How the poetic sagas can be dates linguistically and why they are authentic

The Wixárika (Huichol pronunciation: [wiˈraɾika]) or Huichol (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈwit͡ʃo̞l])[1] are an Indigenous people of Mexico living in the Sierra Madre Occidental range in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Durango, with considerable communities in the United States, in the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

Their religion consists of four principal deities: the trinity of Corn, Blue Deer and Peyote, and the Eagle, all descended from their Sun God, Tao Jreeku. Most Huichols retain the traditional beliefs and are resistant to change.

Wixaritari are relatively well known among anthropologists for their long tradition of rejecting Catholic influences and continuing traditional Shamanistic practices.[33] Indeed, Wixaritari, along with the Lacandons and other ethnic minorities in the country, have fought for their religious and cultural freedom since the arrival of the Spanish conquerors.[34][35][36]

Paper that looks at the literary and archeological evidence for various types of scared locations in pagan Scandinavia

Very interesting study that looks at different cases of archeology as a source of ancient Northern Germanic and Norse religion, as well as related linguistic evidence.

A Description of the Northern Peoples, is a large work of 5 books, describing the history, technology and customs of Scandinavia, Samis, Iceland, the Baltic countries and Russia, but especially Sweden and Norway.

Magnus was the last Catholic archbishop of Sweden and by the time of publishing of the series in 1555, he had fled to Rome. It was widely popular at the time and translated into multiple languages. Ironically enough, it's first Swedish translation only came in 1909.

Each book is split in multiple chapters with each their woodcut, many of which you probably have seen before.

In terms of folklore, the books describe Nordic rituals, festivals and practices that by Magnus himself are often referred to as pagan. These include horseracing at Christmas, house helper spirits, dancing and singing about ancient pagan heroes and wearing masks.

Olaus Magnus' style of description is fascinatingly very reminiscient of later folkloric writing and he often compares practices he deem pagan to rituals in the ancient Rome.

A paper that thoroughly examines various metal amulets found in northern Europe from the early to late viking age.

The author both affirms, proposes radical changes and slight altercations to existing interpretations to runic amulet inscriptions. Doing so, they compare the content of the amulets to later folklore, eddic texts and rune stones, as well as archeological and historical context in order to reach their conclusions.

Many of the amulets have a wikipedia page, many don't.

My favourite, more obscure amulets include:

• the Ulvsunda amulet, found in a 9th century barrow that commands a spirit not to leave their grave.
• Högstena plate, interpreted as an account of an ancestor sacrifice

It can be read by clicking the "PDF" button.

I've spent the last few months building a wiki that contains my English-language translations of German folk tales.

It's not quite finished yet, but there are a couple of hundreds of tales for you to enjoy.

For whom it might concern: I wrote a guest article on the Wild Hunt in Central European folklore - one that tries to be a bit more nuanced than "The Wild Huntsman is really Odin in disguise!".

EDIT: Gah, I thought I had included a link! It should be fixed now.

The Lacandon Maya are the last Maya who have traditions that have been kept entirely free from christian influence. They number in the hundreds in two locations in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. Unfortunately, these traditions are quickly dying out, due to the encroaching modern life and christianity.

A very few Lacandon still worship Maya gods in rituals and have multiple types of sacred places they visit. These sacred places are various caves and natural rocks dotted around their landscape that they view as abodes of their gods. Ancient Maya ruins are also seen as houses of the gods. The Lacandon used to do pilgrimages to these places and burn copal in "god pots" and offer offerings. Then they would take a little stone, bring it back to their village, place it in their gods pots, which would then be seen as a house where the god itself would be present. The god pots would be stored in a little building called a god house. A ceremony that would be carried out for these god pots was the balché ceremony. Copan was burned in the god pot, and they would be offered the alcoholic drink balché and ritually prepared food. The last aspect, the sacred food, was prepared by women. The balché would be drunk by the participants in the ritual. Lakes were also seen as abodes of gods, and Lake Mensäbäk and Yahaw Petha were seen as an entrance to the underworld. They have at least 13 gods. Hachäkyum is their head diety. Mensäbäk the god of storms, who lives in Lake Mensäbäk and invites people to live with him after they die. Other gods include T´up, Ah K´in Chob, Säkäpuk, Kayum and Itzanah. When a god pot is abandoned, it is deposited in a cave. Which almost all god pots have been. Because the Lacandon rituals are rapidly disappearing. The Lacandon are split in two groups, the Southern and Northern. The southern abandoned their gods already in the 1950s and adopted evangelical christianity. The northern has kept their rituals for longer but they seem to finally be disappearing, also being encroached on by christianity who harrass the remaining ritual masters. Currently, there is a single ritual master left, Don Antonio Martinez. He might have carried out his last balché ceremony with no one to learn the sacred rites and being harassed by christians. A sad possible end to the maya religion, I hope something drastically happens to revive the ancient traditions.

Myths and stories from the Lacandon

Sources:

The Worshipers of Stones. Lacandon Sacred Stone Landscape

Maya Pilgrimage to Ritual Landscapes

The Lifepath Dialogues (Read this one in particular to know about the latest developments among the Lacandon. The author personally knows the last Lacandon ritual master)

The Last Spirit Keeper

I have been made aware that the Lacandon Maya still worship Maya gods with any christian influence. I’ll make a post about them hopefully within a week or so.

Edit: welp, this turned very sad.

Is notable for a being a fairly long amulet inscription. It follows a tradition of amulets used against evil and illness, and confirms Thor’s use of his hammer and his relation to thunder and the sea (think, the story involving fishing Jörmungandr) in a direct written, pagan source.

There is still to this day a ritual dedicated to the Punic goddess Tanit that is carried out to invoke rain.