Nordic religion
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Nordic religion is a termed used to abbreviate the religion preferably amongst the Germanic tribes living in Nordic countries under pre-Christian period that are supported by archaeology findings and early written materials.
There are scholars (such as Georges Dumézil's theory) suggesting structural similarities with the Norse religion and the whole Indo-European languages region.
Archaeology
There are many archaeology findings in Scandinavia. The eldest may be seen in petroglyphs and are usually divided into two categories from its age: "hunting-glyphs" and "agricultural-glyphs". The huntingglyphs are the oldest (ca. 9,000 -- 6,000 B.C.) and dominate in Northern Scandinavia (Jämtland, Nordtrøndelag and Nordland) and describe an economy mainly based on hunting and fishing culture. These more real motifs are later (ca. 4,000 -- 2,000 B.C.) replaced with more zoological (or perhaps religious) glyphs. Animals are often illustrated from a x-ray viewpoint (strongly reminiscent of the Australian's petroglyphs), hence the term zoological. The most southern glyphs (Bohuslän) are later complemented with younger agriculturalglyphs (ca. 2,300 -- 500 B.C.), which describe an economy based on agriculture. These are motifs of ships, shamans and worship in the sun, rain and geometrical figures. There is also a third, younger (ca. 900 -- 500 B.C.), glyphs showing a culture that have not been archaeologically supported other than these petroglyphs (containing a large part of sexual acts and feuds.)
It is only speculation that humans (such as The elk-man or Bog bodies) were sacrificed in a religious context.
There is also one category of artefact finding which has called into question the archeologies, and that is, the "gripdjur" (=grip-animal). The datings go back to the period 700 -- 900 A.D. Other younger objects include the well known runestones, written in runes, sometimes indicating ones property, other times a secret ciphered message, or finally a memory of a brave person who has been killed in a foreign country. Even small runic notes written on wood have been found, containing diary-like messages.
Kylver (Gotland), Mojbro (Uppland) and |Istaby stone (Blekinge) are the oldest runestones currently known (2004). The Runic script originates from Southern Europe (ca. 1st century), but there have been (not yet satisfactory) attempts to connect them to Turkish or Orkhon script. The major part of Scandinavian runestones appear in the 11th century.
The society was certainly divided into an upper and lower class. Slaves were probably used as workers for the upper-class. Most archeology remains do certainly belong to the upper-class families, but also early christian graves in villages allow us to tell more about "ordinary" people.
Texts
The younger religion which is commonly termed Norse mythology was by the Christians (in a degrading purpose) frequently termed hedendom (Scandinavian), Heidentum (German), Heathenry (English) or Paganismus (Latin, also a modern English term) due to the fact that the heathen or pagan people, i.e. people living on the country side (Lat. paganus; also cf. the English word heath), professed these beliefs. The profession of Heathenry was on Iceland commonly termed Forn Siðr and was seen as a crime from medieval till modern times.