Thunor and the Fylfot

A 5th-6th century Anglo-Saxon cremation urn from North Elmham, Norfolk.


There is a clear link between the fylfot (swastika) and the Germanic thunder God Thunor/Thor/Donar and this is via His hammer Mjolnir. Christopher R. Fee in his Gods, Heroes, & Kings The Battle for Mythic Britain refers to the 'image' of the Mjolnir 'spinning end-over-end' in the heavens, resembling a swastika.


When Thunor throws His mighty hammer it gives the appearance of a rotating fylfot. The hammer represents one of the four arms of this sacred Aryan symbol. So when followers of the heathen faith wear the hammer of Thunor around their necks they are also in effect carrying a fylfot or swastika.
Stephen Taylor in his book The Fylfot File also draws on this connection, referring to the fylfot as a stylised version " of Mjolnir.


The association of the hammer with a sky God is to be found amongst other Indo-European cultures. The Baltic thunder God Perkons also carried a hammer called Milna which may very well be linked linguistically to Mjolnir along with the Russian molnija and the Welsh mellt which both mean 'lightning'.

The Slavic thunder God Perun carried an axe which fulfills a similar function in mythology to the hammer. Indeed sometimes Mjolnir is referred to as an axe or a club and we must not forget that the Greek Herakles and the Roman Hercules both carried a club. Other Indo-European sky or thunder Gods such as the Greek Zeus or the Roman Jupiter had a thunderbolt as their primary weapon but we must not forget that Mjolnir is the source of lightning in Germanic mythology. The Indian Indra also carried a thunderbolt as his primary weapon.

Not only is the concept of the thunder and sky God a pan Aryan mythological concept but so also is the fylfot or swastika and no doubt this connection between the two is via the thunder God's weapon whether it be axe, club, hammer or thunderbolt.

The Thor Stone at Taston

The "Thorstone" at Taston, Oxfordshire, UK, by ColinofOxfordshire, is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0  Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taston No changes were made to the image. The image owner does not endorse this blog.








There are a number of megaliths in Great Britain named after the Germanic Gods or at least have legends attributed to them which involve our deities. One example of the former is the Thor Stone situated in Taston in Oxfordshire, England. It is situated next to the garden wall of Thorstone Cottage in the middle of the small hamlet. Taston is believed to be derived from Thorstan (meaning Thorstone) but I cannot find the place name referred to in either A Dictionary of English Place-Names (A.D. Mills, 1991) or Place-Names in the Landscape (Margaret Gelling, 1984), no doubt because of the small size of the hamlet. I understand however that it is referred to in Gelling's The Place-Names of Oxfordshire-volume 2 (1954).

It is significant however that the village should take its name from this megalith and no doubt this was originally a ritual site for the worship of Thor. The suffix of the original name Thor-stan is of Old English rather than Norse origin and I am speculating that this may have been an Anglian cultic site where Thunor was worshiped. Over the course of time and with the influence of Old Norse on the English language 'Thunor' may very well have transformed in some places in to 'Thor'.

Elsie Corbett in her A History of Spelsbury (1962) relates that the stone is said to be a thunderbolt thrown down from the heavens. This idea is closely related to the concept of the much smaller Thunderstones in Germanic folklore. The story of the origin of the stone is similar to that of the origin of the Devil's Arrows in Boroughbridge and I refer readers to my article The Devil's Arrows in Folklore

The Fylfot (Swastika) in Anglo-Saxon England

We are told repeatedly these days that the swastika symbol has 'nothing to do' with the German or Germanic peoples and belongs originally to Hindu civilisation etc. This of course is a bare faced lie for there is ample evidence for the use of this symbol by many pre-Christian Indo-European peoples outside of India. For this article I intend to focus exclusively on its use by the Anglo-Saxon and Norse peoples.

Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson refers to the use of the swastika or fylfot in Anglo-Saxon times in her remarkable Gods and Myths of Northern Europe (1964) and points out that it is to be found on funeral urns in pre-Christian England, especially in cemeteries in East Anglia. She points out the great care that was taken when carving the symbol with a high degree of precision so this symbol clearly had particular significance for our ancestors. She associates this symbol with Thunor, the Anglo-Saxon variant of the Norse Thor and by inscribing the fylfot on urns our ancestors were asking for Thunor's protection of the dead person. Likewise David Wilson comes to the same conclusion in his Anglo-Saxon Paganism (1992).

