Surviving Norse/Germanic pagan state?

Nietzsche

Banned
How would one have a surviving Germanic or Norse-pagan state? Largest/most powerful state is preferable. PoD no later than..ehh...Constantine(the great)?
 

Philip

Donor
This gets discussed every couple of months. Try searching this forum -- there are several good discussions.
 
How about a name like "Asalaw" (The Law of the Aesir)?

If you want to forge a powerful Germanic empire, which retains it's own tradtitions, it wouldn't hurt to take whatever liberties you need with the Germanic tribes, since little about their internal politics is recorded. The TL I'm writing at the moment is about the early rise of the Suebi to level of Ancient Rome.

Maybe you could do something with the Gothic Kingdoms of Eastern Europe before the arrival of the Huns? Or, a tribal chieftain whom once served in the Roman Auxilia, comes home and puts his dreams of supreme power into action? When it comes to pre-literate cultures, one has much more room for creativity than you'd have with one which has extensive historical records.
 
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Alright this is shooting from the hip but my first thought on your challenge was Vinland. In short have some Charismatic pagan prophet foresee a cross rising above all the gods and have an epiphany on what to do.

Said prophet leads a small exodus of his groups to Vinlnd whicj is still viking. Say a few hundred before people lose interest. Vinland still ends up getting lost.

1500s Europeans arrive to find a string of nations in Northeastern North America of mixed Germanic/Native stock and practicing pagan beliefs. Also the Western hemisphere would definetly getthe wheel and metallurgy. Horses would be huge if they came over.
 
An interesting twist might be to think of Slavic paganism, which to my limited understanding is closely related (Perun approximating Thor, and so forth). Also, the last Pagan state in mainland Europe was I believe Lithuania, so the transgressive pleasure of having your pagans interact with fairly advanced medieval Christian societies could always be fun.
 
Alright this is shooting from the hip but my first thought on your challenge was Vinland. In short have some Charismatic pagan prophet foresee a cross rising above all the gods and have an epiphany on what to do.

Said prophet leads a small exodus of his groups to Vinlnd whicj is still viking. Say a few hundred before people lose interest. Vinland still ends up getting lost.

1500s Europeans arrive to find a string of nations in Northeastern North America of mixed Germanic/Native stock and practicing pagan beliefs. Also the Western hemisphere would definetly getthe wheel and metallurgy. Horses would be huge if they came over.

I actually thought of something like this a year ago, but I could never get anywhere with it. Good luck. I'm interested to hear more.
 
How would one have a surviving Germanic or Norse-pagan state? Largest/most powerful state is preferable. PoD no later than..ehh...Constantine(the great)?

Nietzsche

Barring the sort of situation suggested by Herr Frage, i.e. a kingdom in exile so to speak I think you would need either a pagan resurgence in Rome or an early collapse of Rome [east as well as west]. Otherwise Rome has too much prestige and Christianity is seen as the coming thing and path to success and fortune. Also if Europe is in chaos with no settled states in reasonable amounts of peace then any Christian community that tends towards ite founders pacifism and non-violence will be at something of a disadvantage.

Steve
 
Early Germanic Christianity thought of Christ as a very muscular, death-defying conquering king because Christianity had take over rest of Europe. But what if Christianity is severely defeated (at least during the Viking Era) so it is thought more of as a "loser's religion"?

Let's say that the Early Caliphate is able to expand into Western Europe taking southern France, with still-pagan Vikings taking over Northern France and Britain. Magyars can come along pick out the pieces of Christendom and even come in contact with the Muslims and the Norse Pagans which takes away the credibility of Christianity being the most powerful way-- staunch pagans will exploit this and identify Christianity with the religion of the weak and conquered.

While continental Europe is in chaos, Scandinavia comes up with well-defined "pagan" Theology and a system of worship, possibly being unified under a pagan king.
 
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