# Germanic paganism

By [rosia1618](https://paragraph.com/@rosia1618) · 2021-10-29

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In [Norse mythology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_mythology), the goddess [Iðunn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%C3%B0unn) is portrayed in the [_Prose Edda_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prose_Edda) (written in the 13th century by [Snorri Sturluson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snorri_Sturluson)) as providing apples to the [gods](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gods) that give them [eternal youthfulness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_youth). The English scholar [H. R. Ellis Davidson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._R._Ellis_Davidson) links apples to religious practices in [Germanic paganism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_paganism), from which [Norse paganism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_paganism) developed. She points out that buckets of apples were found in the [Oseberg ship](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oseberg_ship) burial site in Norway, that fruit and nuts (Iðunn having been described as being transformed into a nut in [_Skáldskaparmál_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sk%C3%A1ldskaparm%C3%A1l)) have been found in the early graves of the [Germanic peoples](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_peoples) in England and elsewhere on the continent of Europe, which may have had a symbolic meaning, and that nuts are still a recognized symbol of [fertility](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertility) in southwest England.[\[28\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple#cite_note-autogenerated1-28)

Davidson notes a connection between apples and the [Vanir](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanir), a tribe of gods associated with [fertility](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertility) in Norse mythology, citing an instance of eleven "golden apples" being given to woo the beautiful [Gerðr](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ger%C3%B0r) by [Skírnir](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sk%C3%ADrnir), who was acting as messenger for the major Vanir god [Freyr](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freyr) in stanzas 19 and 20 of [_Skírnismál_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sk%C3%ADrnism%C3%A1l). Davidson also notes a further connection between fertility and apples in Norse mythology in chapter 2 of the [_Völsunga saga_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%B6lsunga_saga): when the major goddess [Frigg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frigg) sends King [Rerir](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rerir) an apple after he prays to Odin for a child, Frigg's messenger (in the guise of a crow) drops the apple in his lap as he sits atop a [mound](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumulus).[\[29\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple#cite_note-DAVIDSON165-166-29) Rerir's wife's consumption of the apple results in a six-year pregnancy and the birth (by [Caesarean section](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesarean_section)) of their son—the hero [Völsung](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%B6lsung).[\[30\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple#cite_note-DAVIDSONROLES146-147-30)

Further, Davidson points out the "strange" phrase "Apples of [Hel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hel_\(location\))" used in an 11th-century poem by the [skald](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skald) Thorbiorn Brúnarson. She states this may imply that the apple was thought of by Brúnarson as the food of the dead. Further, Davidson notes that the potentially Germanic goddess [Nehalennia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nehalennia) is sometimes depicted with apples and that parallels exist in early Irish stories. Davidson asserts that while cultivation of the apple in Northern Europe extends back to at least the time of the [Roman Empire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Empire) and came to Europe from the [Near East](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_East), the native varieties of apple trees growing in Northern Europe are small and bitter. Davidson concludes that in the figure of Iðunn "we must have a dim reflection of an old symbol: that of the guardian goddess of the life-giving fruit of the other world."

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*Originally published on [rosia1618](https://paragraph.com/@rosia1618/germanic-paganism)*