Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic people, two of whose branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire through the long series of Gothic Wars and in the emergence of Medieval Europe. The Goths dominated a vast area, which at its peak under the Germanic king Ermanaric and his sub-king Athanaric extended all the way from the Danube to the Don, from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea; the Goths spoke one of the extinct East Germanic languages. In the Gothic language of Ostrogothic Italy they were called the Gut-þiuda, most translated as "Gothic people", but only attested as dative singular Gut-þiudai. In Old Norse they were known as the Gutar or Gotar, in Latin as the Gothi, in Greek as the Γότθοι, Gótthoi; the Goths have been referred to by many names at least in part because they comprised many separate ethnic groups, but because in early accounts of Indo-European and Germanic migrations in the Migration Period in general it was common practice to use various names to refer to the same group.
The Goths believed that the various names all derived from a single prehistoric ethnonym that referred to a uniform culture that flourished around the middle of the first millennium BC, i.e. the original Goths. The exact origin of the ancient Goths remains unknown. Evidence of them before they interacted with the Romans is limited; the traditional account of the Goths' early history depends on the Ostrogoth Jordanes' Getica written c. 551 AD. Jordanes states that the earliest migrating Goths sailed from what is now Sweden to what is now Poland. If this is accurate they may have been the people responsible for the Wielbark archaeological complex. Modern academics have abandoned this theory. Today, the Wielbark culture is thought to have developed from earlier cultures in the same area. Archaeological finds show close contacts between southern Sweden and the Baltic coastal area on the continent, further towards the south-east, evidenced by pottery, house types and graves. Rather than a massive migration, similarities in the material cultures may be products of long-term regular contacts.
However, the archaeological record could indicate that while his work is thought to be unreliable, Jordanes' story was based on an oral tradition with some basis in fact. Sometime around the 1st century AD, Germanic peoples may have migrated from Scandinavia to Gothiscandza, in present-day Poland. Early archaeological evidence in the traditional Swedish province of Östergötland suggests a general depopulation during this period. However, there is no archaeological evidence for a substantial emigration from Scandinavia and they may have originated in continental Europe. Upon their arrival on the Pontic Steppe, the Germanic tribes adopted the ways of the Eurasian nomads; the first Greek references to the Goths call them Scythians, since this area along the Black Sea had been occupied by an unrelated people of that name. The application of that designation to the Goths appears to be not ethnological but rather geographical and cultural - Greeks regarded both the ethnic Scythians and the Goths as barbarians.
The earliest known material culture associated with the Goths on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea is the Wielbark culture, centered on the modern region of Pomerania in northern Poland. This culture replaced the local Oxhöft or Oksywie culture in the 1st century AD, when a Scandinavian settlement developed in a buffer zone between the Oksywie culture and the Przeworsk culture; the culture of this area was influenced by southern Scandinavian culture beginning as early as the late Nordic Bronze Age and early Pre-Roman Iron Age. In fact, the Scandinavian influence on Pomerania and today's northern Poland from c. 1300 BC and onwards was so considerable that some see the culture of the region as part of the Nordic Bronze Age culture. In Eastern Europe the Goths formed part of the Chernyakhov culture of the 2nd to 5th centuries AD. Around 160 AD, in Central Europe, the first movements of the Migration Period were occurring, as Germanic tribes began moving south-east from their ancestral lands at the mouth of River Vistula, putting pressure on the Germanic tribes from the north and east.
As a result, in episodes of Gothic and Vandal warfare Germanic tribes crossed either the lower Danube or the Black Sea, led to the Marcomannic Wars, which resulted in widespread destruction and the first invasion of what is now Italy in the Roman Empire period. It has been suggested. Goths served in the Roman military and played a limited role, e.g. Gainas. In the first attested incursion in Thrace, the Goths were mentioned as Boranoi by Zosimus, as Boradoi by Gregory Thaumaturgus; the first incursion of the Roman Empire that can be attributed to Goths is the sack of Histria in 238. Several such raids followed in subsequent decades, in particular the Battle of Abrittus in 251, led by Cniva, in which the Roman Emperor Decius was killed. At the time, there were at least two groups of Goths: the Greuthungs. Goths were subsequently recruited into the Roman Army to fight in the Roman-Persian Wars, notably participating at the Battle of Misiche in 242; the Moesogoths settled in Moesia. The first seaborne raids took place in three subsequent years 255-257.