It needs to be remembered that Thunor or Thor is a God who is most closely associated with protection and the wearing of the hammer or axe amulet gives the wearer a feeling and consciousness that He walks before, behind and along side us. It is clear from the Eddas that Thor was invoked on at least three special occasions in the lives of His followers: birth, marriage and death. We know that many children were named after Thor in pre-Christian Iceland and Scandinavia. Often names incorporated 'Thor' as a prefix. It must be pointed out that probably no one would have been called 'Thor' but 'Thor' was included as part of a given name, e.g. Thorolf, Thorbjorn, Thorgrim, Thorgeir, Thorkel, Thormod, Thorsten, Thorvald, etc. Davidson points out that the hammer was "used to hallow the new-born child who was accepted into the community" (page 80).

Thor presided over marriage rites. A hammer would be placed on the lap of the bride which symbolically was a request for Thor to bless the woman with fertility. In the Lay of Thrym (Thrymskvida) in the Poetic Edda we have the story of how Thor won back His hammer from the giant Thrym by presenting Himself as the giant's bride. The hammer is placed into the hands of Thor as part of the wedding ceremony so what we have here is the mythological origin of this marriage ritual. Some scholars have drawn analogies between this and the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale recorded by the Grimm brothers. Bronze Age rock carvings in Bohuslan in Sweden show an axe wielding God standing over a couple which could be a very early pictorial depiction of a Thunder/Sky deity blessing a marriage.

Thor also presided over funeral rites. We already have evidence for the association of Thunor with funerary urns but there is also a story in Gylfaginning in the Prose Edda which relates the death and funeral of Baldr. Thor uses His hammer to consecrate the funeral fire.

In addition to the appearance of the fylfot on funeral urns the symbol also appears on Anglo-Saxon broaches, bronze belt mounts, sword hilts and Saxon sceatta coins. Germanic bracteates from Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Hungary also feature the fylfot, sometimes in association with the God Woden/Wodan/Odin. Many items recovered from the Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo ship burial also feature the fylfot.

* The image at the head of this article is that of an urn found in North Elham, Norfolk and dated to the 5th-6th century.

False Machismo and the Lack of Balance in Modern Heathenism

I have read many books over the years on Odinism and on Germanic heathenism in general, both by contemporary heathens and works by scholars who seek to genuinely identify the beliefs and practices of our Germanic and Indo-European forefathers. Many of the books published by contemporary heathens and articles by them on the Internet, especially from North America display a certain false machismo which is more fitting for a gang of Hell's Angels than genuine followers of  our ancestral deities. One sees this especially in works by Wotansvolk with images of Vikings with bulging muscles and Gods with fiercesome (adjective's spelling is intended) demeanours. I do currently have a number of their works on my shelves, purchased many years ago which I have since outgrown and intend to dispose of in the near future to make space for more interesting works.

The point that I am trying to make is that for far too long as English heathens we have allowed our religious beliefs and practices to be determined (like almost everything) by Americans. For those of you who used to follow my previous blogs you will realise by now that I hold 'Americanism' and indeed the United States as a country (established by genocidal puritans) in deep contempt. Practically everything that the average American holds dear I stand against with one exception-the general concept of 'free speech' (I can't think of anything else). The USA is the physical embodiment of militarism, aggression, capitalism and bare-faced hypocrisy. There are of course individual Americans who I hold in high regard. What I am referring to is the country itself, its system of government and its 'god', capitalism. England's gain in getting rid of these religious fanatics was the Red Indians' loss!

This American militaristic, aggressive and capitalist attitude can be found in the writings of some American heathens, even high profile ones. They seem unable to help themselves. They are unable to restrain themselves at any notion of criticism of their society and mores and label their opponents as being 'socialist'. It would seem that a country which seeks to protect its most vulnerable citizens; the sick, the old, the young, the homeless and unemployed is 'socialist'. I find elements of this attitude here in England as well. I note a certain veiled criticism of the 'welfare state' (see paragraph 23 of Odinism, What is it?) in an online archived article of the Odinic Rite. This of course may be quite an old article and their views may have changed but the paragraph troubles me. See Odinism, What is it? As in Christianity, particularly Protestantism, work became a 'virtue' in itself, something which appears to be echoed in Odinism.


