In the contemporary era, our world has become remarkably devoid of enchantment. Our constructed environments primarily serve utilitarian purposes, with only superficial aesthetic embellishments. Nature, too, is appreciated for its practicality and occasional beauty but is seldom seen as anything more profound. Our cultural and ancestral heritage often appears as an incidental aspect of our identity, devoid of profound significance. The spiritual dimension in our lives has waned to such an extent that we struggle to take religions seriously, even those promising salvation from our worldly predicament and entry into an otherworldly realm rich in the numinous meaning we find lacking in our present existence. We tend to question if such meaning can genuinely exist anywhere. The moments of enchantment we do encounter in our lives are fleeting, faint, and disconnected from the ordinary world's boundaries. They lack any spiritual or religious significance, failing to address our ultimate concerns.
In stark contrast, the Vikings and other Germanic peoples inhabited an entirely different world characterized by divine presence and profound sacred meaning. This enchantment enveloped the fundamentals of their existence, where nature and Germanic culture coexisted as an inseparable unity, not as opposing forces. The Germanic peoples were not practitioners of "nature worship," as modern misconceptions suggest. Instead of isolating an abstract "nature" from "culture" and worshipping "nature" itself, they perceived and experienced the gateway to the divine as what we might term "Germanic culture-nature" – a single, unified entity. They accepted the world as they encountered it, aligning themselves with the natural order of things. This stands in contrast to the Christian influence that gradually pervaded the Germanic peoples during the Viking Age and Middle Ages, which sought to radically transform the world in accordance with a lofty moral vision, including altering doctrinal beliefs.
The ancient Germanic religion exemplified what Paul Tillich, a highly regarded theologian and philosopher of the twentieth century, termed "romantic-conservative" religion:
In this context, "romantic" signifies the experience of the infinite within the finite, as found in nature and history. "Conservative," when associated with "romantic," underscores the presence of the ultimate within the existing forms of nature and history. A person who perceives the divine in the growing flower, the moving animal, the unique individuality of humans, specific nations, cultures, and social systems is described as romantic-conservative. For them, the existing world is sacred and constitutes their ultimate concern.
Tillich contrasted this type of religiosity with "moral" religiosity, where the divine is found in moral actions rather than in sacramental traditions. The latter is "progressive-utopian," while the former is "romantic-conservative."
The Vikings and other pagan Germanic peoples exhibited very little of the "progressive-utopian" quality in their religion. Surprisingly, their deep sense of enchantment with the world coexisted with their pragmatic and realistic outlook, rather than an idealistic one. They aimed to further their interests within the world as it was, without striving to fundamentally change its nature or engage in endeavors like what we might now call "saving the world." They had no counterparts to contemporary political movements' revolutionary ideals and would likely have scoffed at concepts like "social justice."
In the worldview of ancient Germanic peoples, events unfolded according to an inexorable and blind fate. They believed that one could not ultimately control their destiny; they could only respond to their circumstances with honor and greatness or with dishonor and insignificance. In such a perspective, there was little room for the concept of "saving the world," only for doing one's best within it.
Now, let's delve into some concrete examples of the enchanted world of the Germanic peoples:
The Old Norse term for "god" literally meant something akin to "pillar" or "vital force," implying that the gods were perceived as the foundational pillars upholding the cosmos. This portrayal aligned with how the myths depicted them. The gods did not exist entirely separate from the world, intervening in it from external realms; they were immanent within it, or at least within specific parts of it.