was as follows. Wotan shall have the wisdom drink, and humanity in the second cultural age should slowly develop to the same stage. The wisdom drink is being made by the giant Suttung, that guards the wisdom drink. His daughter is Gunnlöd. Wotan can not get to the wisdom drink, that's why he transforms himself into a snake to come to the sanctuary of Gunnlöd, where he stays for three days. The snake is the 'I', gifted with wisdom.

What happened in the Lemurian epoch now repeats itself. The three gods find the dwarp Andwari as Hecht and Otter, the son of Hreidmars.

Otter has the form of a fishotter, he is slayed by Loki. The father shall become the skin of the otter, fitted with gold on the inside and outside. This means the penetration of Man with the gold of wisdom. Before, StSh, LiSh and KaSh have developed. Loki kills that what was previously on Earth, and brings the wisdom or gold into it.

[editor: this describes the Luciferic infection]

Besides this other gold there was also a golden ring. Before Man come into our current Earth development, Man was in very different relationships .. he did not experience impressions through the senses. The ring means the locking in of the sense impressions, that make the I to an individual being: the ring of the Nibelungen.

[in other words it is a symbol of the process of individuation, see FMC00.370 and Development of the I]

In the third cultural age, Wotan and those to belong to his circle, were initiated once again. He had brought the wisdom chalice into the house of the gods. That is where the wisdom drink or chalice was guarded by Mimir. He had the wisdom that would carry Man further.

At the transition from the Lemurian epoch, Man had only a single eye, as he was not yet shut off from the outer [spiritual] world. With this eye he was able to experience or observe what was useful or dangerous for him. By the closing off of Man by the Ring of the senses, this eye retreated. The gift Man had received, had to be paid for by a sacrifice. Wotan has to pay for the new gift through sacrificing the cyclopic eye, (not through one of the other two eyes).

[that represents clairvoyance and the connection with the spiritual world]

In the fourth cultural age, the Völsung and the descendants of Wotan, Sigmund, Sigurd, Siegfried represent the lineage of initiates in this age. With Siegfried the last initiation takes place. He conquers the dragon, meaning Man's lower nature. He can no longer be wounded by all the lower. He cleanses himself through katharsis, the consciousness of the higher. He has to become purified through the fire of suffering. Through this he wins Brunhilde. He only remains vulnerable in one spot, that is where one carries the cross. It is said that the next initiate will no longer be vulnerable there either.

In this ancient nordic world of sagas intrudes from the Atlantean epoch the king Atli - Atlanti. He is the great Atlantean initiate. He only gives way for the representative of Christianity, for the pope.

[this refers to Attila, the Hun]

Notes:

• Völsung was the great-grandson of Odin and it was Odin's wife Frigg who made sure that Völsung would be born. Völsung's parents, who were the king and queen of Hunaland, could not have any children until the goddess sent them an apple of fertility carried by the giantess Hljod.
  • Völsung's story is recorded in the Völsung Cycle, a series of legends about the clan. The earliest extant versions of the cycle were recorded in medieval Iceland; the tales of the cycle were expanded with local Scandinavian folklore, and form the material of the epic poems in the Elder Edda and of Völsunga saga, which preserves material from lost poems. Völsung is also the subject matter of the Middle High German epic poem Nibelungenlied and is mentioned as Wæls in the Old English epic Beowulf.

• see also: Saga of the Völsungs (or Völsunga saga or Volsunga Saga, a 13th-century Old Norse saga (Iceland, Scandinavia)
• Attila the Hun (ca 406-453), ruler of the Huns and leader of an empire in Central and Eastern Europe, also considered one of the most powerful rulers in world history. See also the link with the Turanian stream.

1905-12-10-GA90B

is called 'About Germanic mythology'

essential fragments freely translated below (only selected phrases and paragraphs, so not full text), and SWCC

quote A

[Trotten and Druidic lodges]

Also Europe had, in very ancient times, its occult lodges of the White Brotherhood. From Scotland to Northern Russia, these were called the Trott-lodges [editor: in german Trotten-lodges] or Druid-lodges.

