| While we were passing a junction, the driver told, | | | | to other European and West-Asian pagan |
| he wanted to visit a deity, because he had made | | | | traditions, such as Finnish paganism, Sami religion, |
| a vow some time back and turned the vehicle | | | | Slavic paganism, Baltic paganism, Roman |
| towards a more isolated passage.Though he was | | | | paganism, Greek paganism and Vedic religion. The |
| Catholic by religion his faith in deity worship is not | | | | principal gods are known as Odin, Thor and |
| strange in Sri Lanka. | | | | Tyr.The surviving accounts indicate spectacular |
| Ancient nature worship and Hindu traditions are | | | | human sacrifices. A unique eye-witness account of |
| deeply rooted in the daily life of many | | | | Germanic human sacrifice survives in Ibn Fadlan's |
| people.Steffani, a German Praktikum (Internship) | | | | account of a Rus ship burial, where a slave-girl had |
| student and Romy were watching intently what | | | | volunteered to accompany her master with his |
| was happening in that small temple of deity | | | | burial.The Heimskringla tells of Swedish King Aun |
| worship. But the deity and nature worship is not | | | | who sacrificed nine of his sons in an effort to |
| strange to Europe. Before Christianity was | | | | prolong his life until his subjects stopped him from |
| introduced into Europe, there were deities and | | | | killing his last son Egil. According to Adam of |
| also everywhere a variety of Pagan religious | | | | Bremen, the Swedish kings sacrificed male slaves |
| practices.Pagan practices were only abolished | | | | every ninth year during the Yule sacrifices at the |
| when the Pagan temples were demolished by the | | | | Temple at Uppsala.The Swedes had the right not |
| later emperors of the Roman Empire and others | | | | only to elect kings but also to depose them, and |
| in the Europe. Germanic Pagan religion played its | | | | both King Domalde and King Olof Tratalja are said |
| own part in ancient Germany.Germanic paganism | | | | to have been sacrificed after years of famine. |
| refers to the religious practices of the Germanic | | | | Odin was associated with death by hanging, and |
| nations preceding Christianization. The well | | | | a possible practice of Odinic sacrifice by strangling |
| documented form of Germanic paganism is 10th | | | | has some archeological support in the existence |
| and 11th century Norse paganism. There are | | | | of bodies perfectly preserved by the acid of the |
| various references found in the ancient writings of | | | | Jutland peat bogs in Denmark, into which they |
| Germanic peoples and in Roman descriptions. The | | | | were cast after having been strangled. |
| information can be supplemented with | | | | An example is Tollund Man. However, there were |
| archaeological findings and from the remnants of | | | | no written accounts that explicitly interpret the |
| pre-Christian beliefs in later folklore.Germanic | | | | cause of these strangling, which could obviously |
| paganism was a polytheistic religion with similarities | | | | have other explanations. |