In this article, I attempt to show how the Germanic peoples of the Migration Period in Early Chistian Europe(c. AD400-500) created-or preserved a pagan Scandinavian myth of their origin as a significant part of their identity and. perception. The function of the myths as political and ideological legitimtions is related to the iconography of the material culture, notably the early animal ornamentation (Salins' Style I). Integration of the written evidence and the archaeological sources makes it possible to demonstrate how origins, myths and iconography together express a formative core of p'agn identity in Early Christian Europe.
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