The ancient druidic religion was overwon by Christianity around 600 to 700 BC (as referenced in the saga of Bonifatius and the oak)

[editor note: Thor's oak (or Donar's oak) was a sacred tree of the ancient Germanic pagans, and according to a story from the 8th century the Anglo-Saxon missionary Saint Boniface cut down the tree. See more on: Donar's Oak and Boniface and the Oak of Donar]

The last part of this stream moved south: the ancient Truscs (that later became the Etruscans) settled in Italy; further east another branch moved to ancient Greece.

The last remnants of the ancient Druidic religion became extinct under the reign of Queen Elisabeth when the last druidic lodges were abolished.

[editor note: Elizabeth I (1533-1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 1558 until her death in 1603. Note that seemingly till in the UK some reflections exist, that were formed again in 1781 and 1833 based on remnants of this ancient tradition, see: Ancient Order of Druids and United Ancient Order of Druids. This may well be an illustration of Impulses from waves of reincarnating souls]

...

When we consider the northern population as a whole, we find great coherence on the level of spiritual scientific matters, between the West and the East.

[reference to Buddhism and Brahmanism] ...

quote B

[Two streams]

The ancient Germanic people and their religion originate also from Atlantis, and knew the ancient continent that had gone other extremely well. We can find kinship between religions through naming. The northern god Wotan means the same as Buddha.

The ancient wisdom knew two different traditions:

• in the south the tradition from the Lemurian race (perished by fire), symbolically represented by 'Muspelheim', the warm land of the Sun
• in the north the tradition from the Atlantean race (perished by water), symbolically represented by 'Nifelheim', land of mist and fog

[Northern stream: Ymir and Osiris, Edda]

It is interesting to see the kinship of the ancient Egyptians with this northern stream.

• In the northern tradition, the giant Ymir is slayed/killed and from his parts, the Earths evolves. From his hairs the forests are made, from his bones the rocks, from his blood the streams and rivers, etc.
• In the Egyptian religion: Osiris is killed and his parts are scattered across the Earth. Osiris represents Man's higher I [see Man's higher triad]

We recognize that both myths originate from the very same source.

The Edda is an echo of the immigration from Atlantis: Edda and Veda is the same word. This way we see the relationship between all primal and ancient religions.

The history of ancient Europe is contained in the hero sagas.

All matters can be lead back to the great northern European initiate Sig. All names such as Siegried, Sigurd, Sieglinde relate back to this. In pure depth, this northern stream of oral traditions exceeds the ancient Indian one.

One notices the prophetic and tragic nature that penetrates many sagas, all that points to what is to come, as can also be seen in the Twilights of the Gods [or Götterdämmerung, see Ragnarok]. One knew that the gods that were worshipped would not last and it was said that a higher would come, one that is higher than these gods

[about Siegfriend and initiation]

The Nibelungen saga makes clear that Siegfried had to be superseded by Christ.

In the middle ages, we see the transition of both streams that flow together: the old pagan stream - directly originating from the ancient Atlantis - and the new christian stream.

The Nibelungen come from Nebelheim, the land of water mist and fog. The link with the Rhine is that for the ancient people, the Rhine belonged to the great rivers and waters that had swallowed Atlantis and the golden city with all its treasures.

The Roundtable of King Arthur symbolically represents the White Lodge of the ancient pagan stream.

[further about entry of christianity, Grail, Barbarossa, Parsifal, ] ...

quote C

[Lohengrin]

The middle ages see the rise of a great cultural movement whereby large flowering cities develop, containing the creative citizenship [Bürgertum], and this circuit of thriving cities from Scotland to Novgorod is a major step forward in world development. The development of citizenship originates with the female character side of Man, the human being (the male character side of Man looks for expression in the outer world).

The inner part of Man, the human being, is female, and has to be fructified by the great White Lodge. This is presented to us in the Lohengrin saga.

The blossoming city life is represented through Elsa von Brabant.

quote D

All Northern sagas of gods and heros contain the foundational teachings of the great initiate 'Sig'.

Wotan passed through four initiations, in order to prepare for the fifth cultural age of the current fifth epoch which had as its goal to blend the greek with the celtic race. The fourth sub-race or cultural age has its center in the south, the north correspondingly opposed this development. The North had to go through four stages whilst in the south an higher culture was already developing. From the south came Christianity, in the North four elemental classes of Wotan were gone through in order to be able to take up Christianity.

'Wotan', 'Will', 'We' form a triunion.