The ancient Greeks however had a clearer concept of the 'value' of 'work' and ascribed greater value to leisure time. Perhaps with the increasingly mechanised nature of the work place we will see an increase in leisure time and who knows perhaps the introduction of an unconditional 'universal basic income' for every adult. See Basic Income It is interesting to note that the welfare state is regarded by Americans as an example of the much hated 'socialism' and not surprisingly it has the worst welfare state in the entire developed world. Let me be quite clear about this; an industrial or post-industrial society REQUIRES a welfare state unless you subscribe to the concept that a man is nothing more than a thrall to the 1% of the 1% and should slave his entire life until he drops down dead at 70 from exhaustion?

We are seeing the beginnings of this in the United Kingdom with the government's attacks upon the welfare state and the steadily increasing pension age and its sinister mantra of 'generational fairness' which pits the young against the old. This has always been the tactics of the Tories-they divide and rule.  Before England's Industrial Revolution when it was still largely rural one or two of my ancestors in North Meols, Lancashire acted as 'Overseers of the Poor'. See Overseer of the Poor Rural communities looked after their most vulnerable members as if they were a family. This is the essence of National Socialism except that many who claim to be National Socialists tend to glorify capitalism and are at heart 'right-wingers' not genuine left wing revolutionaries as the NSDAP was in its very early days until it sold out to big business and murdered its brownshirts and at this point embarked upon a disastrous militaristic campaign. Even Miguel Serrano recognises this fact in one of his writings.

The rejection of the welfare state by many Odinists, American or otherwise is an outworking of this false machismo and should remain where it belongs-in the USA. We see also a rejection of the concept of prayer by many Odinists who see it as a form of 'begging' and 'pleading', demeaning of their masculinity! Again we see this attitude in the aforementioned article by the Odinic Rite (paragraph 26), the author of which seems to be oblivious to the many examples in the Icelandic sagas of Norsemen praying to the Gods, such as the Landnamabok and the Saga of Erik the Red. These muscly Norsemen did not consider it demeaning to offer prayers to the Mighty Thor. I also noted a similar line of thought in the article All About Odinism by the Odinist Fellowship who state that Odinists "do not bow or kneel" before the Gods. Again this entirely flies in the face of the historical evidence. It is faulty thinking, not based on the evidence which is available to us. It is NOT demeaning to kneel or bow before the Gods. Our ancestors did so willingly to their lords and those lords did so to their superior lords so how much more worthy of respect are our deities? The whole concept of prayer is dealt with in some detail by Tom Rowsell in his excellent video: Indo-European Prayer and Ritual This is not intended to be an attack upon the Odinic Rite or the Odinist Fellowsip as I highly esteem both organisations. It is the faulty thinking that is at the heart of Odinism that places stubborn human pride-masculine pride at that ahead of true devotion and service to the Gods. I would also like to point out that there is also nothing wrong with the concept of SERVICE or being a SERVANT! To be a servant of our Gods is surely the highest calling.

I see many examples on the Internet of Odinists stating that even when they do engage in prayer they never bend the knee or bow. This may be so but it is NOT traditional! Again these proud Odinists need to actually read the sagas which they esteem so highly. They should start with the sagas which feature the Goddess Thorgerdr Holgabrudr and Her follower Jarl Haakon Sigurdsson, a ruler of Norway from about 975 to 995. The relevant sagas are Jomsvikinga Saga and the Faereyinga Saga.

The only way that we can counter these faulty understandings of certain aspects of Germanic heathenism is through encouraging heathens to spend time in thoroughly studying the source material so that modern day heathenism is grounded on the best available evidence of our traditions, not Hollywood films (made by Americans). As Europeans we need to be more selective in our reading matter especially where American authors are concerned.  By encouraging the involvement of more females we may hopefully gain a more balanced view of our religion for balance is something which is generally lacking in most forms of reconstructed heathenism and paganism.

The Sacred Spears of the Germanic Priest Kings

During the latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century a number of sacred spears belonging to the pre-christian Germanic tribes were located in modern day Germany, Sweden and Poland, being the Kovel spear, the Dahmsdorf spear, the Rozwadow spear and the Moos spear.
What these spears have in common is their construction-Iron with silver inlay and their runic inscriptions.

