Mission of the Journal of Germanic Mythology and Folklore

"The tragic events of World War II prevented me from going ahead with my plan to study Germanic religion from a comparative point of view, especially with the distortion of the facts that its use and abuse by Nazi ideology too often entailed" (Polomé, Edgar C. 1989. Essays on Germanic Religion. Washington D.C.. Institute for the Study of Man).

The above quote is sadly the truth: The nature of national socialism and the climate it continues to create even after its death has been and will continue to be a serious threat to all progressive scholarly work on the subject of Germanic religion, Indo-Europeans and ancient Germanic peoples, but it is our aim to put aside these false fears. Not only must we consider all the people of Europe as victims and the genetic loss inflicted by the great number of war dead, but we must also consider the scholarly loss of interest in this area as well. To verify this fact, one need only compare the amount of work done before the war to that done after the war.

The Journal of Germanic Mythology and Folklore hopes to further stimulate interest and bring to light new scholarship as well as dispel misinterpretations and misunderstandings.

As a free web-based journal, we believe in open information. This is also why we accept submissions from academics and non-academics alike. It is designed as a forum to share new scholarship on topics relating to Germanic (sometimes referred to as Norse or Teutonic) mythology and folklore (ancient, medieval and modern).