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