Mimisbrunnr.info’s On the Shapes of Gods aims to meet two primary goals: First, to explain Mimisbrunnr.info’s approach to the original art that appears throughout the project and, second, to make the daunting and often confusing historical record’s depictions of ancient Germanic deities a little more approachable for artists, authors, and other creatives who wish to draw from it.

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.

While rarely represented in popular culture today and essentially absent from extensions of historic ancient Germanic paganism (such as modern heathenry), sacred trees and holy groves—alongside the concept of ‘tree-ness’—appear by all indications to have been a central point of focus for the ancient Germanic peoples.

Whether ancient or new, each symbol has a history. Inspired by discussions with writers, tattoo artists, and scholars in ancient Germanic studies, Mimisbrunnr.info’s Kvasir Symbol Database provides overviews of symbols from the ancient Germanic record.