My History Presentation-3

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Kim Daeun, and you can call me Emily. Before I start my presentation, let me ask you a question. Do you believe in any religion? What kind of it? Do you think only we have religions to believe in our times? That is totally wrong. So, what did the Saxons believe? Yes, they believed the pagan religion, which is also called Germanic paganism. It is also my topic for this presentation. According to the naver dictionary, Paganism is pagan beliefs and activities, and pagans were people who did not believe in Christianity and who many Christians considered to be inferior or lower people in former times. Did you understand my topic? So, for my presentation, I will tell you a little about my topic. First, I will explain about the migration period and the middle ages. Next, I will tell you some cultic practices related to paganism which are burials and festivals, and worship and sacrifice. Finally, I will talk about what irminsul is, and my opinion. Now, I will start,

First, I will talk about the migration period. According to Wikipedia, the article Germanic Paganism, during the Migration period, Germanic religion was told as mixed power from Christianity and Mediterranean Culture. Jordanes’ Getica is a 6th century promise of the Goths, written a one and a half century after Christianity replaced the older religions among the Goths. According to Getica, the boss god of the Goths was Mars. Now Mars has always been respected by the Goths with evil ceremony, and prisoners were killed as his victims. They thought he was the lord of war ought to be relaxed by the flow of human blood. How terrible! To him, they gave out the first share of the spoil, and in his honor, his arms were harmed. Also, the Goths were changed to Arianism in the 4th country, at the same time, it the adoption of Christianity by the Roman Empire itself.

Next, about the Middle Ages. In 1000 AD, Iceland became Christian, although redone of pagan worship in private was tolerated. Most of Scandinavia was Christianized during the 11th century. Adam Bremen gives the last report of strong paganism. Sometimes, the subjects of a lord to abolish to Christianity refused to follow his lead and sometimes would force the lord to abolish has conversion. The attempt of the dismissed Christian boss Olaf II of Northway to retake the throne resulted in a bloody civil war.

Now, I will tell you about some cultic practice of Saxon pagan religion. The first two are burials and festivals. First, I will talk about the Saxon pagan religions’ burial. In most of the times, slaves were killed beside their owners at death. Some cases have been found from Anglo-Saxon England, and are also recorded on the 10^th century account of Ibn Fadlan, who proved a burial amongst the Rus tribe in which a wanting female slave who had belonged to the dead master was treated like loyalty.

Now, what about festivals in the Saxon pagan religion? There was not only reunifying set of festivals across the pagan Germanic world. However, these festivals all had similar functions and structures, described be Ewing as being a public celebration of the god, where the placed community or the nation redone its strings through the worship for god. In renewing the peoples promise with the god, they also renew their sense of community. Taticus relates that the early Germans celebrated only 3 seasons which are spring, summer and winter while the Law Book of Iceland, from a thousand years later, it shows that the pagan Icelanders only divided an year only in to summer and winter. It feels like a mystery. Doesn’t it?

What is worship, and what is sacrifice? According to the naver dictionary, if you worship a god, you show your respect to the god, for example by saying prayers, and if you sacrifice something that is valuable or important, you give it up, usually to obtain something else for yourself or for other people. Let me talk about paganism worship and sacrifice.

Across the Germanic world, there was some variation in the places where pagans worshipped; however, it was common for sited displaying natural features to be used. Tacitus claimed that the 1^st century tribes of Germany did not confine the gods within walls, but that they worshipped out of doors at holy woods and groves, and similarly there is evidence from later Europe, Anglo-Saxon England and Scandinavia that the pagans worshipped out doors at trees, groves, wells, stones, fences and notable being the Swedish Temple at Uppsala.

About sacrifice! The sacrifice is like this- Of all the living beings that are male, nine head are offered by whose blood is the custom to relax the gods. Their bodies, however, are hung in a grove which is beside the temple. The grove is so holy to the heathen that the individual trees in it are believed to be holy because of the death or decay of the killed victims. There, even dogs and horses are hanging beside the people, their bodies hanging confused together.

Finally, I will tell you about Irminsul and its etymology. According to Wikipedia, the article Irminsul, an Irminsul is a column that proves the hard work of Saxons for the paganism. The oldest chronicle describes the Irminsul as a tree trunk that is straight in the opened sky. It is also explained in important speeches and it is judged for hundreds of years. Now, I will talk about the Etymology of the Irminsul. A Germanic god Irmin, reasoned from the name Irminsul and the tribe name Iromines, it is sometimes estimated to have been the national god or a part-god of the Saxons. It has been suggested that Irmin was probably an avatar or some other god, most likely Odin. Scientists believe the idea that Odin replaced Ziu as the boss Germanic god at the start of the Migration Period which I have explained before. These days, it is also called the “Great pillar” instead of “Irmin’s pillar” or “Odin’s Pillar”.

In my opinion, the most interesting thing I have researched is the festival and the Irminsul. It is because the festival is kind of like a mystery. It was known that in former times, only three seasons were celebrated, however, now, we found out that they divided only in to two seasons. I will try to research about this if I have a chance. Also, I was interested in the last small topic I researched. It was the Irminsul, and I liked the story related to it. I want to see the Irminsul next time.

In conclusion, I talked about my topic, Saxon pagan religion which is also Germanic paganism. I told you about the Migration period, the Middle ages, and some Cultic practices, worship and sacrifice, festivals and burial. Also, you can remember the Irminsul proving the Saxon’s hard work and the story about it which is also called the “Great pillar” instead of “Irmin’s pillar” or “Odin’s Pillar” these days. Sometimes, I was surprised during the research, terrified, and also scared, but I am sure I learned a lot. Anyways, I am Christianity, and it was hard to understand the pagans before, but now, I think I understand it very well. This is the end of my presentation. Thank you for listening.