An unsuccessful attack on Pityus was followed in the second year by another, which sacked Pityus and Trabzon and ravaged large areas in th
Swedish History Museum
The Swedish History Museum is a museum located in Stockholm, that covers Swedish archaeology and cultural history from the Mesolithic period to present day. Founded in 1866, it operates as a government agency and is tasked with preserving Swedish historical items as well as making knowledge about history available to the public; the origin of the museum is the collections of art and historical objects gathered by Swedish monarchs since the 16th century. It has a number of permanent exhibitions and annually hosts special exhibitions tied to current events; the History Museum is part of a central museum agency called the Statens historiska museer. Other institutions under the aegis of this agency are the Royal Coin Cabinet, the Tumba Papermill Museum and the Swedish Archaeology Commission; the museum is one of five so called ansvarsmuseum in Sweden. It is tasked with coordinating activities between museums, assist other museums and develop contacts between museums and other parts of the Swedish community.
The foundation for what was to become the History Museum and the Nationalmuseum, was King Gustav Vasa's 16th century art collection at Gripsholm Castle. The collection grew through acquisitions and spoils of war during the time of the Swedish Empire; some of the collections were lost during the fire in the Tre Kronor castle. During the part of the 18th century and antiquities were bought by ambassadors and members of the royal family and collected at Stockholm Palace. After the death of King Gustaf III in 1792, the collections were turned over to the Swedish government; that same year the Royal Museum opened in the palace. It was one of the first public museums in the world. In 1846–47, the museum moved from the palace to the Ridderstolp House at Skeppsbron where it resided until 1865 and the move to Nationalmuseum. Swedish archaeologist Stig Welinder argues that the History Museum was in fact founded with its establishment in the Ridderstolp House in 1847; the present-day museum was founded in 1866 by Bror Emil Hildebrand, director of its predecessor both at Stockholm Palace and Ridderstolp House.
The collections of the museum were exhibited on the ground floor of the built Nationalmuseum. The premises soon became too small for both museums; when plans for the new Nordic Museum building were made in 1876, it was suggested that the building should include the History Museum's collections. The debate about housing for the History Museum continued for decades until Sigurd Curman became Custodian of Ancient Monuments and head of the Swedish National Heritage Board on 3 July 1923, he moved the issue forward to a more permanent solution. The main objective for a new and sufficiently large building for the museum was to bring order to the collections called "The Chaos" while the unpublished research papers were referred to as "the corf". In 1929, the Swedish government suggested that the former military barracks and stables at Storgatan in the city block known as the Krubban, could be allocated to the museum. An architectural competition was held in 1930, for the proposed conversion of the block into suitable accommodation for the museum.
No winner was declared, instead it was elements from the runner-up suggestion, made by architects Bengt Romare and George Scherman with engineer Gösta Nilsson, that became the starting point for the remodeling of the area. They developed the design for the new museum in cooperation with Curman, the National Property Board and the National Heritage Board. In 1932, the Swedish government granted funds for construction of official buildings to create jobs during the depression; some of these were used to build the museum in 1934–39. The plans for the museum were not finalized until 1936; the main building, designed by Romare and Scherman 1935–1940, reflects an ambivalence between the predominant modern style of the era and the historical context given not only by the context requirements, but the 19th century barracks and stables south of the museum designed by Fredrik Blom and built in stages in 1805–1818, starting one year after the land had been appropriated by the government. The barracks are neoclassicist in style and the repetitive façades used to be exposed to Ladugårdslandsviken, part of Stockholm's main harbor up until the 19th century, while the main building forms a compact block taking a step backwards from the street to leave space for a forecourt.
The museum consists of four two- and three-story block-like buildings surrounding an inner courtyard, giving it the appearance of a fortress. The façade is austere and decorated with sculptures made by Bror Marklund and reliefs by artist Robert Nilsson. In the courtyard by a pool is a sculpture called Näcken by Carl Frisendahl. Most of the decorations of the museum were selected through a series of competitions. In 1938, Marklund won the competition for creating the main entrance to the museum; the doors, called The Gates of History, took him thirteen years to make. They were finished and inaugurated in 1952; the doors were financed by philanthropist Eva Bonnier's foundation. The doors weighs about 1 t each. Made of bronze, they were first cast at the Herman Bergman foundry and chased by Marklund. Through a series of ten fields, the doors depict the history of Sweden from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages; the left door represents the Pagan era with Odin as a central figure, while the right door depicts Ansgar and the Christian era.