1907-10-07-GA101 - DE version

is called 'Ancient nordic myths and sagas' (Part 1)

covers o.a.:

• Niflheim and Muspelheim
• the building of the celebral nervous system and blood circulation system
• I-consciousness through entry of ether head into physical head
• Yggdrasil, Ymir and Audhumbla

1907-10-14-GA101 - DE version

is called 'Ancient nordic and Persian myths' (Part 2)

covers o.a.:

• astral entities depicted in Persian myths, eg Amshaspands and Izards
• the god Thor and his daugther Thrud

1907-10-21-GA101 - DE version

is called 'Germanic sagas' (Part 3)

see more on Ragnarok#1907-10-21-GA101

1907-10-28-GA101 - DE version

is called 'Germanic and Persian mythology' (Part 4)

covers o.a.:

• world creation and early earthly development
• development of blood warmth out of the earth's warmth atmosphere
• inflow of spiritual influences of sun-spiritual beings in Man

1915-07-24-GA162

The difference between the Germanic and the biblical story of creation. The first does not know any luciferic temptation, indicates thus that in the Germanic current of peoples something is living (man/woman created by the threefold godhead Wotan, Wili, and Ve from an ash and an elm) what is shown by the tree of life in the Bible. As life (without knowledge) this current of peoples constitutes the substance of West-European and South-European nations, which are partially covered by the dying down Latin culture representing the last rest of oriental (luciferic) wisdom.

Wotan, Wili, and Ve are the soul qualities, which are then living in the folk-souls of Italy

(Wotan), France (Wili), and England (Ve)

Related pages

• Ancient history of myths and legends
• Druidic and Trotten mysteries
• Two streams of development
• Evolution
• Ragnarok
• Nibelungen

References and further reading

• Karl Joseph Simrock (1802-1876)
  • Handbuch Der Deutschen Mythologie - Mit Einschluss Der Nordischen (1853–1855)
  • translator to modern german of oa Das Nibelungenlied (1827), poems of Walther von der Vogelweide (1833), Arme Heinrich of Hartmann von Aue (1830), the Parzival and Titurel of Wolfram von Eschenbach (1842), the Tristan of Gottfried von Strassburg (1855) and the Heldenbuch (1843–1849).
• Ludwig Laistner (1845-1896)
  • Nebelsagen (1879)

• Alfred Nutt (1856-1910)
  • Studies on the legend of the holy grail, with special reference to the hypothesis of its Celtic origin
  • The Celtic Doctrine Of Rebirth
• Donald A. Mackenzie
  • Teutonic myth and legend (1912), subtitle: An Introduction to the Eddas & Sagas, Beowulf, The Nibelungenlied, etc.

• Ernst Uehli (1875-1959)
  • Zwischen Sphinx und Gral, Stuttgart (1922)
  • Nordisch-germanische Mythologie (1926)
• Theo J. Teunissen: 'Atlantis in de Noorsch-Germaansche Mythologie' (1925, essay in four parts in 'Hollandsch bijblad Goetheanum')

• Friedel Lenz (-Ganz) (1897-1970)
  • Die keltische Drachenmythe (1961)
  • Sinndeutung zur keltischen Drachenmythe (1964)
  • Die Bildsprache der Mythologie. Richard Wagners Ring (1970)

• Rudolf Meyer: Nordische Apokalypse (1967)
• A. Woutersen-Van Weerden: 'Tussen Wodan en Widar de IJslandse Edda en het verhaal van de mensheid' (1997, NL only)
• Charles Kovacs: Norse Mythodology (2009)
• Margaret Jonas: 'The Northern Enchantment: Norse Mythology, Earth Mysteries and Celtic Christianity (2014)
  • contents:
    • 1. The Early Northern Mysteries
    • 2. Hyperborea, Thule, and Apollo
    • 3. The Druids and Odinic Mysteries
    • 4. Thule and the Thul
    • 5. Norway and the Celtic Christian Legacy
    • 6. The Number Five and the Etheric Body
    • 7. The Extersteine and the God Vidar: Finland and Signposts to the Future

More

• Shou Peryt: Die Edda Als Schlüssel Des Kommenden Weltalters
• Ludwig Bechstein: 'Deutsche Sagen' (1987)
• Rudolf Simek: 'Religion und Mythologie der Germanen' (2003)