I’m Not A Pagan: A Literature Review

The gust of wind whooshed past, blowing into the sail above while the waters below

crashed into the side of the ship causing a mist to rain down upon the deck. The people aboard

are the Northern Germanic people, otherwise known as pagans. Destructive, animalistic,

heathens that pillaged and plundered monasteries and villages all along the coast. But were the

Northern Germanic people really pagan? Did they really never change and adapt their religious

views? Scholars and people around the world have been using the term pagan to describe the

Northern Germanic people for millennia. There have been many different interpretations of the

word but collectively each definition has two commonalities, non-Christain and outsider. The

most commonly used meaning for pagan is non-militant, meaning not enrolled in the army of

Christ.1 The Northern Germanic people are known for their violence and religion but scholars

and citizens alike have been improperly labeling them. In this literature review we will be

discussing scholarly articles and a documentary that explain why the Northern Germanic people

should not be considered pagan and how their religious practices were continuously changing

and evolving.

Norse mythology is a huge part of the Northern Germatic religion and it’s the gateway to

understanding why the Northern Germanic people should not be considered pagan. In a

documentary named, Norse Mythological Stories: The Essential - From Creation to Ragnarok,

many myths and legends about the gods, goddesses, deities, ect. are told and illustrated to

introduce the audience to the Nordic religion. This hour long documentary explains the

beginning of this religion to the end starting with the Creation and ending with Ragnarok. It

illustrates many good examples of how Christianity is imbedded into the myths, stories, and

1 Sturtevant, Paul B. "Contesting the Semantics of Viking Religion." Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 8
(2012): 261-78. Accessed July 9, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45020188. Pg 262
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legends of the Nordic people. This documentary is a vital source to understanding that the

Northern Germanic people are not pagans. In the legend of the creation, once the world was

created, the gods realized that the Midgard (the middle aboad between Niflheim and

Muspelheim) needed inhabitants. So when the gods saw two trunks on the edge of the ocean they

decided to create mankind starting with a man and a woman named Askr and Embla. The gods

gave them the gifts of life, intelligence, sound, sight, taste, and smell. These two are the

descendants of all humans on earth according to the legend.2 This legend is vital to explaining

why the Northern Germatic people were not pagan. Even though the legend is not identical to the

story of Adam and Eve, they’re both parallel to one another in similarities. This legend illustrates

how the Northern Germantic people aren’t pagans, even though the legend is not identical to the

Christain tale of Adam and Eve, the basis of both are so similar it is likely that Christainity did

play a role in shaping the Norse religion. However this source is not entirely credible due to the

unknown author. Along with the issue that these myths and legends have many different versions

that may have been mistraslated or lost specific details when passed through the generations.

On the contrary, a source that displays immense credibility that continues to prove that

the Northern Germanic people are not pagan is, “Behind Heathendom: Archaeological Studies of

Old Norse Religion'' written by Andres Andrén. This source is a peer-reviewed article that

focuses on expanding the audience's knowledge of Nordic Mythology and elucidated why the

Nordic religion shouldn’t be considered pagan. Using his own previous background knowledge

in his doctorate degree in Medieval Archeology with his main focus in Archeological Religion

and countless other scholarly sources, Andrén compels his audience through the changes in

religious sacrifices, altars, architecture, and literature that the Northern Germatic people should

2 Norse Mythology Stories: The Essential - From Creation to Ragnarok. 2020. See U in History.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW1yaJWWgpw.
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not be considered pagan. Throughout this article Andrén compares the Nordic religion to the

Roman and Greek (mostly Roman) religions to demonstrate how the Nordic religion evolved and

developed. A good example of this is seen through cultural patchwork. Much of the Nordic

myths and legends were passed along using oral elements not written elements. Due to the nature

of oral elements it is very easy to create variations in the legends and myths told, causing internal

sources to change over time and foreign elements to be incorporated into the legends and myths.3

Andrén rationalizes how people aren’t giving the Northern Germanic people enough

credit, he uses logical proof that things change over time and then he proved it through the

changes in religious practices throughout the millennia. This article

The last source to aid in explaining why the Northern Germanic people should not be

considered pagan is by Paul B. Sturtevant, and it's called “Contesting the Semantics of Viking

Religion ''. This article critically examines three words used to describe the Northern Germatic

people; “heathen”, “pre-Christain”, and “pagan”. Using his own educational background, a

doctorate degree in the field of the Middle ages, and many credible outside sources Sturevant

incorporates Latin, Old English, Middle English, and Old Norse sources to illustrate how poorly

the Northern Germanic people were portrayed. This article goes into depth explaining how strict

the world became involving religious categories.4 Sturtevant explains how once Christainity

became a religion they wanted to single it out compared to other religions and that's when the

word pagan began to come into use for the Northern Germanic people. Sturevant explains how

people are just labeling the Northern Germanic people because they don’t like that they have

somewhat of differing beliefs, “Those terms paint a Chirstain-centric picture of the world during

3 Andrén, Anders. 2005. Heathendom": Archaeological Studies of Old Norse Religion. Edinburgh,
Scottland: Edinburgh University Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27917543. Pg 126
4 Sturtevant, Paul B. pg 263
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the Viking age, imply inappropriate pejorative connotations, and do no justice to the study of the

complex history of the period of Norse religious integration and conversation.”5

To conclude this literature review there is a quote from “Behind Heathendom:

Archaeological Studies of Old Norse Religion'' that explains how considering the Northern

Germatic people as pagans just isn’t appropriate any more. The quote says, “The old idea that

Norse religion somehow represents an archaic and unchanging tradition on the periphery of

Europe can thus no longer be maintained. Instead there was a changing religious tradition, which

constantly incorporated and reinterpreted foreign models in the tradition, so that it gradually

underwent a radical change.”6, this quote ties in everything these three sources were trying to get

across to the readers. It explains how the Nordic religion did change over time as Andrén

explained in his source “Behind Heathendom: Archaeological Studies of Old Norse Religion''

and why the pagan term for them never fit their religion as Sturtevant wrote in “Contesting the

Semantics of Viking Religion ''. It even can be tied back into the documentary, Norse

Mythological Stories: The Essential - From Creation to Ragnarok because these stories

illustrated how these changes cam about in the writen and oral ends of the Nordic religion.

Bibliography

Andrén, Anders. 2005. Heathendom": Archaeological Studies of Old Norse Religion.

Edinburgh, Scottland: Edinburgh University Press.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/27917543.

5 Sturevant Paul B pg. 275

Norse Mythology Stories: The Essential - From Creation to Ragnarok. 2020. See U in

History. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW1yaJWWgpw.

Sturtevant, Paul B. "Contesting the Semantics of Viking Religion." Viking and Medieval

Scandinavia 8 (2012): 261-78. Accessed July 9, 2021.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/45020188.