Aelfric Avery

Gaut's Descendants: Gothic Religion and Culture in Germania Aelfric Avery

Gaut's Descendants: Gothic Religion and Culture in Germania explores the religion and culture of the Goths and the Gothic influence on other Germanic tribes. Some of the topics examined include: the gods and goddesses of the Goths; the rituals and magic of the Goths; Gaut, the founding father god of the Goths, his surviving myths and his cult of sacral kingship; the various influences that contributed to the synthesis of Gothic religion and culture; the nature of Gothic Christianity and survivals of Gothic heathenry in Christian times; how the Migration Age layer of Germanic mythology differed from the more well-known Viking Age layer of Germanic mythology; how the Goths contributed to Germanic mystical and religious concepts preserved in the Eddas such as the differences between the Aesir and Vanir gods; the substantial influence of the Goths on the legend and poetry of the rest of the Germanic world, especially in Viking Age Scandinavia and Anglo-Saxon England.