@kezottle@zebbel4289339@sus_gaster@Treyy7777 I mentioned Heimdall because the Norse did, on some level, continue to culturally revere their gods (however dedicated they actually were is debatable lol) and Heimdall guards the Bifrost, the bridge between realms which is essentially an ancient liminal space/dimensional bridge
@kezottle@zebbel4289339@sus_gaster@Treyy7777 basically, when the christians came from Rome and were converting the European pagan tribes to christianity, some cultures just kinda kept their gods under the guise of them being human saints or mythic ancestors, and continued to worship them in more or less the same manner
@zebbel4289339@sus_gaster@Treyy7777@kezottle besides, isn't ancestor worship still considered paganry? I mean, there's the sainthood distinction but I thought no worshipping outsider (relative to yahweh) deific figures was like a firm Christian dogma
@zebbel4289339@sus_gaster@Treyy7777@kezottle I guess what I'm likely wrong about is I don't see much functional distinction between the worship of Wotan as a deity and the recontextualized worship of Wotan as a heroic ancestor, it's still worship of a pagan idol, although I'll admit I'm probably just a stubborn pagan lmao
@zebbel4289339@sus_gaster@Treyy7777@kezottle idk man when you keep carving totems of Tyr and Wotan after the period of conversion it kinda looks like acknowledging other forms of divinity
@zebbel4289339@sus_gaster@Treyy7777@kezottle The reality of conversion a lot of the time is that a lot of pagans just started calling their gods "saints" instead because it pissed off the church a little less, but they were still worshipped as deific figures
@zebbel4289339@sus_gaster@Treyy7777@kezottle Acknowledging any divinity outside of yahweh, ESPECIALLY the Germanic gods, is in Christian contexts and by nature of "pagan" just meaning non-abrahamic polytheistic religions, 100% paganry and the church would have viewed it as such at the time it was happening
getting actually angry about the banana guy like it's a real problem is just the latest in a long and time-honored tradition of self-serious hardcore guys doing corny shit to prove they're the most hardcore tough guy on the block, not worth worrying about really
@zebbel4289339@sus_gaster@Treyy7777@kezottle Shit, if the Bifrost existed as a physical place like many other mythological sites technically do (Hel, Alfheim, Jotunnheim) you can basically guarantee that the local christians would have rationalized its prior myths under the context of christianity like they did w EVERYTHING
@zebbel4289339@sus_gaster@Treyy7777@kezottle any invocation or dedication to Heimdall in Norse art or literature following the conquests of England and the mass conversions of the Norse to Christianity is literally "Christian medieval peasants making offerings to interdimensional thresholds"