The one from Dahmsdorf has the inscription Ansuz-Jera-Nauthiz-Ansuz-Raitho. The inscription reading from right to left says ranja, ie the "runner". Edred Thorsson in his The Mysteries of the Goths (Runa Raven, 2007) speculates that this has the meaning of "the one which causes [them] to flee". The owner of the spear may have been a Burgundian, originally an East Germanic tribe. It dates from around 250CE and it also contains solar and lunar symbols and was discovered in 1865 during the construction of a train station at Dahmsdorf-Muecheberg. This and the other spears were never used in combat and clearly were of ceremonial purpose. Either these spears belonged to tribal priests or were symbolic totems of regal power belonging to chieftains.

The spear was the original and favoured weapon of the Germanic peoples and every Germanic freeman, every warrior possessed one as a mark of his status. In the case of chieftains and priests these were obviously more elaborate as these spears clearly have a mystical purpose. We are of course reminded of Gungnir, the spear of Wotan/Wodan/Woden/Odin which likewise was according to Sigdrifumal 17 insricribed with 17 runes on its tip. It would of course be tempting to speculate what they are. It is of course possible that this may be a version of the normally 16 runes Younger Futhark.

The Dahmsdorf spear contains both a triskelion and a swastika, both of which are solar symbols. These spears also contain tamgas which are Sarmatian or Scythian tribal symbols and thus show a connection with the steppe dwelling Iranian tribes who lived close to the East Germanic peoples.
The Germanic peoples considered themselves to be the offspring of their Gods and nobles in particular often reckoned their descent from Wodan. Therefore it is natural for a Germanic chieftain or king to possess a sacred spear as a symbol of the Wodan given regal power.

Alternatively the tamga symbol may be interpreted as a  Blitzbündel symbol which is associated with the God Thunor. See my other articles on this symbol: An Esoteric Interpretation of Das Blitzbündel and The Trisula and the Vajra and their Associations with Das Blitzbündel

Later in the post-conversion times and the arising of the Parsifal myth the sacred spear or lance features as the symbolic weapon of the Grail king. We know that the Holy Lance or spear of Longinus which allegedly currently resides in the Hofburg Museum in Wien has been dated to no earlier than the 7th century CE and therefore is not contemporary with the times of the so-called Christ.
No doubt this spear falls into a similar category as the four runic spears referred to in this article. 

The Red Beard of the Aryan Thunder God

The Thunder Gods of the Aryan peoples are usually portrayed as sporting long and often red beards. As Jacob Grimm states in his Teutonic Mythology Volume 1:

"The German thundergod was no doubt represented, like Zeus and Jupiter, with a long beard. A Danish rhyme still calls him 'Thor med sit lange skiag' (F. Magnusen's lex. 957). But the ON. sagas everywhere define him more narrowly as red-bearded, of course in allusion to the fiery phenomenon of lightning: when the god is angry, he blows in his red beard, and thunder peals through the clouds. In the Fornm. sog. 2, 182 and 10, 329 he is a tall, handsome, red-bearded youth: Mikill vexti (in growth), ok ungligr, fridr synum (fair to see), ok raudskeggjadr; in 5, 249 madr raudskeggjadr. Men in distress invoked his red beard: Landsmenn toko that rad (adopted the plan) at heita thetta hit rauda skegg, 2, 183. When in wrath he shakes his beard: Reidr var tha, skeg nam at hrista, scor nam at dyja (wroth was he then, beard he took to bristling, hair to tossing), Saem. 70."

Grimm goes on to state:

"This red beard of the thunderer is still remembered in curses, and that among the Frisian folk, without any visible connexion with the Norse ideas: 'diis ruadhiiret donner regiir!' (let red-haired thunder see to that) is to this day an exclamation of the North Frisians. And when the Icelanders call a fox holtathorr, Thorr of the holt, it is probably in allusion to his red fur."