A noted deviation from the historical theme, is the depiction of a standard
Freyja
In Norse mythology, Freyja is a goddess associated with war, love, beauty, fertility and seiðr. Freyja is the owner of the necklace Brísingamen, rides a chariot pulled by two cats, is accompanied by the boar Hildisvíni, possesses a cloak of falcon feathers. By her husband Óðr, she is the mother of two daughters and Gersemi. Along with her brother Freyr, her father Njörðr, her mother, she is a member of the Vanir. Stemming from Old Norse Freyja, modern forms of the name include Freya and Freja. Freyja rules over Fólkvangr, where she receives half of those who die in battle; the other half go to Valhalla. Within Fólkvangr lies her hall, Sessrúmnir. Freyja assists other deities by allowing them to use her feathered cloak, is invoked in matters of fertility and love, is sought after by powerful jötnar who wish to make her their wife. Freyja's husband, the god Óðr, is absent, she cries tears of red gold for him, searches for him under assumed names. Freyja has numerous names, including Gefn, Hörn, Mardöll, Sýr, Vanadís.
Freyja is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources. Scholars have debated whether Freyja and the goddess Frigg stem from a single goddess common among the Germanic peoples. Freyja's name appears in numerous place names in Scandinavia, with a high concentration in southern Sweden. Various plants in Scandinavia once bore her name, but it was replaced with the name of the Virgin Mary during the process of Christianization. Rural Scandinavians continued to acknowledge Freyja as a supernatural figure into the 19th century, Freyja has inspired various works of art; the name Freyja transparently means'lady' and derives from Proto-Germanic *frawōn. Freyja is cognate with, for example, Old Saxon frūa "lady, mistress" and Old High German frouwa; the theonym Freyja is thus considered to have been an epithet in origin, replacing a personal name, now unattested. As a result, either the original name became taboo or another process occurred in which the goddess is a duplicate or hypostasis of another known goddess.
In addition to Freyja, Old Norse sources refer to the goddess by way of the following names: In the Poetic Edda, Freyja is mentioned or appears in the poems Völuspá, Grímnismál, Lokasenna, Þrymskviða, Oddrúnargrátr, Hyndluljóð. Völuspá contains a stanza that mentions Freyja, referring to her as "Óð's girl"; the stanza recounts that Freyja was once promised to an unnamed builder revealed to be a jötunn and subsequently killed by Thor. In the poem Grímnismál, Odin tells the young Agnar that every day Freyja allots seats to half of those that are slain in her hall Fólkvangr, while Odin owns the other half. In the poem Lokasenna, where Loki accuses nearly every female in attendance of promiscuity or unfaithfulness, an aggressive exchange occurs between Loki and Freyja; the introduction to the poem notes that among other gods and goddesses, Freyja attends a celebration held by Ægir. In verse, after Loki has flyted with the goddess Frigg, Freyja interjects, telling Loki that he is insane for dredging up his terrible deeds, that Frigg knows the fate of everyone, though she does not tell it.
Loki tells her to be silent, says that he knows all about her—that Freyja is not lacking in blame, for each of the gods and elves in the hall have been her lover. Freyja objects, she says that Loki is lying, that he is just looking to blather about misdeeds, since the gods and goddesses are furious at him, he can expect to go home defeated. Loki tells Freyja to be silent, calls her a malicious witch, conjures a scenario where Freyja was once astride her brother when all of the gods, surprised the two. Njörðr interjects—he says that a woman having a lover other than her husband is harmless, he points out that Loki has borne children, calls Loki a pervert; the poem continues in turn. The poem Þrymskviða features Loki borrowing Freyja's cloak of feathers and Thor dressing up as Freyja to fool the lusty jötunn Þrymr. In the poem, Thor wakes up to find that Mjöllnir, is missing. Thor tells Loki of his missing hammer, the two go to the beautiful court of Freyja. Thor asks Freyja that he may try to find his hammer.
