ffs eveyone in this thread are zelous larpers. Imagine not understanding the deeper metaphysical truths within the stories, and instead do like the christians and take them literally like some peasants and þrælar. This is what happens when you read translations instead of reading the actual source in the original language.
The gods are higher kennings that we can only understand with referenceable characters and personifications of said concepts. The stories are written in a way so that we can better understand the deeper underlying Truth behind the inner workings of the world through allegories. These higher Laws/Patterns are expressed in the physical world in the things we see and feel, the physical; That is the physical aspect of the stories. However, that is only so that we can have a baseline for reference when we experience Divine Revelations and experience the Higher; we can then grasp the metaphysical through the physical expressions.
This is why Óðinn hangs on Yggdrasil, the world tree, for nine days and nights, sacrifices himself to himself, falls down screaming and then comes to understand Esoteric Knowledge. The pattern is similar to Childbirth, not because it is Childbirth like some of Vargians like to say, but because the Higher State of Rebirth functions similarily but in a metaphysical manner; it's not that you literally see a tree (or teh placenta!!1!1), but this Movement of falling down this Tree and being Reborn feels similar.
Ever since the conversion of Christianity, and even more so after the reformation, people have been obsessed with the existential question of the Divine. Not only is this spiritually bankrupt, materialism masqerating itself as religion, but it muddles the water of Truth. Instead of trying to understand the Kennings, decipher the Higher Principles presented in the myths, peasants now get a say in how we interpret the myts. To peasants and slaves, the sun is the charriot of Sunna ("the gods are spiritual entities duuuuud"), bringing it to the level of normal spirits ("they are just larger spirits duuuuud"). Religion turns into superstion. In the same manner, naturalists go in the other end just say that the trees and stones are the gods ("gods are just allegories for those physical things duuuud, all ChallengesPost too long. Click here to view the full text.