Walter Keating Kelly in his Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and Folk-lore states:

"Indra's beard was golden; Agni is invoked in the Vedas as the god with the golden beard and golden teeth. Fire and the 'red gold' are associated ideas in all Indo-European languages. Thor's beard was red, and it thundered and lightened when he blew in it. His hair too was red, and that such hair and beards were much admired when he was there to set the fashion, may be inferred not only from general considerations, but more particularly from the extreme aversion which was conceived for them when Christianity came in. Rother-bart, Teufelsart, 'Redbeard, devil-steered,' is a German proverb; and the more to insult the memory of the fallen god, it was fabled that he and the vilest of men, the arch traitor Judas, had hair and beards of the same colour." 

The Thunder Gods of the Balts and Slavs likewise sported red beards. It is for this very reason that beards went out of fashion in the post-conversion period and were (and to a certain extent still are) associated with heathenism. Anti-beard prejudice is still a factor today and most people who are prejudiced against beards do not consciously understand why. It is an unconscious prejudice brought about through centuries of Christian conditioning. As a mark of respect and reverence to Thunor, one of the primary deities who I feel a strong personal attachment to I wear a bead and wear it long. It is not only a statement of our Germanic heathen faith but a rejection of the superficial and anti-traditional mores of the herd. It also has the added psychological factor of invoking a certain degree of fear and respect in one's enemies. Scientific studies will of course tell you that beards are disliked (real beards that is) by women but this is of little consequence as the women of the herd are part of the prostituted and race-less and culture-less masses. They form no part of the nation of Woden. I notice that in recent years other folkish heathens have also started to grow beards and often also grow their hair long in the tradition of our ancestors.

The Early Primacy of the Germanic Thunder God

The Icelandic Eddas portray Thor as the son of Odin but this concept does not apply to all parts of the pre-Christian Germanic world. An example of Thor occupying the primary role amongst the Aesir is the account of the temple at Uppsala given by Adam of Bremen in about 1070 CE:

"This people owns a very famous temple at Uppsala, not far from Sigtuna. In this temple, which is made exclusively of gold, the people worship the statues of three gods. Thor, the mightiest of them, has his seat in the middle of the room, and the places to the left and right of him are taken by Wodan and Fricco."

Wilhelm Waegner writing in his Asgard and the Gods states:

"In such manner people used, in the olden time, to call on the strong god of thunder, Thunar,- in the North, Thor. He was held in great reverence, and was pehaps even regarded as an equal of the God of Heaven. Traces of this are still recogniseable, for wherever he was spoken of in connection with the other gods, he was given the place of honour in the middle."

Chantepie De La Saussaye in his The Religion of the Teutons conjectures that the verbal contest in the Harbardhsljodh between Odin (Harbardh) and Thor is an expression of:

"the antithesis between the old and the new era. That in the time of the warlike vikings and the poetic scalds Odhin, the god who welcomes warriors to Walhalla and who won the poets' mead, gradually supplanted Thor, is a theory that was advanced long ago and which has found ready acceptance with many scholars. In Norway, Thor was doubtless of old the chief god, as he was in Sweden alongside of Freyr, but Eddic song as well still assigns him a high rank, and in Iceland he was zealously worshipped."

Karl Mortensen writing in A Handbook of Norse Mythology when discussing the wording on certain ancient rune stones and noting the existence of 'hooked crosses' and hammers engraved upon them states that "Thor at this time was the chief god of the Danes; and for the rest of the North also."  
Jacob Grimm in his Teutonic Mythology Volume 1 affirms that:

He is the true national god of the Norwegians, landas (patrium numen), Egilss. p. 365-6, and when ass stans alone, it means especially him, e.g., Saem. 70a, as indeed the very meaning of ans (jugum montis) agrees with that of Fairguneis. His temples and statues were the most numerous in Norway and Sweden, and asmegin, divine strength, is understood chiefly of him. Hence the heathen religion in general is so frequently expressed by the simple Thor blota, Saem. 113b, het (called) a Thor, Land. 1, 12, truthi (believed) a Thor, Landn. 2, 12."

The Thorstein in the Harz Mountains

In the Harz Mountains, south of Halberstadt there stands a massive rock formation called the Glaeserner Moench-the Glass Monk or Crystal Monk. However the ancient Teutons called this sandstone rock the Thorstein-Thor's Stone. Only with the enforced Christianisation of my  Saxon ancestors did the name change to the Glass Monk. This latter name unfortunately still persists to this day, possibly out of false notions of political correctness rather than fear of the impotent dying Christian church.

