Anyone into German mythology? Experiences?Wagner’s operas have always fascinated me and I wonder if anyone has been digging German gods? I know R.Wagner presents Loki,Wotan, Freia as Gods and uses Norse mythology a lot too in Der ring Des Nibelungen. I have never checked if giants Fasolt and Fafner are imaginary or based in reality for example. Just curious. 
In wider Germanic mythology and paganism, Odin was known in Old English as Wōden, in Old Saxon as Wōdan, and in Old High German as Wuotan or Wōtan, all stemming from the reconstructed Proto-Germanic theonym wōđanaz.In Old Norse texts, Odin is depicted as one-eyed and long-bearded, frequently wielding a spear named Gungnir, and wearing a cloak and a broad hat. 
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Das Rheingold,part of Scene 2.
“Wotan, ruler of the gods, is asleep on a mountaintop with Fricka, his wife. Fricka awakes and sees a magnificent castle behind them. She wakes Wotan and points out that their new home has been completed. The giants Fasolt and Fafner built the castle; in exchange Wotan has promised to give them Fricka’s sister Freia, the goddess of youth and beauty and feminine love. Fricka is worried for her sister, but Wotan is confident that they will not have to give Freia away, because he has dispatched his clever servant Loge, the demigod of fire, to search the world for something else to give the giants instead.” 
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