Z badań nad zakresem transcendencji głównych bóstw w religii germańskiej

The article attempts to define the scope of the transcendence of the main gods in the religion of ancient Germans. Testimony of G.J. Caesar and P.C. Tacitus differ on this point. Caesar describes the germanic gods as visible and material phenomena. Tacitus gives them the rank of mysterious, inaccessible creatures without a name or an image, giving signs read by means of fortune-telling. Various beings were denoted as gods in Germanic languages. Aesir are primordial images of ancestors or beings having a divine substance of life for the entire tribe. Ragina is a deity personifying decision and resolution. Like the Tīwaz, which came from the Indo-European era, it was related to judgments at war meetings. Odin and Thor, as gods of war, marginalized Tyr / Tīwaz. Their functions show the process of the god’s immanence, their indispensable presence for groups of warriors. This tendency is confirmed by the historic replacement of the old name of the heavenly supreme god deiwos with a new – guda. Guda is a being that is called upon, whose presence is experienced. In the history of the religious life of the ancient Germans, there is a tendency to define gods as creatures who have a clear influence on the everyday problems of people engaged in war.