Freyja agrees: Loki flies away in the whirring feather cloak, arriving in the land of Jötunheimr. He spies Þrymr sitting on top of a mound. Þrymr reveals that he has hidden Thor's hammer deep within the earth and that no one will know where the hammer is unless Freyja is brought to him as his wife. Loki flies back, the cloak whistling, returns to the courts of the gods. Loki tells Thor of Þrymr's conditions; the two go to see the beautiful Freyja. The first thing that Thor says to Freyja is that she should dress herself and put on a bride's head-dress, for they shall drive to Jötunheimr. At that
Heimdallr
In Norse mythology, Heimdallr is a god who possesses the resounding horn Gjallarhorn, owns the golden-maned horse Gulltoppr, is called the shining god and the whitest of the gods, has gold teeth, is the son of Nine Mothers. Heimdallr is attested as possessing foreknowledge, keen eyesight and hearing, keeps watch for invaders and the onset of Ragnarök while drinking fine mead in his dwelling Himinbjörg, located where the burning rainbow bridge Bifröst meets the sky. Heimdallr is said to be the originator of social classes among humanity and once regained Freyja's treasured possession Brísingamen while doing battle in the shape of a seal with Loki. Heimdallr and Loki are foretold to kill one another during the events of Ragnarök. Heimdallr is additionally referred to as Rig, Hallinskiði, Vindlér or Vindhlér. Heimdallr is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional material. Two lines of an otherwise lost poem about the god, survive. Due to the problematic and enigmatic nature of these attestations, scholars have produced various theories about the nature of the god, including his apparent relation to rams, that he may be a personification of or connected to the world tree Yggdrasil, potential Indo-European cognates.
The etymology of the name is obscure. Heimdallr may be connected to one of Freyja's names. Heimdallr and its variants are sometimes modernly anglicized as Heimdall. Heimdallr is attested as having three other names; the name Hallinskiði has resulted in a series of attempts at deciphering it. Gullintanni means'the one with the golden teeth'. Vindlér translates as either'the one protecting against the wind' or'wind-sea'. All three have resulted in numerous theories about the god. A lead spindle whorl bearing an Old Norse Younger Futhark inscription that mentions Heimdallr was discovered in Saltfleetby, England on September 1, 2010; the spindle whorl itself is dated from the year 1000 to 1100 AD. On the inscription, the god Heimdallr is mentioned alongside the god Odin and Þjálfi, a name of one of the god Thor's servants. Regarding the inscription reading, John Hines of Cardiff University comments that there is "quite an essay to be written over the uncertainties of translation and identification here.
In the Poetic Edda, Heimdallr is attested in six poems. Heimdallr is mentioned thrice in Völuspá. In the first stanza of the poem, the undead völva reciting the poem calls out for listeners to be silent and refers to Heimdallr: This stanza has led to various scholarly interpretations; the "holy races" have been considered variously as the gods. The notion of humanity as "Heimdallr's sons" is otherwise unattested and has resulted in various interpretations; some scholars have pointed to the prose introduction to the poem Rígsþula, where Heimdallr is said to have once gone about people, slept between couples, so doled out classes among them. In Völuspá, the völva foresees the events of Ragnarök and the role in which Heimdallr and Gjallarhorn will play at its onset. Due to manuscript differences, translations of the stanza vary: Regarding this stanza, scholar Andy Orchard comments that the name Gjallarhorn may here mean "horn of the river Gjöll" as "Gjöll is the name of one of the rivers of the Underworld, whence much wisdom is held to derive", but notes that in the poem Grímnismál Heimdallr is said to drink fine mead in his heavenly home Himinbjörg.
Earlier in the same poem, the völva mentions a scenario involving the hearing or horn of the god Heimdallr: Scholar Paul Schach comments that the stanzas in this section of Völuspá are "all mysterious and obscure, as it was meant to be". Schach details that "Heimdallar hljóð has aroused much speculation. Snorri seems to have confused this word with gjallarhorn, but there is otherwise no attestation of the use of hljóð in the sense of'horn' in Icelandic. Various scholars have read this as "hearing" rather than "horn". Scholar Carolyne Larrington comments that if "hearing" rather than "horn" is understood to appear in this stanza, the stanza indicates that Heimdallr, like Odin, has left a body part in the well. Larrington says that "Odin exchanged one of his eyes for wisdom from Mimir, guardian of the well, while Heimdall seems to have forfeited his ear."In the poem Grímnismál, tortured and thirsty, tells the young Agnar of a number of mythological locations. The eighth location he mentions is Himinbjörg, where he says that Heimdallr drinks fine mead: Regarding the above stanza, Henry Adams Bellows comments that "in this stanza the two functions of Heimdall—as father of humanity and as warder of the gods—seem both to be mentioned, but the second line in the manuscripts is in bad shape, in the editions it is more or less conjecture".