After the conversion of the Saxons a legend developed about a nun and monk breaking their vows of chastity and being turned into sandstone. The shape of the rock is suggestive of both a monk's hood but also of Donar's hammer. Donar was worshiped both in the forest and on mountains and the sound of His thunder in the Harz is quite dramatic. Early Bronze Age finds dating back to about 2,000 BCE have been discovered in this location.

The Devil's Arrows in Folklore

I have always been attracted to and fascinated by megaliths, menhirs, dolmens and stone circles. This is one of the reasons why the teachings of Wodens Folk has always resonated with me for in our religion the worship of the Germanic Gods is also associated with the reverence for sacred places in the landscape such as megaliths and dolmens.

As a young boy in the 1960s I remember regularly visiting the remarkable Devil`s Arrows  which are three surviving menhirs alligned in a field near the A1 and the river Ure in Boroughbridge in the old West Riding of Yorkshire. These stones are very distinctive for they have a grooved pattern formed they say due to millenia of rainfall. I am not convinced that rainfall has caused this distinctive pattern for I know of no other menhirs that are shaped in this way. The tallest stone is 22 1/2 feet in height which makes it the second tallest menhir in the United Kingdom. Originally there were at least four such `arrows` but one was pulled down by our ignorant ancestors in the 18th century who were hunting for treasure. The remains of the stone were then used to build a nearby bridge over the river. The stones are formed from millstone grit and apparently this may have been obtained 9 miles away in Knaresborough.

The alignment of the stones is in a NNW-SSE direction conforms with the summer moonrise. The stones are associated with the `Devil` who used them as `arrows` to fire at the nearby ancient Roman town of Aldborough. The `Devi`l shouted:  "Borobrigg keep out o' way, for Aldborough town I will ding down!" We know that in English folklore references to the `Devil` disguise the contempt of the xtian church for our ancient Gods, in particular Woden and Thunor.

However there is a surviving tale of an encounter between the 'Devil' and Thor recorded in In Search of the Lost Gods. A Guide to British Folklore by Ralph Whitlock (1979). A legend from Treyford Hill near Midhurst in west Sussex refers to an argument between the 'Devil' and Thor whose sleep was disturbed by the 'Devil' leaping from barrow to barrow on the hill. The 'Devil' taunted him by saying that Thor "was too old to go jumping about in this way." Thor thus flung a rock which caught the 'Devil' in his midriff. It is certainly unusual to see the two beings on separate sides which could be an indication of a remembrance of a local cult to Thor or Thunor and that even with the xtian conversion His followers still stayed loyal to him. It could also be suggestive of a contest between Woden and Thunor as there is evidence of their rivalry in the Eddas and Woden is often demonised by the church and called a 'Devil'. The Lay of Harbard in the Elder Edda is one such example of a flyting or verbal contest between the two Gods. However Viktor Rydberg was of the opinion that Harbard was actually Loki in disguise, not Odin. This being the case the 'Devil' in the legend from Treyford Hill could in fact be Loki.

As a boy I was told by a friend that if you danced around one of the arrows three times widdershins the `Devil` would appear. I did try this but nothing happened! So even into the 1960s, in the 'modern' era these folktales still survived and were passed down the generations. Clearly the reference to dancing around a menhir hearkens back to ancient sun worship. However to dance in a widdershins direction is considered to bring bad luck and this may be why it is associated with the summoning forth of the 'Devil'. Several times over recent years I have carried out a rite to consecrate these stones to Woden. 

Parjanya, Perkunos, Perun, Thunaraz, Taranis-a Comparison

Whilst in Germanic mythology *Thunaraz became eclipsed by the increasingly more dominant *Wodanaz, in the Balto-Slavic world His equivalent maintained His dominance, although He was not always the most prominent deity in their pantheons:

"We will now examine it a little more in detail, commencing with the ideas attached to the early inhabitants of Russia to those solar gods who are supposed by many eminent scholars to have originally held higher rank than the wielder of the Thunderbolt, Perun." (Songs of the Russian People, William Shedden Ralston, 1872)

