Way of Life. Culture. Religion

Ancient Germans lived a very natural, clean life. They were dressed in skins, later on in rough linen, but the greater part of the body remained unprotected. Therefore they were greatly accustomed to severe nature. They bathed in cold river for the whole year. Their food was very simple: milk, cheese, meat, cereals. Their huts were very primitive. They were temporary structures which required little time for building.

The word wand (стіна) is cognate to OE windan, Mod.E. wind (вити)

Window ← OE wind auga (око вітру)

They counted time by winters (we sometimes do it by summers: e.g. Скільки літ я тебе не бачив!). And now we come across the traces of this phenomenon:

Engl. He is 50 winters old.

Germ. einwinter - годовалий

Ancient Germans were heathens. They had their own Gods and heroes. We can trace the names of some Gods in the names of the days of the week:

Tuesday < OE Tiwesdæg (God of War)

Friday < Free dæg (день богині Фреї)

Sunday < Sunnan dæg (день Сонця)

Monday < Mōnan dæg (день Місяця).

Script

The earliest monuments in the Germanic languages belong to the 3-rd – 4-rd centuries A.D. They are short inscriptions made on metal or stone. They are made in runes. Runes are letters descending from some European alphabet. The Germanic runes are originated from Greek and North-Italic alphabet. The runic alphabet called fuÞark by its first letters consists of 24 characters. The angular character of runes us due to the fact that they were carved in wood or stone. The very word rune originally meant “secret” or “mystery”.

OE rūn – secret

Goth. rūna

ON rūn – mystery

Runes were known only by limited number of people. The word read meant to guess (hence, Mod.E. to read a riddle). The origin of the word write is also interesting. In OHG rizzan – meant царапати (to scraw)

Runes went out of use with the advent of Christianity, when runes were substituted by a Roman alphabet. Many runes were perished. But in Scandinavia runes were used as long as the 16-th century.