In the poem Lokasenna, Loki flyts with various gods. At one point during the exchanges, the god
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital of Sweden and the most populous urban area in the Nordic countries. The city stretches across fourteen islands. Just outside the city and along the coast is the island chain of the Stockholm archipelago; the area has been settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC, was founded as a city in 1252 by Swedish statesman Birger Jarl. It is the capital of Stockholm County. Stockholm is the cultural, media and economic centre of Sweden; the Stockholm region alone accounts for over a third of the country's GDP, is among the top 10 regions in Europe by GDP per capita. It is an important global city, the main centre for corporate headquarters in the Nordic region; the city is home to some of Europe's top ranking universities, such as the Stockholm School of Economics, Karolinska Institute and Royal Institute of Technology. It hosts the annual Nobel Prize ceremonies and banquet at the Stockholm Concert Hall and Stockholm City Hall. One of the city's most prized museums, the Vasa Museum, is the most visited non-art museum in Scandinavia.
The Stockholm metro, opened in 1950, is well known for the decor of its stations. Sweden's national football arena is located north of the city centre, in Solna. Ericsson Globe, the national indoor arena, is in the southern part of the city; the city was the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics, hosted the equestrian portion of the 1956 Summer Olympics otherwise held in Melbourne, Australia. Stockholm is the seat of the Swedish government and most of its agencies, including the highest courts in the judiciary, the official residencies of the Swedish monarch and the Prime Minister; the government has its seat in the Rosenbad building, the Riksdag is seated in the Parliament House, the Prime Minister's residence is adjacent at Sager House. Stockholm Palace is the official residence and principal workplace of the Swedish monarch, while Drottningholm Palace, a World Heritage Site on the outskirts of Stockholm, serves as the Royal Family's private residence. After the Ice Age, around 8,000 BC, there were many people living in what is today the Stockholm area, but as temperatures dropped, inhabitants moved south.
Thousands of years as the ground thawed, the climate became tolerable and the lands became fertile, people began to migrate back to the North. At the intersection of the Baltic Sea and lake Mälaren is an archipelago site where the Old Town of Stockholm was first built from about 1000 CE by Vikings, they had a positive trade impact on the area because of the trade routes they created. Stockholm's location appears in Norse sagas as Agnafit, in Heimskringla in connection with the legendary king Agne; the earliest written mention of the name Stockholm dates from 1252, by which time the mines in Bergslagen made it an important site in the iron trade. The first part of the name means log in Swedish, although it may be connected to an old German word meaning fortification; the second part of the name means islet, is thought to refer to the islet Helgeandsholmen in central Stockholm. According to Eric Chronicles the city is said to have been founded by Birger Jarl to protect Sweden from sea invasions made by Karelians after the pillage of Sigtuna on Lake Mälaren in the summer of 1187.
Stockholm's core, the present Old Town was built on the central island next to Helgeandsholmen from the mid-13th century onward. The city rose to prominence as a result of the Baltic trade of the Hanseatic League. Stockholm developed strong economic and cultural linkages with Lübeck, Gdańsk, Visby and Riga during this time. Between 1296 and 1478 Stockholm's City Council was made up of 24 members, half of whom were selected from the town's German-speaking burghers; the strategic and economic importance of the city made Stockholm an important factor in relations between the Danish Kings of the Kalmar Union and the national independence movement in the 15th century. The Danish King Christian II was able to enter the city in 1520. On 8 November 1520 a massacre of opposition figures called the Stockholm Bloodbath took place and set off further uprisings that led to the breakup of the Kalmar Union. With the accession of Gustav Vasa in 1523 and the establishment of a royal power, the population of Stockholm began to grow, reaching 10,000 by 1600.
The 17th century saw Sweden grow into a major European power, reflected in the development of the city of Stockholm. From 1610 to 1680 the population multiplied sixfold. In 1634, Stockholm became the official capital of the Swedish empire. Trading rules were created that gave Stockholm an essential monopoly over trade between foreign merchants and other Swedish and Scandinavian territories. In 1697, Tre Kronor was replaced by Stockholm Palace. In 1710, a plague killed about 20,000 of the population. After the end of the Great Northern War the city stagnated. Population growth halted and economic growth slowed; the city was in shock after having lost its place as the capital of a Great power. However, Stockholm maintained its role as the political centre of Sweden and continued to develop culturally under Gustav III. By the second half of the 19th century, Stockholm had regained its leading economic role. New industries emerged and Stockholm was transformed into an important trade and service centre as well as a key gateway point within Sweden.
