Helen F. Leslie-Jacobsen (University of Bergen): The Sacred Grove in Pre-Christian Germanic Religion

A sacred grove is a set of trees imbued with particular religious significance for a community. Sacred groves and trees were clearly very important in the religion of the Pre-Christian Germanic peoples, and we can assume they did actually exist due to repeated mentions in historiographical and ethnographical accounts, for example those by Roman authors. My presentation will analyse the sources from which we can obtain information about sacred groves and trees, and also delve into the question of what we can suppose happened in them? Can we link bog bodies to sacred groves? Finally, we will look at the efforts of Christian missionaries to stop worship in sacred groves, further evidence for the long life and significance of pre-Christian activity amongst the trees.