Readers of my blogs will realise that I have maintained consistently that over the millenia there has been a shift of power from *Tiwaz to *Thunaraz and then to *Wodanaz which is mirrored in the Celtic mythology also or at least the transfer of power from Nuada to Lug is. Taranis does not appear to be so prominent as *Thunaraz at the time of the recording of the Irish myths. The primary divine archetype that the folk requires does change from era to era to meet their current needs. We see a similar thing happening today with the gradual eclipse of the Woden archetype by Widar, His son. Referring to the early solar deities of the Slavs Ralston states:

"The most ancient among these deities is said to have been Svarog, apparently the Slavonic counterpart of the Vedic Varuna and the Hellenic Ouranos. His name is deduced by Russian philologists from a root corresponding with the Sanskrit Sur-to shine, and is compared by some of them with the Vedic Svar, and the later word Svarga, heaven."

The Sun is the child of Svarog and is called Dazhbog. Dazh is identical with the Germanic Dag which in modern German is Tag, day. Thus Dazhbog is the Day God. Bog of course means God. Another son of Svarog is Ogon, fire and is cognate with the Indian Agni, which is where we get the modern English ignite from. As mentioned in an earlier article  the Indian Thunder God Parjanya is a more ancient God than Indra and performs very similar functions but appears to be less war-like. Clearly Parjanya is etymologically linked with Perun and Perkunas, being derived from the ancient Proto-Indo-European *perkunwos.

"Russian mythologists identify the name of Perun with that of the Vedic Parjanya. Whether the latter was an independent deity, or whether his name was merely an epithet of Indra, does not appear to be certain, nor are philologists agreed as to whether Parjanya means 'the rain' or 'the thunderer;' but 'it is very probable that our ancestors adored, previously to the separation of the Aryan race, a god called Parjana, or Pargana, the personification of the thundering cloud, whom they believed to rouse the thunder-storm, to be armed with the lightning, to send the rain, to be the procreator of plants, and the upholder of justice. Afterwards the Graeco-Italian nation, bent on the adoration of Dyaus, forgot him entirely; the Aryans of India and the Teutonic tribes continued to worship him as a subordinate member of the family of the gods, but the Letto-Slavonians raised him to the dignity of a supreme leader of all other deities." (Ralston)

The description of Parjanya, more so perhaps than Indra corresponds more closely to the Balto-Slavic Thunder God:

"The desription of Parjanya is in all respects applicable to the deity worshipped by the different branches of the Slavo-Lettic family under various names, such as Lithuanian Perkunas, the Lettish Perkons, the Old Prussian Perkunos, the Polish Piorun, the Bohemian Peraun, and the Russian Perun." (Ralston) 

The Balts and Slavs lit a sacred fire before the image of the Thunder God:

"In Lithuania Perkunas, as the God of Thunder, was worshipped with great reverence. His statue is said to have held in its hand 'a precious stone like fire,' shaped in the image of the lightning,' and before it constantly burnt an oak-wood fire. If the fire by any chance went out, it was rekindled by means of sparks struck from the stone. His name is not yet forgotten by the people, who say, when the thunder rolls, Perkuns grumena, and who still sing dainos in which he is mentioned. In one of those a girl who is mourning for the loss of her flowers is asked,-

"Did the north wind blow,

Or did Perkunas thunder or send greetings?

In another it is told how when

The Morning Star held a wedding-feast,

Perkunas rode through the doorway,

Struck down the green oak" (Ralston)

There are many more such dainos or heathen hymns preserved by the Lithuanians which refer to Perkunas. It would serve us well to study them in more detail. According to Jaan Puhvel the Goddess Frigg's father or lover was called Fjorgynn. Also a Fjorgyn is named as the mother of Thor. This is possibly an alternative name for Jord (Earth). These names Fjorgynn and Fyorgyn are cognate with Perkunas and they in fact have been a divine couple. 

The German language Prussian Chronicle from about the year 1520 refers to the worship of a divine triad of Patollo, Potrimpo and Perkuno by  a high priest called Bruteno. The icons of the Gods were installed in three niches of an oak tree. A perpetual fire was burned before the icon. As Lithuanian heathenism was not abolished until as late as the 15th century and it still continued to linger on it would serve us well as Germanic heathens to study closely the Baltic myths to gain greater insight into our own closely related Germanic deities. It should be noted that heathenism is growing in the Baltic and Slavic lands at an apparently faster rate than in Germanic countries.