The population grew during this time through immigration. At the end
Baptism
Baptism is a Christian rite of admission and adoption invariably with the use of water, into Christianity. The synoptic gospels recount. Baptism is considered a sacrament in most churches, as an ordinance in others. Baptism is called christening, although some reserve the word "christening" for the baptism of infants, it has given its name to the Baptist churches and denominations. The usual form of baptism among the earliest Christians involved the candidate's immersion, either or partially. John the Baptist's use of a deep river for his baptising suggests immersion: The fact that he chose a permanent and deep river suggests that more than a token quantity of water was needed, both the preposition'in' and the basic meaning of the verb'baptize' indicate immersion. In v. 16, Matthew will speak of Jesus'coming up out of the water'. Phillip and the Eunuch went down and came up out of water. Baptism is likened unto a burial in Romans 6:3. "Dip" is translated from baptō. The traditional depiction in Christian art of John the Baptist pouring water over Jesus' head may therefore be based on Christian practice.
Pictorial and archaeological evidence of Christian baptism from the 3rd century onward indicates that a normal form was to have the candidate stand in water while water was poured over the upper body. Other common forms of baptism now in use include pouring water three times on the forehead, a method called affusion. Martyrdom was identified early in Church history as "baptism by blood", enabling the salvation of martyrs who had not been baptized by water; the Catholic Church identified a baptism of desire, by which those preparing for baptism who die before receiving the sacrament are considered saved. As evidenced in the common Christian practice of infant baptism, Christians universally regarded baptism as in some sense necessary for salvation, until Huldrych Zwingli denied its necessity in the 16th century. Quakers and the Salvation Army do not practice baptism with water. Among denominations that practice baptism by water, differences occur in the manner and mode of baptizing and in the understanding of the significance of the rite.
Most Christians baptize "in the name of the Father, of the Son, of the Holy Spirit", but some baptize in Jesus' name only. Much more than half of all Christians baptize infants; the term "baptism" has been used metaphorically to refer to any ceremony, trial, or experience by which a person is initiated, purified, or given a name. The English word baptism is derived indirectly through Latin from the neuter Greek concept noun baptisma, a neologism in the New Testament derived from the masculine Greek noun baptismos, a term for ritual washing in Greek language texts of Hellenistic Judaism during the Second Temple period, such as the Septuagint. Both of these nouns are derived from the verb baptizō, used in Jewish texts for ritual washing, in the New Testament both for ritual washing and for the new rite of baptisma; the Greek verb baptō, "dip", from which the verb baptizo is derived, is in turn hypothetically traced to a reconstructed Indo-European root *gʷabh-, "dip". The Greek words are used in a great variety of meanings.
Baptism has similarities to Tvilah, a Jewish purification ritual of immersing in water, required for, among other things, conversion to Judaism, but which differs in being repeatable, while baptism is to be performed only once. John the Baptist, considered a forerunner to Christianity, used baptism as the central sacrament of his messianic movement; the apostle Paul distinguished between the baptism of John, baptism in the name of Jesus, it is questionable whether Christian baptism was in some way linked with that of John. Christians consider Jesus to have instituted the sacrament of baptism; the earliest Christian baptisms were normally by immersion, complete or partial. Though other modes may have been used. Though some form of immersion was the most common method of baptism, many of the writings from the ancient church appeared to view the mode of baptism as inconsequential; the Didache 7.1–3 allowed for affusion practices in situations where immersion was not practical. Tertullian allowed for varying approaches to baptism if those practices did not conform to biblical or traditional mandates.
Cyprian explicitly stated that the amount of water was inconsequential and defended immersion and aspersion practices. As a result, there was no uniform or consistent mode of baptism in the ancient church prior to the fourth century. By the third and fourth centuries, baptism involved catechetical instruction as well as chrismation, laying on of hands, recitation of a creed. In the early middle ages infant baptism became common and the rite was simplified. In Western Europe Affusion became the normal mode of baptism between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, though immersion was still practiced into the sixteenth. In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther retained baptism as a sacrament, but Swiss reformer Huldrych Zwingli considered baptism and the Lord's supper to be symbolic. Anabaptists denied the val
Thor
In Germanic mythology, Thor is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, storms, oak trees, the protection of mankind and hallowing and fertility. Besides Old Norse Þórr, extensions of the god occur in Old English as Þunor and in Old High German as Donar. All forms of the deity stem from a Common Germanic *Þunraz. Thor is a prominently mentioned god throughout the recorded history of the Germanic peoples, from the Roman occupation of regions of Germania, to the tribal expansions of the Migration Period, to his high popularity during the Viking Age, when, in the face of the process of the Christianization of Scandinavia, emblems of his hammer, Mjölnir, were worn and Norse pagan personal names containing the name of the god bear witness to his popularity. Due to the nature of the Germanic corpus, narratives featuring Thor are only attested in Old Norse, where Thor appears throughout Norse mythology. Norse mythology recorded in Iceland from traditional material stemming from Scandinavia, provides numerous tales featuring the god.
