Paganism and Mythology of the Middle Ages
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Throughout time people have believed and relied on myths and legends to not only set the perfect examples of a good citizen or soldier to their children, but to also have a means of entertainment and a kind of proof to their faith in their religion. To better understand this concept one must go back in time to the middle ages when paganism was at its peak. Paganism has been defined in many ways throughout time. For some it’s anyone involved in a religious act, practice, or ceremony which is not Christian. Religions from the Muslims and Jews use paganism to pass on to anyone outside their religion. Other people say they are religions outside of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism; some just see it as a person without a religion. In a more dictionary format, paganism is referred to as the many religions of ancient Rome, Greece, and other neighboring places. It came from the Neolithic era coming from the Latin word, paganus, meaning a country dweller. A pagan usually believes in many gods (polytheistic), but like the Indians and many other religions like Christianity, one is mainly chosen as the one to worship which represents the chief god and ultimate godhead.
To people in history, worshiping many gods, goddesses, and deities was very important in their religion. The forest, sea, and many aspects of nature were thought as a spirit; therefore many had a god or goddess of that certain thing. As people change in the upcoming future the religions of different peoples changed as well. They would have gods of their occupations or village life. Pagans believed that the gods were vital and entered every aspect of their society, including laws, customs, and the everyday life of the community, for example the god of smith craft. The old gods continued to affect people, but of course they were changed to the lives of the people. Pagans did not believe in heaven or hell, but did believe in reincarnation.
There were many different kinds of pagan religions, but my main topic is of pagan religions in the middle-ages. There are vast amounts of different pagan religions/traditions some basic and more popular ones are the Celtic, Druid, Greek, and Witchcraft.
The Celtics, an ancient Indo-European people had great influences in the 4th century BCE that stretched from Britain to Asia. Celtic mythology had three clans: the Continental Brythonic, which is, Brittany, the Goidelic, including Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the western highlands of Scotland, and the Insular Brythonic, including Wales and Cornwall. In Celtic mythology, the Tuatha Dé Danann (“People of the goddess Danu”) is the many gods, created by the goddess Danu. The gods, who had lived on ‘the islands in the west’, had made magic perfect when used. They were said to have traveled on a huge cloud to the land that later would be called Ireland.
Druidry was and still is a spiritual way for people, it’s a faith to some and a way of life for others, like Taoism. Druids share a belief in primarily the spiritual nature of life. Some have a certain way of understanding the source of this divine nature, and they may feel they are polytheists, animists, duo theists, monotheists or pantheists. They are against war, conflict, and damage to the earth. They feel the earth has many spirits, that of all the elements.
The Greek believed that the Gods would give protection and give wisdom to their city-states. They believed that if the gods were kept happy they would live a life free of turmoil. They held sacrifices to the gods and greatly believed in the afterlife. They believed that the gods lived in Mount Olympus consisting of Hades; god of the underworld, Aphrodite; goddess of love, Apollo; god of light, guidance, healing, music, and purity, Athena; goddess of Athens, wisdom, handcrafts, and war, Demeter, Hermes, Hera, Poseidon, Artemis, Ares, and Zeus; king of gods, gold, lightening, and thunder.
Witchcraft is quite broad to talk about the variety of faiths. It’s also known “craft of the wise” or “wise craft”. This pagan religion is in fact a peaceful faith or path of nature. People who practiced this craft were accused of devil worship and were often killed.
By the PFI, Pagan Federation International, “Paganism is a spiritual way of life which has its roots in the ancient nature religions of the world. It is principally rooted in the old religions of Europe, though some adherents also find great worth in the indigenous beliefs of other countries. Such belief in the sacredness of all things can be found world-wide. Pagans see this as their heritage, and retain the beliefs and values of their ancestors in forms adapted to suit modern life. We celebrate the sanctity of Nature, revering the Divine in all things; the vast, unknowable spirit that runs through the universe, both seen and unseen.”
Mythology of the Middle Ages vary in many ways. A long time ago, peasants used to tell tales among each other to entertain themselves since they did not know how to read or write. Among these tales, there were groups of people that believed that these mythical creatures existed and others who did not believe so.
Such tales such as of dragons were made up to scare children for fun. Little by little, people started believing this tale because some people strated to get missing. This brought popularity to the knights since they were the ones that protected the people there. Knights spreaded the stories about the dragons and how they were the only ones to be able to slay them, which brought even more popularity to them and also a thought of thembeing the most couragoeus in the lands.
Other tales such as of elves, which first started in the German myths. These
little creatures are human looking, but their size is short. They also are said to be very skilled with magic powers and with weapons such as swords and specially the bow. In the story tales, the elves are the spirit of nature and they live for very long.
Elves are very mysterious and would not reveal any information about themselves, so this is why we do not know so much about them from tales.
In the other hand, giants are mostly the opposite of elves. They are always shown with great strenght and and gigantic body. They are also give a long life spawn and great knowledge.
Giants are always talked about in different mythologies such as the Greek Mythology, the Germanic Mythology, Basque Mythology, and in other Eouropean legends.
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tories of the giants tell how they lived and fought certain gods. Other stories tell how they formed civilizations and people believe that there are people that are descendant of giants. Also, some tales explain how really high monuments were built by giants and that is the reason they are so big. These tales also say how much giants love music and how giants can be put to sleep with certain musical instruments.
In these tales and myths, there is said that elves and giants do not get along because of their differences and also because each one thinks they are superior to the other one. It is said that this feud has been going on for thousands of years.
Another known tale is the Legen of Arthur. This tales talks about the story of how a young teenager becomes the king of an out of control kingdom in need of a great leader. When the previous king died, there was no person to replace him. So to become the king of Camelot, the person had to lift the sword that was in a big rock. Many tried and filed, but the one that succeeded was the young man, Arthur. Arthur later on became the king and ruled his empire with justice and might. This leader became an idealistic model of a king in these Dark Ages.
Many of us have heard about fairies. Well, these myths about fairies were originated in Celtic and Norse regions. Fairies are described as very small humans, even smaller than elves, with a costume of color blue, gold, green, etc, the color of nature.
In the stories there are two kinds of fairies: evil and good. There are also both female and males fairies. There is a myth that explins to humans how to meet a fairy. What you have to do is go into the forest and look for a circle of rocks. This circle was never to be disturbed and if you did something to it, you would be in a lot of trouble with the fairies. Also, the tales say that little children can meet the fairies and that they also can go to festivities with them and woulod not get in trouble for that because fairies love children.
Fairies are believed to be the guardians of nature and all elements. This is why when we see them on TV or listen a tale about them, we can see the strong bond that they have with nature.
The mythology of the Middle Ages is very known because their stories have been kept from generation to genereation. Little by little the increased and they became famous. Whether these stories were true or not is a mystery, but I know that they will continue to pass down and they will never die because there is always something interesting about them that makes them special.
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