Образ Бога в древнегерманской картине мира (на материале древнеисландских и древнеанглийских текстов)

Abstract

The research deals with the peculiarities of interaction of the mythological and religious world models of the ancient Germans and their influence on the image of God in the Old Germanic culture. Christianization of the north tribes was of a heterogeneous nature and took centuries to span the whole territory of Britain and the border area. Cross-cultural interaction of two dominating religions – paganism on the one hand and Christianity on the other – gave birth to the so called interference of mythological and religious world models. Evidence of this process is detected and comprised in the texts written during the Early Middle Ages, where components of Christian and pagan culture simultaneously coexist within one written record. The analysis of this cultural interference is performed on the basis of the Old English and Old Norse languages. The influence of the religion on the linguistic worldview and perception of the world by the ancient Germanic people are considered. Lexical units used to denote God in Caedmon’s Hymn are investigated, and components of the Christian and pagan world perception are elicited. Correlation between God and a ruler of a Germanic tribe (konung) in the world model of the ancient Germans is revealed. The author studies the archetype of God, which formed the basis of foundational stories, whereas the Sun embodies a tool with the help of which God demonstrates his power and conveys his will, besides it functions as a mediator between the Earth (which is represented by a konung) and God. One of the objectives of this article is to detect an intermediate stage which took place between paganism and Christianity. The author attempts to find the connection between the worldview of people and its reflection in the language, and to trace the modification of the former world model apart from the factors which caused the changes of this worldview.