Mimisbrunnr.info’s latest Kvasir Symbol Database entry focuses on water symbolism in ancient Germanic folklore. Topics covered include personified water bodies, animism, and some discussion regarding comparative data, particularly in the Old Norse record. Other topics include personified water in the modern era, such as the holy Hindu river and deity Ganga, and Hayao Miyazaki’s animistic representations of water in animated films such as “Spirited Away” and “Ponyo”.

In our latest addition to the Kvasir Symbol Database, we examine the so-called “Irminsul” symbol. This obscure symbol is most commonly encountered in and around Germany, where one can at times find it to be said to be of pre-Christian Germanic origin. In reality, this symbol was first proposed by völkisch enthusiast and SS-Ahnenerbe member Wilhelm Teudt in 1929, a product of baseless pseudoscience rather than scholarly analysis.