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Medieval Christian historiographers were at best condescending and at worst hostile to the idea of pagan religion. Thus, while people have knowledge of the myths surrounding the Norse gods, the theology that underpinned those stories is far less known. Without theology, the beliefs of the Norse, as well as other pagan groups, come to be seen as irrational beliefs in fantastical stories. It also clouds the stories of Thor themselves. After all, how could tales like Jonah and the Whale or Job wrestling God be understood without knowledge of the Christian religion itself?

Freyr and a Devotee

In the later Roman period, Christianity came to dominate the Egyptian religious landscape, and the older Egyptian religion died out. Animal cults are last attested in Egypt in AD 340, and the active worship of jackal gods would have ended around that time, if not before. But the earlier jackal gods persisted, at least in name. Anubis is occasionally invoked (along with Isis, Osiris, and Horus) in Christian magical texts from Egypt. Greek and Coptic papyri attest to people named after Anubis (Anoup and Anoub being the most common such names) long after the disappearance of the god’s cult. And images of the jackal gods also persisted. Earlier Egyptian representations of the jackal-headed gods appear to have inspired Christian images of saints, most notably St. Christopher, with human bodies and dog heads, often seen in eastern Christian icons.

Christopher's Christian hagiography49 may be summarized as follows: He is a giant50 belonging to a cynocephalic race, in the land of the Chananeans (the "Canines" of the New Testament [pi. 2] ),51 who eat human flesh and whose only form of communication is barking (latrare).52 His original name, Reprebos (or Reprobus, Reprebus, or Deprebus), "the Condemned" corresponds to his nature: he is black, pagan, ferocious, and dreadful. One day, he asks God to show his power by giving him the gift of human speech: an angel sent in answer to his prayer strikes him and blows on his mouth, and he speaks Greek. Still a proud giant, he is cut down to size by the Christ child who commands that he carry him over a river.5

“I will put my hand in your mouth, Fenrir,” said Tyr. Fenrir lay on his side, and Tyr put his right hand into Fenrir’s mouth, just as he had done when Fenrir was a puppy and they had played together. Fenrir closed his teeth gently until they held Tyr’s hand at the wrist without breaking the skin, and he closed his eyes. The gods bound him with Gleipnir. A shimmering snail’s trail wrapped the enormous wolf, tying his legs, rendering him immobile. “There,” said Odin. “Now, Fenris Wolf, break your bonds. Show us all how powerful you are.” The wolf stretched and struggled; it pushed and strained every nerve and muscle to snap the ribbon that bound it. But with every struggle the task seemed harder and with every strain the glimmering ribbon became stronger. At first the gods snickered. Then the gods chuckled. Finally, when they were certain that the beast had been immobilized and that they were in no danger, the gods laughed. Only Tyr was silent. He did not laugh. He could feel the sharpness of Fenris Wolf’s teeth against his wrist, the wetness and warmth of Fenris Wolf’s tongue against his palm and his fingers. Fenrir stopped struggling. He lay there unmoving. If the gods were going to free him, they would do it now. But the gods only laughed the harder. Thor’s booming guffaws, each louder than a thunderclap, mingled with Odin’s dry laughter, with Balder’s bell-like laughter . . . Fenrir looked at Tyr. Tyr looked at him bravely. Then Tyr closed his eyes and nodded. “Do it,” he whispered. Fenrir bit down on Tyr’s wrist. Tyr made no sound.

We will begin our telling of the dark side of this story in Egypt, where from perhaps the sixth millennium tomb entrances were guarded by black jackals.79 The archaic Book of the Dead (17) describes a dog-headed demon named Atum, who devoured the dead in the midst of a fiery sea. Also in Egypt, a dog- or jackal-headed divinity named Chenti Amentiu, "the first of those to the west," ruled over the subterranean necropolis of Abydos.80

The crafty but benevolent pagan gods --- whose caprice and intransigence existed only in the imagination of chirstian theologians eager to discredit them -- survived all of this. Imperial Rome having yielded to barbarians and then barbarism to Christianity, Christianity was in turn infiltrated, and to a considerable extent subverted, by the paganism it was supposed to destroy. Medieval men simply could not bear to part with Thor, Hermes, Zeus, Juno, Cronus, Saturn and their peers. Idol worship addressed needs the Church could not meet. Its rituals, myths, legends , marvels and miracles were perculiarly suited to people who, living in the trackless fen and impenetrable forest, were always vulnerable before them, adorned them with flowers.