GermanicWiki/What GermanicWiki is and isn't

Ever since the nineteenth century, certain typically right-leaning or nationalist groups have been making use of ancient Germanic mythology and symbolism. These uses ran the gamut from wholly benign, such as beautiful (if woefully inaccurate!) paintings, to overtly racist, such as Hitler's appropriation of the swastika as a symbol of "the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man." To this day, a minute but disproportionately vocal minority of bigots attempt to refashion and reinterprate Germanic mythology and symbolism to support their racist tendencies, "...ruining, perverting, misapplying," in the words of JRR Tolkien, "and making forever accursed that noble northern spirit." Needless to say, this wiki does not condone racism, fascism, völkisch ideology, and the like. Racist, national socialist, white supremicist, and other such interpretations of this subject matter are not welcome, unless being discussed in a strictly historical context.

Nor does this wiki exist to document the doings of modern-day Ásatrúar or other neo-pagans. Although they are generally a fascinating group, even the staunchest reconstructionist will admit that, unfortunately, so much information has been lost concerning the pagan religious practices of the ancient Germanic peoples as to necessitate filling considerable gaps of knowledge with speculation and extrapolation from scant evidence.

Heavy metal music, though awesome, is right out.

With all that being said, anyone and everyone is welcome to contribute, regardless of their personal beliefs or proclivities, providing a good-faith effort is made to keep things as historical as at all possible. References should be sprinkled liberally throughout. If you can't find a reasonably good source for something (defined here as "from a primary source, an academic publication of some sort or a book written by an author with something in the way of respectable credentials,") don't use it. That episode of The Deadliest Warrior where the Viking fights the samurai, for example, just doesn't cut it as a source. Nor does any kind of publication that claims that Norsemen made it to Minnesota (or South America!), or that paganism survived in an unbroken line culminating in modern day Wicca, or that Thor was at any point a member of the Avengers, or whatever.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. With your kind help we can build a better repository of knowledge for all things Germanic.