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Chapter 3. Midgard 83
the animals (especially during the summer months when diseases were spread by
hoards of insects), reap the harvests, and store meat and produce for the upcoming
harsh winter months. After the work was done there was still a certain amount of
trusting to one’s luck that the crops wouldn’t fail or that the grass would be good
or that the animals didn’t succumb to some epidemic, and obviously the Germanic
peoples, particularly in the far north, felt more comfortable trusting their luck to
local spirits than to a foreign God who seemed more concerned about life after death
than the dirt in the fields.
If one allows that the eddaic and sagaic writings are representative of the people’s
attitudes towards nature at the time of their commitment to manuscript and in spite
of the fact that there are most certainly Christian interjections and interpretations
in the texts, then the early Teutons were possibly not truly animistic in their philosophy.
Animism implies that everything has a soul and a life to some degree,
and some researchers enjoy pursuing evidence of such a philosophy believing that
all primitive peoples must buy into animism in one form or another. From the
recorded sources, however, nature seems to be divided up into small “domains” with
various guardian spirits over them. Grain mills have the kverngrubbe; forests have
skogsraan rivers have the näck waterfalls have the fossegrim; the sea has “merfolk”;
cliffs, rocks, mountains have a variety of giants and trolls; and, mounds and hills
have huldrafolk, “hogboys” (haugbui = “mound dweller”), or ancestors. One could
also choose to take the perspective of lineage, and in doing so would quickly notice
that all things are “alive” in the sense that they all have a past or an ¸orlög. No
direct evidence for such can be found in any of the Germanic writings, but such
can easily be implied applying techniques of analysis similar to those which inspired
Bauschatz or Glosecki. Which ever view one takes makes little difference in the long
run because it is quickly realized that all things must be treated with a degree of
respect either as individual objects or as part of a larger domain under the care of
some local guardian.
For many moderns, an animistic worldview is frightening because any single
action, no matter how small, may inadvertently irritate the spirit living within a
thing and may result in revenge for an act unknowingly committed or that before
acting an individual would have to spend an inordinate amount of time asking for
permission which would result in very slow progress overall. For societies which
thrive on progress such as the industrial nations of the 20th century, such a process
would be slow and laborious. Additionally, it is well stated that modern Christians
believe that the “things” of this world are under the dominion of man, and so an
animistic worldview would not only be a hindrance to progress, but would also
stand in direct opposition to their God-given right to do what is necessary for the
betterment of mankind. For the most part, 20th century folk resist a move towards