In these sources, Thor bears at least fifteen names, is the husband of the golden-haired goddess Sif, is the lover of the jötunn Járnsaxa, is described as fierce eyed, red haired and red bearded. With Sif, Thor fathered the goddess Þrúðr. By way of Odin, Thor has numerous brothers, including Baldr. Thor has two servants, Þjálfi and Röskva, rides in a cart or chariot pulled by two goats and Tanngnjóstr, is ascribed three dwellings. Thor wields the mountain-crushing hammer, Mjölnir, wears the belt Megingjörð and the iron gloves Járngreipr, owns the staff Gríðarvölr. Thor's exploits, including his relentless slaughter of his foes and fierce battles with the monstrous serpent Jörmungandr—and their foretold mutual deaths during the events of Ragnarök—are recorded throughout sources for Norse mythology. Into the modern period, Thor continued to be acknowledged in rural folklore throughout Germanic-speaking Europe. Thor is referred to in place names, the day of the week Thursday bears his name, names stemming from the pagan period containing his own continue to be used today in Scandinavia.
Thor has inspired numerous works of art and references to Thor appear in modern popular culture. Like other Germanic deities, veneration of Thor is revived in the modern period in Heathenry. Old Norse Þórr, Old English ðunor, Old High German Donar, Old Saxon thunar, Old Frisian thuner are cognates within the Germanic language branch, descending from the Proto-Germanic masculine noun *þunraz'thunder'; the name of the god is the origin of the weekday name Thursday. By employing a practice known as interpretatio germanica during the Roman Empire period, the Germanic peoples adopted the Roman weekly calendar, replaced the names of Roman gods with their own. Latin dies Iovis was converted into Proto-Germanic *Þonares dagaz, from which stems modern English "Thursday" and all other Germanic weekday cognates. Beginning in the Viking Age, personal names containing the theonym Thórr are recorded with great frequency. Prior to the Viking Age, no examples are recorded. Thórr-based names may have flourished during the Viking Age as a defiant response to attempts at Christianization, similar to the wide scale Viking Age practice of wearing Thor's hammer pendants.
The earliest records of the Germanic peoples were recorded by the Romans, in these works Thor is referred to—via a process known as interpretatio romana —as either the Roman god Jupiter or the Greco-Roman god Hercules. The first clear example of this occurs in the Roman historian Tacitus's late first-century work Germania, writing about the religion of the Suebi, he comments that "among the gods Mercury is the one they principally worship, they regard it as a religious duty to offer to him, on fixed days, human as well as other sacrificial victims. Hercules and Mars they appease by animal offerings of the permitted kind" and adds that a portion of the Suebi venerate "Isis". In this instance, Tacitus refers to the god Odin as "Mercury", Thor as "Hercules", the god Týr as "Mars", the identity of the Isis of the Suebi has been debated. In Thor's case, the identification with the god Hercules is at least in part due to similarities between Thor's hammer and Hercules' club. In his Annals, Tacitus again refers to the veneration of "Hercules" by the Germanic peoples.
In Germanic areas occupied by the Roman Empire and votive objects dating from the 2nd and 3rd century AD have been found with Latin inscriptions referring to "Hercules", so in reality, with varying levels of likelihood, refer to Thor by way of interpretatio romana. The first recorded instance of the name of the god appears in the Migration Period, where a piece of jewelry, the Nordendorf fibula, dating from the 7th century AD and found in Bavaria, bears an Elder Futhark inscription that contains the name Þonar, i.e. Donar, the southern Germanic form of the god's name. According to a near-contemporary account, the Christian missionary Saint Boniface felled an oak tree dedicated to "Jove" in the 8th century, the Donar's Oak in the region of Hes
